#85 FALL 2019
A publication of New College of Florida
WORKING THE PLAN New College focuses on growing enrollment to 1,200 students
‘Support from All Angles’ New First-Year Seminar program teaches skills, connections
Editorial Staff Jim DeLa Digital Communications Coordinator Kim McDonald Creative Services Manager Kathleen McCoy Director of Alumni Relations Su Byron Communications Specialist Publisher Office of Communications and Marketing New College of Florida 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243-2109 941.487.4153 communications@ncf.edu
6
Working the Plan New College focuses on growing enrollment to 1,200 students
NCAA Board of Directors Executive Committee Chair – Steve Jacobson ’71 Chair-Elect – Dan Stults ’77 Governance Chair – Chad Bickerton ’05 Immediate Past Chair – Cindy Hill ’89
19 Profiles
14 ‘Support from All Angles’ New First-Year Seminar program teaches skills, connections
Andrew and Judith Economos Bruce Guild ’64 Lauren Hansen Sarah Nash ’18
Also inside this issue: On Campus > 1 Op Ed > 5 In the Community > 12 Foundation Focus > 23 Chapter News > 24 Class Notes > 24
Lynn Allen ’72 Robert Bilott ’83 Hazel Bradford ’75 Benjamin Brown ’05 Doug Christy ’96 John Connelly ’76 Robert Freedman ’83 Eric Gottshall ’79 Ginger Lyon ’70 Oliver Peckham ’08 Gera Peoples ’94 Leslie Reinherz ’70 Norman Stein ’69 Benjamin Stork ’03 New College Leadership Donal O’Shea, Ph.D. President Barbara Feldman, Ph.D. Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs MaryAnne Young Vice President of Advancement Ann Comer-Woods Director of Communications and Marketing For a listing of the Board of Trustees, visit ncf.edu/leadership-and-governance
THEN & NOW
Collaborative Learning Whether it’s in Professor Arthur Borden’s class some 50 years ago, or a classroom today, New College students have always gathered around tables to challenge each other and themselves.
CAMPUS NEWS
New College salutes record graduating class record 229 students—the largest graduating cohort in College history—received diplomas under picture-perfect skies along the Bayfront May 17 at New College of Florida’s Commencement ceremony. President Donal O’Shea conferred bachelor of arts degrees to 213 undergraduate students, and master’s degrees in data science to 16 students, the largest graduate degree cohort in that program’s five-year history. “Let me be the first to congratulate you on this wonderful achievement,” Provost Barbara Feldman told the group as the ceremonies began. The night’s keynote speaker, Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College, delivered a bold message: Change is possible; resist fear and remain hopeful. “I would like to suggest that you need to maintain a discipline of hope. I use the word ‘discipline’ intentionally. Like regular exercise is a discipline, so is the maintenance of hope. The more you do it, the easier it gets—but like establishing a regular pattern of exercise, it requires a certain amount of willpower,” she said. “All of you have been changed by your education in some way, and now you are prepared to go out and change your communities. Whether you are going on to graduate school, headed for the world of work, or some combination thereof, whether you plan to be a future educator, artist, scientist, health care provider, legislator, engineer, corporate executive, social worker, entrepreneur or parent, you already have the tools you need to be agents of change in your communities.”
A
Listening in the audience were Carmen and John Markee of Riverview, Florida, waving large cutout images of the face of their daughter, Amanda, who was receiving her degree in biology. Both said the New College experience was a good one. “She loved it,” John Markee said, adding Amanda worked her way through college and already had a job lined up in a lab at the University of Florida. “We’re very proud parents,” her father said. The graduating class heard from one of their own, chemistry AOC Eleni Spanolios, who shared thoughts about her journey at New College, as she and her classmates reinvented themselves during their time here. “I know that how quickly and drastically New College may be changing scares many of us, myself included. However, we will always have our community. It is the students, faculty and staff as a whole that create and uphold our core values. “In the face of tireless adversity, our New College community is confident and secure. We are still joyful in the present and hopeful for the future. These attributes are other factors at the core of the cycle of liberation.”
www.ncf.edu
1
ON CAMPUS
CAMPUS NEWS
New director appointed to Data Science program r. Burcin Bozkaya has been appointed as the new director of the Data Science program, taking over leadership responsibilities from the program’s first director, Professor of Mathematics Patrick McDonald. Prior to joining the New College faculty in August, Bozkaya served as a professor of business analytics at Sabanci University’s School of Management in Istanbul, Turkey. At Sabanci, he conducted research on big data analytics; customer behavior analytics and predictive analytics in finance, insurance and telecom; spatio-temporal modeling and analysis; transportation/logistics modeling and optimization; geographic information systems and decision support systems. He was also a visiting professor at the Media Lab at MIT, where he analyzed high-dimensional data sets in areas as diverse as bank transactions and customer demographics, Syrian refugee call data records, and insurance premium contracts. Bozkaya received his Ph.D. in management science in 1999 at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has a master’s
D
and bachelor’s degrees, both in industrial engineering, from Bilkent University in Turkey. “I heard about New College from a colleague at MIT,” Bozkaya said. “I liked the fact that it was a liberal arts college with a number of diverse programs.” He looks forward to developing more relationships between the Data Science program and area businesses. “I want to establish new partnerships with even more companies. It’s important because they bring in good project ideas for students to work on.” He also plans to focus on maintaining academically strong cohorts of students while working to attract more international students.
FOUNDATION NEWS
New College names first Archimedes Scholars hilanthropists and Sarasota residents Andrew and Judith Economos donated $500,000 to New College to fund the new Archimedes Scholars Program at New College. The program is named for Greek mathematician, physicist, and engineer who was one of the leading scientists of the ancient Saurav Kiri world, and the Economos family hopes the program will have the same transformative effect in the contemporary United States. Designed to support students pursuing studies toward a STEM career, this initiative provides a $10,000 scholarship annually to a New College student and a $5,000 scholarship yearly to two graduates of high schools in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
P
Saurav Kiri is the first recipient of the Archimedes Scholarship. A graduate of Pine View High School, Kiri will study biology and biochemistry at New College and plans a career as a physician researcher. In his scholarship application essay, he wrote that he chose New College because it “will prepare me for the challenges of medical school and the practice of medicine and medical research itself.” Kevin Zhu, also a Pine View High School graduate, and Griffin Heckler, a graduate of Manatee High School, will receive annual $5,000 scholarships from the Archimedes Scholars Program. Zhu plans to study biotechnology at the University of Toronto with the goal of starting his own biotech firm. Heckler intends to study neuroscience at the University of Florida and plans a career in research or therapy. The Economoses are funding the Archimedes Scholars for the next five years with the goal of extending and broadening the program after the pilot phase. (See page 22 for a more in-depth look at their philanthropy.)
COME BACK TO CAMPUS DURING OUR 60TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR!
2
New College of Florida | nimbus
ON CAMPUS
FOUNDATION NEWS
New College Foundation welcomes five new board members he New College Foundation recently announced that the organization has welcomed five new members to its board of directors. Glenn P. Hendrix ’76 is chair of Arnall, Golden & Gregory, LLP, a leading national law firm based in Atlanta. Steve Jacobson ’71 is chair of the New College Alumni Association Board and a cryogenics engineer at Northwestern University. George Quarterman is the owner of a State Farm Insurance and Financial Services office in Sarasota and has 28 years of experience providing insurance and financial services. John F. “Jack” Schlegel is a consultant with extensive experience in strategic planning, board orientation, leadership and management development, and organizational assessment. Henry Smyth ’76 is the director and investment manager for Granville Cooper Gold Fund II, Ltd, and lives in the Bahamas.
T
“These outstanding individuals join a team of dedicated people who are united in their commitment to support the mission and needs of New College,” said Sue Jacobson, chair of the New College Foundation board. “We’re honored to welcome them.” Other members of the Foundation board of directors are: Christine Jennings, first vice chair; Charles Hamilton ’64, second vice chair; Robert Lincoln ’77, treasurer; Sharon Ramey ’65, secretary; and George Augustin, John W. Bean, Francine Blum, Raymonda Burgman ’91, Alison Gardner, Karin Gustafson,’64, Charlene Lenger ’78, David H. Lipsey ’71, Kenneth R. Misemer ’64, Felice Schulaner ’78, Jonathan Smiga ’75, Robert Turffs ’74, Thomas White, J.D. ’67, and Nancy Winship. Richard O. Donegan and Elaine Keating are trustee emeriti.
CAMPUS NEWS
New College appoints new assistant vice president of human resources ew College of Florida named Loretta Shields as the college’s assistant vice president of human resources in July. She has spent most of her professional career as executive director of benefits, wellness and compliance at Kent State University. She has also held human resources positions at the Norfolk Airport Authority, Chicago Title Insurance Company, and the University of South Carolina. As assistant vice president of human resources, Shields’ primary responsibilities consist of providing leadership and guidance in the areas of classification, compensation/payroll administration, data analysis and reporting, employee benefits, recruitment and retention, employee relations, environmental health and safety/risk management as well as AFSCME and PBA bargaining unit negotiations. She received a bachelor of arts in business administration degree from Ashland University and a master of science in human resources management degree from Troy State University.
N
. T A E S A U O Y E V A S L ’L WE REUNION 2020
RETURN. RENEW. RECONNECT. February 21-22, 2020 ncf.edu/reunion
www.ncf.edu
3
ON CAMPUS
What’s Happening ARTS + HUMANITIES
A five-year, $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched “New College: Connecting the Arts and Humanities on Florida’s Creative Coast,” which has expanded existing programs and supported a new series of performances and seminars open to the entire community. Learn more: ncf.edu/connecting-arts-humanities
ORIENTATION 2019
New College Orientation Leaders helped the next generation of Novos get off to a great start with a week of programs in August.
4
New College of Florida | nimbus
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
New College’s first Social Entrepreneurship Conference, on September 21, brought students together with business and community leaders to discuss ways of addressing social, environmental and creative issues, and to pitch their startup ideas.
OP-ED
New College Tomorrow: Arts and Sciences for Florida’s Future BY NEW CO LLEGE PRESID E N T D O N AL O’SH E A
The Florida Board of Governors is seeking significant additional state funding for its Universities of Distinction initiative. It has called on New College of Florida and eight of our peer institutions in the State University System to each focus on a core competency that achieves excellence at the national or state level, provides high-quality talent to diversify Florida’s workforce, and stimulates the innovation economy. We have proposed a program, New College Tomorrow: Arts and Sciences for Florida’s Future, that will further our mission of preparing intellectually curious students for lives of great achievement, make New College a model for educational excellence, produce graduates who will fill some of the most challenging regional, state, and national workforce needs, and drive innovation locally and globally. New College Tomorrow advances our institution along three parallel directions, each emerging from a distinctive strength of the college: 1. Execute our strategic plan to grow enrollment. Through the implementation of our strategic plan, we aim to grow to 1,200 students and 120 faculty, add support staff and programs that will drive our four-year graduation rate above 80%, and achieve recognition among the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the nation. We have made crucial additions to our faculty, strengthening our programs in computer science, data science, and finance, and adding new lines in environmental design and health-related fields. We are seeking state funding to build a 107,000-square-foot facility on our campus that will support academic and student programming. We are raising private funds to renovate existing residence halls, including our architecturally significant halls designed by I.M. Pei., and exploring partnerships to build new residence halls. 2. Inflect student experience towards the world of work. We will continue to provide an individualized educational experience particular to the needs and interests of each of our students while systematically integrating opportunities for professional development and practical applications into every student’s experience at New College. Experiential learning will be more deeply embedded into the curriculum. Students will be able to pursue more than one target of study, one appealing to their intellectual passions and another to their potential career interests. Starting in their first year, students will work with a dynamic team of faculty, fellow students, career and experiential counselors, and alumni mentors to explore their passions, talents, and aspirations, and to design a college experience that both broadens their vision and sharpens their competitive edge, whether their post-college intent is immediate employment or a graduate degree program. 3. Increase articulation and collaborative agreements with regional institutions. The Sarasota-Manatee area is the most densely populated region in the state without a full-scale research or comprehensive university. However, the Cross College Alliance, which has more than 16,000 students and 500 faculty at our five member institutions serves as a proxy. With New College at the geographical and intellectual center, playing the role of the college of arts and sciences at the heart of every major American research university, we believe that we are seeing the beginnings of an exciting emergent phenomenon that takes advantage of the dispersed, independent nature of this region’s institutions. We will build on this with more articulation and collaborative agreements, creating more opportunities for students, faculty members, and our larger community. These directions not only further the college’s distinctive mission, they do so in ways that are particular to New College. They engage in educational reform by combining educational innovation with educational excellence, and they provide programs of study that allow students to design their educational experience as much as possible in accordance with their individual interests, values, and vision. The design of our curriculum, the close interaction between faculty and students, and the tradition of challenging students not only to master existing bodies of knowledge, but to extend them in new ways makes New College the ideal institution to prepare students for a future where the only certainty is change. Those students, in turn, will drive Florida’s economy. New College Tomorrow: Arts and Sciences for Florida’s Future will propel New College from very good to great, and from great to national and global distinction.
www.ncf.edu
5
Dr. Athena Rycyk leads her students in an exploration of the Ringling Museum grounds as part of her First-Year Seminar.
6
New College of Florida | nimbus
WORKING THE PLAN / COVER STORY
Working the Plan New College focuses on growing enrollment to 1,200 students BY J IM DE L A A N D DAVI D GU LLI VE R
Step into ACE 201 on this autumn afternoon and you get a hint there’s something unusual about Dr. Athena Rycyk’s class. On a table at the front of the room are giant pads of drawing paper, boxes of markers and tubs of Play-Doh modeling clay. After a field trip to the otter habitat at Mote Marine Aquarium, today’s class exercise has the 12 students creating their own plans for habitats. In teams of four, students write up their design and then sketch floor plans. But there’s a twist: Rycyk has given the three teams varying levels of resource constraints. One has none at all— “just no gold-plated water slides,” she tells them. Another gets significant challenges, like having no running water available. The third team’s limits seem almost punitive—little space, and they are in Siberia, with freezing temperatures most of the year. After they present their designs, Rycyk introduces them to research on creativity and problem-solving. With no constraints, or unreasonable ones, people find less creative solutions to problems. But a medium level of constraints yields a “sweet spot” of creativity. “With the limitations, you find solutions you would not have found otherwise,” she tells the students enrolled in her
First-Year Seminar, “The Inquisitive Scientist.” New College professors have always challenged their students with compelling lessons. But both Rycyk and her class exemplify key elements of a strategic plan to propel New College into the upper tier of liberal arts institutions in the United States. In 2018, the New College of Florida Board of Trustees approved Cultivating Curiosity. Unleashing Potential. The Strategic Plan for New College of Florida (2018-2028). The plan calls for the student body to grow to 1,200 students and the four-year graduation rate to increase to at least 80 percent. It focuses on three key objectives: attracting students who will thrive at New College, keeping them enrolled for four years, and increasing the value of their degree. In Rycyk’s class and other First-Year Seminars that began this fall, faculty members teach courses that span a range of disciplines, help first-year students learn skills for college success, and demystify New College’s unique educational structure. With this foundation, students are more likely to succeed during their first year, return the following year, and graduate on schedule. (Read more about the First-Year Seminar program on page 14.)
www.ncf.edu
7
COVER STORY / WORKING THE PLAN
“A college is only as good as its faculty. I do not just mean how good they are individually, but how good they are collectively. The larger our faculty and the more breadth of disciplines, the more we have to offer students. This is the key to our growth.” -Provost Barbara Feldman
Growing the Faculty
Since its outset, the plan has called for first expanding the academic infrastructure: Bring in more professors, so that as enrollment rises, New College can maintain its small class sizes, with an average of about one professor for every 10 students. In 2018, New College took that first step by hiring 15 new faculty members, including Rycyk, a New College alumna herself. This fall, five tenured and tenure-track faculty members, six visiting assistant professors, and three instructors joined the New College faculty. The College recruited new faculty in specific clusters in Arts, Sustainability, Global Issues, and Human and Artificial Intelligence to strengthen its core disciplines while increasing the diversity of course offerings in many AOCs. The new hires also allowed New College to add an area of concentration— Neuroscience—and to expand Theater to include Theater, Dance and Performing Arts. This fall’s new professors represent a variety of disciplines, from mathematics and constitutional law to creative writing and philosophy. The influx of new talent provides opportunities for the development of additional areas of study, including global health and social justice. Once new faculty arrive, they are encouraged to pursue professional development opportunities, such as attending national conferences on pedagogy that range in topics from the First Year Experience to Educating with Empathy. New and veteran faculty can
8
New College of Florida | nimbus
also participate in campus workshops on academic advising and evaluating students’ work. “A college is only as good as its faculty,” Provost Barbara Feldman said. “I do not just mean how good they are individually, but how good they are collectively. The larger our faculty and the more breadth of disciplines, the more we have to offer students. This is the key to our growth.” The provost’s office, in consultation with the faculty, is also revising elements of New College’s Liberal Arts Curriculum (LAC), which requires students to study a broad range of subjects, as well as diverse perspectives, and to demonstrate basic proficiency in mathematics and advanced proficiency in written and oral English language. The revisions, Feldman says, mirror a more contemporary philosophy. “The new LAC is going to be more skillsbased than ever before, a commitment to preparing students for life after graduation.”
Supporting Student Success
“We want at least 80 percent of students who enter New College as first-year students to graduate no more than four years later, which would be comparable to the very best liberal arts schools in the country,” President Donal O’Shea said. But in order to do that, New College must grow. “There is no college in the top 50 with less than 1,200 students,” O’Shea said. “Data show that four-year graduation rates are better at that level.” The strategic plans sets out three
main strategies for keeping students here and on track for graduation: Make campus a place where students want to be, immerse students in inspiring curricula, and work with each student to knit together a superlative education. The first semester is critically important as students transition to New College academically and socially. Students who don’t feel connected to the campus community in their first 40 to 60 days are more likely to leave. “We’re doing a lot of work to help them succeed,” Feldman said. “There’s a big correlation between students who satisfy their first contract and those who stay at New College.” Initial efforts are bearing fruit, as the percentage of first-year students who returned for their second year at New College increased from 76% in 2018 to 85% in 2019. Student Affairs overhauled this fall’s New Student Orientation program, streamlining communication to incoming students and training orientation leaders to be resources and peer leaders for new students long after orientation week has concluded. The provost’s office is training faculty to better recognize early signs of students who may be struggling with the demands of college and placing more teaching assistants in classes where students experience higher rates of unsatisfactory evaluations. The Center for Career Engagement and Opportunity is dramatically expanding its career services and resources, beginning with outreach to students in their first year. Under the leadership of director Dwayne Peterson,
New College’s growth plan is centered on new faculty and the expanded areas of study they offer. From left, new faculty members include Nassima Neggaz, assistant professor of religion and Islamic studies; Ilaria Giglioli, assistant professor of geography and international studies; Burcin Bozkaya, professor and director of data science; Rebecca Black, assistant professor of chemistry; Nicolas Delon, assistant professor of philosophy and environmental studies; Chris Pederson, associate in physics; Gerardo Toro-Farmer, assistant professor of coastal and marine science; Christopher Noble, assistant professor of philosophy; Amanda Fidalgo, assistant professor of political science; Tania Roy, assistant professor of human centered computing; Jessica Young, assistant professor of English.
who joined New College in August, CEO staff are meeting with every first-year student, to explore their interests, values, and personality, and complete a career assessment. The goal, according to Peterson, is to help students realize the skills they’re learning in class are going to be useful in their careers. “Through their studies, they are learning how to think. They are learning how to communicate, how to write. The skill sets they’ve established by studying are transferable to real-life problems.” Outside the classroom, students have access to more campus events as well as increased service opportunities in Sarasota and Bradenton. Higher levels of student engagement on campus and in the local community increase the likelihood that students will continue their studies at New College. “The more community service that students can get involved with and internships we can secure for our students, the better,” O’Shea said.
In the residence halls, students can now choose to live in one of nine Living Learning Communities. These communities, often called LLCs, intentionally group specific students together in order to share common academic, social, and residential experiences. By taking part in group projects, community service, and other activities in addition to their regular academic work, the LLC participants create communities around learning. Students in the recently created Global Village LLC learn about international travel, culture, and the global community. The new Sustainable Living Learning Community educates residents on good health and well-being while also encouraging efforts to reduce the amount of nonrenewable energy on campus and reduce waste and garbage from the dining halls and residence halls. Other LLCs include writing, community organizing, outdoor adventure, LGBTQIA+ pride, and health and wellness.
Promoting Wellness
The Counseling and Wellness Center continues to upgrade services for students at both New College and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, which it also serves. “We’re trying to promote a holistic wellness model,” explained Dr. Anne Fisher, the CWC’s program director, focusing on medical needs, counseling, victim advocacy, and recreation and fitness. Over the past year, the CWC has increased the hours of its walk-in clinic, hired professionals who are experts in college-age patients, and opened a part-time counseling clinic at the University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee. The CWC also entered into a partnership with the USF Health system, which, among other things, gives students access to a larger network of health care providers, should they need additional services the CWC can’t provide.
www.ncf.edu
9
Fisher says the demand for services at New College is high. “Students are requesting mental health services more than ever before.” In the period from July 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019, the clinic will have logged just under 3,000 appointments, which includes both individual and group sessions. Fisher says that number has been consistent over the last few years. Students in smaller, residential schools tend to use campus resources more often than those attending a commuter campus. “I’m grateful our students come to us,” Fisher said. The CWC has offered some additional options in the past year to meet students’ needs, including video chats with counselors and more group therapy opportunities. The bottom line, Fisher continued, is encouraging students to take care of their physical and mental health. “We’re
offering workshops to promote healthy and resilient behavior.”
Creating a More Inclusive Campus
New College is also working to create a more diverse and inclusive campus community. In February, the college hired Dr. Bill Woodson as its first Dean of Outreach and Engagement and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Since his arrival, Woodson has expanded the scope of the college’s Diversity Committee with a broader charge as the Committee on Campus Climate and Culture. He has held two town hall-style meetings during the fall semester with students for an open discussion about campus climate and culture. Woodson and Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Loretta Shields, who joined New College in July, led a
search for an external consultant firm with expertise in campus climate and inclusive practices. The consultants will be “engaged as part of our desire to both accelerate and sharpen our focus on building a more inclusive community, one that is better able to sustain and engage, rather than suppress, differences in opinions and perspectives,” Woodson explained. “My aspiration for the student experience of New College is that this is a place where we are all exposed to new and different ideas. That our students graduate, not only with first-hand knowledge of contrary points of view, but with an enhanced ability to engage and challenge those points of view, while remaining in relationship, even in fellowship, with people whose opinions conflict.” In addition to these initiatives, Woodson is directing a five-year, $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation entitled New College and the Cross College Alliance in Community. The grant will support curricular and research initiatives that preserve local history, integrate social and racial justice work into artistic practice and teaching, and explore questions of special interest to the local community. “We look forward to bringing together local community members and our CCA partners to discuss local issues that may be addressed through arts and humanities education and community engagement,” he said “We also welcome
Dr. Bill Woodson, dean of outreach and engagement and New College’s chief diversity officer, meets with families during an Orientation Week reception.
10 New College of Florida | nimbus
WORKING THE PLAN / COVER STORY
the opportunity to coordinate existing community engagement activities across the CCA institutions and support faculty teaching courses that involve community engagement.” Ultimately, the College will launch an Office of Community Outreach and Engagement.
Providing More Scholarships
Recognizing that financial aid plays an important role in recruiting and retaining students, the New College Foundation has focused its fundraising efforts on scholarship support. Sarasota philanthropists Andrew and Judith Economos established the Archimedes Scholars Program, which annually provides up to four $10,000 scholarships to New College students and up to eight $5,000 scholarships to graduates of high schools in Sarasota or Manatee County pursuing studies in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field. “New College, which ranks among the top eight universities in the nation for the percentage of its graduates who go on to become scientists, is the perfect place for this scholarship program,” President O’Shea said when the College announced the program. “It not only allows New College to better compete for the most gifted science students, it also directly benefits SarasotaBradenton high school students, no matter where they decide to study. The Archimedes Scholars Program will enhance New College’s reputation by placing it at the center of a scholarship program of national reach.” The first $10,000 Archimedes Scholarship was awarded to Saurav Kiri, a graduate of Pine View School in Osprey, who enrolled at New College this fall. Planning a career as a physician researcher, Kiri wrote in his scholarship
application essay that he chose to attend New College because it “will prepare me for the challenges of medical school and the practice of medicine and medical research itself.” Another new program this fall is the Skestos Scholars Leadership Program, which has placed a small group of students in an extensive four-year program created to support the development of engaged leaders on campus. The program was made possible by the generosity of New College Trustee George Skestos. The program provides students with the knowledge and skills to work effectively in an increasingly diverse world, and to effect positive change. The curriculum includes a required number of community service hours, organizing service efforts, attending seminars, maintaining an active leadership role on campus, and presenting regular leadership skills plans to the scholarship’s cohort. The long-running Isermann Medalists program, for out-of-state students planning careers in science, also will be expanding. The Foundation has secured funding for additional scholarships from the estate of Howard Isermann, a former chair of the New College Board of Trustees. Clambake, the college’s annual fall scholarship soiree, raised $350,000 in 2018, a big jump over the $250,000 raised the previous year. “We’re really proud of that. The more scholarship money we can raise, the more we help our students,” said Foundation Executive Director MaryAnne Young. The Foundation also undertook a new project last March, organizing a New College Scholars luncheon designed to raise scholarship monies and raise New College’s visibility, spearheaded by Foundation Board Vice Chair Christine Jennings.
More than 350 guests attended, “and two-thirds of them did not know New College of Florida,” Young said. A student, faculty member, or alum was placed at every table, and President O’Shea, two student speakers, and alumna Mary Ruiz all told their New College stories. The event connected New College with many new community supporters and raised about $30,000 for scholarships.
Looking Back While Planning Ahead
Looking back on the college’s accomplishments during the first year of the strategic plan, alumna Felice Schulaner, chair of the College’s Board of Trustees, said, “We should be celebrating our successes. We just graduated 229 students [in 2019], the largest class in New College history. We have tremendous support from the state Board of Governors. We have more resources than we’ve ever had, and we have incredible students and faculty.” “The whole institution is pulling together,” to meet the plan’s goals, O’Shea added. “We have made crucial additions to our faculty, strengthening our programs in computer science, data science, and finance, and adding new lines in environmental design and health-related fields. We are seeking state funding to build a 107,000square-foot facility on our campus that will support academic and student programming. We are raising private funds to renovate existing residence halls, including our architecturally significant halls designed by I.M. Pei., and exploring partnerships to build new residence halls.” While the strategic plan extends through 2028, Schulaner said: “I don’t think we’ll ever declare victory. That’s not New College culture. We’re always looking at how we can be better.”
www.ncf.edu
11
Helping and humility: Volunteering teaches New College students about community, selves ‘New College Cares’ connects students to community needs FROM GARDENS TO STREET FESTIVALS TO HOMES IN NEED OF A HAND, New College students put their hearts and hands into
the neighborhoods off campus this fall. The New College Cares events, every Saturday in October, were organized by the Office of Student Activities and Campus Engagement, or SA[U]CE. Sarah Lapton, New College’s AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer coordinator, said community service is a positive experience for both students and the community. “For the students, it can be a break from school, to think about something else in a positive way,” she said. “Also, students don’t get off campus very much, they don’t get to see what Sarasota really has to offer. So when they go and volunteer, they get to meet the community members and see what the need really is in the community. It brightens their perspective.” Planners took the community’s needs into account when planning the October series. Activities included work at a community garden, Habitat for Humanity, a community festival and a local homeless coalition. “There’s definitely a huge need in Sarasota, with food insecurity and housing. That’s what the main volunteer activities are based on,” Lapton said. The first event brought New College students to the Orange Blossom Community Garden on October 5 for some hands-on work. They partnered with Ringling College of Art and
12 New College of Florida | nimbus
Design, which also regularly pitches in at Orange Blossom. From there, students moved on to the Habitat for Humanity project. Second-year Daria Paulis, already a community service veteran, said Habitat projects are the essence of volunteer work. “Knowing that something you are doing is making an impact on someone’s life is very gratifying,” she said. “When it comes to doing projects with Habitat for Humanity, you spend the whole day working hard and even though you never meet the people who are going to live in those houses, it’s great to know that you are contributing to someone having a home.” Students also turned out October 26 to help with Big Mama’s Collard Green Festival, an annual event in Sarasota’s historically African-American Newtown neighborhood and a fundraiser for Newtown’s farmers’ market. “It was a great experience!” said second-year Gabriela Ott. “I think It’s really important for New College to work more closely with the Newtown community.” For Ott, volunteering has personal benefits, but that’s not the reason she puts her time into the community. “It diversifies my understanding of the world around me, and I love having the chance to give back,” she said. “But I feel the main focus is what we can do for the group, more than what we gain from the service.” Second-year Becca Hadwen, who also pitched in at Big Mama’s, said volunteering teaches an important lesson. “I think the most important thing is humility, because a lot of my volunteering has involved working with people who have a different set of oppressions and privileges than me. And where some people want to go into situations like that and assume that they’re better off and they know what will make everything better, the reality is that a lot of times the best thing to do is close your mouth and take directions.”
New College pitched in at Orange Blossom Community Garden as part of the New College Cares project. From left, students Gabriela Bell-Nunez, Patrick Massey, and Cristiana Feazell; VISTA Coordinator Sarah Lapton, and professors Lauren Hansen and Lisa Merritt.
IN THE COMMUNITY
The New College Cares month concluded with “Make a Difference Day,” where students pitched in with Streets of Paradise, a Sarasota grassroots organization that helps people on the streets move into homes and provides them with meals. First-years learned about Streets of Paradise and homelessness during the “Common Challenge,” an Orientation program that focuses on an issue in the surrounding community. The Challenge for this academic year was homelessness, and first-years attended a panel discussion on the daily plight of nearly 1,000 people in Sarasota and Manatee counties. “It could be anybody,” said Valleire Guillory, the founder of Trinity Without Borders, a local nonprofit developing a program to build low-cost housing. She recalled helping a New College student several years ago. “He had no support between semesters,” she said. “We tried to get him into a shelter. My family finally took him in for a summer.” “It’s not always a tragic beginning,” added Cathy Bryant, who works with the nonprofit Streets of Paradise in Sarasota. “Nobody sets out to be on the streets by themselves.” Laura Licoski, a local activist, invited students to come see for themselves by volunteering. “I suggest you start somewhere. It doesn’t matter where.”
New College goes to Newtown MORE THAN TWO DOZEN New College students, faculty, and staff, along with a few community members, climbed aboard a trolley on an August Sunday morning to experience community scholar Vickie Oldham’s “Newtown Alive!” tour. The tour brought over 100 years of Sarasota history to life. The evolving relationship of Sarasota to its black community was front and center, looking back all the way to 1884. That’s when the Rev. Lewis Colson, a formerly enslaved man, first arrived in Sarasota. Colson found work as an assistant to engineer Robert E. Paulson, who first surveyed and platted the community that grew into the city of Sarasota. Colson personally drove the first stake. The trolley tour included stops at the Rosemary Cemetery, where Colson and his wife, Irene, are the only blacks in a burial ground that even to this day remains white-only. The tour also stopped at Lido Beach, where participants learned how in the 1950s blacks risked harassment or worse, using “wade-ins” to advocate for the right of blacks to use Sarasota beaches. Other stops included Overtown, Five Points, Jetson Grimes’ Newtown Historical Gallery, and Greater Hurst Chapel AME Church.
From left, Joey Daniels, Steven Keshishian, Rolando Tate, and Daria Paulis with community historian Jetson Grimes.
One of the high points of the tour was at Booker High School. Oldham, aided by community scholars Whit Rylee, Walter Gilbert, and Jetson Grimes, described the connection made between New College students and Booker in the 1960s, when Newtown students boycotted classes in protest against school board plans to close the school and bus Newtown students to Riverview and Sarasota high schools. Booker weathered the storm, and the students stayed on track with their studies, thanks in part to New College students, who taught in Freedom Schools held in Newtown community churches during the boycott. Walter also described attending history seminars as a grade school student taught on the New College campus. Walter’s initial skepticism turned to surprise as he found that white New College scholars actually had a thing or two to teach him about black history. New College has helped Newtown recover and portray its rich history. Anthropology professors Uzi Baram and Erin Dean, along with several New College students, developed research and conducted interviews with Newtown residents that would ultimately be captured and shared both through the trolley tour and the Newtown Alive! website. Sponsorship of the tour was supported by the Mellon Foundation’s New College and the Cross College Alliance in the Community grant. Some of the students will be leveraging their trolley tour experience as a point of departure in a fall class taught by English professor Jessica Young, The City in World Literature: Globalized Gentrification.
www.ncf.edu
13
‘Support from All Angles’ New First-Year Seminar program teaches skills, connections BY DAV ID GULL IV E R , K A LLI E DE LI S ‘16 , A N D S H A N E DO N GL A S A N ‘11
14 New College of Florida | nimbus
Professor David Brain and CEO Assistant Director Lisandra Jimenez teach students in the First-Year Seminar “Cities for All: Placemaking, Public Space and Building Resilient Communities.”
SUPPORT FROM ALL ANGLES / FEATURE
As students arrive for class, four aerial photos of New understanding of how New College works. College and its surroundings wait on tables near the corners Every teaching team went through an intensive three-day of ACE 115. Each is overlaid with tracing paper; students workshop facilitated by Dan Friedman, director of first-year already have traced the outlines of campus landmarks—Pei, programs at the University of South Carolina. Ham, College Hall, and more. New College faculty members came away impressed and Teams of three students gather around each map, where motivated, especially Brain, the creator of the “Cities for All” they also find stacks of sticky notes. David Brain, professor of course. After the training, he wrote an open letter about his sociology, explains that each student should use the stickies to experience to all faculty and staff. list places on campus with potential for social activity, one “Honestly, I really did not expect the experience of designing place per note. Then they should stack the notes that name a first-year seminar to have such a powerful impact on me,” the same place, to identify three favorites. he wrote. “As I said, I’ve been doing this a scary There is no such thing as a typical New “I’m surprised at how long time. I’ve taught freshman seminars College class, but this one—“Cities for All: before, as a lecturer at Harvard, in the honors excited I am at this Placemaking, Public Space and Building program at Indiana University ... but I never opportunity to try Resilient Communities”—is innovative for had this kind of encouragement to think some new stuff, more than photos, maps and stickies. through what I was doing or this kind of support. It’s one of 12 courses in the new First-Year “I’m surprised at how excited I am at this and to do so with Seminar program, which is intended to opportunity to try some new stuff, and to do so a broader purpose.” introduce the newest Novos to a range of with a broader purpose. The bottom line here -Professor David Brain is that I can now see clearly what I think is a subjects, and to provide them with skills training to help them succeed at New College. path not only to improving teaching and “Our goal is to help students succeed primarily, but another learning at New College (not to mention retention), but also goal is to retain them to the second year and on to four-year really becoming a powerhouse as a liberal arts college because graduations,” said Suzanne Sherman, associate provost and of the ways that we might take advantage of our somewhat associate professor of chemistry. “Persistence at New College unique institutional structure (and culture) to create programs is a problem that we have. So we need to do things better that that really are second to none.” help our students persist.” “We want to give them care and support from all angles,” Learning to manage challenges said Rebecca Caskey, director of campus programs. As the semester progressed, teachers in other fields saw Brain’s hopes for the seminars coming to fruition. The First-Year Seminar program is the biggest retention Dr. Jayne Gardiner, associate professor of biology and effort this year, Caskey said. director of Pritzker Marine Biology Research Center, created First-year students had the opportunity to register for one a course modeled on an entry-level lab class, but focused on of 10 different courses this fall in subject areas ranging from marine biology. It combines field research and lab work with music to marine biology. In addition to the subject matter, a focus on the scientific method and scientific writing. each course incorporates skills training, such as time “I think the course so far has been a lot of fun for both management, to help launch new students into life at the instructors and students, as well as a great learning New College. experience,” Gardiner said. “The students have enjoyed While the seminars are not mandatory, they proved to be carrying out ‘real science,’ as opposed to using canned popular. “The vast majority of first-year students have signed laboratory experiments where there is an expected up for these courses, and that’s exciting,” Caskey said. outcome”—which is the norm for many typical laboratory Each class has a team of three instructors, consisting of a courses at other institutions, she noted. primary faculty instructor, a staff member who serves as a The course enhances first-year success, she said, because partner instructor, and a seasoned student peer leader. it naturally leads to students connecting to each other by Together, the teams are designed to foster community, working in teams, learning to manage their time by carrying cultivate resilience, encourage agency, and advance
www.ncf.edu
15
FEATURE / SUPPORT FROM ALL ANGLES
out projects over multiple weeks, and learning to work with others and manage expectations. Those projects, she said, usually involve overcoming obstacles and difficulties, such as troubleshooting a piece of equipment or learning how to navigate conflicts and disagreements within their project team. “So the process of carrying out a project helps them learn to manage challenges and persist through failure,” she said. Gardiner’s staff instructor partner is Angie Fairweather, director of Educational Technology Services, and formerly a field researcher for NOAA and Mote Marine Laboratory. “I think the students have really enjoyed the hands-on learning opportunities,” she said. “Rather than experiencing ‘death by PowerPoint’ on plankton identification, our students learned about marine plankton by going out on a boat, taking samples, and then identifying them with microscopes.” Another strength, she said, is that students learn the benefit of working with resources across the campus, like mandatory research appointments with staff at Jane Bancroft Cook Library. “Today, I ran into a student in the library who was on their way to an appointment with a librarian for another class,” she said. “I don’t think this would have happened without our First-Year Seminar curriculum.” One recent day in Dr. Brendan Goff’s First-Year Seminar, “The Sixties: American Culture and Politics in Turbulent Times,” introduced students to a defining aspect of New College—the thesis. Goff, an associate professor of history, invited three recent alumnae to his class to speak with the first-years on planning and executing the thesis, and
making the leap to a career. Students prepared by reading the graduates’ actual theses, and questions ranged from specifics about their findings to how to recruit a thesis committee (start making contacts early, going to office hours) and when to start working (getting a head start in the summer before fourth year is a plus.) Over the 90 minutes, the conversation went from tentative and formal to spontaneous and relaxed, the two groups bonding over the New College experience. “Just getting them to laugh and joke together is part of cohort-building,” Goff said. The structure of the class builds cohorts and skills in other ways. Goff taught a similar seminar-style class for freshmen at University of Michigan. “I knew it worked really well for first-year students,” he said. “It’s designed to do that, and I’ve seen it work. I felt pretty confident about putting together this kind of skill-building, cohort-building set of learning outcomes with this content of the ‘sixties.” One skill is library research. As they tackle team projects on subjects like the counterculture, the Vietnam War, Cold War and decolonization, and the Space Race, his students are learning to use primary sources and online collections—“a treasure hunt for specific online collections and primary documents for drilling down into the details of their chosen topics,” Goff said. And one cohort builder is simple “check-in” and “check-out” activities, from broad topics like getting used to New College and navigating Sarasota, and specifics like touching base on progress on projects and identifying common bad habits in first-year writing. “I want them feeling that they’re all in this together, that these bad writing habits are common and easily fixed rather than an individual failure. It makes a big difference,” Goff said. Learning to deal with failure is another important skill for first-years, said Dr. Athena Rycyk, assistant professor of biology and marine science and lead teacher of First-Year Seminar “The Inquisitive Scientist.”
Students present a sketch of their otter habitat design as part of Dr. Amanda Rycyk’s First-Year Seminar class.
Dr. Jayne Gardiner’s students learn field research and lab skills and scientific writing style in her First-Year Seminar class.
“Before you get to college, you’re encouraged to only look at success as the benchmark. If you weren’t successful in whatever objective you set, that’s a bad thing. But that means that you’re protecting yourself and you’re not really testing your limits. You’re not learning unless you feel that tension where things are confusing and unclear and you actually have to wrestle with something. That’s actually when we’re learning the most.” As a scientist, failure can mean your results didn’t turn out as expected, or some part of an experiment didn’t work, or something was just unclear. “You’re both a better scientist and a better student if you learn to embrace that and learn from it,” Rycyk said. “Don’t run from it. Embrace it, because the moments when you’re actually learning the most is when something unexpected happens.”
Learning the NCF community
As Brain’s class proceeded, sticky notes piling up with favorite places, students were using a method that Brain has led as a consultant for cities like Houston, Memphis and Birmingham, and for federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The process, he says, helps people have productive conversations about contentious issues, and come to consensus. “I’ve never had it fail,” he said. Nor did it this time, though the first-years showed that they’re still learning their new home turf. “That grassy field outside the dorm,” one says. “Z Green,” his teammate replies. “That place over by Ham,” a woman says, and starts describing it. “The Nook,” someone chimes in.
Others name the usual suspect—the bayfront, Palm Court, ACE Plaza—while more unusual choices pop up (B Dorm Laundry Room!) The exercise is the first stage in a project where the students will identify a place on campus that serves as a social hub—or could serve that purpose. They’ll analyze what works and what doesn’t work about each location—a step toward learning how and why cities serve their citizens. Lists complete, Brain leads them through a discussion of what that “most overused word”—community—really means. Over the next hour, the conversation ranges from the ideas of family or small-town communities to communities defined by shared struggles, such as a Cuban-American community or a deaf community, where people have a shared identity but not necessarily personal relationships. As the discussion continues, students throw in observations, like how communities can counter alienation and foster organization, how people are drawn to cities but suburbs erode connections, and how high schools are communities based on geography and colleges are communities determined by personal choice. Students say these kinds of discussions are why the courses work—a simple skills class wouldn’t be the same. “So far what I’ve really been liking about my seminar is the fact that it’s not a class about adjusting to college,” said first-year Cooper Smalley. “Instead it’s just a really interesting class that incorporates weekly checkups, time management logs, and other elements that really help smoothen the clunky transition from high school to college.”
www.ncf.edu
17
ALUMNI FOCUS
Inaugural Scholars Luncheon is an Outstanding Success This March, the New College Foundation hosted “Our Students Transform the World: New College of Florida Scholars Inaugural Luncheon” at Michael’s On East in Sarasota. The event was the brainchild of Christine Jennings, vice chair of the New College Foundation board. With the support of a dynamic planning committee, the event attracted more than 350 guests and was an outstanding success. Proceeds from the event will support single-semester scholarships and enable 23 students to attend New College for one semester, based on in-state tuition. “We wanted an opportunity to tell the New College story, and to create 350 new ambassadors who can go out into the Sarasota-Manatee community and share that story with others,” said Jennings, adding that the majority of New College students receive some sort of financial aid. During the luncheon New College students shared the impact scholarships have had on their academic careers. Faculty members also spoke with guests about the high-level research they and their students conduct at the college. They reinforced President Donal O’Shea’s notion of New College as “a graduate school for undergraduates.”
18 New College of Florida | nimbus
LAUREN HANSEN / PROFILE
Breaking down walls, building connections A new professor turns a Berlin Wall project into an interdisciplinary campus focus BY DAVID GULLIV ER
DR. LAUREN HANSEN’S WORK WAS CRASHING DOWN before her very eyes, and she was happy to see it go. Some 50 students had gathered on ACE Plaza. It was a Friday afternoon, November 8, 2019, almost 30 years to the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the plaza’s center stood a replica of the Wall, built by students under the direction of Assistant Professor of Sculpture Ryan Buyssens. At just eight feet tall and 16 feet wide, the replica was far smaller than the original, and made of simple drywall on a wooden frame. But like the original, it was covered in spray-painted graffiti, and had been a focal point of the campus since it went up in September. To be sure, colleges have built Berlin Wall replicas before. Hansen, visiting assistant professor of German language and literature, recalls seeing them for the 20th and 25th anniversaries (though she admits being just a toddler when the original fell). But she committed to having her own. “I really wanted to do this project because of its relevance to our current political climate, and to divisiveness in general,” she said, “whether it’s through a physical wall that President Trump wants to put up, or the divisiveness we encounter with others, whether it’s political differences or barriers that students face in their studies.” In a January ISP, Hansen and her students brainstormed on what 30th anniversary events could look like. By this fall’s semester-long course, “The Berlin Wall in German Literature and Film,” the campus wall project had taken shape. Graffiti was a way every student could interact with the subject, and was true to history and to New College’s creative tradition. From there, Hansen recruited colleagues to develop themes for weekly painting sessions and discussions. For example, Dr. Manuel Lopez Zafra, assistant professor of religion, came up with the idea of the intersection of religion and politics. The Protestant church in East Germany was the rare space where political dissidents could voice their dissatisfaction with the regime, Hansen said. Lopez’s class joined Hansen’s at the wall to spray-paint and discuss the theme, and it provided them with new insights. “My students realized there is a productive intersection between religion and politics, that religious spaces can serve as gathering points for resistance,” Hansen said. Other themes included how borders and walls disrupt the
right of migration; the violence of dictatorships; police states; democracy in Hong Kong; and unity. Students interacted with the wall in other dramatic ways. There were movies, photography and poster presentations. And with coaching from Diego Villada, assistant professor of theater and performance studies, students recited famous Berlin speeches from John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and East German author Christa Wolf, whose work students read in class. “Given that the other two speeches had been U.S. presidents, I wanted to balance that with an author’s perspective, an intellectual’s perspective,” Hansen said. “East German literature has been cast aside as propaganda literature, but Wolf is a really talented author, and she had a way of speaking to East German citizens where they could read between the lines and hear that critique in her work.” Any representation of the wall, however, had to end with its destruction. So after a talk by History Professor David Harvey— and with reporters from NPR and local television on hand— students took up hammers borrowed from the Art department and got to work. In just eight minutes, it was over. Students smashed the surface, then rushed the wooden frame, toppled it, and stomped on the shattered drywall. Several took hunks of it as souvenirs, just as Germans did 30 years ago. “I thought the wall would put up more of a fight,” Hansen said, laughing. The moment, predictably, was bittersweet. “It has brought a lot of people together and allowed them to express themselves creatively,” she said. “But at the same time, the planning and the logistics are over!” And the New College wall will, in one way, endure, she said: Her students will produce documentation of the wall for submission to the College’s archives.
www.ncf.edu
19
PROFILE / BRUCE GUILD
Do the math Charter Class member Bruce Guild graduates—in May 2019 BY LIZ LEBRON
LIKE 212 OTHER STUDENTS, Bruce Guild walked across the stage during New College’s commencement ceremony in May and received his diploma from President Don O’Shea. Like others in the graduating class of 2019, Guild had proud family members at the bayfront to celebrate his accomplishment. Unlike his classmates, however, Guild’s journey across the stage began more than 50 years ago. Guild is a member of New College’s inaugural class, which arrived on campus in the fall of 1964. The college was founded only four years earlier, and the I.M. Pei dorms were still unfinished. So the 101 students initially lived at the Landmark Hotel on Lido Key during the first three months of the year. They rode a rode a bus dubbed the “Blue Goose” to campus each day from the hotel, which a New College trustee owned, until construction was completed. Guild was a mathematics student, and he has fond memories of the college’s early days. He recalls, for instance, fellow alumnus William Thurston, who went on to win the Fields Medal prize in mathematics, hiding from security guards in College Hall until they left for the night and he could sleep there undisturbed.
20 New College of Florida | nimbus
While Guild admits to joining his classmates in similar campus pranks, there is one thing he did not do: Complete his thesis. He contacted New College last year and asked about the possibility of submitting the final requirement for his degree, and Christopher Kottke, associate professor of mathematics, agreed to serve as his thesis advisor. “The reason I did not “The reason I did not finish my thesis at this finish my thesis at this time is I had to wait for time is I had to wait for my advisor to be born.” my advisor to be born,” joked Guild. Though Guild did not graduate from New College, he did go on to complete a bachelor’s degree in engineering and earn a master’s degree at other institutions. He has worked as a high school math teacher in Sarasota most of his life, and he brought that experience with him when he re-enrolled at New College. Working with Kottke, Guild created and taught a course on the history of mathematics through the lens of the men and women who shaped the discipline—including his long-ago classmate Thurston. “Nobody knows anything about mathematicians,” said Guild. “They know the math, but they don’t really know who the people were.” In addition to the course’s subject matter, Guild also wrote about the pedagogical differences between teaching mathematics to high school students and doing so at the collegiate level. “The tutorial evolved from an ineffective lecture to an energetic small group seminar,” wrote Guild, who adjusted his method of instruction to suit the smaller class sizes at New College. As is tradition at New College, Guild did not wear a traditional cap and gown to the commencement ceremony. He crossed the stage in black pants and t-shirt, and a white dinner jacket. Guild also wore dark sunglasses and his silver hair in a ponytail. He looked every bit the New College student as he crossed the stage and officially became a New College alumnus.
SARAH NASH / PROFILE
From Origami to Graph Theory Second-year Sarah Nash examines the math behind the art form in summer research project BY DAVID GULLIV ER
TAKE A SQUARE PIECE OF PAPER, make two dozen or so folds and creases, tug a bit on the corners, and presto—you have an origami crane. As a child, New College second-year Sarah Nash made origami cranes, but last summer she looked at origami in a far more rigorous way – in a mathematics research experience for undergraduates, or REU, at Bryn Mawr College. Her focus was at that moment before you tug at the paper’s corners, when the crane transforms from flat into a threedimensional object. Studying “flat origami” uses the field of graph theory to examine whether something is flat-foldable. As she put it: “My group looked at inverting creases on the piece—that is, turning “mountain” folds into “valleys” and vice versa. For example, this might look like taking the head on a crane and turning it backwards. “We studied when it was or was not possible to invert certain creases bordering a face of a piece of origami, called a face-flip. Then we made mathematical graphs to represent different patterns and cases of this so-called face-flipping.” Studying the graphs allowed them to draw conclusions about the characteristics of the graphs in relation to the crease patterns.” While the work seems abstract and theoretical, Nash said, it has practical applications, like the design of solar panels on spacecraft, or air bags in cars. Both are folded flat for compact storage and then unfolded when needed. Nash, from Tampa, landed the Bryn Mawr REU thanks to
Professor of Mathematics Eirini Poimenidou, whose former student alerted her to the opportunity. “They were looking for talented first-year students who had not done any research before,” Poimenidou said. Bryn Mawr received more than 100 applicants for the REU. The director narrowed the search to 12 candidates and selected six participants based on a series of video interviews and problem sets. Nash is glad she made the cut. “I absolutely loved the REU,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work, but at the end of the day it was very satisfying to produce brand new research and become an expert on our specific topic. I think that creating examples and results for an unexplored problem is neat, and I would definitely love to do more of it in the future.” Nash and fellow REU students will present their paper, “Origami Flip Graphs of Single Vertex Crease Patterns,” at the Joint Math Meetings in Denver on January 18. And Nash will present the paper herself at the 22nd Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, which opens January 31. As a second-year student, Nash will be one of the youngest presenters, who are usually in their third or fourth years of college. “It’s a little intimidating, as most people who are accepted to REUs are usually in their third or fourth year, so I’m young to do it.” However, she’ll have some moral support. At the conference, Nash expects to meet with New College alumna Kathryn Van Etten. Van Etten, a 2019 graduate, was a teaching assistant in several of Nash’s classes last year and now is studying graduate mathematics at Nebraska. Seeing and meeting more female mathematicians, still a relative rarity at New College and higher education overall, was another benefit of the REU. “It was really inspiring and refreshing to meet more women in math,” Nash said. Nash’s interests go beyond math. At New College, she also enjoys coding and studying Homeric Greek with Professor Carl Shaw, and in her spare time she likes to knit and crochet. With so many interests, she’s not ready to concentrate on graph theory, but she does love the field of mathematics. “There are a lot of different fields of math and courses left for me to take, so I’m not actually sure what I like yet,” she said. “I think that regardless of the field I come into, I might really like to go to grad school. I will definitely stick with math.”
www.ncf.edu
21
PROFILE / ANDREW AND JUDITH ECONOMOS
The Best of Both Worlds Andrew and Judith Economos empower the full spectrum of arts and sciences in a lifetime dedicated to philanthropy BY S U BYRON
AN INVISIBLE WALL DIVIDES the “hard” sciences from the “soft” disciplines of the arts and humanities. They often seem like separate communities, each with its own language. But Andrew and Judith Economos are at home in both domains. They’re leaders in the realm of technology, science, and computer science. Both hold doctorates, and wrote code at the heady days of the digital dawn. In the realm of creativity, they also paint, sculpt, carve and write. On top of all that, they share an entrepreneurial gift. Andrew founded RCS, a game-changing broadcasting software company, which he sold in 2009. Judith played a key role in its growth. But she’s also a poet and artist, who briefly taught philosophy at Princeton University. What brings them here? Andrew grew up in Sarasota, and it captured his heart. When the couple retired, his childhood hometown seemed like the place to do it. But they’re far from retiring—and their commitment to this region is clear. Judith and Andrew founded the Red Tide Institute at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium to find ways to “to eliminate or mitigate” the destructive algal blooms. They’re also proud New College supporters, and recently established the Archimedes Scholars Program. Named in honor of the legendary Greek mathematician and scientist, the scholarship supports students pursuing careers in S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. It provides annual scholarships of $10,000 to a New College student, and two $5,000 scholarships to graduates of local high schools, to empower their initial studies in these disciplines. What animates this passion? We recently spoke with Judith. Here’s some of what she shared.
You’ve consistently devoted yourselves to giving back to the community. Can you point to any philosophical role model that inspires your philanthropy? Although neither of us is at all religious, we both absorbed the basic principles of charity and compassion from the teachings of Jesus. It’s really too bad that so many professed Christians do not regard or practice these simple kindnesses. S.T.E.M. has been a key priority in your philanthropic giving. Why is that so essential? Because the survival of civilization depends heavily on a willingness to seek and accept evidence and to reason carefully.
22 New College of Florida | nimbus
In science and mathematics, you withhold belief until you can rationally justify it to other thinkers; you do not believe something just because you want to believe it—even if you desperately need to believe it! Some educators advocate adding an “A” for “arts” to the “S.T.E.M.” acronym and making it “S.T.E.A.M.” Your thoughts? If people want to include art in their S.T.E.M. curriculum, may they do so and be successful. We’re inclined to think that the strictures of S.T.E.M. thinking might stifle artistic creation, but who knows? Let a hundred flowers bloom! You launched the Red Tide Institute at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. How has the fight against red tide been going? Last year’s disastrous invasion sparked more efforts to study the phenomenon. We’re happy to see this response; ideally, it won’t dwindle away. Now that there’s sufficient public interest to continue, we hope these investigations will continue. Some good ideas have already emerged, and the clock is ticking. Messing with the environment always has unanticipated consequences. As a couple, you’ve poured so much time, money, effort and love into New College. How did the college capture your imagination? Back when the Earth was still cooling, Andrew heard of New College and wanted to enroll there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite ready for prime time, so he went to the University of Florida instead. Since we moved to Sarasota, we’ve discovered what a fine and interesting school it is, with a brilliant and charming president, excellent students and an unusually liberal social culture. Even the students’ commencement costumes are, well, creative!
FOUNDATION FOCUS
Transformative new scholarship to develop leadership skills
Where will the leaders of tomorrow come from? Many will come from New College, of course. That’s been part of our purpose from the beginning. Through a new initiative supported by New College Foundation board member George A. Skestos and his wife, Tina Skestos, New College students will hone their skills to be the leaders of tomorrow. The Skestos Scholars honors New College’s mission to cultivate global citizens, critical thinkers, and engaged scholars ready to make a difference after graduation. Each semester, the students selected for this four-year leadership program will attend a cohort institute designed to expand their leadership potential. They will have training to build leadership skills, complete volunteer service hours, develop and facilitate projects on the campus and in the community, attend civil discourse seminars, and take an active role in student organizations. The Skestoses’ vision combines idealism with a keen sense of real-world challenges. “Our goal is to provide New College students with real-life challenges and opportunities that will help develop critical skills to lead tomorrow’s generation,” George said. “This dynamic program will provide students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to work effectively in an increasingly diverse and global world, and to effect positive change in our state, nation, and world.”
New College remembers Akgun Temizer, believer in education and New College
Akgun Temizer, a generous benefactor of New College and the creator of a $2.5 million scholarship fund, died Oct. 31. MaryAnne Young, New College Foundation’s vice president of advancement and executive director, said the entire New College community feels the loss. “Mr. Temizer saw the impact of his scholarship first-hand and was thrilled to have played a part in it. We are indebted to Mr. Temizer for his fierce dedication to transforming the lives of students at New College.” Temizer established a $1.3 million scholarship program in 2016 for students at his former high school in Ankara, Turkey, to attend New College. The scholarship covers out-of-state tuition costs, living expenses, and transportation to and from Turkey for breaks and holidays. In 2017, Temizer enhanced the scholarship fund with an additional $1.2 million gift. Mr. Temizer’s commitment to learning had deep roots. He was born in Konya, Turkey, and grew up in the capital city of Ankara. His parents were of modest means. But, thanks to Turkish government support, his primary school, middle school, high school, and college education were all free of charge. “I’m a product of public education,” he said proudly. “It was the best free education you could get.” That education provided Temizer with a successful career on the international stage. High points included his years as a staffer at Turkey’s American embassy and his work as an analyst for the International Monetary Fund. He was deeply grateful for the power of learning, and that gratitude was the foundation for his scholarship. Education had transformed Temizer’s life, and he wanted to offer that same transformation to a new generation of Turkish scholars at New College.
“Education is my priority,” said Temizer, who had been a U.S. citizen since 1969 and settled in Sarasota in 1987. “I was fortunate to have received a great education from elementary school through university in Turkey. My desire is for the Turkish students to come here and experience this great nation. Once they graduate, they can go back to Turkey and apply what they learned from the United States.” Before establishing the scholarship, Temizer had already named New College in his will. “I realized I wanted them to see that money now,” he said. “Spending money on education is an investment for the future.” He saw that investment start to pay off in the final years of his life. Ozan Gökdemir ’15 was the scholarship’s first recipient. In the spring of 2019, Ozan graduated from New College with a degree in computer science. Now, Atalay Kutlay ’18 and Nisanur Genç ’19 are also studying computer science as Temizer Scholars. New College expects many more Turkish scholars in a host of fields to follow in the years ahead.
www.ncf.edu
23
CHAPTER NEWS / CLASS NOTES
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
June 30, 2019 -- New College alum Robin O’ Brena and his wife, Barbara, hosted an alumni gathering in Alaska that was attended by Julie Morris ‘70 and some of our academic affairs staff who were traveling in that area!
1960s Glenda Cimino ‘64 is still living in Dublin, Ireland, ‘retired’ but keeping busy as ever. In recent years, she has written, directed, and produced five local site-specific performances with audience interaction, based on local history in her community of Donnybrook, Dublin for the annual Heritage Week. She continues to publish poetry, haiku and haibun in various journals. She trained as a gestalt practitioner with Paul Rebillot, and recently co-facilitated a two-year training course in Ireland for designing and running experiential therapeutic workshops. A short documentary film she directed, ‘Bog Meditation,’ brought her and a group of friends from Ireland to Raleigh Studios in Hollywood to receive a cultural award in the HIIDA competition. She has given papers at a few academic and professional
24 New College of Florida | nimbus
WASHINGTON, D.C.
August 1, 2019 -- NCAA Board Member and Reunion 2020 Co-Chair, Hazel Bradford, hosted an alumni gathering at the National Press Club for the DC area New College family!
conferences on Shaw; ‘Hireath’ and Longing for Home; and The Value of the Hero’s and Heroine’s Journey in Myth and Modernity to the Writer. She has read her poetry at some public events. In her spare time, she has a loose drama collective, Beaver Row Heritage Players, and a new comedy improv team, Quantum Leap Card. She has an Irish/ American daughter, Gaia, a grandson and another grandchild due in September. She is presently editing a short film on a famous graveyard in Donnybrook, Dublin. Kathleen Coty aka Kathy Dively ‘64 Well I weathered the last two years of loss—my husband and my two dogs — and with the support of my friends is thriving in Sarasota, my heart home. It has been nine years since she relocated and I continue to love being close to the college and immersed in the arts. As you can see I changed my name to a previous name—it also feels like my true name.
Currently I am still working and studying the Bach Flower remedies. Going to England in September to get certified. Hope to see many of you at the 2020 reunion. Charlotte Willis Mann ‘64 presently lives in slightly upstate New York, where she has just picked more than 10 quarts of blueberries that grew this year on feral bush-trees that dot her landscape. The rest of the year she struggles to keep
CLASS NOTES
the meadows from returning to forest, travels to slightly exotic locations, hikes and kayaks locally, takes lots of photos (see cwmimages.com,) and occasionally teaches meditation and Tibetan Buddhist practices, for which she is trained to do as Buddhist clergy. In her spare time she reads books on theories of consciousness to try to find a western explanation for eastern meditation experiences. Bob Baughman ’65 Charter Class member reports that the New College look-alike project that he has been working on at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) (www.oist.jp) in Japan recently reached a milestone. Like New College, OIST was started to establish an outstanding international university starting from scratch. In this case for Ph.D.’s only. The project is supported by the Japanese government through the Cabinet Office. English is the language of the university, and more than 50% of the students, faculty, and researchers must be from outside of Japan. Currently there are about 70 faculty members (on the way to 100 by 2023), 200 students, and a total population of 1000, including postdocs, technicians, admin, etc. More than 60 countries are represented. After serving as a faculty member in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Fundamental Neuroscience at NIH, Bob has been involved at OIST from the start in 2005 as Vice CEO, Provost, and Executive Vice President. The second mission for OIST is to become the center for an R&D Cluster in Okinawa, and having gotten the research and academics under way, Bob is now focusing on this. The “New College look-alike” refers to the fact that OIST is in a semi-tropical location on the coast, with a small student body and low student to faculty ratio, selective faculty and student selection, and aspirations to be the “best in the world”, according to the OIST literature provided by the government sponsors. The milestone is that after only 7 years as an accredited
university, OIST has achieved recognition approaching this level. In the recent Nature Index normalized ranking, which considers the number of high-quality articles published as a proportion of an institute’s overall output in the natural sciences, OIST is ranked number 1 in Japan and number 10 in the world. Bob welcomes anyone who is in Japan or nearby to stop by to visit! Okinawa certainly will feel familiar to anyone nostalgic for Siesta Key! Luke Salisbury ‘65 has a new novel, No Common War, published by Black Heron Press in June. Michael Smith, George Fifield, and Tim Synder attended the launch party at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA. Foreword Reviews said it “ranks as one of the best war novels in decades.” Gary Moriello ’66 With the help of a dozen or so members of the very early classes at New College (as well as numerous other individuals), he and his wife have completed 28 years of Operation Santa Claus, bringing the gift of literacy (in the form of $30 worth of new books) to over 1,200 inner city children every year. Also, he is now serving a one-year term as president of the Rotary Club of Northbrook. Finally, he is the proud grandfather of Alyssa Marie Moriello (age 9) and Thomas Anthony Moriello (age 7)! David Adams ‘67 although now officially “retired” from teaching art history, seems to be busier than ever. He still edits and often writes for the spiritually oriented visual arts journal (“Art Section Newsletter,” both pdf and printed issues) and occasionally creates a work of performance art or art installation. He is much involved in political issues regarding the rollout of “5G’ electromagnetic radiation and mandatory vaccination laws. But his most involved project currently is starting with some east coast artist friends of a tax-exempt anthroposophical multi-purpose visual arts center across
the country in downtown Hudson, NY (to be called Lightforms). They are currently renovating the approx. 9,000 sq ft. historical building they have purchased and are planning exhibitions, lectures, concerts, performances, etc. once they formally open in several months. Don Gervich ‘67 has lived in the Boston area for the past 45 years. First he had his own little business, then entered 12 years as a technical writer in medical software. This transitioned— after a period working with homeless folks—into 14 years teaching writing at Curry College. This school offered him
wonderful freedom to design what they read and how they learned. So he infused courses with innovations from New College: curiosity & debate & emotion. When he described New College to his students, some scarcely believe he thrived without grades and with so much independence. He and his lovely wife Cory have now been together 26 (!) years. She is a devoted nurse practitioner (and Buddhist). For ages she served mostly Latino people, now she enjoys being in the orbit of college health, at Emmanuel College (in the Fenway). They have been fortunate to experience adventure travel: separate trips to Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia. They also explored ancient/modern Mayans in Guatemala and Honduras. Europe beckoned too—with a honeymoon in Barcelona, plus finding
www.ncf.edu
25
CLASS NOTES
history and art in Belgium and Holland, Paris and Prague. He began teaching at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in 1978 (expects it will be his longest job). The class is Living Stories; here folks write a beguiling blend of fiction and-or memoir. His own writing? Two memoirs, two novels, a hodgepodge of stories...and a not quite finished novel based at a unique school in Sarasota, Florida during the dramatic era when I also began, 1967. Edward J Henley entered 1969, grad 1972 served as a Priest of the Episcopal Church in Tampa. Retired, but currently serving as the Interim Priest at St. Mary’s in Dade City, FL. I am on the faculty of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC and lead online seminars for those involved in faith community leadership. Robert McGarey ‘69 is now coPresident of the national Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is currently helping redesign their website, ahpweb.org. Dennis Saver ‘69 39 years and what do ya know? In September, he retires from private family medicine practice after 29 years in Vero Beach and 10 years in Newburg, West Virginia before that. It
has been a marvelous opportunity and a great joy. However, he is now ready to cut the chains of documenting on computer screens and open a new chapter. He’ll keep his toe in the water as a volunteer at the We Care free clinic and as President of the We Care Foundation (wecareofirc.org). He will also spend some time visiting first grandchild in Berkeley, CA. born July 1, other travel, re-learning how to read non-medical books, and poring over old issues of The Catalyst.
1970s Stu Levitan ’72 was awarded first place, Best Writing for Audio, from the Milwaukee Press Club for his weekly feature Madison in the Sixties on Madison’s listener-sponsored community radio WORT-FM, where he is also vice president of the board of directors. The podcast is adapted from his new book, of the same name, published in 2018 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Stu also hosts
David Allen ‘68 met up with Charlie Lenger ‘78 at the ‘Getting Things Done’ Summit in Amsterdam. The GTD Summit, which was held in June 2019, brought together the people that inspired his New York Times bestseller Getting Things Done for two days of inspiring presentations.
26 New College of Florida | nimbus
Access: City Hall on the Madison CitiChannel and is music editor for a high-end auto website, Rides and Drives. In August, he stepped down after twelve years as chair of the Madison Landmarks Commission, ending 37 years in appointive and elective local government offices. A 1986 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Stu retired in 2015 after 28 years as a mediator/arbitrator for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. He is a former member of the NCAA board of directors. Lynne Buchanan ‘75 is a photographer now based in Asheville, North Carolina. Her photographs document the spiritual aspects of the natural world and the human impact on the environment and have been exhibited in solo and collective shows throughout the U.S. and abroad. A graduate of the New College of Florida, Buchanan holds an M.B.A. from New York University, an M.A. in creative writing from the University of South Florida, and an M.A. in Art History/ Museum Studies from George Washington University. She has been affiliated with the Waterkeeper Alliance since 2013. This Spring, Judith Mendelsohn Rood ‘76 was named Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern History at Biola University, where she served as History Department chair and taught historiography, the history of world civilizations, and Jewish, Muslim, and Church history. She also taught the research and honors seminars for the department there. She and her husband Paul now live in Port Huemene, CA. Jody Emerson ’79 now, again, after having taken Juan Quintana’s name in marriage for 30 years. We divorced in 2014. I am teaching yoga, practicing massage, and I sometimes cook for
CLASS NOTES
people as a personal chef. I look forward to hearing more about the friends I had while at New College. It was a beautiful place to be. Carla Schroer ‘81 and Mark Mudge ‘74 celebrated 30 years of marriage in June. They met at New College in winter ‘83. In 2002 they founded a nonprofit corporation Cultural Heritage Imaging (culturalheritageimaging.org) to document and preserve world heritage. They enjoy working with New College folks whenever possible (board members, advisors, donors, and collaborators). Give us a holler if you have interest in this work.
to Wesleyan in the Fall of 2018. Liz served as a Visiting Mom with Jewish Family & Children’s Service, a 150+ yearold social services organization outside Boston. She will be a Fellow at JF&CS for 2019-2021. Larry had fun teaching a law school class on Hospital Law last semester. Despite their best efforts, they are 50; but they feel fantastic! Amanda (Henry) Sellet ’89 has a YA novel coming out in May of 2020 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It’s called BY THE BOOK: A NOVEL OF PROSE AND CONS and features exactly the kind of jokes about Henry James and Edith Wharton you would expect from a former lit major.
1980s
1990s
Erma (Paula) Sanders ’84 has moved back to Sarasota, 31 years after graduating and saying she’d never be back. Her husband works on St. Armands Circle and she works in Bradenton as a medical coder at Manatee Memorial Hospital so it made sense to move closer. Now she has no excuses not to participate in all the activities at New College and is looking forward to the next reunion.
Jen Robbins ’92 and her family just relocated from San Francisco to Singapore for Jen’s role at Apple. They plan on doing as much travel as possible throughout the region and eating many amazing meals. She’d love to know if other NCF alums are in the Lion City.
Melanie Hubbard’s ‘84 scholarly book, Emily Dickinson: Poetics in Context, is forthcoming in November 2019 from Cambridge University Press. Now she can go play. Douglas Locklin ‘84 has abandoned the illegal colonial settlement of Moko o Keawe in Hawaii and has, finally following the sage advice of Eugene Lewis, vis., “If you like Sweden so much, go live there!”, moved to Helsinki (close enough). Say hello! Liz Rudow Vernaglia ‘87 and Larry Vernaglia ‘87 had their first empty nest year when their son, John, went off
Bobby DeVito ‘93 is currently in Key West again, and has recently become the program specialist for a CDC program called High Impact Prevention— focusing on HIV testing and prevention. He works for Westcare Corporation and
is working with the substance use, homeless, and incarcerated populations. He works with fellow program participants in the Florida Department of Health and other community based nonprofits and is enjoying this new chapter in his patchwork of an adult professional life. He still continues to play some live music in Key West, and last year officially became a cardcarrying Tibetan Buddhist under Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche of the Gelug order—this is the long-term fruit of a lifetime of Buddhist study and practice as well as his New College educational experience with Dr. John Newman and fellow students Bob Phelps and Curtis Hayes. Jess Falcone ’94 an associate professor of anthropology at Kansas State University, recently published her first book with Cornell University Press. Her book, Battling the Buddha of Love: A Cultural Biography of the Greatest Statue Never Built, examines the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, a transnational Buddhist organization, working to build the “world’s tallest statue” in India. This effort entailed a plan to forcibly acquire roughly 700 acres of occupied farmland for the statue park in the Kushinagar area of Uttar Pradesh. The book details two divergent viewpoints on the giant statue project: 1) the hopes and motivations of the would-be Global Buddhist statue-builders; 2) the anxieties of local Indian farmers fighting to keep their farmland and the grassroots resistance movement they built to that end.
Submit a class note:
ncf.edu/submissions www.ncf.edu
27
CLASS NOTES
Doug Christy ‘96 and wife, Erin, had their first child, Everette Dawn, last September. She’s happy, healthy, awesome and a welcome addition to our family in Sarasota
Anna Maria Diaz-Balart ‘97 (now Anna Maria Wolf) is living in Brooklyn with her husband Shawn. They own and operate two full-service bicycle shops, King Kog Brooklyn and Sun And Air in Williamsburg. After two decades of working in the fashion industry in New York, it’s really rewarding to work in an industry that contributes to a more livable, sustainable future. They are active in local transportation advocacy, support a women’s developmental racing team, and are proud to employ an awesome staff of fifteen between the two shops. They welcomed their first child, Rafael Jose, this July.”
2000s Rudo Kemper ‘05 is stewarding the development of a free and open-source geostorytelling application called Terrastories.io. The application is built to enable indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest, and other remote regions in the world, to locate and map their own oral storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning or value to them.
28 New College of Florida | nimbus
Kelley Wiley Lane (Ballentine) ‘05 I live in Seward, Alaska, located on the Kenai Peninsula with my husband of ten years, Reed. In October of 2018, I was elected to the Seward City Council. Since being elected, I’ve had the opportunity to represent our municipality to our diplomatic cities of Obihiro, Japan and Yeosu, South Korea. Alaska is a DIY paradise and we’ve undertaken to build a multigenerational house for ourselves, my mom and anticipated visitors on our tiny lot here in the original Seward townsite, platted in 1904. I was fortunate to join in on the Alaska New College reunion in June, hosted by alum Robin O. Brena and his spouse Barbara, and attended by professors Heidi Harley and Julie Morris and fellow Alaska alum Jaclyn Bergamino and family. We shared a lovely sunny afternoon on their patio, delighting in the shared experiences & thoughtful dialogue. Benjamin Haber ‘06 Just a quick note to say I will be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University next year. Katharine A Stevenson ‘08 finished her PhD in English from UT Austin in 2017, had a son in 2017 and another in 2018, and is now moving to Dallas as an employee of Micro Focus International (software company). Zoe Curlee-Strauss ‘10 and Carl Backen ‘10 got married on 10/20/18 in Olympia, WA. They both graduated in 2014.
Kate Weber ’10 will be moving to Washington, D.C. in August to work at the George Washington University Cancer Center as their new Applications Administrator, Clinical Research Programs. She’ll be using her librarian skills to help the Cancer Center make the most of its information management systems—it’s her dream job, and she’s very excited! She’s looking forward to meeting up with fellow New College alums in D.C.! Sean Patton ’11 started his own environmental consulting business based around habitat restoration and water quality called Stocking Savvy. The business has been fun and successful. By doing projects from aquatic butterfly gardens to helping an otter rehab center, they’ve beautified and improved the environment in Sarasota. Though he has spoken at dozens of events and helped thousands of people it would not have been possible if not for the connections he made at New College and a small presentation at the Environmental Summit. That summit led to his first big break and actually starting his company. Since then he is proud to say Stocking Savvy is an affiliate member of the Science and Environment Council which started said summit. Over time he hopes to continue and grow his business’s connection with New College and start doing volunteer work with the students there doing projects on everything from fisheries and aquaculture, to algae science and habitat restoration. As a proud alumni of New College feel free to reach out to Sean at Stocking Savvy as they’re always looking for volunteers in a variety of fields and can help make some great ISP opportunities or thesis projects happen.
FEARLESS LEARNING. FORWARD THINKING. Last spring, a New College of Florida student and a recent graduate joined their sociology professor, Dr. David Brain, on a trip to Iceland to join with other scholars from around the world who are creating a comprehensive database on research relating to public spaces within urban environments. Maria Vanallen, an Environmental Studies/Urban Studies major who wants to be an architect, sees a direct correlation between her research for this project at New College and her future career. “In architecture, it’s important to think about the space around a building, not just the building itself. It’s something that I’ll likely be asked to work on in any public project.” Billy Cooney, a 2018 graduate who majored in Social Sciences/Urban Studies, is using the lessons he learned from the project in his current job as a planning technician for the City of Sarasota. Whether they’re conducting research on our campus in Sarasota or meeting with urban planners at a symposium in Reykjavik, New College students transform their intellectual curiosity into experiential learning opportunities that often launch their future careers. Interested in investing in extraordinary futures? The New College Fund provides the flexible resources to continue bringing extraordinary students and faculty to our dynamic, innovative learning community. Learn more at donate.ncf.edu/the-new-college-fund. New College Foundation (941) 487-4800 | ncf.edu
NEW COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEW COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC. THE KEATING CENTER 5800 BAY SHORE ROAD SARASOTA, FL 34243-2109
Connect with New College facebook.com/NewCollegeofFlorida facebook.com/NewCollegeFoundation facebook.com/NewCollegeAlumAssociation youtube.com/NewCollegeofFL twitter.com/NewCollegeofFL, @NewCollegeofFL
ON CAMPUS
The fall of the wall New College commemorated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a recreation of the wall and programming including themed graffiti sessions, speech re-enactments, art displays and more. See story on page 19.