Category Archives: Uncategorized

Get the Facts on Current Legislation

For Parents, Uncategorized

There is lots of legislation in the works these days that profoundly affects KSC. The current NH House Bill 1692 would slash the budget and staff for the University System of New Hampshire. There’s lots of misinformation floating out there about why this is being considered, and how much it would save. Actually, HB1692 won’t save anything; it will make higher ed in New Hampshire more expensive. Get the facts; read “An Act making changes to the administration of the University System of New Hampshire” on the KSC Advocates site. And while you’re there, sign up for periodic updates—your alma mater needs your informed support!

742 = a Lot!

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You’ve heard the saying, “if everyone lit just one little candle. …” Well, we’re looking for a lot of you to light that little candle and give just a little (or more!) to earn a significant amount. Bruce LeVine Mellion ’69 has generously offered to contribute $5,000 to support of scholarships and financial aid, if at least 742 recent grads make a gift during the month of March.

Why 742? Bruce realizes that hundreds of small gifts can be just as important as a few big ones. He started giving small donations in 1969 and gradually increased his gifts as his ability to give grew. He set the bar at 742 because that’s more recent graduate donors than we’ve ever had before.

Do your part and become one of that elite 742 by making a donation of any size to Keene State. Your gift will help us reach Bruce’s goal and, since it will go to scholarships and financial aid for needy students, it will make a big difference in some student’s life.

For more information, and to check our progress, visit the 742 Challenge page. Your support is more important than ever.

Speak Up for the Future!

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Do you think college tuition is too high? Are you struggling to pay for an education? Or maybe college was much more affordable in your day. Whatever your opinion, students in an oral history and news class would like to hear it. They’re setting up interviews with current students, alumni, and parents to record their opinions on college affordability. They’ll also be interested in your opinion on the value of a college education. These interviews will be captured on a digital audio recorder and archived for research purposes. The students also plan to post the interviews on a Keenecommon website.
Continue reading Speak Up for the Future! →

Marie-Helene Caron: Making the Most of Every Moment

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Marie-Helene Caron

For those who welcome a challenge, the world’s their oyster. Communication and Marketing major Marie-Helene Caron wanted to step beyond her comfort zone, so the French-speaking Quebec native hooked up with the National Student Exchange (NSE) and decided to come to Keene State College from the Université de Sherbrooke. Her primary goal was to improve her fluency in English, but she also wanted to expand her horizons and face challenges beyond the support of her family and friends, to improve herself personally and professionally.

That desire for a challenge got ratcheted up about a week before she was to head for Keene, when she was involved in an auto accident. Though she wasn’t hurt, the doctor who examined her found abnormal lymph nodes in her neck, which turned out to be thyroid cancer. “At this time, my life changed, …” she recalled.
Continue reading Marie-Helene Caron: Making the Most of Every Moment →

Network with Alums in Connecticut

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Join Bruce Levine Mellion ’69 and Christine Williams ’11 as they host area alumni for a night of KSC fun on Friday, March 23, from 7–9 at the Playwright Irish Pub in Hamden, CT (1232 Whitney Ave.). Reconnect with KSC friends, network with other alumni, and celebrate the Challenge to KSC Recent Graduates. KSC Alumni Association will have complementary appetizers on hand, and there will be a cash bar. Be there!

For more info or to RSVP contact alumni@keene.edu or 603.358.2369.

Alums Support Student Job Seekers

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For nearly a decade, KSC Alumni Association volunteers have been sharing their expertise and experience to help students make their way successfully into the career world. Those volunteers—representing such diverse professions as banking, insurance, manufacturing, education, the nonprofit sector, health, and graphic design—meet with students, individually and in larger groups, to help them explore career avenues, develop resumes, and prepare for job interviews. Since they’ve been there, the alumni realize how daunting the transition from classroom to career can be, and they’re happy to help smooth the way for new job seekers. The Alumni Association Board of Directors has established a standing committee dedicated to this one strategic impact area; they’ve devoted hundreds of hours to aiding students who are seeking employment.

This spring, alumni will be meeting individually with nearly a hundred students in preparatory workshops, to review resumes and conduct portfolio reviews. Students who have participated in the past have said how much they appreciate the opportunity to receive constructive feedback. And the alumni volunteers say how much they enjoy connecting with current students and sharing their experience and advice.

For more information about volunteering, visit the Alumni Volunteer page.

Attention: Alumni Whose Class Years End in 2 or 7

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Alumni whose class years end in 2 or 7: 2012 is your year! The Class of ’62 will be celebrating their 50th (and joining the Golden Circle!), and the Class of ’52 mark their 60th! Members of the classes of 1957, 1987, 1992, 2002, and 2007 have been actively contacting their members to get them all back to Keene for that first weekend in June. Don’t miss the latest addition to the weekend activities: Dueling Pianos on Saturday night. For more info, or to see the schedule, visit the Reunion 2012 page.

On the Alumni Horizon

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Alumni: Be on the lookout for great information from the Alumni Association this spring. News will include

  • Balloting process for the election of representatives to the Alumni Board of Directors
  • Alumni Association Awards announcements
  • Reunion activities for June 1–3
  • Volunteering opportunities for alumni/student events, commencement and Reunion

Where’d I See That?

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Some of you must have walked past this many times.

If you think you know where this is, please write your answer on a piece of paper and slip it inside an 1854 Ticknor & Fields edition of Walden, or Life in the Woods and mail it to Newsline, Alumni Center, 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435. Or use the “comments” link, below.

 

Hearing Loss Is No Barrier to Jaime Del Pizzo

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Jaime Del Pizzo, film student extraordinaire

Like many students at KSC, junior Jaime Del Pizzo is a film major. But she’s a film major with significant hearing loss. You’d think that would be a serious impediment to film study, but not in Jaime’s case. She uses assistive technology, hearing aids, and an FM system, and sometimes relies on note takers to help her in her classes. The Office of Disability Services also sends an email to each of her professors every semester requesting that films and video materials be captioned, so that Jaime will have access those educational materials.

“Her biggest strength is cinematography,” noted Jeremy Kingwill, a film production teaching assistant interviewed in a video about Jaime. “Being such a visual person, she instinctively knows where to get the best shot … her color pattern is off the chart.”

She’s also an avid snowboarder and has just returned from a semester of study in New Zealand. To learn more about Jamie and how she does it all, check out the article she wrote for About.com’s Assistive Technology page on “Technology for Deaf & HoH College Students.”

James Waller Attends Award for Aung San Suu Kyi

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James Waller, Professor and Cohen Chair for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Professor and Cohen Chair for Holocaust and Genocide Studies James Waller has been invited to attend a dinner at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, on April 18, honoring Aung San Suu Kyi. The Memorial Museum will grant Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy work in her native Burma, with the Elie Wiesel Award, the Museum’s highest honor.

“I am particularly thrilled to have the opportunity to be present for Aung San Suu Kyi’s award,” Dr. Waller explained. “I think that what is happening in Myanmar/Burma is forcing us to rethink genocide prevention in some fundamental (and very encouraging) ways. Last year at this time, I was telling audiences that Burma was the most likely country in the world to engage in genocide. It really stood on the precipice of mass atrocity, and my standard line was ‘the only surprise is that genocide hasn’t happened yet in Burma,’ because every other risk factor was well in place. Now, just months later, free, democratic elections are on the horizon. It’s really amazing—this most encouraging lesson in genocide prevention is that it’s never too late. As long as a country hasn’t yet reached that falling off point, there’s still hope.”

Dr. Waller is also invited to participate as a featured speaker in the Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance luncheon on April 19. Broadcast journalist Marvin Kalb, and Shankhar Vedantum, author of The Hidden Brain, will moderate the luncheon program, which will focus on understanding how the Holocaust was made possible by everyday people. Dr. Waller’s research for his book, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford), will be particularly relevant to the discussion.

Prof. Antonucci Resurrects Basketball History

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About 10 years ago, while he was developing a course at University of Illinois Chicago, Michael Antonucci, associate professor of English and American studies, stumbled upon an old and dusty copy of Frank J. Basloe’s I Grew Up With Basketball: Twenty Years of Barnstorming with Cage Greats of Yesterday, then long out of print. Basloe (1887–1966) was born in Hungary and immigrated as a child with his family to the United States in the late 19th century.

“It’s a great American coming-of-age tale in which a Jewish immigrant becomes (in his words) ‘a toned American’ through the new game called basketball,” explained Dr. Antonucci. “From this perspective, the text gives scholars and students a great snapshot of the US in the early 20th century. Trains, cities, towns, games, work, and the hustle are present throughout the text.” Realizing that the book had real value for his work in American studies at KSC, Dr. Antonucci tried using a pdf copy of I Grew Up With Basketball as a text it in his class. Obviously, that was far from an ideal solution, so he proposed that the University of Nebraska Press reprint the book, for which he wrote a new introduction.
Continue reading Prof. Antonucci Resurrects Basketball History →

Anthony Bishop ’94 Art Directs Superbowl Halftime Show

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Anthony Bishop ’94 on the field at Superbowl LXVI

Wasn’t it just a month ago that we told you about Anthony Bishop ’94, the art director for the new NBC game show Who’s Still Standing? By the time that story ran, Anthony was already moving onto  bigger things. He was also the art director for Madonna’s stunning halftime show at Superbowl LXVI, as well as for the Pregame and Tailgate Party featuring Lenny Kravitz and the Fray.

“Just what does the art director do?” you might ask (like I did).

“It is my responsibility to carry out the production designer’s vision by way of renderings and technical drafting that communicate the design to the artist, the client, the team, and the vendors who fabricate all the pieces of the puzzle,” Anthony explained. “I also have to manage the vendors, often via phone, as they build the design because changes from the client continue to trickle in until we get on camera. Next there is the onsite scope, the ‘load in,” where I oversee all the pieces of the puzzle and coordinate communication between each vendor as we all work together in what is typically a 10-day process from delivery to show day. However, the Superbowl was a four-week process, since a football stadium is not our typical venue. Ultimately, I oversee the production’s overall artistic look on camera and am responsible for problem solving when something we designed doesn’t work.”
Continue reading Anthony Bishop ’94 Art Directs Superbowl Halftime Show →

Students Gather Critical Data on Prescription Drug Abuse

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Shelby Hall (l) and Faith Durnford, two of the students who were instrumental in the prescription drug abuse study.

New Hampshire has a serious problem with prescription drug abuse, though few people realize it. It causes more deaths than traffic accidents in the state, and our rate of pain-medication abuse among 18- to 25-year olds is the second-highest in the country. It’s a big factor in the rise in such crimes as illicit sales and theft.

Keene State students, in partnership with Monadnock Voices for Prevention, conducted a semester-long research project to study the problem in this part of the state and come up with some solutions. The information the students gathered, and their recommendations, not only informed strategies for the Monadnock region, but they also impacted Governor Lynch’s statewide plan to address prescription drug abuse, which was released in January (Call to Action: Responding to New Hampshire’s Prescription Drug Abuse Epidemic).
Continue reading Students Gather Critical Data on Prescription Drug Abuse →

Five Inducted into Athletic Hall of Fame

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The newest KSC Hall of Famers: (L-R) Meghan McLoughlin, Wilson Perez, Raymond “Lippy” De Rocher, and Michelle Mason (Debbie Higgins was unable to attend)

Though winter wasn’t particularly cooperative for the Campus’ recent Winterfest weekend, spirits were high in the Alumni Center’s Centennial Hall for the Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies on Feb. 4th. The new Class of 2012 includes Raymond “Lippy” De Rocher ’64 (baseball), Debbie Higgins ’76 (basketball), Wilson Perez ’03 (cross country/track), Michelle Mason ’05 (soccer and lacrosse) and Meghan McLoughlin ’05 (softball).

Read all about it.