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Photo Gallery | Catawba News: honors and new scholarships

Catawba News: honors and new scholarships
Submitted by David Whisenant
Monday, June 11th, 2012, 2:30pm
Beginning with this fall’s incoming first-year class, Catawba College students will need to complete community service hours to officially graduate with honors. That proposal was approved unanimously last year by both the Student Council and the Honors Faculty Board at Catawba. According to Dr. Maria Vandergriff-Avery, associate professor and chair of sociology and director of the college honors program, this added requirement will not be an adjustment for most honors students. Vandergriff-Avery notes that during the 2011-2012 academic year, Catawba College honors students “were more active in the community than ever before.” “They served breakfast at Rowan Helping Ministries, cleaned up trash on the section of Jake Alexander Boulevard that the College Honors Program adopted this year, conducted a trash college/recycle day at the college, and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity as part of their participation in Catawba’s most prestigious honor society, Alpha Chi,” Vandergriff-Avery shares. During the past academic year, 93 students enrolled in honors courses at the college taught by faculty from a variety of disciplines. Two of these honors courses allowed students to travel to international locations – Nicaragua and Ireland. Dr. Joe Poston, an associate professor of biology, taught “The Birds and the Beans” during fall semester which culminated in a trip to Nicaragua during the college’s winter or J term. The students visited coffee plantations and witnessed the coffee harvest, and visited pristine tropical habitats where they witnessed the interactions between coffee production and wildlife. They also observed what life is like in the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Janice Fuller, a professor of English and Catawba’s writer-in-residence, taught a spring semester honors course, “Ireland: Myth and Reality,” that included a trip to Ireland over spring break. While there, students visited the Iron Age fort, Dun Aengus, Kyelmore Abbey, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle and the James Joyce Museum. The trip provided them an opportunity to further understand and differentiate between the myths and realities that surround Ireland. As the 2011-2012 academic year concluded, Vandergriff-Avery reports, seven students graduated with honors from Catawba with majors in theatre arts, history, biology, chemistry, environmental science, teacher education and business administration. Each had completed 21 semester hours in the honors program, a portfolio of their coursework, a portfolio narrative, an honors thesis, and the travel requirement. The list of 2012 Catawba honors graduates and their thesis titles follow. These students received special recognition at Investiture, received cords to wear at graduation, and their honors status was noted on their diplomas: Rachel Leigh Cone of Lexington, N.C., Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Effects on Carbonic Anhydrase in Aiptasia spp Julie Roseann Gilley of Dobson, N.C., Would the Cream Still Rise? An Evaluation of Upward Bound Sarah Irene Matulis of Berlin, Conn., Asia vs. The IMF: Why the Countries Fought Back Sarah Yie-Wah Morse of North Berwick, Maine, The Implementation of Interactive White Board Strategies in a Local Fifth Grade Classroom Claire Elise Robinson of Houston, Texas, What Are You Wearing? Major Theories of Dress, Past and Present Sarah Claiborne Robinson of Cartersville, Va., Determinants of Pro-Environmental Behavior in College Students Amanda Gwyn Williams of Indian Trail, N.C., A Taxonomy of Scientific Literature: An Exploration into the Art of Scientific Presentation
Catawba College is pleased to announce that Dr. W. Richard Stephens, Provost, is one of 20 senior college administrators selected by the Council of Independent Colleges to participate in a year-long Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission program for prospective college and university presidents. The seminar-based program is designed to help individuals with the potential to serve as college and university presidents to understand better the fit between their personal and professional goals and the missions of institutions that they might lead in the future. With a wave of retirements of university presidents on the horizon, it is especially important that individuals who become new presidents are well suited to the needs of the institution. Participation in a program such as this would help potential presidents to enter into a presidency that is more long-lasting, highly effective, and satisfying to both the individual and the institution. Individuals chosen for the program are senior administrators who aspire to the presidency of an independent college or university and their spouses. Participants, including their spouses, engage in two seminars, participate in consultations with experienced mentors, and undertake a series of readings about the vocation of college presidents and the role of vision and mission in institutional leadership. “The alignment of personal vocation and institutional mission emphasized in this program addresses a common pitfall of presidencies,” says Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. “The program aims to help participants achieve great things for their institutions and to avoid being ‘the right person in the wrong place’.” Stephens holds his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. He earned two master’s degrees – one in sociology and one in philosphy, and his doctorate from the University of Kansas. He taught at the University of Kansas, he also served as an assistant professor, associate professor, professor and chair of the department of sociology and social work at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois; as a visiting professor of sociology at Nizhni Novgorod State University in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia; as vice president for Academic Affairs and as Academic Dean at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts; and as Chief Academic Officer and Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Husson College in Bangor, Maine. He joined Catawba College as Provost in 2009. This approach to the preparation of new presidents has proven itself highly successful in the short period that the program has been operating. Since 2005, 19 individuals who have participated in the program have been named to college presidencies. For more information about the Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission program, which is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., visit www.cic.edu/vocationmission. PRESIDENTIAL VOCATION AND INSTITUTIONAL MISSION PARTICIPANTS, 2012–2013 Ellen Glidden Beaulieu, Mount Ida College (MA) John J. Brogan, Northwestern College (IA) Albert DeCiccio, Southern Vermont College (VT) Roger Drake, Lindsey Wilson College (KY) David R. Evans, Buena Vista University (IA) Stephanie L. Fabritius, Centre College (KY) Barbara A. Farley, Augsburg College (MN) Jack Fitzmier, American Academy of Religion (GA) Michael Frandsen, Albion College (MI) Christopher L. Holoman, Hilbert College (NY) Joseph Jones, North Park University (IL) Dan Lawson, Ashland University (OH) Benjamin C. Leslie, Gardner-Webb University (NC) Christine Pharr, College of Saint Mary (NE) Elfred Anthony Pinkard, Johnson C. Smith University (NC) Carolyn J. Stefanco, Agnes Scott College (GA) W. Richard Stephens, Catawba College (NC) Donald B. Taylor, Benedictine University (IL) Beth Triplett, Clarke University (IA) Jann Weitzel, Lindenwood University (MO) * * * The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of 640 nonprofit independent colleges and universities and 90 higher education organizations that has worked since 1956 to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of private higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on providing services to leaders of independent colleges and universities as well as conferences, seminars, and other programs that help institutions to improve the quality of education, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility. CIC, headquartered in Washington, D.C. also provides support to state fundraising associations that organize programs and generate contributions for private colleges and universities.
The family of Marvin A. “Skeeter” and Ann Francis has established a scholarship at Catawba College. Although Ann Francis and her late husband, Marvin, never attended Catawba, their son, Marvin A. Francis, Jr. did, and is an alumnus from Catawba’s class of 1979. In a nod to the late Marvin Francis’ longtime affiliation with the ACC, preference for this scholarship will be given to a member of the men’s basketball team. Francis’ association with the ACC began as a sportswriter, and ultimately, assistant sports editor of the “Durham Morning Herald” covering the inaugural ACC Tournament in 1954. A 1946 graduate of Wake Forest College and a seven-year veteran of the Armed Forces, Francis was the first director of the ACC Basketball Tournament, which established standard that have been adopted by other conferences as well as the NCAA. Francis, a Durham native, was employed for 15 years at Wake Forest as director of sports publicity, beginning in 1955. He left Wake Forest in 1969 to work as service bureau director and assistant commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference for 22 years until his retirement in 1990. He died in 2004 at age 82. A past president of the College Sports Information Director of America (CoSIDA), the late Marvin Francis was an inductee of the USBWA Hall of Fame as well as the Helms Hall of Fame for Sports Information Directors. The Atlantic Coast Conference Sports Media Association began the annual Marvin “Skeeter” Francis award in 1990 to recognize individuals for distinguished service to the ACC. In 1995, he was inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame. Ann Francis survives her husband and makes her home in Winston-Salem. She was the head secretary for the Wake Forest University Department of Religion for 29 years, retiring in 1992. She was active in the Wake Forest Baptist Church and in the Winston-Salem community. “This is a wonderful way for Marvin Francis, Jr. and his wife, Elaine, to pay tribute to Marvin’s parents,” explained Catawba Senior Vice President Tom Childress. “Skeeter Francis is a legend in the ACC and through his own fine example he helped elevate the roles of Sports Information Directors at colleges and universities across the country. His wife, Ann, was always supportive of his professional pursuits. Between the two of them, they have set wonderful examples to their son and to the larger community of how to live a full and rich life.” “As the manager for Sam Moir’s Basketball teams during my years at Catawba as well as my longtime friendship with current basketball coach Jim Baker, Catawba Basketball has a special place in my heart. My parents were a great influence on my life and through their support, my decision to attend Catawba was a life-changing experience,” explained Marvin A. Francis, Jr. Marvin A. Francis, Jr. is employed as athletic director and a physical education teacher at Meadowlark Middle School in Winston-Salem. His wife, Elaine, also works at Meadowlark Middle as a learning disabilities teacher and the EC case manager.
Work in Nicaragua as part of the honors program
Photo by Joe Poston

SALISBURY - Catawba College announced two new scholarships named for some familiar faces; and there are new requirements for students who wish to graduate with honors.

Check out each picture for detailed description.

 

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