Campus News
 Deborah Roney, coordinator for Language in Motion, oversaw the operation of an innovative language outreach program that received, in just its second year of existence, the Andrew Heiskill Award for Innovation in International Education. |
In Any Language: Juniata Outreach Program No. 1
Juniata's international culture outreach program, Language in Motion, received one of three 2001-2002 Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education from the Institute of International Education (IIE) after its first year of existence. The nationally known Heiskell awards honor outstanding initiatives in international higher education.
The Language in Motion program, which debuted in 2000-2001 through a grant from the Cooperative Grants Program of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, received their award in the Internationalizing the Campus category at a ceremony April 17 in Washington, D.C. The award also includes a $1,000 stipend.
"These are awards for innovation, and it's very exciting to get national recognition for our program," says Deborah Roney, coordinator for Language in Motion. "It has always been our focus to create an international outreach program that other institutions can use as a model and the recognition of the program shows that Language in Motion is worthy of replication."
Language in Motion uses international students, students recently returned from the college's study abroad programs, and students who have completed upper-level language classes to present language and cultural materials and activities in public school classrooms.
"It was good to have the students work with a student who has had travel experience and can bring a contemporary element to the classroom," says Chris Gardner, a Spanish teacher at Huntingdon Area High School. The project is funded this year by a grant from the William P. and Frances C. Nyce Scholarship for Study in Latin America.
"We are expanding the programs into other areas by responding to teacher requests," explains JoAnn deArmas Wallace, dean of international programs. "Several teachers have asked students to make cultural presentations in English classes or on languages other than the one being studied in that language class."
Many colleges and universities offer pool tables as a student activity, but oftentimes these tables are heavily used and end up stained with soda, food, and substances better left to the imagination. Not so at Juniata, where students queue up to wield cues on a fully restored 1912 antique pool table.
John Stauffer '66, director of the Paint Quality Institute of Rohm and Haas Co. in Philadelphia, and his son, Tad '01 meticulously restored the 10-foot by 5-foot billiards behemoth (most modern tables are 9 feet by 4 1/2 feet), which has a fully functional original ball-return system. The Stauffers donated the 2,000-pound table to the college and the table was installed on the second floor of Ellis College Center in January.
The six-legged pool table is a 1912 Kling model manufactured by the Brunswick-Blake-Collender Co. in Muskegon, Mich. The table is made from Circassian walnut and the rail caps are made from Brazilian rosewood. The diamond-shaped sights along the table rails that help players line up shots were originally made of ivory. Stauffer restored the sights by using ivory from discarded piano keys.
Along with the table, John Stauffer also donated cues, racks, billiard balls, a lighting system, and other equipment for the table. "Hopefully the table will help beyond its entertainment value and inspire students to recognize the opportunity to give back to the college in some form," he says.
"There are a few rules, such as no food or drink near the table, and everyone must keep at least one foot on the floor during a shot, but the students are really excited that they can play for free," says Dawn Scialabba, director of campus activities.
 Great innovation can come in small packages as students David Damato, Adam Clampet and David Spokus work on a Palm Pilot software package for Spring Cove School District. |
Piloting 'Palm' Technical Solutions
A team of Juniata information technology students are working to help make Spring Cove School District in Martinsburg, Pa., one of three "digital school districts" in Pennsylvania, even more digital by designing database applications for hand-held personal digital assistants (PDAs). The applications are designed for Palm Pilots, so school administrators can access several different database servers and incorporate data from those servers into the school district's centralized administrative system without returning to their personal computer.
"The Juniata students became our technical consultants. We knew what we wanted the system to do and the Juniata team found products and designed solutions to get us that result," explains Chuck Kensinger '72, a Spring Cove School District administrator.
The Juniata students are working with the school district in Juniata's Innovations for Industry, a for-credit course within the College's Information Technology (IT) program.
"Our student team created a solution that required them to design a database, program applications and create a security system for that application," says Dennis Johnson, assistant professor of environmental science. "For undergraduate students to take on a project like this for a business client is fairly unique for most colleges."
The Juniata students were led by David Damato '02, a senior from Fort Lee, N.J., who says, "All types of businesses use Palm Pilots and other hand-helds to access databases for inventory or human resources information. We decided to try applying these business solutions to a public school."
Damato and team members David Spokus '03, a junior from Lewistown, Pa. and Adam Clampet '03, a junior from Huntingdon, Pa., recommended Pendragon, an independent software application written for Palm Pilots, or DB2 Everyplace, an application created by IBM Inc, to meet the district's database needs.
Buckling Down: Freshman Becomes Safety Expert
Nicole Lewis '05, a freshman from Buck Hill Falls, Pa. in Monroe County, is not married with children and has only been driving for two years, but this 19-year-old student knows more about protecting infants and young children in car seats than many mothers.
Lewis is a Certified Child Passenger Seat Safety Technician, a title she earned by taking an intensive 32-hour training course and passing a hands-on skill test and a 108-question multiple choice exam. On top of that, she was first certified two years ago at age 17.
Lewis clicked with child car seat safety in her junior year of high school at Evergreen Community School in Cresco, Pa., when she organized a service project centered on a car seat safety check in her community.
Today she is listed as a technician on a Web site for the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration. She also operates her own Web page, a buying guide for child car seats at: http://pages.ivillage.com/buyingguide/home.html. She and a friend wrote an extensive and informative consumer guide.
"Sometimes it's hard for parents to believe that they're getting their information from a college student," Lewis admits. "But what interests me is explaining the technical aspect of car seat safety to parents simply."
Lewis probably is the only student to bring along a car seat when she moved into Juniata's dorms. "Manufacturers give me car seats to use as samples," she explains. "I have about 12 at home and every so often I will give away a few to purge my collection."
Havana Can't Wait: Studying in Cuba
Scott Kofmehl '03, a junior from Pittsburgh studying international political economics, studied one of the few remaining communist economies up close when the Juniata student spent fall semester studying at the University of Havana in Cuba.
"I was looking for a different study abroad experience than going to Spain or Mexico," says Kofmehl, who was able to attend the University of Havana as part of a program sponsored by the Center for Cross Cultural Studies in Amherst, Mass. "The best part of this program is the experiential learning. I was able to participate in events that American students just don't see very often."
Kofmehl took four classes during his stay at the university while staying at a hotel for students located in Vedado, a neighborhood located near the commercial heart of Havana. "The Cubans were all very friendly and after the events of Sept. 11, they were very sympathetic, because New York is second to Miami in population of Cuban immigrants."
He also was able to hear Fidel Castro, president of Cuba, speak at three separate events, including an address before more than 1 million people in Havana's central plaza. "He didn't talk very long, about 45 minutes, which is good because we were about to pass out from the crush of people." A few days after the speech, Kofmehl also wrote an op-ed column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about Cuba's reaction to the terrorist attacks. "Castro is very eloquent and very charismatic in person," Kofmehl adds.
To study in Cuba, Kofmehl received a scholarship from the National Security Education Program. Before traveling to Cuba, Kofmehl spent the summer of 2001 in Olizaba, Mexico.
Juniata Chosen as Site for Governor's Institute for Life Science
Juniata has been chosen as the site of the 2002 Pennsylvania Governor's Institute for Life Science, where 100 elementary and secondary teachers will attend lectures by leading science educators in Pennsylvania and nationwide and take part in workshops addressing the educational content standards for biology and biotechnology in science classes.
The PA Governor's Institute for Life Science is one of 29 Pennsylvania Governor's Institutes and Academies held in 24 different areas across the state. Previously, the institute was held at Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The 100 teachers who attend the institute will receive two graduate credits.
"We are very excited the Governor's Institute is coming to Juniata because it recognizes us as one of the leaders in the state at providing hands-on science and teacher training," says Lorraine Mulfinger, assistant professor of chemistry and co-director of the institute.
The institute will offer lectures and workshops focused on the educational standards of Unifying Themes, Inquiry and Design and Technological Devices. Teachers also will be able to workwith new equipment and processes that can be used in biology classes such as electrophoresis, physiology apparatus and electron microscopes.
Many Juniata faculty will participate in the institute, including Randy Bennett, associate professor of biology, who will lecture on genetics and evolution, Jill Keeney, associate professor of biology, who will lecture on DNA sequencing; and Jay Hosler, assistant professor of biology, who will lecture on the nervous system.
Out of Africa: A Learning Experience
When most of her classmates were returning to Juniata from Christmas break and discussing how TV's Survivor: Africa turned out, Denique Conner '03, a sophomore from Rochester, N.Y., was flying toward an African experience of her own that profoundly changed how she viewed the world.
Conner was chosen to represent Juniata as part of a philanthropic project in the African nations of Benin and Togo sponsored by the Lilly Foundation and the Church of the Brethren. The project has a dual purpose: to educate students about developing countries, and to assist citizens of these developing countries in starting businesses or other ventures.
Conner was one of nine students from various Brethren colleges to travel from Jan. 6-22 to Benin and Togo, two West African counties located between Ghana and Nigeria. "Everything was a learning experience from not being able to brush your teeth using the local water to seeing how women are subjugated to the men in Africa," Conner says.
Much of Conner's work and study centered on interviewing and observing entrepreneurial women in the cities of Cotonou, Benin and Lome, Togo. The women had been awarded business grants of about $40 to start small businesses that might sell clothes, vegetables, or herbal medicines. "The women carry their wares on their head, or they might build a small stand in the marketplace to sell," she says.
While Conner was impressed at the resiliency of the women she talked to and the startling beauty of Africa, she was shocked and upset by the level of poverty in the two nations. "This is extreme poverty, where people don't even have a place to put their garbage," she explains. She loved interacting with local citizens, some of whom wanted to go beyond conversation. "Several men asked me if I would marry them," she says, laughing.
 Nic Patterson '02, jots down coordinates as Seth Mesoras '02 uses a mobile global positioning device known as a Trimble Unit to pinpoint a historical site. |
Digitizing History by Mapping the Past
Juniata is bringing 18th- and 19th-century historic industrial sites into the 21st century by having students create a digital Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map of more than 100 historically and culturally significant industrial sites in Huntingdon County as part of the college's ongoing heritage project, Currents of the Juniata Valley (see Currents of The Juniata article).
The students, part of an information technology independent study course taught by Dennis Johnson, assistant professor of environmental science, currently are expanding the scope of the project by mapping industrial sites in Bedford, Blair, Fulton, Juniata, Mifflin, and Perry counties and creating digital GIS maps that can be accessed on the World Wide Web.
A GIS system uses digital maps arranged in layers that can be viewed singly or as part of an interrelated system. Each "layer" of a GIS system is devoted to one element of an area's landscape. "Many of these historical sites, such as iron furnaces, mills, or canal buildings, do not appear on any map, digital or otherwise," explains James Tuten, assistant professor of history and assistant provost.
According to Holly Wolbert '02, a senior from Erie, Pa., students mapped many of the sites using global positioning equipment as well as maps furnished by Paul Heberling, professor emeritus of anthropology and president of Heberling Associates, a Huntingdon archeology firm.
The new digital maps allow users to instantly access information related to each of the 107 sites in Huntingdon County, such as dates of existence, specific or relative location, and, in some cases, detailed photographs of the site.