(Photo by Jason Morrison, courtesy of stock.xchng)

On February 10, OWU students will have the opportunity to find a date for the evening while helping to support the Ghana Student Education Fund. The Date Auction, a fundraising event hosted by Rafiki wa Afrika, is raising money for scholarships for impoverished students in Ghana now and for years to come, explains Alisa Nammavong ’14, Rafiki wa Afrika’s public relations coordinator. Some of the funds also will go to the Global Outreach Talent Show scheduled for April 7 on campus, which will help to sponsor a child to receive a better education in Africa.

The Date Auction, facilitated by auctioneer Kimberly Trought ’14, will take place during the noon hour in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center’s atrium. She will be bidding off OWU volunteers who want to support the cause by helping to raise much needed funds, says Nammavong. Bidding will start at $10. That evening, couples will have dinner—paid for by Rafiki wa Afrika—at Bun’s Restaurant in downtown Delaware, and are invited to Rafiki’s party that evening. Students are encouraged to come bid for a date!

Eight distinguished speakers will discuss global issues as part of the 2012 Great Discussions series. (Photo illustration by Doug Thompson)

The 2012 Great Decisions series on important global issues of our era will take us from Afghanistan to Mexico, from the energy policy to the new frontier of cybersecurity. The series will examine Indonesia’s prospects for prosperity, Arab upheavals and realignments in the Middle East, how the United States can best promote democracy abroad—and more.

The 2012 kick-off talk has as its background the tsunami that inundated the coast of Japan, unleashing the threat of nuclear devastation and impacting our western coast with flood damage and debris. Dr. Amy Downing, professor of zoology at Ohio Wesleyan University and a specialist in marine biology and conservation biology, will discuss “State of the Oceans: Waves of Change.”

She will be followed by the director of the Middle East Studies Center of The Ohio State University, Dr. Alam Payind. At a time when the U.S. military has just exited Iraq and is endeavoring to bring to a viable conclusion our military activities in Afghanistan, Payind will examine our “Exit from Afghanistan and Iraq: Right Time, Right Pace?”

All Great Decisions discussions will be held at noon in the parlor of William Street United Methodist Church, 28 W. William St. Attendees are welcome to bring a brown-bag lunch.  Complimentary coffee and tea will be provided.

Distinguished speakers during the eight-session series are as follows:

• February 10 – STATE OF THE OCEANS: Waves of Change, Amy Downing, Alumni Professor of Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University
  
• February 17 – EXIT FROM AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ:  Right Time, Right Pace?, Alam Payind, Director, Middle East Studies Center, The Ohio State University
• February 24 – PROMOTING DEMOCRACY: Foreign Policy Imperative?, James Franklin, Chair, Politics and Government Department, Ohio Wesleyan University
• March 2 – MIDDLE EAST REALIGNMENT: The Arab Upheaval, Hassan Aly, Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University, Marion
  
• March 9 – ENERGY POLICY: Economic, Environmental, and Political Concerns Intensify, Andrew Meyer, Assistant Professor of Economics, Ohio Wesleyan University
• March 16 – CYBERSECURITY: The New Frontier, Timothy Howard, Chief Information Officer, City of Delaware
• March 23 – MEXICO: Transborder Crime and Governance, David Walker, Assistant Professor of Geography, Ohio Wesleyan University
• March 30 – INDONESIA: Prospects for Prosperity, William Liddle, Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University

The Great Decisions Discussion Program, a free community discussion series, is designed to encourage debate and discussion of the role of the United States in world affairs.  The program provides materials that help people reach informed opinions on issues and encourages them to participate in the foreign-policy process.

Following each discussion, participants will have the option of completing a quick survey to add their opinions to thousands of others across the nation. The surveys will be made available to local media and sent to Washington, D.C., where our voice as a community can be heard by federal decision-makers.

Developed by the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) in 1954, the Great Decisions Discussion Program is the longest-standing and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. It is the core of FPA’s civic education outreach efforts, bringing millions of Americans together in communities across the country to discover, discuss, and decide their opinions on foreign policy issues.

Delaware’s Great Decisions discussion series is sponsored by: American Association of University Women, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, International Studies Program at Ohio Wesleyan University, Senior Citizens, William Street United Methodist Church, Willow Brook Christian Communities, and private donors.

Download a copy of the complete 2012 Great Decisions series poster.

ABOUT FPA

The Foreign Policy Association (FPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world.  Founded in 1918, FPA provides independent publications, programs and forums to increase public awareness of, and foster popular participation in, matters relating to those policy issues.

Karen Poremski. (Photo by Alex Crump ’13)

Karen Poremski is featured among ‘Exemplary Teachers’ by United Methodist Reporter.

Click here to read the full United Methodist Reporter article.

Click here to see more OWU in the News coverage.

Ohio Wesleyan student Kate Raulin helped to draft the GOP Party platform that OWU students will finalize Feb. 10-11 at their 2012 Republican Mock Presidential Convention.

DELAWARE, OHIO – “It is a time of crisis in America,” Ohio Wesleyan University students write in their proposed 2012 Republican Party platform. “The years of President Barack Obama’s leadership have seen millions of lost jobs, a crippling recession, soaring deficits, directionless foreign policy, and a crumbling American heartland. It’s time to take our country back.”

And for the next 10 pages, the Ohio Wesleyan students outline how to do just that. Following several lectures and hearings on the Delaware, Ohio, campus, the students crafted a draft Republican Party platform examining the issues that will determine who serves in the White House for the next four years.

An estimated 300 students will finalize the platform and select Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates during the university’s 2012 Republican Mock Presidential Convention, “Right Party, Right Time.” The two-day event, which simulates a national nominating convention, will take place Feb. 10-11 in University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St. The convention, an Ohio Wesleyan tradition that dates back to 1884, always features the party out of the White House.

In the draft platform, members of the Mock Convention Platform Committee sought to provide delegates with Republican Party solutions to the most serious issues of the day. Issue planks to be debated by the full convention include:

• Deficit reduction: “We support a complete audit of the Federal Reserve, to ensure that it functions as a transparent organization. … We should also repeal the Dodd-Frank Act and dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Further, we support an immediate cut to non-discretionary government spending and a hard cap on federal spending as a percentage of GDP, with an exception for vital spending to support our brave military. We also support adding a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.”
• Job creation: “A reduction of the corporate tax rate (from 35% to 20% or lower) to compete with other developed nations would allow for increased private sector investment into the economy. On the individual level, the Republican Party advocates a tax code that is lower and flatter overall. We also believe that capital gains taxes and the death tax, which are unfair burdens on hard-working Americans, should be eliminated. A simple tax code would not penalize success, and thus would greatly increase consumer demand and promote economic growth.”
• Health care: The Republican Party rejects the idea of socialized medicine. … We must replace it with a true free-market system in which consumers can purchase health care plans across state lines. … Medicaid should be reformed into a block-grant program run by the states. … Seniors should be given access to private-sector alternatives to Medicare to produce price competition and lower health care costs.

The student platform was written following an analysis of GOP candidate platforms and with leadership by students Adithya Manohar, a senior from Bangalore, India; Meredith Merklin, a junior from Marysville, Ohio; and Kate Raulin, a senior from Silver Spring, Md.

Raulin, who has interned in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Columbus), said the experience of analyzing and debating issues from a GOP perspective is valuable, no matter which political party a student supports.

“Many criticisms of today’s political culture reference the growing and burdensome divisiveness in our political ideologies,” said Raulin, an economics management major and politics and government minor. “Through our Mock Convention, analyzing, debating, and creating a GOP platform is a start to combating this political divide. Regardless of whether you agree with the GOP platform, gaining an understanding of the ideas and reasoning behind it will no doubt make a better engaged and open-minded student and citizen.”

Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s 2012 Mock Republican Presidential Convention online at http://mock2012.owu.edu, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/OWUMockConvention, or on Twitter at @owumock.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

Theological ethics expert William Schweiker, Ph.D., will speak Feb. 9 at Ohio Wesleyan.

DELAWARE, OHIO – William Schweiker, Ph.D., an expert in theological ethics and director of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago, will discuss “Ethics in a Time of Many Moralities” in a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in Benes Room B of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave.

Schweiker, also the University of Chicago’s Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics, is this year’s Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar at Ohio Wesleyan.

In his lecture, Schweiker will proceed from the observation that the global age is characterized by the interactions among the world’s peoples, religions, and societies, and, thereby, is a time of many moralities. He will consider how religious and ethical thinking should respond to this reality of moral diversity. Are there means to isolate moral commonalities without denying cultural and religious differences? This lecture addresses such questions and outlines a theological ethics required in the face of profound moral and religious differences among peoples.

While on campus, Schweiker will visit religion, philosophy, and English classes, and meet with students who have a special interest in the study of religion, ethics, and literature. He will discuss with faculty and students such topics as the nature and extent of our responsibility for the integrity of life, the relation between religious beliefs and moral convictions, and the ethical debate about the application of technologies (genetic and otherwise) in order to fundamentally alter human “nature” and bring about a post or trans-human future.

His visit is sponsored by Ohio Wesleyan’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and made possible by the national Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program. Each year, the program makes available 12 or more distinguished scholars who visit colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. The Visiting Scholars spend two days on each campus, meeting informally with students and faculty members, taking part in classroom discussions, and giving a public lecture. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students. Now entering its 56th year, the Visiting Scholar Program has sent 586 Scholars on 4,845 two-day visits since it was established in 1956.

Schweiker’s scholarship and teaching cross the disciplinary lines of ethics, systematic theology, and hermeneutical (interpretive) philosophy. He is the author of Mimetic Reflections: A Study in Hermeneutics, Theology and Ethics; Responsibility and Christian Ethics; Power, Value and Conviction: Theological Ethics in the Postmodern Age; Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics: In the Time of Many Worlds; Religion and the Human Future: An Essay on Theological Humanism (coauthor); and, most recently, Dust That Breathes: Christian Faith and the New Humanisms. He has edited and contributed to five volumes on moral theory and hermeneutics and is also chief editor and contributor to The Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics.

He has held named lectureships at universities around the world and was a visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Uppsala. His recent work involves theological and ethical questions attentive to global dynamics, comparative ethics, and the possibilities of a renewed and robust religious humanism.

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. It has chapters at 276 colleges and universities, and more than 600,000 members. The Ohio Wesleyan Chapter was founded in 1907. It annually elects outstanding liberal arts students in the graduating class, who are initiated on Commencement weekend.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

This year’s convention will kick off at 4 p.m. Feb. 10 with opening ceremonies and platform debates. It is expected to conclude at noon Feb. 11. A tentative schedule of events is below, and the public is invited to attend.

Because the event always features the party out of the White House, the 2012 Mock Convention will focus on the Republican race. The theme of this year’s convention is “Right Party, Right Time.”

Just like its national Republican and Democratic counterparts, Ohio Wesleyan’s Mock Convention will include high-energy party platform debates and delegate voting to determine the party’s nominees for president and vice president.

Joan McLean, Ph.D., politics and government professor and Mock Convention faculty adviser, said the event provides a unique learning experience for students.

“In the highly partisan national climate, it is refreshing to see students, regardless of partisan leanings, working together to organize the convention,” said McLean, who previously worked on two U.S. presidential campaigns and helped to shape Geraldine Ferraro’s bid for the vice presidency in 1984. “Besides doing all the logistical planning, they are studying the issues and the candidates’ positions so they can vigorously debate them on the convention floor.”

Ohio Wesleyan held its first Mock Convention in 1884 and since 1920 has conducted the event during nearly every presidential election. Between 300 and 400 students and community members typically participate in the free event.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS*

FRIDAY, FEB. 10

• 4 p.m. – Call to order by Delaware County Treasurer Jon Peterson, a 1976 Ohio Wesleyan graduate, and opening ceremonies
• 4:30 p.m. – Installation of convention chair
• 4:40 p.m. – Report on rules and credentials
• 4:50 p.m. – Rules and credentials debate
• 5:10 p.m. – Remarks from U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Columbus)
• 5:30-7 p.m. – Dinner break
• 7 p.m. – Ohio Wesleyan student-made videos
• 7:10 p.m. – Musical presentation
• 7:20 p.m. – Remarks by Ohio House Speaker Rep. William Batchelder (R-Medina), a 1964 Ohio Wesleyan graduate
• 7:30 p.m. – Report on platform
• 7:40 p.m. – Platform debate begins

SATURDAY, FEB. 11

• 9 a.m. – Call to order and opening ceremonies
• 10 a.m. – Nominating and balloting for presidential and vice presidential candidates
• 11 a.m. – Presentation of awards
• 11:30 a.m. – Benediction and adjournment

*Times and order subject to change

For more information about Ohio Wesleyan’s Mock Convention, visit http://mock2012.owu.edu online, http://www.facebook.com/OWUMockConvention on Facebook, or @owumock on Twitter.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

Emmy Award-winning stage and screen actor Anthony Zerbe will perform Feb. 10 at Ohio Wesleyan University. Tickets are available now. (Photo courtesy of Anthony Zerbe)

DELAWARE, OHIO – Anthony Zerbe’s one-man show has been described as both “pure magic” and “an avalanche of colorful characters and dazzling word play.”

The Emmy Award-winning actor will present “It’s All Done with Mirrors … an avalanche of E.E. Cummings,” at 8 p.m. Feb. 10 on the Ohio Wesleyan University campus. His performance concludes Ohio Wesleyan’s 2011-2012 Performing Arts Series.

Zerbe will perform in the university’s Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave. Tickets are $20 for general admission; $5 for non-OWU students and senior citizens; and free for OWU students and employees. Tickets may be reserved by emailing paseries@owu.edu, visiting the Performing Arts Series website, or calling (740) 368-3629.

TV fans will recognize Zerbe from his appearances on such shows as “Gunsmoke,” “Mission Impossible,” and “Murder She Wrote.” Movie buffs will know the versatile character actor from roles in “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Matrix Revolutions” as well as “Star Trek Insurrection” and “License to Kill.” Zerbe also has spent considerable time on stage, including performing in “Othello” with James Earl Jones.

Zerbe’s “It’s All Done with Mirrors” celebrates the poetry of E.E. Cummings(1894-1962). Cummings – along with James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and William Faulkner – is considered one of the creators of the modern movement in literature.

In Fred Chappell’s “Celebrating America’s originalest poet on his 100th anniversary,” Chappell wrote of Cummings: “He was everything an American poet should be: fiercely independent, unsparingly amorous, joyfully Bohemian, dourly patriotic, engagingly eccentric. He was our kind of genius, self-taught and fearless; he was P.T. Barnum, Charles Ives, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Armstrong, Robert Goddard, Buster Keaton and Frank Zappa.”

Zerbe has performed “It’s All Done with Mirrors” at more than 100 venues including the Library of Congress. Rita Dove, former poet laureate of the United States, has said his performance “should be required viewing for students of life, ages 9-99.”

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

The Ohio Wesleyan men's soccer team celebrates its second NCAA Division III national championship. (Photo by John Albright)

“Besides this past year’s championship, Ohio Wesleyan also won the 1998 national championship,” writer Ryan Joseph states in his Jan. 27 article. “Couple those triumphs with numerous Final Four appearances, yearly All-Americans and countless North Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament crowns and the program’s resume screams at recruits.”

Read the full USA TODAY College article here.

Chris Wolverton

“If there were a way to ‘publish’ a book only targeting my class, by converting those outlines I’ve made into short chapters on each topic, well… Why not?” writes Chris Wolverton, Ph.D., Ohio Wesleyan associate professor of botany-microbiology, on his blog.

Wolverton’s perspective is among those featured Jan. 22 in the article, “Campus Reactions to Apple’s Entry Into E-Textbook Marketing,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog. “Having the freedom and flexibility to put together a little book to accompany a specialty course is an attractive idea to me,” Wolverton states, “one that I plan to experiment with.”

Read the full Wired Campus article here.

Nancy Gamso (Photo by Stephen Pariser)

DELAWARE, OHIO – Watching her music students study and hone their performance skills, Ohio Wesleyan University professor Nancy Gamso, D.M.A., discovered an opportunity to “jazz up” the training of tomorrow’s classical performers.

Gamso, a member of the Ohio Wesleyan faculty since 1991, decided to incorporate some of the listening skills and drills traditionally used by jazz musicians into the curriculum for her classical woodwind students. And, thus, her Aural Learning Project (ALP) was born.

After more than five years of research, Gamso has published the results of her work in the December issue of Music Educators Journal – a quarterly, peer-reviewed publication that prints articles on music teaching, trends, and other issues.

“Jazz musicians and classical musicians develop very differently,” said Gamso, who also performs regularly as an orchestra musician. “Jazz is mostly learned and performed by ear; classical through notated music. Because of that, classical musicians develop very good reading skills, technique, and very specific aspects of hearing – intonation, balance, and interpretation, to name a few – but they don’t rely on or develop their aural abilities as broadly as jazz musicians. The Aural Learning Project allowed my students to explore their classical literature through various aural activities.”

These activities included having her applied studio students listen to and analyze at least two professional recordings of the works they were studying, having students record their own projects and provide written evaluations of their performances, having them memorize and transcribe the music, and assigning them research projects tied to the works, as well as readings about how the brain processes music.

Ohio Wesleyan students seem to have embraced and benefitted from the Aural Learning Project, Gamso said, with one student sharing: “Usually when you take lessons, you learn the notes and rhythms, get some instruction on how to play it correctly, but you don’t think about how your brain is processing the music. When I recall what we have read, I have ‘a-ha’ moments every time I practice.”

Gamso said it isn’t feasible to incorporate APL into every class, but she continues to use the concepts to enhance the training of her students. She also believes her research has practical applications for secondary education teachers.

“This research is important because music teachers in this country are stretched so thin that they can’t possibly teach instrument-specific skills to every student in their band, orchestra, and choir programs,” she said. “Quality private lesson teachers and quality live performances are not accessible or affordable to most of our young students who need those resources, especially when they are developing musicians. With the accessibility and savvy that students have for technology, we can at least attempt to bridge the gap through recordings, recording equipment, and music learning software. My job is to show how the technology can be used so that the student can be proactive in their learning.”

Gamso will discuss her research and teaching with presentations of “Small Group, Big Impact – Effective Tools for Including Chamber Music in the Instrumental Curriculum” at two upcoming meetings: the Ohio Music Education Association conference Feb. 16-18 in Columbus and the North Dakota Music Educators Association conference March 22-24 in Bismarck.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

Ohio Wesleyan’s unique Theory-to-Practice Grant program allows students to seek university funding to support areas of special interest. Here, students traveled to Bolivia, one of the poorest nations in the world, to examine the challenges facing Bolivia’s fragile ecosystem and its residents. (Photo by Kat Zimmerly ’11.)

Ohio Wesleyan University students and employees were awarded $89,000 in Theory-to-Practice grants for proposals submitted during the fall cycle. Awards range from supporting a service-learning project involving teams of OWU and Japanese students building homes for Habitat for Humanity to faculty and students conducting research on Islamic religious traditions in the secular society of France.

Begun in 2009, OWU’s Theory-to-Practice grants enable students, faculty, and staff to seek University funding to support academic and community service issues of special interest. Here are the latest grant recipients:

• “Music Study Intensive at the Salzburg Music Festival,” submitted by assistant professor of music Jason Heister. Students will attend Austria’s Salzburg Music Festival in July and August, where they will experience operas, chamber ensemble concerts, solo lieder recitals, and master classes from faculty at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.
• “Comparative Healthcare Study,” submitted by senior Christina Trusty of Dublin, Ohio. She will travel to London in March to analyze and compare national public health programs in Great Britain and the United States.
• “Cultural Immersion in McLeod Ganj: A Study in Cultural and Political Change,” submitted by senior Lisa Taylor of Cincinnati. She and senior Kamila Goldin of Fairfax, Va., traveled to India over winter break to explore the cultural and socio-political status of a refugee community in McLeod Ganj.
• “Phylogenic Elucidation of Sect. Stenoxylopia within Xylopia (Annonaceae) through Molecular Systematics,” submitted by sophomore Jenna Reeger of Shelocta, Pa. She traveled to Florida earlier this month to conduct research in the Soltis Lab at the University of Florida. Reeger studied the molecular systematic protocol for DNA sequencing of plant samples of the clade Stenoxylopia of the genus Xylopia.
• “The Spaces of Santeria,” submitted by senior Nyssa Berman of Evanston, Ill. She will travel to Cuba in March with junior Margaret Argiro of Hilliard, Ohio, and sophomore Yarima Valenzuela of El Paso, Texas, to examine the creative, spiritual, and medical spaces Santeria occupies in Havana.
• “Preventing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Pharmacological Approach,” submitted by senior Kellie Gross of Pemberville, Ohio. She will work with assistant professor of psychology Jennifer Yates for more than two months this semester to evaluate the efficacy of a specific pharmacological intervention, neuropeptide Y, in preventing the onset of PTSD-like symptoms in an animal model. The results will have implications for theories of PTSD etiology and for its possible prevention.
• “OWU/Aoyama Gakuin Joint Habitat Build,” submitted by economics professor Barbara MacLeod. Ohio Wesleyan will host 15 to 20 students from its sister university Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo, Japan, in March to complete a joint service-learning project on poverty and build homes in Delaware for Habitat for Humanity.
• “OWU and the Juneau Icefield Research Program,” submitted by assistant professor of mathematics and computer science Craig Jackson. Jackson will travel to Alaska with two students from May to August to participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program. This one-of-a-kind summer research experience involves eight weeks of work on one of North America’s largest icefields.
• “The Rehabilitation and Release of Chacma Baboon Troops in South Africa,” submitted by junior Tessa Cannon of Trumansburg, N.Y. She and junior Ariel Hively of Galloway, Ohio, will travel to South Africa in May and June to volunteer for the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (CARE)—a rehabilitation center for Chacma baboons and other African wildlife. While there, the OWU students also will research pre-existing sensory bias in the Chacma baboon.
• “Islam in France,” submitted by assistant professor of religion Susan Gunasti. She will travel to France in March with juniors Ashley Madera of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Stephanie VanVliet of Dublin, Ohio, to study the practice of Islam in France to better understand how the Islamic religious tradition has maintained and evolved in France.
• “Can 26+6=1? How the 6 Counties of Northern Ireland are Educating the Next Generation,” submitted by senior Katherine Buckingham of Bloomdale, Ohio. She will travel to Ireland in March to study differing education systems in Northern Ireland and their potential power to desegregate the area. Her research seeks to determine whether integration has eased social tensions or added to issues faced by the still-separated communities.
• “The Effect of Age on Type of Search from Semantic Memory,” submitted by senior Emily Kiourtsis of Pickerington, Ohio. She will work with psychology faculty Harry Bahrick, Lynda Hall, and Mindy Baker from January through April to research ways to stabilize access to information people have learned previously by testing older and younger adults on the names of famous people.
• “A Comparative Study of Public Health Systems and Policies in Sweden and Spain,” submitted by junior Kassel Galaty of Portland, Ore. She traveled to Sweden and Spain with sophomore Katharine Johnson of Ashville, N.Y., in December and January to research public health systems in both countries along with the perceptions that individuals, medical professionals, scholars, and public health officials have of the systems and policies.
• “Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay: a global investigation,” submitted by junior Bradley Turnwald of Fort Jennings, Ohio. He will travel to Heidelberg, Germany, from May to August to complete a research experience at European Molecular Biology Laboratories, where he will examine nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in the laboratory of world leaders in the field.
• “A Greener Tree House,” submitted by junior Melissa Guziak of Essex Junction, Vt. She will work through April to transition OWU’s Tree House small-living unit into a sustainability showcase, including open houses to show the results to the Ohio Wesleyan and Delaware communities.

(Image courtesy of Jossey-Bass)

Parker Palmer’s recently published book, The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal will be the book d’ jour for the start of Ohio Wesleyan’s new faculty and staff book club, says Lisa Ho, assistant chaplain, who now is reading the book.

“I am so taken by this book that I want to hear from other voices at the University—from people who are as passionate about the topic as I am,” she says.

Her vision is for club members to meet bi-weekly to share ideas and feelings about the authors’ views on the importance of integrative learning—mind, heart, and spirit—as we educate students to be global leaders in the 21^st century. Responses to this inaugural club invitation will dictate future plans and additional readings and discussions.

Dr. Palmer, a writer, speaker, activist, founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal, (and guru on vocational discernment matters) along with his co-author, Dr. Arthur Zajonc, a physics professor at Amherst College, advocate the importance of thoughtful conversations and the “it takes a village” community effort to bring about meaningful and relevant educational experiences for students. The Heart of Higher Education focuses on the value of holistic learning, relationships between science, the humanities, and contemplative traditions, and the importance of collegiality and conversation in developing further integrative education.

“Our book club will be somewhat reminiscent of past retreats and programs related to OWU’s previous Lilly Foundation grant, which periodically brought our mission team advisors and other groups together to discuss common texts and experiences,” says Ho. “OWU’s theory-to-practice and travel-learning opportunities now will provide additional inspiration for  conversations and idea sharing.”

If you are interested in finding out more about the faculty-staff book club, contact Lisa Ho at llho@owu.edu.

Melissa Guziak ’14 will use an Ohio Wesleyan Theory-to-Practice Grant to help make the Tree House small-living unit more eco-friendly. (Photo by Kathleen Dalton ’13)

From the Amazon rainforest to the Ohio Wesleyan University Tree House—Melissa Guziak has made the connection.

During spring semester 2011, Guziak, a sophomore from Burlington, Vt., spent two weeks in Brazil studying the rainforest as part of an Ohio Wesleyan travel-learning course. During spring semester 2012, she hopes to use a new OWU Theory-to-Practice grant to enhance the sustainability of the Tree House, a small-living unit that’s home to Guziak and 11 other OWU students interested in environmental issues.

Of her travel-learning course, Guziak says, “This was a powerful experience as I literally saw how my actions impact the world and lives of others.”

And the lessons she learned inspired her to work for change on the OWU campus and in the Delaware community. Her $2,100 Theory-to-Practice grant is being used to fit the Tree House with water-efficient showerheads, faucets, and toilets; provide insulating film to cover the 117-year-old home’s single-pane windows; install grey-water irrigation systems that use sink water to flush toilets; and purchase an indoor compost bin.

“[T]here are many ways of changing a building to be more environmentally friendly, but real impacts are made when people change their mindsets,” says Guziak, a double major in biology and environmental studies. “Educating people, showing them the difference they can make, is essential to getting their support and making change.”

Her project includes plans to hold regular educational open houses to share information about the Tree House’s transformation with the campus community and nearby homeowners.

“The main goal of this project is to have a sustainable showcase to educate the community,” Guziak says. “With updates, additions, and renovations to the house, it can serve as an educational tool.”

Guziak’s Theory-to-Practice grant also was inspired by her internship with Sean Kinghorn, OWU’s energy conservation and sustainability coordinator. Kinghorn is working to reduce Ohio Wesleyan’s environmental footprint by overseeing initiatives such as replacing inefficient light bulbs, programming public printers to default to double-sided printing, and lowering thermostats in unused buildings during winter breaks.

Kinghorn says the Tree House project already is under way, which should make the home more comfortable for its student-residents. “It will be an ongoing project, but we hope to accomplish most of it in the spring,” he says.

Additional projects include installing different types of insulation to determine which provide the greatest benefits. Kinghorn hopes to utilize Plexiglas panels in the walls to allow visitors to see and feel the products used.

Guziak also will compare heat, water, and electric bills from before and after the Tree House upgrades to determine the impact of each change.

“As time progresses, students [will] have a place to test their own ideas and find new ways to live sustainably,” she says. “The Tree House [will] remain for future students and community members to learn from, an example of the university’s goal of educating students to see themselves as part of a greater community that they can impact.”

Learn more about sustainability at Ohio Wesleyan. Learn more about OWU’s Theory-to-Practice grant program.

(Photo courtesy of Claire Everhart ’10)

In 2011, Ohio Wesleyan University graduate Claire Everhart ran across Ethiopia, raising money to help build schools. A year later, she’s preparing for another marathon with a mission.

From Feb. 4-8, Everhart, a 2010 alumna, will run across Palestine and then spend six months in the West Bank interning with the Palestine Fair Trade Association. During her internship, she will research water-rights issues between Palestine and Israel as well as the devastation of Palestinian agriculture by wild boars.

Everhart, an international studies major and Spanish minor, will talk about her experience running across Ethiopia and outline her upcoming trip to Palestine at 7 p.m. Jan. 25 when she speaks in downtown Delaware at Beehive Books and Global Village Collection, 25-27 N. Sandusky St.

She also has created a blog, Learning from Palestine, which includes information on how to support her upcoming run, which will raise funds to buy olive trees for Palestinian farmers and to provide educational scholarships for their children.

Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Physical Education has been renamed as the Department of Health and Human Kinetics to better reflect the department’s focus on lifelong movement, holistic fitness, and health-based programming. (Photo courtesy of OWU’s Department of Health and Human Kinetics)

DELAWARE, OHIO – Things are on the move for Ohio Wesleyan University’s newly named Department of Health and Human Kinetics—literally.

Previously the Department of Physical Education, the new name better reflects the department’s focus on lifelong movement, holistic fitness, and health-based programming, said Christopher Fink, Ph.D., department chair.

“The departmental faculty feel that this name better implies what is occurring within the department, with a general philosophy geared toward health and movement (kinetic) activities, whether in the form of sport, fitness, or general physical activity,” said Fink, an assistant professor whose research interests include health behavior change. “Furthermore, the change brings us closer in alignment with similar departments at other colleges and universities, while setting us apart because of our broad focus.”

That comprehensive focus includes studying issues such as chronic disease prevention from a variety of perspectives, including socio-cultural, physiological, behavioral, environmental, and developmental, Fink said.

The name change also better reflects the breadth of careers and post-graduate programs that attract Ohio Wesleyan’s Health and Human Kinetics majors. After earning their OWU degrees, department majors routinely pursue professional health programs including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and nursing; exercise physiology graduate programs; public health graduate programs; physical education teacher careers; law school; sports marketing and management careers and graduate programs; and personal training.

As part of the Health and Human Kinetics (HHK) name change, the names of three of Ohio Wesleyan’s four HHK concentrations also are being revised to better reflect their content:

• General Physical Education is now General Health and Human Kinetics.
• Sport Science is now Exercise Science.
• Sport Management is now Sport and Exercise Management.
• Physical Education Teacher Education will remain unchanged.

Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Health and Human Kinetics.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

Geoff Greif ’71. (Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland School of Social Work)

The latest book by Geoff Greif ’71 is featured in USA TODAY, along with comments from OWU couples Sydney Hopkins Schnaars ’71 & Jasey Schnaars ’72 and Diana Kreider Huston ’74 & John Huston ’74.

Click here to read the full USA Today article.

Click here to see more OWU in the News coverage.

The Rose Ensemble will perform Feb. 3 at Ohio Wesleyan University. (Photo by Michael Haug Photography)

The critically acclaimed Rose Ensemble continues Ohio Wesleyan University’s 2011-2012 Performing Arts Series with “Land of Three Faiths: Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Jews, Christians, and Muslims,” an early vocal music performance at 8 p.m. Feb. 3 in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S Sandusky St.

According to the St. Paul, Minn.-based vocal ensemble: “Centuries of dedication and folklore in the chapels, synagogues and courts of early Italy, Spain, and Portugal produced music with rhythms that reverberated across the Mediterranean. In this program spanning four centuries of vocal and instrumental music, a diverse collection of Arab-Andalusian dances, Sephardic laments, Spanish villancicos, Hebrew chants, and Galician spiritual cantigas come together in a fascinating exploration of language, culture and faith from a time that is not so different from our own.”

In reviewing “Land of Three Faiths,” the Ames (Iowa) Life & Times reported: “This program wasn’t a performance. It was more like a resurrection. The Rose Ensemble breathes life into stark, ancient manuscripts … restores them as new creations.”

Founded in 1996, The Rose Ensemble has released nine recordings and created a repertoire of music spanning 1,000 years and more than 25 languages. Learn more about the ensemble at www.roseensemble.org. This Ohio Wesleyan Performing Arts Series event is co-sponsored with the OWU Department of Religion.

This year’s Performing Arts Series will conclude at 8 p.m. Feb. 10, when Emmy award-winning actor Anthony Zerbe presents “It’s All Done with Mirrors,” featuring the poetry of E.E. Cummings.

Zerbe’s one-man show has been described as “an avalanche of colorful characters and dazzling word play.” Movie fans will recognize the versatile actor from film credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Matrix Revolutions,” “Star Trek Insurrection,” and “True Crimes.”

Zerbe will perform in OWU’s Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave. Learn more about the actor and “It’s All Done with Mirrors” at www.poetinmo.com/done_with_mirrors.html.

Tickets for all Ohio Wesleyan Performing Arts Series events are $20 for general admission; $5 for non-OWU students and senior citizens; and free for OWU students and employees. Tickets may be reserved by emailing paseries@owu.edu, visiting the website pas.owu.edu, or calling (740) 368-3629.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.