Posts filed under ‘Undergraduate education’
Solar House Finds Its Home in Pittsburgh
Photo: Geoff Rushton ’01
The solar house that Penn State students built last fall now has a permanent home. It’s now in place at Bayer MaterialScience in Robinson Township, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh; the house was commissioned in its new location today.
Students from three colleges—Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Arts and Architecture—built the house for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, an event in which 20 schools from across the country and around the world compete to build the best solar house. The houses in the competition were on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last October. The decathlon is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Natural Fusion, Penn State’s entry, is a small building—just 800 sq. ft.—and is a solar-powered, zero-emission structure. We took some photos of the construction progress back in August, but if you want to check out the end result, you’ll have to head to the Bayer MaterialScience campus, where the building now serves as a conference center and a showcase for Bayer’s new EcoCommercial Building initiative. (Bayer helped to fund Natural Fusion and helped review its initial designs.) You can also check out a virtual tour at the team’s website.
Penn State students also entered the 2007 Solar Decathlon. That entry, MorningStar, is on display next to the Centre County Visitors Center, across from Beaver Stadium. It’s open for tours most Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
Giving the iPad the Old College Try
The iPad is cool, right? You know you want one. That’s how all Apple products are. You see it, and you want it. But what exactly is its purpose?
Cole Camplese is trying to find out. Camplese is Penn State’s director of education technology services, and he’s carrying his new iPad around this month — meaning no laptop or iPhone, both of which he usually relies on — to see if it belongs in students’ backpacks. He’s still using his laptop in his office, but other than that, it’s all iPad. You can follow the experiment on his blog.
Camplese cites a blog by Christopher P. Long, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Liberal Arts, for the reasoning:
The iPad is much less intrusive in collaborative contexts than either a laptop, which tends to come between members of the group, or an iPhone, which isolates individuals, severing each from the dynamics of the whole.
The Chronicle of Higher Education sees the use in campus life, too. “I’m writing this column on an iPad, sitting on a couch with it propped, very casually, on my lap,” Christopher Young writes. “Either I’m learning how to use it, or I’m unlearning habits picked up from so many years with a mouse. But one thing that is clear is how casual and unobtrusive it is compared with a laptop.”
According to The Chronicle, George Fox University and Seton Hill University have announced plans to hand out iPads to freshman next year to see how it goes. Who knows? Maybe some future class of Penn State freshmen will find an iPad waiting for them when they arrive on campus, too.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
A Little Opera in Happy Valley
I had a blast last night. At the opera. (Crazy, I know.)
I had an opportunity to attend, and shoot photos at, a dress rehearsal for the Penn State Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro, which will be staged Friday and Saturday night at the State Theatre in State College. I had had almost zero exposure to opera before last night—and I loved it. The performers, all of them Penn State undergraduates or grad students, were terrific; the costumes were exquisite; and the opera itself is hilarious.
This particular production is all in English, and the music is provided by a woodwind quintet plus piano—here again, all students.
A pair of grad students in vocal performance and pedagogy, Aidan Davis and Kate Scally, play the lead roles of Figaro and his bride-to-be, Susanna (see photo at top). Or at least they did in last night’s rehearsal: In a few cases, one person will play a given role in the Friday night performance, and someone else gets to play the role on Saturday night. There are 11 roles in this particular opera, but something like 14 students in the cast.
I was impressed by all of the performers in the cast, but I especially got a kick out of the elderly Marcellina and Bartolo (photo above—click on any of these to see ’em bigger), whose facial expressions and mannerisms were just a hoot. I was even more impressed to discover later that they are played by two Penn State freshmen! Julia Wolcott and Chris Hollobaugh are recent State High grads, and they were just great.
Another character well worth seeing is the Count’s page, Cherubino, played by junior music major Liz Walton (photo at right). The fact that a woman was playing a man’s role confused me at first (remember, I said this was my first opera!), but Kris Allen, who was there to record a segment for WPSU-FM, explained to me that Cherubino is what’s called a “trouser role” or “breeches role”—a male role almost always played by a woman.
I can’t say enough about what a great production this is. Kudos not only to the students but to Ted Christopher, head of Penn State’s opera program, who is the show’s artistic director, and to associate professor Beverly Patton, who is its musical director. A shout-out also to the School of Music and the Institute for Arts and Humanities for sponsoring the production. IAHS, for example, helped underwrite the costume rental, from a premier shop in Toronto called Malabar Ltd.—and did I mention how exquisite those costumes are?
I can’t believe it’s taken me more than half a lifetime to see The Marriage of Figaro, but I’m very glad I got to see this Penn State rendition of it. If you’re in town this weekend, I highly recommend you check it out.
Tina Hay, editor
P.S. Penn State Live has posted 10 of my photos from last night’s rehearsal—you can see ’em here.
And Now a Word from Our Students Across the Pond
Journ major Aubrey Whelan is studying in France; she visited London during a break.
If you have a lot of time on your hands and you’re interested in a glimpse into what Penn State students today are doing, you might enjoy reading some of the blog entries written by Daily Collegian staff members who are studying abroad this semester.
The Collegian has collected them all in one location, and it’s fun to check in every couple of days to see who has written a new posting.
Reading them, you get the sense that the students are spending a little time in class, and a lot of time playing tourist: sightseeing, attempting to make crêpes, visiting pubs, and going on weekend beach getaways. And you can’t blame them—obviously, that’s part of what Study Abroad is supposed to be about: experiencing another country in all its dimensions, not just the classroom.
Actually, there’s also an entry by the mom of one of the students—Kim Sullivan (mother of journalism major Katie)—addressing this very point:
[O]ur adventurous daughter Katie … is supposedly taking classes at the University of Limerick in Ireland. I say supposedly because every time we talk to her she is rock climbing, traveling around Europe or attending practice for her new-found sport of rugby. She didn’t play rugby when she left the good old U.S. of A! She has been to Galway, Dublin, and this past weekend took a little jaunt to London. She is taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself while she is on this journey. I am sure she studies while on the bus or plane or train.
The students are also expanding their comfort zones, which is also part of what Study Abroad is about. Here’s an excerpt from an entry by Lexi Simchak, a journalism major studying in South Africa:
I just got back from spending a week at another nature reserve called Mkambati. With no power and living in a remote location by a river, it was definitely a different experience. When we first arrived late at night (after one of our vans got stuck on the “road” leading to the lodge which was little more than a path beaten down by the animals) I opened the kitchen cabinet and a few cockroaches climbed out. I instantly thought, “What am I doing here?” However, within the next day, I began to appreciate this new way of living. We were greeted by monkeys sitting outside in the trees on a daily basis. … As I sat there looking out at the beautiful and vast landscape every day, I just couldn’t stop taking in the beauty and appreciating this life that I had in front of my eyes.
The Study Abroad blogs, by the way, are just one collection of blogs by the Collegian students. You can see the entire lineup here. Another one that I enjoy is called “Exposure” and features images by Collegian photographers; some of them are really, really good.
Tina Hay, editor
Utah Images from Maxwell Kruger
In our November-December issue we ran a photo essay based on the work of an undergraduate student named Maxwell Kruger. He was a management major who treats photography as, shall we say, a pretty serious hobby. (I say “was” only because he graduated in December; he’s Maxwell Kruger ’09 now.)
I like to keep an eye on Maxwell’s blog, because it’s fun to see where he’s been and what new images he’s coming up with. In November he spent some time in Utah, and the other day he posted some of his stunning images from that trip in a blog entry simply called Utah.
Maxwell tells me he’ll start work in February as a business technology analyst for Deloitte Consulting in Washington, D.C., in February. Between now and then I suspect he’ll be cramming in a lot of photography trips, which means more images to keep an eye out for.
Tina Hay, editor
Jim Zarroli Leads a Roundtable for Us
We held the roundtable in Robb Hall of the Hintz Family Alumni Center. (Click to see bigger version.)
A project I’ve been working on for the last several months finally came to fruition today, when a group of key campus leaders came to the alumni center to talk about college costs and affordability.
Penn State has long prided itself on providing an affordable education to the sons and daughters of the working class—that’s what a land-grant school is supposed to do, after all—but that mission is a tough one to uphold in the face of shrinking state appropriations, a nationwide recession, and other challenges.
NPR's Jim Zarroli ’79 moderated the discussion.
So we brought together some major players to discuss these issues in Robb Hall at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, and we were especially happy to have NPR business correspondent Jim Zarroli ’79 drive in from New York to moderate the discussion.
The panelists were Anna Griswold, executive director of student aid at Penn State; Don Heller, a faculty member in the College of Education and director of Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education; Gavin Keirans, president of the University Park Undergraduate Association; Rod Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni relations; and Rob Pangborn, vice president for undergraduate education.
Don Heller and Anna Griswold were among the five panelists.
What did they talk about? I don’t know—I was too busy running around with a camera and periodically stopping back to make sure the audio recorder was working. I did catch some bits of conversation about how facilities construction and upgrades at Penn State are funded … about the role of the University’s capital campaign in raising money for more scholarships … and about the latest news out of Harrisburg about Penn State’s appropriation and how it may hinge on casinos adding table games.
I’ve already shipped the recording off to a transcriptionist, who will return it to us as a text document; from there we’ll edit it down and print it as a feature in our January-February issue.
Tina Hay, editor
September-October Issue Coming Your Way
Our pal the UPS guy showed up at lunchtime today with boxes of the September-October issue of the magazine—our office copies. That means readers should start getting their copies today as well. How soon you get yours depends on where you live: If you’re in the mid-Atlantic states, watch your mailbox in the next few days; if you’re on the west coast or Florida or across the Atlantic, well, it might take a little longer.
(And if you don’t get the magazine at all, perhaps you need to join the Alumni Association!)
Our cover story is a collection of tales submitted by readers about their very first day at Penn State. We’ve got three other features besides that one:
—A feature-length profile about Penn State’s new wrestling coach, Cael Sanderson.
—A photo essay featuring some really ethereal photography from Paul Duda ’89.
—A very engrossing story by our ace freelancer Vicki Glembocki ’93, ’02g about Betsy Aardsma, the grad student who was stabbed to death in the Pattee stacks 40 years ago this fall.
Our “My Thoughts Exactly” is an essay by a young alumna, Amanda Berkey ’07, who’s doing a Teach for America gig in inner-city Philadelphia … our “Everyday People” profilee is Rick Johnson ’82, the newly hired horticulturist for the Penn State Arboretum … our lead story in Penn State Pulse is a profile of Penn State Altoona prof Athleen Stere, who has retired (sort of) at the age of 88 … and the athlete profile that leads off the Sports section is Jason Yeisley, an oft-injured soccer player who is finally back on the field for the Nittany Lions.
This is our fattest issue ever: 104 pages. We’ll look forward to hearing your feedback on it.
Tina Hay, editor
Watch for Typos—Our Copy Editor is Leaving
Chas Brua, our copy editor for the past 12 years. Photo by Bill Cardoni.
If you notice more typos than usual in our September-October issue—which of course I’m hoping you don’t—it’s all Chas’ fault.
Chas Brua ’86, ’02g, ’09g, our ace copy editor and fact checker for more than 12 years, is leaving us. Today is his last day. And, while he has already edited about a third of the Sept-Oct issue, we still have a lot of pages left to finish, and we’re on our own for those.
If you’re wondering what a copy editor does, basically, well, he proofs every freaking word that appears in the magazine.
—For every single class note and every single obituary, for example, he verifies every single detail: year of graduation, student activities, address, etc.
—He reads every piece of editorial copy, from the 30-word captions to the 3,000-word features, and he usually reads them a half-dozen times at least: when they first come in from the writer, when they’ve been laid out by the art director, when the pages come back from the prepress vendor, and so on. In the early stages he gives us his take on whether the story “works” or not, where it gets bogged down or confusing, why the ending doesn’t feel right. In later stages he’s looking more carefully at the minutiae: what should get italicized, which spelling of “theatre” we should use, whether the phrase “abusive marriage” might constitute libel.
—He proofs the ads—both the paid ads and the house ads.
I can’t tell you how many times he’s caught misspellings, typos, sentences that made no sense, and other errors that could have gotten us in trouble.
Chas (his first name rhymes with “jazz”) came to us in December 1996, not long after I started as editor. He had been working at the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat when we hired him as our copy editor. (I remember that when he told us in the job interview that he found himself wanting to copy-edit restaurant menus and road signs, we knew he was the guy for us.)
For a while he continued to work at the Tribune-Democrat, so he’d commute back and forth from State College to Johnstown daily and still put in hours at the magazine.
Later, when we had an opening for a full-time associate editor, we hired Chas for that position. He was in charge of a couple of sections of the magazine, wrote several features, and continued to be our fact checker and copy editor. Later still, he decided to go to grad school at Penn State, so he went back to part-time status at the magazine. He got his master’s in teaching English as a second language in 2002 and successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in applied linguistics in May of this year.
He is known on staff by many nicknames: Dr. Chas, Chasworth, and Copywallah, among others.
Starting Monday, he’ll be doing a postdoctoral gig over in the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, basically doing stuff to help Penn State faculty and grad students be better instructors. We’re all excited for him to pursue his new career, but we do not look forward to replacing him.
Tina Hay, editor
From Mont Alto to the Moon (Almost)
The Chambersburg Public Opinion ran this story the other day about engineering students from Penn State Mont Alto working on a two-year project with NASA—a project that peaked (so to speak) last week with a rocket launch from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The students weren’t on the rocket, but their experiment—some sort of disc used to measure the effects of intense gravity and rapid acceleration—was. According to the story, they’ll spend the next couple of weeks analyzing the data from the flight.
And I imagine that, when asked how they enjoyed their summer, they’ll tell friends they had a blast.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Mystery Donor Strikes Again
Penn State Harrisburg, one of the beneficiaries of the mystery donor
Last Friday, the University of Alaska Anchorage became the latest school to announce a mega-gift from a donor whose main wish is that no one—not even the university—find out who he or she is.
NPR carried a piece on this growing mystery this morning. The tally of colleges getting these huge, anonymous gifts is now up to 15, and so far they all have one thing in common: Each school is headed by a woman.
Whoever is giving this money has so far doled out $81.5 million; the gifts have ranged in size from $1 million to $10 million. Penn State Harrisburg—whose chancellor is Madlyn Hanes—received $3 million last month.
In the NPR piece, Melissa Berman, CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, speculates that the donor is a woman, probably an older one: “The fact that this is so completely anonymous suggests someone who lived in a period of time in which for a woman to be so public about her wealth was not the standard way of operating.”
She adds, “I think we will eventually know who this person is.”
Tina Hay, editor
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