Earlhamite - Winter 2016 - Boldly Earlham - The magazine of Earlham College

Earlhamite BOLDLY EARLHAM

THE MAGAZINE OF EARLHAM COLLEGE /WINTER 2016

BEARING TIDINGS OF PROSPERITY AND VICISSITUDES OF EARLHAM TO ITS FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS ...

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BOLDLY EARLHAM

BY DAN OETTING

Earlham’s latest round of strategic planning is designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century head on.

WINTER

2016

FEATURES

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16 A NEW SPACE FOR SCIENCE

BY DENISE PURCELL

Earlham’s physics, mathematics and computer science departments open the doors on their state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and study areas. The rest of campus makes itself at home there as well.

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22 Q & A WITH JOSIAH “SY” YOUNG ’05

BY BRIAN ZIMMERMAN

An Earlham alum prescribes a young client’s first pair of glasses and watches as cuteness and optometry collide in a viral video.

46 BETTER TOGETHER

BY DENISE PURCELL

Students and faculty at Earlham demonstrate the benefits of interdiscplinary collaboration in a project that’s taken them from Iceland to Nicaragua.

22 50 100%

BY DENISE PURCELL

Earlham’s innovative MAT program produces teachers ready to lead in the classroom and land their first jobs.

Earlhamite

THE MAGAZINE OF EARLHAM COLLEGE Editor Dan Oetting Class Notes Editor Ellen Blevens Art Director Susanna Tanner Contributing Editors Denise Purcell and Brian Zimmerman Vice President for Enrollment and Communications Jonathan Stroud Vice President for Institutional Advancement Avis Stewart ’74 Academic Dean Greg Mahler President John David Dawson

DEPARTMENTS 04 President’s Message 05 New & Notable 24 Look Back 25 Class Notes and Obituaries 45 Earlham Scene 52 Earlham School of Religion 54 Sports Focus 60 Faculty Activities 64 Homecoming Photo Collage 70 Last Laugh Read the latest alumni profiles, submit class notes, check out upcoming events and more at earlham.edu/alumni.

BE SOCIAL instagram.com/earlhamcollege1847 facebook.com/earlhamcollege

Earlhamite magazine is the oldest college alumni magazine in continuous publication in the United States.

Today it is published twice a year and continues to follow the statement of purpose that has guided it since its 1873 founding: “a regular messenger going out and bearing tidings of prosperity and vicissitudes of Earlham to its friends and supporters, and bringing all associated here into communication with one another.”

Opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the signed contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position of Earlham College. Writers wishing to submit manuscripts to the magazine are encouraged to submit a query letter by email to the editor first, as space is limited and issues of the magazine are planned months in advance and according to selected themes. Address correspondence to earlhamite@earlham.edu.

Earlham College reaffirms its commitment, in all of its activities and processes, to treat all people equally, without concern for age, gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality or ethnic origin.

twitter.com/earlham1847 linkedin.com/earlham

ABOUT THE COVER Illustrator Mark Riedy graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design with recognition as the top advertising design graduate. Mark’s work has drawn national acclaim from the Society of Illustrators, the New York Art Director’s Club, Print Magazine and CA Magazine.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

I

Timeless and New

It is a remarkable time for Earlham.

Well into Phase III of strategic planning, we can appreciate the truth of the old adage “change is hard,” as we work to create Earlham’s new Global Leadership Initiative, offering a reimagined Earlham education that is inescapably personal, experiential and global, and opening up exciting opportunities through three new centers devoted to Social Justice and Action, Global Health, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

We’re working toward a future for Earlham that is going to be different than its past, and we can be assured of that, but let’s be clear

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about the choice we’re making.

The choice is not whether we change or remain unchanged, but whether we progress or diminish.

The external environment is rapidly evolving, tossing up new and daunting challenges for all colleges — challenges in affordability and accessibility, perceptions of educational value, stability of enrollment, and financial wellbeing, to name only a few.

But Earlham is not like all colleges. One of our distinctions is that we fully understand the necessity to preserve our enduring institutional identity and values while embracing the exciting new future that our capacity for change makes possible. I am certain we have that capacity and can meet that challenge. And I am certain

Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

we can do so while preserving Earlham’s core values, identity and mission.

We seek to take on our challenges with a continued spirit of individual and collective imagination, creativity and boldness. We must avoid any temptation to exchange the uplifting vision that moves us toward positive change for any sort of dreary compulsion just to “fix things.” Our aims are much larger than that. As Alan Watts exhorts in The Wisdom of Insecurity: “Struggle as we may, ‘fixing’ will never make sense of change. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” All are invited to join!

and

NEW Notable ’88 alumnus managing Peace Corps’ U.S. recruitment Alan Price ’88 is settling into his new position as Associate Director of Management for the Peace Corps.

He manages a $28 million budget and is responsible for the agency’s worldwide human capital program, including recruitment and selection of U.S. direct hires, employee development and training, employee and labor relations, benefits and payroll.

“Working in a federal agency is very different than working in the private sector,” Price says. “And Peace Corps has its own unique culture. We are highly mission driven as we promote world peace and friendship. When you realize that 60 percent of the staff at headquarters is made up of returned Peace Corps volunteers, you can imagine the passion and idealism of my colleagues.”

More than 230 Earlhamites have served in the Peace Corps, one of the distinctions that led to Earlham’s high ranking by Washington Monthly in 2015 for contributions to the public good.

EC connections strong with new coding course to Richmond teens Elena Sergienko ’14 and Professor Emeritus of Physics John Howell taught an introductory course on computer coding last fall to a select group of Richmond-area middle and high school students.

The course was funded by a $15,000 grant from AT&T’s Aspire education initiative that the city’s Innovation Center received in 2015.

Sergienko studied Computer Science at Earlham and now works as a software developer for Green Filing in Richmond, a company started in Richmond by Eric Dimick Eastman ’96. Howell still works part time for the Department of Physics at Earlham.

Choirs perform for Midwestern audiences Earlhamites performed songs inspired by themes of winter and nostalgia as part of the 2016 Choir Tour, which made stops in Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago.

The biennial tour included 55 singers and instrumentalists and represented the Colleges Women’s Chorus, Madrigal Singers and Concert Choir.

The musical selections included pieces from Latvian, French and American composers. This tour highlights the achievements and passions of Earlham students for music.

A preview concert on Earlham’s campus preceded the tour.

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and

NEW Notable Earlham Day recognized by CASE The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has recognized Earlham’s Department of Institutional Advancement for excellence in fundraising during the first Earlham Day celebration last April.

The department won a silver award for Best Program in Annual Giving at the 41st Pride of CASE District V Awards and Recognition Program on Dec. 14 in Chicago.

On Earlham Day 2015, more than 1,000 alumni and supporters responded to challenge gifts by Russell K. Scott ’71, Dave Stump ’72, Chip and Susan Scarlett ’73 and Ken Hellendall ’77 totaling $261,668 in contributions to the Earlham Fund.

The event also reunited Earlhamites both virtually and during 20 regional events across the country.

New Quaker athletics website, app now available The Earlham College athletics website has a new look heading into the winter and a brand new app as a sidekick.

GoEarlham.com has been redesigned and features a composite calender, dedicated spaces for studentathlete spotlights and a “Connect with the Quakers” section for accessing information about Quaker sports on Facebook and Twitter.

The new website also supports an app for Android and Apple smart phones. Search for “Earlham Athletics” within Google Play or the App Store to download the app for free. Within the app, fans can sign up to receive notifications about specific teams.

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

Alumna’s film making rounds in festival circuit Kazuko Golden’s ’97 latest film “A Song for Manzanar” debuted at 10 film festivals across the world in 2015.

Golden’s 18-minute film draws on a true story of the forced internment in 1942 of Sachie and Yoshizo Yoshimura and their toddler son, Johnny, in Manzanar Concentration Camp located in the Owens Valley near Lone Pine, California.

At its Midwest debut, the film won the Audience Choice Award at the Eichelberger Film Festival at the Neon Theatre in Dayton, Ohio.

In West Palm Beach, “Manzanar” also won the Audience Choice Award at the Palm Beach International Film Festival and an Honorable Mention – Short Film Award at the Women’s Independent Film Festival in Santa Monica, California.

The film also was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France; Woods Hole Film Festival in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival; Asians on Film Festival in Los Angeles; the International Women and Minorities in Media Festival in Maryland; Women’s International Film Festival in Burbank, California; and the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Film and Music Experience.

and

NEW Notable

Earlham students march in Richmond Earlhamites marched in Richmond on Dec. 5 to spread awareness about the struggle of Syrian refugees resettling in the United States. During the march, students handed out flowers to community members with each flower containing a story about a refugee.

Following the mid-November terrorist attacks on Paris, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced he would block Syrian refugees from settling in Indiana until proper

security measures were in place. One Syrian family has since been diverted to Connecticut, according to a report by the Associated Press.

“We are hoping that with a march we can put ourselves out there a little bit,” says Grace Makhoul ’18, a native of Syria and co-president of the Student Executive Council. “We want to share our perspective with those who may be against having refugees here. We want to make an impact.”

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and

NEW Notable Virtual worlds: future of education?

Virtual worlds are changing the way Earlhamites learn French and from each other.

Now in its second year, an interdisciplinary facultystudent research project has resulted in the creation of a 3D environment complete with a supermarket, a music and clothing store, an art museum and a medieval town.

Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies Aletha Stahl, Assistant Professor of Business and Nonprofit Management Becky Jestice ’97 and Associate Library Director Amy Bryant have collaborated with several students for this research.

Stahl, Jestice and Bryant implemented virtual world activities in six French class sessions this fall, and faculty members from across the curriculum are considering ways to incorporate virtual worlds into their teaching.

The Dean’s Humanities Fund and a Mellon Collaborative Inquiry Grant for work in upcoming semesters is funding the project.

While research on virtual worlds is not uncommon at the graduate level, Stahl says Earlham is one of a few places where undergraduate students are engaged with this particular kind of in-depth work.

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

Praise for effort trumps praise for smarts A new faculty-student research project shows that praising children for effort and results rather than beauty and smarts might create more productive workers.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Rachael Reavis, with research help from several Earlham students, produced a study called “You’re So Smart! How Identity Praise Can Undermine Growth and Breed Fear of Failure.”

It has been generally accepted, Reavis says, that telling kids they are smart will help them feel good about themselves.

That’s wrong, she says. Instead, when a child is told he or she is smart or beautiful or athletic, they are more likely to develop a fixed mindset, relying on natural ability rather than effort.

When praised for effort, a kid is more likely to develop a growth mindset and will work harder.

For Reavis’ research, students tested three groups of adults, college students and children ages 8-12. Each participant was asked to solve a problem and then given either identity praise such as “You are smart,” or process praise such as “You worked hard.”

Show Your

Pride!

Find the perfect gift for a friend or yourself. From jackets, shirts and hats to kids’ apparel and gift items, the Earlham College bookstore offers you a chance to spread the EC love.

Visit the Earlham College bookstore at earlhambookstore.com to purchase your spirit wear and gift items.

nominations please!

for the OUTSTANDING ALUMNI AWARD

and the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The Alumni Association seeks nominees who demonstrate:

For criteria and nomination materials: earlham.edu/alumni 765-983-1313 alums@earlham.edu

Nomination materials are due March 1.

Awards are presented each year during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend.

• EXCELLENCE in a chosen career • SERVICE to Earlham College • PARTICIPATION in service and volunteer organizations • SERVICE to the Society of Friends • ACHIEVEMENT which reflects an interest or influence developed at Earlham earlham.eduCollege

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Bold

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED

BY DAN OETTING Members of the Global Leadership Initiative Faculty Working Group discuss revisions to Earlham’s curricular and Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016 co-curricular offerings.

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dly Earlham

Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century WHEN ALUMNI at homecoming walked into Loose Lecture Hall they were met by a whiteboard filled with multicolored text. Left over from a fastidious professor? No. And the notes weren’t even for those currently filling the seats. Not exactly.

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“It’s not really so much for you, it’s for me,” said

says Shiffert, whose estimations match the research the

President David Dawson as he began his State of the

College has underwritten. “My perspective is as an alum,

College address. “I get to look at it as I work my way

but I also work in higher education marketing. Earlham is

across the board.”

right to move this way. It’s not enough to be good. You have to be distinct and you have to be able to show in authentic

Dawson had lists to keep track of, acronyms to expand. His first attempt at getting his thoughts on paper, he explained,

ways what sets you apart.”

went about 25 pages. The talk would be a distillation.

So, what sets Earlham apart?

His goal was to unpack several years of strategic

Research during

planning and explain how important the most recent round was to the College’s future. Strategic planning at other institutions may often amount to much less, the

strategic planning showed three prominent traits

thought went. But not at Earlham, not now.

in an Earlham

“Strategic planning at Earlham is not

experiential and

education: personal,

something on the side. It’s not a matter of empty routine,” said Dawson.

“The external environment of higher education is rapidly shifting. If we sit on our laurels, we will be sitting while others move ahead.”

Plainly put, the competition for students is fierce.

“Higher education recruitment is incredibly competitive,” says John Shiffert, a 1974 graduate of Earlham who, after a 25-year career in higher education, now works with Paskil, Stapleton and Lord to help colleges across the U.S. specifically to increase enrollment. Shiffert points to a declining number of high school graduates and increased competition from

global. It is personal in the sense that mindful academics, collaboration and mentoring matter at Earlham. But it is not an ivory tower. Education is experiential here, tied to the real world and to experiences that enrich learning. It is tied to students’ futures as well, shaping a bond between making a living and living a good life. Earlham is also a place where a global awareness is an early and consistent consideration, not

all different sectors of higher education.

an afterthought. It is a place where students and faculty think

“The marketplace for college students is so competitive

people who may be like them and to those, certainly, who are

that the greatest challenge facing colleges today is maintaining enrollment, let alone growing enrollment,”

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

about the connections that link them to others near and far, to different.

While these aspects have been present at Earlham, often

in this center would span areas from health sciences to

in a diffuse way, moving forward they will be part of a

public health to medical humanities.

consistent foundation for every Earlhamite’s education.

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Interdisciplinary options Beyond delivering this shared foundation, the College will offer enhanced opportunities for digging deep academically

might encourage research on collaborative leadership, innovation management, and sustainable business, for example. Everything from building ethically responsible companies to social entrepreneurship would fit under this thematic area.

Study and research under the guidance of the Center for Social Justice and Action might include, for example, issues in migration and citizenship, civil rights, gender

and investigating problems that don’t necessarily fall within departmental lines.

These opportunities will help answer the question, how does Earlham respond to the needs of the world in the 21st century? Strategically, they will match areas where Earlham already has strengths and where research has shown student demand is evident.

Three thematically constituted centers have been mapped out to provide focus for such interdisciplinary, collaborative work: Global Health; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and Social Justice and Action.

Projects within the Center for Global Health could include, for example, studying health care disparities or infectious diseases and their impact on populations. Programming

equality, workers’ rights, peace and conflict studies, the impact of globalization, criminal justice reform, fair wage movements, environmental justice, and interfaith dialogue.

In sum, the name for this complete package of curricular and co-curricular changes is the Global Leadership Initiative. The task of the Global Leadership Initiative Faculty Working Group is to collaborate with the faculty to integrate the new features of the GLI into Earlham by the fall of 2016. This is a comprehensive recalibration of an Earlham education. The set of changes this entails won’t be somehow separate from or additional to Earlham. This will be Earlham.

“Earlham College attracts a very talented, intellectually sophisticated, ethically passionate student body,” says Dawson. “These are the people who are going to solve the problems of the 21st century, problems that are often global and rarely appear in neat packages. This is a way of organizing what we are doing. It is, in effect, a way of articulating what the mission of the College is.”

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From idea to implementation The GLI Working Group has met weekly since August, gathering on Tuesday mornings around a pot of coffee and a motley group of mugs in room 106 of the new Center for Science and Technology.

It might be simpler for the small group to work entirely on its own and to send a proposal straight to the administration, but it wouldn’t be as effective, according to Roberts, and it wouldn’t be, well, Earlham.

Roberts describes

“CST 106 is our situation room, so to speak — it’s the place where we dream, plan, discuss and debate,” says Jay Roberts,

The set of changes this entails won’t

the involvement

be somehow

campus as

separate from or additional to Earlham. This

will be Earlham.

critical and “not just an Earlham thing.”

“For us it does emerge from the

GLI Working Group convener

of the rest of

Quaker value of

and an associate vice president of academic affairs.

being attentive to listening to every voice since the truth can

Other members include a representative from each of

organization, it’s just good institutional best practice.”

the academic divisions at Earlham and a representative from the Division of Student Life, the Center for Integrated Learning, and the International Programs

come from anywhere, but whether it’s done at Earlham or any

In December, after collecting thoughts

Office.

from the campus

They spent the first part of the semester hosting a

the Working Group

throughout the fall,

half-dozen listening sessions for the rest of campus. The listening sessions offered faculty and staff a chance to try out ideas and respond to an early conception of how the GLI would be part of the College. A campus-only website was created to collect even more responses and suggestions. Minutes and other documents from the working group were shared there as well in an effort to be as transparent as possible.

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

went before the faculty to receive more feedback and to answer questions.

In January the faculty gathered for a retreat to discuss implementation and in the weeks to follow will shape fullyformed plans.

Roberts describes this period as a critical phase.

• Academic and co-curricular options would be

expanded. New designations, similar to the current “If this were the movie Apollo 13,” says Roberts, “we’re at the

designation in Global Engagement, would integrate

point when they are figuring how to sling shot back around

intellectual work with skill development around

the moon, I would say that we haven’t made it on the final

a particular theme. Options might include Creative

glide path home yet.”

Writing, Data Science, and Leadership, for example.

Under discussion

The three new thematic centers will begin operation

While the campus discussion about how to incorporate the

in the fall and will likely have a home on campus in the

GLI is ongoing, several major points of integration can be

area that was formerly the Wildman Science Library.

highlighted: As big and important as the proposed changes are, they • A revised, innovative first-year seminar program

are intended to emphasize continuity as much as they

focused around both local and global topics and themes.

indicate change. The institutional aim is to focus and amplify the best of Earlham.

• An internship experience that continues Earlham’s focus on helping students make the transition from

“It’s significant that the ideas emerge from Earlham’s

college to career.

ethos, out of our Quaker identity,” says Roberts.

“We have real opportunities to take Earlham’s long

•Multiple off-campus study experiences including

standing leadership on issues of social justice, for

weeklong

example, and give a stronger home and voice to those

“ventures,”

across the curriculum through this initiative. If alums

month-long

don’t see themselves and Earlham in this, I think we’ve

May terms, and

done something quite off the mark. I am very confident

semester-long

they will, however, and they may even see some

programs.

elements they wish had been part of their education.

That’s our hope. A better, bolder Earlham.”

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BY DENISE PURCELL PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUSANNA TANNER

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

David Eaton ’70 and his wife Robyn have a view from above as the Center for Science and Technology dedication takes place during homecoming.

A NEW SPACE SCIENCE

The Center for Science and Technology opens its doors to campus.

he Center for Science and Technology, a building designed to accommodate the teaching and learning of science in an interconnected world, has quickly become a destination spot on campus.

The 42,000-square-foot CST is home to math, physics and computer science and the Science Commons, a shared space for all the sciences. The CST connects directly to the newly reconfigured biology and chemistry departments in Stanley Hall and features a state of the art computer lab, a robotics lab, and classrooms of various sizes and configurations that are flexible, adaptable and allow for experimentation. Large and small study niches also are dispersed throughout and allow for informal work or study areas. Occasional workspaces for up to four students are located just outside professors’ offices, and in physics and math, faculty offices are intermingled.

Professors and students alike have found the building’s design and its accouterments conducive to learning. In fact, one student was spotted camping out in the CST overnight to finish a sociology paper and an athletic

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team took advantage of CST 303, a room with multiple projectors, to scout opponents.

building, is promoting more student-student and student-professor interactions.”

“The study space in the building is grand, especially the new Math Studio,” says Tremewan Professor of Mathematics Tim McLarnan. “We have students spending lots of time there together, and the abundance of writeable surfaces means there is mathematics everywhere – on the whiteboard walls, on the blackboard walls, on the glass walls joining the space with a computer lab, and on the surfaces of the writeable tables.

Assistant Professor of Biology Karen Mager teaches a seminar class in which students draw a lot of concept maps.

“It’s great to see the amount of math — and humor — that gets done with markers on those tables and the amount of community that builds. The classrooms with their floor-to-ceiling blackboards or whiteboards or both are also good. I can get every student working on a problem on the board at once with space to spare, and in the course of an hour, nothing ever needs to be erased — the whole of our conversation is always available.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Martha Byrne agrees. “I’m not sure you’ll ever find a mathematician who feels she has ample board space, but these classrooms are where you’d hear it,” Byrne explains. “Having students working in here at all hours, because of the variety of spaces and the appeal of the

“We have created epic, multi-colored conceptual models of human-wildlife systems that span the length of the classroom,” Mager says.

Assistant Professor of Physics Ellen Keister says she appreciates the adaptability and flexibility of the classrooms and their furniture.

“I can teach, in the same room, a primarily lecture course and a 12-person seminar, just by pushing tables together,” Keister explains. “We can then flip the tables around and hold a 24-person dual seminar meeting.”

Heather Lerner, assistant professor of biology and director of the Joseph Moore Museum, experienced a magical moment using and projecting a shared document in Google.

“We were able to use some complicated equations to calculate survivorship, and every single student

participated on his or her laptop from their seat,” Lerner explains. “It was magical watching the cells fill in the spreadsheet as every student figured out how to calculate survivorship.”

Xunfei Jiang, assistant professor of computer science, and Adam Light, assistant professor of physics, have found the projectors and whiteboard walls extremely helpful. I found when I was projecting onto the white board, I could directly mark key contents or draw figures on top of the slides, Jiang says.

“I ask a lot of clicker questions — short, conceptual questions to gauge students’ understanding and to help them gauge it for themselves — which I prepare ahead of time as slides so that they can be displayed quickly,” Light says. “Having the questions projected directly on the whiteboard surface allows me to annotate and supplement

slides in real time and/or have the students do so as they answer.”

José Ignacio Pareja, director of Science and Technology Commons and technology learning specialist, is delighted with the interdisciplinary work he sees in the new building.

“The things happening here, and it can only be my hope that will continue to happen, cross disciplinary boundaries and are fantastic altogether I think,” Pareja says. “The spaces have been cleverly designed to accommodate all the different activities happening in CST and specifically the way the Science Commons spaces help serve all of our science programs faculty and students alike. I love the building’s visibility, the light, the views, the flexibility of spaces and the idea of increasing the likelihood for collaboration to happen more organically.”

Our d eep est appreciation to John Loose ’64 and Jane Souder Loose ’64 for their gift of the Souder Science and Technology Commons

Adam Carte ’91 and Miyoko Sato ’91 for their gift of the Mic Jackson Science and Technology Group Study Room

William Becker ’82 for his gift of the Becker Science and Technology Collaboratory

The estate of Charles Frantz ’50 for the gift of the Frantz Computer Science Collaboratory

John (Chip) Scarlett ’73, Susan Ellenstein Scarlett ’73, Lauren Elizabeth Scarlett ’08 MAT ’11 and Jessica Lee Scarlett for their gift of the Scarlett Family Shared Science Colloquium Classroom

To the Class of 1964 for their 50th reunion gift of the Class of 1964 Science and Technology Classroom

Ray ’84 and Sharon Ontko for their gift of the Ray and Sharon Ontko Science and Technology Group Study Room T. Reagan Hull ’66 and Deborah Miller Hull ’67 for their gift of the Hull Introductory Physics Lab Kent Van Zant ’69 and Nancy Patton Van Zant ’70 for their gift of the Van Zant Science and Technology Commons Reading Room The biology department for recognizing Sara Penhale’s ’71 influential contributions to Earlham and naming the Science and Technology Commons Faculty Office in her honor

Catherine Montgomery Tinsley ’75 for her gift of the Tinsley Science and Technology Classroom Bob Graham ’65 and Jane Henney for their gift of the Larry Strong Science and Technology Commons Study Lounge To the estate of Charlotte Fishgold for the gift of the Fishgold Science and Technology Commons Computer Lab David Stump ’72 for the gift of the David and Carolyn Sorrows Stump Science and Technology Classroom To the estate of William ’43 and Jane Inderstrodt for the gift of the Inderstrodt Science and Technology Classroom

Paul Stockmeyer’65 and Bonita Karels Stockmeyer ’66 for their gift of the Emeriti Faculty Office Daryl Renschler ’65 and Rhoda Smith Renschler ’64 for their gift of the Renschler-Smith Faculty Office To the estate of Mary Polk ’42 for the gift of the Mary Polk Faculty Office To the estate of Anne Magruder ’41 for the gift of the Anne Magruder Faculty Office Allan Rosevear ’60 for his gift of the Rosevear Computer Science Collaboratory The estate of Jim Hamilton ’59 for the gift of the Hamilton Science and Technology Classroom

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Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

“

The spaces have been cleverly designed to accommodate all the different activities happening in CST and specifically the way the Science Commons spaces help serve all of our science programs faculty and students alike.

”

—José Ignacio Pareja, Director of Science and Technology Commons

Josiah “Sy” Young ’05, a northern Kentucky optometrist, found himself in the spotlight last summer after one of his patients, 10-month-old Piper Verdusco, became the star of a viral video posted on Facebook. In the 30-seconds of captured video, Piper appears to see her mother and father clearly for the first time after getting her first pair of glasses at Young’s office.

Q

Millions of video views later, Young, who is a partner at Opticare Vision Centers in Newport, Kentucky, is grateful for the opportunity to share his love for his profession and Earlham.

The Earlhamite caught up with Young during Piper’s most recent checkup.

A

&

The story behind the viral video of a child’s improved sight.

BY BRIAN ZIMMERMAN

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUSANNA TANNER

EARLHAMITE How did Piper come into your life?

JOSIAH YOUNG Piper’s mother (Jessica Sinclair) had discovered that she wasn’t meeting milestones for crawling. She was about 10 months old and the pediatrician expected her to be at a certain level. They recommended that she have her eyes checked. Her mom stumbled across my name because I really like working with kids. I specialize in binocular vision, and especially with kids and how they use their eyes together as a team. So she made an appointment.

Mom was thankful for us recognizing

the issue and prescribing the glasses. She posted the video [of Piper’s reaction] to our Facebook page with the caption, ‘Thanks Dr. Young for this priceless reaction.’ It brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t help but tell my mom and dad and show my family and staff here.

It’s incredible. It’s hard to describe. But it’s

something you don’t prepare for. After you see her reaction, you can kind of see why people would want to share it.

E What was the extent of the publicity?

JY Well, we’ve done interviews for several of the local news outlets here in the Cincinnati area. But CNN did a spot on it.

It was covered on the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and the list goes on and on. The video is up to 46 million views, I think. It’s just incredible. I would have never expected this.

If there is one thing that can come out of this viral video, I hope it brings attention to the importance of early eye exams for kids. It’s just so critical to have clear vision for normal development in children.

Having your child’s eyes examined, not just a screening during the pediatrician’s appointment, but a comprehensive eye exam by an eye doctor, is an easy way to make sure that the child’s development is not hindered by an undetected vision problem. So if any good comes out of the millions of views of Piper’s reaction, I hope more people make appointments for their child to have an eye exam.

E How do you prescribe glasses for a patient who can’t talk?

JY That’s the question that everybody wants an answer for. For young patients or non-verbal patients we use a scope called retinoscope. It helps me look at the reflected light coming from the back of

Dr. Josiah Young ’05 performs an eye examination on Piper Verdusco. Piper is held by her father Andrew.

the child’s eye. Based on how that reflex appears, I can put a lens over the eye and neutralize it to figure out about how farsighted or nearsighted someone is. It works great with kids because they’re not going to tell you if 1 or 2 is better. It’s quicker, too. We often dilate the eyes for that one because it gets the pupils wide enough where I can get a good reflex back.

That’s what we did for Piper.

optometry school at Ohio State?

JY I know the curriculum was rigorous, and it was no different in graduate school.

Once you get into the optometry program, it’s tough; so I was prepared for that. But, in optometry school, we had 68 in my graduating class, so we had this sort of close relationship with my professors.

That’s something I also got at Earlham and I really liked that.

brings me joy to help people see the world clearly. When I was thinking about optometry as a program, I talked to my hometown optometrist. He was well beyond retirement age, but he was still doing it. I said, “Dr. Carson, why do you still come to work?” He said, “Work? This is fun. I haven’t worked a day in my life.” That’s what really drew me to optometry. I couldn’t agree more with him.

E What do you think she saw that day?

JY With the level of farsightedness she was at, the best way to describe it is that she saw lots of blurry shapes. And putting the glasses on gave her mother’s face detail that she had never had before.

That was why you got the reaction because she had just seen what she thought was her mother as this fuzzy looking object.

Then when she was able to improve her vision with the glasses she probably said to herself, “Oh wow, that’s what mom looks like.” An improvement, definitely.

E How did Earlham prepare you to attend

E What advice do you have for students interested in Earlham’s pre-professional programs?

JY My advice for students is to be in contact with your academic adviser and your professors because Earlham College put together an outstanding packet of information for me about my strengths.

The way they advocate for the student is really invaluable. I’m certain that it helped lead me to where I am today.

As for all the recent attention, I was just as surprised as everybody else — the reaction to that video. I just do what I do every day. I discovered that she was highly farsighted and needed some glasses. I see kids like Piper all the time.

She just got all the press for it.

Watch the video link: Visit youtube.com/ earlhamcollege to learn more about Josiah Young’s journey.

E What do you love about being an optometrist?

JY I love going to work every day. It just earlham.edu

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Back LOOK

LOOK HERE: Chemistry Professor George Scherer shows his own creation, the Spiral Periodic Table of the Elements, to Erling Gamble ’51. A spiral form like Scherer’s emphasized properties of elements in a way that may not be as apparent with a two-dimensional table.

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A ROW TO HOE: Adam Finn, a comparative languages and linguistics major, helps hoe three rows for fall garlic planting at Miller Farm. About 20 Earlhamites were on hand to help plant the garlic crop. The bulbs will be harvested in August.

Earlham Scene

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O T G R E E T T H E T R E B Students and faculty at Earlham collaborate for a win at XSEDE conference.

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BY DENISE PURCELL

hree countries. Four time zones.

Six disciplines. Twelve authors.

Sometimes a good problem is best studied by a mash-up of researchers rather than a lone scientist in the lab.

Earlham’s computer science department led a multi-year research project that took home a “Best Paper” award at the conference for Extreme Science and Engineering Environment (XSEDE) held last summer in St. Louis.

The paper’s 12 co-authors included Earlham faculty, students, alumni, and their collaborators in Iceland and Nicaragua. Collectively they represent geology, biology, archeology, agronomy, physics and computer science.

The paper, “Multidisciplinary research and education with open tools: Metagenomic analysis of 16S rRNA using Arduino, Android, Mothur and XSEDE” is based on an on-going field science project that included sampling on a glacier in Iceland and sampling in a cloud forest in Nicaragua. Most of the conference presentations represented work done by graduate students or professionals, from at most one or two disciplines.

The approach by Earlham was different.

“One of the reasons our paper stood out was that it captured the essence of what it is like to work and learn with so many different disciplines, nationalities and personalities,” says Tara Urner ’16, one of the paper’s presenters at the conference.

“Usually, if work involves more than one discipline, each discipline does their own part of the project largely independently.”

“As a part of our project, every team member learns something about what each discipline brings to the table,” says presenter Deeksha Srinath ’17. earlham.edu

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“Although each person has their own disciplinary expertise and contributes accordingly, we’re all writing code and we’re all extracting DNA in the lab.”

The project utilizes the principles of active learning or learning by doing, a style that Professor of Computer Science Charlie Peck ’84 encourages. For example, the group wrote an Android application, and no one in the group had any previous Android development experience.

“It didn’t work at first, and usually doesn’t, but with trial and error, we are figuring it out,” says Kristin Muterspaw ’15, another of the paper’s presenters and post-baccalaureate intern in computer science. “I could sit through a semester’s worth of lectures about Android application development or programming and learn the words and data structures and libraries, but that doesn’t teach me how to do it.”

The project began more than three years ago when students created software and hardware for water and soil sampling in Iceland that could be processed and visualized in the field. The project expanded to include sampling for fungus on coffee plants and soil in Nicaragua. While sampling in Iceland and Nicaragua, students were able to adapt their processes and software to the varying conditions in the field.

The paper was subject to two rounds of reviews, the second of which took into account the presentation delivered by Muterspaw, Srinath and Urner.

Other co-authors listed on the paper include Ruthie Lewis ’14, Ivan Babic ’13, Peck, P. Lemiszki, M.S. Sanchez-Miranda, M. Mayorga-Mendez, O. Petursson, Ben Smith ’12 and D.A. Cerda-Granados.

“Our educational focus makes us stand out to readers and reviewers,” says Srinath. “One of our main objectives is educating and preparing students for a world that requires multidisciplinary collaboration and versatility.”

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“Our goal is to make field science more accessible (it’s currently quite an expensive domain), and to teach people how to do what we do — go outside and learn interesting things about the world connecting data from multiple disciplines,” says Muterspaw.

Giving the project legs

Peck says a group is working to expand and continue the field science project.

“In order to make this a sustainable gig, and to make it possible to involve more students, we are converting what has been a computer science student/faculty research project into a Wilderness program, probably named Icelandic Field Studies,” Peck says.

Intended for upper-level students, the program will probably include a low-credit spring semester course, an on-campus May Term and traveling to Iceland in June.

A course in the fall will follow in order for participants to wrap up a year’s work.

Embedded in the program will be at least two long-term science components, calculating the carbon load of the

Field research for the paper presented at XSEDE took Earlhamites to Nicaragua in 2014 for the collection of samples from coffee plants and soil. (Courtesy photos.)

trip and planting an offsetting number of trees backcampus, and measuring the recession of the same glacier each trip.

“This spring and summer we are designing and testdriving the idea,” Peck says. “Our plan is to have the first iteration available for students during the spring, summer, fall of 2017.” earlham.edu

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BY DENISE PURCELL PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUSANNA TANNER

Members of the 2015 Earlham MAT cohort are all at the front of the class.

I

f they were a baseball team, they’d be batting 1.000.

Not only did every Master of Arts in Teaching graduate in Earlham’s 2015 class land a teaching job this fall, several entertained multiple offers.

“Graduates in our last cohort were employed in New York, Missouri, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana,” says Becky Dimick Eastman ’97, assistant director of graduate programs in education. “Our math person turned down four jobs.”

And Princess Darnell ’12 MAT ’15, now a first-year social studies teacher and first-year head varsity girls basketball coach, turned down two offers before landing at Northeastern High School.

Princess Darnell ’12 MAT ’15 teaches social studies and coaches basketball at Northeastern High School in Fountain City, Indiana.

“A big part of it was that I had strong interview skills,” Darnell says. “Because of the MAT program, I had important things to talk about during the interview — my action research, scaffolding, short cycle assessment, backward design, diversity. Also, it seemed that I was more experienced than the other applicants because I had spent way more time in the classroom.”

Earlham’s MAT, which began in 2002, is an intensive 11-month program that uses the cohort model, which means the entire group takes the same courses at the same time.

“I liked that I could get a master’s in 11 months, and at the time I was looking, the program had a 95 percent job placement rate,” Darnell remembers. “I really liked the idea of going through the process in a small cohort where we could learn from one another and through each other’s experiences.”

Students begin the program in June with theory and education psychology courses. There’s a two-week practicum with middle school students during the summer, and the MAT students are in their student teaching classrooms on the first day of class in August.

“During the fall, they participate in team teaching, but

by January the student teacher has taken the lead in the classroom,” Eastman explains. “Most teacher preparation programs send their faculty out to observe their student teachers three or four times, but we believe in the coaching model of supervision and observe our students 15-20 times.

We are also very intentional about helping our students prepare for employment. In January we start talking about résumés, and we ask them where they want to teach so we can help them along in that as well.”

The group also attends Teacher Candidate Interview Day in Indianapolis each spring with 50-100 school districts with teaching needs also in attendance.

“It is mostly practice for interviewing, but a few get their jobs that day,” Eastman says.

Darnell also notes that the program leaders are really good at preparing the MAT students for the classroom.

“They work really well together to make us the best teachers that we can be,” Darnell explains. This includes being familiar with the different kinds of assessments and methods, as well as digital technology.

Before when you sought knowledge you went to a book or a wise person,” Darnell explains. “Now every kid has the answer at his or her fingertips. We teach them to think critically at a higher level. You have the answer; now what are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it?”

Darnell, says Eastman, is typical of the type of teacher the MAT program produces.

“We attract students who are interested in being change agents in their schools and take on leadership roles,” Eastman says.

“Before when you sought knowledge you went to a book or a wise person,” Darnell explains.

“Now every kid has the answer at his or her fingertips. We teach them to think critically at a higher level. You have the answer; now what are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it?”

—Princess Darnell ’12 MAT ’15

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listening to the

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heological education is experiencing a sea change, of sorts; one that demands seminaries think critically and creatively about their present and future. Data from the Association of Theological Schools documents a slow but persistent decline in applications and enrollments in graduate theological schools over the past several years. If at first the decline was concentrated in particular pockets, such as mainline Christian denominations, it no longer plays favorites. Over time, it has seeped into the corners of all types of schools. Such a decline should not be surprising given the observed shifts in the American religious landscape.

Many denominations struggle with declining membership and an aging population. Literature about religious life in America features essays on the NONES and DONES. The former choose no religious affiliation when asked; the latter report they have had their fill of organized religion.

These shifts may occur “out there” but the implications strike at the heart of ESR’s mission, particularly in the areas of student recruitment,

52

waves

fundraising and graduate placement.

Fretting over these changes is easy.

In fact, news in recent months has been littered with announcements of seminary mergers and closures.

At ESR, we have noticed for the last several years that the traditional venues for recruitment, like graduate student fairs and superintendent referrals which were once vibrant streams, are now dried up.

One encouraging note from this heap of bad news is that many still consider themselves to be “spiritual” even if disenchanted and unaffiliated.

Desire persists to distill meaning in the midst of a chaotic life and to serve in the hopes of creating a stronger community and better world.

Among many young adult Friends, an impressive movement has sustained itself for a few years now, with a strong emphasis on developing a vital faith that is also engaged in community formation and activism. Striking in all of this is genuine disinterest in denominations, doctrine and many of the emphases that could be linked to consumer-driven appetites.

ESR’s strategic plan identified these as issues to be addressed two years ago.

Since that time, the school has made a few significant changes. It revamped

Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

its recruitment strategy, eliminating costly and fruitless engagements while cultivating new relationships with groups that value faith, service and activism. It tweaked scholarship programs to offer greater financial support for students who come to ESR through those channels. It created certificate programs in areas of spirituality, Quakerism, and writing, opening doors to individuals with a desire for our programs but who may not sense a need for a full degree. The school has begun conversations about how its programming may better serve persons with interests in activism and non-profit service rather than traditional ministry locations.

A few weeks ago, someone contacting the admissions office who described themselves as a NONE and wasn’t clear on what they believed about God, nonetheless felt an urge to consider a seminary education in response to an inner calling to serve — a clear indication that the waves of this sea change are already lapping on ESR’s shores. It is clearly an uncertain moment in theological education, but early results provide ESR with reasons for optimism in the midst of change.

BY JAY MARSHALL, DEAN, EARLHAM SCHOOL OF RELIGION AND VICE PRESIDENT OF EARLHAM

4.12

Be Part of It...Again!

Earlham y a D

#EarlhamDay

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HE POWER OF COMMUNITY. The success of Earlham Day 2015 showed the strength of the Earlham community. This virtual worldwide reunion created an overwhelming presence at alumni gatherings, on social media, and with alumni, parents and friends giving back. More than 600 Earlhamites gathered at 20 regional events and made 1,117 donations in 24 hours.

Join in the Earlham Day celebrations at events across the country. Check for an event in a city near you at earlham.edu/alumnievents.

earlham.edu/earlhamday

This year we know our community will continue to ensure a bright future for generations of students to come.

Earlhamites across the world will celebrate Earlham on Tuesday, April 12. Mark your calendars and gather your friends now for Earlham Day 2016.

Be Part of It‌Again!

Interested in volunteer opportunities?

Contact Danna O’Connell, Director of Annual Giving, at 765-983-1779 or oconnda@earlham.edu.

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“It’s like being caught in a tornado that just keeps going. It sucks the breath out of you.”

—Nick Johnson ’01

Hope

A Season for

T

he end of football practice means it’s time for conditioning. Gassers. Run as fast as you can from sideline to sideline. Repeat.

“C’mon, c’mon, push through!” shouts Nick Johnson ’01, head football coach for the Quakers, as the last team members finish yet another down-and-back.

“You don’t get to be tired! You don’t get to back down! Show me what it looks like when you don’t back down,” Johnson yells as the team awaits another sprint, gasping on the home sideline. “Full gasser!” he says, followed by a quick toot of his whistle, launching the team on its way across the field.

Johnson is in a job he loves, a job where the short-term misery of hard work pays off.

His wife Melissa ’03, in bed across town at Reid Hospital, endures a different kind of misery. Her pain comes with no apparent purpose and no simple remedy. It’s a nightmare without seeming end.

“If I’m being honest,” he begins, “it’s like being caught in a tornado that just keeps going. It sucks the breath out of you.”

Melissa is surrounded by the nurses and doctors and machines and tubes that have become her world. How many nights in a hospital now for her? More than 500, in two arduous years.

Want to hear a love story? Meet Nick and Melissa Johnson.

Both from Indiana, they met at Earlham, a few steps from Nick’s office now.

“She was coming from the training room and I was coming in the door, and she was dribbling a basketball, and I guess I

BY MIKE LOPRESTI PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAN OETTING

was in her way. She did some fancy footwork and worked her way around me, and just went on by.”

One thing led to another, and good times followed.

Marriage in 2005. A daughter, then a son. Melissa became head women’s basketball coach at Earlham, Nick coached track and football. Two fit, young people in their 30s, working at their alma mater.

“We were really feeling on top of the world. We talked a lot about how blessed we felt,” Nick says.

And then?

“And then the roof caved in.”

That was March 2013. The tornado started with severe abdominal pains and an ambulance ride. What’s happened since? Nick tries to list them all.

“I feel like I have a medical degree now,” he sighs.

There was trouble with blood clotting in the lung, and trouble with female organs, and trouble with the pancreas, and severe bowel obstruction, and then a cerebral spinal leak, and then brain swelling, seizures, incoherence, blood pressure problems, digestive problems, the inability to keep anything down. Once, a Lifeline helicopter rushed Melissa from Richmond to Indianapolis.

“Gastric tubes, nasal tubes, central port, pain pump,” Nick says, listing the various things attached to his wife.

A cousin publishes a blog—Help Mel Fight—to let friends know how she is doing. Here is a sentence included in a post from November:

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{

“There are lessons you get from athletics you don’t quite get from textbooks. It gives me encouragement to pass on to her. It gives me encouragement to get through the day”

{

“Anytime she lifts her head up, her brain sags and pulls on something else at work here. A beleaguered man cherishing her nerves, causing excruciating head pain and pressure.” the chance, if not yet the result. Even on the dark days.

Thus, the road to treatment has been long and winding.

Yes, even an 0-10 team can be shelter against the storm.

“Mayo Clinic for 20 days,” her husband says. “From there to IU, to Cincinnati, back to Minnesota, back to Cincinnati. She’s been all over.”

“There are lessons you get from athletics you don’t quite get from textbooks,” he says. “And some of those things are very transferable to — quote-unquote — the game of life, which is also a tough game for tough people. It gives me encouragement to pass on to her. It gives me encouragement to get through the day.”

Operations and procedures?

“I lost count after 13.”

One of her conditions—an intestinal disorder called Meckel’s diverticulum—was so unusual, Nick once found medical students around his wife’s bed, taking notes.

But wouldn’t it help if maybe the team were better?

“I don’t know if I would enjoy the wins more because I have so much more going on,” he says. “I’m proud of this team, as odd as that may seem. I don’t want any other team. I want This for a woman who once competed in mini-marathons. these guys to get the lessons, and these guys to make the “I think she’s struggled with losing a lot of her identity,” improvement. To see them transform and learn from week Nick says. “With being a patient, and being sick.” to week has been very powerful for me, and cathartic for me.

Yeah, a win would be nice, and we’re working toward that.”

Meanwhile, there are kids to get dressed for school, lunches to pack, dishes to wash. Plus, a football team to What means more are the best wishes from his guys. The coach. texts of support from opposing coaches. The words of encouragement from players of other teams, after they have “Those 40 guys, I feel like I’m a dad to them, too,” Nick just drubbed the Quakers. The relationships are saving him, says. not the record.

When Earlham offered Johnson the head coaching position last January after his many years as assistant — to try to rebuild a struggling program — he was going to pass. He figured that would be unfair to his wife. But Melissa insisted, because she knew how he had longed for the opportunity.

Through 10 games this year, the Quakers were 0-10. It had to be miserable. Losing always is. But there is

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Sometimes, after a game, Nick vented to his wife about losing.

“She gives me about 10 minutes,” he says.

The low spots have been, in Johnson’s words, “the false positives.” She is getting better. No, she is not. Back to square one.

“You think it can’t possibly get any worse than this, or this is the end and I have to prepare for them to come in and say she didn’t make it,” he says. “You’re thinking, ‘How do I tell a 6and 4-year-old that Mommy is not coming back?’”

“I’m just stunned by the support,” he says. “I have a hard time taking it. I know we need it, but I’m not a hold-yourhand-out kind of guy. I’m a hold-your-head-up kind of guy. So it’s been humbling.”

Melissa’s sister lost a child last year, and that prompted his children to ask Nick “if Mommy was going to die, too?”

Nick was humbled again just after the season, but in the best of ways. Conference coaching awards inevitably go to the coaches with the better records. But not this time.

This time Nick’s fellow football coaches in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference selected him as Coach of the Year.

He searched for words of reassurance.

“I said, ‘The doctors are doing the best they can, and Mommy’s fighting.’ But to be honest, there are times you’re not sure.”

Melissa and Nick Johnson with their children at Christmas in 2014. (Courtesy photo.)

He says the recent procedures have helped. More tubes are coming out.

The doctors feel better about the trend.

It is hard to imagine how enormous the costs must be for all this. “Compared to what small-college coaches make, absolutely,” he says. “It’s easy sometimes for me to wonder if we’re going to be able to pay the next electric bill. Helicopter rides are not cheap.”

The award was some kind of victory in a season of struggle, but life remains complicated. Has Melissa really turned the corner? How will the team rebuild for next year? Will there be money for groceries? How do you tie a little girl’s ponytail?

Nick Johnson says his wife is his best friend. But hope must be his second. He says all this has made him a better father, a better husband, a better coach and friend.

It has taught him how to endure and persevere.

“I’ve learned if I put one foot in front of the other, there tends to be a step there,” says the coach who thinks of better days to come.

Mike Lopresti writes for the Indianapolis Business Journal, where this story originally appeared.

But he is quick to emphasize the support of Earlham, and family and friends and community and colleagues.

He mentions the food people drop by, the random checks handed him, the fundraisers.

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Field

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egan Hut ’17 has been playing field hockey since she was 6 years old. She’s credits both of her parents for their support as she grew as a player, but it’s her dad, Jan, who has been running by her side back home in Tiel, Netherlands, as she prepares for upcoming seasons.

“Megan, pain is weakness leaving the body,” he would say during their runs, says Megan and, “Pain is an emotion and emotions can be turned off.”

BY SOMER ECKERT ’17 PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAN OETTING

Dad’s a commander in the Dutch Marine Corps, you see.

“It’s intense, but I always know he has the best intentions,” says Megan. “He knows I want to be the best I can be, so he pushes me.”

Encouraging her teammates is also one of Megan’s recognized talents. As a junior this season, she was selected to be a cocaptain of the team.

“I’ve always tried to lead by

example,” Megan explains. “Now I want people to feel comfortable coming to me with their problems and to know that I care about my teammates and I care about the sport.”

For her skill on the field she was twice named an HCAC Player of the Week. After the season, more awards rolled in: Megan earned Second Team All-HCAC honors and was selected as First Team All-Region for the Great Lakes by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

Her scoring prowess led to two hat tricks this season and a teamleading total of nine goals. Megan also contributed three assists on the season.

Her first hat trick came in the season opener against Transylvania, leading the way to

Hockey Op ens Doors a 4-0 domination of the Pioneers.

Her second hat trick came against Wooster, a team Earlham had not beaten since 1993. The Quakers were down 2-0 until she scored two goals at the beginning of the second half. Then, when the game was pushed into double overtime, Megan was there to score the third and winning goal.

Megan’s perspective as a successful student-athlete is also being put to use in her role as a member of the Athletic Advisory Committee and the Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

“We talk about issues that we see in athletics and also with student athletes in the classroom,” Megan says. “We want to make the combination of athletics and academics easier for student athletes. And we’re working on the barrier between student athletes and other students.”

A Spanish major, Megan says her success in the classroom is directly related to field hockey.

“My professors are involved in my athletic life, and my coaches are involved in my academic life,” she says. “That’s the key to being successful in the classroom as well as on the field.”

The sport has also helped her meet new people, especially

while she was in Spain. “I was really scared to leave Earlham,” she says, “because I love it here so much.”

But being abroad ended up being a positive experience for her.

While in Spain, she was able to play on a local field hockey team, which helped with her Spanish and understanding of the culture.

Spain has also made Megan think more about her future and a possible teaching career. She dreams of standing in front of a classroom of her own some day, possibly even as a college professor.

What she’s leaving wide open are her options for where she will spend her career.

“After my time in Spain, I can’t say that I will be in one place because I haven’t seen enough of the world to know that yet. It could be anywhere.”

PROGRESS ON THE PITCH The Earlham College men’s soccer team enjoyed a successful season under first-year head coach Sam Byrd as the Quakers finished the 2015 year with a 9-7-1 overall record.

Earlham finished the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season in third place with a 6-2-1 record. The Quakers returned to the HCAC Tournament for the first time since 2013. In the tournament semifinals, Earlham fell to eventual champion RoseHulman 2-0.

Five Quakers earned All-HCAC recognition. Senior Jacob Ebbs and sophomore Nicholas Dey were named First Team AllHCAC, seniors TiQi Brown and Mussa Ibrahim garnered Second Team All-HCAC honors, and freshman Nicola Manni earned Honorable Mention All-HCAC honors.

Ebbs, a captain of the 2015 squad, finished his Earlham career with 21 total goals, seven assists, and 49 total points.

Faculty Activities Associate Professor and Director of Peace and Global Studies Program Joanna Swanger’s book Rebel Lands of Cuba: The Campesino Struggles of Oriente and Escambray, 1934-1974 was published by Lexington Books. She also wrote a chapter entitled “Revisualizing (In)Justice: Peace Studies in the Early 21st Century” in Peace Studies Between Tradition and Innovation, which was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Professor of Music Marc Benamou’s article “Råså et sentimiento: Le sens musical à Java et au Pérou,” which compares musical aesthetics in central Java and in the Mantaro valley of Peru, appeared in the 2015 issue of Les cahiers d’ethnomusicologie, the main Frenchlanguage journal in ethnomusicology (published in Switzerland). In October and November of 2015 Benamou traveled to Java (Indonesia) to conduct research on song lyrics, thanks in part to an Earlham PDF grant, as part of a multi-year, NEH-funded project to collect and translate the song texts associated with Javanese gamelan music. While there, he gave two public lectures at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Surakarta. On November 21 he performed at Roulette in Brooklyn as guest vocalist with Kusuma Laras, a Manhattan-based Javanese gamelan group.

Management Institute in Philadelphia in July. She presented a poster, “How to Create a World in Less than Seven Days: Learn how your Library can create an OpenSim Virtual Reality Environment “ during the Indiana Online User Group Conference in October in Indianapolis.

She presented a Lightning Session Presentation, “Innovation at the Nexus of Libraries and IT: Library, IT, Faculty and Student Collaboration to create a Virtual Reality Environment” at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in October in Indianapolis.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Elizabeth Lindau published a review essay on Velvet Underground reissues in the Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM).

She was also appointed General Editor of the SAM’s Bulletin. In August, Lindau presented a paper on the German singer and actress Nico and Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls (1966) at the 13th Feminist Theory and Music conference at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Amy Bryant was elected president of the board of directors for the Richmond Community Orchestra in May and was a graduate of the 2015 EDUCAUSE

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Assistant Professor of History Wayne Soon presented a paper entitled “The Transnational Politics of Military Medical Education

in Wartime China, 1938-1945,” at the 14th International Conference on the History of East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine in July in Paris, France. Soon has a forthcoming 2016 peer-reviewed journal article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, entitled “Blood, Soymilk, and Vitality: the Wartime Origins of Blood Banking in China, 1943-1945.” He also has a forthcoming 2016 book review on Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850-1960, in the Historian.

Assistant Professor of History HongHong Tinn presented “The Discourse of Brain Drain and Sciences in Postindependence Singapore,” at the Workshop on Appreciating Innovation Across Countries, at the Copenhagen Business School in November in Denmark. Tinn was a discussant for the panel titled “The Power of the Print,” at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), in October in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

She also presented “Materialities” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in June in Berlin, Germany.

Associate Professor of Biology Chris R. Smith, coauthored “How do genomes create novel phenotypes?

Insights from the loss of the

worker caste in ant social parasites” in Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Visiting Assistant Sociology/ Anthropology Professor Kelly Szott published “Contingencies of the Will: Uses of Harm Reduction and the Disease Model of Addiction among Health Care Practitioners” in Health. Szott also has a forthcoming book chapter “Expanding the Mission of Harm Reduction: A Public Health Population and its Members’ Perspectives towards Health” in Critical Approaches to Harm Reduction: Conflict, Institutionalization, (De-)Politicization, and Direct Action, edited by C. Smith and Z. Marshall, and published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc., in Hauppauge, NY. Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Shena Marie McAuliffe had creative nonfiction published in the Winter/Spring issue of Gulf Coast titled “By Soot, By Flour, By Beetle Track,” and a story published in issue 19 of Eleven Eleven titled “A Perfect Time to Think Silver.”

McAuliffe’s essay, “Eleven on Poison,” is forthcoming in Bellingham Review this spring. In March, she will present on a panel “Entering the Archives: The Documentation of Historical Fiction” at the Associated Writing Programs annual conference.

Professor of Philosophy Kevin Miles presented a paper in September at Wabash College titled “Animal Allegory and the Politics of Zeus in Hesiod’s Poetry.”

Miles also presented “Heidegger’s Socratic Railings Against the Tradition of the Academy” in May at the 10th Annual Meeting of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Miles also published “W.E.B. DuBois and the Question of Another World, II” in The New Centennial Review in the fall.

Assistant Professor of History Betsy Schlabach serves as chair of the Critoph Prize Committee, which awards the best graduate student paper presented at the biannual Southern American Studies Association Conference. Schlabach’s review of Kim Marie Vaz’s The “Baby Dolls”: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition appeared in Louisiana History’s Fall 2015 issue.

Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of Accreditation Activities Bonita WashingtonLacey, Academic Outreach/ Seminaries Librarian Jane

Pinzino and Associate Director of Institutional Research and Assessment Polly Albright are working with the Association of American Colleges and Universities VALUE Rubric Project, which aims to measure student learning based on authentic student work.

Student work samples demonstrating written communication, quantitative literacy and critical thinking are being collected and submitted to a nationwide database for scoring using VALUE rubrics.

Director of Integrated Programs in Sustainability Jamey Leigh Pavey presented on a panel titled “Building Change Agent Competencies through CommunityBased Research” at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Conference in October in Minneapolis.

In August, Professor of Psychology Michael R. Jackson published “Resistance to Qual/Quant Parity: Why the ‘Paradigm’ Discussion Can’t Be Avoided” in Qualitative Psychology, an American Psychological Association journal specializing in interviewing and naturalistic research in the field

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Faculty Activities of psychology.

This article was a featured article in a special issue about foundational differences between qualitative and quantitative research approaches to psychology.

Psychologists Kenneth Gergen and Anna Madill, wrote responses to the article, and Jackson, in turn, wrote a second article, “The Purity and Impurity of Paradigms: Response to Gergen and Madill.”

In addition, Jackson has also played a role in the anti-torture movement within the field of psychology and specifically within the American Psychological Association. He has been active in Psychologists for Social Responsibility, a group that has worked within APA to limit the involvement of psychologists in torture. The group met at the APA convention in Toronto in August and helped pass a resolution prohibiting the involvement of psychologists in extra-legal interrogations, the culmination of 10 years of work. The Earlham psychology department played a key role in this process in 2007-2008 by leading a nationwide movement of departments of psychology pushing for the elimination of psychologists in torture.

Jackson also recently took a leading role in defending the Hoffman Report, which exposed the role of psychologists in extra-legal interrogations. A letter written by Jackson was endorsed and sent to numerous APA boards and directorates, including the Board of Scientific Affairs, and several other anti-torture groups.

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Director of the Newlin Quaker Center Trish Eckert and Director of Religious Life Kelly Burk presented a workshop entitled “Empowering Students to Speak their Truth” at the Friends Association of Higher Education conference held at George Fox University in June.

They were invited to submit an article with the same title to Quaker Higher Education, an online publication sponsored by the Friends Association of Higher Education.

Assistant Professor of Ancient and Classical Studies Maxwell Teitel Paule presented a talk entitled “Nausicaa the Furious: Homeric Interplay in Mad Max: Fury Road” at the annual Film and History Conference in Madison, WI. His article, “Companions of Aeneas: Gamifying Intermediate Latin” was accepted for publication in Teaching Classical Languages. Paule also organized and hosted a lecture on campus from Julia Nelson-Hawkins (OSU) on “Medicine and Humanities, Ancient and Modern: What Modern Medicine Can Learn from the Ancient World.”

Earlhamite: The Magazine of Earlham College /WINTER 2016

Plowshares Professor of Peace Studies and Politics and Professor of International Studies and Politics Welling Hall presented “Soft Power in Action: How to Beat a Sword into a Plowshare” in December to the U.S. State Department. The talk focused on her research on casting garden shears from combat knives and bullet shells. Hall is on sabbatical serving as a Franklin Fellow in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs/Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.

Assistant Director of Graduate Programs in Education Becky Dimick Eastman presented a talk entitled “Professional Autonomy in a Time of Accountability: Action Research for Preservice Teachers” at the Association of Teacher Educators Indiana conference in the fall.

Academic Dean and Professor of Politics Greg Mahler’s Politics and Government in Israel 3rd edition from Rowman and Littlefield will appear in spring of 2016. This updated and expanded edition of the major text on politics in Israel covers historical background, current political institutions, and coverage of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and the peace process.

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Education Jay Roberts published Experiential Education in the College Context with Routledge Press in September. Roberts also was invited to work with North Carolina Outward Bound on a new educational leadership initiative linking teacher training and development with experiential education.

Professor of English Scott D. Hess gave a scholarly paper, “Be an Environmentalist, Get Stuff: Imaginative Possession and the Consumer Self in the Nature Writing Tradition,” at the June Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) conference at the University of Idaho.

Hess has published two book reviews in 2015, a review of Dewey Hall’s Romantic Naturalists, Early Environmentalists: An Ecocritical Study, 1789-1912, in Review 19; and of Saeko Yoshikawa’s William Wordsworth and the Invention of Tourism, 1820-1900, and The Making of a Cultural Landscape: The English Lake District As Tourist Destination, 1750-2010, in the Journal of British Studies.

Director of International Programs Patty Lamson was a workshop presenter at AAC&U’s Global Learning

in College: Defining, Developing, and Assessing Institutional Roadmaps in October. The workshop, From Doorstep to Planet — Global is Everywhere, engaged various global learning domains — knowledge, challenges, systems, civic engagement, and identities — to re-imagine locations of and for learning that include nations and neighborhoods that are next door, across town, or anywhere in the U.S. Participants considered models of domestic off-campus programs that successfully advance global learning goals and explored how such programs can increase access and participation for today’s changing cohort of students, broaden faculty participation, and build stronger campus constituencies for global learning.

In June, Senior Systems Administrator Randy Schultz passed the test for the Black Sash in Shaolin Kung Fu. Then, in July, he passed the test to become a sifu.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Maggie Thomas published “Are vegans the same as vegetarians?

The effect of meatless diets on perceptions of masculinity” in Appetite. The article also was covered in Pacific Standard.

Center Diptych.”

Two of Bistline’s photos were accepted into the 2015 Art About the Land Juried Art Competition at Minnetrista Cultural Center in Muncie this fall. One of his photos was accepted into the 2015 Juried Art Exhibition at the Richmond Art Museum this fall, and one of his photos was accepted into the Joseph Moore Museum’s exhibition, “A Creative Look at Climate Change.”

Emeritus Professor of Biology William Harvey continues to serve as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

ELL Instructor Safia Diarra presented “English errors and misunderstandings” at INTESOL in November.

Associate Professor of Art Walt Bistline had two photos accepted into the 2015 Whitewater Valley Juried Art Competition at Indiana University East this fall, and he won second place for his Earlham photo entitled “Wellness

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HOMECOMING

2015

900+ EARLHAMITES and friends returned to campus for Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, Oct. 30 - Nov. 1. Highlights included the dedication of the Center for Science and Technology, the annual Alumni Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies, several athletic events, and a performance by Carrie Newcomer.

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1) Earlham Board of Trustees Chair Deborah Hull ’67 and President David Dawson complete the ribbon cutting at the Center for Science and Technology. 2) Alumni, faculty, trustees and friends view the CST dedication ceremony. 3) After the dedication, attendees were invited indoors for an open house gathering. 4) Jacob Ebbs ’16 heads the ball during Earlham men’s soccer 1-0 win against Franklin. Ebbs had an assist on the winning goal. 5) Treylon Anderson ’19 celebrates with Wes Hundley ’19 after the Quakers’ late score that forced the football game versus Hanover into overtime. 6) Jalen Kenner ’16 breaks into the clear for a Quaker touchdown. 7) Keith Morgan ’85, Jason Jimerson ’85, Karl Haskins ’85, Terry Scott ’85. 8) Cherrah Barclay ’17 advances the ball against Franklin. 9) Andres Guzman Garza ’10 and Conor Hall ’13 are reacquainted. 10) Members of the Earlham men’s soccer team surround the ball during the 1-0 win against Franklin. 11) Roy Messer, a newly inducted member of the Earlham Athletics Hall of Fame, is recognized with a round of applause at halftime of the homecoming football game. Messer coached the Quaker men’s soccer team for 34 years. 12) Seated on Goddard Stage during the Alumni Awards are, from left: David Matthews ’65, Lew Fikes ’65, President David Dawson (standing), Professor Emeritus of English Paul Lacey, Katie Yamasaki ’99, Professor Emeritus of Biology Bill Harvey, Douglas Hamilton ’74, Stephen Ward ’69, and Herman B. White ’70.

13) Singer songwriter Carrie Newcomer performs in Goddard Auditorium. 14) Andrew Sampson ’00, wife Jo and son Benjamin, share a laugh just before the men’s soccer game. 15) Class of 1995 alums Shoshanna Sumka (holding daughter Naomi), Kristine Friesen, Naomi Lipnick Lee, Maggie Marconi, Jareer Kassis, Melinda Gross Smith, Amanda Salanitro Mixon. 16) Earlhamites make their way to the CST following its dedication ceremony.

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Liza Donnelly ’77, an art major at Earlham, went on be a cartoonist for The New Yorker. She sold her first cartoon to the magazine in 1979 and has been a regular contributor ever since. An author of 16 books, she is also a public speaker and travels as a cultural envoy for the U.S. State Department and is director of the New York Office of Cartooning for Peace.

Earlham FUND Building Capacity to Inspire

1847

since

Your generosity

insp irZes Tara Urner ’16 put together a rare academic combination for her education at Earlham: majors in physics and philosophy and a minor in computer science. Her interdisciplinary background, passion for field research and for explaining the results helped her and fellow students and faculty produce research that won a “best paper” award at a national research conference.

At Earlham, collaboration and versatility thrive.

Tara Urner ’16 speaks at the dedication of the Center for Science and Technology.

To help students like Tara live the Earlham experience, please give to the Earlham Fund.

Go to earlham.edu/online-giving. For questions contact Danna O’Connell, director of annual giving, at 765-983-1779 or oconnda@earlham.edu.

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