Anita Charles, senior lecturer in education and director of secondary teacher education at �ֲ���ý, likes to illustrate a key concept in education by holding one hand 6 inches above the other, representing the potential of teaching and learning.

Above her hands, the material is too hard: A student might feel overwhelmed. Below is too easy, leading to boredom and complacency. In between her hands is what psychologists and education professionals call the “zone of proximal development,” a complex and fluid space for growth.��

As the coronavirus pandemic upends every aspect of life, and presents unique challenges to students, teachers, and parents, Charles reminds us that the zone of proximal development — the ability to learn something meaningful — exists outside the traditional classroom.

Senior Lecturer in Education Anita Charles teaches a course in 2018. Also the director of secondary teacher education at �ֲ���ý, Charles has been worried about the inequalities that remote learning might produce — but she’s confident that teachers can adapt to the new normal. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“If I’m learning new technologies, then I’m stretching myself in the zone of proximal development,” Charles says. “If I’m at home, and I’m working with a child, I may be learning new skills. A child may be learning a new routine that’s unusual to them.

“Teaching and learning don’t stop. We’re redefining them, we’re recalibrating them, we’re picking up and keeping on moving within that zone.”��

Charles has spent the past weeks thinking about that recalibration.��Like many teachers and observers of education, she’s worried about whether and how the services that schools provide, like meals, technology, social interaction, and speech and occupational therapy, translate to a remote environment, particularly for poorer students and those with disabilities. But she’s confident that teachers and families are rising to the challenge.

For teachers and families who are now living that recalibration — making the massive adjustment to remote teaching while caring for themselves and their families — completing traditional coursework is often taking a back seat.

“We’re redefining them, we’re recalibrating them, we’re picking up and keeping on moving.”

That’s okay, Charles says. When school buildings close, teachers should be — and are — focusing more on maintaining connections with their students. “Relationships take priority over academics right now, and I would say that’s true always,” Charles says. “We build the learning on those connections.”

Kylie Martin ’19, a recent graduate of the �ֲ���ý teacher education program, is an English teacher at Maine’s Poland Regional High School. The school is part of a rural Maine district and is confronting many of the challenges facing rural schools across the United States, such as accessing technology. In fact, a portion of one town in the district, Minot, which borders Lewiston-Auburn, still does not have access to high-speed internet.

“As time progresses, the emotional toll” of not going to a physical school deepens, Martin says. She video-chats with students, checking in and reminding them that they are resilient. “I want to see their faces and let them know I’m thinking of them,” she says.��

It’s not a perfect way to meet with her students — many of them don’t like being on camera. Of all things, the social media app TikTok has proven quite effective.��

“I post random bits of my life and self-care tactics I’m doing at home, just to help kids feel connected through social media,” she says. “I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.”

Andrew Jarboe ’05, a high school U.S. history teacher at Match, a pre-K–12 charter school in Boston, is also focusing on connections. Before the pandemic, he had plenty of face-to-face time with his students, including bringing some of them to a debate workshop at �ֲ���ý. The challenges that some of his students have always faced are now exponentially greater.

Kylie Martin ’19, a first-year teacher at Poland (Maine) Regional High School, says that sharing “random bits of my life” — such as teaching from her home deck — with her students on social media has helped keep her connected to her students, and they with her. (Courtesy Kylie Martin).

Some have family members with COVID-19. Some are working to support the family or taking care of younger siblings.��

“It must be especially challenging for the child who is trying to figure out how to learn remotely while also juggling poverty, or sickness, or hunger, or childcare,” he says.��

Jarboe says that the first week after the school building closed its doors, the faculty rushed to establish contact virtually with students and families, making sure they were ready for the new learning environment and handing out Chromebooks if they needed them.��

“Academics were secondary to connecting with kids, and rightly so,” he says.����

Prioritizing relationships and connections doesn’t mean students can’t focus on traditional learning, Charles says. In fact, working on subjects like math and reading every day might offer students and parents a sense of structure and consistency.��

“It must be especially challenging for the child who is trying to figure out how to learn remotely while also juggling poverty, or sickness, or hunger, or childcare.”

“There’s some truth to the position that we should not be putting pressure on kids to be doing academic learning,” Charles says, “but there’s a lot of value to continuing with what we perceive is classwork. It provides some routine. To sit down with a math worksheet is within kids’ control.”��

Sunny Hong ’16 is a Spanish teacher at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, a magnet residential high school in Limestone. When the students went home and remote classes began, Hong quickly realized that certain practices — like asking students to do an assignment in an hour, when they have wildly different internet connections — were not going to work anymore.

Instead, she’s been trying to get her students to learn as much Spanish as they can while enjoying themselves. She’s having them listen to music, watch movies, play games, and learn about the histories of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. If they learn some vocabulary and grammar along the way, all the better.��

“I’m not worrying a whole lot about covering everything they’re supposed to cover this year,” Hong says. “We’re all beyond that point. It’s about, how can they get the most out of this experience?”��

Through trial and error, Jarboe and his colleagues at Match devised a system of remote learning using what have become ubiquitous terms in education: synchronous, or live, lessons; and asynchronous learning, using learning materials students can access anytime.��

Jarboe’s students, regardless of Advanced Placement or honors level, all have the opportunity to meet with him through Zoom in the mornings; most don’t or can’t.��

Otherwise, “I’ve done away with any sort of day-to-day updates or assignments,” he says. “Kids can access our Google Classroom where they will find that week’s work. They can complete the work whenever they want, and so long as it is turned in by the end of the week, I’ll be satisfied.

“The truth is, even if the work isn’t turned in on time and arrives in my inbox much later, that’s OK.”��

Andrew Jarboe ’05, a high school teacher at Match in Boston, takes notes during a January 2019 debate workshop at �ֲ���ý, which Jarboe and the Brooks Quimby Debate Council set up for Match students. (Grace Link ’19/�ֲ���ý College)

Students and parents shouldn’t put pressure on themselves to follow routines to the letter, Charles says.��

“Do some reading and writing and math and then something fun, something creative,” Charles says. “Make Play-Doh. Plant some plants. Bake cookies. Find pockets of joy, and let those balance some of the frustrations and worries. Don’t be so stuck in routines that you get frustrated when they don’t get met.”��

Both because of her district’s instructions and her own desire to provide as much leeway as possible, Kylie Martin has been giving her students two assignments a week on a pass/fail basis.��

“Do some reading and writing and math and then something fun, something creative.”

“I’m passing students who make an honest effort to attempt the assignment, considering that many of them have so many barriers to remote learning,” she says. “I’m also emphasizing that they are resilient, and what resilience looks like during the pandemic: communicating with others about feelings, self-care, and giving the best effort to academics with what you have.”��

Balancing classwork and serene moments is good for teachers, too, particularly those who are still students themselves.

Anita Charles is working with seven �ֲ���ý seniors in the college’s teacher education program whose student-teaching placements have abruptly come to an end.��

In lieu of being in the classroom, the students are observing videos of past classroom lessons, developing lesson plans, and welcoming “guests” to their Zoom classes, including Martin and Hong.��

Because of Charles’ guidance, the students’ own work, and the Maine Department of Education’s flexibility, these students will still graduate from the program and be eligible for teacher certification. Charles thinks they might even have an advantage.��

 

“I’ve been reminding them they’re going to be out there looking for jobs, and this draws on creativity, innovation, reflection, and problem solving,” she says. “They’re going to have some skills that employers will be looking for because they have gone through this.”��

At every step, Charles says, teachers, students, and parents should do the same as everyone else whose lives have been disrupted: acknowledge what they’ve been able to achieve in trying circumstances, and cut themselves some slack when they need to.��

“Teachers are doing extraordinary work right now,” she says. “The teachers that I know are truly missing their classrooms and their schoolchildren and are doing the very best they can to stay connected. Some are making personalized calls. Some are waving at kids from cars.”��

At the same time, she says, “we need to be gentle on ourselves. We can’t do everything. We need to take small steps. Pay attention. Keep learning.”��

�ֲ���ý Football

How to tackle concussions? High schools get helmets with sensors — Portland Press Herald

Mike Lowe of the Portland Press Herald includes �ֲ���ý in a story about Maine schools outfitting football players with high-tech helmets that use sensors to record the location and intensity of blows to the head so coaches can monitor for concussions and teach players to tackle more safely.

Most �ֲ���ý players use the new SpeedFlex Insite helmets. “It’s helping us look at what we’re doing, how can we coach our players better,” said Nick Cooke, assistant athletic director of athletics for athletic performance.

Also in on the action is Howard Vandersea ’63, founder and president of the Maine chapter of the National Football Foundation, whose $2,000 grant helped Saco’s Thornton Academy buy new helmets.

Vandersea said it’s what the organization is looking for when it provides grants. “If it’s going to help young kids and make (football) safer,” he said, “that’s what we’re going to do.”

Read the story:��

• “,” Portland Press Herald, Oct. 20, 2019

Elizabeth Strout ’77

Elizabeth Strout’s view from the top — WNYC

Accompanied by WNYC’s New York Radio Hour reporter KalaLea, Elizabeth Strout ’77 returned to campus over the summer and climbed Mount David for the first time since senior year.

Strout grew up in small-town Maine and New Hampshire, and she was fascinated by the view of Lewiston that Mount David offered. “I just loved to see that array of buildings that meant there were people down there,” she told Lea. “It was my first city.”

Her experiences at �ֲ���ý and in Lewiston “enormously informed,” her work, she said. Reading Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, in Jim Hepburn’s course taught her how to write with a sense of place, while plays read in Martin Andrucki’s theater courses showed her dialogue.

“I learned a lot about dialogue reading those plays — Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, just reading and reading plays,” she said.

“But the experiences I had in town also informed my work,” she added. “When I was working as a waitress, I was working with people from Lewiston. They weren’t from �ֲ���ý. I waitressed at the first disco. That was amazing.”

Listen to the story:

• “,” WNYC, Oct. 4, 2019

Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920

The late Rep. Elijah Cumming’s favorite poem linked to Benjamin Mays — multiple outlets

Following the�� Oct. 17 death of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a few news outlets recalled Cummings’ first speech on the floor of the House, in 1996, when he recited a favorite poem that has long been associated with Benjamin Mays, �ֲ���ý Class of 1920.

Benjamin Mays ’20, photographed in 1980 when he returned to �ֲ���ý for his 60th Reunion. (Jim Daniels)

Known as “God’s Minute,” the anonymous poem has a carpe diem theme:

I only have a moment
Only 60 seconds in it
Forced upon me
Can’t refuse it
Didn’t seek it
Didn’t choose it
But it’s up to me to use it
I must suffer if I lose it
Give account if I abuse it

Read the stories:��

• “,” Inc., Oct. 18, 2019��
• “” Oct. 17, 2019

Deshun Peoples ’17

Student lands place at top art college thanks to nine months training in China — Encounters in China

Deshun Peoples ’17 was featured on the YouTube channel China Icons in a film exploring the relationship between Peoples and Jiang Xingda, a ceramicist in Jingdezhen, the “capital of Chinese porcelain,” during the year that Peoples spent in China on a Fulbright U.S. Student award.

Peoples and Jiang met in 2016, when Peoples, himself an accomplished ceramicist on a study-abroad program in Jingdezhen. When Peoples returned to the city the next year for his Fulbright year, Jiang agreed to teach him what he knew about color and patterns in pottery, in exchange for English lessons.

“I learned a lot about culture,” Peoples said of his time with Jiang. “I learned a lot about friendship and about engagement with people. I can’t imagine my experience in Jingdezhen without him.”

Tessica Glancey Crampton ’12 and Robert Crampton ’13

Philadelphia weddings: Tessica Glancey and Robert Crampton — The Philadelphia Inquirer

Kellie Patrick Gates of The Philadelphia Inquirer told the �ֲ���ý backstory of Tessica Glancey Crampton ’12 and Robert Crampton ’13, who got married on Aug. 30 in Philadelphia.

The two met in a seminar on American political development and went on their first date at the Blue Goose, a popular bar among students. “Walking home, I realized I was completely smitten already,” Tess said.

Tess Glancey ’12 and Rob Crampton ’13 pose with �ֲ���ý friends at their wedding reception on Aug. 30, 2019 in Philadelphia.

During the wedding festivities, Tess, a media relations manager at Fox News, and Rob, who is earning an MBA from Dartmouth, took time to get a picture with the traditional �ֲ���ý banner.

Read the story:��

• “,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 10, 2019��

Adriana Salerno

Episode 46: “Adriana Salerno” — My Favorite Theorem

Math podcast My Favorite Theorem featured Associate Professor of Mathematics Adriana Salerno, who is a big fan of Cantor’s diagonal argument, which states that “real numbers do not have the same cardinality as the natural numbers.”

The theorem has to do with counting the number of numbers. There are infinitely many integers, such as one, two, three, and so on. There are also infinitely many rational numbers, like one-half and three-eighths — and mathematicians say those types of numbers reach the same infinity (trust us on this one).

Associate Professor of Mathematics Adriana Salerno. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

But according to Cantor’s argument, there are infinitely many real numbers, like pi and the square root of four, but the infinity that those numbers reach is a different infinity than the infinity of the infinitely many rational numbers and integers.

“This theorem shows without a doubt — although some students still doubt me — that there are different sizes of infinity,” Salerno said. “It’s a very lovely succession of ideas.”

Listen to the podcast:��

• My Favorite Theorem, Sept. 11, 2019��

Michael Morgan ’22

Michael Morgan continues to build on his creative legacy — The Gleaner

Keisha Hill of Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner profiled Michael Morgan ’22. A double major in politics and rhetoric from Kingston, Morgan has made waves as an artist and climate change activist.

Interested in international relations with an eye toward communications and outreach, Morgan completed a summer 2019 internship at the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network–Youth Initiative.

He returned to the UN on Sept. 21 to represent Jamaica at the United Nations Youth Climate Summit, attending meetings with world leaders and doing interviews with international media.

Michael Morgan poses on the Historic Quad before attending the United Nations Youth Climate Summit in September 2019. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

On the artistic side, Morgan is a graphic designer for student clubs and the lead painter on a mural at the Center for Global Education. At �ֲ���ý, “I got the chance to expand my thinking on topics such as politics, the arts, and the environment,” Morgan said.

Compared with his earlier schooling, “there was less rigidity surrounding grades and competitiveness and more time given to building a rounded individual keen on exploring their passion for a greater purpose.”

Read the story:��

• “,” The Gleaner, Sept. 20, 2019��

Carine Warsawski ’07

Jewish summer camp with campfires, crafts, and no lights out — The New York Times

For The New York Times, Rachel Levin wrote about her weekend attending a summer camp for Jewish adults in California’s Simi Valley. Trybal Gatherings, founded by Carine Warsawski ’07, organizes the popular retreats in three locations.

Levin described a weekend of archery, horseback riding, kosher mess halls, an “Abe Weissman workout,” and challah making. The experience is rooted in “the shared nostalgia of a Jewish-American rite of passage,” Levin wrote.

“There is something easy and assuring about spending a summer weekend like I used to: with my people,” she added.

Read the story:��

• “,” The New York Times, Sept. 22, 2019��

Anita Charles

Relationship-based practices for today’s students — Heinemann Publishing

On the blog of educational publisher Heinemann, Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of Secondary Teacher Education Anita Charles wrote about how teachers can build relationships with students in an increasingly diverse and technologically connected world.

Anita Charles teaches a course on basic concepts in special education in March 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Instead of expecting students to adhere to “white, middle-class, able-bodied, English-speaking, cisgender” norms, Charles encouraged teachers to learn about the cultural backgrounds of each student and advocated for a variety of practices, including culturally responsive and trauma-informed teaching and restorative justice.

Overall, Charles argued that teachers should not think of students who differ from a particular norm as less-than. “A strength-based lens allows us to see every child as valuable to the classroom as a whole,” she wrote.

Read the story:��

• “,” Heinemann Publishing, Oct. 11, 2019

Hannah Morris ’96

Art review: “Waiting to Happen: Hannah Morris” — Seven Days

Vermont alt-weekly Seven Days editor Pamela Polston reviewed “Waiting to Happen,” a solo exhibition of gouache-and-collage works by Hannah Morris ’96.

Morris’ works evoke “the magical realism we remember from children’s books,” Polston wrote, as well as elements of the far-flung locales where Morris has lived. She “asks viewers to accept that the ground we walk on can be salmon-pink; that figures can appear in both color and black-and-white in the same scene; that dimensionality doesn’t have to play by the rules,” Polston added.

Read the review:��

• “,” Seven Days, Sept. 25, 2019��

Justine Wiesinger

New climate change comedy uses laughs to tackle tough questions — WUNC

Frank Stasio of North Carolina public radio station WUNC spoke with Assistant Professor of Japanese Justine Wiesinger about her new play, Waters Rise, which premiered this month at the Women’s Theater Festival in Durham, N.C.

The play is set in a world where there is massive flooding, with government inaction and misinformation and little insight into the future. It’s a comedy.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Justine Wiesinger (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Wiesinger, who spent time in Tokyo just after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, focuses her research on the theater and film that emerged from the disasters.

The play explores individual people’s complicity in climate change. “It’s painful to ask ourselves in different ways how we are contributing, what we are doing to change the situation, and if our strategies are at all effective,” Wiesinger told Stasio.

Listen to the story:��

• “,” WUNC, Oct. 9, 2019��

Kelli Armstrong ’86

Dr. Kelli Armstrong inaugurated as president of Salve Regina University — Rhode Island Catholic

Brian Fraga of Rhode Island Catholic covered the inauguration in September of Salve Regina University’s new president, Kelli Armstrong ’86, who brings to the university a long career in higher education, including as vice president for planning and assessment at Boston College.

Armstrong has been serving as president since July, but the university officially marked her inauguration with a Mass, a ceremony, a barbecue, and an inaugural ball.

“I’m humbled and honored to serve at such an exceptional institution,” Armstrong said. “What sets Salve apart from other universities is that in the great tradition of a mercy education, we help our students become their best selves and make a difference in the world.”

Read the story:��

• “” — Rhode Island Catholic, Sept. 26, 2019��

�ֲ���ý has announced four faculty promotions, including tenure awards, effective Aug. 1 for the 2019–20 academic year.

Travis Gould, physics, and Michael Rocque, sociology, were promoted from assistant to associate professor and were granted tenure. Krista Aronson, psychology, was promoted from associate to full professor. Anita Charles, education, was promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer.

The promotions were recommended by the faculty’s Committee on Personnel and approved by the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees.

“Their extraordinary talents are emblematic of the across-the-board excellence of the �ֲ���ý faculty.”

“The faculty whose promotions we are celebrating this year, in physics, sociology, education, and psychology, are not only leading scholars, but also, through their teaching, guides who lead our students and our community to engage with important ideas,” said Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

“Their extraordinary talents are emblematic of the across-the-board excellence of the �ֲ���ý faculty.”

Meet the four newly promoted faculty members, learn their research fields, and discover why they teach.

Associate Professor of Physics Travis Gould

Assistant Professor of Physics Travis Gould (center) works students during his Short Term course “Microcontroller Laboratory” in 2015. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2013

Doctoral institution: University of Maine, Orono

Fields of research: Adaptive optics, development and application of fluorescence microscopy techniques, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, fluorescence nanoscopy, image processing, light-sheet microscopy, STED microscopy, super-resolution microscopy

Why I teach: Having been primarily a researcher before coming to �ֲ���ý, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that teaching has been such a rewarding experience. It has also been an opportunity for me to learn — as I’m trying to work concepts out for myself, I’m sharing the thought process with the students, making connections between technologies and the physics behind them. The students and I have been able to go through the process of figuring it out together.

Our students really get into the material and many of them want to apply it in a research setting. It’s been really nice to see that excitement, and to have students come from classes into my lab to do summer research, senior thesis, or independent study.

Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque

Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque is also the faculty liaison to the Bobcat football team. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2014

Doctoral institution: Northeastern University

Fields of research: Biosocial crime prevention, corrections, criminology theory, desistance from crime, life-course criminology, race and crime, race and school discipline, risk assessment in corrections, survey research

Why I teach: I feel like I am among the luckiest people in the world to be able to call �ֲ���ý College my professional home. It is an institution that truly values educating the whole person and allows us as professors to do that in innovative and creative ways.

As professors, we get to witness and play a small part in the development of young people as they make their way from their teens into adulthood, becoming the people they will be for the rest of their lives. It is an honor to be able to do this for a living.

Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson

Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson reviews picture books during a Short Term course trip to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2003

Doctoral institution: University of Michigan

Fields of research: Digital humanities, multicultural children’s literature, intercultural competence, racial and ethnic identity development, acculturation, immigration, psychometric assessment

Why I teach: I love my job because I get to engage amazing students in meaningful work designed to affect contemporary social problems — every day.

Whether it’s in the classroom, in the library, at school, or online through the Diverse BookFinder, I love working with �ֲ���ý students to bring theory and research into practice. This is my passion.

Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of Secondary Teacher Education Anita Charles

Senior Lecturer in Education Anita Charles teaches a course on topics in special education in 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2004

Doctoral institution: University of New Hampshire

Fields of research: Early and adolescent literacy, public education reform, special education, teacher education

Why I teach: I come from a long line of educators — my passion for teaching is literally in my blood! After years of teaching in K–12 venues, I now teach future educators at �ֲ���ý who aim to make the world a better place for all children and youth. I hope to cultivate in my students a love of learning and teaching in relationship with young people in the community and beyond.

I believe that the work I do encourages transformative reflection and engagement, rigorous ideological exploration tied to practical civic action, and a commitment to social justice within educational institutions.

Education is the linchpin of democracy; the courses I teach in literacy, special education, and teacher education aim to disrupt hegemonies and assumptions around systemic power structures and around concepts of ability and possibility. My hope is that students leave my courses with at least as many questions as answers.

Anita Charles

�ֲ���ý education expert talks about ‘screen time’ with Diane Sawyer for TV special — Sun Journal

A two-hour ABC News special looking at Americans’ relationships with screens included an interview with Lecturer in Education Anita Charles, who has studied the effects of cellphones on classrooms.

The special, ScreenTime, aired May 3.

Anita Charles teaches a course on basic concepts in special education in March 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Speaking to the Lewiston Sun Journal about the interview, Charles said, “We need to just be mindful and aware. We are trying to figure out things together.”

What’s more important than setting hard limits on screen time is that parents, schools, and communities provide a sense of balance and listen to their kids.

“Professor Charles says we know American kids are very resilient,” Diane Sawyer narrated. “It’s possible they’ll teach us about balancing life in the future.”

• Read the Sun Journal report: “

Matt Bazirgan ’00

Triton alum Matt Bazirgan climbing front office ranks with Houston Texans — The Daily News

Mac Cerullo of The Daily News in Newburyport, Mass., profiled Matt Bazirgan ’00, who as director of player personnel for the Houston Texans ran the team’s scouting ahead of the NFL draft.

In the recent draft, Bazirgan looked not only for talent to improve certain aspects of the Texans’ game, but for people who would fit well among the players already on the team.

“I think it’s always a match for your team,” he told Cerullo. “There’s always intriguing guys on the board that you may have been really excited about watching on tape, but it’s like OK, with our current roster if we draft this guy and put a high-end asset for a second- or third-round pick, but it’s a luxury, how are you helping the locker room? How are you helping the current team?”

• Read the story: “,”��The Daily News, May 8, 2019

Sarah Rothmann ’19

Balancing act: Andover’s Rothmann finds it at �ֲ���ý — The Eagle Tribune

Sarah Rothmann ’19 of Andover, Mass., was profiled by The Eagle Tribune, which chronicled the athlete, educator, and journalist’s personal and athletic journey through �ֲ���ý.

Rothmann, a standout high school runner, arrived at �ֲ���ý shortly after the death of her father, and as a result considered quitting cross country and track. Over the next several years, however, she learned to focus less on times and more on health, teamwork, and relationships.

On the 2018 Great Day to Be a Bobcat broadcast, Sarah Rothmann ’19 talks to Assistant Sports Information Director Aaron Morse about her work on The �ֲ���ý Student. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

“I realized that I had to be more balanced in my life, that there is more to it than running and I had to take advantage of the opportunities I had at �ֲ���ý,” she told reporter Dave Dyer.

Rothmann majored in English and became sports editor and then editor-in-chief of The �ֲ���ý Student. Next year, she’s off to the Czech Republic on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant.

• Read the story: “

�ֲ���ý rowing

�ֲ���ý hosts, wins Presidents Cup Regatta — Sun Journal

Photographer Andree Kehn of the Lewiston Sun Journal documented the President’s Cup, an annual �ֲ���ý-hosted regatta that saw competition from Bowdoin, Colby, and the University of Maine.

�ֲ���ý won the regatta handily, with the women’s rowing team winning all six of its races and the men winning four.

• Read the story: “,” Sun Journal, April 28, 2019

Chomba Kaluba ’11

Experiencing Difference panel comes to SMCC — News Center Maine, WCSH-TV

The local NBC affiliate’s News Center Maine covered Experiencing Difference, a panel and discussion at Southern Maine Community College created by Chomba Kaluba ’11 that encourages people to talk frankly about their differences.

“When people are different, sometimes people have the discomfort, sometimes people have fear — but I look at the positive aspect of that,” Kaluba said. “How can we look at the positives in each one of us? How can we look at the good in each one of us?”

• Read the story: “,” News Center Maine, April 5, 2019

Daniel Hoffman ’85

Daniel Hoffman swaps foreign intelligence for elite-level swimming gig — WashingtonExec

Rachel Kirkland of WashingtonExec reported that Daniel Hoffman ’85, who recently retired after 30 years in the intelligence community, is giving back to a mainstay of his college career and life beyond: swimming.

He’s now a senior adviser for the International Swimming League, comprising swim teams from the United States and several European countries. A swimmer at �ֲ���ý and a coach for many years afterward, he wants to raise the profile of elite swimming between Olympics.

“There is a supply of elite swimmers who frankly aren’t receiving any of the financial compensation that they should be receiving because there aren’t opportunities to continue swimming during those four years (between Olympics) unless you’re in a college program,” he told Kirkland.

• Read the story: “,” WashingtonExec, April 15, 2019

Robin Leventhal ’88

In her Walla Walla pottery studio, chef Robin Leventhal connects food and art — Pacific NW Magazine

Providence Cicero of Pacific NW Magazine profiled Robin Leventhal ’88, an artist and chef who rose to the top of Seattle’s restaurant scene before making her way to Walla Walla, Wash.

Leventhal studied art at �ֲ���ý but developed an interest in cooking. She opened a respected restaurant on Capitol Hill and even competed on Top Chef, but health and other issues forced her to close the restaurant.

Robin Leventhal ’88 combined her talent for food and art by creating ceramic oyster plates. (Courtesy of Robin Leventhal)

Leventhal found a culinary school job — and, she told Cicero, contentment — in Walla Walla. In addition to cooking, she maintains a ceramics studio, creating, among other, things a line of oyster plates.

Both pottery and cooking, Leventhal said, are “craft-driven. It’s mastering a craft, then elevating it.”

• Read the story: “,” Pacific NW Magazine, April 30, 2019

Bill Sweat ’79

Oregon’s ‘Pinot in the City’ comes to Boston — Boston Herald

When “Pinot in the City” comes to Boston, the touring display of pinot noir wines from Oregon’s Willamette Valley will include two produced by Bill Sweat ’79 and his wife, Donna Morris.

Sweat told Boston Herald reporter Jim Campanini that he and Morris were working in financial services in Boston when their adventures in the city’s burgeoning restaurant scene inspired them to open a winery in Oregon. The pinot makers travel together to introduce laypeople to Oregon wine.

“The collegiality and collaboration of winery owners is incredible,” Sweat said. “We realize that if a Willamette Valley wine achieves success, we can all benefit from it.”

• Read the story: “,” Boston Herald, April 24, 2019

Kate Allen ’99

In ‘The Line Tender,’ great white sharks make great reading for the younger set — Pioneer Press

Mary Ann Grossman of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press interviewed Kate Allen ’99 about her debut young adult novel, The Line Tender.

Inspired by the sight of a great white shark Allen saw as a teenager, The Line Tender tells the story of a young girl who, in the midst of grief, must become a metaphorical “line tender,” holding the line that guides her loved ones through murky waters.

Allen told Grossman she hopes the book will help young people understand that “difficult things are going to happen in life. Hard, hard times are inevitable.

“The power of the story is that we can adjust, adapt, find a way to move forward.”

• Read the story: “” Pioneer Press, April 28, 2019

Ru Freeman ’94

As Sri Lanka Goes So Goes the World — Literary Hub

In the wake of the devastating Easter Sunday bombings across Sri Lanka, writer and journalist Ru Freeman ’94 and her daughters, Duranya and Hasadri, wrote about their reactions to the terrorist attacks and their Sri Lankan heritage for Literary Hub.

Ru Freeman argued that the violence was not a local problem, but a global one. The world’s response, she said, must be one of solidarity — using as a model the Sri Lankans of all religions who supported each other after the attacks.

“As we consider these attacks, we must dwell on the potential for darkness among us,” Freeman wrote. “It is not something that can be addressed piecemeal, by governments but collectively, as global citizens.”

• Read the story: “,” Literary Hub, April 28, 2019

Arin Arbus ’99

Arin Arbus makes Broadway debut directing revival of ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ — WAMC

Director Arin Arbus ’99 spoke with Sarah LaDuke of Albany, N.Y., public radio station WAMC about the first play she’s directing on Broadway, a revival of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

Arin Arbus ’99 poses in Times Square during a 2010 �ֲ���ý photo shoot. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Arbus is a longtime off-Broadway director who has worked on the Campfire Project, which staged a theater production at a refugee camp in Greece.

She is currently a resident artist at the nonprofit company Theater for New Audience, which produces Shakespeare and other classic plays. That’s how she met playwright McNally, who asked her to direct the two-character Frankie and Johnny.

Arbus sees many parallels between Frankie and Johnny and Shakespeare’s characters. “The territory is existential,” she told LaDuke. “There are these two middle-aged, world-weary, isolated souls who, in Frankie’s case, no longer believes that her dreams are possible, that she is [never] going to have a serious relationship with a man, who’s at a loss for what has meaning in her life.”

Read the story: “,’” WAMC, May 1, 2019

How colleges help students find purpose in their work — The Chronicle of Higher Education

In a major feature story, explores the value of the college’s signature Purposeful Work initiative.

Now beginning its fifth year of implementation, Purposeful Work helps students “clarify the connections between classroom and career, and to prepare students for lives of meaningful work,” writes Kelly Field of the Chronicle, the leading source of academic news in the U.S.

Purposeful Work stands apart, says Field, for how it “blends the philosophical and the pragmatic.”

Purposeful Work is particularly valuable because it helps to “increase graduates’ confidence that they can succeed in an increasingly technical work force, and to dispel parents’ and policy makers’ doubts about the returns on an expensive liberal-arts degree.”

While many colleges are launching similar programs, Purposeful Work stands apart, says Field, for how it “blends the philosophical and the pragmatic, offering students both concrete skills and an overarching theory of work: namely, that it ought to have both personal meaning and societal relevance.”

Purposeful Work interns in summer 2018, Isabella Del Priore ’19 and Emily Lufburrow ’19 pose outside the Sidney Kimmel Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Portland, Maine, is the 2018 Restaurant City of the Year — Bon Appetit

Andrew Knowlton ’97, Bon Appetit’s longtime restaurant editor and now editor at large, , citing the city’s many new openings and the variety of offerings, from “an Instagram-worthy lobster roll and a dozen local oysters” to “the killer pho spot or the guy selling hand rolls out of a Yeti cooler.”

Knowlton brings some subjectivity to the selection. “I’ve got a thing for Maine,” he wrote. “I went to college there, I got married there, I regularly vacation there.” But Portland was not picked just out of “blind favoritism,” he explains, offering a long list of restaurants as evidence.

Among the spots mentioned are ��ܲ���’s, one of three eateries co-owned by award-winning chef Andrew Taylor ’03, and Allagash Brewing Company, whose brewmaster is Knowlton’s classmate Jason Perkins.

‘Strangers’ creator Mia Lidofsky breaks the mold with queer female narrative — Huffington Post

As the second season of Strangers wrapped, director and producer Mia Lidofsky ’09 talked to about how her own life has inspired the Facebook Watch show and the importance of narratives created by and featuring queer people.

Strangers follows a bisexual woman and her lesbian best friend, a “self-discovery tale against the backdrop of Airbnb,” Wong wrote.

Lidofsky, who worked on the shows Girls and Nurse Jackie as an assistant to director Jesse Peretz, told Wong she wanted to make women feel “feel more seen, more heard and less alone.”

“I wanted to show queer women in a positive light, and show their hilarity, their beauty and their charisma,” she said. “The more depictions of queer people onscreen by queer people, the better.”

How Matt Golden started a lunchtime mentorship program in Maine that is reaching New Bedford — SouthCoastToday

Brendan Kurie of the New Bedford Standard-Times profiled Matt Golden ’20, who at Lewiston Middle School.

A sociology major and football player, Golden and fellow �ֲ���ý students make regular visits to LMS, where they hang out with students and, importantly, give them a chance to see what it’s like to be a college student.

Matt Golden ’20 of New Bedford, Mass., carries the ball during a 2016 game against Hamilton College. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

“Students talking to other students is a big thing,” Lewiston Middle School administrator Billie Jo Brito told Kurie.

“It’s so hard for middle school students, many times, to get out of their own way. To be encouraged by a college student and hear about their middle school days and have that fresh face is such a positive thing for them.”

Golden got support from the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships, but “this was his initiative,” said Martha Deschaines ’75 of the Harward Center. “He’s so enthusiastic and dedicated to this program and helping youth to move forward.”

Women to Watch: Clayton Spencer, �ֲ���ý College — Mainebiz

Mainebiz named �ֲ���ý President ” in 2018. In a profile, editor Peter Van Allen outlined Spencer’s path from law to higher education, her leadership of the $300 million �ֲ���ý Campaign, and her drive to prepare students for meaningful careers through the Purposeful Work initiative.

�ֲ���ý President Clayton Spencer speaks during Convocation on Sept. 4. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“Most students realize they’re not da Vinci or Yo-Yo Ma,” Spencer said. “They worry they don’t have a passion. But finding your passion is a trap. You have to try things.”

“Work can be for pay or not,” she added. “But it has to be purposeful work.”

Here’s why we need to democratize artificial intelligence — Forbes

In an , Sameer Maskey ’02 says the world needs a lot more artificial intelligence professionals than it currently has.

The founder and CEO of Fusemachines, a Manhattan-based AI services and education firm, Maskey argues that students from developing countries should fill the gap — they’re as curious and qualified as Ivy League grads, and “someone who experiences complex problems in his/her own country could be more suited to try and solve those problems with AI.”

Kristyma Alexova ’19 and Sameer Maskey ’02 speaks with Kristyna Alexova ’19 during Alexova’s Purposeful Work internship at Fusemachines, Maskey’s AI company. (Nick Romanenko for �ֲ���ý College)

Maskey, a member of the Forbes Technology Council, which comprises world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives, recently started a fellowship program to teach machine learning to students in the Dominican Republic, New York City, Rwanda, and Maskey’s native Nepal.

“If we want everyone to benefit from the development of AI, and not just a few select countries, we need to make AI equally accessible around the world,” Maskey says.

David Bowie welcomes Lewiston High students back for the 51st time — Sun Journal

Bonnie Washuk of the , who has been teaching Lewiston High School students and coaching fellow teachers for 51 years.

David Bowie poses in the hall by the door of his office at Lewiston High School, where he has taught for 51 years. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Bowie has witnessed dramatic changes over his five decades in the classroom. Standardized testing became more important, technology progressed — Bowie was one of the first to learn to use computers — and the student population became far more diverse.

Now some of his former students are teachers at the high school, and he sees people he taught at LHS in town. “I usually run into somebody I had in a class, which makes it kind of fun,” Bowie told Washuk.

McCain’s straight talk impressed those on the North Shore — The Salem News

Ethan Forman of The Salem News on the Aug. 25 death of U.S. Senator John McCain.

Pangallo, now chief of staff for the mayor of Salem, was a �ֲ���ý student in 2000 when he worked in New Hampshire for McCain’s first presidential campaign. He wrote that though McCain was the only Republican he ever voted for, he admired the senator’s stance on campaign finance reform, as well as his relationship with the press and, later, his position on climate change and his vote against the repeal of Obamacare.

“Tonight, I’m remembering those cold and snowy nights across countless small Granite State towns, running lawn signs, holding the rope line, setting up stages, handing out palm cards,” Pangallo wrote of working on the campaign. “The thrill of being in the vanguard of the Straight Talk Express.”

The comeback kids: how a struggling public school made the grade — The Guardian

Amanda Holpuch of The Guardian Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken for a story about the school district in Pike County, Ala., which has many students from poor rural backgrounds.

The district closely watches and tries to support its students, and offers programs that allow students to earn college credits and even associate’s degrees in a variety of fields.

Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken teaches “Community Organizing for Social Justice” in May 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Tieken praised that dual enrollment program, but offered this caution:

“What I worry about is rural kids, particularly rural students of color, being disproportionately tracked into associate’s degrees, so then they are not able to continue on with education, which we know corresponds with higher earnings and all kinds of other benefits.”

GirlsGetMath engages local high school students — The Brown Daily Herald

Brown University’s student newspaper at the university, directed by Associate Professor of Mathematics Katharine Ott, that teaches high school girls about math and computer science.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Katharine Ott. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Ott told reporter Cate Ryan that the program seeks to encourage girls to stay engaged with math and science in high school and college and, ultimately, pursue careers in STEM fields.

“There is clear evidence that even though jobs in STEM are growing very rapidly and they pay better than a lot of other jobs, women are very underrepresented in these careers,” Ott said.

The program, GirlsGetMath@ICERM, was hosted by Brown’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics.

French schools say ‘au revoir’ to smartphones — what if the U.S. dialed up a similar ban? — KPCC-FM

Schools in France instituted a ban this year on cellphones on school grounds. Larry Mantle of Pasadena-based public radio station KPCC how such a policy might translate in the United States, talking with �ֲ���ý’ Anita Charles and the University of Michigan’s Liz Kolb about the effectiveness of cellphone bans.

Anita Charles teaches “Basic Concepts in Special Education” in March 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Charles, lecturer in education and director of secondary teacher education, told Mantle and several callers that outright bans on cellphones are “seldom effective, it’s unenforceable, and it begs for subversion.”

Whether schools and teachers allow cellphones in the classroom or require students to put their phones in a cubby, they have to develop relationships of trust, Charles said.

“We tend to miss the boat if we’re only about the policy,” she said. “We have to also have the conversations. We have to talk to students about why and how and what are we trying to help them do when they put them in that cubby, and what we hope they’ll learn to understand about appropriate contexts.”

Though her school had a rule against using cellphones during class, a teacher allowed a student to use his phone to show her something lesson-related.

Another teacher permitted students to record homework assignments on their phones.

While the public often hears about “no phone” edicts in schools, the reality of cellphone use in schools tends to change from teacher to teacher and even from day to day, says Anita Charles, a lecturer in education at �ֲ���ý who studies literacy and special education and who directs the college’s teacher education program for secondary teacher candidates.

Anita Charles teaches a class in special education. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In fact, says Charles, cellphones get at “the heart of rule-building” in the classroom: The best rules are built on trust and respect, and that respect is a two-way street.

Since 2008, Charles has been part of the scholarly discussion about cellphone use in schools. That year, she observed classrooms and interviewed high school students and English teachers for a paper that was published in the journal American Secondary Education in 2012.

In 2017, she contributed a chapter to Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation, offering insights into technology in the classroom and the nature of trust between students and teachers.

What did you learn from interviewing students and teachers about rules about cellphones and enforceability?

I found that when schools attempted a blanket policy, invariably, it was unenforceable. Teachers and students developed work-arounds.

What I found, without people explicitly stating it, or even knowing that they were doing it, was that managing cellphone use was really about contextualized negotiation, happening classroom by classroom, teacher by teacher, group by group. Overwhelmingly, I found that standards around cellphone use were founded on how students and teachers were building relationships with each other.

Even when teachers said, “I have this rule,” there was always the “but.” “I have this rule, BUT then again there are these times…” or, “Well there was a day when….” Even a teacher who was working in a school which did not allow any of these items in the classroom said, “I’m the teacher they can come to if they need to call their mom or if they need to jot down their homework. I don’t care.” She said, “I just think it’s reasonable to do that.”

Overwhelmingly, the students recognized when teachers were working with them to develop a reasonable policy. When they knew that teachers were developing policies that made sense, they also were much more likely to respect and honor those policies.��

Your initial interviews were a decade ago. How have cellphones and their roles in classrooms changed in the decade since?

Our technology is getting smarter and smarter, more intuitive, more sophisticated, more versatile, and also more prolific. It used to be easy enough to say, “Put away your cellphone,” when the only thing it did was make a phone call or text.

But now, it’s also your calendar, it may be your note-taker, you may be taking a picture of the board to get your homework assignments, it may be recording something you need. And there may be kids with differences or disabilities who prefer using these tools as a way to access schoolwork. Teachers also have their own devices in their hands.

We’re not turning back time, so we have to come up with a sensible way to say, “How do we engage with this in schools, and how do we develop rules?” Not even how do we develop rules, but how do we talk about reasonable guidelines?

What might a reasonable guideline be?

It’s not an all-or-nothing kind of thing. I think we need to have conversations. We can say to kids, “Have you thought about the pros and cons? How does a device work in your own life? How much time are you spending on your devices? What kind of time are you spending on them? What’s happening when you’re feeling that urge to get on it in the classroom?”

Students can articulate reasons, and I think we need to honor that and listen to that. I’d ask the participants in my study, “Are you texting in a classroom?” “Well, I’ll text in English, but not in math.” “Why?” “Well, in math, I have to pay attention more.” Or, “I never text in this particular class, because the teacher engages me, and I want to be learning.”

In my own �ֲ���ý classes, I’ll start by saying that laptops and phones or devices may be used during class at their discretion, for class-related purposes. That gives a fair shot for people to be mature about the way in which they’re using them. It also allows for the fact that there are class-related purposes.

I don’t think we should shut down those processes, and it’s not for me to micromanage them either. I should not have to rotate through the back of the room and say, “Are those notes for this class? Are you enlarging that on your screen because you can’t see?” That’s not my business. I think we need to let go of our control a little bit.

What do you say to �ֲ���ý students studying to be teachers about technology in the classroom?

I do observations with my student teachers who are placed in middle and high schools. One of the things I look for while scanning around the room is if any of those students are on devices.

Quite often, somebody does have one out, and they’re doing something quick with it. I then have a conversation with my student teacher: “Did you see it? What do you think about that? Is this becoming problematic?” I ask, “How are you thinking about this issue in your classroom?”

There’s something in teaching called “with-it-ness” and that can’t really be taught. It can be encouraged, but it can’t be taught. With-it-ness is having eyes in the back of your head, being aware of who has phones out. It’s positioning yourself in the classroom so you can do a scan. I think I’ve seen some pretty reasonable approaches with my student teachers who might say gently, “Put that away now,” or they go nearer to the student, tap on their desk, maybe give a reminder: “If I have to ask again, I’ll need to take it.”

You can’t become a monster in the classroom any more than you can for any other rule-breaking — and there are lots of ways that we can break rules. So what do we do? We gently redirect, we acknowledge it, we help students self-monitor. Self-monitoring is ultimately going to be a lot more successful than top-down monitoring.

It seems that managing cellphone use is more about relationships and trust.

The heart of rule-building in schools is about relationships. I’m not comfortable with someone saying, “What would you come up with for a rule?” We need to ask, “What’s the scenario?” and, “Let me talk with people, and let’s figure out what’s happening.”

In classrooms, we hear a lot about respect: Everyone needs to respect each other. But we don’t really talk about what that looks like or means. We’re all just supposed to know what respect is. Meanwhile, we can say that we believe in respect, but we also say, “Don’t touch your phones because I don’t trust you with them.” My take on that is that our actions certainly speak louder than words. If I say, “Let’s work through what we can all live with in terms of cellphone use in the classrooms,” that relationship helps us negotiate out what’s okay and what isn’t okay.

And if we respect, trust, like, and support each other, then we are engaging in an agreement. We can explicitly articulate some of that agreement. We could even have it up on the walls and all sign off on it. But some of it happens when we engage with each other. When a student asks if they can take a photo of the board so they have the homework assignment, then that might become a new protocol in the classroom. I think that’s a reasonable protocol.

And if someone abuses the trust then you can deal with it as an abuse of trust, not necessarily something specific to cellphones.

Right, just like any situation where somebody abuses trust. If I have a rule about food in the classroom and somebody decides to throw food all over the place, they’ve abused that trust. So we have to renegotiate, or we have to tighten up the reins or say, “Gosh, that really disappoints me.” If we’re in relationships, that sense of disappointment speaks more loudly than a hard and fast rule.

People can abuse any privilege, like driving a car or having a pen or pencil in your hand. We have to work with those cases as, “Gee, I was trusting you, and we were building a rapport, and you have really not abided by that expectation, and what do we do next?” That’s the way we should handle any of these things.

Teenagers have an uncanny sense of fairness and what’s reasonable. They appreciate being treated as young adults, but they also appreciate boundaries — they don’t actually want a free-for-all. Negotiation, when they feel that they’re being listened to, benefits everybody, because the teacher finds that students become more cooperative.

If we approach cellphone use as negotiating a relationship, it’s not all subversive. It’s not all under the current somewhere. It’s not kids sneaking out to the bathroom to use their phone.

Lecturer in Education Anita Charles. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Having both a longstanding interest in India and a winter 2016 sabbatical on the horizon, Anita Charles was thinking hard about a way to mesh the interest with the opportunity.

A lecturer on the education faculty and the director of secondary teacher education at �ֲ���ý, Charles wanted to learn more about two aspects of childhood education in India. First, policies and practices pertaining to children with special needs; second, the role of digital technology, particularly how it aligns with literacy education.

​She’ll get that chance next year after receiving a
Fulbright–Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award, ​which will ​allow her to work in India from January to April 2016.​

Here’s how the award came about. As Charles was pondering her sabbatical options, she met a professor of education from India who was working at Maine’s Thomas College as a Fulbright Scholar. Deepika Papneja, an assistant professor of education at Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi, was a scholar in residence at Thomas from 2013 to 2014.

“It was as if the stars aligned,” Charles says. “We talked about her experience, what she was doing, and where she was from.” Soon thereafter, when Charles learned of a Fulbright scholarship opportunity from �ֲ���ý’ external grants office (aka the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance), Papneja agreed to arrange a letter of invitation from Lady Shri Ram in support of Charles’ Fulbright application.

“The process happened very quickly, from meeting Deepika, to learning about the Fulbright options, to applying,” Charles says. The application was approved and she received a Fulbright–Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award. (Read more about Fulbright grants awarded to �ֲ���ý people in 2015).

Charles will teach courses in education, child development, and language acquisition at Lady Shri Ram, a unit of the University of Delhi. This first-hand experience with Indian approaches to elementary education, she hopes, will add a cross-cultural dimension to her understanding of literacy and special education.

“They’re interested in possible curriculum development that I might be able to lend my expertise toward,” Charles notes. “And they’ve mentioned my participating in interdisciplinary forums, seminars, and local outreach programs.”

When Charles came to �ֲ���ý in 2004, she brought classroom teaching experience ranging from first grade to adult education, and including 10 years of teaching high school English. In India, she says, “I’m eager to do observations and get some sense of how India approaches public education. And I’ll be working with students who are going into teaching field, so I’m looking at what they’re doing.

‘It’s going to be really exciting to just embed myself in India’s culture and learn about their educational structures.’

“I go in with no preconceived ideas, other than the fact that I believe that they commit, in many ways, to some things that we do in this country — in terms of wanting to incorporate technology and wanting to have policies that benefit special-needs kids.”

But Charles’ interest in India is personal as well as professional. She and her husband, Chris Gelder, adopted three of their five children from India, and two of the three —daughters Devki Gelder, 16, and Malvika Gelder, 14 — will accompany Charles on her sabbatical in the land of their birth.

“I hope that it brings them a new understanding of their own cultural heritage,” she says.

Charles is especially excited about working at a women’s college in India, a nation with attitudes about gender that are quite different from those in the U.S. “I would like to believe that Lady Shri Ram is an environment of empowerment for women — for their voices, for their presence, for their education, for their futures.”

Charles says, “I expect a lot of the experience to be a challenge, in a very good sense of the word. I think it will push me beyond my comfort zone, and give me a new lens through which to look at Indian education as well as to look at our own education systems in this country.

“It’s going to be really exciting to just embed myself in the culture and learn about their educational structures.”

Charles has a bachelor’s degree in French and education from Dartmouth College, and a master’s in education in human development and psychology, with a focus on language and culture, from Harvard. She earned a doctorate from the University of New Hampshire in the area of adolescent literacy.