All News

According to a recent press release, Charles A. Prescott '69, P'12 won a second four-year term as chair of the Consultative Committee to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) at the Committee's first plenary congress in Geneva, Switzerland. The UPU is a special body of the United Nations that serves as a forum for the discussion of the development and refinement of the international postal network. The UPU established the Consultative Committee in 2004 to provide advice on issues unique to the postal sector.

Madeline Caudle '10 (Denver, Colo.), Savannah Knell '10 (Mount Kisco, N.Y.), and Jackie Marra '10 (Simsbury, Conn.) are working with Jean Burr, assistant professor of psychology, on the Social-Psychological and Academic Readiness for Kindergarten (SPARK) Project. The project aims to predict readiness for kindergarten by looking at friendship quality, or a measure of the positive and negative aspects of the relationship in preschool children.

Silin Li '11 is uniquely placed to study the effects of globalization. The rising sophomore from Shenyang, China, is spending the summer researching the growing presence of McDonald's and other Western fast-food restaurants in Beijing and in his hometown. The collaborative project with Professor of Government Stephen Orvis is one of 18 student research projects this summer funded by the Levitt Center's Research Fellows Program. The students receive a summer stipend and spend 10 weeks working intensively with a faculty mentor on an issue related to public affairs.

Geoffrey Hicks '09 (Newton, Mass.) believes in the power of stories. As a creative writing major, he says he was inspired by the playwright August Wilson, whose works about the African-American experience in the 20th century twice won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Hicks has spent the summer researching the importance that stories can have, studying folklore to explore the pride and culture of American slaves, a project that he hopes will provide the foundation for his own future creative work.

If the housing market is all about location, the stock market is all about diversification. Any financial adviser worth his salt will tell you that a diversified portfolio is an essential part of a responsible investment strategy. So with the recession and the credit crunch, how can a good investor find a hedge against risk? For some, the solution is to place money in international securities. That way, if the Brazilian economy collapses, you can still rely on your Bolivian securities.

Adirondack Adventure, Hamilton's eight-day outdoor program for incoming students, and its sister program USE, welcome 228 members of the class of 2012 – nearly half the class – on Aug. 15. The popular pre-orientation program features 27 trips that focus on hiking, canoeing, rock climbing or kayaking at beginning, intermediate or advanced ability levels. All trips are conducted in various locations in the Adirondacks.

Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz. The Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature, will be associated with a grant received by The American Philological Association and Peter Meineck, of Aquila Theatre. The project, Page and Stage: Theater, Tradition and Culture in America, is an in-depth partnership between the library and the theater. It will place live theatrical events, reading groups and lectures in public libraries to inspire people to read, see and think about classical literature and how it continues to influence and invigorate American cultural life. Rabinowitz will be one of the scholars in women's studies who will be discussing performance of tragedy in New York libraries. 

As a speech therapist's assistant at the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC) Middle/High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Katherine De Jesus says her work has been an "eye-opening experience." De Jesus plans to head to a master's program as soon as she graduates, to study for a career in speech pathology. This is her first internship, and it has given her a much greater understanding about autism, as well as about her own abilities to work with and help children with special needs.

The neighborhoods of Shaw and Anacostia in Washington, D.C., each have a complicated heritage of rich tradition and of adversity. In the midst of desegregation and economic prosperity after World War II, the two neighborhoods watched the disappearance of their previous communities, made up of prosperous black elites in Shaw and predominately white members of the middle class in Anacostia. Each area entered a period of real estate devaluation and poverty. In the later part of the 20th century, the government of the District of Columbia initiated an effort to renew Shaw, and steps are now being taken to revitalize Anacostia, as well.

Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman will give a poetry reading at Old Forge Public Library on Monday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. with poet and memoirist Paul Pines. The reading is part of the Adirondack Center for Writing's Summer Reading Series.