Around Campus
Students from the Chinese and Russian language programs won the first Multilingual Student Video Festival competition.
“Dream Girl,” by Aya Abdelaziz and Ben Lovenheim of the Chinese Language Program won first place.
The second-place video, by Russian Language Program students Ellyn Sherman, Tiffany Johnson and Suzanne Rothman, was “Secret Love.”
The Foreign Language Oversight Committee, a group consisting of representatives from each Brandeis foreign language program, hosted the festival for the first time April 25.
Students from each language program at Brandeis (Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian) presented videos demonstrating their growth in their first year of language study at Brandeis. In each participating language, all of the level-20 courses selected one video to represent their language group at the festival.
A jury panel consisting of faculty members, Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong and the French and Spanish undergraduate departmental representatives selected the winners.
Five degree candidates at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management have been selected as finalists for prestigious federal fellowships: Ariella Camera for the Presidential Management Fellowship, Abigail Rothberg for the Fulbright Fellowship and Cameron Asam, Emily McCready and Kristen Whited for the Boren Fellowship. A sixth student, Jessica Friedman, is currently an alternate for the Boren Fellowship.
The Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) is a two-year leadership development opportunity in the federal government. Begun in 1977, the program places approximately 300 fellows each year in up to 50 agencies across the federal government. In addition to providing six month job rotations, exceptional training opportunities and access to a cadre of highly-placed government officials, the PMF is a career spring-board, accelerating Fellows from entry-level to middle management positions in just two years.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and is sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Approximately 318,000 "Fulbrighters," 120,000 from the United States and 198,000 from other countries, have participated in the Program since its inception over sixty years ago. The Fulbright Program awards approximately 8,000 new grants annually. Currently, the Fulbright Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.
The Boren Awards provide up to $30,000 to U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency. Boren Fellowships support study and research in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests. Boren Fellowships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.
PRESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT FELLOW: Ariella Camera (MA SID ’13) (Finalist)
Camera is one of 650 finalists chosen from a national field of 12,000 graduate degree holders. A master’s degree candidate in the Heller School’s Sustainable International Development Program, she completed her six month practicum requirement at the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality, where she worked on a national quality improvement newborn hearing screening collaborative. This May she will be presenting on the Health and Development Capstone Panel and will be focusing on how to use quality improvement to strengthen the newborn hearing screening and follow up system in the United States.
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR: Abigail Rothberg (MA SID/MBA ’14) (Finalist) – Sri Lanka
Rothberg is a dual degree candidate in the Heller School’s Sustainable International Development/MBA Program, and is finishing her second year of study. With a focus on Human Rights and Violence Against Women, Abigail has designed a project in partnership with the International Centre for Ethnic Studies that will explore NGO intervention strategies for combatting violence against women in Sri Lanka.
BOREN FELLOW: Cameron Asam (MA SID ’14) (Finalist) -- Indonesia
Asam is just completing his first year in the Heller School’s ’s Sustainable International Development Program, and will use his Boren fellowship to fund a ten month practicum in Indonesia, where he will study the Bahasa Indonesian language and will intern for Mercy Corps. His focus will be on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
BOREN FELLOW: Emily McCready, (SID/COEX ’14) (Finalist) -- Jordan
McCready, a dual degree masters candidate in the Sustainable International Development Program and the Coexistence and Conflict Program, will travel to Jordan where she will learn Modern Standard Arabic and immerse herself in the Arab culture. Her goal is to focus on the current Syrian refugee crisis, in particular, access to protection and education for refugee children.
BOREN FELLOW: Kristen Whited, (MPP/MBA ’14) (Finalist) – South Korea
Whited, a dual degree candidate in the Heller School’s MPP/MBA Program, will use her Boren Fellowship to return to South Korea for a year of language study at Sogang University in Seoul. She wishes to use her enhanced language skills to engage with North Korean refugees in hopes of informing a more nuanced approach to foreign policy in the region.
BOREN FELLOW: Jessica Friedman, (MA SID ’14) (Alternate) – The Philippines
Friedman, a first year masters candidate in the Sustainable International Development Program, hopes to be awarded the Boren Fellowship to return to the Philippines for an eight month stay to further develop her Tagalog language skills, perform community development, and work with the child-focused international organization Plan International in a project related to girls' education.
The Foreign Language Oversight Committee (FLOC), a group consisting of representatives from each Brandeis foreign language program, will be hosting the first ever Brandeis Multilingual Student Video Festival in Shiffman 002 on Thursday, April 25, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Students from each language program at Brandeis (Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian) will present videos demonstrating their growth in their first year of language study at Brandeis.
In each participating language, all of the level-20 courses will select one video to represent their language group at the festival.
A jury panel consisting of faculty members, Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong, and the French and Spanish Undergraduate Departmental Representatives will select one video to be awarded the grand prize.
“The goal is to promote learning of foreign languages at Brandeis and showcase the amazing progress that our students make in only one year of language study,” says Irina Dubinina, director of the Russian language program.
Faculty and students are encouraged to come attend. International desserts will be served.
The festival and grand prize is supported by the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Foreign Language Oversight Committee.
Rob Romasco
Rob Romasco ’69 returns this week to Brandeis, a place he credits for shaping his career through its emphasis on social justice, robust intellectual debate and diversity of thought.
Romasco, the president of AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), will participate in the James J. Callahan Jr., PhD ’68, Memorial Lecture – “Medicare and Social Security: Who Wins and Who Loses in Entitlement Reform?” – at 5 p.m. April 23 in the Zinner Forum at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
He will join Heller Dean Lisa Lynch, PhD, the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy; former Heller Dean Stuart Altman, PhD, the Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy; and Boston University Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, PhD, for a discussion about one of the biggest public-policy issues of the day.
The event is free and open to the public.
Romasco serves as AARP’s primary volunteer spokesperson, but he says his job description could more accurately be described as “chief listener.” He visited 20 states and logged 60,000 miles in his first six months on the job – hearing about the lives of people over 50 to determine how AARP can best serve and advocate for their needs.
“It’s not just about Social Security and Medicare,” Romasco says. “It’s about understanding this chapter of peoples’ lives, our journey from age 50 on.”
Romasco received the call to join AARP in late December 2005, when he was senior vice president of home-shopping giant QVC.
“After I got off the phone with AARP, my wife asked me a question, ‘Years from now, what will you regret more, not being part of AARP or not selling another 10,000 pieces of costume jewelry?’” Romasco says. “It became a pretty easy decision.”
The decision was fortified by a near-death experience on a desolate Canadian lake. “That was a pretty sobering moment,” Romasco says of his August 2005 boating accident. Badly hurt, but rescued by three young men who spotted his empty boat, Romasco began rethinking his priorities. “When I was going down under the water for the third time, I was convinced my life was over. I received a gift. I said to myself, ‘What am I going to do with this gift?’ ”
With this perspective, Romasco accepted the invitation to join the all-volunteer board of directors of AARP in 2006. Last year he began a two-year term as president of the powerful 55-year-old organization, which advocates for people 50 and over.
Romasco, who grew up in nearby Watertown, Mass., has special memories of his days as a Brandeis student during the 1960s. His profound gratitude to Brandeis is due not only to the intellectual experience, but also by the investment the university chose to make in him. In addition to working three jobs, Brandeis’ scholarship made receiving a first-class education possible. He majored in history, served as a residence hall counselor and broadcast the men’s basketball team’s games on campus radio station WBRS.
“It was a very full experience and one I would never trade,” says Romasco, who was the first member of his family to attend college. “It was an introduction to a whole different world. Everybody was smart and highly intellectual.
“At Brandeis, you had to be prepared to have your views challenged. When I started at Brandeis, I thought we (the United States) were doing the right thing in Vietnam. I was exposed to different social and political views.”
With an assist from Trustee emeritus David Squire, who was then Brandeis’ vice president for administration, Romasco also established the Student Service Bureau to coordinate and license student businesses. “I was the only capitalist on campus,” he says with a laugh.
After graduation, Romasco built a regional public opinion polling firm. He later graduated from Harvard Business School, and went on to work in senior positions at CIGNA, J.C. Penney Insurance and American Century Investments before joining QVC as senior vice president of customer, distribution and new business development.
Holland Cotter
Holland Cotter, senior art critics of The New York Times, will speak on "Art, Writing, Life, Writing, Art" at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 25, in the Shapiro Admissions Building presentation room.
The event is free and open to the public.
Cotter, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner, was raised in Boston, attended Harvard College and worked as a freelance critic for a number of prestigious publications. He held editorial positions at New York Art Journal, Art News and Art in America, and pursued graduate studies in Indian Buddhist art.
A staff critic at The Times since 1998, his trenchant, witty and gripping criticism has ranged from Renaissance painting to contemporary art collectives in New York, with a particular expertise in Asian art. The articles produced during a 2009 residency in China, vividly capturing not only the emerging avant-garde but also probing larger trends in a burgeoning contemporary art scene and associated social, political and cultural dynamics, garnered Cotter the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for that year.
Cotter is the final speaker in the 2013 Art in Dialogue series funded by the Brandeis Arts Council.
For more information visit Arts@Brandeis Calendar.
Photo/Mike LovettThe Rose Art Museum
The Rose Art Museum will host “Family Day at the Rose Art Museum” from 12 to 3 p.m. on the front lawn Saturday, April 20. The event is free and organized by curatorial intern Abdul Aziz Sohail ’13.
Families are invited to enjoy art-making activities and picnicking. Guided and kid-friendly discussions of the Rose’s exhibitions of modern and contemporary art will also be available. Discussions in Spanish will be provided upon request.
This is the first ever Family Day. Sohail, who had the opportunity to work on an independent project as part of his curatorial internship, chose to pursue education programming for the Waltham community.
“Family Day is an event that fits our mission and our need to reach out to Brandeis, Waltham, and beyond,” said Sohail. “At the same time, Brandeis students will interact with the Waltham community, so it is a great opportunity to have this two-way conversation.”
The Rose’s director of academic pograms, Dabney Hailey; office manager Nicole Rosenberg and Alexa Miller, who works with the Student Guide Program, have advised Sohail on this project.
Members of the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum (SCRAM) and Waltham Group will act as guards and gallery guides.
For more information, visit the Rose website or contact Sohail. Free parking will be available in the H and T parking lots.
Blood drive coordinators at Waltham Group recruitment night (from left): Jessica Friedman '13, Anna Homitsky '13, Colin Gibbons '14, Chrissy Fischer '14 and Rachel Weissman '15.
The Waltham Group will host a blood drive April 16, 17 and 18 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Upper Sherman Function Hall. Donors and volunteers are highly encouraged to attend. Free pizza will be provide.
Students looking to donate blood must either visit www.redcrossblood.org and use the Brandeis University sponsor code – 965 – to register or email raw5293@brandeis.edu or wgblooddrive@gmail.com with availabilities and/or questions.
It is recommended that before donating blood donors should drink lots of water, eat a good breakfast, block out an hour of free time for the pre-screening process and eat iron-rich foods like vegetables and fish. Donors should be sure to bring their university ID.
“This event in incredibly important because it is an amazing opportunity to give life to someone in need,” says Rachel Weissman ’15, one of the coordinators of the blood drive.
Those interested in volunteering at the event should contact wgblooddrive@gmail.com to help.
For more information, contact Rachel Weissman.
Jackie Theoharis ’14 has been nominated for the Independent Reviewers of New England Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
The nomination comes for her performance in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” at the Turtle Lane Playhouse. There are six actresses nominated for the award.
A Massachusetts native, Theoharis is majoring in theater arts and psychology, with a minor in education.
The Independent Reviewers of New England Awards were founded by Beverly Creasey of the Journal Newspapers and Larry Stark of the TheaterMirror in 1997. They recognize extraordinary talent in the Boston theatre community.
Theoharis performing in New York City last summer.
Students have used the funds to put social justice into action in a variety of ways: conserving the rainforest, fighting AIDS, spreading literacy and teaching orphans, to name a few.
Attend a Sorensen Fellowship info session on May 2 at 2:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Academic Complex Atrium to learn how you can make your mark in the summer of 2014.
The opportunity is open to current sophomores and juniors, and enables you to work on issues that matter to you at the organization of your choice.
The fellowship is named for Ted Sorensen, JFK’s presidential speechwriter.
To learn more, visit the Sorensen Fellowship website.
The Center for German and European Studies will host a student-led talk on World War II, the Holocaust and growing up German.
"My Oma, the Tank Driver – My Papa, the Survivor” will feature students and student assistants who work at the Center on April 15 in the Mandel Reading Room from 7 to 9 p.m. A reception for the event will begin at 6:30 p.m.; admission is free and open to the public.
The talk, given by Jonathan Jecker ’13, Sarah Klapisch ’13, Nelly Schlaefereit ’15, and Alex Schmidt ’14 and moderated by Elena Korn ’13 and Abe Feldan ’14, will focus on their mixed family backgrounds, upbringings, and schooling.
Jecker, Klapisch, Schlaefereit, and Schmidt are all student assistants at the Center for German and European Studies. Several weeks ago, during a meeting to discuss upcoming events at the Center, the students had a conversation about the Holocaust and felt it would be good to share their different experiences with their families and in relation to their educational paths.
“Throughout my childhood, and even still in high school I have been called a Nazi more than once, even if at times it was meant to be in a joking way,” said Schlaefereit.
Schlaefereit will look to raise more awareness on the past and how it is important to acknowledge mistakes in the past but not dwell on them. One overall goal the speakers have set is to shed light on the differences in Holocaust education that students receive, especially as German students.
The title of the event is derived from Schmidt’s grandmother, who was a tank driver in the Waffen-SS and Klapisch’s father, who was raised as a Christian during World War II despite being born Jewish.
“The April 15th discussion will revolve around how we have come to terms with our family histories, how we learned about World War II and the Holocaust, and what it means to have a German background today,” Jecker said.
Photo/Matthew CameronLauraBen Moore in action against Smith College.
Junior LauraBen Moore of the Brandeis women’s rugby club was selected to compete in USA Rugby’s training camp for the 2013 Women’s Junior All-American team.
At the end of March, Moore trained with 40 other student-athletes at the training camp in Herndon, Va. She is now in a pool with members of three other USA Rugby training camps for a spot on the team’s Under 20 Program which will compete in England in July in the U-20 Nation’s Cup. That event is considered to be the first step in qualifying for the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio, which will be the sport’s Olympic debut.
The camp featured two days of intensive fitness training, rugby skills work, classroom training and nutrition education. From the four camps held nationwide, 33 to 40 athletes will be selected for a pre-tour camp in May at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
“I was one of the least-experienced players at the camp,” Moore said. “I’ve only been playing for a year and a half, so this was an amazing experience, competing with and against players who have as much as a decade in the sport.”
Moore is a double major in studio art and anthropology with a 4.0 grade-point average. She is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society. Moore is also a Community Advisor and has served as the rugby club’s top recruiter and publicist.
The Brandeis women’s rugby club has its next home match on April 14 at 1 p.m. against Wheaton College.
Photo/Mike LovettCalling the world’s current approach to the environment somewhere “between absurdity and obscenity,” Yale University Professor Paul Anastas, PhD’89 urged businesses, scientists, environmentalists, policy-makers and consumers to adopt the principles of green chemistry to ensure a sustainable future.
Anastas is known as the “father of green chemistry,” a field that advocates for the design of safer products and manufacturing processes. He spoke to a crowd of about 125 people in Rapaporte Treasure Hall on April 4 at Brandeis University’s third annual Saul G. Cohen Memorial Lecture.
“We, as a society, are on an unsustainable trajectory,” the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment told attendees. “The status quo is between absurdity and obscenity.”
During his talk, “Designing a Sustainable Tomorrow,” Anastas pointed out that some progress has been made in designing products and processes that are more environmentally friendly. However, well-meaning people often “do the right things but do them wrong,” which leads to unintended consequences. Examples include using lethal substances to clean dirty waterways, employing persistent pesticides to increase crop yield and manufacturing solar panels with methods that produce toxins.
“We must design products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances,” Anastas said. “We’re all in the same boat – and we have only one boat.”
Anastas said the emerging science of biomimicry – solving human problems with approaches that mimic nature – has great potential to alleviate the stress on the environment. For instance, scientists have developed environmentally sound adhesives that use synthetic materials which mimic the skin and tendons of geckos, the little lizards that can scurry up walls with ease.
Anastas has high hopes for transformative innovations that could ease the pressure on the environment. Promising work is being done to develop a decaffeinated coffee bean, which would make irrelevant the chemical-intensive decaffeination process. Scientists are also working on self-cleaning clothes that would not need detergents.
“We have enough consciousness and humanity to ensure a sustainable tomorrow,” Anastas concluded.
Before his talk, Anastas spoke about Cohen, a chemistry professor who was on the Brandeis faculty during his days as a student.
“Saul Cohen shared with me that excellence in chemistry and excellence in science is essential, but not enough,” Anastas said. “The human side of the equation is what we need to think about.”
Among the attendees at the lecture was 86-year-old Robert Stevenson, a professor of chemistry emeritus who was Anastas’ adviser and mentor during his days as a doctoral student at Brandeis. The two have remained close through the years.
Anastas was last on campus in June, when he received the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor Brandeis bestows exclusively on alumni, at Reunion 2012.
The Cohen Lecture, which was established by the longtime Brandeis science professor’s family and friends, brings renowned figures to campus to discuss important topics of the day. The first two speakers were U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Home Depot co-founder and philanthropist Ken Langone.
Cohen was an instant-film pioneer who achieved a number of firsts in his 36 years on the Brandeis faculty. Denied teaching jobs at other institutions because of anti-Semitism, Cohen joined the Brandeis faculty in 1950. He later became the first chair of the chemistry department and the science school, the first dean of faculty and the first university professor. He was instrumental in establishing Brandeis as a first-rate college and a research university with thriving graduate programs. He died in 2010 at the age of 93.
