Third & Broadway | Winter/Spring 2021

THIRD & BROADWAY WINTER/SPRING 2021

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

◀ COVER STORY

UNCONVENTIONAL BACKGROUND

Page 16

WIRED FOR SUCCESS

Page 12

FIRST AID TO FIRST FEMALE FIRE CHIEF

Page 20

THIRD & BROADWAY 2 | President's Message 24 | Campus News 28 | Alumni Notes

Readers may send name or address changes or corrections to: Office of Alumni and Development Transylvania University 300 North Broadway Lexington, KY 40508 800-487-2679 alumni@transy.edu

Editor Robin Hicks

Graphic Designer Stephen Russell

Illustrations for Unconventional Background Sam Cooper

Contributors

4

8

SNAPSHOTS OF A COMMUNITY

STUDENT LIFE EMPHASIZES HEALTH

Sam Cooper John Friedlein Robin Hicks Megan Moloney Natasa Pajic Mongiardo Heath Stiltner Amanda Turcotte Tyler Young

Production Manager Julie Martinez Transylvania University, located in the heart of downtown Lexington, Kentucky, is a top-ranked private liberal arts college featuring a community-driven, personalized approach to a liberal arts education through 46 majors. Founded in 1780, it is the 16th oldest institution of higher learning in the country, with approximately 1,000 students.

Find more resources online at transy.edu.

Contact Us

12 WIRED FOR SUCCESS

16

Third & Broadway news@transy.edu 859-233-8120

UNCONVENTIONAL BACKGROUND

20 FIRST AID TO FIRST FEMALE FIRE CHIEF the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

1

THIRD & BROADWAY 2 | President's Message 24 | Campus News 28 | Alumni Notes

Readers may send name or address changes or corrections to: Office of Alumni and Development Transylvania University 300 North Broadway Lexington, KY 40508 800-487-2679 alumni@transy.edu

Editor Robin Hicks

Graphic Designer Stephen Russell

Illustrations for Unconventional Background Sam Cooper

Contributors

4

8

SNAPSHOTS OF A COMMUNITY

STUDENT LIFE EMPHASIZES HEALTH

Sam Cooper John Friedlein Robin Hicks Megan Moloney Natasa Pajic Mongiardo Heath Stiltner Amanda Turcotte Tyler Young

Production Manager Julie Martinez Transylvania University, located in the heart of downtown Lexington, Kentucky, is a top-ranked private liberal arts college featuring a community-driven, personalized approach to a liberal arts education through 46 majors. Founded in 1780, it is the 16th oldest institution of higher learning in the country, with approximately 1,000 students.

Find more resources online at transy.edu.

Contact Us

12 WIRED FOR SUCCESS

16

Third & Broadway news@transy.edu 859-233-8120

UNCONVENTIONAL BACKGROUND

20 FIRST AID TO FIRST FEMALE FIRE CHIEF the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

1

FROM THE

PRESIDENT There is often excitement and curiosity associated with the start of a new calendar — that sense of new beginnings, turning a page, resolutions and so on. Perhaps there has not been such a strong desire for these things in my lifetime as there has been for these first few months of 2021. Let’s be blunt: 2020 was a very difficult year for just about everybody, and we are relieved to put it behind us.

At the same time, we should acknowledge — and, yes, celebrate — what 2020 brought to Transylvania University.

First and foremost were the remarkable perseverance, creativity and generosity of the entire community. Students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends pulled together in unique ways to keep learning experiences going during these unprecedented times. People learned new methods quickly, adapted and did their best to master new skills and tools.

Most of all, they consistently and repeatedly demonstrated their concern for their fellow members of the Transy family, going out of their way to assist each other and provide support.

Whether it was dealing with the stresses of online learning or responding to issues of social justice, Team Transy showed resilience and caring. I will always be proud and grateful for what this community of learners accomplished together to meet the challenges of 2020.

In the midst of all these changes to pedagogies, processes and protocols, we welcomed a significant number of new members to the leadership team, including the dean of the university, vice president for strategic initiatives and enrollment management, vice president for advancement, and the newly established role of vice president for diversity and inclusion. Each of them has been welcomed warmly, and they have enthusiastically taken on the challenges and opportunities we have before us.

2

THIRD & BROADWAY

We also launched a number of new initiatives, including Pioneer Plus, and developed a new Strategic Focus plan built around the theme of “Pursuing Bold Paths.” These aspirational goals seem all the more achievable because of what the Transy community has shown it can do during our range of responses to the pandemic. We have clearly demonstrated that we can be thoughtful and nimble — critical ingredients to a rapidly evolving landscape for higher education.

After all, we are keenly aware that we have to prepare our students for what Daniel Pink has termed “The Conceptual Age,” developing their critical thinking, communication and creative skills that can’t be outsourced, automated or replaced by artificial intelligence. Our commitment to excellence in liberal arts education is unwavering, as we know that it prepares students to continually adapt in a complex world.

The promise and potential of 2021 is truly exceptional for all of us and particularly for Transy. I hope you will join us energetically in boldly pursuing our future and realizing our aspirations for providing a distinctive education that is personalized, accessible, transformational and hopeful.

Sincerely,

Brien Lewis President

ONE CLASS AWAY FROM GRADUATION FOR NINE YEARS, TRANSYLVANIA STUDENT FINDS PANDEMIC ‘SILVER LINING’ IN VIRTUAL OPTION

BY JOHN FRIEDLEIN

For Callie Horn Blair, remote learning there receive a $10 credit if they walk has been a ray of light shining through a mile along a trail from a parking lot the dark clouds of 2020. to the market and back throughout Her story starts back at the close of the season. It’s part of a University of the 2011 academic year when she was Kentucky health outreach program, and one class shy of earning a B.A. in history Blair monitors changes in their weight from Transylvania University. and cholesterol over the summer.

Oh well, she thought Thing is, she gets a — I’ll come back next sizable salary bump “It’s been great to work with if she has a bachelor’s year. But “next year” turned into 10 years. her again; she really shows degree. So this past S h e w a s e n g a g e d the qualities of lifelong winter she decided to to be ma rried, and bite the bullet and make she wanted to move learning that we’re hoping to the five-hour round back to the Eastern cultivate in all our students.” trip to attend classes in Ke nt u c k y t ow n o f Lexington.

W h itesbu rg, where Then the pandemic her roots are. “I was - Gregg Bocketti hit. just kind of ready to Not only did her move on with the rest daughter have to stay of my life,” she said. home for virtual learning (with no That mindset changed, though, day care available), but Blair is the after she landed a job as a community primary companion of her 90-yearprogram manager for the Tanglewood to old grandfather who lives next door, Table Walking Program at the Letcher someone extremely vulnerable to County Farmers Market. Customers COVID. She was like: “Scratch that.”

Then history professor Gregg Bocketti reached out to tell her about the Healthy at Transy plan for hybrid learning at the beginning of the school year. It allowed her to take the missing Senior Seminar class, for which she wrote a 25-page paper on pack horse librarians — women in Eastern Kentucky who during the Great Depression were paid through the New Deal to deliver books to remote locations.

“It’s really been the perfect set-up for me,” Blair said. “It’s the one good thing I can think of that’s come out of all this mess.”

Professor Bocketti was happy to have her back at Transylvania. “Amid the clouds and difficulties of the pandemic, the fact that the changed circumstances have allowed her to complete her degree has been a real silver lining,” he said.

“It’s been great to work with her again; she really shows the qualities of lifelong learning that we’re hoping to cultivate in all our students.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

3

FROM THE

PRESIDENT There is often excitement and curiosity associated with the start of a new calendar — that sense of new beginnings, turning a page, resolutions and so on. Perhaps there has not been such a strong desire for these things in my lifetime as there has been for these first few months of 2021. Let’s be blunt: 2020 was a very difficult year for just about everybody, and we are relieved to put it behind us.

At the same time, we should acknowledge — and, yes, celebrate — what 2020 brought to Transylvania University.

First and foremost were the remarkable perseverance, creativity and generosity of the entire community. Students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends pulled together in unique ways to keep learning experiences going during these unprecedented times. People learned new methods quickly, adapted and did their best to master new skills and tools.

Most of all, they consistently and repeatedly demonstrated their concern for their fellow members of the Transy family, going out of their way to assist each other and provide support.

Whether it was dealing with the stresses of online learning or responding to issues of social justice, Team Transy showed resilience and caring. I will always be proud and grateful for what this community of learners accomplished together to meet the challenges of 2020.

In the midst of all these changes to pedagogies, processes and protocols, we welcomed a significant number of new members to the leadership team, including the dean of the university, vice president for strategic initiatives and enrollment management, vice president for advancement, and the newly established role of vice president for diversity and inclusion. Each of them has been welcomed warmly, and they have enthusiastically taken on the challenges and opportunities we have before us.

2

THIRD & BROADWAY

We also launched a number of new initiatives, including Pioneer Plus, and developed a new Strategic Focus plan built around the theme of “Pursuing Bold Paths.” These aspirational goals seem all the more achievable because of what the Transy community has shown it can do during our range of responses to the pandemic. We have clearly demonstrated that we can be thoughtful and nimble — critical ingredients to a rapidly evolving landscape for higher education.

After all, we are keenly aware that we have to prepare our students for what Daniel Pink has termed “The Conceptual Age,” developing their critical thinking, communication and creative skills that can’t be outsourced, automated or replaced by artificial intelligence. Our commitment to excellence in liberal arts education is unwavering, as we know that it prepares students to continually adapt in a complex world.

The promise and potential of 2021 is truly exceptional for all of us and particularly for Transy. I hope you will join us energetically in boldly pursuing our future and realizing our aspirations for providing a distinctive education that is personalized, accessible, transformational and hopeful.

Sincerely,

Brien Lewis President

ONE CLASS AWAY FROM GRADUATION FOR NINE YEARS, TRANSYLVANIA STUDENT FINDS PANDEMIC ‘SILVER LINING’ IN VIRTUAL OPTION

BY JOHN FRIEDLEIN

For Callie Horn Blair, remote learning there receive a $10 credit if they walk has been a ray of light shining through a mile along a trail from a parking lot the dark clouds of 2020. to the market and back throughout Her story starts back at the close of the season. It’s part of a University of the 2011 academic year when she was Kentucky health outreach program, and one class shy of earning a B.A. in history Blair monitors changes in their weight from Transylvania University. and cholesterol over the summer.

Oh well, she thought Thing is, she gets a — I’ll come back next sizable salary bump “It’s been great to work with if she has a bachelor’s year. But “next year” turned into 10 years. her again; she really shows degree. So this past S h e w a s e n g a g e d the qualities of lifelong winter she decided to to be ma rried, and bite the bullet and make she wanted to move learning that we’re hoping to the five-hour round back to the Eastern cultivate in all our students.” trip to attend classes in Ke nt u c k y t ow n o f Lexington.

W h itesbu rg, where Then the pandemic her roots are. “I was - Gregg Bocketti hit. just kind of ready to Not only did her move on with the rest daughter have to stay of my life,” she said. home for virtual learning (with no That mindset changed, though, day care available), but Blair is the after she landed a job as a community primary companion of her 90-yearprogram manager for the Tanglewood to old grandfather who lives next door, Table Walking Program at the Letcher someone extremely vulnerable to County Farmers Market. Customers COVID. She was like: “Scratch that.”

Then history professor Gregg Bocketti reached out to tell her about the Healthy at Transy plan for hybrid learning at the beginning of the school year. It allowed her to take the missing Senior Seminar class, for which she wrote a 25-page paper on pack horse librarians — women in Eastern Kentucky who during the Great Depression were paid through the New Deal to deliver books to remote locations.

“It’s really been the perfect set-up for me,” Blair said. “It’s the one good thing I can think of that’s come out of all this mess.”

Professor Bocketti was happy to have her back at Transylvania. “Amid the clouds and difficulties of the pandemic, the fact that the changed circumstances have allowed her to complete her degree has been a real silver lining,” he said.

“It’s been great to work with her again; she really shows the qualities of lifelong learning that we’re hoping to cultivate in all our students.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

3

UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES:

Snapshots Community of a

PULLING TOGETHER TO LEARN

BY ROBIN HICKS

Transy is hard enough under normal circumstances. Ask any Pioneer.

Understanding the challenges facing Transy’s academic community during COVID-19 — the emergency shift to online instruction last spring, the introduction of hybrid classes in the fall and the modular system that compresses the mighty demands of a 14-week semester into a compact seven — begins by recognizing the sheer tenacity, creativity and resolve of faculty, students and staff.

Pursuing an academic life during COVID requires both sides of Broadway being perfectly aligned in keeping the community safe in order to be productive. In these extreme circumstances, political and pandemic, as 2021 unfurls and the vaccine slowly makes its way from invention into our arms, the supportive, tight-knit community that is Transy finds even greater value in its ability to pull together, learn from each other, leap into action, persevere and evolve, as it has for nearly 250 years. In this issue of the magazine, we offer glimpses into campus 4

THIRD & BROADWAY

life unfolding during the pandemic. We invite you to read much more in the 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780.

PREPARED TO PIVOT In March 2020, when the world shut down and Transy’s campus closed, faculty, staff and administrators came together almost overnight to devise ways for the learning to continue.

Transy library staff created how-to videos for faculty to navigate online platforms. They helped match pedagogic goals with digital resources. And the Digital Liberal Arts initiative amped up its regular meetings and workshops, helping faculty to train in and troubleshoot technology issues.

“I really tried to keep the equity at the forefront of my mind,” says chemistry professor Jessie Brown, as she quickly adapted her classes for online learning with the understanding that not everyone would have the same access to technology and broadband service.

“Instead of going for new digital learning tools and multiple innovative platforms, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.”

As with the rest of her colleagues who were determining how best to be flexible in a world that was altering week to week, she divided her lectures into 15-minute intervals so that students, who might have difficulty logging in during the scheduled class, could access the content at any time. And, with a nod to classroom familiarity, she bought a whiteboard to write on in front of the camera mounted on her computer.

An entire community working together has been making this continuity of learning possible. And in the midst of the extraordinary challenges have come unexpected moments of creative and pedagogical breakthroughs.

Kerri Hauman, associate professor of writing, rhetoric, and communication, whose tenure as director of the FirstYear Seminar and First-Year Research Seminar programs began in earnest during COVID, acknowledges some actual gains made during such difficult times. “As much as the experience of teaching remotely was very stressful and overwhelming in the moment,” she says, the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

5

UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES:

Snapshots Community of a

PULLING TOGETHER TO LEARN

BY ROBIN HICKS

Transy is hard enough under normal circumstances. Ask any Pioneer.

Understanding the challenges facing Transy’s academic community during COVID-19 — the emergency shift to online instruction last spring, the introduction of hybrid classes in the fall and the modular system that compresses the mighty demands of a 14-week semester into a compact seven — begins by recognizing the sheer tenacity, creativity and resolve of faculty, students and staff.

Pursuing an academic life during COVID requires both sides of Broadway being perfectly aligned in keeping the community safe in order to be productive. In these extreme circumstances, political and pandemic, as 2021 unfurls and the vaccine slowly makes its way from invention into our arms, the supportive, tight-knit community that is Transy finds even greater value in its ability to pull together, learn from each other, leap into action, persevere and evolve, as it has for nearly 250 years. In this issue of the magazine, we offer glimpses into campus 4

THIRD & BROADWAY

life unfolding during the pandemic. We invite you to read much more in the 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780.

PREPARED TO PIVOT In March 2020, when the world shut down and Transy’s campus closed, faculty, staff and administrators came together almost overnight to devise ways for the learning to continue.

Transy library staff created how-to videos for faculty to navigate online platforms. They helped match pedagogic goals with digital resources. And the Digital Liberal Arts initiative amped up its regular meetings and workshops, helping faculty to train in and troubleshoot technology issues.

“I really tried to keep the equity at the forefront of my mind,” says chemistry professor Jessie Brown, as she quickly adapted her classes for online learning with the understanding that not everyone would have the same access to technology and broadband service.

“Instead of going for new digital learning tools and multiple innovative platforms, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.”

As with the rest of her colleagues who were determining how best to be flexible in a world that was altering week to week, she divided her lectures into 15-minute intervals so that students, who might have difficulty logging in during the scheduled class, could access the content at any time. And, with a nod to classroom familiarity, she bought a whiteboard to write on in front of the camera mounted on her computer.

An entire community working together has been making this continuity of learning possible. And in the midst of the extraordinary challenges have come unexpected moments of creative and pedagogical breakthroughs.

Kerri Hauman, associate professor of writing, rhetoric, and communication, whose tenure as director of the FirstYear Seminar and First-Year Research Seminar programs began in earnest during COVID, acknowledges some actual gains made during such difficult times. “As much as the experience of teaching remotely was very stressful and overwhelming in the moment,” she says, the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

5

“and to some degree it continues to be so, I think that one of the benefits of this is that faculty have been able to really think about, ‘What are my pedagogical goals here? How do I think creatively about how to help students meet those goals? What various platforms could I use? What various technologies can I use to allow students to engage with the work and each other, even if we’re not there in real time, in person?’”

EXPERIENCING SCIENCE IN THE MOMENT

Belinda Sly As May term approached and all international travel was canceled, classes meant to take students out of the familiar had to be reimagined, including Belinda Sly’s ecology class, originally slated to take place in Belize.

Sly paused to consider what might be most relevant and beneficial for her students, with more than half of them destined for the field of health care. Sly says she felt an ethical duty to get them thinking deeply about the pandemic, so she made the class about the coronavirus. She then developed it further for a summer class.

By pairing student curiosity with an immediate, unfolding biology-based challenge, Sly placed her students in the heart of the scientific process and at the center of the intellectual action of the class. Students learned about COVID in real time and about how science works, its dynamism and related complexities.

They identified important resources for 6

THIRD & BROADWAY

information and gained insight from guest speakers (virtually) whose work illuminates a variety of issues related to the pandemic. In addition to seeing the direct application of biological foundations, Sly notes, “on a daily basis, students could see the politics and the sociological issues come into play.”

Dealing with a subject in constant flux, Sly asked her students to play a central role in researching the literature, learning as the science came out and being flexible as it changed from week to week. “Doing this was the epitome of being a scientist,” she says.

Sly loved the process. “I think one of the things it’s taught me is that by using an example that students are interested in and that they can go in and explore themselves — that’s a very effective way of teaching very basic concepts in genetics.” By fall term, she was applying some of these methods and resources to her Introduction to Molecular Biology.

“In many ways,” she says, “this was my best teaching experience at Transy, even though it was online.”

and with extraordinary caution and exhaustive protocols for virus testing and quarantining, some on-campus, in-person learning was offered.

This was a boon for subjects like chemistry, with its reliance on lab work to properly prepare students for graduation. “As scary as it looked in the spring,” says chemistry professor Eva Csuhai, recalling the empty labs and unused PPE being donated to help meet Lexington’s urgent medical needs, “I think it’s working pretty well.” In fact, she reflects, “I’m really proud of the way we’re doing it because it’s state of the art.” To all the people who have been asking her how it’s even possible, Csuhai is delighted to proclaim, “There is live, in-person chemistry at Transy!”

LONG-TERM IMPACT

WHEN NOTHING CAN REPLACE FACE TO FACE

Brando n

Eva Csuhai With each round of online teaching, faculty and administrators shared lessons they’d learned, applying best practices to their next classes. But the ultimate goal continued to be a return to the classroom whenever practicable.

By fall, armed with a better knowledge of the coronavirus and its transmission,

like being outside”), Bailey, with his impressive logistics skills, kept the people circulating safely. “He came up with most of the practical tricks we needed so that everyone can have their own things in their own space and practice physical distancing while working with chemicals and equipment.

He lined up the timeline of how we flow people from one lab to the other.”

Additionally, by investing in some virtual lab experiences, the department gained time for more theoretical work, as well as opportunities to explore experiments that could never happen in a classroom. “You can do some things virtually that would be too dangerous for a normal undergraduate lab,” says Csuhai, after which students process the experimental findings.

Bailey

With the help of Transy physics alumnus and lab coordinator Brandon Bailey ’19, people have been organized into pods and their use of the labs well choreographed, including when and how to enter and exit the lab. Chemistry professor Robert Rosenberg took charge of modeling and building at-home experiments for students in general chemistry and junior chemistry majors, and instructor Thomas Russell handled online experiments for sophomores taking Organic Chemistry.

For biochemistry students participating in person, Bailey was the “hero of the story,” says Csuhai. Just as the renovated Brown Science Center and the lab fume hoods helped with enhanced air circulation (“it’s almost

The challenges of the COVID period have helped to push into action ideas that professor Hauman and her colleagues had been formulating for one of Transy’s signature critical thinking and writing programs. Although the traditional goals remain the same for the First-Year Seminar programs — e.g. helping students new to Transy join the academic conversation and prepare for a writing-intensive college career — the methods and platforms for developing close reading, analytical thinking and synthesis of ideas are expanding to meet the changing needs of students and their future lives as citizens.

“Preparing students for different

types of texts — texts very broadly defined, not just alphabetical or textual or a traditional research paper,” is part of that, says Hauman. “They’re the types of skills that we need to be helping students learn,” she adds, including the question, “What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?

Technology is certainly a pretty big part of that.” In the long run, some of the challenges faced during COVID, she adds, “troubleshooting different software, platforms and technologies, will be very useful.”

But Hauman also underscores the deeper meaning and broader relevance of this Transylvania education. Noting the many examples outside of academia in which people are unable to engage in constructive conversations on any platform, she reiterates the essential goal of graduating citizens capable of critical thinking who have the ability and willingness to listen and discuss.

“We’re very mindful that we want them to build skills that are going to be really useful to them immediately outside the walls of Transy, long-term skills that they’re going to use and build on throughout their whole life,” she says.

“We want them to read widely, to see people who disagree with each other, not to see it as a yes-or-no binary, good-andbad kind of thing, but to understand that ideas are nuanced and complicated and complex, and a lot of times can be in tension with one another.

“I think those goals — of close reading, summary, analysis, synthesizing other people’s ideas, really looking widely at what has been said about a particular question or topic, then thinking about how you enter into that — are so important for all of us and for students as we prepare them to do the things they’re going to do at Transy and, more importantly, beyond Transy.”

Growing to meet these challenges during COVID is part of the continuum of learning and evolving that is Transylvania University.

'22 Shania Jones CITIZEN SCIENTISTS Professor Sly wanted her students to develop their public writing skills “and become citizens that are sharing useful information about COVID-19.”

Through journal and blog writing, they were encouraged to articulate their scientific thinking, drawing together all that they were learning about the science of the coronavirus, but also on the broader cultural and socio-political dimensions.

Pre-health student Shania Jones ’22, whose blog profile notes her interest in traveling, languages, global health and underrepresented populations, found Sly’s class and its creative elements to be a perfect match for what she needed. A double major in molecular and cellular biology and Spanish, with a love of science and writing, Jones says she appreciated being in a class that “guided me through what was going on both scientifically and culturally with the pandemic.” Her blog, Cracking Open Corona, explores some of the broader teachings of Innovations in Biology.

Read this and others via the 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780.

Kerr i Hauman the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

7

“and to some degree it continues to be so, I think that one of the benefits of this is that faculty have been able to really think about, ‘What are my pedagogical goals here? How do I think creatively about how to help students meet those goals? What various platforms could I use? What various technologies can I use to allow students to engage with the work and each other, even if we’re not there in real time, in person?’”

EXPERIENCING SCIENCE IN THE MOMENT

Belinda Sly As May term approached and all international travel was canceled, classes meant to take students out of the familiar had to be reimagined, including Belinda Sly’s ecology class, originally slated to take place in Belize.

Sly paused to consider what might be most relevant and beneficial for her students, with more than half of them destined for the field of health care. Sly says she felt an ethical duty to get them thinking deeply about the pandemic, so she made the class about the coronavirus. She then developed it further for a summer class.

By pairing student curiosity with an immediate, unfolding biology-based challenge, Sly placed her students in the heart of the scientific process and at the center of the intellectual action of the class. Students learned about COVID in real time and about how science works, its dynamism and related complexities.

They identified important resources for 6

THIRD & BROADWAY

information and gained insight from guest speakers (virtually) whose work illuminates a variety of issues related to the pandemic. In addition to seeing the direct application of biological foundations, Sly notes, “on a daily basis, students could see the politics and the sociological issues come into play.”

Dealing with a subject in constant flux, Sly asked her students to play a central role in researching the literature, learning as the science came out and being flexible as it changed from week to week. “Doing this was the epitome of being a scientist,” she says.

Sly loved the process. “I think one of the things it’s taught me is that by using an example that students are interested in and that they can go in and explore themselves — that’s a very effective way of teaching very basic concepts in genetics.” By fall term, she was applying some of these methods and resources to her Introduction to Molecular Biology.

“In many ways,” she says, “this was my best teaching experience at Transy, even though it was online.”

and with extraordinary caution and exhaustive protocols for virus testing and quarantining, some on-campus, in-person learning was offered.

This was a boon for subjects like chemistry, with its reliance on lab work to properly prepare students for graduation. “As scary as it looked in the spring,” says chemistry professor Eva Csuhai, recalling the empty labs and unused PPE being donated to help meet Lexington’s urgent medical needs, “I think it’s working pretty well.” In fact, she reflects, “I’m really proud of the way we’re doing it because it’s state of the art.” To all the people who have been asking her how it’s even possible, Csuhai is delighted to proclaim, “There is live, in-person chemistry at Transy!”

LONG-TERM IMPACT

WHEN NOTHING CAN REPLACE FACE TO FACE

Brando n

Eva Csuhai With each round of online teaching, faculty and administrators shared lessons they’d learned, applying best practices to their next classes. But the ultimate goal continued to be a return to the classroom whenever practicable.

By fall, armed with a better knowledge of the coronavirus and its transmission,

like being outside”), Bailey, with his impressive logistics skills, kept the people circulating safely. “He came up with most of the practical tricks we needed so that everyone can have their own things in their own space and practice physical distancing while working with chemicals and equipment.

He lined up the timeline of how we flow people from one lab to the other.”

Additionally, by investing in some virtual lab experiences, the department gained time for more theoretical work, as well as opportunities to explore experiments that could never happen in a classroom. “You can do some things virtually that would be too dangerous for a normal undergraduate lab,” says Csuhai, after which students process the experimental findings.

Bailey

With the help of Transy physics alumnus and lab coordinator Brandon Bailey ’19, people have been organized into pods and their use of the labs well choreographed, including when and how to enter and exit the lab. Chemistry professor Robert Rosenberg took charge of modeling and building at-home experiments for students in general chemistry and junior chemistry majors, and instructor Thomas Russell handled online experiments for sophomores taking Organic Chemistry.

For biochemistry students participating in person, Bailey was the “hero of the story,” says Csuhai. Just as the renovated Brown Science Center and the lab fume hoods helped with enhanced air circulation (“it’s almost

The challenges of the COVID period have helped to push into action ideas that professor Hauman and her colleagues had been formulating for one of Transy’s signature critical thinking and writing programs. Although the traditional goals remain the same for the First-Year Seminar programs — e.g. helping students new to Transy join the academic conversation and prepare for a writing-intensive college career — the methods and platforms for developing close reading, analytical thinking and synthesis of ideas are expanding to meet the changing needs of students and their future lives as citizens.

“Preparing students for different

types of texts — texts very broadly defined, not just alphabetical or textual or a traditional research paper,” is part of that, says Hauman. “They’re the types of skills that we need to be helping students learn,” she adds, including the question, “What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?

Technology is certainly a pretty big part of that.” In the long run, some of the challenges faced during COVID, she adds, “troubleshooting different software, platforms and technologies, will be very useful.”

But Hauman also underscores the deeper meaning and broader relevance of this Transylvania education. Noting the many examples outside of academia in which people are unable to engage in constructive conversations on any platform, she reiterates the essential goal of graduating citizens capable of critical thinking who have the ability and willingness to listen and discuss.

“We’re very mindful that we want them to build skills that are going to be really useful to them immediately outside the walls of Transy, long-term skills that they’re going to use and build on throughout their whole life,” she says.

“We want them to read widely, to see people who disagree with each other, not to see it as a yes-or-no binary, good-andbad kind of thing, but to understand that ideas are nuanced and complicated and complex, and a lot of times can be in tension with one another.

“I think those goals — of close reading, summary, analysis, synthesizing other people’s ideas, really looking widely at what has been said about a particular question or topic, then thinking about how you enter into that — are so important for all of us and for students as we prepare them to do the things they’re going to do at Transy and, more importantly, beyond Transy.”

Growing to meet these challenges during COVID is part of the continuum of learning and evolving that is Transylvania University.

'22 Shania Jones CITIZEN SCIENTISTS Professor Sly wanted her students to develop their public writing skills “and become citizens that are sharing useful information about COVID-19.”

Through journal and blog writing, they were encouraged to articulate their scientific thinking, drawing together all that they were learning about the science of the coronavirus, but also on the broader cultural and socio-political dimensions.

Pre-health student Shania Jones ’22, whose blog profile notes her interest in traveling, languages, global health and underrepresented populations, found Sly’s class and its creative elements to be a perfect match for what she needed. A double major in molecular and cellular biology and Spanish, with a love of science and writing, Jones says she appreciated being in a class that “guided me through what was going on both scientifically and culturally with the pandemic.” Her blog, Cracking Open Corona, explores some of the broader teachings of Innovations in Biology.

Read this and others via the 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780.

Kerr i Hauman the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

7

STUDENT LIFE EMPHASIZES

health involvement WHILE ENCOURAGING

DURING COVID-19

BY TYLER YOUNG

8

THIRD & BROADWAY

It was the speed that was so stunning.

By January, it was clear that the virus was coming to the United States. By February, it was clear that it was going to be a real problem. By March, the whole world had changed.

“The first conversations in our office were very hopeful, thinking that we wouldn’t have to do much virtually,” says Michelle Thompson, director of campus and community engagement.

“As it started progressing, we realized, no, we are going to be virtual in all of our programming efforts.”

That was the reality of the COVID19 pandemic, which buckled nearly every facet of life during its lightningfast spread in the U.S. By the time it took hold in Kentucky in early March, Transylvania University students were on spring break, and there were more questions than answers. Administrators made the difficult decision to close the campus and finish the winter term with students learning remotely and faculty and staff working from home.

The Office of Student Life oversees nearly every nonacademic area of the student experience, including residence life, health and wellness and campus and community engagement. Its staff members found themselves in the unenviable position of determining how to keep students connected and engaged while caring for their needs, which ranged from mental health to travel difficulties to poverty.

“We had a thousand students and a thousand unique situations,” says Jeremy Sheffield, then the director of residence life. “Very rarely can you make a policy and then be totally rigid with it. So our mantra was to treat every student as an individual.”

When you talk to folks about how Transylvania is managing the coronavirus crisis, that mantra comes up again and again. Transy prides itself on offering a personalized education in the classroom, but it’s shown over the past year that personal attention doesn’t stop there. Approximately 60 students who didn’t have the financial means to finish the year anywhere but on campus were allowed to remain.

Another 15 or so stayed for the summer.

The rest underwent a phased move out after spring break that allowed safe departure for those who were able to go home. Students finished out the school year, and the university held a virtual commencement ceremony for graduating seniors.

Then came the summer and the prospect that none of this was going away anytime soon. A new group of first-year students would be entering in

engagement opportunities without really ever being able to gather in person.

“Let’s give them a piece of what Transy is like,” Thompson says.

First came housing. Transy allowed students to live on campus for the fall term if they chose to do so — and more than 500 did. The university implemented advanced cleaning protocols, mandatory masking and revamped dining services. It

the fall. Most of them had just endured the end of their high school careers with no graduation, no final in-person college visits and no hope for a “normal” first college experience.

So staff spent last summer figuring out how to get those students on campus safely and involved in student organizations and community

established isolation and quarantine halls in Poole and Rosenthal, as well as meal delivery for students who had possible and confirmed exposures and couldn’t go home.

But merely living on campus doesn’t encourage connection. So they worked with student resident advisers to teach them to reach out to their residents the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

9

STUDENT LIFE EMPHASIZES

health involvement WHILE ENCOURAGING

DURING COVID-19

BY TYLER YOUNG

8

THIRD & BROADWAY

It was the speed that was so stunning.

By January, it was clear that the virus was coming to the United States. By February, it was clear that it was going to be a real problem. By March, the whole world had changed.

“The first conversations in our office were very hopeful, thinking that we wouldn’t have to do much virtually,” says Michelle Thompson, director of campus and community engagement.

“As it started progressing, we realized, no, we are going to be virtual in all of our programming efforts.”

That was the reality of the COVID19 pandemic, which buckled nearly every facet of life during its lightningfast spread in the U.S. By the time it took hold in Kentucky in early March, Transylvania University students were on spring break, and there were more questions than answers. Administrators made the difficult decision to close the campus and finish the winter term with students learning remotely and faculty and staff working from home.

The Office of Student Life oversees nearly every nonacademic area of the student experience, including residence life, health and wellness and campus and community engagement. Its staff members found themselves in the unenviable position of determining how to keep students connected and engaged while caring for their needs, which ranged from mental health to travel difficulties to poverty.

“We had a thousand students and a thousand unique situations,” says Jeremy Sheffield, then the director of residence life. “Very rarely can you make a policy and then be totally rigid with it. So our mantra was to treat every student as an individual.”

When you talk to folks about how Transylvania is managing the coronavirus crisis, that mantra comes up again and again. Transy prides itself on offering a personalized education in the classroom, but it’s shown over the past year that personal attention doesn’t stop there. Approximately 60 students who didn’t have the financial means to finish the year anywhere but on campus were allowed to remain.

Another 15 or so stayed for the summer.

The rest underwent a phased move out after spring break that allowed safe departure for those who were able to go home. Students finished out the school year, and the university held a virtual commencement ceremony for graduating seniors.

Then came the summer and the prospect that none of this was going away anytime soon. A new group of first-year students would be entering in

engagement opportunities without really ever being able to gather in person.

“Let’s give them a piece of what Transy is like,” Thompson says.

First came housing. Transy allowed students to live on campus for the fall term if they chose to do so — and more than 500 did. The university implemented advanced cleaning protocols, mandatory masking and revamped dining services. It

the fall. Most of them had just endured the end of their high school careers with no graduation, no final in-person college visits and no hope for a “normal” first college experience.

So staff spent last summer figuring out how to get those students on campus safely and involved in student organizations and community

established isolation and quarantine halls in Poole and Rosenthal, as well as meal delivery for students who had possible and confirmed exposures and couldn’t go home.

But merely living on campus doesn’t encourage connection. So they worked with student resident advisers to teach them to reach out to their residents the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

9

individually, connecting with them to talk about how their classes are going, how they’re making friends and what they need. Campus and Community Engagement staff members worked with the Student Activities Board to coordinate virtual activities like trivia and bingo; student organizations hosted a virtual involvement fair to encourage continued enrollment; and Greek organizations held no-fee virtual recruitment activities to find new members.

“It took a lot longer to develop these programs, but we still wanted them to develop those interpersonal communication skills and relationships,” Thompson says. “We did look at the length of them — before, we could do a three-hour bingo session in person, and it was nothing. Now we’re doing everything in under an hour because the module system is tough, and that’s about the length of their attention span over Zoom.”

The student organizations have done the best they can to operate somewhat normally, meeting online and coordinating events for their members.

While not ideal, it has some advantages that leaders didn’t see coming. The Student Government Association, for example, has conducted all of its meetings via videoconference, which 10

THIRD & BROADWAY

has allowed for more students to attend meetings, see how SGA operates and ask their own questions. SGA senators have adapted, focusing more on hosting student forums on topics like the temporary module system and financial aid, understanding that these are areas students have specific questions about right now.

“People have been surprisingly engaged,” says sophomore MacKenzie Sloan, an SGA senator and chair of the Constitution Committee. “More people have been interested in attending the SGA meetings — random students are curious to see what we’re doing. In person, they may not have even known that it was an option.”

This new way of operating has caused Student Life to consider even more deeply how accessibility affects the student experience. While staff members have always prioritized accessibility, never has it been more important than while students are doing a bulk of their activities online.

“Accessibility looks a lot different this year,” says Tevin Monroe, assistant director of campus and community engagement. “It’s very much in our faces.

We’re always making sure things are available to online students, that closed

captioning is available, all while knowing that everyone’s not going to have a good internet connection. It’s opened my eyes to visible and invisible ways students can get counted out of things.”

Monroe helps coordinate many of the community engagement activities, many of which have been nearly impossible this year. But virtual options popped up, including online tutoring with the Carnegie Center and a virtual mentoring partnership with Kentucky Refugee Ministries, where students can help young refugees with homework and language development. And Monroe recruited student volunteers to run a voter engagement campaign to get Transy students registered to vote and help them come up with plans to cast their ballots.

“It’s important for the community’s sake that students continue meeting, to have a community of people to meet with and support each other, and our intention is to support them,” he says.

As important as it is to afford students some semblance of normalcy in an abnormal year, the number-one priority throughout the pandemic has been keeping the community safe and healthy. Transy’s Department of Student Wellbeing acquired on-campus testing

“It’s important for the community’s sake that students continue meeting, to have a community of people to meet with and support each other, and our intention is to support them.”

- Tevin Monroe equipment and hired a dedicated contact tracer. They found a HIPAA-compliant telehealth service that allowed them to offer their services remotely.

And they emphasized mental health messaging on campus and through social media, promoting virtual events like Coffee with a Counselor and YouTube yoga sessions. Transy’s coordinator of counseling services, Kathy Susman, says the number of students using Transy’s counseling services rose steadily each month as awareness grew. While students worked with counselors to combat

normal college issues with anxiety and depression, Susman says they also helped students with increased experiences of isolation, loneliness and relationship concerns.

“Therapists support students with these issues in a number of ways,” she says, “drawing upon different counseling interventions, providing support, linking students to on-campus academic supports and discussing ways of gaining increased social interaction while observing the health guidelines, such as wearing masks and social distancing.”

What’s been remarkable is that, through the myriad difficulties Transy students are facing during the pandemic, they have been unusually open to complying with campus health regulations — walking around campus you’ll see them in small groups, nearly always with masks on, and sitting in the dining hall physically distanced, with a chair or two separating them. They’ve shown the kind of resilience that went from last year’s campus theme to this year’s everyday reality, making serious efforts to keep themselves and their community safe.

“I’ve been really proud of how adaptable our students have been and how compassionate they’ve been,

especially toward each other, staff, faculty and the community as we’re all trying to navigate this insane situation,” says Ashley Hill, assistant dean of students and director of student wellbeing. “This doesn’t look like what they thought their first or last year of college would look like, but our students are so brave and strong, saying that, despite all of this, it’s going to be OK and I’m going to be OK.” “We all love Transy,” Sloan explains.

“We enjoy the curriculum, the professors, the atmosphere. Anything we can do to help keep us on campus, we’re going to do. If that’s abiding by the six-feet rule, wearing masks, sanitizing our desks — anything we can do to stay on campus, the large majority of the student body are trying to do.

“Transy is really special. We have such a tight-knit community. When we had to leave during quarantine we really missed it. We want to stay.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

11

individually, connecting with them to talk about how their classes are going, how they’re making friends and what they need. Campus and Community Engagement staff members worked with the Student Activities Board to coordinate virtual activities like trivia and bingo; student organizations hosted a virtual involvement fair to encourage continued enrollment; and Greek organizations held no-fee virtual recruitment activities to find new members.

“It took a lot longer to develop these programs, but we still wanted them to develop those interpersonal communication skills and relationships,” Thompson says. “We did look at the length of them — before, we could do a three-hour bingo session in person, and it was nothing. Now we’re doing everything in under an hour because the module system is tough, and that’s about the length of their attention span over Zoom.”

The student organizations have done the best they can to operate somewhat normally, meeting online and coordinating events for their members.

While not ideal, it has some advantages that leaders didn’t see coming. The Student Government Association, for example, has conducted all of its meetings via videoconference, which 10

THIRD & BROADWAY

has allowed for more students to attend meetings, see how SGA operates and ask their own questions. SGA senators have adapted, focusing more on hosting student forums on topics like the temporary module system and financial aid, understanding that these are areas students have specific questions about right now.

“People have been surprisingly engaged,” says sophomore MacKenzie Sloan, an SGA senator and chair of the Constitution Committee. “More people have been interested in attending the SGA meetings — random students are curious to see what we’re doing. In person, they may not have even known that it was an option.”

This new way of operating has caused Student Life to consider even more deeply how accessibility affects the student experience. While staff members have always prioritized accessibility, never has it been more important than while students are doing a bulk of their activities online.

“Accessibility looks a lot different this year,” says Tevin Monroe, assistant director of campus and community engagement. “It’s very much in our faces.

We’re always making sure things are available to online students, that closed

captioning is available, all while knowing that everyone’s not going to have a good internet connection. It’s opened my eyes to visible and invisible ways students can get counted out of things.”

Monroe helps coordinate many of the community engagement activities, many of which have been nearly impossible this year. But virtual options popped up, including online tutoring with the Carnegie Center and a virtual mentoring partnership with Kentucky Refugee Ministries, where students can help young refugees with homework and language development. And Monroe recruited student volunteers to run a voter engagement campaign to get Transy students registered to vote and help them come up with plans to cast their ballots.

“It’s important for the community’s sake that students continue meeting, to have a community of people to meet with and support each other, and our intention is to support them,” he says.

As important as it is to afford students some semblance of normalcy in an abnormal year, the number-one priority throughout the pandemic has been keeping the community safe and healthy. Transy’s Department of Student Wellbeing acquired on-campus testing

“It’s important for the community’s sake that students continue meeting, to have a community of people to meet with and support each other, and our intention is to support them.”

- Tevin Monroe equipment and hired a dedicated contact tracer. They found a HIPAA-compliant telehealth service that allowed them to offer their services remotely.

And they emphasized mental health messaging on campus and through social media, promoting virtual events like Coffee with a Counselor and YouTube yoga sessions. Transy’s coordinator of counseling services, Kathy Susman, says the number of students using Transy’s counseling services rose steadily each month as awareness grew. While students worked with counselors to combat

normal college issues with anxiety and depression, Susman says they also helped students with increased experiences of isolation, loneliness and relationship concerns.

“Therapists support students with these issues in a number of ways,” she says, “drawing upon different counseling interventions, providing support, linking students to on-campus academic supports and discussing ways of gaining increased social interaction while observing the health guidelines, such as wearing masks and social distancing.”

What’s been remarkable is that, through the myriad difficulties Transy students are facing during the pandemic, they have been unusually open to complying with campus health regulations — walking around campus you’ll see them in small groups, nearly always with masks on, and sitting in the dining hall physically distanced, with a chair or two separating them. They’ve shown the kind of resilience that went from last year’s campus theme to this year’s everyday reality, making serious efforts to keep themselves and their community safe.

“I’ve been really proud of how adaptable our students have been and how compassionate they’ve been,

especially toward each other, staff, faculty and the community as we’re all trying to navigate this insane situation,” says Ashley Hill, assistant dean of students and director of student wellbeing. “This doesn’t look like what they thought their first or last year of college would look like, but our students are so brave and strong, saying that, despite all of this, it’s going to be OK and I’m going to be OK.” “We all love Transy,” Sloan explains.

“We enjoy the curriculum, the professors, the atmosphere. Anything we can do to help keep us on campus, we’re going to do. If that’s abiding by the six-feet rule, wearing masks, sanitizing our desks — anything we can do to stay on campus, the large majority of the student body are trying to do.

“Transy is really special. We have such a tight-knit community. When we had to leave during quarantine we really missed it. We want to stay.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

11

Wired FOR SUCCESS

BY JOHN FRIEDLEIN

You might not expect to find much enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology at a 241-year-old institution grounded in a traditional liberal arts philosophy, a place where you could easily imagine students sitting on a sun-dappled lawn under a spreading tree as their professor elucidates literature of antiquity.

While classics students may very well sit under trees at Transylvania University, they’re also exploring ancient cities via virtual reality.

The school in fact is becoming a leader in high-tech liberal arts, having started down this path well before COVID-19 mashed down the accelerator of the digital revolution. Two years ago, Transylvania hosted a national seminar on the topic, drawing professors from places like Vassar, Rhodes and Bard colleges. A year before that, the university launched a Digital Liberal Arts initiative, which continues to fund a variety of projects — from buying equipment to training faculty. These efforts ensure students will have an edge in a workforce increasingly dependent on new technologies.

So after the coronavirus hit, Transylvania was already well 12

THIRD & BROADWAY

positioned to pivot to new ways of teaching, learning and creative expression.

When junior John Payne joined a recent video chat from home on just that topic, he looked like a young man prepared for the digital revolution as he talked into a podcasting mic at the end of a boom arm.

As a work-study student for music professor Timothy Polashek, co-director of the DLA initiative, Payne has been assisting faculty and students with technology, whether that means helping a professor broadcast a cello recital on Zoom or setting up classroom cameras for distance learners (the school has been offering a mix of in-person and online courses for the past year).

Payne is a digital arts and media major and computer science minor interested in website and app development as a career, so this fall’s practical experience has been good preparation for his future. Also benefiting him is the interdisciplinary nature of his liberal arts courses, which encourages him to make connections across a broad range of subjects. For instance, in his Art and the Internet

class with professor Emily Goodman, the other DLA co-director, he explored creative ways to express himself through technology (a skill that’s highly relevant to website development).

Now he’s a Swiss Army knife of design, able to incorporate audio, video, coding and graphic art into projects. “I can do a little bit of everything, enough that I can fine-tune which part I feel is most important to me and then base my career path around that.”

Junior Katie Dienhart also is embracing technology to round out her education. As with Payne, she’s a work-study student assisting the DLA co-directors with things like posting online tech tutorials and giving video presentations on podcast production.

Note, she’s a biology major minoring in philosophy and psychology — and plans to attend dental school.

Dienhart says she’s learned a lot through her DLA work and from the remote nature of her classes. In Genetics, for instance, her professor had her navigate various online databases in lieu of being physically present in a lab. Diving into these collections of data can be intimidating at first, but now that the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

13

Wired FOR SUCCESS

BY JOHN FRIEDLEIN

You might not expect to find much enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology at a 241-year-old institution grounded in a traditional liberal arts philosophy, a place where you could easily imagine students sitting on a sun-dappled lawn under a spreading tree as their professor elucidates literature of antiquity.

While classics students may very well sit under trees at Transylvania University, they’re also exploring ancient cities via virtual reality.

The school in fact is becoming a leader in high-tech liberal arts, having started down this path well before COVID-19 mashed down the accelerator of the digital revolution. Two years ago, Transylvania hosted a national seminar on the topic, drawing professors from places like Vassar, Rhodes and Bard colleges. A year before that, the university launched a Digital Liberal Arts initiative, which continues to fund a variety of projects — from buying equipment to training faculty. These efforts ensure students will have an edge in a workforce increasingly dependent on new technologies.

So after the coronavirus hit, Transylvania was already well 12

THIRD & BROADWAY

positioned to pivot to new ways of teaching, learning and creative expression.

When junior John Payne joined a recent video chat from home on just that topic, he looked like a young man prepared for the digital revolution as he talked into a podcasting mic at the end of a boom arm.

As a work-study student for music professor Timothy Polashek, co-director of the DLA initiative, Payne has been assisting faculty and students with technology, whether that means helping a professor broadcast a cello recital on Zoom or setting up classroom cameras for distance learners (the school has been offering a mix of in-person and online courses for the past year).

Payne is a digital arts and media major and computer science minor interested in website and app development as a career, so this fall’s practical experience has been good preparation for his future. Also benefiting him is the interdisciplinary nature of his liberal arts courses, which encourages him to make connections across a broad range of subjects. For instance, in his Art and the Internet

class with professor Emily Goodman, the other DLA co-director, he explored creative ways to express himself through technology (a skill that’s highly relevant to website development).

Now he’s a Swiss Army knife of design, able to incorporate audio, video, coding and graphic art into projects. “I can do a little bit of everything, enough that I can fine-tune which part I feel is most important to me and then base my career path around that.”

Junior Katie Dienhart also is embracing technology to round out her education. As with Payne, she’s a work-study student assisting the DLA co-directors with things like posting online tech tutorials and giving video presentations on podcast production.

Note, she’s a biology major minoring in philosophy and psychology — and plans to attend dental school.

Dienhart says she’s learned a lot through her DLA work and from the remote nature of her classes. In Genetics, for instance, her professor had her navigate various online databases in lieu of being physically present in a lab. Diving into these collections of data can be intimidating at first, but now that the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

13

she knows her way around databases she can use them to add depth to future research and class projects.

Looking at the big picture, Dienhart says she’s realized the growing importance of technology to myriad aspects of our lives. “Regardless of what you choose as a career, you’re going to encounter technology in some way, shape or form. I definitely think that I’ll be able to use some of the skills that I’ve learned throughout the past year in my future career.”

Other Transylvania students also got practical lessons in technology this past fall from an online, multimedia theater production of “Railsplitter.”

They collaborated with faculty, staff and alumni to create 31 video segments adapted from a collection of poems written by English professor Maurice Manning in the posthumous voice of Abraham Lincoln.

Part of the New Frontiers series, the show was a highlight of the year as it brought together the school community during a time when many people in our society feel disconnected.

The participants employed technology not only for obvious tasks such as filming and editing, but also as a way for them to work together. “Though we have had to be physically apart, the entire process has been surprisingly collaborative,” first-year student Anne Elizabeth Forker said back in November before the show’s premiere.

“We used video conferencing platforms for meetings and rehearsals, sent and received feedback via email, filmed and recorded various performance aspects and edited everything together to make an incredible show.”

Theater program director Tosha Fowler pointed out how the project taught students new ways of expressing themselves. “They’re learning how to communicate through a screen, which I would say is more important now than it’s ever been.”

Goodman also has seen her students develop this kind of visual literacy.

Because they’re on video so much, they are becoming more aware of what it means to present themselves in a 14

THIRD & BROADWAY

particular space on camera, she says.

While students are learning skills and connecting in new ways, they’re losing some information they’d otherwise pick up on through face-to-face interaction.

For example, some body language cues get lost over Zoom, and professors might have a more difficult time keeping tabs on their classes. (It’s not hard to see when someone is sleeping in person — but online with a camera turned off, who’s to know ... unless they’re snoring?)

virtual space together,” Goodman says.

Solving problems in unique ways like this, after all, goes along with the liberal arts mindset.

It also helps that Transylvania is a small campus; the DLA co-directors can meet with all of their colleagues to figure out specific needs, and having a close-knit community means professors are quick to assist each other during this digital transformation.

support of Nikita Lewis, digital content and technology integration specialist, to learn the ins and outs of synchronous and asynchronous learning, how to use Zoom breakout rooms and overcoming the challenges of mixing in-person and remote classes, for instance.

The DLA initiative has also spearheaded collaborative project teams of professors who will create various forms of digital public scholarship together.

playing away games and need to keep up with classes. “We’re all going to be using Zoom a lot more,” Polashek says.

Students and professors will have other technologies at hand with the resumption of full in-person learning.

Last year the DLA program acquired 20 iPads and Apple Pencils to lend out for digitally enhanced classwork — picture botany students carrying them into the field, or an art class manipulating a 3D sculpture on the screens. Additionally,

Nevertheless, Goodman points out how faculty are coming up with creative ways to foster personal connection over a distance. English professor Kremena Todorova, for instance, solicited from her students a list of songs she plays for them as they log in to class each day “so that they feel like they’re part of the

“The faculty at Transy are interested in not just collegiality, but in interconnected problem-solving and helping support the quality of the pedagogy that we’re known for,” Goodman says.

Professors have been getting together for weekly Tech Tuesday sessions with the

Going forward, Polashek sees faculty continuing to use a newly adopted online learning system called Canvas to manage grades and for presentations outside normal class time. And newfound remote teaching knowhow will remain an important tool in situations like when student-athletes are

students can borrow equipment such as laptops and cameras from the library if they need them, and they have access to two well-equipped technology labs on campus.

For now, professors have borrowed the iPads and Apple Pencils to do things like make notes on students’ digital

assignments and learn various apps.

“We’ve got these things — let’s train our faculty so that they can more effectively use them when we’re back in person,” Polashek says.

These devices complement the school’s 20 Oculus virtual reality headsets, which classes have been using for a few years now. (Transylvania also offers a Mobile App Development course that includes instruction on programming for tablets and smartphones.)

Beyond coursework, Rebecca Thomas, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the university, sees other ways technology has been enriching the campus community.

She mentioned how putting programs online expands their potential audiences and brings more diverse voices to the discussions. Now alumni from around the world can join weekly presentations by professors — events that had drawn almost exclusively other faculty who tend to ask more narrowly academic questions.

Same goes for shows like “Railsplitter,” online Morlan Gallery exhibitions and an open forum President Brien Lewis had with alumni via Zoom in December.

Also, the public was invited to join the campus community for “Black Students Matter: Let Us Be Heard,” a virtual town hall presented by the school’s Creative Intelligence series and Black Student Alliance on issues such as the experience of Kentucky’s Black college students.

Being able to touch more people’s lives and build connections is no mean feat in a time known for isolation. And none of it would be possible without technology.

“Despite the difficulties, we’ve opened up new realms of creativity,” Thomas says.

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

15

she knows her way around databases she can use them to add depth to future research and class projects.

Looking at the big picture, Dienhart says she’s realized the growing importance of technology to myriad aspects of our lives. “Regardless of what you choose as a career, you’re going to encounter technology in some way, shape or form. I definitely think that I’ll be able to use some of the skills that I’ve learned throughout the past year in my future career.”

Other Transylvania students also got practical lessons in technology this past fall from an online, multimedia theater production of “Railsplitter.”

They collaborated with faculty, staff and alumni to create 31 video segments adapted from a collection of poems written by English professor Maurice Manning in the posthumous voice of Abraham Lincoln.

Part of the New Frontiers series, the show was a highlight of the year as it brought together the school community during a time when many people in our society feel disconnected.

The participants employed technology not only for obvious tasks such as filming and editing, but also as a way for them to work together. “Though we have had to be physically apart, the entire process has been surprisingly collaborative,” first-year student Anne Elizabeth Forker said back in November before the show’s premiere.

“We used video conferencing platforms for meetings and rehearsals, sent and received feedback via email, filmed and recorded various performance aspects and edited everything together to make an incredible show.”

Theater program director Tosha Fowler pointed out how the project taught students new ways of expressing themselves. “They’re learning how to communicate through a screen, which I would say is more important now than it’s ever been.”

Goodman also has seen her students develop this kind of visual literacy.

Because they’re on video so much, they are becoming more aware of what it means to present themselves in a 14

THIRD & BROADWAY

particular space on camera, she says.

While students are learning skills and connecting in new ways, they’re losing some information they’d otherwise pick up on through face-to-face interaction.

For example, some body language cues get lost over Zoom, and professors might have a more difficult time keeping tabs on their classes. (It’s not hard to see when someone is sleeping in person — but online with a camera turned off, who’s to know ... unless they’re snoring?)

virtual space together,” Goodman says.

Solving problems in unique ways like this, after all, goes along with the liberal arts mindset.

It also helps that Transylvania is a small campus; the DLA co-directors can meet with all of their colleagues to figure out specific needs, and having a close-knit community means professors are quick to assist each other during this digital transformation.

support of Nikita Lewis, digital content and technology integration specialist, to learn the ins and outs of synchronous and asynchronous learning, how to use Zoom breakout rooms and overcoming the challenges of mixing in-person and remote classes, for instance.

The DLA initiative has also spearheaded collaborative project teams of professors who will create various forms of digital public scholarship together.

playing away games and need to keep up with classes. “We’re all going to be using Zoom a lot more,” Polashek says.

Students and professors will have other technologies at hand with the resumption of full in-person learning.

Last year the DLA program acquired 20 iPads and Apple Pencils to lend out for digitally enhanced classwork — picture botany students carrying them into the field, or an art class manipulating a 3D sculpture on the screens. Additionally,

Nevertheless, Goodman points out how faculty are coming up with creative ways to foster personal connection over a distance. English professor Kremena Todorova, for instance, solicited from her students a list of songs she plays for them as they log in to class each day “so that they feel like they’re part of the

“The faculty at Transy are interested in not just collegiality, but in interconnected problem-solving and helping support the quality of the pedagogy that we’re known for,” Goodman says.

Professors have been getting together for weekly Tech Tuesday sessions with the

Going forward, Polashek sees faculty continuing to use a newly adopted online learning system called Canvas to manage grades and for presentations outside normal class time. And newfound remote teaching knowhow will remain an important tool in situations like when student-athletes are

students can borrow equipment such as laptops and cameras from the library if they need them, and they have access to two well-equipped technology labs on campus.

For now, professors have borrowed the iPads and Apple Pencils to do things like make notes on students’ digital

assignments and learn various apps.

“We’ve got these things — let’s train our faculty so that they can more effectively use them when we’re back in person,” Polashek says.

These devices complement the school’s 20 Oculus virtual reality headsets, which classes have been using for a few years now. (Transylvania also offers a Mobile App Development course that includes instruction on programming for tablets and smartphones.)

Beyond coursework, Rebecca Thomas, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the university, sees other ways technology has been enriching the campus community.

She mentioned how putting programs online expands their potential audiences and brings more diverse voices to the discussions. Now alumni from around the world can join weekly presentations by professors — events that had drawn almost exclusively other faculty who tend to ask more narrowly academic questions.

Same goes for shows like “Railsplitter,” online Morlan Gallery exhibitions and an open forum President Brien Lewis had with alumni via Zoom in December.

Also, the public was invited to join the campus community for “Black Students Matter: Let Us Be Heard,” a virtual town hall presented by the school’s Creative Intelligence series and Black Student Alliance on issues such as the experience of Kentucky’s Black college students.

Being able to touch more people’s lives and build connections is no mean feat in a time known for isolation. And none of it would be possible without technology.

“Despite the difficulties, we’ve opened up new realms of creativity,” Thomas says.

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

15

UNCONVENTIONAL

Background

BY ROBIN HICKS

For Erin Marek ’16, a scuba-diving, Arctic Circle-researching, video gameplaying, sword-wielding, track and soccer athlete, it’s been a journey — not unlike the video games that inspire her — of challenges and feats, of personal development and clarity of passion.

Marek recalls the summer before her senior year at Transy, hiking up and down a mountain in Sweden for 13 hours a day, gathering soil samples and running lab tests. A successful biology major with a variety of paid summer research internships notched onto her CV, Marek suddenly found herself in the midst of an epiphany. Looking around at her peer researchers, she could see that she lacked their level of passion for the work.

“I remember thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know if this is something I can do for the next 40 years of my life.’” Rather than panicking, she thought hard about what she really enjoyed doing and realized it was video game design. “At the time I was a dungeon master,” she says, a game organizer who controls many components of the game. “I loved doing that. I’d been doing it for 10 years and I could keep doing that — and do it all day, if I needed to. That’s kind of like making games,” she realized.

But how would she make such a radical transition from biology 16

THIRD & BROADWAY

major, with an emphasis on ecology and conservation research, to being a competitive candidate for a top master’s program in game and interactive media design?

“Luckily,” she explains, “I had found a passion in art history at Transy and was majoring in it on the side. It was just something I really enjoyed.” That freedom to explore new subjects, so integral to a liberal arts education, had allowed her to develop new interests that could translate handily. So, when

Marek returned to campus for her senior year and told her professors that she wanted to go into the video game industry, they readily gave her the flexibility she needed to change direction on a dime. They helped her understand the groundwork she’d already established.

“You can use a lot of the skills you learned in art history and apply those to what you might be doing in the game industry,” she remembers her professors telling her. Working with them, she

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

17

UNCONVENTIONAL

Background

BY ROBIN HICKS

For Erin Marek ’16, a scuba-diving, Arctic Circle-researching, video gameplaying, sword-wielding, track and soccer athlete, it’s been a journey — not unlike the video games that inspire her — of challenges and feats, of personal development and clarity of passion.

Marek recalls the summer before her senior year at Transy, hiking up and down a mountain in Sweden for 13 hours a day, gathering soil samples and running lab tests. A successful biology major with a variety of paid summer research internships notched onto her CV, Marek suddenly found herself in the midst of an epiphany. Looking around at her peer researchers, she could see that she lacked their level of passion for the work.

“I remember thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know if this is something I can do for the next 40 years of my life.’” Rather than panicking, she thought hard about what she really enjoyed doing and realized it was video game design. “At the time I was a dungeon master,” she says, a game organizer who controls many components of the game. “I loved doing that. I’d been doing it for 10 years and I could keep doing that — and do it all day, if I needed to. That’s kind of like making games,” she realized.

But how would she make such a radical transition from biology 16

THIRD & BROADWAY

major, with an emphasis on ecology and conservation research, to being a competitive candidate for a top master’s program in game and interactive media design?

“Luckily,” she explains, “I had found a passion in art history at Transy and was majoring in it on the side. It was just something I really enjoyed.” That freedom to explore new subjects, so integral to a liberal arts education, had allowed her to develop new interests that could translate handily. So, when

Marek returned to campus for her senior year and told her professors that she wanted to go into the video game industry, they readily gave her the flexibility she needed to change direction on a dime. They helped her understand the groundwork she’d already established.

“You can use a lot of the skills you learned in art history and apply those to what you might be doing in the game industry,” she remembers her professors telling her. Working with them, she

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

17

zeroed in on subjects for her two senior thesis papers that were at once focused on art history, but also related to the game industry.

For example, she looked at the visual art of video games from the perspective of art history, researching women’s armor. Traditionally, video games have represented a highly sexualized way of looking at women, most often depicting even heroic characters as scantily attired with no real protection. As a female gamer, this had bothered Marek. It made no sense in terms of practicality. And, as research for her thesis demonstrated, this tendency toward the degradation of women had a negative impact on girl gamers and the entire gaming community.

These days, half of video gamers are female and 40% of the world’s population now plays. Gone are the days that once justified catering to the predilections of the stereotypical adolescent boy. Marek’s perspective is no longer in the minority and is of increasing value to the growing industry that already dwarfs Hollywood box office and music industry revenues.

But first she had to get her foot in the door.

18

THIRD & BROADWAY

In her application to the master’s program, she touted her unconventional background that set her apart from other candidates. She emphasized how all that she’d learned at Transy was directly applicable to her future career: the organization, methodology, data analysis and interpretation that she learned in science; the inclusive and collaborative culture in the classroom and in team sports; the openness and interest in listening to multiple perspectives; the fearlessness in taking on new challenges; the simultaneous development as a generous leader and team player; and the supportive relationships and mentoring modeled by faculty.

“I had a lot of really great mentors at Transy,” she says. “I had some amazing biology professors and art history professors. They really cared about me and my success and were willing to take the time. They believed in me, and I think that really made it easy for me to believe in myself — that I could do what I wanted to do.”

Marek sees all of these dimensions playing out in her day-to-day work as development manager at Riot Games.

“I manage a team, so I help develop the work systems they use to make

the games,” she explains. She enjoys mentoring and supporting their efforts and helping everyone align toward a central goal.

“I function as a delivery lead, and I partner with a product lead. My product lead is actually another female, which is super cool that you have two females leading the in-game initiative for Wild Rift. And we have a lot of other great females on the team, too. The product partner lead focuses more on ‘what are we making and why are we making it,’ and I focus more on ‘how are we making it and when.’ Together we collaborate to make that happen with our team.”

Most recently, Marek’s team released Wild Rift, the mobile version of the popular game League of Legends.

Mobile play is central to industry growth and, as she explains, to expanding the female audience. Her team’s work is comprehensive.

Being part of League of Legends is a sort of coming full circle for Marek. It was the game that she and her brother chose to play as a way of staying connected when they moved to different states. Video games, she notes, have always been a way for her to bond with her brothers. And it was their mother’s penchant for gaming that introduced the family to the sport.

Grateful to be part of the gamemaking she loves, Marek understands the opportunities she has in joining the industry at a time when it is open to change. Her long-term goals encompass being an executive producer and replacing stereotypes with

“But because of my diverse education at Transy, it made me a strong applicant. If I’d just had biology and not art history, I’m not certain that I would have gotten into the grad program that led me to getting my job in the industry.”

more genuine characters that better represent the players.

“I would love to focus on diversity and inclusion in games,” she says, “representing people who haven’t been represented, reaching out to a broader audience, as well as depicting women and men equally in video games, instead of having a more biased perspective as sometimes you see in certain games.”

Accomplishing this, she says “is about breaking down what those class, race and gender stereotypes are, and really just making characters that feel honest to people who actually exist. A lot of that comes from having people in the game industry who come from diverse backgrounds, who represent a broader perspective than what I myself or somebody else might be able to bring.” Helping people understand different audiences and perceptions is part of the effort.

At Transy, Marek learned how to question why things are as they are and

to have the confidence to challenge what needs changing. The opportunities to push herself to develop an open mind and to trust herself, she says, “have carried over to my professional and personal life.” She recognizes the value of “having the flexibility of mind to be able to adjust to circumstances and not to get stressed or anxious around things you don’t understand or don’t know.”

Marek’s unconventional path led her precisely to where she needed to be. “It definitely was a wild ride,” she says with laughter. “But because of my diverse education at Transy, it made me a strong applicant. If I’d just had biology and not art history, I’m not certain that I would have gotten into the grad program that led me to getting my job in the industry,” she adds. “And it was with the support of a lot of people that I ended up getting into my grad program.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

19

zeroed in on subjects for her two senior thesis papers that were at once focused on art history, but also related to the game industry.

For example, she looked at the visual art of video games from the perspective of art history, researching women’s armor. Traditionally, video games have represented a highly sexualized way of looking at women, most often depicting even heroic characters as scantily attired with no real protection. As a female gamer, this had bothered Marek. It made no sense in terms of practicality. And, as research for her thesis demonstrated, this tendency toward the degradation of women had a negative impact on girl gamers and the entire gaming community.

These days, half of video gamers are female and 40% of the world’s population now plays. Gone are the days that once justified catering to the predilections of the stereotypical adolescent boy. Marek’s perspective is no longer in the minority and is of increasing value to the growing industry that already dwarfs Hollywood box office and music industry revenues.

But first she had to get her foot in the door.

18

THIRD & BROADWAY

In her application to the master’s program, she touted her unconventional background that set her apart from other candidates. She emphasized how all that she’d learned at Transy was directly applicable to her future career: the organization, methodology, data analysis and interpretation that she learned in science; the inclusive and collaborative culture in the classroom and in team sports; the openness and interest in listening to multiple perspectives; the fearlessness in taking on new challenges; the simultaneous development as a generous leader and team player; and the supportive relationships and mentoring modeled by faculty.

“I had a lot of really great mentors at Transy,” she says. “I had some amazing biology professors and art history professors. They really cared about me and my success and were willing to take the time. They believed in me, and I think that really made it easy for me to believe in myself — that I could do what I wanted to do.”

Marek sees all of these dimensions playing out in her day-to-day work as development manager at Riot Games.

“I manage a team, so I help develop the work systems they use to make

the games,” she explains. She enjoys mentoring and supporting their efforts and helping everyone align toward a central goal.

“I function as a delivery lead, and I partner with a product lead. My product lead is actually another female, which is super cool that you have two females leading the in-game initiative for Wild Rift. And we have a lot of other great females on the team, too. The product partner lead focuses more on ‘what are we making and why are we making it,’ and I focus more on ‘how are we making it and when.’ Together we collaborate to make that happen with our team.”

Most recently, Marek’s team released Wild Rift, the mobile version of the popular game League of Legends.

Mobile play is central to industry growth and, as she explains, to expanding the female audience. Her team’s work is comprehensive.

Being part of League of Legends is a sort of coming full circle for Marek. It was the game that she and her brother chose to play as a way of staying connected when they moved to different states. Video games, she notes, have always been a way for her to bond with her brothers. And it was their mother’s penchant for gaming that introduced the family to the sport.

Grateful to be part of the gamemaking she loves, Marek understands the opportunities she has in joining the industry at a time when it is open to change. Her long-term goals encompass being an executive producer and replacing stereotypes with

“But because of my diverse education at Transy, it made me a strong applicant. If I’d just had biology and not art history, I’m not certain that I would have gotten into the grad program that led me to getting my job in the industry.”

more genuine characters that better represent the players.

“I would love to focus on diversity and inclusion in games,” she says, “representing people who haven’t been represented, reaching out to a broader audience, as well as depicting women and men equally in video games, instead of having a more biased perspective as sometimes you see in certain games.”

Accomplishing this, she says “is about breaking down what those class, race and gender stereotypes are, and really just making characters that feel honest to people who actually exist. A lot of that comes from having people in the game industry who come from diverse backgrounds, who represent a broader perspective than what I myself or somebody else might be able to bring.” Helping people understand different audiences and perceptions is part of the effort.

At Transy, Marek learned how to question why things are as they are and

to have the confidence to challenge what needs changing. The opportunities to push herself to develop an open mind and to trust herself, she says, “have carried over to my professional and personal life.” She recognizes the value of “having the flexibility of mind to be able to adjust to circumstances and not to get stressed or anxious around things you don’t understand or don’t know.”

Marek’s unconventional path led her precisely to where she needed to be. “It definitely was a wild ride,” she says with laughter. “But because of my diverse education at Transy, it made me a strong applicant. If I’d just had biology and not art history, I’m not certain that I would have gotten into the grad program that led me to getting my job in the industry,” she adds. “And it was with the support of a lot of people that I ended up getting into my grad program.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

19

FROM FIRST AID TO

FIRST FEMALE FIRE CHIEF

BY ROBIN HICKS

20

THIRD & BROADWAY

Photos courtesy of Lexington Fire Department For Kristin Chilton ’90, becoming the first female chief of the Lexington Fire Department depended on walking two short blocks to the local fire station with the rest of her Transylvania University class. The first aid class, taken as an elective in Chilton’s senior year, presented an opportunity that would alter her future and the course of a community institution.

Before her visit, the business major and sociology minor had been feeling a bit lackluster about her postgraduation job interviews already underway. She’d been wondering how she could make

the demanding travel requirements of a sales position jibe with her love of fostering animals. So, Chilton accepted the fire station’s offer to return one night for a ride-along.

“I was curious about what happens in Lexington at night,” she remembers thinking, “and what kinds of emergencies our local fire department handles.” She had lived most of her life in the city.

It happened that the paramedic on duty was the first female firefighter in Fayette County. As the two conversed between emergencies, an idea emerged that firefighting might be the right

career for Chilton. After all, she’d long been working at a local emergency animal clinic, helping animals and their owners during emotional and fraughtridden experiences. Perhaps it wasn’t too much of a leap to the fire department where Chilton would spend the nearly three decades in service to her community, working her way up to the top leadership role in the department.

Although Chilton can’t remember exactly how she first came to Transy — something about parental guidance and the professor-to-student ratio — memories of her experiences are the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

21

FROM FIRST AID TO

FIRST FEMALE FIRE CHIEF

BY ROBIN HICKS

20

THIRD & BROADWAY

Photos courtesy of Lexington Fire Department For Kristin Chilton ’90, becoming the first female chief of the Lexington Fire Department depended on walking two short blocks to the local fire station with the rest of her Transylvania University class. The first aid class, taken as an elective in Chilton’s senior year, presented an opportunity that would alter her future and the course of a community institution.

Before her visit, the business major and sociology minor had been feeling a bit lackluster about her postgraduation job interviews already underway. She’d been wondering how she could make

the demanding travel requirements of a sales position jibe with her love of fostering animals. So, Chilton accepted the fire station’s offer to return one night for a ride-along.

“I was curious about what happens in Lexington at night,” she remembers thinking, “and what kinds of emergencies our local fire department handles.” She had lived most of her life in the city.

It happened that the paramedic on duty was the first female firefighter in Fayette County. As the two conversed between emergencies, an idea emerged that firefighting might be the right

career for Chilton. After all, she’d long been working at a local emergency animal clinic, helping animals and their owners during emotional and fraughtridden experiences. Perhaps it wasn’t too much of a leap to the fire department where Chilton would spend the nearly three decades in service to her community, working her way up to the top leadership role in the department.

Although Chilton can’t remember exactly how she first came to Transy — something about parental guidance and the professor-to-student ratio — memories of her experiences are the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

21

“When you look into all the areas of the fire service and the different things we do, it’s a team effort. It does take the big guy, but it might also take someone small and petite to get down into a small opening or into a confined space.”

crystalline. What she gained in the intimate classrooms significantly influenced her approach to leadership, her goal to diversify the Lexington Fire Department and her ability to interact with the community. But there were hurdles to jump.

Before Transy, she says, “I was not a really big fan of school.” Having had reading issues as a young child, she tended to derive more information from face-to-face conversation. “I think my parents felt that for me to be successful I needed to be in a small school environment in college,” she adds, “because I was one of those that liked to do 50 other things instead of schoolwork. They felt that I would be more engaged in a program like Transy’s versus a school where I could be one kid in hundreds in a hall getting a lecture.”

In fact, Chilton traces her development as a leader to that personalized attention and the demands of a smaller class size, including the mentoring, participation and being able to engage with a variety of perspectives.

“I remember taking a sociology class and studying tribes halfway around 22

THIRD & BROADWAY

the world. I remember being really interested in how different people lived and what they found important in their society. It’s just being exposed to things that I wasn’t exposed to in high school,” she says. And she found herself wanting to learn more in that class, sitting around a table with five other students and the professor. “That’s how small and intimate the class was. I just remember there being a great group of people and great conversations about things that you wouldn’t get in a large school environment. That’s what makes Transy so unique — that closeness of the campus feel and the value that I felt from the professors.

“Professors were so involved and took such an interest in their students,” she continues. “They mentored and motivated you to be the best that you could be.” Leadership skills and confidence began to emerge. “You got more opportunities in the classroom to speak or to be involved or ask questions or work on projects,” she recalls. “It sets that stage early in your mind that you matter, you’re important and you can be a valuable member.” That sense

of being valued extended to valuing others in the community.

Whenever Chilton is asked about the benefits of a college education, she immediately focuses on the exposure to other people and ideas. The experience offered her a community of insights and backgrounds different from the familiar circle of friends she’d known since

“Professors were so involved and took such an interest in their students.

They mentored and motivated you to be the best that you could be.”

childhood. “Hearing their stories, being in the same class and communicating with each other,” she insists, was important as well as interesting. “I think it really opens your views of other people in the world.”

Having access to new perspectives later helped Chilton to visualize a more inclusive institution. It fed directly into her core tenet as chief to make a diverse and inclusive fire department.

Diversity, she points out, brings greater community representation, but also a stronger set of skills and abilities that help to form a more complete team. As a woman coming up through the ranks of the department, she remembers “awesome mentors,” she says, but also many objections and obstacles for simply being female. Those pushing against her progress may have riled her tenacity to work even harder to succeed, but they also made her understand the absolute necessity of making people who may be different or unfamiliar to the majority feel welcomed.

Therefore, Chilton has been committed to bringing people into the fire service who, like herself, might never have considered the career if the possibility hadn’t been presented.

That requires dispelling some misperceptions.

“When you look into all the areas of the fire service and the different things we do, it’s a team effort,” she explains.

“It does take the big guy, but it might also take someone small and petite to get down into a small opening or into a confined space. And in an emergency

situation, she adds, “someone might be more comfortable relating to someone who looks and sounds like them. So, it’s very important for us to bring all of those people together on a team, because a team is going to be more successful when we go out in the community. It’s been really important to me to make that a goal for us to go out and reach those individuals.”

Breaking down barriers within her staff and firefighters has been part of the process, too. She’s worked to help them see their common humanity and shared goals. “The problem is that we’re just not familiar,” she says, drawing from her experience at Transy. “If you’ve never been exposed to someone who is different from you, it makes you uneasy and uncomfortable. But once you break down that initial barrier, then you realize you’re not that different. You’re just uncomfortable with something you’ve not been exposed to.”

Given the breadth of what the fire and emergency services handle, there must be a job for every skill set. When Chilton started her career, the work was largely fire and EMS, with just the beginning of hazmat operations. Now special operations extend to many types of rescue: from large animal and confined space rescue to swift water rescue. Firefighters are trained for terrorist attacks as well as active shooter and active aggressive scenarios.

“It’s always changing,” she says of a department that has grown in size and resources, with increasingly specialized trucks and equipment. “Technology

has been one of the biggest changes since I joined,” she adds. “The fire service continues to take on tasks that nobody else can or is willing to handle. We rescue animals, put flags up on flagpoles. We do presentations at schools and lots of things people don’t even realize.”

As a leader of the department, Chilton has given particular attention to people, not just the apparatus.

“You have to lead as a whole for the organization,” she explains, “but there are instances when you have to look at the individual. I think one of the most important things is caring about people and taking care of them.” She relies on the entire organization to accomplish that level of care. “Making sure that we can do that is very important to me.”

A similar motivation brought her to the decision to retire. One of the greatest challenges of being chief has been the time commitment. “You can’t be everywhere all the time,” she says, nor can you be all things to all 625 employees. It has bothered her that she couldn’t attend every visitation or hospital visit or wedding. But even harder, perhaps, has been managing the work-life balance. “My family, I’ll be honest, has sacrificed. It was a family sacrifice for me to do this.”

She’s looking forward to undivided time with her 13-year-old daughter, her husband, who’s a retired firefighter, and their many foster animals.

Perhaps she’ll even have time to look back on the full scale of her career, as she once did after answering emergency calls. “It’s after the run is over,” she remembers, “that you sit back and evaluate what happened, what you did and what you saw. That’s when you feel the full effect of it. You don’t think that much going into it — how dangerous it could have been. You’re running on adrenaline at that point. You’re getting on the truck, you’re getting off, and you’re doing what you’re trained to do.

But you’re not really evaluating it until after it’s all done.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

23

“When you look into all the areas of the fire service and the different things we do, it’s a team effort. It does take the big guy, but it might also take someone small and petite to get down into a small opening or into a confined space.”

crystalline. What she gained in the intimate classrooms significantly influenced her approach to leadership, her goal to diversify the Lexington Fire Department and her ability to interact with the community. But there were hurdles to jump.

Before Transy, she says, “I was not a really big fan of school.” Having had reading issues as a young child, she tended to derive more information from face-to-face conversation. “I think my parents felt that for me to be successful I needed to be in a small school environment in college,” she adds, “because I was one of those that liked to do 50 other things instead of schoolwork. They felt that I would be more engaged in a program like Transy’s versus a school where I could be one kid in hundreds in a hall getting a lecture.”

In fact, Chilton traces her development as a leader to that personalized attention and the demands of a smaller class size, including the mentoring, participation and being able to engage with a variety of perspectives.

“I remember taking a sociology class and studying tribes halfway around 22

THIRD & BROADWAY

the world. I remember being really interested in how different people lived and what they found important in their society. It’s just being exposed to things that I wasn’t exposed to in high school,” she says. And she found herself wanting to learn more in that class, sitting around a table with five other students and the professor. “That’s how small and intimate the class was. I just remember there being a great group of people and great conversations about things that you wouldn’t get in a large school environment. That’s what makes Transy so unique — that closeness of the campus feel and the value that I felt from the professors.

“Professors were so involved and took such an interest in their students,” she continues. “They mentored and motivated you to be the best that you could be.” Leadership skills and confidence began to emerge. “You got more opportunities in the classroom to speak or to be involved or ask questions or work on projects,” she recalls. “It sets that stage early in your mind that you matter, you’re important and you can be a valuable member.” That sense

of being valued extended to valuing others in the community.

Whenever Chilton is asked about the benefits of a college education, she immediately focuses on the exposure to other people and ideas. The experience offered her a community of insights and backgrounds different from the familiar circle of friends she’d known since

“Professors were so involved and took such an interest in their students.

They mentored and motivated you to be the best that you could be.”

childhood. “Hearing their stories, being in the same class and communicating with each other,” she insists, was important as well as interesting. “I think it really opens your views of other people in the world.”

Having access to new perspectives later helped Chilton to visualize a more inclusive institution. It fed directly into her core tenet as chief to make a diverse and inclusive fire department.

Diversity, she points out, brings greater community representation, but also a stronger set of skills and abilities that help to form a more complete team. As a woman coming up through the ranks of the department, she remembers “awesome mentors,” she says, but also many objections and obstacles for simply being female. Those pushing against her progress may have riled her tenacity to work even harder to succeed, but they also made her understand the absolute necessity of making people who may be different or unfamiliar to the majority feel welcomed.

Therefore, Chilton has been committed to bringing people into the fire service who, like herself, might never have considered the career if the possibility hadn’t been presented.

That requires dispelling some misperceptions.

“When you look into all the areas of the fire service and the different things we do, it’s a team effort,” she explains.

“It does take the big guy, but it might also take someone small and petite to get down into a small opening or into a confined space. And in an emergency

situation, she adds, “someone might be more comfortable relating to someone who looks and sounds like them. So, it’s very important for us to bring all of those people together on a team, because a team is going to be more successful when we go out in the community. It’s been really important to me to make that a goal for us to go out and reach those individuals.”

Breaking down barriers within her staff and firefighters has been part of the process, too. She’s worked to help them see their common humanity and shared goals. “The problem is that we’re just not familiar,” she says, drawing from her experience at Transy. “If you’ve never been exposed to someone who is different from you, it makes you uneasy and uncomfortable. But once you break down that initial barrier, then you realize you’re not that different. You’re just uncomfortable with something you’ve not been exposed to.”

Given the breadth of what the fire and emergency services handle, there must be a job for every skill set. When Chilton started her career, the work was largely fire and EMS, with just the beginning of hazmat operations. Now special operations extend to many types of rescue: from large animal and confined space rescue to swift water rescue. Firefighters are trained for terrorist attacks as well as active shooter and active aggressive scenarios.

“It’s always changing,” she says of a department that has grown in size and resources, with increasingly specialized trucks and equipment. “Technology

has been one of the biggest changes since I joined,” she adds. “The fire service continues to take on tasks that nobody else can or is willing to handle. We rescue animals, put flags up on flagpoles. We do presentations at schools and lots of things people don’t even realize.”

As a leader of the department, Chilton has given particular attention to people, not just the apparatus.

“You have to lead as a whole for the organization,” she explains, “but there are instances when you have to look at the individual. I think one of the most important things is caring about people and taking care of them.” She relies on the entire organization to accomplish that level of care. “Making sure that we can do that is very important to me.”

A similar motivation brought her to the decision to retire. One of the greatest challenges of being chief has been the time commitment. “You can’t be everywhere all the time,” she says, nor can you be all things to all 625 employees. It has bothered her that she couldn’t attend every visitation or hospital visit or wedding. But even harder, perhaps, has been managing the work-life balance. “My family, I’ll be honest, has sacrificed. It was a family sacrifice for me to do this.”

She’s looking forward to undivided time with her 13-year-old daughter, her husband, who’s a retired firefighter, and their many foster animals.

Perhaps she’ll even have time to look back on the full scale of her career, as she once did after answering emergency calls. “It’s after the run is over,” she remembers, “that you sit back and evaluate what happened, what you did and what you saw. That’s when you feel the full effect of it. You don’t think that much going into it — how dangerous it could have been. You’re running on adrenaline at that point. You’re getting on the truck, you’re getting off, and you’re doing what you’re trained to do.

But you’re not really evaluating it until after it’s all done.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

23

Transylvania community pulls together for healthy fall reopening

campus

NEWS To stay informed about the latest Transylvania news, visit our 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780 and subscribe to biweekly email updates.

The university’s Healthy at Transy plan, which prioritizes community responsibility and individual empowerment, allowed the university to open campus to limited in-person learning and residential living this past fall.

The plan kicked off in August with a student move in that was spread out over 12 days to allow for physical distancing. To get ready, the Transylvania community worked together to ensure a healthy start to the school year — from housekeeping staff intent on keeping campus clean and free of the virus, to resident advisers assembling student welcome packs with items like face masks and hand sanitizer.

Other efforts included installing plexiglass shields and hand sanitizer dispensers from a local distillery across campus, removing furniture so students can better spread out and making stairwells and entrances one way. Additionally, before coming to campus each day, everyone is required to fill out a Health Pass questionnaire via the Transylvania app to assess their risk of having COVID and check in on their mental well-being.

The Healthy at Transy initiative also features a flexible approach to learning and teaching, which, until going to all remote after Thanksgiving break, meant students and faculty could choose between having classes in person, online or a hybrid of the two. A modular course system added to the university’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Transylvania community collaborates on ‘Railsplitter’ theater production Students, faculty, staff and alumni pulled together to create a Transylvania Theater online multimedia performance of “Railsplitter,” a collection of 31 one-tofour-minute interpretations of poems by professor Maurice Manning told in Abraham Lincoln’s posthumous voice. The segments ranged from straight readings of the works to music videos.

“Railsplitter” premiered on the university’s main YouTube channel in November as part of the New Frontiers event series.

It was a crash course in the digital liberal arts for students who participated in the production. “The value of technology in the theater is that we were still able to produce something and work together in the time of COVID-19 — and that’s pretty awesome,” firstyear student Emma Louise Laird said.

24

THIRD & BROADWAY

Sports teams adapt to pandemic During the fall, Transylvania focused on select low-contact-risk fall sport programs, including golf, cross country and eventing.

In December, the men’s basketball team tipped off an unconventional schedule with five games against in-state NCAA Division I teams, with backto-back contests at Morehead State University. Also, Lucas Gentry became the first Pioneer in nine years to be named HCAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year.

The women’s basketball team won its third-straight Heartland Collegiate Athletic Association tournament championship in March, and head coach Juli Fulks notched her 300th career win this past season.

In February, the volleyball team repeated as HCAC champs, capping off a 15-1 record. The team at one point in the season was ranked No. 3 in the nation in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 poll — the highest in program history.

Additionally, the swimming and diving teams finished strong in the HCAC tournament with Mackie Redford winning individual championships in both the women’s 1- and 3-meter dives and Sami Monarch taking first in women’s 50-meter freestyle.

Also this season, Transylvania women’s golf head coach Tyrus York was named to Golf Digest’s “Best Young Teachers in America” list for the third time in his career. Plus the track and field program reached a significant milestone by cracking the national USTFCCCA Top 25 poll for the first time. And the softball team ranked among the nation’s top 10 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll.

Transylvania announces plans for in-person commencement and 2021-22 academic year With the success of the Healthy at Transy protocols and the efficiency of the vaccine rollout, the university can more confidently plan for the future. This includes an in-person commencement for our Class of 2021 on Saturday, May 29.

A week before that, on May 22, Transylvania will host an in-person celebration of its Class of 2020, which had a virtual commencement last year. Then in August, the school resumes its standard academic calendar with the personalized, face-to-face instruction that is the hallmark of a Transylvania education.

Transylvania steps into collegiate esports arena with plans for 2021-22 season Transylvania plans to launch an esports program in the 2021-22 academic year for students interested in participating in intercollegiate gaming competitions.

With an estimated global audience of 495 million, the $1 billion esports industry is expected to continue exponential growth in size and economic impact. Esports at Transy will give students the opportunity to participate in intercollegiate competitions, as well as build connections between academic programs and campus social life.

“This is an exciting time for us to bring esports to Transylvania,” President Brien Lewis said. “Our Pioneers will be participating in one of the fastest-growing collegiate team activities and a growing industry while benefiting from the worldclass academic opportunities Transy offers every student.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

25

Transylvania community pulls together for healthy fall reopening

campus

NEWS To stay informed about the latest Transylvania news, visit our 1780 blog at transy.edu/1780 and subscribe to biweekly email updates.

The university’s Healthy at Transy plan, which prioritizes community responsibility and individual empowerment, allowed the university to open campus to limited in-person learning and residential living this past fall.

The plan kicked off in August with a student move in that was spread out over 12 days to allow for physical distancing. To get ready, the Transylvania community worked together to ensure a healthy start to the school year — from housekeeping staff intent on keeping campus clean and free of the virus, to resident advisers assembling student welcome packs with items like face masks and hand sanitizer.

Other efforts included installing plexiglass shields and hand sanitizer dispensers from a local distillery across campus, removing furniture so students can better spread out and making stairwells and entrances one way. Additionally, before coming to campus each day, everyone is required to fill out a Health Pass questionnaire via the Transylvania app to assess their risk of having COVID and check in on their mental well-being.

The Healthy at Transy initiative also features a flexible approach to learning and teaching, which, until going to all remote after Thanksgiving break, meant students and faculty could choose between having classes in person, online or a hybrid of the two. A modular course system added to the university’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Transylvania community collaborates on ‘Railsplitter’ theater production Students, faculty, staff and alumni pulled together to create a Transylvania Theater online multimedia performance of “Railsplitter,” a collection of 31 one-tofour-minute interpretations of poems by professor Maurice Manning told in Abraham Lincoln’s posthumous voice. The segments ranged from straight readings of the works to music videos.

“Railsplitter” premiered on the university’s main YouTube channel in November as part of the New Frontiers event series.

It was a crash course in the digital liberal arts for students who participated in the production. “The value of technology in the theater is that we were still able to produce something and work together in the time of COVID-19 — and that’s pretty awesome,” firstyear student Emma Louise Laird said.

24

THIRD & BROADWAY

Sports teams adapt to pandemic During the fall, Transylvania focused on select low-contact-risk fall sport programs, including golf, cross country and eventing.

In December, the men’s basketball team tipped off an unconventional schedule with five games against in-state NCAA Division I teams, with backto-back contests at Morehead State University. Also, Lucas Gentry became the first Pioneer in nine years to be named HCAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year.

The women’s basketball team won its third-straight Heartland Collegiate Athletic Association tournament championship in March, and head coach Juli Fulks notched her 300th career win this past season.

In February, the volleyball team repeated as HCAC champs, capping off a 15-1 record. The team at one point in the season was ranked No. 3 in the nation in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 poll — the highest in program history.

Additionally, the swimming and diving teams finished strong in the HCAC tournament with Mackie Redford winning individual championships in both the women’s 1- and 3-meter dives and Sami Monarch taking first in women’s 50-meter freestyle.

Also this season, Transylvania women’s golf head coach Tyrus York was named to Golf Digest’s “Best Young Teachers in America” list for the third time in his career. Plus the track and field program reached a significant milestone by cracking the national USTFCCCA Top 25 poll for the first time. And the softball team ranked among the nation’s top 10 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll.

Transylvania announces plans for in-person commencement and 2021-22 academic year With the success of the Healthy at Transy protocols and the efficiency of the vaccine rollout, the university can more confidently plan for the future. This includes an in-person commencement for our Class of 2021 on Saturday, May 29.

A week before that, on May 22, Transylvania will host an in-person celebration of its Class of 2020, which had a virtual commencement last year. Then in August, the school resumes its standard academic calendar with the personalized, face-to-face instruction that is the hallmark of a Transylvania education.

Transylvania steps into collegiate esports arena with plans for 2021-22 season Transylvania plans to launch an esports program in the 2021-22 academic year for students interested in participating in intercollegiate gaming competitions.

With an estimated global audience of 495 million, the $1 billion esports industry is expected to continue exponential growth in size and economic impact. Esports at Transy will give students the opportunity to participate in intercollegiate competitions, as well as build connections between academic programs and campus social life.

“This is an exciting time for us to bring esports to Transylvania,” President Brien Lewis said. “Our Pioneers will be participating in one of the fastest-growing collegiate team activities and a growing industry while benefiting from the worldclass academic opportunities Transy offers every student.”

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

25

Special Collections librarian BJ Gooch retires

Transylvania names Shawn Lyons new VP for advancement; Steve Angelucci becomes assistant to president Shawn Lyons (top), a longtime development and alumni engagement expert, was named as Transylvania’s new vice president for advancement in November. Lyons, who most recently served as a vice president at Centre College, brings more than three decades of experience and leadership to the university.

In this position he leads fundraising initiatives and engages with alumni and others who want to invest in the school’s mission to not only prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century, but to help them lead fulfilling lives.

Lyons joined Transylvania after former vice president for advancement Steve Angelucci took on a new role at the school. He is now an assistant to the president, where he focuses on developing new initiatives that benefit students. Angelucci works closely with Brien Lewis in creating an immersive entrepreneurship program at Transylvania, giving students the opportunity to work with local companies throughout their undergraduate careers.

26

THIRD & BROADWAY

To have books so rare and valuable in your care as John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” double elephant folio and an illuminated manuscript specially made for a king 500 years ago, you naturally want to protect them.

Preservation certainly was a goal for BJ Gooch during her 26 years as Transylvania University’s Special Collections librarian and university archivist, but she never wanted to turn her department into a museum.

What she’s found most gratifying throughout her career is connecting professional researchers from across the globe, as well as Transylvania faculty and students, with vital pieces of history. Cataloging and digitizing archival materials have aided in this effort.

While the Special Collections department is adapting to the electronic age, paper and vellum still hold power over visitors. This was evident when a group of high school students saw the actual letters Transylvania President Horace Holley wrote about visiting Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Gooch remembers wondering if in this day and age youths could still be impressed by handwritten letters. “They were thoroughly impressed,” she says.

“A lot of my time here has been trying to increase access to collections,” Gooch continues. “I think what I most liked about my job is helping people.”

Read the full story on the 1780 blog.

Martha Billips ’78 — professor, scholar, administrator, alumna — retires

For nearly 50 years, Martha Billips has been as much a part of Transylvania University’s evolution as the school has been integral to her personal and professional growth. She’s experienced and influenced the institution as a student, professor, scholar and administrator, but also as a first-generation college student, working parent and committed colleague.

“Transy was transformational for me,” she says, recalling her arrival on campus from Pikeville, Kentucky, during the culturally fomenting mid-1970s. For Billips’s generation, women were new to many areas of the workforce; examples were sparse. She’d never considered a Ph.D. before coming to Transy, nor the idea that she could be a professor.

For 20 years Billips, a professor of English, directed the first-year experience at Transy, working with colleagues to build the pedagogy and a core experience that would at once introduce Transylvania’s academic expectations and meet the disparate academic needs of students new to campus.

As she enters the next leg of her journey, ready to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading without the necessity of underlining passages for future teaching, Billips is happy to observe Transylvania’s continuing promise. She sees it in the new leadership’s commitment to students and the university, in the remarkable changes to the physical campus, and above all else, she says, in the “intrinsic nature, the consistent spirit of the place — of community and inquisitiveness, and being able to push the limits.”

Read the complete article on the 1780 blog.

NCAA selects Transylvania as host for 2023, 2024 golf national championships

New William T. Young Campus Center opens fall 2020

The NCAA announced in October that Transylvania was selected to host both the 2023 Division III Men’s Golf National Championship and 2024 NCAA Division III Women’s Golf National Championship at the Keene Trace Golf Club in nearby Nicholasville.

“Both Transylvania and Keene Trace Golf Club put our heart and soul into hosting the men’s golf championship in 2019, and we are blessed to have the opportunity to do it again,” Vice President of Athletics Holly Sheilley said. “It is double the excitement to also have the opportunity to host the women’s golf championship in 2024. It is a chance for us to showcase central Kentucky and support Division III student-athletes, and I am confident we will do it very well.”

Transylvania releases three-year roadmap to grow enrollment, support students

Approved in October by Transylvania’s Board of Trustees, the university’s new Strategic Focus is an agile, targeted, three-year plan for the future titled “Pursuing a BOLD PATH for Transylvania University: 2021-2024.”

The Strategic Focus is organized around four key goals: growing enrollment, leveraging the university’s capacities, diversifying the campus community and providing the financial support needed to implement these efforts. Specifically, the plan sets an aggressive enrollment target of 1,150 by 2024, highlighting the important role the school plays in educating students in Kentucky and surrounding states. It also seeks to ensure Transylvania has the best, most innovative liberal arts program and provides personalized support for students, while upholding its commitment to social responsibility in a diverse world.

Transylvania’s William T. Young Campus Center had a soft opening during the pandemic, offering bright, welcoming areas for a variety of student activities. A mix of new construction and renovation of the previous student center, the facility bridges the residential and academic sides of campus. It includes dining areas, such as the Great Hall and Rafskeller, fitness rooms, the bookstore, a Hearth Room, a swimming facility and spaces for student services, organizations and community outreach. the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

27

Special Collections librarian BJ Gooch retires

Transylvania names Shawn Lyons new VP for advancement; Steve Angelucci becomes assistant to president Shawn Lyons (top), a longtime development and alumni engagement expert, was named as Transylvania’s new vice president for advancement in November. Lyons, who most recently served as a vice president at Centre College, brings more than three decades of experience and leadership to the university.

In this position he leads fundraising initiatives and engages with alumni and others who want to invest in the school’s mission to not only prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century, but to help them lead fulfilling lives.

Lyons joined Transylvania after former vice president for advancement Steve Angelucci took on a new role at the school. He is now an assistant to the president, where he focuses on developing new initiatives that benefit students. Angelucci works closely with Brien Lewis in creating an immersive entrepreneurship program at Transylvania, giving students the opportunity to work with local companies throughout their undergraduate careers.

26

THIRD & BROADWAY

To have books so rare and valuable in your care as John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” double elephant folio and an illuminated manuscript specially made for a king 500 years ago, you naturally want to protect them.

Preservation certainly was a goal for BJ Gooch during her 26 years as Transylvania University’s Special Collections librarian and university archivist, but she never wanted to turn her department into a museum.

What she’s found most gratifying throughout her career is connecting professional researchers from across the globe, as well as Transylvania faculty and students, with vital pieces of history. Cataloging and digitizing archival materials have aided in this effort.

While the Special Collections department is adapting to the electronic age, paper and vellum still hold power over visitors. This was evident when a group of high school students saw the actual letters Transylvania President Horace Holley wrote about visiting Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Gooch remembers wondering if in this day and age youths could still be impressed by handwritten letters. “They were thoroughly impressed,” she says.

“A lot of my time here has been trying to increase access to collections,” Gooch continues. “I think what I most liked about my job is helping people.”

Read the full story on the 1780 blog.

Martha Billips ’78 — professor, scholar, administrator, alumna — retires

For nearly 50 years, Martha Billips has been as much a part of Transylvania University’s evolution as the school has been integral to her personal and professional growth. She’s experienced and influenced the institution as a student, professor, scholar and administrator, but also as a first-generation college student, working parent and committed colleague.

“Transy was transformational for me,” she says, recalling her arrival on campus from Pikeville, Kentucky, during the culturally fomenting mid-1970s. For Billips’s generation, women were new to many areas of the workforce; examples were sparse. She’d never considered a Ph.D. before coming to Transy, nor the idea that she could be a professor.

For 20 years Billips, a professor of English, directed the first-year experience at Transy, working with colleagues to build the pedagogy and a core experience that would at once introduce Transylvania’s academic expectations and meet the disparate academic needs of students new to campus.

As she enters the next leg of her journey, ready to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading without the necessity of underlining passages for future teaching, Billips is happy to observe Transylvania’s continuing promise. She sees it in the new leadership’s commitment to students and the university, in the remarkable changes to the physical campus, and above all else, she says, in the “intrinsic nature, the consistent spirit of the place — of community and inquisitiveness, and being able to push the limits.”

Read the complete article on the 1780 blog.

NCAA selects Transylvania as host for 2023, 2024 golf national championships

New William T. Young Campus Center opens fall 2020

The NCAA announced in October that Transylvania was selected to host both the 2023 Division III Men’s Golf National Championship and 2024 NCAA Division III Women’s Golf National Championship at the Keene Trace Golf Club in nearby Nicholasville.

“Both Transylvania and Keene Trace Golf Club put our heart and soul into hosting the men’s golf championship in 2019, and we are blessed to have the opportunity to do it again,” Vice President of Athletics Holly Sheilley said. “It is double the excitement to also have the opportunity to host the women’s golf championship in 2024. It is a chance for us to showcase central Kentucky and support Division III student-athletes, and I am confident we will do it very well.”

Transylvania releases three-year roadmap to grow enrollment, support students

Approved in October by Transylvania’s Board of Trustees, the university’s new Strategic Focus is an agile, targeted, three-year plan for the future titled “Pursuing a BOLD PATH for Transylvania University: 2021-2024.”

The Strategic Focus is organized around four key goals: growing enrollment, leveraging the university’s capacities, diversifying the campus community and providing the financial support needed to implement these efforts. Specifically, the plan sets an aggressive enrollment target of 1,150 by 2024, highlighting the important role the school plays in educating students in Kentucky and surrounding states. It also seeks to ensure Transylvania has the best, most innovative liberal arts program and provides personalized support for students, while upholding its commitment to social responsibility in a diverse world.

Transylvania’s William T. Young Campus Center had a soft opening during the pandemic, offering bright, welcoming areas for a variety of student activities. A mix of new construction and renovation of the previous student center, the facility bridges the residential and academic sides of campus. It includes dining areas, such as the Great Hall and Rafskeller, fitness rooms, the bookstore, a Hearth Room, a swimming facility and spaces for student services, organizations and community outreach. the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

27

alumni

NOTES Submit Your Alumni News email: alumni@transy.edu web: alumni.transy.edu/update mail: Office of Alumni and Development Transylvania University 300 North Broadway Lexington, KY 40508.

1940

1980

John Clarke ’48, Louisburg, Kansas, enjoys receiving Third & Broadway magazine and hopes to visit campus for his 95th birthday later this year. He will always be grateful for professor Leland Brown, who paved the way for his medical school admission after he returned from World War II. Dr. Clarke sends his best wishes to all Transy alumni.

Kyle Brown Rahn ’81, Las Vegas, is the president and CEO of United Way of Southern Nevada.

1950 Eugene Scruggs ’59, Lakeland, Florida, has taken advantage of the isolation this year to write two new books: “The Boys from Company K” and “The Last Troubadour.” Both are available on Amazon.

1960 Dot Couch Watson ’62, Tullahoma, Tennessee, received the Member Contest for Literacy in her chapter of the Tennessee Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mary Haylee Scott Hancock ’63, Madisonville, Kentucky, has been named Kentucky’s Master Gardener of the Year. She co-chairs the Master Garden community garden, which donates nearly 4,000 lbs. of produce per season to the Madisonville Christian Food Bank.

Susan McDevitt ’66, Lemon Grove, California, is writing about her memories of living in Baja California, Mexico, for 14 years. The working title is “Starting Over Again in Mexico.”

Jill Robinson ’68, Frankfort, Kentucky, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her service on the Kentucky Commission on Women and the Franklin County Council on Family Abuse as part of the 25th annual Governor’s Service Awards.

1970 Ann Updegraff Spleth ’71, Indianapolis, retired as chief operating officer for the Kiwanis Children’s Fund in August after a 19-year career in fundraising.

Martha Billips ’78, Lexington, retired in August after 23 years of dedicated service in the English program at Transylvania.

Tim Steinemann ’79, Cleveland, was awarded the 2020 Outstanding Advocate Award by the Eye and Contact Lens Association.

28

THIRD & BROADWAY

Janis Stivers Nunnally ’83, Cookeville, Tennessee, was recognized as the 2021 Tennessee Art Educator of the Year.

Curt Robertson ’84, Lexington, was recognized with a Small Business Award for Excellence in Construction by the Society of American Military Engineers.

Stuart Brown ’86, Versailles, Kentucky, was named Keeneland’s equine safety director in June.

Gene Vance ’87, Lexington, was appointed to the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in August.

Clif Freeman ’88, Louisville, became managing partner at Vaco’s Kentucky offices in June.

1990 Kristin Chilton ’90, Lexington, retired from her position as chief of the Lexington Fire Department in January after 28 years of service.

Amy Adams Schirmer ’92, Arlington, Virginia, was appointed as managing director and senior wealth adviser of MAI Capital Management LLC. Amy Colignon Gunn ’93, St. Louis, was recognized by “Best Lawyers” as one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2021 and received the President’s Award from the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys in October in recognition of her efforts to protect and defend the civil justice system.

Cleveland S. “Landy” Townsend IV ’94, Wake Forest, North Carolina, was named vice president of marketing strategy and communications for TrialCard, a pharmaceutical solutions company.

Landy has also been elected as a board member for the Miracle League of the Triangle, an organization that creates positive life experiences for individuals with special needs.

Rajan A.G. Patel ’95, New Orleans, was recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a top interventional cardiologist in the field of medicine in September.

Noel Green ’96, Lancaster, Kentucky, was named Garrard County Schools Teacher of the Month in October.

He is the band director for Garrard Middle School.

Rebecca Modys ’96, Fort Myers, Florida, was promoted to principal librarian, youth collection development manager for the 13-branch Lee County Library System in February 2020.

Laura Roberts Jones ’00, Lexington, was promoted to director at Beautycounter, a clean beauty brand based in Santa Monica, California, in November. Learn more at beautycounter.com/laurajones.

Jason Bitsoff ’97, Lakewood Ranch, Florida, was named chief commercial officer of Chip Ganassi Racing in August.

Ben Wynd ’00, Franklin, Tennessee, has successfully served as director and audit committee chair for five years at an NYSE-listed company.

He and his wife, Rebecca, have also voluntarily led the design, fundraising and completion of the first mountain bike park in Williamson County.

Kevin Brown ’97, Lexington, received the 2020 William T. Nallia Award from the Kentucky Association of School Administrators for his service as interim Kentucky education commissioner.

Rachelle Williams Bolton ’98, Lexington, serves on the mayor’s Commission for Racial Justice and Equality.

Hayden Travis Mauk ’98, Middleton, Wisconsin, won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program. He directed and produced “The Zimmern List” for the Travel Channel.

Leigh Ann Blackburn Napier ’98, Lexington, joined Amare Global in July. Her passion is serving others and replacing the stigma of mental health struggle with science and solutions via gut-brain axis optimization. She and her husband, Mike, live in Lexington with their three daughters and two rescue pups.

Angela Roberts ’98, Nicholasville, Kentucky, received her medical coding certificate through the American Academy of Professional Coders in June. She also celebrated one year of remission from leukemia.

Travis Pond ’99, Beavercreek Township, Ohio, was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Air Force on Oct. 1. He is stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, serving as the deputy director of contracting for Air Force Materiel Command, responsible for over $57 billion in contracts.

2000 Victor Enaker ’00, Lexington, released the first title in his series “Dr. Vic’s Books for Kids.” “The Girl who Grew a Sunflower Taller than Herself” is available in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and as an ebook.

Erica Johnson ’00, Dubuque, Iowa, began a new job as assistant director of inclusion and advocacy at Loras College.

Miranda Clapp Wyles ’02, Paris, Kentucky, received the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in October.

Cori Carter Douglas ’02, Owensboro, Kentucky, graduated from the Greater Owensboro Chamber’s Leadership Owensboro Class of 2020. She is the clinical supervisor for Sunrise Children’s Services and is a part-time therapist at St. Joe’s Peace Mission. This spring she is teaching online courses for social work at Owensboro Community & Technical College.

Mary Goldie ’07, Dallas, started working as the manager of administration membership and outreach for Lonestar Education and Research Network, a nonprofit that provides high-speed fiber optic networking connectivity and services to universities and health care entities in Texas.

Melissa Coombs Mattox ’07, Georgetown, Kentucky, taught courses in accounting at Transylvania in the fall 2020 semester.

Meredith Plant ’07, Lexington, began a new full-time position as an admissions counselor and support specialist with the Lexington-based company Enrollment Builders in fall 2020.

Mary Awoniyi ’08, Pyeontaek, South Korea, is the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Young Military Lawyer Award.

Clay Fedde ’09, Bethesda, Maryland, started working at Citbank N.A. as a personal banker in January 2020.

Colmon V. Elridge III ’03, Georgetown, Kentucky, was elected chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. He is the first African American to hold this position.

Erin Mead Spring ’09, Lexington, began teaching fifth grade at Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary school in August.

Ellen Furlong ’03, Normal, Illinois, released her audiobook, “Decoding Dogs: Inside the Canine Mind.”

2010

Jessica Holmes Masters ’03, Frankfort, Kentucky, received the Kentucky Society for Technology in Education Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in March 2020.

Katie Griffin Jenner ’04, Madison, Indiana, has been appointed the first secretary of education for the state of Indiana. This was previously an elected position.

Jamie Hafer ’05, Arlington, Virginia, became the senior human resources generalist at Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch LLP in February 2020.

John Sallee ’05, Ooltewah, Tennessee, joined the Amazon Launch Team in May 2019 and manages new construction for the company across the country. He is a workplace health and safety design, construction and startup program manager and has been with Amazon for 15 years.

Steve Pratt ’06, Seattle, was installed as a pastor at Rainier Valley Church in 2020, where he serves in an unpaid capacity to help in teaching, preaching and discipleship.

Clinton Colliver ’10, Lexington, was promoted in January 2020 at his company, NASPO. Sydney Crawley ’11, Raleigh, North Carolina, started working as an assistant professor of urban and structural entomology at North Carolina State University.

Ashley Lynne Stafford ’11, New York, had one of her works displayed as part of a monthlong art exhibition in Long Island City. In October she received the award for Best Dance Short from the Astoria Film Festival for her film titled “myself.”

Madeline Keyser Fisher ’12, Lexington, joined CHI Saint Joseph Medical Group in August, specializing in internal medicine and pediatrics.

Taylor Crawley de Villiers ’14, Winchester, Kentucky, was promoted to consumer lender at Traditional Bank at its downtown Winchester banking center.

Heather Dillander ’16, Louisville, graduated with a Master of Arts in applied behavior analysis from Ball State University in July. She is a registered behavior technician at Meaningful Day Services.

Celsey Fannin ’16, Hillsborough, North Carolina, was named a staff attorney at the domestic violence division of Legal Aid of North Carolina.

Lindsay Hieronymus ’16, Richmond, Kentucky, was named director of basketball operations for the women’s basketball team at Eastern Kentucky University in July.

Mollie Stocker Staggs ’16, Nicholasville, Kentucky, earned her LCSW in October 2020 and is part of the inaugural Doctorate of Social Work program at the University of Kentucky.

Malory Thelen ’16, Dallas, has been named associate attorney at Jones Day. Elijah Hack ’17, Cincinnati, graduated from the University of Cincinnati School of Law in May. He passed the Ohio bar exam and was promoted to associate attorney at Rolfes Henry Co. LPA. Graham McCormick ’17, Lexington, joined Coldwell Banker McMahan as a real estate agent in July.

Katie Stuempfle ’18, Revere, Massachusetts, graduated from Salem State University with a master’s degree in I/O psychology in May. The next day she began working as an HR coordinator with Partners in Health.

2020 Rian Boelter ’20, Lexington, began working at Sazerac as a payroll analyst in June.

Stevee Candrl ’20, West Chester, Ohio, started working as a pharmacy intern at Kroger Pharmacy.

Caswell Fuller ’20, Nashville, Tennessee, began working at PwC as an assurance associate in September.

Austin Lamb ’20, Roswell, Georgia, began working at General Motors as a software engineer in October.

Gabriella Oldendick ’20, Warsaw, Kentucky, began working as a staff accountant for RFH, PLLC.

MARRIAGES Rachelle C. Williams ’98 and Kevin Bolton, Sept. 5, 2020 Matthew V. Roth ’04 and Erin E. Jones ’05, Oct. 17, 2020 Matthew R. Vogel ’08 and Katie Sanders, July 11, 2020 Garrett Bernard ’10 and Sarah Bloch, Aug. 8, 2020 Clinton Colliver ’10 and Ashley Gibson, Nov. 9, 2019

Haley Williams ’17, Bowling Green, Kentucky, began working as a staff attorney in August.

Morgan Richardson ’10 and Luis David Hernandez Cayama, July 25, 2020

Lindsay Bloom ’18, Louisville, was appointed executive adviser to the first lady in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Governor Andy Beshear in December 2019.

Jessica Root ’12 and Mitch Whelan, July 31, 2020

Holly Dorfman ’18, Durham, North Carolina, was named director of volleyball operations at Duke University in August.

Johnna K. Carey ’13 and Thomas Park, May 22, 2020 Katherine E. Cohron ’16 and Aaron Cambron, Nov. 7, 2020 Olivia Ellis ’16 and Tim Saylor ’15, Oct. 24, 2020 Lyndsey G. Miller ’16 and Timothy Baker ’18, Nov. 8, 2020

Justin Tereshko ’12, Lexington, became the head coach of the men’s and women’s golf teams at Hanover College in July.

Annelisa Hermosilla ’18, Falls Church, Virginia, illustrated a bilingual children’s book, “Under the Ocelot Sun/Bajo el sol del Ocelote,” which was released in July. The book was written by Transylvania Spanish professor Jeremy Paden.

Ansley Turner ’13, Lexington, started her own chiropractic office in August with her sister, Jenna Turner ’16, called Central Kentucky Chiropractic.

Tyler Lega ’18, Indianapolis, graduated from Marian University in May with a master’s degree in the art of teaching.

Jessica Powell ’19 and Jackson Humphrey, Sept. 5, 2020

Mollie S. Stocker ’16 and Sam Staggs, June 13, 2020 Cady B. Cornell ’17 and Elijah Hack ’17, Sept. 26, 2020

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

29

alumni

NOTES Submit Your Alumni News email: alumni@transy.edu web: alumni.transy.edu/update mail: Office of Alumni and Development Transylvania University 300 North Broadway Lexington, KY 40508.

1940

1980

John Clarke ’48, Louisburg, Kansas, enjoys receiving Third & Broadway magazine and hopes to visit campus for his 95th birthday later this year. He will always be grateful for professor Leland Brown, who paved the way for his medical school admission after he returned from World War II. Dr. Clarke sends his best wishes to all Transy alumni.

Kyle Brown Rahn ’81, Las Vegas, is the president and CEO of United Way of Southern Nevada.

1950 Eugene Scruggs ’59, Lakeland, Florida, has taken advantage of the isolation this year to write two new books: “The Boys from Company K” and “The Last Troubadour.” Both are available on Amazon.

1960 Dot Couch Watson ’62, Tullahoma, Tennessee, received the Member Contest for Literacy in her chapter of the Tennessee Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mary Haylee Scott Hancock ’63, Madisonville, Kentucky, has been named Kentucky’s Master Gardener of the Year. She co-chairs the Master Garden community garden, which donates nearly 4,000 lbs. of produce per season to the Madisonville Christian Food Bank.

Susan McDevitt ’66, Lemon Grove, California, is writing about her memories of living in Baja California, Mexico, for 14 years. The working title is “Starting Over Again in Mexico.”

Jill Robinson ’68, Frankfort, Kentucky, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her service on the Kentucky Commission on Women and the Franklin County Council on Family Abuse as part of the 25th annual Governor’s Service Awards.

1970 Ann Updegraff Spleth ’71, Indianapolis, retired as chief operating officer for the Kiwanis Children’s Fund in August after a 19-year career in fundraising.

Martha Billips ’78, Lexington, retired in August after 23 years of dedicated service in the English program at Transylvania.

Tim Steinemann ’79, Cleveland, was awarded the 2020 Outstanding Advocate Award by the Eye and Contact Lens Association.

28

THIRD & BROADWAY

Janis Stivers Nunnally ’83, Cookeville, Tennessee, was recognized as the 2021 Tennessee Art Educator of the Year.

Curt Robertson ’84, Lexington, was recognized with a Small Business Award for Excellence in Construction by the Society of American Military Engineers.

Stuart Brown ’86, Versailles, Kentucky, was named Keeneland’s equine safety director in June.

Gene Vance ’87, Lexington, was appointed to the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in August.

Clif Freeman ’88, Louisville, became managing partner at Vaco’s Kentucky offices in June.

1990 Kristin Chilton ’90, Lexington, retired from her position as chief of the Lexington Fire Department in January after 28 years of service.

Amy Adams Schirmer ’92, Arlington, Virginia, was appointed as managing director and senior wealth adviser of MAI Capital Management LLC. Amy Colignon Gunn ’93, St. Louis, was recognized by “Best Lawyers” as one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2021 and received the President’s Award from the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys in October in recognition of her efforts to protect and defend the civil justice system.

Cleveland S. “Landy” Townsend IV ’94, Wake Forest, North Carolina, was named vice president of marketing strategy and communications for TrialCard, a pharmaceutical solutions company.

Landy has also been elected as a board member for the Miracle League of the Triangle, an organization that creates positive life experiences for individuals with special needs.

Rajan A.G. Patel ’95, New Orleans, was recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a top interventional cardiologist in the field of medicine in September.

Noel Green ’96, Lancaster, Kentucky, was named Garrard County Schools Teacher of the Month in October.

He is the band director for Garrard Middle School.

Rebecca Modys ’96, Fort Myers, Florida, was promoted to principal librarian, youth collection development manager for the 13-branch Lee County Library System in February 2020.

Laura Roberts Jones ’00, Lexington, was promoted to director at Beautycounter, a clean beauty brand based in Santa Monica, California, in November. Learn more at beautycounter.com/laurajones.

Jason Bitsoff ’97, Lakewood Ranch, Florida, was named chief commercial officer of Chip Ganassi Racing in August.

Ben Wynd ’00, Franklin, Tennessee, has successfully served as director and audit committee chair for five years at an NYSE-listed company.

He and his wife, Rebecca, have also voluntarily led the design, fundraising and completion of the first mountain bike park in Williamson County.

Kevin Brown ’97, Lexington, received the 2020 William T. Nallia Award from the Kentucky Association of School Administrators for his service as interim Kentucky education commissioner.

Rachelle Williams Bolton ’98, Lexington, serves on the mayor’s Commission for Racial Justice and Equality.

Hayden Travis Mauk ’98, Middleton, Wisconsin, won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program. He directed and produced “The Zimmern List” for the Travel Channel.

Leigh Ann Blackburn Napier ’98, Lexington, joined Amare Global in July. Her passion is serving others and replacing the stigma of mental health struggle with science and solutions via gut-brain axis optimization. She and her husband, Mike, live in Lexington with their three daughters and two rescue pups.

Angela Roberts ’98, Nicholasville, Kentucky, received her medical coding certificate through the American Academy of Professional Coders in June. She also celebrated one year of remission from leukemia.

Travis Pond ’99, Beavercreek Township, Ohio, was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Air Force on Oct. 1. He is stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, serving as the deputy director of contracting for Air Force Materiel Command, responsible for over $57 billion in contracts.

2000 Victor Enaker ’00, Lexington, released the first title in his series “Dr. Vic’s Books for Kids.” “The Girl who Grew a Sunflower Taller than Herself” is available in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and as an ebook.

Erica Johnson ’00, Dubuque, Iowa, began a new job as assistant director of inclusion and advocacy at Loras College.

Miranda Clapp Wyles ’02, Paris, Kentucky, received the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in October.

Cori Carter Douglas ’02, Owensboro, Kentucky, graduated from the Greater Owensboro Chamber’s Leadership Owensboro Class of 2020. She is the clinical supervisor for Sunrise Children’s Services and is a part-time therapist at St. Joe’s Peace Mission. This spring she is teaching online courses for social work at Owensboro Community & Technical College.

Mary Goldie ’07, Dallas, started working as the manager of administration membership and outreach for Lonestar Education and Research Network, a nonprofit that provides high-speed fiber optic networking connectivity and services to universities and health care entities in Texas.

Melissa Coombs Mattox ’07, Georgetown, Kentucky, taught courses in accounting at Transylvania in the fall 2020 semester.

Meredith Plant ’07, Lexington, began a new full-time position as an admissions counselor and support specialist with the Lexington-based company Enrollment Builders in fall 2020.

Mary Awoniyi ’08, Pyeontaek, South Korea, is the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Young Military Lawyer Award.

Clay Fedde ’09, Bethesda, Maryland, started working at Citbank N.A. as a personal banker in January 2020.

Colmon V. Elridge III ’03, Georgetown, Kentucky, was elected chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. He is the first African American to hold this position.

Erin Mead Spring ’09, Lexington, began teaching fifth grade at Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary school in August.

Ellen Furlong ’03, Normal, Illinois, released her audiobook, “Decoding Dogs: Inside the Canine Mind.”

2010

Jessica Holmes Masters ’03, Frankfort, Kentucky, received the Kentucky Society for Technology in Education Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in March 2020.

Katie Griffin Jenner ’04, Madison, Indiana, has been appointed the first secretary of education for the state of Indiana. This was previously an elected position.

Jamie Hafer ’05, Arlington, Virginia, became the senior human resources generalist at Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch LLP in February 2020.

John Sallee ’05, Ooltewah, Tennessee, joined the Amazon Launch Team in May 2019 and manages new construction for the company across the country. He is a workplace health and safety design, construction and startup program manager and has been with Amazon for 15 years.

Steve Pratt ’06, Seattle, was installed as a pastor at Rainier Valley Church in 2020, where he serves in an unpaid capacity to help in teaching, preaching and discipleship.

Clinton Colliver ’10, Lexington, was promoted in January 2020 at his company, NASPO. Sydney Crawley ’11, Raleigh, North Carolina, started working as an assistant professor of urban and structural entomology at North Carolina State University.

Ashley Lynne Stafford ’11, New York, had one of her works displayed as part of a monthlong art exhibition in Long Island City. In October she received the award for Best Dance Short from the Astoria Film Festival for her film titled “myself.”

Madeline Keyser Fisher ’12, Lexington, joined CHI Saint Joseph Medical Group in August, specializing in internal medicine and pediatrics.

Taylor Crawley de Villiers ’14, Winchester, Kentucky, was promoted to consumer lender at Traditional Bank at its downtown Winchester banking center.

Heather Dillander ’16, Louisville, graduated with a Master of Arts in applied behavior analysis from Ball State University in July. She is a registered behavior technician at Meaningful Day Services.

Celsey Fannin ’16, Hillsborough, North Carolina, was named a staff attorney at the domestic violence division of Legal Aid of North Carolina.

Lindsay Hieronymus ’16, Richmond, Kentucky, was named director of basketball operations for the women’s basketball team at Eastern Kentucky University in July.

Mollie Stocker Staggs ’16, Nicholasville, Kentucky, earned her LCSW in October 2020 and is part of the inaugural Doctorate of Social Work program at the University of Kentucky.

Malory Thelen ’16, Dallas, has been named associate attorney at Jones Day. Elijah Hack ’17, Cincinnati, graduated from the University of Cincinnati School of Law in May. He passed the Ohio bar exam and was promoted to associate attorney at Rolfes Henry Co. LPA. Graham McCormick ’17, Lexington, joined Coldwell Banker McMahan as a real estate agent in July.

Katie Stuempfle ’18, Revere, Massachusetts, graduated from Salem State University with a master’s degree in I/O psychology in May. The next day she began working as an HR coordinator with Partners in Health.

2020 Rian Boelter ’20, Lexington, began working at Sazerac as a payroll analyst in June.

Stevee Candrl ’20, West Chester, Ohio, started working as a pharmacy intern at Kroger Pharmacy.

Caswell Fuller ’20, Nashville, Tennessee, began working at PwC as an assurance associate in September.

Austin Lamb ’20, Roswell, Georgia, began working at General Motors as a software engineer in October.

Gabriella Oldendick ’20, Warsaw, Kentucky, began working as a staff accountant for RFH, PLLC.

MARRIAGES Rachelle C. Williams ’98 and Kevin Bolton, Sept. 5, 2020 Matthew V. Roth ’04 and Erin E. Jones ’05, Oct. 17, 2020 Matthew R. Vogel ’08 and Katie Sanders, July 11, 2020 Garrett Bernard ’10 and Sarah Bloch, Aug. 8, 2020 Clinton Colliver ’10 and Ashley Gibson, Nov. 9, 2019

Haley Williams ’17, Bowling Green, Kentucky, began working as a staff attorney in August.

Morgan Richardson ’10 and Luis David Hernandez Cayama, July 25, 2020

Lindsay Bloom ’18, Louisville, was appointed executive adviser to the first lady in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Governor Andy Beshear in December 2019.

Jessica Root ’12 and Mitch Whelan, July 31, 2020

Holly Dorfman ’18, Durham, North Carolina, was named director of volleyball operations at Duke University in August.

Johnna K. Carey ’13 and Thomas Park, May 22, 2020 Katherine E. Cohron ’16 and Aaron Cambron, Nov. 7, 2020 Olivia Ellis ’16 and Tim Saylor ’15, Oct. 24, 2020 Lyndsey G. Miller ’16 and Timothy Baker ’18, Nov. 8, 2020

Justin Tereshko ’12, Lexington, became the head coach of the men’s and women’s golf teams at Hanover College in July.

Annelisa Hermosilla ’18, Falls Church, Virginia, illustrated a bilingual children’s book, “Under the Ocelot Sun/Bajo el sol del Ocelote,” which was released in July. The book was written by Transylvania Spanish professor Jeremy Paden.

Ansley Turner ’13, Lexington, started her own chiropractic office in August with her sister, Jenna Turner ’16, called Central Kentucky Chiropractic.

Tyler Lega ’18, Indianapolis, graduated from Marian University in May with a master’s degree in the art of teaching.

Jessica Powell ’19 and Jackson Humphrey, Sept. 5, 2020

Mollie S. Stocker ’16 and Sam Staggs, June 13, 2020 Cady B. Cornell ’17 and Elijah Hack ’17, Sept. 26, 2020

the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

29

SAVE THE DATE Alumni Weekend “Double the Fun,” for class reunions of 2020 and 2021, has been postponed to Oct. 22-24, 2021.

Details will be available later this summer.

Alumni Weekend 2022 will be April 29-May 1, 2022.

For more information contact: Natasa Pajic Mongiardo ‘96 859-233-8213; 800-487-2679 nmongiardo@transy.edu

IN MEMORIAM Loretta Gilliam Clark ’39, Louisville, died Sept. 3, 2020.

James Devine ’49, El Paso, Texas, died Sept. 18, 2020.

Donald Frantz ’49, Louisville, died Oct. 8, 2020.

Edward Hickcox ’49, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, died Sept. 9, 2020.

Norma Cundiff Loew ’49, Fredericksburg, Virginia, died Sept. 4, 2020.

Bettye Chapman Lloyd ’50, Louisville, died Nov. 24, 2020.

Ralph Levin ’50, Margate City, New Jersey, died Nov. 21, 2020.

Joe Graves ’52, Lexington, brother of Nancy Graves Talbott ’54, died Sept. 11, 2020.

Elizabeth Clemens Gay “Betsy” van Nagell ’66, Lexington, died Sept. 3, 2020.

William Swatos ’66, Galva, Illinois, died Nov. 9, 2020.

James Dyer ’67, Morganfield, Kentucky, died Oct. 24, 2020.

Charlotte DeAnna Robbins Carrera ’68, Richmond, Kentucky, died Jan. 31, 2018.

John Gaitskill ’68, Hendersonville, North Carolina, died June 26, 2019.

Betty Newbury ’68, Versailles, Kentucky, died Aug. 15, 2020.

John M. DeFonce ’72, Stratford, Connecticut, died July 20, 2020.

William Clark ’74, Versailles, Kentucky, died Nov. 6, 2020.

Leah Jane Prewitt ’74, Auburn, Alabama, died Nov. 21, 2020.

Cecil Lunsford ’56, Louisville, husband of Sharlene Veneman Lunsford ’56 and father of Christie Lunsford ’90, died Nov. 4, 2018.

Lynn Huddleston ’76, Louisville, died Aug. 24, 2020.

Joy Griffin Haught ’57, Nashville, Tennessee, wife of Max Haught ’63, died Sept. 7, 2020.

Calvin Fulkerson ’77, Lexington, father of Kelsey Fulkerson Tereshko ’12, died Nov. 12, 2020.

Jimmy R. Stone ’59, Bluffton, South Carolina, husband of June Gunter Stone ’59 and father of Kathryn M. Stone ’89, died Oct. 7, 2020.

Deborah McIntyre Helkowski ’77, Redwood City, California, died Dec. 1, 2020.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Boden McGehee ’61, Covington, Georgia, died Dec. 6, 2020.

Betty LeMarr Wampler ’61, Austell, Georgia, wife of H. Wade Wampler ’58, mother of Dana Henry Wampler D’Andrea ’87 and sister of Charles Robert “Bob” LeMarr ’58, died April 14, 2020.

Brooks Morgan ’62, Lexington, husband of Ruth Powell Morgan ’64, died Nov. 1, 2020.

Mary Dyer Barton ’63, Venice, Florida, died Nov. 7, 2020.

Leonard Conway Brown ’63, Louisville, husband of Gail Lutz Brown ’64, died Aug. 19, 2020.

Betty Honaker Short ’63, Lexington, died Oct. 10, 2020.

John Parsons Hunter ’64, Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, died Oct. 7, 2020.

Keith W Christian ’77, Mount Dora, Florida, died Sept. 17, 2020.

Wendell Gividen ’78, St. Petersburg, Florida, died July 28, 2020.

Joan M. Eich ’81, Broomfield, Colorado, died April 19, 2020.

Daniel Hardigree ’81, Nicholasville, Kentucky, father of Kaylee Hardigree ’20, died July 27, 2020.

Susan Gilbreath ’84, Chattanooga, Tennessee, died Aug. 18, 2020.

Harry “Mick” Somerville ’92, Lexington, died Dec. 2, 2020.

Robyn Fore ’93, Louisville, died Aug. 1, 2020.

Fred “Trae” Ballou III ’94, Lexington, died Aug. 23, 2020.

Katherine McKee ’02, Lexington, sister of Herbie McKee ’04, died July 27, 2020.

Former staff member John William McCord, Lexington, died Nov. 16, 2020.

James W. Lyons ’64, Lebanon, Ohio, died Sept. 28, 2019.

Esther “Monnie” Walton Parker ’66, Louisville, died Nov. 15, 2020.

30

THIRD & BROADWAY

THE RIGHT ONE FOR THE RIGHT TIME

Only surviving immediate relatives who are Transylvania alumni are listed.

Kevin Brown ’97 remembers the sound of his principal walking down the wooden floors of Paint Lick Elementary in Garrard County, Kentucky. It made him sit up straight, he recalls, not out of fear, but respect. She offered reassurance during times of setback and built up confidence in his abilities.

Brown, who went on to major in business administration and minor in political science at Transylvania, before pursuing his law degree at the University of Kentucky, experienced early on the importance of having the right leader in place to answer the needs of Kentucky’s children.

In December of 2019, Brown was asked to take temporary leave of his position as general counsel for Jefferson County Public Schools and the Jefferson County Board of Education in Louisville in order to serve as interim commissioner for Kentucky’s Department of Education. Then came

the coronavirus. In March of 2020, almost overnight, school districts were required to shutter all buildings and replace in-class learning with online instruction.

“There was no guidebook,” Brown says. For all of the premade emergency plans, nothing accounted for a

words that came to my mind at the time were educate, feed and fund. We later changed that to educate, feed and support.”

Brown draws a direct correlation between his ability to navigate the journey of unknowns and his liberal arts education at Transylvania.

“That’s the beauty of a liberal arts education — to synthesize information, to be able to problem-solve and apply knowledge to a unique situation. That’s what Transy is all about.”

COVID-19 scenario. “I can remember thinking to myself, driving to work or lying in bed at night,” Brown recalls, “‘what are the things we need to focus on during this pandemic?’” Even in 2018-19, nearly 400,000 public school children in Kentucky were considered economically disadvantaged. “The three

“You have to be able to pivot. You have to be able to synthesize the information,” he explains. “These types of skills are actually in keeping with what Transy does. That’s the beauty of a liberal arts education — to synthesize information, to be able to problemsolve and apply knowledge to a unique the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

31

SAVE THE DATE Alumni Weekend “Double the Fun,” for class reunions of 2020 and 2021, has been postponed to Oct. 22-24, 2021.

Details will be available later this summer.

Alumni Weekend 2022 will be April 29-May 1, 2022.

For more information contact: Natasa Pajic Mongiardo ‘96 859-233-8213; 800-487-2679 nmongiardo@transy.edu

IN MEMORIAM Loretta Gilliam Clark ’39, Louisville, died Sept. 3, 2020.

James Devine ’49, El Paso, Texas, died Sept. 18, 2020.

Donald Frantz ’49, Louisville, died Oct. 8, 2020.

Edward Hickcox ’49, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, died Sept. 9, 2020.

Norma Cundiff Loew ’49, Fredericksburg, Virginia, died Sept. 4, 2020.

Bettye Chapman Lloyd ’50, Louisville, died Nov. 24, 2020.

Ralph Levin ’50, Margate City, New Jersey, died Nov. 21, 2020.

Joe Graves ’52, Lexington, brother of Nancy Graves Talbott ’54, died Sept. 11, 2020.

Elizabeth Clemens Gay “Betsy” van Nagell ’66, Lexington, died Sept. 3, 2020.

William Swatos ’66, Galva, Illinois, died Nov. 9, 2020.

James Dyer ’67, Morganfield, Kentucky, died Oct. 24, 2020.

Charlotte DeAnna Robbins Carrera ’68, Richmond, Kentucky, died Jan. 31, 2018.

John Gaitskill ’68, Hendersonville, North Carolina, died June 26, 2019.

Betty Newbury ’68, Versailles, Kentucky, died Aug. 15, 2020.

John M. DeFonce ’72, Stratford, Connecticut, died July 20, 2020.

William Clark ’74, Versailles, Kentucky, died Nov. 6, 2020.

Leah Jane Prewitt ’74, Auburn, Alabama, died Nov. 21, 2020.

Cecil Lunsford ’56, Louisville, husband of Sharlene Veneman Lunsford ’56 and father of Christie Lunsford ’90, died Nov. 4, 2018.

Lynn Huddleston ’76, Louisville, died Aug. 24, 2020.

Joy Griffin Haught ’57, Nashville, Tennessee, wife of Max Haught ’63, died Sept. 7, 2020.

Calvin Fulkerson ’77, Lexington, father of Kelsey Fulkerson Tereshko ’12, died Nov. 12, 2020.

Jimmy R. Stone ’59, Bluffton, South Carolina, husband of June Gunter Stone ’59 and father of Kathryn M. Stone ’89, died Oct. 7, 2020.

Deborah McIntyre Helkowski ’77, Redwood City, California, died Dec. 1, 2020.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Boden McGehee ’61, Covington, Georgia, died Dec. 6, 2020.

Betty LeMarr Wampler ’61, Austell, Georgia, wife of H. Wade Wampler ’58, mother of Dana Henry Wampler D’Andrea ’87 and sister of Charles Robert “Bob” LeMarr ’58, died April 14, 2020.

Brooks Morgan ’62, Lexington, husband of Ruth Powell Morgan ’64, died Nov. 1, 2020.

Mary Dyer Barton ’63, Venice, Florida, died Nov. 7, 2020.

Leonard Conway Brown ’63, Louisville, husband of Gail Lutz Brown ’64, died Aug. 19, 2020.

Betty Honaker Short ’63, Lexington, died Oct. 10, 2020.

John Parsons Hunter ’64, Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, died Oct. 7, 2020.

Keith W Christian ’77, Mount Dora, Florida, died Sept. 17, 2020.

Wendell Gividen ’78, St. Petersburg, Florida, died July 28, 2020.

Joan M. Eich ’81, Broomfield, Colorado, died April 19, 2020.

Daniel Hardigree ’81, Nicholasville, Kentucky, father of Kaylee Hardigree ’20, died July 27, 2020.

Susan Gilbreath ’84, Chattanooga, Tennessee, died Aug. 18, 2020.

Harry “Mick” Somerville ’92, Lexington, died Dec. 2, 2020.

Robyn Fore ’93, Louisville, died Aug. 1, 2020.

Fred “Trae” Ballou III ’94, Lexington, died Aug. 23, 2020.

Katherine McKee ’02, Lexington, sister of Herbie McKee ’04, died July 27, 2020.

Former staff member John William McCord, Lexington, died Nov. 16, 2020.

James W. Lyons ’64, Lebanon, Ohio, died Sept. 28, 2019.

Esther “Monnie” Walton Parker ’66, Louisville, died Nov. 15, 2020.

30

THIRD & BROADWAY

THE RIGHT ONE FOR THE RIGHT TIME

Only surviving immediate relatives who are Transylvania alumni are listed.

Kevin Brown ’97 remembers the sound of his principal walking down the wooden floors of Paint Lick Elementary in Garrard County, Kentucky. It made him sit up straight, he recalls, not out of fear, but respect. She offered reassurance during times of setback and built up confidence in his abilities.

Brown, who went on to major in business administration and minor in political science at Transylvania, before pursuing his law degree at the University of Kentucky, experienced early on the importance of having the right leader in place to answer the needs of Kentucky’s children.

In December of 2019, Brown was asked to take temporary leave of his position as general counsel for Jefferson County Public Schools and the Jefferson County Board of Education in Louisville in order to serve as interim commissioner for Kentucky’s Department of Education. Then came

the coronavirus. In March of 2020, almost overnight, school districts were required to shutter all buildings and replace in-class learning with online instruction.

“There was no guidebook,” Brown says. For all of the premade emergency plans, nothing accounted for a

words that came to my mind at the time were educate, feed and fund. We later changed that to educate, feed and support.”

Brown draws a direct correlation between his ability to navigate the journey of unknowns and his liberal arts education at Transylvania.

“That’s the beauty of a liberal arts education — to synthesize information, to be able to problem-solve and apply knowledge to a unique situation. That’s what Transy is all about.”

COVID-19 scenario. “I can remember thinking to myself, driving to work or lying in bed at night,” Brown recalls, “‘what are the things we need to focus on during this pandemic?’” Even in 2018-19, nearly 400,000 public school children in Kentucky were considered economically disadvantaged. “The three

“You have to be able to pivot. You have to be able to synthesize the information,” he explains. “These types of skills are actually in keeping with what Transy does. That’s the beauty of a liberal arts education — to synthesize information, to be able to problemsolve and apply knowledge to a unique the magazine of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

31

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR

situation. That’s what Transy is all about. They don’t give you a bucket of knowledge; they give you the ability to tackle that bucket of knowledge the rest of your life.”

When the Kentucky Association of School Administrators recognized Brown’s efforts by presenting him with the 2020 William T. Nallia Award — given annually “to an education leader who reflects a spirit of innovation and cutting-edge leadership while bringing higher levels of success to all children” — the executive director stated that Brown was “the right person at the right time.”

But Brown quickly deflects the idea that he alone was responsible, hearkening back to the leadership modeled by his grade school principal and the college experience that helped shape him and his methods.

“Critical thinking,” he says, “doesn’t mean sitting at the department with my Transy degree coming up with all of these solutions. It’s being in a position to enable the team around me to do that.” His approach to having a “united, purpose-driven team,” he says, “is also in keeping with the liberal arts — to work together as teams, to rely on other information and to rely on valuable pushback.” Wanting to know the flaws in his own argument is right out of Transy, he notes.

32

THIRD & BROADWAY

“I can hear Dr. Dugi [professor of political science] right now talking about acting in good faith,” Brown says. “That’s a principle he ingrained in us at Transy, and one of the things I keep coming back to. I think that was his way of saying that our society, in many ways, is dependent on everyone acting in good faith.”

Brown still takes to heart the responsibility of being a William T. Young scholar. That investment in him, which made his Transy education possible, also inspires him to give back to Kentucky. “I took that charge seriously,” he says, “and believe it is a way to pay the debt back to Mr. Young and Transy.”

Back in his job as general counsel and looking ahead, Brown can see how important a liberal arts education will be in our ability to deal with the many monumental issues of our day, including equitable education, climate change, social and economic justice and how we interact with one another.

“All of those things going on at once,” he says, “call for solutions by creative thinkers, critical thinkers and, in my opinion, liberal arts graduates. I relied upon that heavily and am thankful for it every day.”

Read the full story on the 1780 blog.

FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021 Photo (above) courtesy of Kentucky Department of Education; all other photos courtesy of Toni Konz Tatman/Kentucky Department of Education

Make plans to join the fun, and show off your Transy spirit on this important day! We are back with more exciting challenges, and the competitions are fiercer than ever — all in support of our students and the university!

Be sure to update your email address with the Office of Alumni and Development (email us at giving@transy.edu or call 859-233-8275) so you don’t miss any of the Pioneer fun.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR

situation. That’s what Transy is all about. They don’t give you a bucket of knowledge; they give you the ability to tackle that bucket of knowledge the rest of your life.”

When the Kentucky Association of School Administrators recognized Brown’s efforts by presenting him with the 2020 William T. Nallia Award — given annually “to an education leader who reflects a spirit of innovation and cutting-edge leadership while bringing higher levels of success to all children” — the executive director stated that Brown was “the right person at the right time.”

But Brown quickly deflects the idea that he alone was responsible, hearkening back to the leadership modeled by his grade school principal and the college experience that helped shape him and his methods.

“Critical thinking,” he says, “doesn’t mean sitting at the department with my Transy degree coming up with all of these solutions. It’s being in a position to enable the team around me to do that.” His approach to having a “united, purpose-driven team,” he says, “is also in keeping with the liberal arts — to work together as teams, to rely on other information and to rely on valuable pushback.” Wanting to know the flaws in his own argument is right out of Transy, he notes.

32

THIRD & BROADWAY

“I can hear Dr. Dugi [professor of political science] right now talking about acting in good faith,” Brown says. “That’s a principle he ingrained in us at Transy, and one of the things I keep coming back to. I think that was his way of saying that our society, in many ways, is dependent on everyone acting in good faith.”

Brown still takes to heart the responsibility of being a William T. Young scholar. That investment in him, which made his Transy education possible, also inspires him to give back to Kentucky. “I took that charge seriously,” he says, “and believe it is a way to pay the debt back to Mr. Young and Transy.”

Back in his job as general counsel and looking ahead, Brown can see how important a liberal arts education will be in our ability to deal with the many monumental issues of our day, including equitable education, climate change, social and economic justice and how we interact with one another.

“All of those things going on at once,” he says, “call for solutions by creative thinkers, critical thinkers and, in my opinion, liberal arts graduates. I relied upon that heavily and am thankful for it every day.”

Read the full story on the 1780 blog.

FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021 Photo (above) courtesy of Kentucky Department of Education; all other photos courtesy of Toni Konz Tatman/Kentucky Department of Education

Make plans to join the fun, and show off your Transy spirit on this important day! We are back with more exciting challenges, and the competitions are fiercer than ever — all in support of our students and the university!

Be sure to update your email address with the Office of Alumni and Development (email us at giving@transy.edu or call 859-233-8275) so you don’t miss any of the Pioneer fun.

Office of Marketing and Communications 300 North Broadway Lexington, KY 40508

Get the latest Transy news and updates at transy.edu/1780.