Despite mediocre grades, a student gets fired up about African history and literature. She finds a mentor and becomes more socially grounded.

But another student drifts through college. She struggles with pre-med studies, misses high school and fails to connect with her professors.

Why does one student thrive and not the other? What kind of strategies can pull a drifting student back on course?

Such essential questions were on the agenda for the conference at 乐播传媒, sponsored by the Consortium on High Achievement and Success, of which 乐播传媒 is a founding member.

During a morning session, 乐播传媒 anthropologist Heather Lindkvist presented the two case studies described above, which are derived from longitudinal interviews with 250 students at 乐播传媒, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Smith, Trinity and Wellesley colleges. The study began in 2006鈥�07 (the students’ first year in college) and will continue into spring 2010.

Befitting the writing focused theme of the conference 鈥� it was geared to humanities faculty and writing center professionals 鈥� Lindkvist and others explained how writing assignments can deepen a student’s academic engagement in unexpected ways.

“Engagement occurs around interaction,” Lindkvist told the roomful of academics in the Jarnryd Room of New Commons. Tactics to promote interaction around writing can include the obvious (writing comments on a student’s paper) and newer tactics, such as “staging” or “scaffolding,” in which writing assignments are broken down into a series of shorter tasks or components.

The longitudinal study is sponsored by the in collaboration with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. ( of three other cases from the NECASL study.)

Professors should more carefully explain how their discipline鈥檚 writing style differs from other styles.

Following Lindkvist, five current 乐播传媒 students explained how writing assignments have helped and hindered their own satisfaction at 乐播传媒. Because the conference sponsor, the Consortium on High Achievement and Success, seeks to understand the experience of underrepresented students, the panel’s composition reflected this thrust.

The five students agreed that professors should more carefully explain how their discipline鈥檚 writing style differs from other styles, and especially how college writing differs from high school writing, where the dominant style is the five-paragraph essay.

“I remember reading a research article in high school, and thought it was written by professionals,” said Anzela Niraula ’11 of Kathmandu, Nepal. “I didn’t realize that a 乐播传媒 student would write them too.”

Asked to describe one “unpleasant surprise” at 乐播传媒, Janelle Lyford ’13聽of South China, Maine, recalled the “blatant feedback” on her first 乐播传媒 paper. “I felt I had already failed the course,” she said. “I wish the professor had explained what he wanted.”

Desmond Mushi ’13 of Mwanza, Tanzania, got a laugh by saying that his unpleasant surprise was “that I would have to write!” He excelled in math in high school, and his guidance counselor told Mushi that he鈥檇 not have to write in college if he just stuck with math and science.

鈥淪ometimes students wait for a professor to make contact. But we can do it first, too.鈥�

At first discouraged by the writing and reading assignments in his course on the Cold War, yet intrigued by the topic, Mushi sought help from the Writing Workshop, from Emily Grady ’10 at the Peer Writing Project and from his politics professor, Jim Richter.

“After I did my reading but before I started to write, at first there was no one to talk to,” he recalls. “But then I found that my professor would talk with me. Emily would talk with me.

鈥淪ometimes students wait for a professor to make contact. But we can do it first, too.鈥�

Since it is, ultimately, a student’s responsibility to seek help, conference organizer Leslie Hill, associate professor of politics at 乐播传媒 and special assistant to the president, posed a key question: “How did you learn to ask for help?”

“Put your question into the context of what you are seeking.”

Kirsten Gavin ’12 of Lewiston noted that “a few professors seem naturally psychic鈥� and tend to anticipate student questions. But with others, Gavin learned not to ask generally about the writing assignment. “That will just result in a repetition of the assignment” from the professor.

Instead, she said, “put your question into the context of what you are seeking.”

A few students offered their own strategies for writing success. Angel Pena 鈥�13 of Providence, R.I., explained that 鈥測ou come up with new ideas when you read over your paper,鈥� he explained. 鈥淪o now I reread everything I write. Even my text messages.鈥�

By Naima Murphy ’10

Carol Dilley, associate professor of dance and director of the dance program at 乐播传媒 College, has received an artist residency to produce a dance project in Newcastle, Australia.

In July and August 2010, Dilley will be resident artist at the , a cultural center first built as a jail in 1861 and used for that purpose until 1982. When she begins her residency next August, she will choreograph dances that take advantage of that unique space and also reflect on her past work at 乐播传媒 and abroad.

Prior to starting at 乐播传媒 in 2003, Dilley spent more than two decades studying, performing, choreographing and teaching in locations around the world. Her experiences from Sydney to Maine have enabled her to teach all levels of dancers and all manner of styles.

At this point, Dilley notes, “I am far more egalitarian in my expectations and that has shaped my aesthetic, my creative process and my outcomes.”

The Lock-Up’s programming celebrates Newcastle’s culture and heritage. The residency will be Dilley’s second there. The first took place in 2008 when she created a video installation, including music and footage by 乐播传媒 music professor William Matthews, that was projected onto the prison’s concrete walls.

The text continues below the video!

“To see images of the intimate relationships of dancers, birds, fields, theaters and oceans projected on the walls of a prison yard was amazingly powerful — the very essence of freely expressed human interaction trapped on these very unnatural walls,” she says.

The strength of that installation encouraged the Lock-Up to invite her back for a live performance. Dilley will enlist two groups from Australia to bring her choreography to life. One group participated in a class Dilley taught during her first residency. The other is from Sydney, where Dilley was active in the dance community for 15 years.

Dilley will choreograph both duets and group dances that exploit the prison architecture: The duets will be performed in cells that once housed two prisoners, the group pieces in the exercise yard.

The residency will be the fourth installment in an evolving project combining dance and video. Described by Dilley as an “international development,” this project started as a live duet at 乐播传媒 that was recorded, deconstructed and later shown as a video installation at the college.

Dilley further developed the installation for her 2008 residency in Newcastle, and will create dance work and video directly based on what she learned through the installation process. Dilley sees this as an example of how “research begets research,” as concepts in a work multiply and build upon one another.

For Dilley, the residency is an opportunity to both focus her energies towards one complex goal and to maintain an understanding of dance in other parts in the world.

“The time to go away and concentrate on making a piece with experienced dancers in a unique historical site is a research prospect I’m eagerly looking forward to. The creative resources I will acquire there will last me for many years to come,” she says.

乐播传媒 College has been awarded $1 million to enhance the integration of scholarship and research into the lives of the college’s 180 faculty members.

The grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City will be used specifically to support year-long sabbaticals. Given the intense focus on teaching and collegial service at 乐播传媒, these leaves for research are essential to the scholarly vitality of the faculty.

The Mellon award “addresses our critical need to offer faculty enough time to reflect and to innovate, to renew and advance their scholarly and pedagogical skills,” explained 乐播传媒 President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “This enhanced sabbatical program will make it easier for 乐播传媒 to sustain an academic community distinguished by the engagement of its faculty, as well as its students, in lifelong learning and growth.”

This is the third grant overall, and the second from Mellon, that 乐播传媒 has received for faculty support since the start of the academic year. The Mellon Foundation last fall awarded 乐播传媒 a three-year, $450,000 grant to support faculty in three areas: the implementation of a new general education curriculum, new resources for faculty scholarship and research, and the infusion of diversity into the overall academic program.

Also last fall, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation of New York City invited 乐播传媒 to participate in a program to provide year-long sabbaticals to pretenure faculty in the humanities who have demonstrated that they are outstanding teachers. A Whiting Teaching Fellowship will be awarded to one faculty member a year for the next four years.

“This remarkable series of successful grant proposals is a tribute to achievements of the 乐播传媒 faculty,” Hansen said. “Our scholar-teachers strive to be leaders in their academic disciplines, as well as in their classrooms and pedagogical communities. These grants help the College continue to attract and retain faculty who have such a strong commitment to teaching and learning.”

The latest Mellon award enables the college to increase the length of a typical sabbatical from six months to a full year. “To do their jobs well, 乐播传媒 faculty routinely devote many hours to teaching and advising, to curriculum development, to recruiting, mentoring and evaluating fellow faculty, and to other tasks that promote the well-being of the institution,” Hansen said.

“Without punctuating this work periodically with the kind of focused and concentrated time that a year-long sabbatical provides, they can’t pursue the scholarly endeavors that ultimately sustain the excellence of a 乐播传媒 education.”

The Mellon award will also help 乐播传媒 cope with a phenomenon affecting colleges nationwide: the graying of its faculty. According to an analysis conducted by Margaret Maurer-Fazio, Betty Doran Stangle Professor of Applied Economics at 乐播传媒, 17 percent of tenured 乐播传媒 faculty are expected to retire within five years, more than a third within 10 years and more than half within 15 years.

In recent years, the college has strengthened its support for faculty through more competitive compensation and other forward-looking measures. Helping to attract top-notch new faculty, as well as to support their professional development throughout the many stages of an academic career, the enhanced sabbatical program is an important part of this strategy whose end result is the best possible learning experience for students.

“Liberal arts colleges like 乐播传媒 are distinguished by the excellence and dedication of the faculty,” Hansen said. “So we need to find ways to support faculty who, throughout a long career at one small institution, balance a complex mixture of roles as teachers, scholars and collegial participants in a variety of communities.”

Jenny Allen has been named 乐播传媒 College sports information director in the Office of Communications and Media Relations. She assumed her duties July 5.

A native of Lewiston and graduate of Lewiston High School, Allen received her bachelor of science degree in sports administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Allen served as assistant sports information director at the State University of New York at Brockport while completing her master鈥檚 degree in athletic administration. She was named interim sports information director at SUNY-Brockport last year.

As 乐播传媒’ SID, Allen will present 乐播传媒’ athletic programs to prospective students, alumni, the campus community and the general public through media relations, publications and electronic communications, including the Web. Allen鈥檚 primary responsibilities include media relations for 乐播传媒’ 30 varsity sports; game management and game day programs; maintenance of the 乐播传媒鈥� Athletics Web site; compilation of statistics; acting as liaison to the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC); and production of athletics recruitment publications.

Allen replaces interim sports information director Matt Gagne and Aaron Todd, who served as the sports information director until December 2004. 乐播传媒 is a member of the NCAA Division III and NESCAC. Other NESCAC members are Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams.

Wenzel and May 2000 乐播传媒 graduate Jolene Thurston of Post Mills, Vt., have co-authored an article on their chiral resolving agent research that has been published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Organic Chemistry.

With this latest of 12 National Science Foundation awards, Wenzel has received more than $1 million in grant funding since he began teaching at 乐播传媒 nearly 20 years ago. Wenzel, the past president of the Council on Undergraduate Research, was named the 1997 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Maine Professor of the Year and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Scholar in 1990. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and doctoral degree from the University of Colorado.

The Whitehouse Professorship at 乐播传媒 was established in 1992 with a gift to the endowment by David C. Whitehouse, a 1936 graduate of 乐播传媒, and his wife, Constance, “for the advancement of that character which 乐播传媒 has consistently exemplified, including a dedication to free enterprise, freedom of religion, educational and moral excellence, and a respect for human dignity.” Constance, a native of Auburn, died in March 2000. David, raised and educated in Auburn, died in early April 2000.

Joining Nigro in the roundtable discussion will be several of her former students who now counsel, teach and advocate for adolescents across the United States. Nancy Bullett, a 1996 graduate of 乐播传媒, has worked with the AIDS Coalition of Lewiston-Auburn and has been active in various activities designed to create safer schools for gay and lesbian youth.

Emily Cause, a 1997 graduate of 乐播传媒, earned a master’s degree in middle school education from Lesley College and works in the Department of Ethics at the Fieldston School in New York City. The school’s ethics department guides children into becoming principled and caring members of their communities.

Rebecca Colman, a 1993 乐播传媒 graduate, worked as a mental health counselor for three years before beginning graduate studies in developmental psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she is involved in projects related to adolescent sexual behavior, including a five-year evaluation of abstinence-education programs in the state of Georgia.

Emily Demong, a 1994 graduate of 乐播传媒, worked for Teach for America and the National Outdoor Leadership School before joining the Aspen Achievement Academy, which leads high-risk youth on wilderness experiences in the Utah outback.

Lisa Kociubes, a 1996 graduate of 乐播传媒, worked as a residential counselor in a Massachussets youth shelter for homeless and at-risk youth. She received her master’s degree in social work from Columbia University in 1999 and now works in the Juvenile Rights Division at the Legal Aid Society in New York City.

“The Whitehouse Professorship is an enduring and permanent symbol of the commitment to keep the finest teachers among us,” said 乐播传媒 President Donald W. Harward of the Whitehouse endowment. Recipients of the Whitehouse award retain the professorship for a period of four years. Professor Nigro is the second recipient, the first being Professor John Kelsey, also of the Department of Psychology at 乐播传媒.

Nigro received the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching at 乐播传媒 in 1989. She has been a member of the supervisory board for the Maine Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, serving abused children. She also has worked with local agencies on an HIV prevention project, developed a project to raise awareness about careers in math and science for middle school girls, helped to evaluate a sexual-abuse prevention program and assessed Lewiston 6th-grade students’ aspirations for the Lewiston Aspirations Partnership.

Nigro was named one of two 1998 recipients of the Maine Campus Compact (MCC) Faculty Service-Learning Award, one of the most prestigious awards for community service in the state of Maine. She has received the John W. Dallenbach Fellowship from Cornell University and a National Institute of Mental Health Fellowship. Nigro received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her master’s degree from Yale University and her doctoral degree from Cornell University.

After graduating from 乐播传媒 with a degree in economics, Whitehouse earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1938. He joined the Container Corporation of America in 1944, becoming general manager in Boston in 1958, west coast division general manager in 1963 and vice president in 1965. He managed the firm’s headquarters in Venezuela during the early 1970s and retired in 1980. Active in 乐播传媒 affairs and particularly supportive of the college’s museum and its collections, he served as chairman of his class reunion gift committee and as a member of the College Key, an honorary service organization of 乐播传媒 graduates.

Rebecca W. Corrie, promoted to full professor of art, is the author of a forthcoming book on Sienese painting and urban history. She has written several articles, including “The Perugia Triptych and the Transmission of Byzantine Art to the Maniera Greca” and “The Political Meaning of Coppo di Marcovaldo’s Madonna and Child in Siena.” She has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Harvard University and Oberlin College, where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Corrie, who received her doctoral degree from Harvard, has been an instructor in art history at Mount Holyoke College and assistant to the curator of Oriental art at Yale University. She has been teaching at 乐播传媒 since 1982.

Craig J. Decker, promoted to full professor of German, is the editor of the forthcoming book Balancing Acts: Textual Strategies of Peter Henisch and translator for the forthcoming book Stone’s Paranoia by Peter Henisch. Decker has received a German Studies Association Article Prize and a summer seminar fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as several research fellowships and grants from 乐播传媒. He has been chairman of the Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages and Literatures at 乐播传媒 and was director of the college’s study abroad program in Germany in 1992. Decker graduated summa cum laude with highest honors in German from 乐播传媒 in 1978. He received master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Irvine, and joined the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1984.

Baltasar Fra-Molinero, associate professor of Spanish awarded tenure, is the author of the forthcoming books Readings in Black: Race and Slavery in Spanish Golden Age Literature and Blacks and the Margins of Latin American Literature. His many articles include “The Condition of Black Women in Spain During the Renaissance,” and his teaching interests include Spanish medieval literature, 20th-century Spanish and Latin American poetry and fiction and Spanish-American colonial literature. He received the degree of Licenciatura, Filolog鈥檃 Inglesa from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the degrees of Grado de Licenciatura, Filolog鈥檃 Inglesa and Doctor en Filolog鈥檃 Inglesa at Universidad de Sevilla, Spain. He also received a master’s degree in linguistics and a doctoral degree in Spanish at Indiana University. Before joining the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1994, he was an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Florida, an associate instructor of Spanish at Indiana University and an instructor of English at Universidad de Sevilla.

Leslie I. Hill, promoted to associate professor of political science with tenure, specializes in women, gender and states: global and comparative perspectives and women’s human rights in state and international contexts. She is the author of numerous articles, including “Reflections on Power and its Implications for Citizenship Practice,” and “The Black Church’s Mission of Justice: Political Roles in the Context of Racial Oppression.” She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, a master’s degree from Atlanta University, and she attended Emory University before earning a doctoral degree in political studies from The Union Institute. Hill, who joined the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1988, has been a research and teaching fellow at The New School for Social Research, a project coordinator for the National Council for Research on Women and an adjunct lecturer in women’s studies at Hunter College.

Hilmar L. Jensen III, promoted to associate professor of history with tenure, is the author of the forthcoming book, The Rise of an African American Left: John P. Davis and the National Negro Congress and the forthcoming article “Roots of a Pan-African Weltanschauung: W.E.B. DuBois, Western history and the Theory of Imperialism in Africa.” Jensen, who specializes in 20th-century American history and Africana and African-American studies, has been a research fellow and associate at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University and has received an Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Research Grant from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. He will serve as chairman of the American Cultural Studies Program at 乐播传媒 in September. He received a bachelor’s degree from Goddard College and master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Cornell University. Before joining the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1992, Jensen was an instructor in history at Holy Cross College and a history teacher at the Commonwealth School, Boston.

Emily W. Kane, associate professor of sociology awarded tenure, is the author of the forthcoming article “Men’s and Women’s Beliefs about Gender Inequality: Family Ties, Dependence and Agreement,” which will appear in Sociological Forum. She has been an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Departmental Citation for Excellence in Teaching. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and received her bachelor’s degree with highest honors from Oberlin College and received master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan. Kane has been teaching at 乐播传媒 since 1996.

Cheryl M. McCormick, promoted to associate professor of psychology with tenure, specializes in developmental neuroendocrinology and neuropsychology. She has been a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University and a lecturer in psychology at Concordia University. In August 1990, she received an American Psychological Association Science Directorate Award. A member of the 乐播传媒 faculty since 1993, McCormick received a bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from McGill University and a doctoral degree in psychology from McMaster University.

Georgia Nell Nigro, promoted to full professor of psychology, received the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching at 乐播传媒 in 1989. She has been a member of the supervisory board for the Maine Court-Appointed Special Advocate Program, serving abused children, and a consultant for area community agencies handling cases of child abuse.

Nigro also has worked for local schools on an HIV prevention project, raising awareness about careers in math and science for middle school girls, evaluating a sexual abuse prevention program and assessing Lewiston 6th-grade students’ aspirations for the Lewiston Aspirations Partnership. Nigro has been named one of two 1998 recipients of the Maine Campus Compact (MCC) Faculty Service-Learning Award, one of the most prestigious awards for community service in the state of Maine. She has received the John W. Dallenbach Fellowship from Cornell University and a National Institute of Mental Health Fellowship. Nigro received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a master’s degree from Yale University and a doctoral degree from Cornell University.

Mary Rice-DeFosse, promoted to full professor of French, is the author of the forthcoming articles “Re-visioning Franco-American Identity in Maine” and “The Myth of Eurocentrism.” She specializes in the representations and discourses of history in the works of French novelist Gustave Flaubert. In addition to numerous research grants from 乐播传媒, she has received the Kathleen Curry Akers Award and was named a Feuillerate Fellow at Yale University, where she earned two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree in French. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston College and studied at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, where she also was an instructor of English. Since joining the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1984, Rice-DeFosse has been chairwoman of the Department of Classical and Romance Languages and Literatures and director of the 乐播传媒 Fall Semester Abroad in France program.

Bonnie Jean Shulman, promoted to associate professor of mathematics with tenure, specializes in mathematical physics and wave propagation in inhomogeneous media. In 1994, she received the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching at 乐播传媒, and she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow from 1985 to 1988. She received a Hughes Teacher-Researcher Grant in 1997 to develop a new precalculus course at Hebron Academy with Tobin White, a 1994 乐播传媒 graduate. The author of several articles, including “What If We Change Our Axioms? A Feminist Inquiry into the Foundations of Mathematics” and “Implications of Feminist Critiques of Science for the Teaching of Mathematics and Science,” Shulman graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she also received her master’s and doctoral degrees. Shulman has been teaching at 乐播传媒 since 1991.

The grant was awarded through the institute’s Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program.

乐播传媒 President Donald W. Harward, in announcing the grant, said the money would be used to support new projects and to continue programs begun with a 1993 Hughes grant of $500,000.

“We are most pleased that the Hughes Institute continues to acknowledge 乐播传媒’ work in furthering the collaboration of faculty and students in scientific research and learning,” Harward said.

乐播传媒 is one of 52 colleges and universities sharing some $45.4 million in the latest round of awards. Since 1988, the institute has awarded more than $335 million to support undergraduate education in the life sciences at 220 institutions of higher learning.

At 乐播传媒, the Hughes funding will support the areas of neuroscience curriculum development, summer faculty development institutes and a mathematics resource center.

Three 乐播传媒 faculty with expertise in the neurosciences will receive partial release time to design a new formal major in neuroscience and travel to meetings to discuss curriculum.

Faculty support will also include the development of institutes on the topics of science literacy and pedagogy. Such summer seminars will provide an opportunity for faculty members to work together on a common topic that each will want to introduce into existing courses or use as the basis for a new course.

Additional support will include stipends for participants, outside speakers and consultants, materials for the institutes and materials for implementation of new or revised courses.

The college’s 1993 Hughes grant has supported many of the 乐播传媒 students who have attended scholarly meetings with professors and who have collaborated with faculty in both on- and off-campus research. In addition, the 1993 Hughes grant has assisted with the renovation of laboratories and the purchase of equipment, especially in the neuroscience and biomedical sciences. It also supported faculty members in designing and teaching of outreach programs such as summer institutes for high school teachers and the introduction of astronomy to local elementary-age students through the college’s planetarium.

“These colleges and universities, like 乐播传媒, do an excellent job of preparing students for careers in scientific research, teaching, medicine and related fields,” said Purnell W. Choppin, president of the Hughes Institute.

“Our goal is to get students of all ages, including women and minorities, involved in real scientific exploration instead of just memorizing facts from books,” Choppin said.

乐播传媒 has been recognized in several surveys as one of the nation’s leading colleges in undergraduate science education. The project director for the Hughes Grant at 乐播传媒 is Martha A. Crunkleton, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute was established in 1953 and employs scientists in the fields of cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and structural biology. Hughes investigators conduct medical research in HHMI laboratories at medical centers and universities across the United States.