The Hill, Spring 2016

The McDA N I E L C O L L E G E | Spring 2016

EQUALS IN MARRIAGE AND THE MILITARY

The

McDaniel College Spring 2016 Vol. 31, Number 1 The Hill is published three times yearly by: McDaniel College 2 College Hill Westminster, MD 21157-4390 www.mcdaniel.edu Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing: Gina Piellusch Editor: Kim Asch Staff Writers: Peggy Fosdick, Cheryl Knauer Design: Lilly Pereira Alumni correspondence to: alumni@mcdaniel.edu or The Office of Alumni Relations McDaniel College 2 College Hill Westminster, MD 21157-4390 All other correspondence to: kasch@mcdaniel.edu 410/857-2290 or The Office of Communications and Marketing McDaniel College 2 College Hill Westminster, MD 21157-4390 McDaniel College, in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations governing affirmative action and nondiscrimination, does not discriminate in the recruitment, admission and employment of students, faculty and staff in the operation of any of its educational programs and activities as defined by law.

The diverse views presented in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or official policies of the College. ©2016 McDaniel College

On the cover: Military veterans and newlyweds Shannon Travis ’16 and Patrick Robbins ’15.

Photograph by John Waire

Alfonso Navarro ’17 and Amy Kolence ’16 have learned that spring is prime time for socializing and hammocking on the Hill.

F E AT U R E S

10 Equals in Marriage and the Military

Veterans and newlyweds Shannon Travis ’16 and Patrick Robbins ’15 share high GPAs, majors in Political Science & International Studies and a firm belief in the nation’s move to integrate women into combat roles.

14 Startups: The Next Generation

McDaniel’s new program, The Encompass Distinction, equips students in every major with the entrepreneurial skills needed to innovate, launch and manage new business enterprises.

18 Diplomat in a Changing Climate

Tom Armbruster ’80, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service whose posts have taken him all over the world — from Cuba to Vladivostok — serves as U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands.

But this is no walk on the beach.

D E PA RT M E N T S 2 Carpe Diem

News around campus and beyond

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3 First Jobs

22 Invested

Advancing the vision

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Alumni Updates Life since college

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Back Story What they were thinking

McDaniel degrees at work 8 The Edge

Leadership & the Liberal Arts

Class Noted

BOB HANDELMAN

Guess whose debut young adult novel, “The Clay Lion,” won a Literary Classics Seal of Approval? See page 50.

(See related contest on the inside back cover.)

C. KURT HOLTER

News around campus and beyond

Bloodshed & Ballots “I saw the dirty side of politics, but I also saw the successful side.”

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Soon after arriving in his native country of Burkina Faso to study the nation’s first fair and transparent presidential election in 27 years, senior Raymond Boly found himself caught in the chaos of a bloody coup.

Burkina Faso’s elite presidential guard staged a takeover just three weeks before the much-anticipated election, shutting down the borders, all media and imposing an evening curfew. Gilbert Diendere, a general and ally of ousted president Blaise Compaore, was named the country’s leader.

Protesters took to the streets. The guard fired on the protesters. The capital city of Ouagadougou, population about 1.5 million, was in turmoil.

Boly had already begun his internship with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an international non-profit that was working with Burkina Faso to ensure the transparency of the elections. Fluent in French and English, the Political Science and International Studies major and his colleagues were sent home for safety. “We were heartbroken,” says Boly, whose parents met when his American mother was serving in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso.

The Hill

Boly was staying alone at a house belonging to his aunt and uncle, who were in France. Five days passed with only sporadic communication with his parents as they tried in vain to secure passage for him back to the U.S. By the fifth day, the situation had deteriorated to the point that his cousin arranged for a moped and driver to get him since cars couldn’t pass on the roads.

All that he took with him was his backpack, U.S. passport, toothbrush and phone.

It was a long way in more than miles from Boly’s life at home in Rockville, Md., and at McDaniel, where he is a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Africa’s Legacy student group. Carefree college days seemed a distant memory as he clung to his moped driver deftly weaving through the streets and alleys of Ouagadougou.

“All of a sudden, while riding on the moped, I saw about a dozen presidential guard soldiers armed with semi-automatic weapons standing along the road in front of a big house. It was terrifying,” says Boly, who made it safely to his hometown of Bobo Dioulasso, where he lived until the age of 14. “For some reason, I just looked at them and kind of waved a hello as we were riding past. To my amazement and relief, they waved back. That’s a scene that is going to stay in my mind forever.”

The Burkina Faso military came together and surrounded the palace with the presidential guard barricaded inside. It was a stand-off — one that could have erupted into a violent battle at any second. Instead, General Diendere surrendered and ordered the guard to disarm. Some guard soldiers resisted but a missile lobbed into the palace from the military finally ended the coup.

Within two weeks, despite his father’s urging for him to return to the States, Boly was back at his internship helping NDI organize the election, which had been rescheduled for Nov. 29. The election went off without a hitch, and Boly picked right up where the coup had interrupted his internship. He served as the “right-hand man” to the Tunisian expert on electoral management brought in by NDI and helped recruit more than 1,000 people to assure a transparent election at voting polls around the country.

“It changed my life forever. I saw the dirty side of politics, but I also saw the successful side,” says Boly.

“The response of the people after the coup was motivational, inspirational and incredible. Even after all the political turmoil, the people came together to rebuild the country and lead it through the most transparent and fair elections the country has ever seen. I was so proud.”— Peggy Fosdick Spring 2016

QUANTIFY

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Pairs of gently worn jeans collected on campus to donate to homeless teens in the area. According to DoSomething.org, more than 1 million young people experience homelessness in the U.S. each year and a pair of jeans is their most frequent clothing request.

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Amount, in dollars, of a competitive, needbased award available to students through the Center for Experience & Opportunity to support costs associated with an unpaid summer internship.

10,000

Lady bugs and other enviro-friendly insects released on campus in 2015 to control pests and reduce chemical use.

Other conservation efforts included planting 32 trees, turning 10 acres of the golf course into a wildlife habitat and rehabilitating an injured hawk.

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Free sessions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator training (AED) offered by the Department of Campus Safety to faculty, staff and students during the spring semester.

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Years of service to the College given by Dave Seibert, senior men’s baseball coach & lecturer for Intercollegiate Athletics, and John Olsh, professor of Economics and Business Administration.

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N E WS M AKERS • President Roger N. Casey was appointed by

Governor Larry Hogan to the P-20 Leadership Council of Maryland, a partnership between the State of Maryland, educators and the business community to increase the state’s economic competitiveness by preparing Maryland students for jobs in the 21st century. Casey is also the new chair of the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Independent College and University Association and will lead the organization in implementing its strategic objectives.

Roger N. Casey

• Professor of Physics Apollo Mian was made a

Senior Honorary Research Associate with the London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London. He conducts research there each summer and will hold the post for the next five years.

• Julia Jasken has been appointed as new provost Apollo Mian

Julia Jasken

and dean of the faculty. Jasken, who joined the English department faculty in 2003, specializes in new media pedagogy and has taught a variety of professional writing courses. Her “Writing for Nonprofit Organizations” course paired students with nonprofits and allowed them to gain realworld experience while helping worthy causes.

In 2012, she received the Maryland-D.C. Campus Compact Statewide Faculty Award for Outstanding Service-Learning. Jasken developed, and then served as director of the Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO), the College’s one-stop shop for experiential education and career development. As the College’s first associate provost, she helped create The Encompass Distinction, the College’s new innovation and entrepreneurship program.

• Associate Professor of Biology Susan Parrish was

Susan Parrish

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appointed the Kopp Professorship, a position she will hold through the spring of 2020. Established

by John Desmond Kopp ’92, the Professorship recognizes Parrish’s excellence in teaching and her impressive record of student-faculty research and publications. A molecular biologist, Parrish collaborates with her students to characterize enzymes that allow viruses to overtake host cells. This summer, she and her students will collaborate with the Carnegie Institution of Science, Department of Embryology, on a project studying chromosomal rearrangements in yeast.

POSITIVE STROKES Stroke by stroke, senior Brad Brooks has achieved every one of his college goals over the past four years. To punctuate his success, the Exercise Science and Physical Education major recently received the prestigious Elite 90 award for the 2016 NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming Championship. The distinction recognizes one individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers.

Brooks says setting goals and staying focused has helped him advance in the classroom and in the pool. He has a 4.0 GPA and took honorable mention All-America honors in the 1650 Free at the championship. It was his fourth career AllAmerica accolade and third in the longest event on the docket. But better than any win, he says, is the camaraderie he has enjoyed as a member of the team.

“We all really like being with each other and that joy is contagious,” he says. “Coach Hiestand has been a great mentor to all of us.”

The Hill

[SPOTTED ON SOCIAL]

“Thank you to the woman today that randomly said ‘you got this’ to me as I happened to be walking to class to take an exam. You are awesome!”

— post on the anonymous McDaniel Compliments Facebook page

Color me stress-free Three trend-savvy students in senior lecturer Paul Mazeroff’s “Coping with Stress” Jan Term class explored the popularity of adult coloring books and their use as a stress-management technique. From scholarly articles and their own research, the students concluded that coloring provides a distraction from the stream of thoughts constantly flowing through our brains.

And distraction, says Mazeroff, is a major approach to reducing stress.

“Coloring keeps you ‘in the now,’” says Caitlin Justice, a senior Business Administration-Economics dual major from Stuart, Fla. Psychology major Megan Jacobs, from East Berlin, Pa., cites a study that found the stress-relieving potential varies with different coloring patterns. “Plaid and mandala patterns reduced stress but plain pictures did not,” she says.

The coloring fad has progressed to the point you can even choose the result you want — from “Color Me Calm” to “Color Me Sleepy.”

“I color right before bed because it is a good un-winder,” says Krysta Twigg, a senior Psychology major from Middletown, Md., whose heartbeat slowed after coloring sessions. “My mind is at ease after coloring and I can drift off.”

Spring 2016

DAVID SINCLAIR ‘00

Brooks has shared his expertise at the campus pool teaching swim lessons and coaching a swim team for kids 12 and younger. “Without a doubt, my favorite volunteer experience has been coaching a Special Olympics team to get them ready for competition,” he adds.

A native of Newark, Del., Brooks will also complete his Education minor after he finishes his semester of student teaching this spring.

The experience has confirmed the decision he made in high school to pursue a career as a physical education teacher. He says he sought out McDaniel for its strong teacher preparation program, which starts sending students into schools in their sophomore year, continues with a practicum during junior year and culminates with both a capstone project and semester of student teaching during senior year.

“I get so much out of teaching. It’s really rewarding to see the positive effect you can have,” says Brooks, 22, adding, “I really don’t like to sit still for five minutes, so this is a good career choice for me.”

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first o s

McDaniel degrees at work

THE SKY’S NO LIMIT The New York Times reported astronomical news Feb. 11: scientists had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, providing the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago in his general theory of relativity.

Huy Phan ’15 cheered alongside his graduate school classmates at MIT, where their professors in the Physics department had instructed them to tune in to the press conference. “The whole campus was bustling with excitement.

We didn’t know what the announcement was going to be, but we had been told for a week to expect big news,” Huy says, explaining that MIT’s Rainer Weiss was among the three physicists instrumental in the discovery. “It’s a big thing for us.”

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At MIT, Huy is pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics, a A Physics and Mathematics dual major at six-year program that includes a research assis- McDaniel, Huy grew up in Vietnam and has tantship, full tuition, healthcare and a generous always enjoyed contemplating the night skies. stipend of about $3,000 per month. In addi- “I grew up in the city, so there was too much tion to coursework in nuclear physics and elec- light pollution to see the stars. But when I go tromagnetism, he is part of a research group to the beach, I spend hours sitting there and apworking with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer preciating the vastness,” says Huy, whose first placed on the International Space Station. Data visit to the U.S. coincided with his arrival on from the instrument may produce valuable in- the Hill to begin his freshman year. “Looking sight into the origin and propagation of cos- up at the stars makes me feel lost, but in a mic rays, anti-matter and possibly dark matter. good way.”

The Hill

Delighting in the Details Emily Roderick ’15 is in English-major bliss at Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. As an assistant editor with the Lexington Books imprint, which specializes in academic publishing, Roderick works with the editor who acquires books focused on political science, economics and international relations. She reviews final manuscripts for formatting, trouble-shoots potential issues of libel, secures necessary permissions for use of images and also prepares contracts.

Roderick learned about the position at McDaniel’s Center for Experience & Opportunity. Her internship with English professor Mary Bendel-Simso on the Westminster Detective Library confirmed she had a passion and skill for the work.

That project catalogues and makes available online all the short detective fiction published in the U.S. before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891).

“I realized that not everyone likes reading through a manuscript very closely, making sure that all the details are right,” she says. “It’s not super-exciting to talk about, but it’s really fun to do.”

Roderick’s job also involves traveling to academic conferences, where she and her editor sell books and take meetings with authors. She has already made trips to San Diego, San Francisco and Atlanta. “Sometimes, I get a chance to break out my dual major in Spanish to speak with an international author or to help with translation.”

Doing Business for the U.S. Government

Huy expects to be in Boston for at least six years — about how long it will take for him to complete his doctorate — and then plans to pursue a post-doc and eventually become a professor. He also hopes to make his own contribution to our collective understanding of the universe. “It’s a really nice feeling to know that you can answer a lot of questions with science. It can empower us to have some power over nature.”

Spring 2016

It is not at all surprising that Lars Hankin ’10 has always had aspirations to work in public service. After all, his grandfather worked for Hubert Humphrey, both when he was a U.S. Senator and when he served as the nation’s 38th Vice President under President Lyndon B. Johnson. And both of Hankin’s parents built careers at various government agencies while modeling the best of what it means to be a civil servant.

“I believe in helping the public good,” says Hankin, who grew up just outside D.C. in Bethesda, Md. “I’d like to think that what I do for a living is making a difference.”

Hankin also knew early on that he did not want to make a career on Capitol Hill or major in Political Science. “I was thinking pragmatically because I entered college when the economy started to slow down,” he says. “I remember thinking, what is the major that will give me the greatest flexibility?”

He decided on Business Administration with a minor in Economics and entered graduate school at University of Maryland College Park directly after graduation. In 2012, he earned a master’s degree in public policy with a newly introduced specialization in federal acquisition policy. Almost immediately, Hankin was hired as a full-time contract specialist with a government agency, responsible for acquisitions of anything from pencils and computers to services.

“We’re the ones who make the ultimate decision that what the government is paying for is fair and reasonable,” says Hankin, adding that in grad school he was assigned the laborious duty of reading the entire 2,000-page Federal Acquisition Regulation document.

Lest his new career sound dull, the job requires frequent overseas trips. “I just love getting out there and seeing the world,” says Hankin, who relished his semester abroad at McDaniel Europe. “Because of my experience in Budapest, no matter where I am, I’m comfortable and can see myself succeeding.”

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edge

Leadership & the Liberal Arts

April Christina Curley ’09 Diversity Student Development Specialist at Google She is a lead of the Google in Residence Program, designed to improve tech sector diversity by placing engineers at historically black colleges and universities to teach and mentor students. Formerly, she was a diversity recruiter for Teach for America after serving for two years with the organization as a social studies teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools.

She earned an M.A. in secondary education and teaching from Johns Hopkins University and is a member of Leadership for Educational Equity, a nonpartisan nonprofit that develops Teach for America alumni to become leaders in their communities. She is currently based in New York City.

My identity is my mission

Learning to speak Google

When I was teaching, about 99 percent of my students identified as African American and low income. I also identify as black and am from a low-income background as well, so serving as a role model and personally educating young people like me was rewarding. My life’s work will forever be in education, or in that space, as well as supporting communities of color and communities that identify as low income. That is my niche at Google.

Before I joined Google, you could say “Python” and “Java” and to me that would mean snakes and coffee. In the world of tech, those are programming languages, the languages used to create websites and apps for your phone.

It has been a huge learning curve here, but my eyes have been opened tremendously. I’ve learned there are so many things we can do with technology and that it’s important to have more diverse voices at the table to make products that serve many different types of customer.

Scaling my impact on education When I had the chance to join the staff at Teach for America, I realized I could make a big impact by increasing diversity among the faculty in Title I schools. I personally recruited and placed close to 100 teachers who identified as African American and/or low income in predominantly black classrooms.

Programming an inclusive industry At Google, I work with our engineers in residence to help prepare undergraduate students at historically black colleges and universities for jobs as software engineers — these are the prized jobs for Computer Science majors.

Only about 1 percent of Google’s technical employees are black, which is a typical statistic for companies in this sector. So I can really make a difference in my job.

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Good work for great pay Coming from nonprofit and public work to a corporate environment meant a huge shift in pay. For me, that’s important because all of my family is still in a low-income bracket and I am able to support my family in a way I wasn’t able to do before. I’m one of six kids and my mom was a single mom — I’m currently making more than all of my siblings combined. I’m humbled every single day that I get to do work that feels good and pays so well.

My mentors helped me overcome I’m a natural introvert and I wasn’t always comfortable meeting new people and relating to lots of different types of professionals and personality types. Now I train engineers to be effective educators! Awesome mentors like Dr. The Hill

“Only about 1 percent of Google’s technical employees are black, which is a typical statistic for companies in this sector.

I can really make a difference in my job.”

Debora Johnson-Ross — who is still my mentor to this day — and Zephia Bryant, former director of McDaniel’s Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion, were instrumental in presenting opportunities to me and pushing me outside my boundaries. Their support allowed me to try things that seemed scary at first.

New York is great, but...

I was a History major at McDaniel and the history that exists here where I live in Harlem is incredible. I love that about it. Though it is going through gentrification, I’m still living in a black and brown community and I feel I get to contribute just in terms of my income and how I’m able to support businesses in the local community. But in general, New York is way too fast for me.

Baltimore is called Charm City for a reason.

I see politics in my future When I was in the classroom I think I was a pretty good teacher — my numbers speak to that in terms of the strong standardized test scores. But there were also a million factors outside the classroom that would dictate my students’ success and I was interested in finding ways that would support them and their families to improve their lives. In fact, I was being groomed by Leadership for Educational Equity to make a run for Baltimore City Council when Google came calling. I still feel like I’m going to make that happen in the future.

WENDY PLOGER ’90

My heart belongs to Baltimore

Spring 2016

Right now life is about doing this work, doing it well, building up my network and my leadership and professional skills, and eventually going back to Baltimore and helping to make it a great city. One day I’ll be the mayor.

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EQUALS IN MARRIAGE AND THE MILITARY

Both enlisted and served active duty in the Army. They met in 2006, while stationed in Ansbach, Germany, and both deployed to Iraq at the same time, assigned to the same tedious job as helicopter re-fueler. During those hot and dusty 14 months, both concluded they could do a lot more to serve their country if they were armed with a college degree.

Together, they decided to take advantage of the GI Bill once their service was completed. They joined a military intelligence unit of the Army Reserve and, after two years at Carroll Community College, enrolled as Honors students at McDaniel, both majoring in Political Science and International Relations.

Their nearly perfect GPAs are identical.

The only significant dissimilarity between them? Travis is female and Robbins is male. And, until very recently, that distinction made all the difference when it came to the military and the range of roles open to each of them.

“My parents always told me, ‘You can do whatever you want.

Do you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher — what would you like to do?’ I told them I wanted to be a Green Beret just 10

BY KIM ASCH PHOTOS BY JOHN WAIRE

like my dad,” Travis recalls. “But at that time they had to tell me the disappointing news that a Green Beret was one of the few things I couldn’t be, because I was not a man.”

On Dec. 3, that obstacle vanished when Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced that – in accordance with a presidential mandate — the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women by the end of 2015. “There will be no exceptions,” Carter said at a news conference. “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.”

The decision was not embraced by all branches of the military — the Marines had requested an exemption for infantry and armor divisions, saying integration would hurt their fighting ability. But Robbins, 32, applauds the change.

He cites the success of similarly gender-neutral policies in the armed forces of Canada, Germany and Israel. “Women hold their own over there. Why can’t they here?”

Travis, 29, has already been involved in efforts to facilitate the transition of women into jobs previously off-limits for women, mostly in Army and Marine Corps infantry and armor units. During the summer of 2015, she was selected for a highly competitive internship to work in Washington, D.C., with the organization Women in International Security as program assistant for its Combat Integration Initiative.

“Women in combat situations can play a very formidable role and it’s to the benefit of everybody that they be allowed The Hill

PHOTO CAPTION IN GUTTER

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ewlyweds Shannon Travis and Patrick Robbins share much in common. Both grew up as military brats and got used to frequent relocations, learning to redefine the meaning of “home” as anyplace you find your loved ones.

Both developed a strong sense of patriotism, commitment to public service and — after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 — a desire to play a role in assuring the nation’s security.

WHY THESE NEWLYWEDS EMBRACE A GENDER-NEUTRAL FUTURE WITH WOMEN SERVING IN COMBAT ROLES.

Spring 2016

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PHOTO CAPTION IN GUTTER

access to any job men have — so long as they can meet the same rigorous standards that are set for the men,” Travis says. “Besides, women have been working outside the wire in harm’s way for the past 14 years. Why can’t they be given the same training opportunities as men?” this point in their story it should be noted that Robbins graduated in 2015 — a year ahead of his wife — but only because Travis missed two semesters in 2014 while she was deployed to Afghanistan with the reserves. A staff sergeant, her work as a force protector involved investigating and guarding against insider threats to U.S. forces on military bases. She traveled to Afghans’ smaller bases and taught Afghan soldiers how to identify potential threats from civilians hired to work on base.

“We went outside the wire quite a bit. We were trained very well, prepared for every single scenario,” she says. “Thank God nothing happened, but in the event that it did happen, we were ready for it.”

That period from February to December 2014 was Travis’ second time in Afghanistan. In 2005, soon after she graduated from high school and before she joined the Army, she volunteered with Peace Bridge to teach English as a second language at the University of Kabul. Only 14 when the World Trade Center towers crumbled, Travis had long grappled with confounding questions: Why was America a target? What group would hate us so much? What can we do to prevent similar tragedies in the future? At 18, she was determined to go to Kabul, despite her parents’ safety concerns, because, she says, “I wanted to contribute to what America has to offer the world and foster a better relationship with our allies.”

The experience solidified Travis’ career aspirations to affect U.S. foreign policy by working at a government agency, such as the CIA or the State Department. She became inspired by role models like the late Robert Ames, who as a CIA case officer demonstrated his passion for relationship building while facilitating peace talks between Israel and Palestinians. “The way he respected people and cultures — his level of expertise — I want to be able to make that kind of difference,” she says.

Travis enlisted in the Army for five years. She met Robbins as soon as she arrived in Ansbach after completing basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. They still laugh about the fact that their first encounter was at an Irish pub — in Germany. They got to know each other over rounds of a drink dubbed the “car bomb” (Guinness with a shot of Bailey’s, downed quickly before the Irish cream curdles) and quickly learned that they shared aspirations beyond their low-skill

AT

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WOMEN IN

COMBAT

SITUATIONS CAN PLAY A VERY FORMIDABLE ROLE AND IT’S TO THE BENEFIT OF EVERYBODY THAT THEY BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO ANY JOB MEN HAVE.” SHANNON TRAVIS ’16

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assignments in the Army’s Quartermaster Corps, which mainly involved maintaining the motor pool.

During their deployment in Iraq — they were stationed at different bases for eight of 14 months — Travis started teaching herself Arabic and took online college courses to fill the many hours of down time.

They both read a lot, staying current on the news.

When their service ended, they embarked on an early honeymoon a few years before their wedding. The 21-day cruise set off from Barcelona and made stops throughout the Mediterranean, including Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and the Canary Islands. “Traveling is the greatest thing,” Travis says. “It is so important to develop an appreciation for other countries and cultures. How else can we learn to work together?” estminster became the couple’s new home for a few important reasons: it’s close to where their Army Reserve military intelligence unit is based; it’s close to Robbins’ mother in York, Pa.; last, but certainly not least, there is a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise in town (they’d missed the menu while overseas). They decided to start at Carroll Community College because neither had been particularly high achieving as high school students. Their strategy involved building strong transcripts so they could transfer to a highly selective four-year institution in the D.C. area.

“We considered Georgetown, American University and George Washington — we really could have gone anywhere,” Travis recalls. “But when we met with the political science professors at McDaniel we were so impressed and felt so welcomed, McDaniel became our first choice.”

McDaniel participates in the GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program, closing the gap between the government’s maximum tuition allowance and the actual cost of attending. And the Green Terror Battalion, founded in 1919, is one of the oldest ROTC programs in the nation. Still, Travis and Robbins were a bit wary about how they might be perceived by their civilian professors and classmates.

“I was apprehensive to discuss Iraq in my classes because it was a controversial war,” Travis explains.

“But my opinions were more than welcomed in class discussions. This is a really nurturing environment where dialogue and healthy debate are encouraged.”

Robbins says pursuing their undergraduate education at a liberal arts college has given them a kind of well-rounded edge. “The goal of McDaniel’s political science department is to get students to think more, to think for yourself and to have the context and understanding to figure out why things are the way they are,” he explains, adding that he still keeps in touch with his professors after graduating last year,

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Shannon Travis ’16 and Patrick Robbins ’15 are high-achieving Political Science & International Relations majors with equally bright futures. especially Christianna Nichols Leahy, Francis Grice and Anouar Boukhars. “Dr. Boukhars would teach us the left view and the right view — and I couldn’t tell where he fell in his personal beliefs.”

Travis has appreciated the opportunity to gain a better understanding of her experiences through the lens of political theory. She remembers one discussion during Leahy’s Intro to Political Science course about the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a set of fundamental rights for all people.

Some classmates argued that the United States violates one or more of these rights on a regular basis.

Travis disagreed. “Wait, hold on a minute here.

Have you ever been to an emerging country?” she remembers asking. “Until you see a man pull a woman by the hair out of her hut because she forgot the water bucket a mile down the road — that’s a human rights violation, not two men who were picked up for marijuana possession in the U.S.” As a woman, Travis understands that she is a minority in a predominantly male military. A 2014 demographics report by the Department of Defense showed that women in the active duty force numbered 200,692, comprising just 15.1 percent of the total. But as an advocate with Women in International Security, Travis is certain that gender neutrality — not just in policy but in practice — will become the new norm.

Lt. Col. Rob Familetti, a senior military science instructor at McDaniel, says none of his female ROTC cadets has expressed an interest in pursuing combat arms jobs, opting instead to seek assignments in the Spring 2016

hot fields of military intelligence and cybersecurity.

Still, it feels right to share the message with young women that every opportunity is now open to them.

“Women definitely make better cadets; they’re more mature,” he observes. “And some of the best officers I’ve served with have been women.”

Sandra Brant Alvey ’87, who is one of only 20 women in the nation to ascend to the rank of Brigadier General in the Army Reserve, celebrates the strides women have made in the armed forces. (See more about her career on page 44.) She is especially gratified that the military has begun paying serious attention to sexual harassment in recent years: “The policies are now in place and the punishments are in proper proportion to the severity of the infraction,” she says. “Leadership at all levels are required to take immediate action when such situations occur, as well as enforce the ‘battle buddy’ philosophy of soldiers looking after soldiers both on and off duty.”

Robbins and Travis remain committed to their service in the reserves and hope their education and experience will help move the military — and the nation — forward. They expect to relocate again after Travis graduates in May, this time to the D.C. area to be closer to Robbins’ job with a government contractor at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Travis expects to be working near the nation’s capital soon too.

“We’ll be the new face of the military leadership in the next five to 10 years,” Robbins says. “I think our McDaniel educations have prepared us well.”

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A NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAM EQ U I P S S T U D E N T S F R O M E V E RY M A J O R T O B EC O M E SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS I N N OVAT O R S

START U P S

BY PEGGY FOSDICK

T H E N E X T G E N E R ATI O N

Communication and Art double-major Suzy Banister works part time at a restaurant where scheduling is a logistical nightmare, so her team decided to develop a shift-based scheduling software that would simplify the process. Environmental Studies major David Colbert craves a warm, protein-rich breakfast he can grab on the go; his team created a plan for the Egg Cupcake. Philosophy major Daniel Leong, a lover of role-playing card games, led his team in devising a new card game that is fun, easy to learn and can be played quickly.

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The Hill

WELCOME TO “Starting Your Own Business,” one of several courses offered within McDaniel’s newest interdisciplinary academic program, The Encompass Distinction, designed to hone students’ skills and mindset in innovation and entrepreneurship through a combination of courses, events, networking and experiential learning.

Encompass is made possible with the generous support of Dennis Sisco ’68 and Alexine Lesko through The Sisco Fund for Enterprise Management. It was developed under the leadership of professor Julia Jasken during her tenure as associate provost and Economics professor Julie Routzahn, with input from 40 faculty members who convened during a two-day workshop to consider the program’s key features.

“We began the program’s development asking faculty to consider the habits of mind that lie at the heart of innovation and to consider the broad-ranging skill sets required for enterprise management,” says Jasken, who Spring 2016

is now provost and dean of the faculty. “We also benefitted greatly from early conversations with Dennis Sisco, as well as some of our other entrepreneurial alumni, who serve as program advisors through their membership in the President’s Advisory Council.”

The Encompass Distinction complements any major and features courses that fulfill other McDaniel Plan requirements, allowing students to pursue the distinction without taking additional credits. The program was created in direct response to what today’s students want in their college experience.

“It’s a value-added program for our students, not an either-or choice. Regardless of a student’s major, Encompass enhances their experience and instills a mindset and skills that are applicable to any career,” says program director and History professor Bryn Upton. “This is where our students want to be; they want to work for themselves or be ‘intrepreneurs’ — bringing positive change within companies.”

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STEPHEN CHAPIN, a Harvard MBA with a wealth of experience as a successful innovator, taught the Jan Term course, “Starting Your Own Business” to 34 enthusiastic students representing a wide diversity of majors. While the business majors needed no guidance creating a cash-flow sheet or marketing plan, Chapin says, the non business majors brought unique perspectives that proved valuable. For example, Suzy Banister’s Art major and minor in Graphic Design, plus her experience working in restaurants, informed her group’s idea for the shiftscheduling software and resulted in a design for an elegant user interface.

“One thing that’s very unique about McDaniel students, and in this particular class is very, very powerful, is that most of them have had jobs. They’ve done everything from steaming crabs at the beach to working in their family business to selling cars,” Chapin observes.

“That’s fantastically valuable because they’ve been talking to customers Students will most of their teen lives and now they have ideas. Entrepreneurship is simcompete in the ply responding to customer needs.”

Innovation Incorporating teaching strategies of the “flipped classroom,” Chapin Challenge for a assigned nightly readings from the textbook, “How to Write a Business $10,000 prize Plan,” and video sessions from Udacity’s online course, “How to Build a Startup,” so that he could devote classroom time to coaching students through the “lean startup” process, which emphasizes early experimentation and customer feedback instead of the more traditional approach of completely developing a product before introducing it to the marketplace.

Chapin shared his experiences founding several lucrative companies, including an Internet marketing business he ultimately took public, and stressed the importance of 16

the minimum viable product, or MVP. The MVP is quickly created with just enough features to test customers’ interests and interactions with the product, allowing innovators to make critical decisions about whether to pivot or to persevere as planned.

Some startups lent themselves more easily than others to testing an MVP within the context of the course. The Egg Cupcake team cooked up samples and tested their product on potential customers, learning that it had serious potential. Another team, led by senior Grant Duffield, decided to pivot after presenting their idea for a customer personality test to several car dealerships; instead they decided to focus on developing a service that would match buyers with knowledgeable brokers to negotiate the purchase of a new car.

Banister and her team weren’t able to develop their shift-scheduling software for restaurants, but tested the idea with various business owners. “I learned that I would need a large amount of startup money, or a friend with software knowledge,” she says. “Based on feedback from small-business restaurants, I think the idea for a shiftbased scheduling software is viable if the right groups are targeted first, and we take consumer feedback into account as the software is built.”

THIS SPRING, freshman Carter Trousdale, a Business Administration-Economics double major, is taking The Encompass Distinction’s signature class, “Innovator’s Compass: The Basics,” in which students begin an online portfolio to which they add over the course of the program and can keep active after graduation. He wants to pursue a career in international business law and knows he’ll need to be an innovator to succeed.

Trousdale already has some experience with innovation.

Last semester in Upton’s first-year Honors course, “Leading Change,” his “next big thing” project was an athletic shoe with interchangeable soles.

The Hill

PHOTOS BY C. KURT HOLTER. PHOTO OF BRYN UPTON AND CARTER TROUSDALE BY DEANNA LUU.

(From left) Entrepreneur and instructor Stephen Chapin; professor Bryn Upton talks with freshman Carter Trousdale about his design for a shoe with interchangeable soles; scenes from the “Starting Your Own Business” course.

“An innovator is a problem-solver, someone who makes things better,” says Trousdale, who is also a Global Fellow.

“We’re reading ‘The Innovator’s DNA’ and a lot of the ideas are what I’ve always done — asked why, why not, what if — but the Encompass program will allow me to develop these skills consciously in a structured way.”

Economics and Business Administration professor Julie Routzahn, who is the Encompass Faculty Innovation Fellow, observes: “Students want to be in charge of their own destiny. They are leery of a lot of things in the economy, and they need to be able to take their ideas and develop them using innovators’ skills: associating, questioning, observing, networking and experimenting.”

To receive The Encompass Distinction, students complete 20 credits in courses associated with the program.

Four credits must be from courses focusing on business or entrepreneurship, such as “Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management,” “Principles of Accounting” or Chapin’s Jan Term course. Four credits will come from the Innovator’s Compass series, some of which are not yet designed.

Encompass students choose the other 12 credits from a continually developing list that currently includes courses such as “Animals as Machines: Biomimetics and Bio-Inspired Design,” “Innovation at Work,” “The Forest Online: Entrepreneurial Storytelling,” and “You Are What You Eat.” The Encompass Distinction is enriched by collaborations with the College’s Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO), the Faculty Innovation Fellow and the President’s Advisory Council, composed of entrepreneurial alumni. In addition, Jason Stambaugh ’07, a Westminster resident who founded Wevival, a web development and online marketing firm, serves as the inaugural Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Students participate in workshops with entrepreneurs and innovators and serve as interns at local startups. The Encompass Connections Spring 2016

event series fosters campus and community engagement, connecting students in new ways with innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE, an event hosted by The Encompass Distinction to bring visibility to the program and build excitement for entrepreneurship on campus, is open to all McDaniel students. This spring, more than 20 proposals were submitted by either individual students or teams, and five were selected to vie for the $10,000 top prize ($5,500 for second place and $2,500 for third place) at the April 11 public event.

Finalists included a financial literacy education project; a niche waste-recycling business; a social media app; a wellness, fitness and nutrition center; and an artisanal brewery for healthful beverages. (Winners will be featured in the summer issue of The Hill.)

In keeping with the lean startup ethos, continuous innovation will Alumni inform the evolution of The Encompass Distinction through feedentrepreneurs back from its customers — McDaniel serve as coaches students — as well as its professors, deans and the alumni entrepreneurs and connections and innovators who serve as coaches and advisors. for internships Being comfortable with change and risk is a vital component of the innovator’s mindset, says Upton, the program director. And that also applies to the development of The Encompass Distinction.

“Basically you have to be able to build the plane while in flight, and that’s not something everyone is comfortable doing,” Upton adds. “Through continuous innovation, we’ll develop an outstanding program that serves both our students and the College — we’ll be the vanguard in this movement.”

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A Changing Climate

BY KIM ASCH

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The Hill

PHOTO CAPTION IN GUTTER

LIFE IS NO WA L K O N TH E B E AC H F O R T H E U. S. AMBASSADOR TO T H E MARSHALL I S L A N DS

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Applauding from his post midway between Australia and Hawaii in the Central Pacific was Tom Armbruster, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The world’s seventh smallest sovereign nation, known colloquially as the RMI, is playing an outsized role in the global debate over what should be done about climate change. The threat to the Marshall Islands is almost literally lapping at the doorsill. The average elevation of the RMI’s thousand-plus tiny islands is a mere 6 feet above sea level. The Pacific Ocean has already destroyed crops and homes once safe from the water, unearthed long-buried graves and posed countless other menaces to the RMI’s very existence.

Since taking his post at the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Majuro in August 2012, Armbruster ’80 has advanced policy that makes climate change-related issues a top priority. He directs resources toward equipping the Marshallese with the training, research and tools they need to mitigate damage while bringing attention to the plight of the islanders and their way of life.

PHOTO: STRINGER / GETTY IMAGES

PHOTO CAPTION IN GUTTER

irtually every country on the planet convened Dec. 12 in Paris and agreed to cut carbon pollution and to help the most vulnerable nations deal with the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. The accord was praised by President Barack Obama and widely viewed as an historic breakthrough on an issue that for decades has defied international efforts to reach consensus on solutions.

Spring 2016

It was Armbruster who nominated native poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who was ultimately selected from 544 applicants from around the world to speak on behalf of civil society during the opening ceremony of the 2014 U.N. Climate Summit in New York City. “We’ve seen waves crashing into our homes and our breadfruit trees wither from salt and droughts,” she said during her rousing address, which is credited for helping to catalyze the will of the world to reach the Paris accord a year later.

“We look at our children and wonder how they will know themselves or their culture should they lose our islands.”

The U.S. has a complicated history with the RMI dating back to World War II, when the Marshallese assisted American soldiers in battles against the Japanese and helped win America’s identity as a Pacific power. The Marshall Islands was also the site of 67 nuclear tests by the U.S. during the Cold War. The largest test, the BRAVO shot of 1954, “is marked every March 1 at Remembrance Day due to the damaging fallout that contaminated several RMI islands,” Armbruster says. There 19

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Island life has been productive for U.S. Ambassador Tom Armbruster and his wife, Kathy, a librarian.

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s a career Foreign Service officer since 1988, Armbruster has navigated the sometimes choppy waters of international diplomacy at posts around the world. He holds master’s degrees in international security from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and in international relations from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. In Moscow, he was the lead negotiator for a treaty signed with Russia on emergency response (signed by Vice President Al Gore for the U.S. and Prime Minister Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin for Russia). He led business and counternarcotic delegations in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. He has assisted Americans in prison in Cuba, Mexico and Russia.

Armbruster likes to quote Ambassador Ron McMullen, now an associate professor at the University of Iowa, who said the two qualities a person needs to be successful as a Foreign Service officer are a commitment to public service and the adventure gene.

Tall and slender with a laid-back demeanor that belies his high energy level, Armbruster has seized many opportunities to get his adrenaline pumping. He has cycled across Cuba, ridden along the Rio Grande on horseback and gone deep-sea diving in the Marshall Islands.

“He’s known as the polar bear, because wherever he goes, he needs to take a swim,” says classmate and longtime friend Fred Smyth ’80. While visiting Armbruster in Finland, the pair donned insulated wet suits and jumped off the stern of a nuclear ice breaker into the frigid waters north of the Arctic Circle.

“I’ve never really lost my idealism” —Ambassador Tom Armbruster ’80

“I may be America’s sportiest ambassador,” Armbruster jokes. But more and more, he says, “the service aspect of this job is most meaningful to me.”

That service has a few times verged on the perilous, as during his tour in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, when he intervened on behalf of an American teen who was abducted by drug traffickers. When Armbruster went to the police station to get her, she whispered that some of her abductors were among the police. As they made their way back to the embassy, the car was surrounded by thugs who demanded he turn the teen over to them. It was a dangerous standoff that took some well-placed phone calls and the intervention of a Mexican Intelligence agent to defuse.

“These so-called police had been insisting that the girl get out of the car and go with them to the border,” Armbruster says. “If we’d agreed, I don’t think the outcome would have been good.”

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rmbruster was a teenager when he caught the Foreign Service bug and went to live with a distant relative who was assigned to a post in Moscow with the State Department. He returned to the States a year later, but from the very first evening of their freshman year on the Hill, Armbruster’s desire to be out in the world was palpable, recalls his classmate, Smyth: “He wasn’t Type A or driven in a way that is stereotypical. He is a go-with-the-flow kind of person, but he’s the one creating the waves, picking up rocks, pursuing opportunities and responding to them.”

Armbruster deepened his interest in international affairs, majoring in Political Science, joining the Model U.N. team and interning with the state legislature in Annapolis. (He still regrets testing out of Spanish because he later had to work hard to become fluent in Spanish and Russian.) He met his future wife when they were cast in the play, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” Armbruster’s role called for him to kiss a different woman during the performances, but it was Kathy Chandler ’78 he began dating and married soon after he graduated in 1980.

For the first eight years after college, Armbruster worked as a broadcast journalist, including a stint at The Hill

PHOTO OF TOM ARMBRUSTER BY DAN ZAK

is a continuing dispute between the two nations about whether the U.S. has paid full and final compensation to RMI. In 1986, the Marshall Islands and the U.S. signed the Compact of Free Association and the RMI became an independent state. Under the Compact, citizens of the RMI can live, study and work in the U.S. without a visa. Security figures prominently in the relationship; the island of Kwajalein hosts an American base for space and missile defense work and the U.S. provides for the defense of the RMI. Last year, Armbruster oversaw the disbursement of $100 million in U.S. grants to support health, education, the environment, and infrastructure in the RMI. But the annual U.S. grants provided by the Compact will decrease each year and end altogether in 2023, so another imperative of U.S. policy is to move the Marshall Islands toward greater self-reliance.

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the public radio station in Hawaii; while there, Kathy earned her master’s degree in library science. They returned to Maryland when Kathy was offered a coveted position as outreach coordinator in the Carroll County Public Library system. Armbruster was already in the process of applying to the State Department and picked up work at National Public Radio and Maryland Public TV. Starting in 1988 with their first post in Finland, and continuing through the many assignments that followed, Kathy made sure to find ways to grow her own career while tending to her family — which grew to include son, Bryan, and daughter, Kalia. During the Armbrusters’ tour in Moscow, she taught at the AngloAmerican primary school. She also took advantage of the State Department benefit that provides language lessons to spouses and became so fluent in Russian she was able to go on a half-hour TV show to teach the locals how to make her homemade pizza recipe.

While Armbruster served as a Diplomat-inResidence in New York City from 2010-2012, Kathy got a job at a branch of the New York Public Library.

Her global resume, experience and education credentials earned her an immediate interview and offer.

In 2012, with the children grown, Kathy hesitated about whether to leave her job and join her husband in the RMI for his three-year assignment. “I told Tom I would go if I could find something meaningful to do.

I didn’t want to be what they call ‘island fluff,’” she Spring 2016

recalls. Kathy succeeded in putting her talents to use, raising grant funds to build a small free library and to expand and renovate a library at the school in Majuro where she also worked. “It was the lowest-paying job I ever had, but the most rewarding.”

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ife in Majuro hasn’t exactly been a leisurely walk on the beach, but it certainly has had its pleasures. The Armbrusters learned to enjoy a slower pace of life with just one road and no traffic lights. They’ve been spoiled by the freshest sashimi they’ve ever tasted and diving in water that is even cleaner and warmer than off the coast of Hawaii. They’ve gained a deep appreciation for the Marshallese people and their culture. Armbruster is satisfied they have helped make a positive difference there.

As soon as his successor is confirmed by Congress, Armbruster’s tour will come to an end. He’s not certain if he’ll accept another overseas assignment or take a civilian job and join Kathy in their new home in San Antonio, Texas, where she started working as a children’s librarian in February. At 57, he says he feels too young to retire from professional life, but doesn’t want to spend more time apart from Kathy, who is ready to stay in one place for a while. Politics, as another form of public service, has a certain appeal.

“I’m pretty optimistic about the U.S. and its future,” he says. “I’ve never really lost my idealism.”

MAN OF THE WORLD 1 Majuro, Republic of the

Marshall Islands, Ambassador Since August 2012

2 New York, New York,

Diplomat-in-Residence 2010-2012

3 Vladivostok, Russia,

Consul General 2007-2010

4 Dushanbe, Tajikistan,

Deputy Chief of Mission 2004-2006

5 Nuevo Laredo, Mexico,

Consul General 2000-2003

6 Moscow, Russia,

Nuclear Affairs Officer 1997-2000

7 Washington, D.C.,

U.S. Arctic Council Representative and coordinator of U.S. Arctic indigenous, scientific, and environmental affairs 1993-1995

8 Havana, Cuba,

Non Immigrant Visa Chief 1991-1993

9 Helsinki, Finland (1st Tour),

Deputy Director Soviet Support Office 1988-1990

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invested

Advancing the vision

A Son’s Salute to His Father’s Legacy

By Kim Asch

Col. Paul Levern Bates ’31 helped integrate the U.S. Army.

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Baron Bates recently visited campus to meet with President Roger Casey and present him with a sizeable check to support student scholarships. His gift — which includes $500,000 in cash and a $400,000 charitable gift annuity — honors the intentions of Baron’s late stepmother, Helen “Taffy” Bates, and his late father, Col. Paul Levern Bates ’31.

It was the second time Baron visited campus on behalf of his father, whose extraordinary service as an Army officer during World War II has been chronicled in three popular nonfiction books. In 2007, Baron accepted the posthumous Trustee Alumni Award on behalf of his dad at a special convocation during Family Weekend. Legendary basketball star and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also attended the ceremony and was recognized with an honorary degree for his book, “Brothers in Arms,” co-written with Anthony Walton.

Abdul-Jabbar’s book chronicles the experiences of Bates and his African-American soldiers who served in the 761st tank battalion. Known as the Black Panthers, they bravely fought on the frontlines for their country during World War II, despite the many barriers racism imposed upon them in the military and at home. Col. Paul Bates was the white officer who eagerly and ably led them to victory. It is Col. Bates to whom Abdul-Jabbar dedicated his book.

At WMC, Paul Levern Bates, a California native, was the quintessential big man on campus. His prowess as a Green Terror football player earned his selection as captain of the undefeated 1930 team and All-American honors. He was president of his Alpha Gamma Tau fraternity. And his tall stature, good looks and personal charisma earned him the nickname “Smooth.” He married Gwendolyn Mann, the young instructor he met during his junior year, in 1933. Baron was born in 1934. After first making their home out West, the couple moved to Madison, N.J., where Paul Bates embarked on a career as a high school football coach and social studies teacher. But in 1941, nearly a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army reactivated Bates, a reserve infantry officer.

Unlike many of the white officers who resented their assignments to the 761st, choosing to bide their time until The Hill

they received promotions to other units, Paul Bates resolved to remain with the Black Panthers. With his simple, direct humanity, he lived on the post with his soldiers, joined them on marches, listened to their comments and complaints, and always insisted that his men be given nothing but the highest caliber of armored training.

Jackie Robinson, a young lieutenant who would someday break the color barrier in professional baseball, was among the unit. He was arrested after refusing to move to the rear of a bus at Fort Hood, Texas, and was subsequently court-martialed. Bates refused to support the indictment and testified on Robinson’s READ MORE: behalf, risking his own career. Ultimately, Robinson “BROTHERS IN ARMS” was found not guilty, but was transferred before the

by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar unit went overseas. and Anthony Walton The Black Panthers were the first African“THE BLACK PANTHERS: American armored unit in the nation’s history to A STORY OF RACE, WAR, land on foreign soil. The men engaged in combat AND COURAGE” for 183 days and during that time they killed or capby Gina M. DiNicolo tured 22,000 enemy soldiers using equipment that was inferior to that of the Nazi force. The 761st also “THE 761ST BLACK PANTHER TANK became one of the first black units in the modern BATTALION IN WORLD Army to fight side by side with white troops. Its many WAR II: AN ILLUSTRATED successes helped end, in 1948, the segregation of the HISTORY OF THE FIRST American military.

AFRICAN AMERICAN “My father often said, looking back, that his purARMORED UNIT TO pose in life was to lead the 761st battalion,” Baron reSEE COMBAT” called. “He used to tell people, ‘I don’t think of myself

by Joe Wilson, Jr. as a warrior; I teach men how to stay alive.”

After the war, Paul and Gwen Bates divorced. Paul married Taffy, an Army nurse he met during his military service. Baron formed a good relationship with his stepmother during the year he lived with her and his dad in Germany while he was a teen. Col. Paul Bates died in 1995 and willed the College a $100,000 bequest to establish an endowed scholarship, with preference given to descendants of the 761st Battalion. Taffy lived for 20 more years, investing wisely in the stock marBaron Bates attended a convocation on camket. She made it clear to Baron that she pus in 2007, along with basketball legend intended to leave McDaniel a sizeable gift Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who wrote a book about to honor her late husband and support his the Black Panther battalion that he dedicated endowed scholarship. But after her death, to Baron’s father, Col. Paul Levern Bates ’31.

Taffy’s estate was split evenly between Baron and his stepbrother. Apparently, the paperwork hadn’t been properly filed to complete her gift to the College.

Baron, a retired public relations executive for Chrysler, didn’t hesitate. “Technically, the inheritance was mine. But I knew Taffy always meant to leave it to McDaniel,” he said, adding that with his gift the endowed scholarship now totals more than $1 million. “My father loved the College, and she loved him.”

Spring 2016

Gift Highlights

$250,000 Catherine from the

J. Bishop Estate. Bishop attended Western Maryland College for two years before graduating from the nursing program at Union Memorial Hospital in 1937.

$100,000 Robin and Sarah pledge from

Salomon to support The Newcombe SASS Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Student Academic Support Center.

$170,250

to support The Joseph Carroll ’63 and Linda Mahaffey Spear ’66 Scholarship Fund through a matured bequest. The alumni couple’s planned giving to the College totals $1,423,756.

$100,000 Ball DuPont Fund from the Jessie

for the DuPont Energy Savings Grant, enabling the College to establish a Green Revolving Fund to improve energy consumption on campus.

Parents Serving as Visitors to the Board Laura Alberg is a pediatrician in Mount Pleasant, S.C. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Duke University and her M.D. from Georgetown University. Her son, Christian, is a junior majoring in English.

Bill Rodgers is on the graduate faculty of Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations and is the chief economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Dartmouth College, a master’s at University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. at Harvard University. His son, Billy, is a freshman.

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back story

What they were thinking

Winter storm Jonas roared onto campus Friday, dumping more than 2 feet of snow on the Hill within 24 hours.

Exchanging shovels for sticks, members of the Green Terror men’s lacrosse team got to work Saturday morning digging out their elderly neighbors. “You just want to stay ahead of it,” senior Jason Lawrence told the Carroll County Times. “With these kinds of snowstorms, you really have to help the people who need it.”

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The Hill

TOP: BOB HANDELMAN. BOTTOM ROW: DEANNA LUU

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Hammocking on the Hill Turns out, campus is a pretty chill place to hang. Senior Amy Kolence of Austin, Texas, has made it her personal mission to spread the joys of hammocking and, judging from all the hammocks sprouting on the Hill, she has succeeded.

Can you identify the campus buildings glimpsed behind these choice hangouts? Match the letter of the photo with the numbered building ID 1 North Village

3 Merritt Hall

2 Daniel MacLea Hall

4 Forlines House

Prize: Correctly match the photos with the building names and be entered into a drawing for a McDaniel College sweatshirt.

Submit: Hammocks, The Hill magazine, 2 College Hill, Westminster, MD 21157. Or email kasch@mcdaniel.edu Deadline: June 8, 2016

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID

2 College Hill Westminster, MD 21157-4390

Burlington, VT Permit No. 58

Change Service Requested

Tell them what it’s like to see the ocean

level with the land.

Tell them, we are afraid.

—— from Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s poem “Tell Them,” about how climate change threatens her native Marshall Islands

As U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Tom Armbruster ’80 has advanced America’s agenda to curb climate change by helping locals, like poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, have a voice before the United Nations.

Read his story on page 18.