Here’s a new puzzle for anyone who’s spent much time on campus. Each month we’ll post a photo of something most KSC alums and students – and parents who visit regularly – should have seen somewhere in the KSC environs. Your task is to figure out where the photo was taken, or what it is of, and be the first to give us the correct answer. Your first challenge:

This, and other images as we add them, are on display in our Where’d I See That? gallery. If you think you have the answer, write it in the margin of a $100 dollar bill and mail it to Newsline, Alumni Center, Keene State College, Keene, NH, 03435-1502, or use the “Comments” link below.

The Reflections project, a collaboration between Keene State, Franklin Pierce University, The Historical Society of Cheshire County (Alan Rumrill), Cheshire TV, The Keene Sentinel, and the Keene Public Library (executive producers Nancy Vincent and Sally Miller), has won the Oral History Association’s 2010 Elizabeth B. Mason Small Project Award, given to recognize an outstanding oral history project.

The project team conducted interviews with key people on selected subjects and developed a series of documentaries based on the interviews, which Cheshire TV videotaped.  This resulted in five documentaries: The Hurricane of 1938, Rail Travel in the Monadnock Region, Pisgah: A Place Apart, The Cheshire County Complex, and Textile Mills in the Monadnock Region. Each premiered at the Colonial Theater and appeared on Cheshire TV.

Did you miss any? DVDs of the documentaries are on sale through the Historical Society of Cheshire County.

More information.

You’ve heard the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” KSC alum Marcus Soutra ’06 has certainly done just that, and his very special brand of lemonade is helping learning disabled (LD) students on campus and at local schools.

Diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) in third grade, Marcus had a tough time in school because he just couldn’t learn normally or meet the classroom expectations. “I just didn’t feel good about who I was, because, at a very young age, I’d been told I was disabled,” he remembered. “I looked normal, and felt intelligent, but once I got into the classroom, I felt disabled.”

Fortunately, Marcus had supportive parents and a few understanding teachers along the way, and he made it to Keene State, quite an accomplishment for a LD student. His first year here was rocky, though, because he was ashamed of his disability and didn’t want anyone to know about it. But then he met people such as Jane Warner, director of Disability Services, who helped him get the right accommodations for his needs. “I started to realize that my LD wasn’t such a terrible thing because I could get help with it and do fine in school. My grades started to rise and my self esteem did too.”

Marcus majored in secondary education and social studies. He attended a seminar while he was student teaching and ran into Steve Bigaj, the associate dean of Professional Studies, who told Marcus about Project Eye-to-Eye, an organization that uses college students with LD to mentor younger kids with LD. “I read Jonathan Mooney’s [the Eye-to-Eye cofounder’s] book, Learning Outside the Lines, and it was basically my story,” Marcus recalled. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to bring this to Keene, because students here need to know about it; people in the community need this kind of help.’ So after graduation, I started coming up here and running Eye-to-Eye once a week.”

Marcus went on to become the national program director of Project Eye-to-Eye, where he’s responsible for managing and cultivating chapters nationwide. There are now 30 chapters in 16 states, and Marcus manages half of those chapters. Locally, Eye-to-Eye works with kids at Franklin Elementary School and the Jonathan M. Daniels School.

In 2007, Marcus, along with Amber Bergeron ’07, founded Camp Vision here at KSC, a week-long summer camp where counselors and kids can come together to build self esteem, the most important foundation for successful learning. The Camp, built on proven Eye-to-Eye principles, benefits both counselors and kids. “We’re finding that the role of being a mentor is as transformative in a person’s life as being mentored,” Marcus said. Both parties are struggling, and both need help. The mentors get a big boost from helping someone navigate similar challenges, and the kids, who often feel like they are doomed to failure in the classroom, are delighted to meet a cool college student who’s overcome LD and achieved success.

Cambridge Who’s Who has recognized KSC chemistry professor Dr. Jerry P. Jasinski for demonstrating dedication, leadership, and excellence in chemistry and research management. His primary teaching interests include general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and biochemistry. The president of the American Institute of Chemists, Dr. Jasinski was honored with a Distinguished Scholarship and Research award in 2001.

More information.

A KSC senior’s quick thinking and heroic action saved a woman from drowning in Lake Winnipesaukee on July 17. Catherine Jennison of Belmont, N.H., a 21-year-old art major working as a lifeguard at Ellacoya State Park in Guilford, was off duty but still at the beach when a park visitor told her that she’d seen a woman go under the water but not come up.

Catherine grabbed her rescue buoy and hit the water. Two other on-duty lifeguards soon joined her. The trio found a Barrington woman under water and were able to get her to the surface and to shore, where they got her breathing normally.

The state parks system, the town of Gilford, and the Gilford Fire-Rescue Department presented the lifeguards with recognition awards.

As Catherine told us, “I’m so thankful for all the training I have had. Lifeguarding year round has made me such a better lifeguard, and it keeps my skills honed. I’m glad that I have a job at the Keene State pool.” Looks like anyone swimming in the Spaulding pool is in good hands.

Read all about it in this article in the Union Leader. Or this one in the Citizen of Laconia. Or this article on the WMUR website – with video! And send Ms Jennison a comment to let her know what a hero she is!

The summer issue of Keene State Today, your favorite alumni magazine, is now online, offering you fascinating stories and a few bonus tracks that enhance the print edition.

Read all about how a boulder from Mt. Ascutney, in Vermont, hitched a ride on a glacier all the way to Keene. Last spring, thanks to travel arrangements coordinated by Class of ’56 alum John Summers, the boulder made the final (we hope) leg of its journey to a grassy area on the west side of the David F. Putnam Science Center.

Or about four projects that integrate KSC’s values of citizenship and academic achievement with opportunities for service in the city of Keene.

Or about the incredibly rich and varied lives of Bruce ’64 and Joanne ’66 Smith, who maintain High Hopes Orchard in Westmoreland, enjoyed successful teaching careers and a flourishing pie-baking business, and have been traveling the world. How do they do it all?

Or about Dave Wenhold ’90, who came to KSC an introvert and graduated to become a leading and compassionate lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He’s developed an advocacy campaign for Keene State to help secure funds for the Monadnock Biodiesel Cooperative and the Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Or about Dr. Larry Benaquist, who came to Keene State to teach Renaissance lit. But then a student asked him a simple question, and he ended up creating the Film Studies program. How does that happen?

Or about siblings Samantha, Riley, and Jackie Benson, who all play sports for KSC and keep their best fans – their parents – running all over to games.

If you’re a runner, you’ll definitely want to read track coach Peter Thomas’ advice – and the advice from some of his top runners – about what makes a good runner.

But wait, there’s more!  Just check out the online issue to see it all – and once you’ve delved into these thought-provoking articles, we welcome your online comments.

New KSC alumna Kristine Trutor has been named the 2010 Little East Woman of the Year. The LEC also nominated her for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Award, which honors graduating student athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service, and leadership.

After her remarkable success on the Owl swim team this past winter, Trutor was selected as the top swimmer in the Little East for the second-straight season. She also made her second-consecutive appearance at the 2010 NCAA Division III Championships, where she became the first Keene State swimmer to earn All-America honors in an individual event. The film production major made her second appearance on the Little East All-Academic Teams this past winter and helped Keene State raise the New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association Championship (NEISDA) trophy for the third year in succession.

More information.