AROUND THE CLOCKTOWER

1. Ripon

Ripon College is ranked number one in the nation on the Power 150 Index, an identification of Best Colleges for Students of Color by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools. More than two-thirds of public colleges and universities have increased graduation rates over the last decade, but the graduation gap grew by 19 percent between white students and underrepresented minorities, the Alliance says. To aid in college selection, the Alliance identified 150 colleges with the highest minority graduation rates of 75 percent or higher among the 4,200 U.S. colleges and universities.

Photo: James-Mark Ooko-Ombaka ’16 of Mount Vernon, New York, celebrates graduation with his family from Nairobi, Kenya.

3. Justin Niebank ’78 scores another

Justin Neibank ’78 of Franklin, Tennessee, won a 2016 CMA Award from the Country Music Association as mix engineer for Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man,” the Single of the Year. The ceremony was held Nov. 2, 2016. His many previous honors include five Country Music Awards, three Grammy Awards and involvement with more than 20 Grammy Award-winning records as a producer, engineer or mixer.

He is shown second from right in the photo.

4. Men’s

2. Mary Unger,

Mary I. Unger, assistant professor of English and managing editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to conduct research this summer. The Summer Stipends award will support Unger’s project, “Cultures of Reading in the Black Chicago Renaissance,” examining a forgotten book culture on Chicago’s South Side from 1930-1950.

The men’s basketball team ended a 15-year tournament championship drought by defeating Lake Forest College 81-72 to win the 2017 Midwest Conference Tournament championship Feb. 25. The win gave the Red Hawks a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament for the first time since 2002 and for the 13th time in program history. Despite a loss to ninth-ranked Washington University in the first round, Ripon recorded its first 20-win season since 1999. Seniors Ty Sabin and Brendan McCoy were all-conference selections, and Sabin earned all-American honors from D3hoops.com and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

The women’s basketball team qualified for the MWC Tournament, one of only four teams in the conference to do so.

Sarah Mahler Kraaz, professor of music and college organist, has received a contract from Routledge (Taylor and Francis group) to edit a volume, Music and War in the United States Seventeen scholars from the United States and Canada each will write a chapter on music in the military and domestic music during conflicts in which the United States has been involved. The book is intended as a textbook for courses in music and war, military history, and general readership. Editing manuscripts and writing an introduction to the book will be the focus of a sabbatical leave Mahler Kraaz will hold in the spring of 2018.

She has developed and taught a Music and War course twice at Ripon College.

6.

Rachel Stanley ’17 won the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s 2017 Nick Adams Short Story Prize for her original work, “ Four Times Jasper Diallo Didn’t Die (and One Time He Lived).”

New York Times best-selling author Karen Abbott was the judge for the contest.

Stanley is the first Ripon College student to win the Nick Adams Contest, which has been held annually since 1973. She will begin a doctoral program in clinical psychology at Marquette University, where she plans to continue research she has been pursuing as an undergraduate on issues of autism identity and stigma.

Ripon College has been ranked No. 2 of the 25 best colleges in Wisconsin by College Choice. The organization based its rankings on academic quality and return on investment.

College Choice cited Ripon College for its top rankings from other organizations; its more than 40 undergraduate programs and other pre-professional programs and self-designed majors; undergraduate research; online coursework; and the new Catalyst curriculum.

Four Ripon College students took part in the National Band Association-Wisconsin Chapter Intercollegiate Honor Band on Jan. 19-20, 2017, in Appleton, Wisconsin. They are: Cris Magana ’19 of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, baritone saxophone; Lillian Lenk ’18 of Amery, Wisconsin, clarinet; Mitchell Eithun ’17 of New London, Wisconsin, clarinet; and Eric Westberg ’20 of North Mankato, Minnesota, trombone.

David Garcia ’14 and Raymond Allen ’15 have been awarded 2017 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships.

Garcia is from West Chicago, Illinois. At Ripon, he majored in history and chemistry and minored in economics. He now is studying at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Allen is from Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. At Ripon, he majored in chemistry-biology and minored in Latin. He now is studying at Duke University.

Winning honorable mentions were: Emily Cliff ’17 of Mukwonago, Wisconsin, a chemistry major and biology minor; and Robert Enright ’17 of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, a chemistry major with minors in Spanish and physics.

10. Scene from Ripon College’s fall play accepted for special presentation

A scene from “Waiting for Godot,” the fall theatre production at Ripon College, was selected for presentation at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region 3, in Indianapolis. Although copyright issues prevented the scene from being given, “the presentation of scene is the highest honor an associate production can receive,” says Robert Amsden, professor of theatre and the director of the production.

11. Rachel Steiner ’17 wins state Student Activist Award for peace, justice issues

Rachel Steiner ’17 of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, received a 2017 Student Activist Award from the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. The award is made annually to “Wisconsin college or university students who have made an outstanding contribution to activism related to peace and justice issues.”

Steiner was selected for her organizational leadership in the organizations Ripon College Disability Rights, Education and Activism Movement (DREAM), Ripon College Feminists, Ripon College Diversity Coalition, and Queer Straight Alliance of Ripon College.

12. Fire pit added to Ripon College amenities

Thanks to a $1,000 grant from President Zach Messitte’s “Twenty for ’17” campus improvement initiative, the College now has a permanent fire pit located outside Harwood Memorial Union. Students “christened” the new campus amenity by roasting marshmallows and making s’mores March 23.