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1 > chass.ncsu.edu Forging a Sustainable Path student takes interdisciplinary route The Lebanese Legacy in North Carolina Giving Voice to Victims for alumni & f Accccoladeriends of CHsASS ACC Road Trip 2 CHASS Accolades 2012 But those who were deaf or hard of hearing had to rely on the skills of an American Sign Language (asl) interpreter. As President Obama spoke from behind the podium about the American Jobs Act, a man in black stood behind him, relaying his message to those who could not hear it for themselves. That man was none other than chass Dean Jeff Braden. Typically, licensed asl interpreters serve at large public events. However, in situations such as an unexpected visit from the president of the United States, some flexibility is required. University officials contacted two licensed asl interpreters and asked them to serve during the president’s speech, but there wasn’t enough time to get all the information required to meet the White House’s stringent security-clearance standards for both interpreters. To ensure that every attendee received the president’s mes-sage, the university turned to Braden, who gladly accepted the assignment. He was joined by asl interpreter Grace Bullen Sved. As a former certified asl interpreter, Braden has a long history with the language. During his senior year of high school, his mother — a social worker — placed a deaf child with special needs in a neighbor’s home. She asked Braden to help the family with child care after school. He enjoyed the task so much that he continued sign language studies in college. As an undergraduate at Beloit College, Braden spent a year working in the deaf-blind unit at the Perkins School for the Blind, gaining hands-on experience in sign language. Braden spent his junior year at Gallaudet University, the world’s only university specifically designed to meet the needs of people who are deaf and hearing-impaired. He was so confident in his asl skills that when he returned to Beloit as a senior, he talked his way into a job teaching asl to his peers. Braden’s signing skills have given him access to a number of valuable opportunities, such as the year he spent teaching sign language to chimpanzees at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he worked alongside renowned psychologists and chimpanzee researchers Trixie and Allen Gardner. Braden’s gig for President Obama was not his first experience with interpreting for celebrities. He interpreted for Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and others at the May 1979 No Nukes rally in Washington, d.c., that drew 65,000 activists in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island incident. Braden is grateful for the broadened perspective he has gained through his experiences with sign language. “It certainly expands your sense of diversity,” he says. “Deafness is another culture. Sign language is another language. And at Gallaudet, I had the experience of being a minority, which definitely will change your outlook on life. It gave me a deep appreciation for what it means to be human.” President Barack Obama received an enthusiastic welcome from NC State last fall when he spoke at Reynolds Coliseum to rally support for his economic policies. Most people listened carefully to his every word. Seeing Mesage the — Jen Jernigan, CHASS communication intern Dean Jeff Braden signed for President Obama on campus. 3 > chass.ncsu.edu CHASS alum and Emmy Award-winning producer and director Neal Hutcheson has spent the last 10 years documenting cultural change in North Carolina, from deep Appalachia to the farthest reaches of the Outer Banks. Turning his lens down east, Hutcheson has produced Atlantic (2012), a documentary that depicts the challenges facing families who have lived and worked for generations along North Carolina’s Core Sound. In a string of small fishing villages, residents have adapted to the harsh environment, unique ecosystem, and ever-changing topography that define the region. Now residents are seeing their rich traditions eroded by water pollution, development and relocated outsiders. What happens when ancestral attitudes of interdependence between community and ecology are eroded by a rising tide of free-market forces? Visit ncsu.edu/linguistics/ncllp/ for details about the North Carolina Language and Life Project and the documentaries produced through the sociolinguistics program, where Hutcheson is a staff member. She says her instructors helped students learn as much as they could and pushed them to succeed. Donnelly hit the interview circuit with con-fidence, a solid portfolio, a website and a dvd of her work. Less than a month after she graduated, she was offered two jobs. She took a position as a digital journalist/reporter with nbc affiliate wsls 10 in Roanoke, Va., where she continues to work today. Donnelly’s experience bears out the Wall Street Journal’s report (September 2010) that NC State scored among the top 20 universities with job recruiters looking to hire the best-trained and best-prepared graduates. Read more about Donnelly and other chass alumni at chass.ncsu.edu. By the time Morgan Donnelly (Commu-nication and Political Science ’10) graduated, she had completed three internships in her area of focus, she had studied abroad and she had conducted research. Prepared to Succeed Graduating Atlantic 4 CHASS Accolades 2012 Students and others who passed through Caldwell Lounge during the National Day on Writing were invited to learn about — and play with — new ways of sharing the written and spoken word. As the afternoon progressed, the hallways became covered with sticky notes like those posted on SecretsWall.com. “I’m afraid no one cares” appeared on one note. “I do” was later scrawled on a note nearby. A scar journal allowed writers to share stories of their scars, physical or otherwise. Others interacted with a Kinect-style poetry site, seeing huge projected images of themselves covered in poetry. “Self-expression is alive and well,” says Casie Fedukovich, assistant professor of English. “We wanted to share some of the many possibilities for putting thoughts out into the world.” wall handwriting’s on the The Scientific American highlighted forensic anthropologist Ann Ross in several columns about her work in tackling complicated murder cases, in addressing risk factors for genocide and in developing the new 3-D software that’s helping scientists identify the gender and ancestral origins of human remains with greater speed and precision. The Atlantic Monthly technology blog featured English professor John Wall’s “Virtual Paul’s Church” project. Wall is working to recreate the spatial and acoustic dynamics of a sermon John Donne preached in St. Paul’s Square in 17th-century London. As the blog Inside Higher Education described it, Wall wants to “enable make headlines We Visit chass.ncsu.edu to read about these and other faculty in the news. 5 > chass.ncsu.edu learners to experience historical events or places instead of reading off a page.” Learn more about John Wall’s project at chass.ncsu.edu. During this election season, our political scientists are called upon regularly for their insights and expertise. Andy Taylor and Steven Greene are quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other national media outlets on topics including the governor’s race, taxes, the Republican presidential primaries and the key battleground state of North Carolina. When Piedmont Laureate Scott Huler was writing a blog post for Scientific American about the Dan Neil (MA, English ’86), a Pulitzer Prize winner who writes an automotive column for the Wall Street Journal, appears prominently in the recent documentary Revenge of the Electric Car. The film follows four entrepreneurs as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market during a global recession. Neil returned to campus to discuss the film and the future of the electric car. See the interview we conducted with Neil in the alumni section of chass.ncsu.edu by clicking on the Alumni Profile Videos tag. electric car Revenge of the Penn State child abuse scandal, he called on psychologist and CHASS Dean Jeff Braden for his expertise in human nature. Bloomberg Businessweek asked historian Blair Kelley to weigh in on the widening income gap within the black community. USA Today ran articles about how to avoid scams targeting the elderly. The articles featured Karen Bullock, Monica Leach and Jodi Hall from our Department of Social Work. CHASS faculty frequently appear on WUNC radio’s The State of Things to discuss everything from politics to Kafka, films and historic events. The Atlantic highlighted sociologist and occupational-injury expert Michael Schulman’s research about the lack of parental awareness regarding the hazards their teens are facing in the workplace. 6 CHASS Accolades 2012 Dean Jeff Braden gives a flip about the staff in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Actually, make that dozens of flips. With Mr. Wuf looking on approvingly, the dean and his fellow administrators hosted a picnic to honor and thank the 135 staff in the college for all their hard work and dedication. “We have not been able to give raises for the past several years,” the dean said as he flipped burgers and hot dogs. “And we have asked staff members to take on more and more work. We wanted to celebrate our staff and let them know we value what they bring to the college each and every day.” Lucky staff members also received items donated by businesses along Hillsborough Street and beyond. Accolades 2012 Edition CHASS Advisory Board President Emily Barbour Barry Beith Erica Boisvert Steve Bullard Lee Garrett Terrence Holt Bryan Hum David Jolley Maria Kingery NC State Foundation Board Liaison Kathy Council Accolades is published by the NC State University College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dean Jeffery P. Braden Editor, CHASS Director of Communication Lauren Kirkpatrick Contributing Writers Caroline Barnhill Christa Gala Jen Jernigan Lauren Kirkpatrick Ken Otterbourg Jimmy Ryals Matt Shipman Diana Smith Design and Photography NC State University Communication Services Jennifer Martineau Charlie Perusse Harold Pettigrew Carol Rahmani Brooks Raiford Brad Remmey Bing Sizemore Ken Wooten NC State University is dedicated to equality of opportunity. The University does not condone discrimination against students, employees, or applicants in any form. NC State commits itself to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. In addition, NC State welcomes all persons without regard to sexual orientation. 32,000 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of 50¢ per copy. 7 > chass.ncsu.edu Head for the Hill 20 transformation NC State marks its 125th anniversary during 2012–2013. As we honor our traditions and all those who have gone before to help create such a strong and vital university, we are also highlighting alumni, students, faculty and others who have been catalysts for transformation. As we celebrate all we have been and plan for the challenges that lie ahead, we can take great satisfaction in the spirit of transformation that continues to shape our priorities. Be proud, reader. Be very proud. stories OF 18 Kristin Replogle is transforming students’ lives. Through her benevolence, they can participate in unpaid internships with nonprofits far and wide. ACC Road Trip 10 Fostering Stability for Children 21 The Lebanese Legacy in North Carolina 12 Helping Students and Soldiers Talk the Talk 22 Alums Recognized for Service 26 Soldier Turns Oxford Scholar 24 Giving Voice to Victims 16 14 Distinguished alumna Nora Shepard is a teacher and poet. Through her tenacious support of the creative writing program at NC State, she is helping shape the Triangle region into an arts mecca that celebrates the literary arts. 8 Ariel Fugate incorporated sociology, agriculture and agroecology into her self-designed course of study. Her quest and her passion? To understand and share environmentally sustainable practices related to the food we eat. 17 Lori Foster Thompson is helping lead global development in the emerging field of Humanitarian Work Psychology. 8 CHASS Accolades 2012 path For some students, college is a fairly straightforward path: Choose a major you enjoy, take the required courses and eventually graduate. For others, such as Ariel Fugate, the road is full of twists and turns. Fugate, a Caldwell Fellow, forged a path that took her from zoology through wildlife and fisheries and agriculture, into a close examination of sociology and finally to a major she designed herself in the college’s interdisciplinary studies program. Fugate arrived on campus from Lexington, Ky., as a zoology major. She was an aspiring veterinarian. “I was pretty narrow-minded at that point, focused on a career I knew something about,” she recalls. “But then I started looking into how wildlife and humans are affected by agriculture.” Led by her curiosity, Fugate signed up for a class in wildlife management. That course opened her eyes to the adverse effects that some farming practices can have on wildlife habitat and water quality. As she studied conservation practices, Fugate became interested in agroecology, the study of ecology on farms. She was also intrigued by societal issues related to food and sustainability. The field of sociology beckoned. “I wanted to know more about the social aspect of eating and how that affects human health,” she says. “I also wanted to see how our eating habits impact the environment.” As Fugate became more informed, she grew increasingly concerned about the public’s lack of general awareness about these issues. “I don’t think many of us make a connection between our per-sonal eating habits and the toll those habits take on us, on the community and on the earth,” she says. “I wanted to find some ways to build awareness and to encourage people to develop eating habits that were healthier and that supported the environment.” Fugate started with a population with whom she could readily identify: students. And she chose a venue where they consumed many of their daily meals: the campus dining halls. She conducted research on NC State University’s food systems, examining what was served in the dining halls, asking how the university decided what to serve and learning where that food came from. She is proud to report that the university is moving toward a goal of ensuring that at least 10 percent of the food it serves is locally sourced by the end of 2012. She is also encouraged by the university’s response to some of her research findings. While she was an intern with the university’s Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling, she conducted a waste audit of one of the dining hall’s dumpsters. “We found that 70 percent of what was in the dumpster was compostable,” she says. “Based on our findings, the dining halls across campus began composting. I like to think my research helped contribute to this tipping point by spreading more awareness.” a sustainable Forg ing 9 > chass.ncsu.edu Fugate says her self-designed interdisciplinary major has been the perfect way to tie together her interests in agriculture, sustainability and sociology. “Food touches many areas, so it’s hard to limit it to just science or just sociology,” she says. “The interdisciplinary studies option gives me the ability to explore both the scientific and social aspects of food.” This semester, for example, Fugate is conducting research in a nearby county about food environments. “We are looking at such factors as where supermarkets are located in relation to neighborhoods and to the residents’ income levels,” she says. “My major lets me apply what I’m learning to the real world. I have become much more focused on how we can make a difference in communities at large.” Fugate’s efforts won’t end when she graduates this spring. Nor will her interdisciplinary orientation. “I intend to keep learning about food insecurity and sustainability,” she says. “And I would like to keep working with interdisciplinary topics, whether it’s through education or a communications position in which I could raise awareness about food issues.” — Jen Jernigan, CHASS communication intern Ariel Fugate (Interdisciplinary Studies ‘12) helped start the Campus Farmers Market. Outside the dining halls, Fugate was inspired to help provide fresh, local produce to students and others on campus. Along with fellow student Eric Ballard (’09), she co-founded the Campus Farmers Market in 2009 to draw attention to and build support for sustainable food systems. Farmers and other vendors set up shop on the brickyard every Wednesday during the growing season to sell their produce, meats and cheeses, body lotion and other crafts — all of which are produced in North Carolina. The market is distinguished by its focus on education. “We want customers to find high-quality affordable products, and we want to increase their awareness about how important it is to support the local economy,” Fugate says. Beyond campus, Fugate shared her passion for sustainable practices by co-teaching a “Cooking Matters” course for children at the Boys Club of Raleigh through the nonprofit Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. The course is part of a national curriculum on healthy eating called “Share Our Strength.” Fugate and another Caldwell Fellow were responsible for incorporating a gardening component into the curriculum to give the young boys a feel for food sustainability, which is something she says they genuinely appreciated. “We used something called vermicompost,” she explains. “It’s essentially the process of breaking food waste down through the addition of worms. The boys loved that!” 10 CHASS Accolades 2012 Kane isn’t afraid to get down and dirty, and his producers don’t hesitate to put him in wacky situations. He has painted the field at NC State and marched with the University of Virginia band at halftime. This year, he covered every inch of exposed skin in gold glitter to cheer alongside the iconic Florida State fans known as the Glitter Guys. “For three weeks it looked like I had blond highlights in my hair from all the gold,” says Kane, who has earned 11 Emmys during his career, including the 2011 Southeast regional Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in on-air sports reporting. “To this day, I’ll reach into my pocket and a little speck of glitter will fall out. But it’s great to experience the energy and atmosphere at these schools.” Kane, a former NC State basketball player who earned his degree in communication, has been immersed in the world of sports broadcasting since graduation. An unpaid internship at Turner Sports in Atlanta evolved into a 14-year career providing on-air promotions and creative services for Fox Sports South. He’s emceed a steady stream of acc gigs and even developed his own video production company, pack 30 Productions llc. In recent months, Kane landed an acting job playing a reporter for an upcoming film starring Denzel Washington and John Goodman. It’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also directed the Oscar-winning films Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. Kane said his experience in athletics at NC State fueled his drive to develop a career in on-air sports. Before walking on with the basketball team in the 1992–1993 season, he served as a manager under the late Jim Valvano and later under Les Robinson. “Coach Valvano always used to say that all you can do is to put yourself in a position to win,” Kane says. “I’ve applied that in the rest of my life. If I want something, I do everything I can to put myself in that position so that at the end of the day, if I don’t succeed, at least I know I had a chance.” — Diana Smith ACC Tommy Kane (Comm ’93) is living every ACC fan’s dream. He doesn’t spend his autumns sitting in front of a TV watching football. Instead, Kane travels to a different ACC game every week to report on each school’s game-day traditions for his award-winning show, ACC Road Trip, produced by Raycom Sports. Road Trip Reprinted from the Winter 2012 issue of NC State magazine, a benefit of membership in the NC State Alumni Association. Tommy Kane (Comm ’93) included an interview with Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford at the Belltower during filming for ACC Road Trip. 11 > chass.ncsu.edu “We talk about communication industries — plural — when we refer to the world these students will be entering,” Alchediak says. “There are so many directions they can move in when they graduate, from broadcast work to the film business, public relations, advertising, you name it. There’s a huge corporate and industrial market that needs skilled and savvy professionals to help with multimedia design, to give them a strong Web presence, to create all kinds of promotional campaigns.” Alchediak’s students had lots of questions for Kane, including these: What is your involvement behind the scenes in ACC Road Trip? My producer at Raycom Sports and I work together on all the setup and preproduction aspects of the show. In this digital world, you have to be prepared to do it all — to write, produce and edit. And you have to market yourself. Check out the ACC Road Trip episode highlighting NC State’s homecoming game at theacc.com/roadtrip. What do you do in the off-season? I hustle. I’m involved with a lot of other projects, including corporate and business work. I just helped a hospital put together a promotional campaign. There’s lots of room to help people get their message out through video production. I’m also working on a pilot show about what athletes do off the field. And this opportunity to work on a movie? Wow. I also coach high school basketball. How do you like owning your own business? It’s exhilarating. It’s also hard work. I’m taking calls at all hours for ACC Road Trip, managing lots of the details of the episode I’m working on plus the next one coming up. But I love acc football and basketball. So it’s a great life. When Tommy Kane recently visited campus to film an episode of ACC Road Trip, he spoke to students in Jim Alchediak’s digital video production class (COM 357). from a pro Kane offered this advice to students who want to break into the business: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Be confident when you’re creative. Don’t just push the buttons. Think outside the box. Don’t necessarily do what you did last time. Mix it up. Keep growing. Keep pushing yourself. Stay flexible. Manage your clients’ expectations. Cultivate your relationships. Say “I tried,” even if you fall on your face. Always, always put yourself in a position to win. Words of wisdom 12 CHASS Accolades 2012 Khayrallah, a pharmaceutical executive, came to the United States from Lebanon in 1983 with his wife, Vera. Committed to preserving the area’s Lebanese culture and heritage, he wanted to find a way to capture the history of his people and share it with others. When Khayrallah was introduced to Akram Khater, professor of Middle Eastern history at NC State, he shared his ideas about educating North Carolinians about Lebanese-Americans. With the help of Khayrallah’s generous gift, the Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies launched in fall 2010 to research, document, preserve and publicize the story of Lebanese-Americans in North Carolina and to educate the public on their contributions to the state. As part of the project, a team at NC State is creating these educational tools: a documentary on the history of the community that will air on UNC-TV; a traveling museum exhibit that will launch at NC State’s D.H. Hill Library in 2013; a resource book and lesson plans for K-12 educators to teach the history of Lebanese- Americans in our state; and an online archive housing the personal stories, letters, photos, home movies and newspaper clippings of the state’s Lebanese-Americans. “The story of Lebanese-Americans, like many immigrants, is one of hard work that led to success for themselves and their families and innumerable economic and cultural contributions to North Carolina,” Khater explains. “Today, there are about 16,000 first-, second- or third-generation immigrants in our state, largely concentrated in the Triangle and Charlotte. Early immigrants were more concentrated Moise Khayrallah was troubled. In the wake of the September 11 tragedy, the image many Americans had of Arabs — including his community, the Lebanese — was one of conflict, violence and terrorism. After more than 120 years of being an integral part of the history and life of North Carolina, seemingly overnight Lebanese- Americans had become outsiders again. Legacy IN North Carolina Lebanese The Watch the trailer for the documentary, Cedars in the Pines: The Lebanese In North Carolina, at faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/akhater/lac. 13 > chass.ncsu.edu in eastern North Carolina — along what is now the I-95 corridor — as they made their way from Ellis Island down south.” The first wave of immigrants, who came to North Carolina between the 1880s and the 1920s, settled in such towns as New Bern, Goldsboro, Wilson and Wilmington — right off the train tracks throughout the state. Nearly all of them “peddled” to earn a living, carrying suitcases filled with knickknacks like lace, buttons, needles and napkins — items one would find in a city store but that weren’t easily accessible to people living in small towns and on isolated farms across the state. “They became salesmen offering products and services that small towns and farmers didn’t have, but also a real link to the community, bringing news and gossip from the larger cities,” Khater says. “They worked very hard to be a part of the local communities — joining Boy Scouts, sports teams, community groups and more — and have continued to integrate themselves into the community to this day, enriching it with festivals, celebrations, restaurants, culture and religions, their talents and entrepreneurial spirit.” Khater and a team of public history graduate students are working to interview immigrants and collect and digitize maps, images, newspaper clippings and more to help tell the story of a group of people that many feel have long been invisible to the great majority of North Carolinians. “We started capturing the voices of this community through oral histories, in part because there came a point when we exhausted the resources of libraries, historical societies and archives,” explains Caroline Muglia, a graduate student working on the project. “The truth is that Lebanese families in North Carolina have collected the richest history of the community to date. They lived the history.” Muglia says that returning the project to the community “has been the goal all along. We are building a platform for the narratives of these people to continue to evolve and serve as an educational tool in the process.” Akram Khater agrees, and he emphasizes his gratitude for Moise Khayrallah’s generosity. “Without his foresight and philanthropy, we would not have been able to take on the project,” Khater says. “Much of this oral history, these important stories, might have been lost — and with them, we would have lost an important part of North Carolina’s history.” — Caroline Barnhill For more information about the project, visit lac.chass.ncsu.edu. Lebanese-Americans from across North Carolina have shared family photos, letters and documents to help tell their story. 14 CHASS Accolades 2012 advocate teacher, poet, Celebrated alum Museum of Art’s docent organization, helping to launch the community arts school Arts Together and volunteering in the preservation of historic homes. “I always found NC State to be such a warm and welcoming place,” she recalls. “When my husband and I were building our home outside Edenton, we spent a lot of time at the College of Design’s library looking into architecture. And then when we had school-aged daughters, we’d take them to D.H. Hill Library for research and studying. We loved being on campus and using the resources available here.” But Shepard’s involvement with the creative writing program came about a bit more serendipitously. “A friend had given me a brochure for a summer writing program at NC State in 2001,” she says. “At the time, there was not a master of fine arts program, but there were lots of wonderful creative writing people in the college. It wasn’t even in my mind to get a degree. I just wanted to be a better writer.” Shepard signed up for a writing program workshop that NC State held in conjunction with the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Her teacher was poet Betty Adcock. Shepard followed Adcock to Meredith College for additional classes. “At some point, Betty told me that this poet named John Balaban — who was a two-time National Book Award nominee — was going to be directing a new creative writing program at NC State,” Shepard remembers. “Betty asked me to take a class with him, so I did. I felt very brave, taking that class at my age, but it was wonderful. I loved being with the students. I loved their hearts and their minds. And along with Betty, John Balaban became my mentor.” While Shepard was taking one course every semester as a continuing education student, the college was launching the mfa program. “I ended up having enough credits that if I “My father became flustered when transporting my mother to the hospital, and he drove to a building on Hillsborough Street. There he discovered his mistake and arrived at Rex Hospital on the corner of St. Mary’s and Wade Avenue with just a bit of time to spare,” Shepard says with a smile. Shepard, a poet and alumna of the college’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was recently honored at the NC State Alumni Association’s eighth annual Evening of Stars gala as the 2011 chass Distinguished Alumna. “Nora has given a good bit of her generous life to the arts, not only as a remarkable poet and painter but also as a promoter of the arts in our lives in the Triangle,” says John Balaban, director of NC State’s creative writing program and the university’s poet-in-residence. After nearly being born on campus, Shepard’s involvement with NC State resumed in the early 1970s, after she gra-duated from Hollins University in Virginia with a double-major b.a. in English and American literature and creative writing (poetry). She occasionally enrolled in a writing or painting class at NC State while she was also working for the North Carolina Museum of Art. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, Shepard spent her time advancing the arts in the Triangle area — serving as the founding president of the The way she tells it, Nora Hutton Shepard was practically born at NC State. Literally. 15 > chass.ncsu.edu took a few more general courses and put together a thesis, I could get my mfa degree,” she says. Shepard graduated with her mfa in 2005. Today she teaches a poetry course in the college each semester. “I wish I could teach more than that, but I’m swimming for my life every semester trying to find things that speak to my students,” Shepard explains. “I can’t prepare for my class until I get to know my students and we start building a respectful community. So it’s different every semester. I want to reach each student individually. I go to bed thinking about them, and I wake up thinking about them.” Shepard’s commitment to — and love for — the college’s creative writing program are contagious. “For the last four or five years, I’ve worked behind the scenes to spread the word that this top-notch mfa program is not down the road at Duke or UNC-Chapel Hill. It is right here at NC State. We’re the only ones with this degree. The capital city of Raleigh is full of world-class ballet, art museums, symphonies and more — but most people don’t know about the rich literary community that NC State has helped to build.” Read more about our celebrated alumni at chass.ncsu.edu. As for a fine arts program being located at a university primarily known as a science and technology powerhouse, Shepard says that while no one will argue the strength of NC State’s technical prowess, “the humanities are the heartbeat that students crave. We’re about educating an entire person. If you have the finest minds coming to study technology, science and engineering, why would you want to give them anything less than the best all-around education? NC State is doing that. “Scientists and poets alike are going to have lives with hopes and dashed hopes, with dreams and dimmed dreams. They are going to wonder, ‘How do I feel?’ ‘How do I fit?’ and ‘How does the universe work?’ The arts give us the beginning vocabularies to answer those questions. And that’s why they are so vital.” — Caroline Barnhill CHASS Distinguished Alumna Nora Shepard makes time to write, teach and share her passion for the college’s creative writing program. 16 CHASS Accolades 2012 Reprinted from the Spring 2012 issue of NC State magazine, a benefit of membership in the NC State Alumni Association. to Victims Voice Giving For the past two years, Charmaine Fuller Cooper (mpa ’07) has helped lead that conversation as executive director of the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, a newly formed division of the state’s Department of Administration. The foundation was created in 2010 to help a separate task force determine how to compensate people sterilized by order of the North Carolina Eugenics Board in the middle of the 20th century. Officials thought welfare costs and crime could be reduced by preventing reproduction among people deemed unfit to have children. More than 7,600 men, women and children were sterilized between 1929 and 1974, and as many as half of them are believed to still be alive. In January 2012, the task force recommended that the state pay each surviving victim $50,000. It will be up to the North Carolina legislature to approve that funding. To date, about 75 victims have come forward. Fuller Cooper has straddled the line between advocate and bureaucrat, driven by a desire to advance the victims’ cause It’s a difficult question, with no single right answer: How much money should the government pay somebody who had their right to reproduce taken away by the state? Charmaine Fuller Cooper (MPA ’07). Photo by Ted Richardson while recognizing that no money has been awarded yet. “It’s tough when you have somebody call you up and say, ‘My father signed for my sterilization, and then he raped me and his friends raped me,’” Fuller Cooper says. “This person was able somehow to put that history in a pocket ... so they can survive. And now we’re asking them to open that pocket up, raggedy seams and all, and tell them we might be able to provide you with a sewing kit that’s going to mend you. And then nothing happens. I think that’s dangerous.” Fuller Cooper grew up in Henderson, n.c., and majored in political science at North Carolina Central University. She came to NC State to earn her master’s degree in public administration in the college’s School of Public and International Affairs. While enrolled in the program, Fuller Cooper became executive director of the Carolina Justice Policy Center, which was instrumental in the 2009 passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act. That act allows death-row inmates to challenge their death sentences by using statistics to prove racial bias by prosecutors and jurors. Fuller Cooper says her graduate degree sharpened her critical-thinking skills, allowing her to marry her passion for justice and fairness with a focus on planning and process. Phoebe Zerwick, a lecturer at Wake Forest University, served as a member of the task force that developed the recommendations for compensating victims of the eugenics program. Zerwick says Fuller Cooper’s ability to work with both her heart and her head made a huge difference. Shortly after the task force began work, Fuller Cooper arranged a day for victims to speak about what they had endured. That event received national and international coverage and reminded everybody what their goal was. “She understood that the victims needed to be heard,” Zerwick says. — Ken Otterbourg 17 > chass.ncsu.edu A group of volunteers travels to a foreign country to provide aid. But, as so often happens, problems arise. Maybe the volunteers aren’t a good fit, or their skill levels aren’t sufficient for the task at hand. Perhaps there’s a clash of cultural values between those helping and those being helped. Psychology’s NC State is leading global progress in an emerging field of psychology. emerging field Such problems can greatly impede progress. Humanitarian Work Psychology (hwp) is an emerging area of industrial-organizational psychology specifically designed to address work-related issues in just such humanitarian arenas. The NC State University Department of Psychology is helping lead the global development of the field. When Associate Professor of Psychology Lori Foster Thompson (pictured left) taught the world’s first hwp graduate courses at the universities of Bologna and Barce-lona in 2010, her students represented a true global community. “My students came from Peru, Brazil, Africa, Italy — all over the globe,” says Thompson. “We discussed how to apply industrial-organizational psychology to the humanitarian effort. We covered issues like women’s work opportunities in developing countries, micro-credit enterprises, online volunteerism and sex slavery.” Soon after, during the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, a division of the International Associ-ation of Applied Psychology voted unanimously to establish a four-year work group devoted to hwp. Thompson is leading the group. “People want to see our profession expand in this way,” says Thompson. “We’ve given talks about hwp around the world, and we have witnessed a lot of enthusiasm from members of our field — both senior members and newer student members.” Alex Gloss joined NC State’s industrial-organizational psychology doctoral program last fall and is serving as coordinator for capacity-building on the global task force. He’s finding plenty of people who aren’t yet familiar with hwp. “It’s industrial-organizational psychology with both a prosocial edge and a focus on international development,” he says. “That includes humanitarian aid work, disaster relief and recovery efforts. hwp is also applied to more general nongovernment organizations and intergovernmental organizations that are involved in helping to improve the well-being of people around the world.” “We have colleagues who have been doing this independently for decades,” Thompson adds, “but we didn’t have a common name or language for it. Now that it’s becoming organized and strategic, we think it can become a more powerful force for good.” — Christa Gala 18 CHASS Accolades 2012 “I was raised with the philosophy of ‘paying it forward’ to help others,” Replogle says. “Whether it was volunteering in the hospital as an adolescent or serving on a nonprofit’s board today, service is a major thread woven throughout my life.” Replogle, a former speech language pathologist who specialized in traumatic brain injuries, recently gave the College of Humanities and Social Sciences a $25,000 endowment that will support students minoring in nonprofit studies who are working in an unpaid internship. “When I was a student at Miami University in Ohio, I was given a fellowship that really opened doors for me that I might not have been able to go through otherwise,” Replogle says. “I knew that when the time came, I would want to give back in the area of education because it is so important to me.” Replogle began serving on the college’s Institute for Nonprofits advisory board in 2010. That’s when she decided to make her gift. “Once I met the students in the program, I knew this was the perfect place for me to give back,” she says. The Institute for Nonprofits enhances the capacity of nonprofit organizations by connecting the university with the community. The institute offers a nonprofit studies minor — one of only a few such undergraduate programs in the country. “Our nonprofit studies minor requires an internship,” says institute director Mary Tschirhart. “Most of the internships are unpaid, and some students opt for a local internship so they won��t incur the living expenses involved with an internship outside our area. Kristin wanted to enable students to choose an internship based on their passion for that organization rather than basing it on the expenses that might be involved.” A From the moment she put on a candy striper’s uniform as a child, Kristin Replogle knew she would have a passion for serving her entire life. caring Kristin Replogle helps prepare the next generation of nonprofit leaders through an endowment she created in the college’s Institute for Nonprofits. pasion for 19 > chass.ncsu.edu Replogle’s endowment specifically favors students who have shown a passion in caring for children. “When I worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, I often worked with abused children,” she recalls. “As I got older and had children of my own, my passion for caring for children grew even stronger. And I’ve learned through the years that your passion will always lead you down the right path.” Replogle lives in Raleigh with her husband, John, ceo of Vermont-based company Seventh Generation. The couple has four daughters. Replogle serves on several local nonprofit orga-nizations that work specifically to protect and support children: SAFEChild, the Girl Scouts and KidzNotes, a Durham-based organization that teaches classical and orchestral music to underserved children. Farther from home, President Obama recently appointed Replogle to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Replogle is a big fan of the Institute for Non-profits. “I think it’s wonderful that NC State has a nonprofit studies program,” she says. “We need so badly to prepare nonprofit leaders of the future. If we can find young folks who have a passion for service already, it is our obligation to help support them if we can.” Taylor Elkins is one of four recipients to date of a scholarship from the Kristin Gatchel Rep-logle Nonprofit Internship Fund. Replogle’s gift allowed Elkins to intern with Outreach360 — formerly Orphanage Outreach — in the Domini-can Republic during the summer of 2011. “The scholarship gave me the amazing opportunity to stay at an all-boys orphanage in the town of Jaibon, where I taught English, Spanish literacy and public health to the boys at the home,” Elkins says. “I was also able to work with the local community in weekly summer camps. The relationships I developed with the boys have had a huge impact on my life, and that is what I am most grateful to Kristin for.” Replogle is grateful to have found students who share her desire to give back. “Because I’m so aware of the many needs of nonprofit organizations, I’m thrilled to find students who have a passion for giving back,” she says. “It is very gratifying to give them the support they need and watch them grow.” — Caroline Barnhill The Institute for Nonprofits by the numbers 105 75 367 4 13,300+ 42,000+ 70 5 20 NC State students are currently enrolled in the nonprofit studies minor program. CHASS majors are minoring in nonprofit studies. members belong to the Institute’s Community of Nonprofit Scholars. students have received the Kristin Replogle Nonprofit Internship Fund scholarship to date. people subscribe to the Institute for Nonprofits’ Philanthropy Journal. NC State grads hold a minor in nonprofit studies; most of them are CHASS alums. or more special reports are published by the Philanthropy Journal each year, along with at least 5 webinars. nonprofit executives have been trained through the Institute for Nonprofits’ new 2011–12 Achieving Collaborative Capacity for Executive Success (ACCES) class. of this country’s 1.5 million nonprofit organizations are based in North Carolina. For more information, visit the Institute for Nonprofits at nonprofit.chass.ncsu.edu. The Institute for Nonprofits was established in NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2003. 20 CHASS Accolades 2012 were filled. The congressman wrote her back, however, encouraging her to apply again. Latta did. “Fortunately, Congressman Hefner’s office carved out the stipend from their office budget,” says Latta. “My internship was everything to me. Without it, I’m not sure I would have ever realized my dream of working on Capitol Hill. I don’t know that I would have even had the courage to try.” Her one-month internship turned into a 14-year job with Hefner — and a career that has lasted 27 years so far. Over the years, Latta began to fully appreciate the importance of her internship. She eventually established an endowment fund that provides $1,500 each year for a student who has applied and been accepted to an internship program in Washington, d.c. “I came across too many people — both here in Washington and in North Carolina — who said, ‘Oh, I would have loved to intern in Washington, but I couldn’t afford to.’ It broke my heart to hear it,” says Latta. When Sandra Latta (Political Science ’84) came to NC State, she was certain she wanted to be an attorney. She even helped found the Pre-Law Club at NC State. Deep down, though, there was something else she really wanted to do. “I wanted to work on the Hill,” Latta confesses. “But to me, that sounded analogous to saying I wanted to go to Hollywood and be discovered.” Today, she serves at the Pentagon as deputy chief of legislative affairs for the u.s. Department of the Navy. You might say politics was in Latta’s genes. Her mother was the first woman ever elected to public office in Mocksville, n.c. Her dad, J. Edward Latta (NC State ’50), was also involved in town politics. As a junior, Latta wrote to Congressman Bill Hefner to try to secure an internship, but all intern positions “For somebody who’s struggling to be in college, to take a month away to be up here … that’s a tough financial commitment. I wanted to help take the financial pressure off a little bit. It also gave me a way to honor my past. It’s my way of giving back.” Although it’s the money the recipient needs (and that Latta provides), the real gift is the chance to follow a dream. “To me, it’s all about opportunity,” says Latta. “I was given that opportunity, and there was a lot of luck involved. This endowment is helping someone else have a little bit of that luck, a little bit of that magic.” — Christa Gala Head the Hill An internship on Capitol Hill changed her life. Alumna Sandra Latta wants to give current students the same opportunity. Sandra Latta with Congressman Bill Hefner as she began her internship in May 1984 … … and on the eve of her departure from the Hill in May 1998. for 21 > chass.ncsu.edu Fostering Stability Children When a child enters foster care, her whole world is turned upside down. Not only does she have new caregivers, a new home and all-new rules; she also usually leaves her school and starts over at a new one. All that upheaval can affect how a child fares in school and her overall chances of academic and social success. Researchers in the college’s Center for Family and Community Engagement (cface) and the Department of Social Work are determined to help. They are launching Fostering Youth Educational Success (Fostering yes) with funding from the u.s. Children’s Bureau. “The project focuses on educational stability for foster children,” says Dr. Joan Pennell, professor of social work and director of cface. “These children often struggle in the school system as they deal with change and uncertainty in other parts of their lives.” Pennell is principal investigator for Fostering yes. Social services, public schools, the court system, mental health services and community nonprofit organizations are all involved with the project. Pennell and her team are working with groups in Cumberland County, home to both Fort Bragg and Pope Army Air Field. Nearly one-third of students in the school system are part of military-connected families. These families can be subject to high stress, particularly during times of deployment, according to Pennell. In some instances, all of a family’s caregivers are deployed simultaneously. “School stability is particularly important for this area,” Pennell says. “We’re also looking at ways to overcome administrative delays in admitting children to a new school when they enter foster care.” “Ideally, children can stay in their same school to minimize disruption,” says Dr. Jodi Hall, a clinical assistant professor of social work at NC State and co-principal investigator on the project. “But if they need to move to a new school, important information needs to travel with them so their new teachers have information that could contribute to their academic and social success.” Pennell hopes to increase the use of child and family teams to enhance children’s chances for success. The teams include youth and their families, teachers, social workers, pastors and other community members who work together to develop a plan to help children succeed in school and in the community. The Fostering yes team’s research will inform the develop-ment of new policies and procedures to support a stable system for foster children. “We want to create a blueprint that can be used throughout North Carolina and nationally,” Pennell says. Hear Dr. Pennell interviewed on WUNC radio about Fostering YES: wunc.org/programs/news/archive/TJP102511.mp3/view for — Christa Gala 22 CHASS Accolades 2012 For the past two summers, future Army officers at NC State University have put in those hours of study to give themselves an advantage in the field. And with funding from the Department of Defense, Special Forces soldiers from Fort Bragg will soon join them. Teaching future military leaders In 2009, the chass Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures received a three-year, $800,000 Project go grant to improve cultural and linguistic proficiency of rotc students in five critical languages: Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian and Urdu. That grant launched Project gold, a summer intensive program that provides two semesters of foreign language instruction in just six weeks. rotc students receive scholarships covering tuition in the language courses or for a study-abroad program in India, China, Egypt or Russia. Language proficiency among rotc cadets is a high priority for the u.s. Army, according to Capt. Joseph Cofiori, assistant military science professor and a member of the Army rotc cadre at NC State. “It’s a force multiplier,” he says, “a skill that vastly increases a soldier’s potential.” “We don’t operate stateside,” Cofiori says. “We work in places where people don’t speak English as their primary language. It enhances the mission when you can communicate with the locals in a language they understand.” “I think it’s crucial for us to send people who know not just the languages but the culture of the places they��re going,” says Dr. Inas Messiha, who teaches Arabic the Talk Ten hours a day studying a foreign language? That’s daunting. But it’s far less daunting than navigating a foreign country as a member of the military when you don’t have the ability to communicate with local residents. and soldiers Talk Helping students 23 > chass.ncsu.edu The college’s Critical Languages Program offers elementary, intermediate and advanced intensive courses in: • Arabic: one of the oldest languages in the world, which today is spoken by more than 256 million people in about 30 different countries, the most after English and French. • Chinese (Mandarin): one of the six official languages of the United Nations, spoken by more than one billion people around the world. • Russian: spoken in Russia and the former Soviet republics; it is the key language across the Caucasus and Central Asia and one of the official languages of the United Nations. • Persian: the primary language spoken in Iran and one of the official languages of Afghanistan. • Pashto: the other official language of Afghanistan. • Urdu: the language of Pakistan. The pace is intense because students are covering two semesters of material in just six weeks. Every day they spend six hours in the classroom, after which they have up to four hours of homework. The first three hours each day focus more on the structural aspects of the language. The second three hours of class focus on developing communication skills in situations infused with real culture. Afternoon activities include situational role-playing; film clips; hands-on demos of music, cooking and calligraphy; lab work and guest speakers. The immersive approach worked for Zack Boyd, a cadet studying political science at NC State. Boyd went to China last summer as part of Project GO. “I remember being in the middle of Shanghai, one of the largest cities in the world. I was completely lost,” says Boyd, a junior from Fayetteville. “I used the material we learned in class to guide the taxi driver to our hotel.” The utility of foreign language competency can prove to be much more critical for a soldier or a diplomat. Through its new collaboration with Fort Bragg, NC State’s Language Training Center is changing the way foreign languages and cultures are taught, improving the linguistic and cultural literacy of our future leaders. Imm ersion Learning at NC State. “The difference between how you say a word correctly and incorrectly is sometimes literally the difference between life and death.” Teaching Special Forces soldiers Project go proved to be highly successful and led to a one-year, $1.8 million pilot grant from the National Security Education Program to teach critical languages to Special Forces soldiers. “We are using the same immersive, functional, communicative approach that we used with our rotc students in Project go,” says Dr. Dwight Stephens, director of NC State’s new Language Training Center. “It’s just that now we’re teaching not only university students but also soldiers at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg.” The grant promotes teacher training too, and the Language Training Center at NC State produces up to 10 workshops in second-language acquisition and instruction techniques for the six critical languages. In winter and spring, NC State will provide intensive language courses on base at Fort Bragg. During the summer, active-duty soldiers will come to NC State to join rotc students and regular university students from all over the country for courses in all the languages. “The rotc students will definitely benefit from taking classes alongside members of the military who have been in some unusual places doing some extraordinary things,” says Dr. Ruth Gross, professor of German and head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Gross is also principal investigator for the project. The partnership between NC State and the Special Warfare Center and School is part of a larger effort involving the University of North Carolina system and the military. It marks an evolution in cooperation between the military and higher education, according to Stephens. “The historical separation of the public academic institutions and the military is dissolving,” he says. “We are realizing there is a lot to share and a lot to learn from each other.” “The difference between how you say a word correctly and incorrectly is sometimes literally the difference between life and death.” 24 CHASS Accolades 2012 While Badger was stationed at Fort Bragg, he completed the Special Forces Qualification Course. He also found time to read the work of John Kessel, a professor in NC State’s creative writing program and author of many popular science-fiction novels and stories. Badger had always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy, which led him to Kessel. “While I was still at Bragg and before leaving for Afghanistan, I traveled to NC State just to meet John Kessel,” Badger recalls. “We had a really great conversation.” Kessel, the director of Creative Writing at the time, was also teaching undergraduate and graduate classes. “He made a lot of time for me, and we talked about writing,” Badger says. “He invited me to write him when I was overseas, and I did. He encouraged me from there to consider applying to the mfa program.” While he was still in Afghanistan, Badger learned he’d been accepted to the mfa program. “I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I didn’t know how formal my writing training would be or should be. The military, obviously, is a much different place. I don’t know how seriously I was considering formal study.” Badger came home from Afghanistan in July 2009 and started the mfa program soon after. Toward the end of his first semester, Badger paid a visit to Wilton Barnhardt, a professor who had studied at Oxford and was then the mfa program director. “I told Wilton I’d be interested in studying at Oxford,” says Badger. “He didn’t laugh me out of his office, as he maybe should have. He asked me what I proposed to study there. I said, ‘Well, I’m still feeling that out.’ “Wilton said, ‘Find something you’re passionate about doing and come over to England with me in the summer when I’m leading the Oxford Study Abroad program. I’ll introduce you to some folks. We’ll do what we can to make it happen.’ From the moment I walked in his office, he took me absolutely seriously as a writer.” As a kid, Will Badger, MFA ’11, wanted to be a writer so he could explore all the places in his head he was sure he’d never see in person. Ironically, now he’s doing both. Soldier Oxford turns Scholar Will Badger in Paktya Province, Afghanistan. Sometimes you have to make a tough choice: a Fulbright scholarship? Or Oxford University in England? It was a good problem to have for Will Badger, a 2011 graduate of NC State’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. After all, just two years prior, Badger was serving in Afghanistan as a Green Beret medic, dodging death every day. In the end, Badger chose Oxford. But first, how did he end up at NC State at all? After taking an honors undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, Badger enlisted in the military for a variety of reasons. “I had a desire to serve, although I wasn’t a big fan of the Iraq war,” says Badger, 33. “I thought I needed to experience it for myself and do my part for the country before I could speak in a committed way about the rightness or wrongness of various enterprises.” The adventure, camaraderie and maybe even a little old-fashioned romanticism appealed to him as well. 25 > chass.ncsu.edu “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time … an honored guest. The third time … you become family.” — from Three Cups of Tea, by G. Mortensen and D. Oliver Three cups of tea they taught us (waving the book about) a new way to win the war With the first cup fathers elbowed children into razor wire to grab the Pokemon backpacks passed out like party favors, the chai sweet and steeped with sugar that looked like quartz During the second cup cricket teams from as far as Parachinar came for the Chamkani Games but some chai slopped over the chipped lip of my cup soaking my shirt when riots broke out before conversation did As the spinach-like dregs of the last cup tickled my lips a grandfather — actually my host — stole a radio it was hard to watch them beat him how he bleated The cups come from a Balti proverb, anyway. Maybe their mountains are nice this time of year. — Will Badger Afghani Chai A few months later, Badger ended up in John Balaban’s poetry class. Balaban, who had become the next mfa director, had been a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, working for the Committee of Responsibility in Vietnam. As alternative service, Balaban treated war-injured children and evacuated them to the United States when necessary. It was an interesting dynamic: the soldier and the conscientious objector. Will Badger at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. “The Vietnam War caused any number of chasms in our society in the ’60s and ’70s,” says Badger. “He [Balaban] felt strongly against our involvement in Vietnam, and his beliefs took him there. I was really impressed with him as a person and as a writer, because here was someone who felt strongly enough to involve himself personally. I wasn’t sure how he would relate to a recent war vet, but he went out of his way to make sure I felt comfortable.” It was in Balaban’s class that Badger finally wrote about his war experiences, in a poem called “Afghani Chai.” (See sidebar.) Balaban sent the poem to the international literary journal War, Literature and the Arts, which published it (volume 22, 2010). Next, Badger applied for a Fulbright scholarship to translate Polish author Janusz Zajdel’s novel Limes inferior into English. With Barnhardt’s help, he also applied to Oxford. He never dreamed that both Fulbright and Oxford would come calling. In the end, his choice revolved around logistics and family. He headed to Oxford with his wife and children to study witch-craft in Shakespeare and the supernatural in the early modern period. He’ll be there for several years, first earning his Master of Studies before moving on to a Doctor of Philosophy. And even though he declined the Fulbright, Badger still plans to translate the Zajdel novel. “He’s a good writer, and he’s probably going to be a brilliant scholar,” says Balaban. “Everything he does is done perfectly well. I guess the surprise to all of us is that he came to us from a battlefield as a medic in Afghanistan. Somehow, that almost seems irrelevant now.” — Christa Gala 26 CHASS Accolades 2012 Daniel C. Gunter iii (History and Spanish Language and Literature ’00) was named the university’s Outstanding Young Alumnus. Gunter (pictured above), an associate with dl a Piper, has served two terms on the chass Advisory Board. He is on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Lonnie Poole Golf Course Campaign Committee. A lifetime member of the university’s Alumni Association, he hosts “DENers with the Pack” to support current students. As an alumnus of Sigma Nu Fraternity, he works with University Development on fundraising for the fraternity and has served on the Redevelopment of Greek Court Task Force. As a member of the Leonidas Lafayette Polk Society, Gunter provides support to chass, the Alumni Association and the University Scholars program, among other areas of the university. “So many people at NC State — professors, administrators, classmates and others — have enriched my life academically, professionally and personally,” Gunter says. “Since I could never pay back all that I’ve gotten from NC State, it made the most sense to me to pass it on to the next generation of students and to give my time to the university however I can.” “David, Celia and Daniel are three tireless ambassadors for NC State University and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences,” says Dean Jeff Braden. “I am proud to see their contributions recognized among those who make this university great.” David S. Jolley (Economics, ’70) and his wife Celia G. Jolley (Education, ’83) received the Meritorious Service Award for their outstanding contributions to the university. David, a chass alumnus, was a founding member of NC State’s Board of Visitors. He has served on boards including the NC State University Foundation, the NC State University Endowment Board and the Achieve! Campaign Steering Com-mittee. He currently serves on the chass Advisory Board. David is vice president of commercial lending at c&f Bank in Williamsburg, Va. A retired educator, Celia has been active with the College of Education’s Campaign Steering Committee, Advisory Board and Leadership Board, among other endeavors. The Jolleys (both pictured below) are members of the C.W. Dabney Lifetime Giving Society and the R. S. Pullen Society. Their generosity has touched numerous programs across the university. “We try to stay tuned to the needs of students,” David says. “Celia and I owe a lot of our success to NC State. We’ve been well served by higher education, so being involved is a critically important part of what we do.” alums recognized Alumni from the college were recently honored by the NC State Alumni Association at its Evening of Stars gala that recognizes those who have made a difference in their communities and given back to their alma mater. — Caroline Barnhill for service 27 > chass.ncsu.edu Transformational Traditions While co-chair of the Commission on Traditions, 2012–2013 Student Body President Andy Walsh helped reintroduce Tuffy, the living mascot, to athletic events. ncsu.edu Learn more at NC State: For 125 years, transforming students into leaders. “Our traditions and our history are what bind us together,” says Andy Walsh, Political Science, class of ‘13. “I honor the great traditions of this campus, and I want to help create traditions for the generations to come.” Now Andy, a fi rst-generation college student, is spearheading a major fundraising effort: raising $200,000 for the Coaches’ Corner just outside Reynolds Coliseum. If Andy succeeds, busts of Everett Case, Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano will be unveiled in 2013, next to the existing tribute to Kay Yow. 28 CHASS Accolades 2012 Janet Nguyen (International Studies, ’14) is working to establish NC State’s first Asian sorority. “I want to help student leaders of our generation grow into the world leaders of tomorrow,” says Nguyen. “We’re not just going to be a sisterhood — we’re going to help these young women build skills for the future.” Asian interest sororities are relatively new in the South. Only a handful are active on campuses in the UNC system. Read more about this transformational young leader at chass.ncsu.edu. Sisterhood Creating College of Humanities & Social Sciences Campus Box 8101 Raleigh, NC 27695-8101
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Full Text | 1 > chass.ncsu.edu Forging a Sustainable Path student takes interdisciplinary route The Lebanese Legacy in North Carolina Giving Voice to Victims for alumni & f Accccoladeriends of CHsASS ACC Road Trip 2 CHASS Accolades 2012 But those who were deaf or hard of hearing had to rely on the skills of an American Sign Language (asl) interpreter. As President Obama spoke from behind the podium about the American Jobs Act, a man in black stood behind him, relaying his message to those who could not hear it for themselves. That man was none other than chass Dean Jeff Braden. Typically, licensed asl interpreters serve at large public events. However, in situations such as an unexpected visit from the president of the United States, some flexibility is required. University officials contacted two licensed asl interpreters and asked them to serve during the president’s speech, but there wasn’t enough time to get all the information required to meet the White House’s stringent security-clearance standards for both interpreters. To ensure that every attendee received the president’s mes-sage, the university turned to Braden, who gladly accepted the assignment. He was joined by asl interpreter Grace Bullen Sved. As a former certified asl interpreter, Braden has a long history with the language. During his senior year of high school, his mother — a social worker — placed a deaf child with special needs in a neighbor’s home. She asked Braden to help the family with child care after school. He enjoyed the task so much that he continued sign language studies in college. As an undergraduate at Beloit College, Braden spent a year working in the deaf-blind unit at the Perkins School for the Blind, gaining hands-on experience in sign language. Braden spent his junior year at Gallaudet University, the world’s only university specifically designed to meet the needs of people who are deaf and hearing-impaired. He was so confident in his asl skills that when he returned to Beloit as a senior, he talked his way into a job teaching asl to his peers. Braden’s signing skills have given him access to a number of valuable opportunities, such as the year he spent teaching sign language to chimpanzees at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he worked alongside renowned psychologists and chimpanzee researchers Trixie and Allen Gardner. Braden’s gig for President Obama was not his first experience with interpreting for celebrities. He interpreted for Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and others at the May 1979 No Nukes rally in Washington, d.c., that drew 65,000 activists in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island incident. Braden is grateful for the broadened perspective he has gained through his experiences with sign language. “It certainly expands your sense of diversity,” he says. “Deafness is another culture. Sign language is another language. And at Gallaudet, I had the experience of being a minority, which definitely will change your outlook on life. It gave me a deep appreciation for what it means to be human.” President Barack Obama received an enthusiastic welcome from NC State last fall when he spoke at Reynolds Coliseum to rally support for his economic policies. Most people listened carefully to his every word. Seeing Mesage the — Jen Jernigan, CHASS communication intern Dean Jeff Braden signed for President Obama on campus. 3 > chass.ncsu.edu CHASS alum and Emmy Award-winning producer and director Neal Hutcheson has spent the last 10 years documenting cultural change in North Carolina, from deep Appalachia to the farthest reaches of the Outer Banks. Turning his lens down east, Hutcheson has produced Atlantic (2012), a documentary that depicts the challenges facing families who have lived and worked for generations along North Carolina’s Core Sound. In a string of small fishing villages, residents have adapted to the harsh environment, unique ecosystem, and ever-changing topography that define the region. Now residents are seeing their rich traditions eroded by water pollution, development and relocated outsiders. What happens when ancestral attitudes of interdependence between community and ecology are eroded by a rising tide of free-market forces? Visit ncsu.edu/linguistics/ncllp/ for details about the North Carolina Language and Life Project and the documentaries produced through the sociolinguistics program, where Hutcheson is a staff member. She says her instructors helped students learn as much as they could and pushed them to succeed. Donnelly hit the interview circuit with con-fidence, a solid portfolio, a website and a dvd of her work. Less than a month after she graduated, she was offered two jobs. She took a position as a digital journalist/reporter with nbc affiliate wsls 10 in Roanoke, Va., where she continues to work today. Donnelly’s experience bears out the Wall Street Journal’s report (September 2010) that NC State scored among the top 20 universities with job recruiters looking to hire the best-trained and best-prepared graduates. Read more about Donnelly and other chass alumni at chass.ncsu.edu. By the time Morgan Donnelly (Commu-nication and Political Science ’10) graduated, she had completed three internships in her area of focus, she had studied abroad and she had conducted research. Prepared to Succeed Graduating Atlantic 4 CHASS Accolades 2012 Students and others who passed through Caldwell Lounge during the National Day on Writing were invited to learn about — and play with — new ways of sharing the written and spoken word. As the afternoon progressed, the hallways became covered with sticky notes like those posted on SecretsWall.com. “I’m afraid no one cares” appeared on one note. “I do” was later scrawled on a note nearby. A scar journal allowed writers to share stories of their scars, physical or otherwise. Others interacted with a Kinect-style poetry site, seeing huge projected images of themselves covered in poetry. “Self-expression is alive and well,” says Casie Fedukovich, assistant professor of English. “We wanted to share some of the many possibilities for putting thoughts out into the world.” wall handwriting’s on the The Scientific American highlighted forensic anthropologist Ann Ross in several columns about her work in tackling complicated murder cases, in addressing risk factors for genocide and in developing the new 3-D software that’s helping scientists identify the gender and ancestral origins of human remains with greater speed and precision. The Atlantic Monthly technology blog featured English professor John Wall’s “Virtual Paul’s Church” project. Wall is working to recreate the spatial and acoustic dynamics of a sermon John Donne preached in St. Paul’s Square in 17th-century London. As the blog Inside Higher Education described it, Wall wants to “enable make headlines We Visit chass.ncsu.edu to read about these and other faculty in the news. 5 > chass.ncsu.edu learners to experience historical events or places instead of reading off a page.” Learn more about John Wall’s project at chass.ncsu.edu. During this election season, our political scientists are called upon regularly for their insights and expertise. Andy Taylor and Steven Greene are quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other national media outlets on topics including the governor’s race, taxes, the Republican presidential primaries and the key battleground state of North Carolina. When Piedmont Laureate Scott Huler was writing a blog post for Scientific American about the Dan Neil (MA, English ’86), a Pulitzer Prize winner who writes an automotive column for the Wall Street Journal, appears prominently in the recent documentary Revenge of the Electric Car. The film follows four entrepreneurs as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market during a global recession. Neil returned to campus to discuss the film and the future of the electric car. See the interview we conducted with Neil in the alumni section of chass.ncsu.edu by clicking on the Alumni Profile Videos tag. electric car Revenge of the Penn State child abuse scandal, he called on psychologist and CHASS Dean Jeff Braden for his expertise in human nature. Bloomberg Businessweek asked historian Blair Kelley to weigh in on the widening income gap within the black community. USA Today ran articles about how to avoid scams targeting the elderly. The articles featured Karen Bullock, Monica Leach and Jodi Hall from our Department of Social Work. CHASS faculty frequently appear on WUNC radio’s The State of Things to discuss everything from politics to Kafka, films and historic events. The Atlantic highlighted sociologist and occupational-injury expert Michael Schulman’s research about the lack of parental awareness regarding the hazards their teens are facing in the workplace. 6 CHASS Accolades 2012 Dean Jeff Braden gives a flip about the staff in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Actually, make that dozens of flips. With Mr. Wuf looking on approvingly, the dean and his fellow administrators hosted a picnic to honor and thank the 135 staff in the college for all their hard work and dedication. “We have not been able to give raises for the past several years,” the dean said as he flipped burgers and hot dogs. “And we have asked staff members to take on more and more work. We wanted to celebrate our staff and let them know we value what they bring to the college each and every day.” Lucky staff members also received items donated by businesses along Hillsborough Street and beyond. Accolades 2012 Edition CHASS Advisory Board President Emily Barbour Barry Beith Erica Boisvert Steve Bullard Lee Garrett Terrence Holt Bryan Hum David Jolley Maria Kingery NC State Foundation Board Liaison Kathy Council Accolades is published by the NC State University College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dean Jeffery P. Braden Editor, CHASS Director of Communication Lauren Kirkpatrick Contributing Writers Caroline Barnhill Christa Gala Jen Jernigan Lauren Kirkpatrick Ken Otterbourg Jimmy Ryals Matt Shipman Diana Smith Design and Photography NC State University Communication Services Jennifer Martineau Charlie Perusse Harold Pettigrew Carol Rahmani Brooks Raiford Brad Remmey Bing Sizemore Ken Wooten NC State University is dedicated to equality of opportunity. The University does not condone discrimination against students, employees, or applicants in any form. NC State commits itself to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. In addition, NC State welcomes all persons without regard to sexual orientation. 32,000 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of 50¢ per copy. 7 > chass.ncsu.edu Head for the Hill 20 transformation NC State marks its 125th anniversary during 2012–2013. As we honor our traditions and all those who have gone before to help create such a strong and vital university, we are also highlighting alumni, students, faculty and others who have been catalysts for transformation. As we celebrate all we have been and plan for the challenges that lie ahead, we can take great satisfaction in the spirit of transformation that continues to shape our priorities. Be proud, reader. Be very proud. stories OF 18 Kristin Replogle is transforming students’ lives. Through her benevolence, they can participate in unpaid internships with nonprofits far and wide. ACC Road Trip 10 Fostering Stability for Children 21 The Lebanese Legacy in North Carolina 12 Helping Students and Soldiers Talk the Talk 22 Alums Recognized for Service 26 Soldier Turns Oxford Scholar 24 Giving Voice to Victims 16 14 Distinguished alumna Nora Shepard is a teacher and poet. Through her tenacious support of the creative writing program at NC State, she is helping shape the Triangle region into an arts mecca that celebrates the literary arts. 8 Ariel Fugate incorporated sociology, agriculture and agroecology into her self-designed course of study. Her quest and her passion? To understand and share environmentally sustainable practices related to the food we eat. 17 Lori Foster Thompson is helping lead global development in the emerging field of Humanitarian Work Psychology. 8 CHASS Accolades 2012 path For some students, college is a fairly straightforward path: Choose a major you enjoy, take the required courses and eventually graduate. For others, such as Ariel Fugate, the road is full of twists and turns. Fugate, a Caldwell Fellow, forged a path that took her from zoology through wildlife and fisheries and agriculture, into a close examination of sociology and finally to a major she designed herself in the college’s interdisciplinary studies program. Fugate arrived on campus from Lexington, Ky., as a zoology major. She was an aspiring veterinarian. “I was pretty narrow-minded at that point, focused on a career I knew something about,” she recalls. “But then I started looking into how wildlife and humans are affected by agriculture.” Led by her curiosity, Fugate signed up for a class in wildlife management. That course opened her eyes to the adverse effects that some farming practices can have on wildlife habitat and water quality. As she studied conservation practices, Fugate became interested in agroecology, the study of ecology on farms. She was also intrigued by societal issues related to food and sustainability. The field of sociology beckoned. “I wanted to know more about the social aspect of eating and how that affects human health,” she says. “I also wanted to see how our eating habits impact the environment.” As Fugate became more informed, she grew increasingly concerned about the public’s lack of general awareness about these issues. “I don’t think many of us make a connection between our per-sonal eating habits and the toll those habits take on us, on the community and on the earth,” she says. “I wanted to find some ways to build awareness and to encourage people to develop eating habits that were healthier and that supported the environment.” Fugate started with a population with whom she could readily identify: students. And she chose a venue where they consumed many of their daily meals: the campus dining halls. She conducted research on NC State University’s food systems, examining what was served in the dining halls, asking how the university decided what to serve and learning where that food came from. She is proud to report that the university is moving toward a goal of ensuring that at least 10 percent of the food it serves is locally sourced by the end of 2012. She is also encouraged by the university’s response to some of her research findings. While she was an intern with the university’s Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling, she conducted a waste audit of one of the dining hall’s dumpsters. “We found that 70 percent of what was in the dumpster was compostable,” she says. “Based on our findings, the dining halls across campus began composting. I like to think my research helped contribute to this tipping point by spreading more awareness.” a sustainable Forg ing 9 > chass.ncsu.edu Fugate says her self-designed interdisciplinary major has been the perfect way to tie together her interests in agriculture, sustainability and sociology. “Food touches many areas, so it’s hard to limit it to just science or just sociology,” she says. “The interdisciplinary studies option gives me the ability to explore both the scientific and social aspects of food.” This semester, for example, Fugate is conducting research in a nearby county about food environments. “We are looking at such factors as where supermarkets are located in relation to neighborhoods and to the residents’ income levels,” she says. “My major lets me apply what I’m learning to the real world. I have become much more focused on how we can make a difference in communities at large.” Fugate’s efforts won’t end when she graduates this spring. Nor will her interdisciplinary orientation. “I intend to keep learning about food insecurity and sustainability,” she says. “And I would like to keep working with interdisciplinary topics, whether it’s through education or a communications position in which I could raise awareness about food issues.” — Jen Jernigan, CHASS communication intern Ariel Fugate (Interdisciplinary Studies ‘12) helped start the Campus Farmers Market. Outside the dining halls, Fugate was inspired to help provide fresh, local produce to students and others on campus. Along with fellow student Eric Ballard (’09), she co-founded the Campus Farmers Market in 2009 to draw attention to and build support for sustainable food systems. Farmers and other vendors set up shop on the brickyard every Wednesday during the growing season to sell their produce, meats and cheeses, body lotion and other crafts — all of which are produced in North Carolina. The market is distinguished by its focus on education. “We want customers to find high-quality affordable products, and we want to increase their awareness about how important it is to support the local economy,” Fugate says. Beyond campus, Fugate shared her passion for sustainable practices by co-teaching a “Cooking Matters” course for children at the Boys Club of Raleigh through the nonprofit Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. The course is part of a national curriculum on healthy eating called “Share Our Strength.” Fugate and another Caldwell Fellow were responsible for incorporating a gardening component into the curriculum to give the young boys a feel for food sustainability, which is something she says they genuinely appreciated. “We used something called vermicompost,” she explains. “It’s essentially the process of breaking food waste down through the addition of worms. The boys loved that!” 10 CHASS Accolades 2012 Kane isn’t afraid to get down and dirty, and his producers don’t hesitate to put him in wacky situations. He has painted the field at NC State and marched with the University of Virginia band at halftime. This year, he covered every inch of exposed skin in gold glitter to cheer alongside the iconic Florida State fans known as the Glitter Guys. “For three weeks it looked like I had blond highlights in my hair from all the gold,” says Kane, who has earned 11 Emmys during his career, including the 2011 Southeast regional Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in on-air sports reporting. “To this day, I’ll reach into my pocket and a little speck of glitter will fall out. But it’s great to experience the energy and atmosphere at these schools.” Kane, a former NC State basketball player who earned his degree in communication, has been immersed in the world of sports broadcasting since graduation. An unpaid internship at Turner Sports in Atlanta evolved into a 14-year career providing on-air promotions and creative services for Fox Sports South. He’s emceed a steady stream of acc gigs and even developed his own video production company, pack 30 Productions llc. In recent months, Kane landed an acting job playing a reporter for an upcoming film starring Denzel Washington and John Goodman. It’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also directed the Oscar-winning films Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. Kane said his experience in athletics at NC State fueled his drive to develop a career in on-air sports. Before walking on with the basketball team in the 1992–1993 season, he served as a manager under the late Jim Valvano and later under Les Robinson. “Coach Valvano always used to say that all you can do is to put yourself in a position to win,” Kane says. “I’ve applied that in the rest of my life. If I want something, I do everything I can to put myself in that position so that at the end of the day, if I don’t succeed, at least I know I had a chance.” — Diana Smith ACC Tommy Kane (Comm ’93) is living every ACC fan’s dream. He doesn’t spend his autumns sitting in front of a TV watching football. Instead, Kane travels to a different ACC game every week to report on each school’s game-day traditions for his award-winning show, ACC Road Trip, produced by Raycom Sports. Road Trip Reprinted from the Winter 2012 issue of NC State magazine, a benefit of membership in the NC State Alumni Association. Tommy Kane (Comm ’93) included an interview with Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford at the Belltower during filming for ACC Road Trip. 11 > chass.ncsu.edu “We talk about communication industries — plural — when we refer to the world these students will be entering,” Alchediak says. “There are so many directions they can move in when they graduate, from broadcast work to the film business, public relations, advertising, you name it. There’s a huge corporate and industrial market that needs skilled and savvy professionals to help with multimedia design, to give them a strong Web presence, to create all kinds of promotional campaigns.” Alchediak’s students had lots of questions for Kane, including these: What is your involvement behind the scenes in ACC Road Trip? My producer at Raycom Sports and I work together on all the setup and preproduction aspects of the show. In this digital world, you have to be prepared to do it all — to write, produce and edit. And you have to market yourself. Check out the ACC Road Trip episode highlighting NC State’s homecoming game at theacc.com/roadtrip. What do you do in the off-season? I hustle. I’m involved with a lot of other projects, including corporate and business work. I just helped a hospital put together a promotional campaign. There’s lots of room to help people get their message out through video production. I’m also working on a pilot show about what athletes do off the field. And this opportunity to work on a movie? Wow. I also coach high school basketball. How do you like owning your own business? It’s exhilarating. It’s also hard work. I’m taking calls at all hours for ACC Road Trip, managing lots of the details of the episode I’m working on plus the next one coming up. But I love acc football and basketball. So it’s a great life. When Tommy Kane recently visited campus to film an episode of ACC Road Trip, he spoke to students in Jim Alchediak’s digital video production class (COM 357). from a pro Kane offered this advice to students who want to break into the business: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Be confident when you’re creative. Don’t just push the buttons. Think outside the box. Don’t necessarily do what you did last time. Mix it up. Keep growing. Keep pushing yourself. Stay flexible. Manage your clients’ expectations. Cultivate your relationships. Say “I tried,” even if you fall on your face. Always, always put yourself in a position to win. Words of wisdom 12 CHASS Accolades 2012 Khayrallah, a pharmaceutical executive, came to the United States from Lebanon in 1983 with his wife, Vera. Committed to preserving the area’s Lebanese culture and heritage, he wanted to find a way to capture the history of his people and share it with others. When Khayrallah was introduced to Akram Khater, professor of Middle Eastern history at NC State, he shared his ideas about educating North Carolinians about Lebanese-Americans. With the help of Khayrallah’s generous gift, the Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies launched in fall 2010 to research, document, preserve and publicize the story of Lebanese-Americans in North Carolina and to educate the public on their contributions to the state. As part of the project, a team at NC State is creating these educational tools: a documentary on the history of the community that will air on UNC-TV; a traveling museum exhibit that will launch at NC State’s D.H. Hill Library in 2013; a resource book and lesson plans for K-12 educators to teach the history of Lebanese- Americans in our state; and an online archive housing the personal stories, letters, photos, home movies and newspaper clippings of the state’s Lebanese-Americans. “The story of Lebanese-Americans, like many immigrants, is one of hard work that led to success for themselves and their families and innumerable economic and cultural contributions to North Carolina,” Khater explains. “Today, there are about 16,000 first-, second- or third-generation immigrants in our state, largely concentrated in the Triangle and Charlotte. Early immigrants were more concentrated Moise Khayrallah was troubled. In the wake of the September 11 tragedy, the image many Americans had of Arabs — including his community, the Lebanese — was one of conflict, violence and terrorism. After more than 120 years of being an integral part of the history and life of North Carolina, seemingly overnight Lebanese- Americans had become outsiders again. Legacy IN North Carolina Lebanese The Watch the trailer for the documentary, Cedars in the Pines: The Lebanese In North Carolina, at faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/akhater/lac. 13 > chass.ncsu.edu in eastern North Carolina — along what is now the I-95 corridor — as they made their way from Ellis Island down south.” The first wave of immigrants, who came to North Carolina between the 1880s and the 1920s, settled in such towns as New Bern, Goldsboro, Wilson and Wilmington — right off the train tracks throughout the state. Nearly all of them “peddled” to earn a living, carrying suitcases filled with knickknacks like lace, buttons, needles and napkins — items one would find in a city store but that weren’t easily accessible to people living in small towns and on isolated farms across the state. “They became salesmen offering products and services that small towns and farmers didn’t have, but also a real link to the community, bringing news and gossip from the larger cities,” Khater says. “They worked very hard to be a part of the local communities — joining Boy Scouts, sports teams, community groups and more — and have continued to integrate themselves into the community to this day, enriching it with festivals, celebrations, restaurants, culture and religions, their talents and entrepreneurial spirit.” Khater and a team of public history graduate students are working to interview immigrants and collect and digitize maps, images, newspaper clippings and more to help tell the story of a group of people that many feel have long been invisible to the great majority of North Carolinians. “We started capturing the voices of this community through oral histories, in part because there came a point when we exhausted the resources of libraries, historical societies and archives,” explains Caroline Muglia, a graduate student working on the project. “The truth is that Lebanese families in North Carolina have collected the richest history of the community to date. They lived the history.” Muglia says that returning the project to the community “has been the goal all along. We are building a platform for the narratives of these people to continue to evolve and serve as an educational tool in the process.” Akram Khater agrees, and he emphasizes his gratitude for Moise Khayrallah’s generosity. “Without his foresight and philanthropy, we would not have been able to take on the project,” Khater says. “Much of this oral history, these important stories, might have been lost — and with them, we would have lost an important part of North Carolina’s history.” — Caroline Barnhill For more information about the project, visit lac.chass.ncsu.edu. Lebanese-Americans from across North Carolina have shared family photos, letters and documents to help tell their story. 14 CHASS Accolades 2012 advocate teacher, poet, Celebrated alum Museum of Art’s docent organization, helping to launch the community arts school Arts Together and volunteering in the preservation of historic homes. “I always found NC State to be such a warm and welcoming place,” she recalls. “When my husband and I were building our home outside Edenton, we spent a lot of time at the College of Design’s library looking into architecture. And then when we had school-aged daughters, we’d take them to D.H. Hill Library for research and studying. We loved being on campus and using the resources available here.” But Shepard’s involvement with the creative writing program came about a bit more serendipitously. “A friend had given me a brochure for a summer writing program at NC State in 2001,” she says. “At the time, there was not a master of fine arts program, but there were lots of wonderful creative writing people in the college. It wasn’t even in my mind to get a degree. I just wanted to be a better writer.” Shepard signed up for a writing program workshop that NC State held in conjunction with the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Her teacher was poet Betty Adcock. Shepard followed Adcock to Meredith College for additional classes. “At some point, Betty told me that this poet named John Balaban — who was a two-time National Book Award nominee — was going to be directing a new creative writing program at NC State,” Shepard remembers. “Betty asked me to take a class with him, so I did. I felt very brave, taking that class at my age, but it was wonderful. I loved being with the students. I loved their hearts and their minds. And along with Betty, John Balaban became my mentor.” While Shepard was taking one course every semester as a continuing education student, the college was launching the mfa program. “I ended up having enough credits that if I “My father became flustered when transporting my mother to the hospital, and he drove to a building on Hillsborough Street. There he discovered his mistake and arrived at Rex Hospital on the corner of St. Mary’s and Wade Avenue with just a bit of time to spare,” Shepard says with a smile. Shepard, a poet and alumna of the college’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was recently honored at the NC State Alumni Association’s eighth annual Evening of Stars gala as the 2011 chass Distinguished Alumna. “Nora has given a good bit of her generous life to the arts, not only as a remarkable poet and painter but also as a promoter of the arts in our lives in the Triangle,” says John Balaban, director of NC State’s creative writing program and the university’s poet-in-residence. After nearly being born on campus, Shepard’s involvement with NC State resumed in the early 1970s, after she gra-duated from Hollins University in Virginia with a double-major b.a. in English and American literature and creative writing (poetry). She occasionally enrolled in a writing or painting class at NC State while she was also working for the North Carolina Museum of Art. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, Shepard spent her time advancing the arts in the Triangle area — serving as the founding president of the The way she tells it, Nora Hutton Shepard was practically born at NC State. Literally. 15 > chass.ncsu.edu took a few more general courses and put together a thesis, I could get my mfa degree,” she says. Shepard graduated with her mfa in 2005. Today she teaches a poetry course in the college each semester. “I wish I could teach more than that, but I’m swimming for my life every semester trying to find things that speak to my students,” Shepard explains. “I can’t prepare for my class until I get to know my students and we start building a respectful community. So it’s different every semester. I want to reach each student individually. I go to bed thinking about them, and I wake up thinking about them.” Shepard’s commitment to — and love for — the college’s creative writing program are contagious. “For the last four or five years, I’ve worked behind the scenes to spread the word that this top-notch mfa program is not down the road at Duke or UNC-Chapel Hill. It is right here at NC State. We’re the only ones with this degree. The capital city of Raleigh is full of world-class ballet, art museums, symphonies and more — but most people don’t know about the rich literary community that NC State has helped to build.” Read more about our celebrated alumni at chass.ncsu.edu. As for a fine arts program being located at a university primarily known as a science and technology powerhouse, Shepard says that while no one will argue the strength of NC State’s technical prowess, “the humanities are the heartbeat that students crave. We’re about educating an entire person. If you have the finest minds coming to study technology, science and engineering, why would you want to give them anything less than the best all-around education? NC State is doing that. “Scientists and poets alike are going to have lives with hopes and dashed hopes, with dreams and dimmed dreams. They are going to wonder, ‘How do I feel?’ ‘How do I fit?’ and ‘How does the universe work?’ The arts give us the beginning vocabularies to answer those questions. And that’s why they are so vital.” — Caroline Barnhill CHASS Distinguished Alumna Nora Shepard makes time to write, teach and share her passion for the college’s creative writing program. 16 CHASS Accolades 2012 Reprinted from the Spring 2012 issue of NC State magazine, a benefit of membership in the NC State Alumni Association. to Victims Voice Giving For the past two years, Charmaine Fuller Cooper (mpa ’07) has helped lead that conversation as executive director of the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, a newly formed division of the state’s Department of Administration. The foundation was created in 2010 to help a separate task force determine how to compensate people sterilized by order of the North Carolina Eugenics Board in the middle of the 20th century. Officials thought welfare costs and crime could be reduced by preventing reproduction among people deemed unfit to have children. More than 7,600 men, women and children were sterilized between 1929 and 1974, and as many as half of them are believed to still be alive. In January 2012, the task force recommended that the state pay each surviving victim $50,000. It will be up to the North Carolina legislature to approve that funding. To date, about 75 victims have come forward. Fuller Cooper has straddled the line between advocate and bureaucrat, driven by a desire to advance the victims’ cause It’s a difficult question, with no single right answer: How much money should the government pay somebody who had their right to reproduce taken away by the state? Charmaine Fuller Cooper (MPA ’07). Photo by Ted Richardson while recognizing that no money has been awarded yet. “It’s tough when you have somebody call you up and say, ‘My father signed for my sterilization, and then he raped me and his friends raped me,’” Fuller Cooper says. “This person was able somehow to put that history in a pocket ... so they can survive. And now we’re asking them to open that pocket up, raggedy seams and all, and tell them we might be able to provide you with a sewing kit that’s going to mend you. And then nothing happens. I think that’s dangerous.” Fuller Cooper grew up in Henderson, n.c., and majored in political science at North Carolina Central University. She came to NC State to earn her master’s degree in public administration in the college’s School of Public and International Affairs. While enrolled in the program, Fuller Cooper became executive director of the Carolina Justice Policy Center, which was instrumental in the 2009 passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act. That act allows death-row inmates to challenge their death sentences by using statistics to prove racial bias by prosecutors and jurors. Fuller Cooper says her graduate degree sharpened her critical-thinking skills, allowing her to marry her passion for justice and fairness with a focus on planning and process. Phoebe Zerwick, a lecturer at Wake Forest University, served as a member of the task force that developed the recommendations for compensating victims of the eugenics program. Zerwick says Fuller Cooper’s ability to work with both her heart and her head made a huge difference. Shortly after the task force began work, Fuller Cooper arranged a day for victims to speak about what they had endured. That event received national and international coverage and reminded everybody what their goal was. “She understood that the victims needed to be heard,” Zerwick says. — Ken Otterbourg 17 > chass.ncsu.edu A group of volunteers travels to a foreign country to provide aid. But, as so often happens, problems arise. Maybe the volunteers aren’t a good fit, or their skill levels aren’t sufficient for the task at hand. Perhaps there’s a clash of cultural values between those helping and those being helped. Psychology’s NC State is leading global progress in an emerging field of psychology. emerging field Such problems can greatly impede progress. Humanitarian Work Psychology (hwp) is an emerging area of industrial-organizational psychology specifically designed to address work-related issues in just such humanitarian arenas. The NC State University Department of Psychology is helping lead the global development of the field. When Associate Professor of Psychology Lori Foster Thompson (pictured left) taught the world’s first hwp graduate courses at the universities of Bologna and Barce-lona in 2010, her students represented a true global community. “My students came from Peru, Brazil, Africa, Italy — all over the globe,” says Thompson. “We discussed how to apply industrial-organizational psychology to the humanitarian effort. We covered issues like women’s work opportunities in developing countries, micro-credit enterprises, online volunteerism and sex slavery.” Soon after, during the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, a division of the International Associ-ation of Applied Psychology voted unanimously to establish a four-year work group devoted to hwp. Thompson is leading the group. “People want to see our profession expand in this way,” says Thompson. “We’ve given talks about hwp around the world, and we have witnessed a lot of enthusiasm from members of our field — both senior members and newer student members.” Alex Gloss joined NC State’s industrial-organizational psychology doctoral program last fall and is serving as coordinator for capacity-building on the global task force. He’s finding plenty of people who aren’t yet familiar with hwp. “It’s industrial-organizational psychology with both a prosocial edge and a focus on international development,” he says. “That includes humanitarian aid work, disaster relief and recovery efforts. hwp is also applied to more general nongovernment organizations and intergovernmental organizations that are involved in helping to improve the well-being of people around the world.” “We have colleagues who have been doing this independently for decades,” Thompson adds, “but we didn’t have a common name or language for it. Now that it’s becoming organized and strategic, we think it can become a more powerful force for good.” — Christa Gala 18 CHASS Accolades 2012 “I was raised with the philosophy of ‘paying it forward’ to help others,” Replogle says. “Whether it was volunteering in the hospital as an adolescent or serving on a nonprofit’s board today, service is a major thread woven throughout my life.” Replogle, a former speech language pathologist who specialized in traumatic brain injuries, recently gave the College of Humanities and Social Sciences a $25,000 endowment that will support students minoring in nonprofit studies who are working in an unpaid internship. “When I was a student at Miami University in Ohio, I was given a fellowship that really opened doors for me that I might not have been able to go through otherwise,” Replogle says. “I knew that when the time came, I would want to give back in the area of education because it is so important to me.” Replogle began serving on the college’s Institute for Nonprofits advisory board in 2010. That’s when she decided to make her gift. “Once I met the students in the program, I knew this was the perfect place for me to give back,” she says. The Institute for Nonprofits enhances the capacity of nonprofit organizations by connecting the university with the community. The institute offers a nonprofit studies minor — one of only a few such undergraduate programs in the country. “Our nonprofit studies minor requires an internship,” says institute director Mary Tschirhart. “Most of the internships are unpaid, and some students opt for a local internship so they won��t incur the living expenses involved with an internship outside our area. Kristin wanted to enable students to choose an internship based on their passion for that organization rather than basing it on the expenses that might be involved.” A From the moment she put on a candy striper’s uniform as a child, Kristin Replogle knew she would have a passion for serving her entire life. caring Kristin Replogle helps prepare the next generation of nonprofit leaders through an endowment she created in the college’s Institute for Nonprofits. pasion for 19 > chass.ncsu.edu Replogle’s endowment specifically favors students who have shown a passion in caring for children. “When I worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, I often worked with abused children,” she recalls. “As I got older and had children of my own, my passion for caring for children grew even stronger. And I’ve learned through the years that your passion will always lead you down the right path.” Replogle lives in Raleigh with her husband, John, ceo of Vermont-based company Seventh Generation. The couple has four daughters. Replogle serves on several local nonprofit orga-nizations that work specifically to protect and support children: SAFEChild, the Girl Scouts and KidzNotes, a Durham-based organization that teaches classical and orchestral music to underserved children. Farther from home, President Obama recently appointed Replogle to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Replogle is a big fan of the Institute for Non-profits. “I think it’s wonderful that NC State has a nonprofit studies program,” she says. “We need so badly to prepare nonprofit leaders of the future. If we can find young folks who have a passion for service already, it is our obligation to help support them if we can.” Taylor Elkins is one of four recipients to date of a scholarship from the Kristin Gatchel Rep-logle Nonprofit Internship Fund. Replogle’s gift allowed Elkins to intern with Outreach360 — formerly Orphanage Outreach — in the Domini-can Republic during the summer of 2011. “The scholarship gave me the amazing opportunity to stay at an all-boys orphanage in the town of Jaibon, where I taught English, Spanish literacy and public health to the boys at the home,” Elkins says. “I was also able to work with the local community in weekly summer camps. The relationships I developed with the boys have had a huge impact on my life, and that is what I am most grateful to Kristin for.” Replogle is grateful to have found students who share her desire to give back. “Because I’m so aware of the many needs of nonprofit organizations, I’m thrilled to find students who have a passion for giving back,” she says. “It is very gratifying to give them the support they need and watch them grow.” — Caroline Barnhill The Institute for Nonprofits by the numbers 105 75 367 4 13,300+ 42,000+ 70 5 20 NC State students are currently enrolled in the nonprofit studies minor program. CHASS majors are minoring in nonprofit studies. members belong to the Institute’s Community of Nonprofit Scholars. students have received the Kristin Replogle Nonprofit Internship Fund scholarship to date. people subscribe to the Institute for Nonprofits’ Philanthropy Journal. NC State grads hold a minor in nonprofit studies; most of them are CHASS alums. or more special reports are published by the Philanthropy Journal each year, along with at least 5 webinars. nonprofit executives have been trained through the Institute for Nonprofits’ new 2011–12 Achieving Collaborative Capacity for Executive Success (ACCES) class. of this country’s 1.5 million nonprofit organizations are based in North Carolina. For more information, visit the Institute for Nonprofits at nonprofit.chass.ncsu.edu. The Institute for Nonprofits was established in NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2003. 20 CHASS Accolades 2012 were filled. The congressman wrote her back, however, encouraging her to apply again. Latta did. “Fortunately, Congressman Hefner’s office carved out the stipend from their office budget,” says Latta. “My internship was everything to me. Without it, I’m not sure I would have ever realized my dream of working on Capitol Hill. I don’t know that I would have even had the courage to try.” Her one-month internship turned into a 14-year job with Hefner — and a career that has lasted 27 years so far. Over the years, Latta began to fully appreciate the importance of her internship. She eventually established an endowment fund that provides $1,500 each year for a student who has applied and been accepted to an internship program in Washington, d.c. “I came across too many people — both here in Washington and in North Carolina — who said, ‘Oh, I would have loved to intern in Washington, but I couldn’t afford to.’ It broke my heart to hear it,” says Latta. When Sandra Latta (Political Science ’84) came to NC State, she was certain she wanted to be an attorney. She even helped found the Pre-Law Club at NC State. Deep down, though, there was something else she really wanted to do. “I wanted to work on the Hill,” Latta confesses. “But to me, that sounded analogous to saying I wanted to go to Hollywood and be discovered.” Today, she serves at the Pentagon as deputy chief of legislative affairs for the u.s. Department of the Navy. You might say politics was in Latta’s genes. Her mother was the first woman ever elected to public office in Mocksville, n.c. Her dad, J. Edward Latta (NC State ’50), was also involved in town politics. As a junior, Latta wrote to Congressman Bill Hefner to try to secure an internship, but all intern positions “For somebody who’s struggling to be in college, to take a month away to be up here … that’s a tough financial commitment. I wanted to help take the financial pressure off a little bit. It also gave me a way to honor my past. It’s my way of giving back.” Although it’s the money the recipient needs (and that Latta provides), the real gift is the chance to follow a dream. “To me, it’s all about opportunity,” says Latta. “I was given that opportunity, and there was a lot of luck involved. This endowment is helping someone else have a little bit of that luck, a little bit of that magic.” — Christa Gala Head the Hill An internship on Capitol Hill changed her life. Alumna Sandra Latta wants to give current students the same opportunity. Sandra Latta with Congressman Bill Hefner as she began her internship in May 1984 … … and on the eve of her departure from the Hill in May 1998. for 21 > chass.ncsu.edu Fostering Stability Children When a child enters foster care, her whole world is turned upside down. Not only does she have new caregivers, a new home and all-new rules; she also usually leaves her school and starts over at a new one. All that upheaval can affect how a child fares in school and her overall chances of academic and social success. Researchers in the college’s Center for Family and Community Engagement (cface) and the Department of Social Work are determined to help. They are launching Fostering Youth Educational Success (Fostering yes) with funding from the u.s. Children’s Bureau. “The project focuses on educational stability for foster children,” says Dr. Joan Pennell, professor of social work and director of cface. “These children often struggle in the school system as they deal with change and uncertainty in other parts of their lives.” Pennell is principal investigator for Fostering yes. Social services, public schools, the court system, mental health services and community nonprofit organizations are all involved with the project. Pennell and her team are working with groups in Cumberland County, home to both Fort Bragg and Pope Army Air Field. Nearly one-third of students in the school system are part of military-connected families. These families can be subject to high stress, particularly during times of deployment, according to Pennell. In some instances, all of a family’s caregivers are deployed simultaneously. “School stability is particularly important for this area,” Pennell says. “We’re also looking at ways to overcome administrative delays in admitting children to a new school when they enter foster care.” “Ideally, children can stay in their same school to minimize disruption,” says Dr. Jodi Hall, a clinical assistant professor of social work at NC State and co-principal investigator on the project. “But if they need to move to a new school, important information needs to travel with them so their new teachers have information that could contribute to their academic and social success.” Pennell hopes to increase the use of child and family teams to enhance children’s chances for success. The teams include youth and their families, teachers, social workers, pastors and other community members who work together to develop a plan to help children succeed in school and in the community. The Fostering yes team’s research will inform the develop-ment of new policies and procedures to support a stable system for foster children. “We want to create a blueprint that can be used throughout North Carolina and nationally,” Pennell says. Hear Dr. Pennell interviewed on WUNC radio about Fostering YES: wunc.org/programs/news/archive/TJP102511.mp3/view for — Christa Gala 22 CHASS Accolades 2012 For the past two summers, future Army officers at NC State University have put in those hours of study to give themselves an advantage in the field. And with funding from the Department of Defense, Special Forces soldiers from Fort Bragg will soon join them. Teaching future military leaders In 2009, the chass Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures received a three-year, $800,000 Project go grant to improve cultural and linguistic proficiency of rotc students in five critical languages: Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian and Urdu. That grant launched Project gold, a summer intensive program that provides two semesters of foreign language instruction in just six weeks. rotc students receive scholarships covering tuition in the language courses or for a study-abroad program in India, China, Egypt or Russia. Language proficiency among rotc cadets is a high priority for the u.s. Army, according to Capt. Joseph Cofiori, assistant military science professor and a member of the Army rotc cadre at NC State. “It’s a force multiplier,” he says, “a skill that vastly increases a soldier’s potential.” “We don’t operate stateside,” Cofiori says. “We work in places where people don’t speak English as their primary language. It enhances the mission when you can communicate with the locals in a language they understand.” “I think it’s crucial for us to send people who know not just the languages but the culture of the places they��re going,” says Dr. Inas Messiha, who teaches Arabic the Talk Ten hours a day studying a foreign language? That’s daunting. But it’s far less daunting than navigating a foreign country as a member of the military when you don’t have the ability to communicate with local residents. and soldiers Talk Helping students 23 > chass.ncsu.edu The college’s Critical Languages Program offers elementary, intermediate and advanced intensive courses in: • Arabic: one of the oldest languages in the world, which today is spoken by more than 256 million people in about 30 different countries, the most after English and French. • Chinese (Mandarin): one of the six official languages of the United Nations, spoken by more than one billion people around the world. • Russian: spoken in Russia and the former Soviet republics; it is the key language across the Caucasus and Central Asia and one of the official languages of the United Nations. • Persian: the primary language spoken in Iran and one of the official languages of Afghanistan. • Pashto: the other official language of Afghanistan. • Urdu: the language of Pakistan. The pace is intense because students are covering two semesters of material in just six weeks. Every day they spend six hours in the classroom, after which they have up to four hours of homework. The first three hours each day focus more on the structural aspects of the language. The second three hours of class focus on developing communication skills in situations infused with real culture. Afternoon activities include situational role-playing; film clips; hands-on demos of music, cooking and calligraphy; lab work and guest speakers. The immersive approach worked for Zack Boyd, a cadet studying political science at NC State. Boyd went to China last summer as part of Project GO. “I remember being in the middle of Shanghai, one of the largest cities in the world. I was completely lost,” says Boyd, a junior from Fayetteville. “I used the material we learned in class to guide the taxi driver to our hotel.” The utility of foreign language competency can prove to be much more critical for a soldier or a diplomat. Through its new collaboration with Fort Bragg, NC State’s Language Training Center is changing the way foreign languages and cultures are taught, improving the linguistic and cultural literacy of our future leaders. Imm ersion Learning at NC State. “The difference between how you say a word correctly and incorrectly is sometimes literally the difference between life and death.” Teaching Special Forces soldiers Project go proved to be highly successful and led to a one-year, $1.8 million pilot grant from the National Security Education Program to teach critical languages to Special Forces soldiers. “We are using the same immersive, functional, communicative approach that we used with our rotc students in Project go,” says Dr. Dwight Stephens, director of NC State’s new Language Training Center. “It’s just that now we’re teaching not only university students but also soldiers at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg.” The grant promotes teacher training too, and the Language Training Center at NC State produces up to 10 workshops in second-language acquisition and instruction techniques for the six critical languages. In winter and spring, NC State will provide intensive language courses on base at Fort Bragg. During the summer, active-duty soldiers will come to NC State to join rotc students and regular university students from all over the country for courses in all the languages. “The rotc students will definitely benefit from taking classes alongside members of the military who have been in some unusual places doing some extraordinary things,” says Dr. Ruth Gross, professor of German and head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Gross is also principal investigator for the project. The partnership between NC State and the Special Warfare Center and School is part of a larger effort involving the University of North Carolina system and the military. It marks an evolution in cooperation between the military and higher education, according to Stephens. “The historical separation of the public academic institutions and the military is dissolving,” he says. “We are realizing there is a lot to share and a lot to learn from each other.” “The difference between how you say a word correctly and incorrectly is sometimes literally the difference between life and death.” 24 CHASS Accolades 2012 While Badger was stationed at Fort Bragg, he completed the Special Forces Qualification Course. He also found time to read the work of John Kessel, a professor in NC State’s creative writing program and author of many popular science-fiction novels and stories. Badger had always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy, which led him to Kessel. “While I was still at Bragg and before leaving for Afghanistan, I traveled to NC State just to meet John Kessel,” Badger recalls. “We had a really great conversation.” Kessel, the director of Creative Writing at the time, was also teaching undergraduate and graduate classes. “He made a lot of time for me, and we talked about writing,” Badger says. “He invited me to write him when I was overseas, and I did. He encouraged me from there to consider applying to the mfa program.” While he was still in Afghanistan, Badger learned he’d been accepted to the mfa program. “I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I didn’t know how formal my writing training would be or should be. The military, obviously, is a much different place. I don’t know how seriously I was considering formal study.” Badger came home from Afghanistan in July 2009 and started the mfa program soon after. Toward the end of his first semester, Badger paid a visit to Wilton Barnhardt, a professor who had studied at Oxford and was then the mfa program director. “I told Wilton I’d be interested in studying at Oxford,” says Badger. “He didn’t laugh me out of his office, as he maybe should have. He asked me what I proposed to study there. I said, ‘Well, I’m still feeling that out.’ “Wilton said, ‘Find something you’re passionate about doing and come over to England with me in the summer when I’m leading the Oxford Study Abroad program. I’ll introduce you to some folks. We’ll do what we can to make it happen.’ From the moment I walked in his office, he took me absolutely seriously as a writer.” As a kid, Will Badger, MFA ’11, wanted to be a writer so he could explore all the places in his head he was sure he’d never see in person. Ironically, now he’s doing both. Soldier Oxford turns Scholar Will Badger in Paktya Province, Afghanistan. Sometimes you have to make a tough choice: a Fulbright scholarship? Or Oxford University in England? It was a good problem to have for Will Badger, a 2011 graduate of NC State’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. After all, just two years prior, Badger was serving in Afghanistan as a Green Beret medic, dodging death every day. In the end, Badger chose Oxford. But first, how did he end up at NC State at all? After taking an honors undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, Badger enlisted in the military for a variety of reasons. “I had a desire to serve, although I wasn’t a big fan of the Iraq war,” says Badger, 33. “I thought I needed to experience it for myself and do my part for the country before I could speak in a committed way about the rightness or wrongness of various enterprises.” The adventure, camaraderie and maybe even a little old-fashioned romanticism appealed to him as well. 25 > chass.ncsu.edu “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time … an honored guest. The third time … you become family.” — from Three Cups of Tea, by G. Mortensen and D. Oliver Three cups of tea they taught us (waving the book about) a new way to win the war With the first cup fathers elbowed children into razor wire to grab the Pokemon backpacks passed out like party favors, the chai sweet and steeped with sugar that looked like quartz During the second cup cricket teams from as far as Parachinar came for the Chamkani Games but some chai slopped over the chipped lip of my cup soaking my shirt when riots broke out before conversation did As the spinach-like dregs of the last cup tickled my lips a grandfather — actually my host — stole a radio it was hard to watch them beat him how he bleated The cups come from a Balti proverb, anyway. Maybe their mountains are nice this time of year. — Will Badger Afghani Chai A few months later, Badger ended up in John Balaban’s poetry class. Balaban, who had become the next mfa director, had been a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, working for the Committee of Responsibility in Vietnam. As alternative service, Balaban treated war-injured children and evacuated them to the United States when necessary. It was an interesting dynamic: the soldier and the conscientious objector. Will Badger at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. “The Vietnam War caused any number of chasms in our society in the ’60s and ’70s,” says Badger. “He [Balaban] felt strongly against our involvement in Vietnam, and his beliefs took him there. I was really impressed with him as a person and as a writer, because here was someone who felt strongly enough to involve himself personally. I wasn’t sure how he would relate to a recent war vet, but he went out of his way to make sure I felt comfortable.” It was in Balaban’s class that Badger finally wrote about his war experiences, in a poem called “Afghani Chai.” (See sidebar.) Balaban sent the poem to the international literary journal War, Literature and the Arts, which published it (volume 22, 2010). Next, Badger applied for a Fulbright scholarship to translate Polish author Janusz Zajdel’s novel Limes inferior into English. With Barnhardt’s help, he also applied to Oxford. He never dreamed that both Fulbright and Oxford would come calling. In the end, his choice revolved around logistics and family. He headed to Oxford with his wife and children to study witch-craft in Shakespeare and the supernatural in the early modern period. He’ll be there for several years, first earning his Master of Studies before moving on to a Doctor of Philosophy. And even though he declined the Fulbright, Badger still plans to translate the Zajdel novel. “He’s a good writer, and he’s probably going to be a brilliant scholar,” says Balaban. “Everything he does is done perfectly well. I guess the surprise to all of us is that he came to us from a battlefield as a medic in Afghanistan. Somehow, that almost seems irrelevant now.” — Christa Gala 26 CHASS Accolades 2012 Daniel C. Gunter iii (History and Spanish Language and Literature ’00) was named the university’s Outstanding Young Alumnus. Gunter (pictured above), an associate with dl a Piper, has served two terms on the chass Advisory Board. He is on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Lonnie Poole Golf Course Campaign Committee. A lifetime member of the university’s Alumni Association, he hosts “DENers with the Pack” to support current students. As an alumnus of Sigma Nu Fraternity, he works with University Development on fundraising for the fraternity and has served on the Redevelopment of Greek Court Task Force. As a member of the Leonidas Lafayette Polk Society, Gunter provides support to chass, the Alumni Association and the University Scholars program, among other areas of the university. “So many people at NC State — professors, administrators, classmates and others — have enriched my life academically, professionally and personally,” Gunter says. “Since I could never pay back all that I’ve gotten from NC State, it made the most sense to me to pass it on to the next generation of students and to give my time to the university however I can.” “David, Celia and Daniel are three tireless ambassadors for NC State University and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences,” says Dean Jeff Braden. “I am proud to see their contributions recognized among those who make this university great.” David S. Jolley (Economics, ’70) and his wife Celia G. Jolley (Education, ’83) received the Meritorious Service Award for their outstanding contributions to the university. David, a chass alumnus, was a founding member of NC State’s Board of Visitors. He has served on boards including the NC State University Foundation, the NC State University Endowment Board and the Achieve! Campaign Steering Com-mittee. He currently serves on the chass Advisory Board. David is vice president of commercial lending at c&f Bank in Williamsburg, Va. A retired educator, Celia has been active with the College of Education’s Campaign Steering Committee, Advisory Board and Leadership Board, among other endeavors. The Jolleys (both pictured below) are members of the C.W. Dabney Lifetime Giving Society and the R. S. Pullen Society. Their generosity has touched numerous programs across the university. “We try to stay tuned to the needs of students,” David says. “Celia and I owe a lot of our success to NC State. We’ve been well served by higher education, so being involved is a critically important part of what we do.” alums recognized Alumni from the college were recently honored by the NC State Alumni Association at its Evening of Stars gala that recognizes those who have made a difference in their communities and given back to their alma mater. — Caroline Barnhill for service 27 > chass.ncsu.edu Transformational Traditions While co-chair of the Commission on Traditions, 2012–2013 Student Body President Andy Walsh helped reintroduce Tuffy, the living mascot, to athletic events. ncsu.edu Learn more at NC State: For 125 years, transforming students into leaders. “Our traditions and our history are what bind us together,” says Andy Walsh, Political Science, class of ‘13. “I honor the great traditions of this campus, and I want to help create traditions for the generations to come.” Now Andy, a fi rst-generation college student, is spearheading a major fundraising effort: raising $200,000 for the Coaches’ Corner just outside Reynolds Coliseum. If Andy succeeds, busts of Everett Case, Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano will be unveiled in 2013, next to the existing tribute to Kay Yow. 28 CHASS Accolades 2012 Janet Nguyen (International Studies, ’14) is working to establish NC State’s first Asian sorority. “I want to help student leaders of our generation grow into the world leaders of tomorrow,” says Nguyen. “We’re not just going to be a sisterhood — we’re going to help these young women build skills for the future.” Asian interest sororities are relatively new in the South. Only a handful are active on campuses in the UNC system. Read more about this transformational young leader at chass.ncsu.edu. Sisterhood Creating College of Humanities & Social Sciences Campus Box 8101 Raleigh, NC 27695-8101 |
OCLC number | 761324941 |