News Archive
Ben Jellen, endangered species biologist and herpetologist from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, will present "The Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake in Pennsylvania" Thursday, April 22, at 7 p.m. in the McKelvey Campus Center Theater.
The presentation will focus on the present, past, and future status of the massasauga in Pennsylvania, as well as aspects of its natural history and current conservation efforts.
"Because an adult snake, which reaches only two or three feet in length, can eat up to nine pounds of rodents per year, massasaugas play a significant role in the ecosystems in which they live," said Dr. Ann Throckmorton, chair and associate professor of biology at Westminster. "They were once common throughout Allegheny, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence, Mercer, and Venango counties, but they have disappeared from many areas and are believed to exist only in three counties. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is conducting a study to locate the remaining populations of the eastern massasauga rattlesnake in Pennsylvania, including the New Wilmington area."
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Throckmorton at (724) 946-7209 or e-mail athrock@westminster.edu.
Dr. Amy Camardese, assistant professor of education at Westminster College, will discuss her experiences in Brazil at the Faculty Forum Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 11:45 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater located in the McKelvey Campus Center.
"I participated in an International Faculty Development Seminar through the Council on International Education Exchange," Camardese said. "I, along with 14 faculty members from colleges and universities in the United States, spent 10 days making site visits and attending lectures on Brazilian culture, economy, modern art, historical perspectives, social movements and slavery. I will share my experiences at Faculty Forum."
Faculty Forum, established in 1990, serves as a venue for the exchange of ideas and information among Westminster College faculty. Speakers present their research, teaching ideas, lectures, performances, special programs, and uses of technology to keep faculty informed about the work of colleagues from many disciplines.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Camardese at (724) 946-7183 or e-mail camardah@westminster.edu.
Patricia Polacco, an award-winning children's author, will speak at Westminster College Thursday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. in the Witherspoon Room located in the McKelvey Campus Center.
Author of more than 40 children's books, Polacco never learned to read until she was fourteen, when one of her teachers noticed that she was dyslexic. After catching up with the other students, she went on to earn an undergraduate degree in fine art and a Ph.D. in art history.
"Being learning disabled does not mean dumb at all," Polacco wrote in her biography. "As a matter of fact, most learning disabled children are actually geniuses."
Even though Polacco spent most of her young life in Oakland, Calif., she attributes her story-telling ability to her relationships with her grandparents with whom she lived for a few years after her parents' divorce.
"You probably noticed that in almost every book that I write there is a very young person who is interacting with an elderly person," Polacco writes. "I came from a family of incredible storytellers. My mother's people were from Ukraine and Russia&my father's people were from Ireland, and my extended family was from the bayous of Louisiana. When you are raised hearing stories and not seeing them, you become very good at telling stories yourself."
"Children and adults alike ask me where I get my ideas&I get them from the same place you do&my imagination," Polacco writes. "I would guess the reason my imagination is so fertile is because I came from storytelling and we did not own a T.V."
Polacco also wrote that because she had to listen to the "voice" inside her when she heard the oral stories from her family, it was this "voice" that inspired her thoughts and her imagination. She also thinks that when a person has an electronic "voice" on the screen in front of them, "it drowns out the voice" inside. She asks children and aspiring writers to listen to that voice and turn off the T.V.
Even though Polacco did not begin her writing career until she was 41, she has garnered more than 10 awards since 1988 including: 1988 Sydney Taylor Book Award; The 1989 International Reading Association Award; the 1990 Santa Clara Reading Council Author's Hall of Fame; the 1990 and 1992 Commonwealth Club of California Recognition of Excellence; the 1992 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; the 1992 Boston Area Educators for Social Responsibility; the 1993 Jane Adams Peace Assoc. and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; the 1991 Parents Choice Honors; 1996 North Dakota Library Association Children's Book Award; the 1996 Jo Osborne Award; the 1997 Missouri Association of School Librarians Show Me Readers Award; the 1997 West Virginia Children's Book Award; and the 1998 Mid-South Independent Booksellers for Children Humpty Dumpty Award.
The event, sponsored by the Westminster College Department of Education and the Diversity Symposium, is free and open to the public. Contact Dr. Amy Camardese, associate professor of education at Westminster College, at (724) 946-7183 or e-mail camardah@westminster.edu for more information.
Jennifer Reese, a junior molecular biology major at Westminster College, recently presented her research titled, "Detection of Smooth Muscle Myofilaments in Fish Gill Using Immunoreactivity," at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) in Seattle.
Jack Jones, a multi-talented artist, will come directly from Los Angeles to perform at the first Westminster College Celebrity Series event of the year, Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m. in Orr Auditorium.
Sarah Plimpton, a senior music and mathematics major at Westminster College, will perform her French Horn Recital Saturday, March 1, at 3 p.m. in Wallace Memorial Chapel.
Dr. Verena Botzenhart-Viehe, associate professor of history at Westminster College, is one of the four authors of a new textbook, The Origins of the Cold War published by Rowman and Littlefield.
The 192-page text is authored by Botzenhart-Viehe, Ralph B. Levering, history professor at Davidson College, Vladimir O. Pechatnov, chair of the Department of European and American Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and C. Earl Edmondson, chair of the Department of History at Davidson College.
The Westminster College radio station, WWNW - 88.9 FM, continues its 26-year tradition of playing all Christmas music, commercial free, through Christmas Day.
Westminster College will host Linda Hooper, principal of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee, and one of her students Monday, Sept. 10, at 8 a.m. in Wallace Memorial Chapel.
Westminster College's Celebrity Series will present the musical Evita Tuesday, April 15, at 8 p.m. in Orr Auditorium.
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