Campus Safety is delighted to have moved recently from its problematic quarters in Grafton House to renovated and more spacious offices in Keddy House, right next door. Amanda Warman, director of Campus Safety, was so enthusiastic about saying “goodbye” to Grafton that she operated the wrecking ball.
Continue reading Campus Safety Gets Housing Upgrade
The Keene State community mourns the passing of Joyce Bridgeo Wick ’52, who left us on August 31, 2012. She was born in Manchester, Vermont, and earned her degree in education from what was then Keene Teachers College. She taught elementary school in Missouri, California, and Connecticut. After she married Paul L. Wick in 1962, the couple settled in Vernon, Connecticut, where they lived for four decades. After her husband died, Joyce relocated to Orlando, Florida.
Joyce traveled the US and the world, was a gourmet cook, and was active in her church. If you knew Joyce and would like to see photos of her life, please visit this online slide show.
Seven years ago, Bev Kovacs Spaven ’65, who now lives in Richmond, VA, first visited Richmond’s Sister City, Saitama, Japan, as part of a Little League cultural exchange.
“It has long been the dream of the Sister Cities to have an educator’s exchange,” Bev explained, and when the opportunity finally came, she was one of the first three chosen. “It is a wonderful learning experience from both ends,” Bev said. “I’m helping in the English classes in 4th–6th grades and sharing my school and home life in Richmond with each grade level.”
The other teachers returned Stateside on August 9th, but Bev stayed until the 18th to do some extra sightseeing and visit her Japanese friends. “I will also visit Ishinomaki for one night,” Bev said. “It’s one of the badly hit tsunami towns, where an American was killed—a young female teacher from Richmond. I will visit her school and the reading center that’s been set up in her memory. I’m sure it will be a heartfelt experience as they are still trying to clean up.”
Entrepreneurs with great ideas for growing business all have one common need: access to capital. Recently, the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA) teamed up with Borealis Venture, a NH-based venture capital firm, to create a fund targeted exclusively for New Hampshire business—a first in New Hampshire. The BFA and Borealis are scheduling information sessions around the state to bring together potential funders, bankers, business development people, and entrepreneurs to learn more about the fund. Keene State College, as part of its efforts to promote business growth, is co-hosting one of these events. If you are in the Monadnock Region and have a growing business and would like to know more about the Granite Fund, please contact Daniel Henderson at 358-2121.
OK, this did remind me of the cool flames painted on the hood of my ’57 Chevy BelAir. So where on campus is this?
If you think you know where, please write your answer on a piece of paper and stick it under the windshield wiper of a lovingly restored 1957 Chevy BelAir—with clear title—and park it outside the Newsline offices, 120 Alumni Center, 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435. Or use the “comments” link, below.
In the spring 2012 semester, 11 students in Assistant Professor Patricia Pedroza’s Women’s and Gender capstone course, which explores the question, “What is activism?” launched a project to explore local social activist Granny D’s work and legacy. Their basic intention was to gather a group of people together whose discussion would generate several perspectives on one topic—in this case, Granny D. The students collected oral histories from people who knew the iconic activist, and videotaped many of them. Once those video interviews are edited, they will be available on the project’s website, Catching up with Granny D.
Continue reading WGS Students Launch Granny D Project
In early July, three KSC faculty members—Professor of Holocaust Studies and History Paul Vincent, and Assistant Professors of Music Heather Gilligan and Sandra Howard—traveled with the Chamber Singers of Keene (CSK) to Einbeck, Germany, for a week of cultural exchange.
Continue reading Profs Promote International Partnership
Larry Benaquist, KSC film professor emeritus, has been awarded a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to restore another of the films from the “Nelson Collection,” which are now in the possession of Keene State College. The film, Parson Sue, is the only known copy of a one-reel 1912 comedy by Alice Guy Blaché, who is the world’s first professional woman filmmaker and one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. The discovery of this long-lost film has already excited several film scholars and preservationists, so the film history spotlight will be on KSC when the film is ready to premier.
Continue reading Dr. Benaquist Receives Grant to Restore Long-Lost Guy-Blaché Film
Doris McQuade Rebidue celebrated her 100th birthday on July 31st, and was awarded a special KSC certificate for achieving that rare milestone. Doris graduated from what was then Keene Normal School in 1934 and started teaching is one-room schoolhouses in Lyndeborough. In 1949 she started teaching sixth grade in Milford and became one of the school’s first woman principals in 1958. She retired in 1978, and has traveled the world, visiting Australia, New Zealand, and Italy when she was 92. She still keeps busy, though she sticks a little closer to home these days, since she has a commitment to play cards twice a week.
During the spring 2012 semester, 10 students in the Honors Program—Allie Bedell, Brittany Boscarino, Becca Brady, Katie Conlon, Johanna DeBari, Kristen Hunyadi, Jessica Lulka, Julia Oberst, William Pearson, and Eliza Smiley—took Associate Professor of Sociology Brian Green’s Honors Global Engagement course focusing on Bosnia-Herzegovina, in south-eastern Europe. They learned about Bosnia’s culture, its history, and the issues affecting the country today. Particular emphasis was placed on the late civil war from 1992–1995 and how that has altered the dynamics among the three major ethnic groups: the Serbs, the Croats, and the Bosniaks (Muslims).
Continue reading Honors Students Visit Bosnia
Associate Professor of English Brinda Charry has been awarded a research fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The Folger awards this competitive grant each year to Renaissance studies scholars. Dr. Charry will spend three months in the Folger archives researching eunuch slaves in the Renaissance period and their representation in early modern English drama.
UMass-Lowell head cross-country and track coach and former Owl runner Gary Gardner ’94 is coaching Ruben Sanca, a River Hawks track star who is representing his native Cape Verde Islands at the London Olympics.
Read all about it. …
It takes heart, determination, and dedication to create a business or to work with animals. Erik Kokal ’09, Kris Kokal, and Nik Kokal ’11, three brothers who attended Keene State College, have put plenty of these attributes into their horse training business, HorseTenders, and the HorseTenders Mustang Foundation.
Erik, the behind-the-scenes financials and computer guy, and also works at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center as a counselor. Kris, a graduate of equine dentistry school and a certified farrier, is with the horses daily. Nik is entering his second year of veterinary school at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, but when he’s home, he spends every day with the horses. While each brother has a different role, each is vital to their business’ success.
Continue reading The Holistic Path to a Horse’s Heart
Here’s another easy one (though no one got last month’s, which was even easier!). No matter how long ago, or how recently, you’ve been on campus, you should be able to identify this:
If you think you know where this is, please write your answer on the back of a pair of tickets to the Capitol Steps (coming to KSC on Oct. 4) and send them to Newsline, 120 Alumni Center, 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435. Or use the “comments” link, below.
There are some advantages to studying film at a school the size of Keene State, where the classes are small, according to Jennifer Dunnington ’93. She brought many interests and talents to KSC, including music and dance, but eventually settled into a film major. Because of the intimate class size, she was able to try her hand at several aspects of movie making and combine her interests to eventually find her perfect niche: that of motion picture music editor. She now works closely with the composers, film directors, and picture editors of each project, constantly adjusting the music in the film as the flow of the action changes during the film editing process. “So that’s one of my jobs,” Dunnington explained, “to keep editing the music to fit the new picture while still keeping the emotional and dramatic impact that the original placement had and respecting the structure and integrity of the composition.”
“Music and dance have always been a part of my life,” Dunnington explained, “so when I had the opportunity to put them together with film, it was a perfect fit for me. The music in a film is choreographed against the images, so being aware of that connection in conjunction with the musical structure is crucial to the effect that the score has in a scene.”
She’s worked on several Martin Scorsese films and recently won two of the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel awards for her work on the hit 3D movie, Hugo, and for the HBO documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World. And those are not the first: She’s got two previous Golden Reels and an Emmy, plus several certificates for having been nominated for other Golden Reels and Emmys.
Dunnington’s movie credits also include The Departed, Cosmopolis, Shutter Island, and Boardwalk Empire (for which she won the Emmy). She is currently working on The Hobbit.
Continue reading Jennifer Dunnington ’93 Puts the Music in Hugo, The Departed, The Hobbit …
Remember reading in last September’s Newsline that 1989 Theatre & Dance alum Jacque Bilodeau’s Salon Jacque in Brattleboro had made ELLE Magazine’s list of the top 100 salons in the US?
Well, she’s done it again. In its “United States of Style,” ELLE lists Salon Jacque among its top 100 salons in the country, and the only one in Vermont. Congratulations Jacque!