Focus on literacy
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Q&A with Mark Newcomb EXECUTIVE Vice President
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he college recently appointed Mark Newcomb as executive vice president. He arrived from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas, where he served as director of the Master of Liberal Arts and the undergraduate degree completion programs. At the Mount, he will oversee strategic institutional planning, management, assessment and compliance. Q: What do you see as stand-out good qualities of the Mount? A: The unquestionable beauty of the campus and our commanding view of the Hudson; the camaraderie and goodwill among the faculty members; and the great-heartedness of our students who are everywhere leading tours, praising their professors and the academic programs, and helping to get the word out about what a wonderful place the Mount is to live and to study. Q: Is there something you’d like to see at the Mount that’s not here yet? A: I only wish there were more of Mount Saint Mary College – in terms of space for housing operations and support offices for the service of our students. I would love to see a centralized student activity center with a host of resources for student support and recreation, with rooms for students to launch and conduct new clubs and activities.
ount Saint Mary College recently hosted the 22nd Annual Conference on Literacy, titled “Engaging All Readers.” Sponsored by the Mount’s Collaborative for Equity in Literacy Learning (CELL), the event explored a variety of topics through more than a dozen presentations, including “Reaching Readers in the Digital Age” by Ludmilla Smirnova, Mount Division of Education; “Storytelling: A Performative and Empowering Art” by Laconia Therrio, professional storyteller, and Jane Gangi, Mount Division of Education; and “Ideas Worth Spreading? Engaging Students in Multimodal Literacy Activities” by Matthew Freedman, Newburgh Free Academy, and Matthew Hollibush and David Gallagher, Mount Division of Education. The keynote presenter was awardwinning author Tony Abbott, who has written more than 100 children’s books. Titles to his credit include “Firegirl,” “Kringle” and “The Postcard.”
Q: Who is your hero, and why? A: Theodore Roosevelt is among the people I admire in many ways. He worked very hard to break up monopolies, give laborers fair wages, and added millions of American acres to national land and wildlife conservation initiatives. Q: What advice do you have for new Mount students? A: Embrace the wonders of your time here and your studies to the fullest. Go see that play, get on the field and play, stop in to the chapel to pray – this is your time to find and cultivate your best self, and the Mount has so much to offer you in that precious process of discovery and growth.
Author Tony Abbott was the keynote speaker at the 22nd Annual Conference on Literacy. www.msmc.edu
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