Contents Pulisher/Editor Mary Lin Associate Editor Ashley Mains Staff Writers Aryn LaBrake • Jason Leo • Mary Lin Ashley Mains • Mariah Ore Contributing Writers Jordan Amerman • Paul Burkhardt • Stephen Corey Anita Fernandez • Tom Flieschner • Jack Herring Jean Maissen • Ramona Mattix • Salli Maxwell Lorayne Meltzer • Todd Miller • Mary Poole Tim Robison • Donna Secundy • Marjory Sente Staff Photographers Jason Leo • Mary Lin • Ashley Mains Maria Ore • Bridget Reynolds Photo Contributors Jared Aldern • Naomi Binzen Cameron and Cherilyn Boswell Allison Field Bell • Anita Fernandez • Tom Flieschner Susan Fronckowiak • Eric Glomski • Island Press Istock Photo • Jesse King and Lisa Capper • Jean Maissen Amanda Malachesky • Christopher Marchetti • Edward Rooks Romona Mattix • Charisa Menefee • Todd Miller Denise Mitten • Mary Poole • Nancy Russotti Prescott College Archives • Peter Sherman • Unity College Nancy Walther • Margot Wholey • Megan York Interim Director of Development Marjory J. Sente (928) 350-4509 • msente@prescott.edu For Class Notes and address changes, contact Marie Smith • msmith@prescott.edu Send correspondence, reprint requests and submissions to: Mary Lin Prescott College 220 Grove Ave., Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 350-4503 • mlin@prescott.edu Transitions, a publication for the Prescott College community, is published three times a year by the Public Relations Office for alumni, parents, friends, students, faculty, and staff of the College. Its purpose is to keep readers informed with news about Prescott College faculty, staff, students, and fellow alumni. Transitions is available online at www.prescott.edu.
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Documenting the Seri
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Jared Aldern: Telling the Stories of the Land
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Indigenous Self-Determination
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Kate Rinzler: To Walk in the River
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Christensen Funds Seri Education & Research
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Jesse King: A Great “Match”
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Megan York Explores Race through Art
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Mexico: Social Explosion in the Wings?
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Producing a Play in a Day
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The Natural History Initiative
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Reclaiming Indigenous Lands in Kenya
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The College Improves Processes
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2010-2011 Scholarship Recipients
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Fred Sommer Fellow Allison Field Bell
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La Tierra School Celebrates Cultural Diversity
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What It Means to Be a Parent
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The College Honors Dan Garvey
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Alumni Association Board Election Results
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2009-2010 Prescott College Annual Report
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Prescott College Makes the Grade
©2010 Prescott College Prescott College reserves the right to reprint materials from Transitions in other publications and online at its discretion. Prescott College is committed to equal opportunity for its employees and applicants for employment, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, sex or sexual orientation, age, disability, marital or parental status, status with respect to public assistance, or veteran’s status. This policy applies to the administration of its employment policies or any other programs generally accorded or made available to employees.
Departments 20
New Faces
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Faculty Notes
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Class Notes
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In Memoriam
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Last Word
Note: Prescott College refers to students who have not yet graduated by indicating degree, “program,” and projected year of graduation. Cover photo: Elder Angelita Torres Cubillas by Margot Wholey © (See Story on page 2)
President’s Corner
Dear Friends, During my first months at Prescott College, I have spent much time listening and feeling the pulse of the campus. As I am writing this message, Arizona and the nation are in the midst of heated debate on State Senate Bill 1070. Recently, Judge Susan Bolton handed down her ruling on the Bill – a ruling that has engendered more intense debate. Feelings run high on both sides of the issue, and strong individual voices support many points of view. The situation is complex. As an institution whose motto is “For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, and Social Justice,” Prescott College has a responsibility to engage the larger questions around the Bill, and we are well-positioned to address them: social and food justice, local and indigenous self-determination, cultural understanding or lack thereof, racial profiling, the economics of immigration, and many other complexities. These issues have been and continue to be integral to our teaching and learning at the College. In July, we sent a message to students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and friends outlining a transparent process for not only developing a response to the controversy, but also creating a forum for open dialogue on the issues. In August and early September, we have gathered information via focus groups and surveys, as well as larger group conversations and panel discussions to define and refine our collective voice and vision. The College is eager to engage these issues. Already the process has resulted in a remarkable dialogue that has led to a deep and sophisticated understanding of the larger issues and exhibits our commitment to collaborative thinking and action. We hope our emerging position statement serves as a model of meaningful civic engagement that is rational and respectful. I am proud to be a part of these ongoing conversations. To access the full text of the resulting statement, visit www.prescott.edu/administration/response-sb1070-hb2281.html. Also in this issue of Transitions you’ll find an Annual Report (page 27) reflecting on some of the nuts and bolts of running the College. I think you will see that in these turbulent economic and social times, Prescott College is in good shape and is poised for a dynamic future. I look forward to working with all the members of the PC community as we move the College forward. Warm regards,
Dr. Kristin R. Woolever
US-Mexico Border wall
Documenting the Seri Contact with Seri Indians of Sonora, Mexico, while studying outdoor education turned into the life’s work of Margot Wholey ’90 By Mary Lin / Photos by Margot Wholey
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argot Wholey ’90 was first introduced to the Seri Indians, or Comcaac Nation, a coastal tribe near Kino Bay, Mexico, in 1985 when she was an undergraduate at Prescott College studying outdoor education and photojournalism. An estimated 800 members of this seafaring hunter-gatherer tribe currently live along a 100-mile stretch of pristine beaches and estuaries, moving between two villages and seasonal fishing camps. Margot was in Kino for a marine biology class with Doug Hulmes ’74 and Alan Weisman when the tribe captured both her eye and imagination. “It was just amazing, something so different than anything I had known – their language, how they lived, their sense of humor, what they knew about the land, their songs – their ethnobotanical knowledge. It was astonishing to me how people could thrive in this environment that was so harsh and unforgiving on the surface but completely overflowing with sustenance.” In 1987, she returned to photograph them for her Senior Project. “I arrived in Desemboque with a note from Jim Hills, a basket trader since the 60s who knew the ‘old school’ Seri, who I had been introduced to by Prescott College staff.” Hills is currently curator at the gift shop in the Sonoran Desert Museum. “He told me that he knew the perfect family for me to live with … and to take this sealed envelope to the Torres family. I showed up and stayed for a whole month,” she said. “I never knew what the note said.” Even with this entre, fitting in to the community was no easy task. There was a language barrier and the Seri were unwilling to be photographed. “Skill-wise it was really difficult because I didn’t even know if I had anything until I came home and developed the film, and I had to keep the film in a cooler. For that Senior Project I shot possibly 10 rolls of film, and pretty much all of
them were a disaster.” Margot persisted. “I sort of became a Seri woman, wearing the traditional long skirt and cooking and washing clothes, stringing necklaces and gathering things in the desert,” she said. “I certainly did not know how to wash my clothes by hand. First I had to find the bucket – then I had to go to the oil drum and siphon the water out with a really dirty tube – then find out how to get some soap.” The involved process of basket making – the Seris make some of the finest and most sought-after baskets in the world – was one part of the work that Margot participated in and eventually documented with photography. “When the women go to gather the Toroté [to make the baskets] it’s generally during the afternoon, in the hottest time of the day, when there are less snakes,” she recalled. “The Seri move so swiftly through the desert it’s like they are floating. They all just kind of take off and float away with their skirts flowing. If you don’t pay attention they are gone in an instant.” Margot said they also gathered cholla wood to prepare the stems. First they charred and stripped the bark off, and then separated each stem into up to 60 to 70 different pieces with their teeth. The center pieces are used for inside the coil and the outer slippery side is used to wrap the coil. “They traditionally use the foreleg of a deer as an awl to make the baskets, sanding the bone down to a sharp point on a rock, it takes months to make some baskets, even small ones,” she said. The difficulties involved in taking pictures turned Margot’s Senior Project into an odyssey, and eventually her life’s work.
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Since her return she has also been collaborating with the Torres women to collect field recordings of elders singing native poetic and spiritual songs. They’ve collected hundreds of songs from over 24 elders and have also begun recording life stories and cuentos, or folk tales. The Torres sisters are helping to transcribe the songs, adding an important missing piece to understanding and archiving the Seri’s language, Cmiique Iitom, an endangered language isolate. After 23 years, her painstaking efforts to weave a photo-narrative had begun to reveal a deep and sometimes disturbing view of the Seri’s experience. Everyday their land and culture become more threatened as modernity and progress infiltrate this once-isolated tribe. “There is a power plant in Libertad, a fishing village north of Desemboque. Huge tankers thread the needle through the “I finished [school] in December ’87 but had an Incomplete Midriff Islands in the Gulf to bring oil to fuel the power plant – the Senior Project gift that kept on giving,” she said. that gives all the electricity to Hermosillo and Caborca. For the next 10 years Margot returned once or twice a year to “Seri pay more than twice what people pay in Hermosillo for make pictures and live among the Seri. “Each trip I tried to get a power, and it is less than half the distance. Some Seri have few more pictures and they slowly became more open,” she said. stopped paying their power bills in protest and because they By 1997 Margot had can’t afford to. One day we stopped visiting the tribe on a were out … gathering mediciIt was astonishing to me how people could yearly basis. She got married, thrive in this environment that was so harsh and nal roots, and I took a picture had a baby and traveled the of an elder harvesting the roots unforgiving on the surface but completely world, but never stopped with the power plant in the overflowing with sustenance. dreaming of returning to background. This was an aha! Seriland. When she finally moment,” Margot recalls. “This returned in 2007, everything had changed – including herself. could be used to help them obtain or promote green energy.” “When I returned to the Seri village in 2007, I returned with Margot hopes her photos and future multimedia coverage another 10 years of life, travel, and photo experience, and I saw can make a difference, to help the Seri preserve their way of how much the Seri villages and community had changed … life, as well as protect their fragile environment. They had fences everywhere, they had electricity, internet, and “I had seen firsthand what was happening on the cusp of kids were speaking three languages, getting high school equivadevelopment in remote villages in places like Nepal and lencies, and going to college. Thailand. I have tried to bring back an understanding of what “But many of the important elders had passed. This was realpeople in other delicate ecosystems are trying to do to deal ly sad for me. A lot of the people I knew, the people who pracwith the inevitable impact on their environment and territory,” ticed the traditional Seri way of living, were gone. Each time an through applying principles of ecotourism, she said. elder passes in this tribe, a specialized encyclopedia of knowl“Tourists have begun coming in with these giant RVs with edge vanishes. The handful who remain are the very last to trailers and take clams at the beach, drive all over the delicate have lived the self-sustained, nomadic life of their ancestors. dunes with ATVs and leave a ton of garbage. The Seri think “The elders were are dying, fast, abnormally fast, from diathat 100 pesos for camping for a week is a great deal. One betes and other things. I felt a calling to use the opportunities group was a caravan of biologists; they paid the equivalent of I had been given in order to be of service and document as less than ten dollars for the week, per car. much as I possibly could with the elders, with the Torres “The biologists complained that they had been visiting for family as my guides and partners.” years but this time they were a bit scared … It’s the Wild West When she returned in 2007 two sisters in the Torres family, – anyone could come up and ask for a fee.” now approximately 19 and 25 years old, agreed to collaborate Funding is trickling in for Cmiique youth to be trained in with her on a book with her collection of photography and their how to monitor species and given a bit of funding for field sacred spiritual songs, a centerpiece of their culture. trips. “I hope for stronger opportunities for the Cmiique youth Her photography has remained largely unpublished she said, to obtain funding for or an education in conservation, art and because there was so little awareness of who the Seri were; video, ethnobotany, outdoor recreation, and guiding so they can she’d send out queries to magazines including National protect and preserve their land and culture.” Geographic and Native Peoples and they’d report back they Margot has self-published a special edition portfolio, Xepe weren’t interested or that they’d never heard of the Seri. Coosot, of photos of the region. Proceeds from the sales will be “I decided to re-open the unpublished collection, analyzed used to move the collection closer to publication (available on what I had and what was missing, and made a commitment to blurb.com http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/873895). fill in the gaps, update the collection, and document a modern You can see more of Margot’s work at margotwholey.com. Seri view.”
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Sovereignty Through Stewardship Jared Aldern M.A. ’02, Ph.D. ’10 works with American Indian tribes to tell the stories of the land By Mary Lin
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f you want to fish from the richest waters, you need to pay your respects to snakes that live there. The deergrass, redbud, and other plants that are used to create traditional baskets won’t grow if the land isn’t renewed by fire. These are just a few of the kinds of lessons revealed by the traditional stories of Native American tribes of California – stories which, until now, were rarely heard outside of Native American homes and gatherings. That’s likely to change. The Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) has contracted with Prescott College Associate Faculty member and double alumnus Jared Aldern, M.A. ’02, Ph.D. ’10 to customize for California “Lessons of Our Land.” With funding provided by the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians of Highland, Calif., ILTF is investing $450,000 over three years in the curriculum program and in associated professional development for classroom teachers. The Head Start and K-12 classroom curriculum focuses on American Indian perspectives on land and contemporary land policy while meeting state curriculum standards. Jared will coordinate the effort as director of the College’s newly established Land Tenure Education and Restoration Project, “a groundbreaking opportunity to develop innovative curriculum which aligns California state academic content standards with American Indian culture, history, and lore, while addressing current land and water issues at the core of the lessons,” he says. “Indian stories are our history,” adds Ron Goode, Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, who will be a principal consultant for the program. Aldern and Goode, who have previously collaborated on curriculum development and research, will travel throughout California to consult with elders and other tribal community members in order to adapt the curriculum to every region of the state. “The stories connect us to the land, water, elements, resources, animals, and plants,” says Goode. “They promulgate our culture and traditions. They restore our rights to land, reiterate our tribal water rights and validate our spirituality with he who gave life to all the universe.” Jared’s doctoral research in sustainability education focused on helping California tribes to regain stewardship and a collaborative voice in management of water resources. Jared examined use of Indigenous stories which demonstrate historic stewardship of the land and resources, as well as giving voice to Native American viewpoints which are increasingly influential in cases examining sovereignty and jurisdiction. Jared was working as a schoolteacher in a rural school district that served two Indian reservations when he began to collaborate with people from those tribes and others in the area to integrate American Indian history, culture, and education into his lesson plans. This led to his master’s degree work at Prescott. His master’s Thesis, on ecological restoration, told the environmental history of the San Felipe Valley in San Diego County. “Back in the mid 90s I read Ghost Bears by Ed Grumbine (Prescott College Faculty) … He mentions using pioneer’s diaries or other historical documents to build a picture of past environments. That was my first glimmer that there was even a field called environmental history. The rest, as they say, is history,” he laughs.
INDIGENOUS SELF-DETERMINATION AT PC Prescott College partners with Indigenous peoples in the US and abroad in projects designed to facilitate Indigenous and local self-determination. This year Prescott College initiated a scholarship program in partnership with the Helios Foundation designed to cover tuition costs for Native American teachers-in-training. This innovative teacher training program encourages Native American Early Childhood Education teacher education students to live in their home communities while working towards certification and bachelor’s degrees, and in developing curriculum that meets Arizona state standards and incorporates Indigenous languages and culture. The College has also signed an agreement with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation towards development of curriculum through the College’s newly established Land Tenure Education and Restoration Project that meets California state standards and that incorporates Native American land-based stories and lore related to stewardship of the land. The College’s program in Kino Bay, Mexico, empowers local communities through multicultural and inter-institutional collaborations in education, research and conservation. The Center works with the Ecology Club in local schools, inspiring and building youth leadership toward the development of sustainable alternatives to economies based on overfishing. Through a partnership with the Christensen Fund, The Kino Bay Center provides the Indigenous Seri community members with opportunities to build capacity for effective and self-determined resource management for their territory, and for Seri youth to combine western research and conservation practices with the traditional knowledge of their elders towards managing and protecting their rich natural and cultural heritage. In Africa, students in the College’s summer program in Kenya work with the Maasai Mara to research Indigenous land rights, creating reports that help shape local and national policy towards greater collaboration and self-determination.
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To Walk in the River Artist Kate Rinzler donates nature-inspired works to Prescott College
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n September 29, 2010, Prescott College hosted a unique celebration of the arts: a Lan Ting featuring local Prescott artists for whom nature is a central theme. The Lan Ting was held to honor Kate Rinzler who gifted the College and the Prescott Public Library with a collection of her batik paintings. The works were shown in the Crossroads Center from September 30 to October 18. Inspired by nature, the batiks are alive with an energetic dancing quality. Golden foliage on the “spirit tree,” as Kate describes it, in a piece entitled Escalante (left), moves with an inner fire, inviting viewers to “walk in the river.” Other paintings offer viewers a precipitous climb up winding paths and mountain torrents to hidden retreats. Kate spent her teenage years climbing the hills of Ojai, Calif., where she received her primary inspiration from nature. She started her artistic life as a choreographer, dancer, and poet, studying and performing with Bella Lewitzsky. She directed New Dance Theatre in Los Angeles and performed with Fanchon Bennett and company. After many years of teaching theatre arts in elementary and junior high schools, Kate started her present batik painting at the age of 60, using a batik technique she developed to teach children in her daughter’s elementary school. She was inspired by a monumental landscape by 18th century Taoist artist K’un T’sun, whose work reminded her of experiences in the hills of Ojai. Kate’s recent works started with a series of Oriental landscapes, animal paintings portraying horangees, the mythical, folk leopard tigers of Korea, and flower arrangements. Her latest work, southwestern landscapes, reflects her move to Prescott. Between choreographing and painting, Kate joined the Civil Rights Movement, performing and directing with Free Southern Theatre in New Orleans. For the Smithsonian Institution she directed and was field worker for the Children’s Area of the Festival of American Folklife. She also taught in an orphanage in South Korea, where she discovered the horangee folk paintings and for five summers performed with Bread and Puppet Theatre. She taught in elementary and junior high schools in North Carolina and developed a Native American children’s puppet theatre, where she wrote plays from sacred stories of the Southwest Indians. During this time she created afghans, quilts, and wearable art for family, friends, and courageous women activists. Kate has shown her batiks with her daughter Marni and her brother in Washington, DC; at the University of California Channel Islands; and in solo shows at The Raven and at Eye on the Mountain in Prescott. The power of Kate’s gift to Prescott College was not lost on Marjory Sente, Interim Director of Development. Kate invited Toni Kaus, Prescott Public Library Director, and Marj to her home to select batiks. “Sometimes the act of receiving a gift makes an indelible impression on those working with the donor to consummate his or her wishes,” said Marj. Having fought breast cancer for a year, Kate decided to donate the batiks to the College and Library sooner rather than later. Kate talked with Toni and Marj about cancer as a great teacher, “teaching you to look at life and consider options and pathways that you would never have considered.” “Only the best of teachers can call cancer a great teacher,” said Marj. “She is teaching us about making life’s journey with grace and beauty.” Thank you, Kate, for the gift of your batiks and your love for the community of Prescott. Contributions to this article by Marlene Koncewiscz ’10, Mary Lin, Kate Rinzler, and Marjory Sente.
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Self-Determination, Seri-Style By Mary Lin The Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies has received a two-year grant from the Christensen Fund to increase support for empowering the Seri people of Northwest Mexico to address their goals of education, research, resource management, and self-determination. The project, capacity-building for multicultural collaboration in research, conservation, and education in Seri Territory, Sonora, Mexico, will provide the Seri opportunities to build capacity for effective and self-determined resource management for their territory. The project will empower Seri youth to combine western research and conservation practices with the traditional knowledge of their elders in order to manage and protect their rich natural and cultural heritage. “The multicultural exchange and indigenous self-determination promoted by this project are especially critical during an era of generational transition. We hope this project will contribute to Seri efforts to manage their territory in the face of today’s environmental and cultural challenges,” said Lorayne Meltzer, Prescott College Environmental Studies faculty and Co-Director of the College’s Kino Bay Center. “Our vision and mission overlap nicely with plenty of congruity with the Indigenous and land-based philosophy of Prescott College,” said Dr. Laura Monti of the Christensen Fund. “At this juncture in the Seri’s history, when youth have more opportunities for education in Mexico, there is a great need for education that values and affirms the long heritage of traditional ecological knowledge that the Seri hold of the Gulf of California and the coastal region. “Prescott College’s land-based philosophy of education, focus on experiential learning, and particularly its Native American program make the College an ideal partner for the Fund, particularly because the Kino Field Station has already fostered long term meaningful relationships with Seri youth and elders.” The project will also offer Prescott College students, faculty,
and other researchers in the region opportunities to learn about Seri traditional knowledge and support Seri efforts to strengthen their Indigenous self-determination. Support from The Christensen Fund will enable The College’s Kino Bay Center to select a Fellow to work with Seri community members to identify and address their goals in the areas of education, resource management, and self-determination. Specific outcomes in the first year include the assessment of existing educational programs, the coordination of training workshops for Seri, and the development of protocols for Mexican and American researchers wishing to work in Seri territory. The Fellow, together with Prescott College faculty and Kino Bay Center personnel will incorporate support of Seri goals into the Center’s existing programs. This project will enrich the multicultural and multifaceted approach to education, research and conservation, and community empowerment promoted by the Kino Bay Center. This project connects directly to The Christensen Fund’s mission to strengthen relationships between land and people, culture and nature (i.e. biocultural diversity). The project is devoted to connecting research and conservation in the region with Seri traditions, knowledge, and conservation practice. Connecting science and ecology of the region with Seri culture and traditional knowledge of place is a primary focus of this project and central to its success. The Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies facilitates multicultural and collaborative research, conservation, and education efforts in the culturally and biologically rich Midriff Island Region of the Gulf of California. The Center’s programs involve individuals of all ages from local, regional, national and international research, academic, government, and community groups and institutions. For more information, visit www.prescott.edu/highlights/kino.
Prescott College Scholarships Available for Native American Students William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Awarded to a Native American student studying teacher education.
Quitobaquito Scholarship Awarded to a Tohono O’odham student who graduated from a secondary school in the Tohono O’odham Nation of Southern Arizona that demonstrates academic passion and commitment. In lieu of a Tohono O’odham applicant, the award may be awarded to any Native American student who demonstrates these qualities.
Helios Early Childhood Education Scholarship Awarded to applicants who meet admission requirements for the Helios Early Childhood Education Scholars program. For information about how to obtain one of these scholarships contact Financial Aid at (877) 350-1111. To establish an endowed scholarship or contribute to an existing one, contact the Development Office at (877) 350-4505.
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A Great “Match” Jesse King ’75 and Lisa Capper ’75 utilize the Raytheon Matching Gift Program to double their annual gift to Prescott College By Aryn LaBrake ’09 / Photos courtesy of Jesse King and Lisa Capper Jesse King ’75 and Lisa Capper ’75 met at Prescott College, married in 1975, moved to San Diego, and settled in.
That’s the short story. The two still pursue passions they tapped into at Prescott. Now Jesse is a configuration analyst at Raytheon, a leader in defense and aerospace systems, and Lisa is a senior Project Manager at an environmental assessment firm where she completes technical documents under state and federal laws and regulations, focusing on controversial projects with difficult technical analyses. Jesse takes ballet classes for general toning four times weekly, gets in some archery practice whenever possible, and he never misses a good Sunday surf day.
Both value Prescott College for the possibilities it opens in the lives of young people. “It provides a student the opportunity to research his or her ability to forge an individual path, and provides a shield from the mundane for just a bit longer,” Lisa notes. Jesse and Lisa show their appreciation by making a charitable donation to the College’s Annual Fund every year. They have utilized the Raytheon Matching Gifts for Education Program for the past six years to double their gift. 8
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“It’s just so easy; we write a check, go online, scroll down through Raytheon benefit web pages, find ‘Work/Life Programs,’ enter the recipient and the amount,” Jesse explains. “Reading Transitions shows the quality of contributions made by Prescott students after leaving school – in their communities, to their technical fields, and as informed and generous individuals. We want to support that, it’s good for the world, and [through Raytheon’s Matching Program] we double our gift.” Like many companies, The Raytheon Matching Gift Program is designed to encourage Raytheon employees to support education with their personal contributions. “Search out the possibility,” Jesse says. “Raytheon publicizes the program as part of the employee benefit information; your firm may not publicize their ability or program to match donations, but it may still be there.”
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You can find a topic, find a professor, and settle in to a one-on-one exploratory experience with a brilliant mentor.
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When asked about their most memorable times at Prescott, Jesse and Lisa recall “snow on the scrub [as we walked] from old campus to the ‘new’ dorms; a young woman tightrope walking from the Commons roof to the patio as part of the Possibilities class; carving a huge totem pole in the dorm living room; Jesse climbing at the Granite Dells and Granite Mountain; motorcycles jumping from roof to roof on main campus; hiking the Paria River Canyon narrows; a midnight visit to the Casa Rinconada Kiva while working on the Chaco Canyon road system during field school; and of course, Orientation and solo at Lake Powell and Zion [National Park]. “One of the most memorable things about Prescott, beyond the feeling of community and the focus on experiential learning, is the absolute intellectual and social license provided by Prescott … bound only by a sense of ethics and mutual respect, [which] creates a setting in which the ability to learn and explore is absolutely unfettered and much prized.” Lisa recalls, “you can find a topic, find a professor, and settle in to a one-on-one exploratory experience with a brilliant mentor.” Many would agree with Lisa and Jesse that “Prescott provides a fostered setting of mutual respect and (safely indulged) license for intellectual pursuit that is all too rare in this world, and absolutely deserves support.” Please check with your employer to see if they have a charitable contribution matching gifts program. Tina in the Prescott College Development Office (928-350-4508 or tblake@prescott.edu) can assist with more information about matching gifts and in finding an organization to make a match.
Race, Culture, History, and Identity By Jason Leo ’07 / Photos courtesy of Megan York
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acist Disney cartoons on an endless loop. A dressing table where white actors prepare to apply blackface. A scene from Gone with the Wind re-imagined. These were some of the elements from the Senior Project art show of Megan York ’09. The Arts & Letters student built the installation at Sam Hill Warehouse using antiques, images, and artifacts to evoke a period in American history when minstrel shows depicting black people as lazy and illiterate were a popular form of entertainment for white audiences. “People don’t realize how powerful art is at raising awareness,” Megan said. “For me, art needs to be doing something beyond the aesthetic; it needs to have some kind of purpose.” The series of five installation pieces recalled racist media and imagery, centering on the era when white actors acted in blackface, about 1830 to 1950. The pieces also served to raise the awareness of a mostly white audience about the experience of blacks in modern American culture, in Prescott specifically, and at Prescott College. “We still have lots of stuff going on in our culture today that is a result of the race and cultural dynamics of that period,” Megan said. Megan purchased almost all of her materials around Prescott from local antique dealers; they were genuine artifacts of the era (see right). “Honestly, it really came about from a need to explore identity ... I didn’t really have a complete understanding of that period of my cultural history,” Megan, who is African American, reflected. “I began to notice, even at Prescott College, I was being exposed to hardly any black artists.” She tackled her concerns through her studies and by making fine art, an experience that was new for her. She didn’t know how people would react. “I was kind of worried; people sometimes see negative or controversial images and just shut down ... or I was afraid people were going to see these images and not recognize them as negative, rather see them as nostalgic and antique, not recognize the cultural or social impact.” As she created the installation, her perspective shifted. “I finally just came to a place where I just no longer worried about people’s reactions; this art was for me, and it got something out I needed to explore and to express.” After witnessing people’s reactions to her work, Megan’s initial worries lifted. “People were really touched, [and] they seemed to under-
stand the levity of the project; also it was really interactive and they seemed to enjoy that.” The exhibit included five distinct pieces. Megan built a box holding a television looping racist cartoons from the era, made by Disney and Warner Brothers. Another piece was a trunk decoupaged in images of white men in blackface, revealing a propped-up costume and playing music typical of minstrel shows. A third was an antique fridge and kitchen scene, saturated in objects depicting blacks in roles of servitude and slavery. A mirrored dressing room table at which a white person could prepare for the minstrel show stage constituted the fourth piece. Small wallmounted chandeliers overhead illuminated a black face mask above it, and on the table below sat a makeup kit, complete with the burnt cork white actors used to paint their faces and necks. Finally, she created a set of framed stills mounted on a wall, with headphones beside it. The images and the audio playing in the headphones are from a scene in Gone With the Wind in which Scarlett is doted on by Mammy, her black servant. Intermingling were staged reproductions of the same stills, where Megan and a white friend reversed the roles so Mammy is white, and Scarlett is black. “The different pieces, they just came to me ... sometimes at 3 or 4 a.m. an idea would just hit me,” Megan said. Megan, graduating with an Interdisciplinary Arts & Letters competence, calls her degree “one of the best kept secrets of Prescott College. I was able to use everything I had been studying in one cohesive degree.” Megan is headed to graduate school to pursue studies combining African American studies and art history in order to create an art curriculum as a vehicle for teaching history and heritage in urban public schools.
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Mexico: Is a Social Explosion By Todd Miller ’97
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avier is trying to grind out a living
According to the most recent quarterly numbers, Mexico’s economy contracted 10.3 percent over the three-month period on the streets of Mexico City playing his harmonica for April to June 2009. When compared with the one percent conrestaurant patrons for a few coins. It was tough enough traction in the United States during the same period, in line with to find work before the global economic crisis hammered the saying: “When the US sneezes, Mexico catches pneumonia.” Mexico, but now it is “… difficult, real difficult,” he says, According to Velázquez this is truer than ever under “they say even the city government is firing their street cleanNAFTA, which has increased the percentage of Mexican ers and cutting their salaries.” He talks about going north to exports that go to the United States, making Mexico more try his luck in the United States. “But it’s hard there too,” he dependent on the US economy – and vulnerable – than ever admits. As he thinks about his family, his eyes dart with the before, a level of dependence not seen since the colonial era worry and desperation shared by many of his fellow Mexicans. with Spain. The crisis could According to finally push Mexico In the last few decades we have talked about nothing else but crisis. official statistics, over the brink, into -Marco Antonio Velázquez , Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) 700,000 jobs were disaster. According lost between October 2008 and May 2009. Prices for the basic to the country’s weekly news magazine Proceso, “unemployment, food basket continue to be daunting, especially to those earning increasingly costly public services, family debt, and desperation the paltry minimum wage of five dollars a day. because of hunger” as a result of this crisis, “are causing increasAnd, According to the Mexican Association of ingly violent reactions. The fed-up clamor in a wide array of the Municipalities, “95 percent of the municipal governments in population, that is now becoming more evident, could soon the country are now bankrupt.” In 2009, remittances sent home become what, although some see it as farfetched, many think is by Mexicans working abroad declined for the first time in entirely possible: A social explosion.” years, directly affecting the well being of the poorest communiPremonitions of this are fed by well-publicized acts of vioties across the country – communities that depend on that lence, perceptions of a dramatic growth in criminal activity and, income for survival. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a more hopeful note, the recognition that many political, warns that the “economic marginalization and destitution” social, and labor activists are trying to organize this discontent caused by the crisis in poor countries in the world, “could lead to push for real changes in the structure of Mexico’s economy, to political and social instability.” especially core neoliberal policies that many on the left believe The response of Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, to the to be at the root of the crisis. crisis has spurred protest across the country, exacerbating the Even before the crisis unleashed its economic horror on possibility of instability. Central to Calderón’s 2010 budget proMexico in 2008, the Mexican economy was in shambles. “In the posal to fight the crisis is a two percent tax on food and medilast few decades we have talked about nothing else but crisis,” cine, both of which are currently exempt from taxation, and says Marco Antonio Velázquez of the Mexican Action Network increases in the prices of electricity, gas, and water. on Free Trade (RMALC), noting whole generations have Pushing the initiative, packaged to “combat poverty,” known only crisis. Calderón said, “If we arrive at a point where poor families conThe havoc wrought by neoliberal policies and the North sume less water, without sacrificing their well being, consume American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is well documentless electricity, we are going to help these families save money, ed, especially the displacement of millions of small farmers and but we are also going to save our own budget, because each the devastation of the domestic manufacturing industry. Before kilowatt that is not consumed represents a subsidy that we 2008, of every 730,000 young people entering the formal labor don’t have to pay.” Protestors across the country say these market, only 80,000 found employment. Many have taken measures will disproportionately affect the poor, who spend the refuge in the informal economy, where 60 percent of the active bulk of their income on these basic needs. working population attempts to eke out a living with jobs that The protests continue. The proposed 16 percent budget typically have no guaranteed salaries or benefits. reduction to the small-scale agricultural sector, already poorly However, what speaks most directly to a failed economic funded due to neoliberal policies, has propelled campesino model is the enormous number of Mexicans who migrate to farmers to plan marches throughout the country to protest other countries – mostly, of course, the United States – to look these “crisis measures.” Demonstrations against the governfor work, half a million on average each year since 1994. No ment’s response reached their most comical point in San Luis other country in the world expels as many people per capita as Potosí where 600 protestors attacked the state governor with Mexico. By any measure, the country was already in crisis. The eggs complaining of rising unemployment and prices. The current crisis is like a kick in the head to an economy that was yolk-covered governor ordered many arrested on charges of already down on the ground.
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in the Wings?
sedition and inciting a riot. There are a thousand flares of resistance throughout the country that show a “deep awakening to the situation,” but they are all “dispersed” according to National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) professor Marcela Orozco. “There has to be cohesion to effect real change.” Added along with more established movements in Chiapas and Oaxaca, “this could result in a social upheaval. But it has to be an upheaval that changes the economic model.” RMALC’s Velázquez underscores Orozco’s point: “The current economic crisis has proved that neoliberalism is dead. That’s why we’re saying: to get out of the crisis is to get out of NAFTA. That is the task ahead of us as a country.” RMALC, along with many other organizations, coalitions, movements, and even some political leaders in Mexico will be trying to organize the cohesion necessary to form a critical mass to change the economic situation by changing the economic model. “We are in the same exact situation in Mexico as we were in the early 20th century with Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship,” says Velázquez. “Díaz, like modern neoliberalism, sold
off the country to foreign companies while the vast majority of the population lived in misery. Díaz, like Calderón, militarized the country and ruled with an iron fist.” The mixture of misery and militarization was explosive. Javier, on the streets of Mexico City, is aware of the cycles of Mexican history. Under the Díaz dictatorship the Mexican Revolution exploded in 1910. One hundred years before that, the famous grito, or yell, of the radical priest Miguel Hidalgo unleashed a war in 1810 in which Mexico would wrestle its independence from Spain. In both cases Mexico was entrenched in the economic agendas of foreign powers, like today it finds itself with NAFTA. “They say that we’re due for another revolt in 2010,” Javier says. His eyes slightly spark when he says this. It’s the kind of spark that says that something has to give, something has to change, there are too many people like him with not much more to lose. This article was first published on the Website of the North American Congress on Latin America (nacla.org) on September 29, 2009. Todd Miller ’97 is a NACLA Research Associate.
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How to Produce a Play in 24 Hours (or less) By Mariah Ore B.A. program ’10 / Photos courtesy of Charissa Menefee
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t’s Friday night, about nine o’clock, and I’m in Granite Performing Arts Center with 33 other volunteers, waiting for our assignments. Tonight, we’re told, some of us will stay up until morning crafting six different 10-minute plays, and tomorrow the rest of us will turn the scripts into performances. The task seems daunting, but as a certifiable stress addict, I feel ready for the challenge of the One-Day Plays. I survey the group: random and assorted characters, young and old, students and community members, perched on the circle of chairs. Many people have brought outlandish props and costume pieces to help inspire the writers: a bike pump, several berets, an umbrella, an African drum, and a sign – Beware of Trains” ... random props, and a motley crew. Dr. Charissa Menefee bustles around, greeting everyone – she seems to know us all by first name – along with her busy helper, Viggy Alexandersson B.A. program ’10, a friend of mine. Dr. Menefee gives us a welcome, and describes what will happen in the next 24 hours. We introduce ourselves; Viggy takes the actors’ pictures with ancient Polaroid film. When the actors and directors leave, the writers will choose actors and build a 10-minute play around them. Among those who plan to brave the long hours of the night there is a buzz of excitement building that can only be attributed to anticipation and caffeine. When I arrive at the Center at 8:30 the next morning, I am significantly less rested that I would like to be. A group of tired writers gather around a pot of coffee, still in their worlds of character and plot development. In the main room, directors sit around a table with Dr. Menefee, buried in scripts. They are reading through the six plays, trying to decide which one each will spend the day perfecting. The actors trickle in. As we examine the scripts, it sinks in that the plays we are reading have been written specifically for us; an ego rush follows, and then a spike of adrenaline as we realize that we need to have an entire short play – dozens of lines – nailed by 7:00 this evening. After our first reading of Mary Lin’s play, Beware of Trains, I breathe a sigh of relief. The play is full of killer one-liners, and
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somehow manages to incorporate three songs. My director, Nicole “Nikki” Kokotovitch B.A. program ’10, and the two other actors in the play, Kevin Cochran ’09, Ben Bradstreet, and I have a short discussion of Nikki’s vision, and we begin our day of rehearsal. At lunchtime, after a few read-throughs and about three or four times stumbling through the play as it should appear to the audience, it becomes clear to us how little time we actually have. We panic, then quickly assemble props and costumes, which entails compiling mountains of camping gear, and begin the tedious process of line memorization. Nikki somehow finds magical solutions for each small problem, and Ben, more experienced than Kevin and I, helps give life to the characters by facilitating discussion about the play’s back-story. There are some points during rehearsal in which all four of us laugh hysterically at Kevin’s high-pitched interpretation of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” At other points – too many others – it seems that our lines will never be memorized. Around us, various other forms of organized chaos have ensued. Directors and casts from the other five plays mill around with random props in various stages of costume, and as the hour of our performance draws closer, somebody points out that the plays, which were advertised as being produced in 24 hours, are actually produced in 21 or 22, since the performance starts at 7:30. My cast members and I have stage directions and songs down by this point, and I have found a quiet nook to read through the play. When we come back from a short dinner break, we put on costumes and continue working, even as the audience members start to file in. Everyone waits in the wings as the chairs fill, and Dr. Menefee gathers us for a final pep talk. She looks exhausted but wears a big smile and manages to bring calm to the group. My group runs our lines through twice more as the show begins, and finally we start to feel confidence win over. Before we know it we are pushed onstage. After hearing the first giggle from the audience, it’s easy to relax and have fun. We miss a few lines here and there – Nikki casually yells them out from offstage – and it’s clear the audience doesn’t seem to mind. And, when it’s all over, and we stand as one giant group amidst cheers, whistles, and standing applause, we realize that, 22 hours is just enough time to write and produce a play after all – and have a blast doing it.
Natural History Initiative: From Decline to Rebirth Prestigious NSF grant to fund series of workshops, ongoing networking of professionals across disciplines to support natural history education
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t’s a dilemma we can’t afford to ignore: as the study of natural history experiences a steep decline worldwide, the need for understanding the natural world and human relationships within it becomes ever more crucial. That’s what impelled Prescott College Environmental Studies Faculty Dr. Tom Fleischner and Prescott College graduates Dr. Josh Tewksbury ’92 and Dr. Kirsten Rowell ’95 to develop the Natural History Initiative: From Decline to Rebirth. The three applied for and were awarded a National Science Foundation grant, which, with additional funding from other sources, allows them to bring professionals across fields and disciplines together for four, fiveday workshops scheduled over the next year. “We know people know how to do this [natural history] because we always have. Simply put, there have never been people without natural history. Yet, as I have repeatedly stressed, there has never been a time in the history of the world, when natural history was practiced less. It’s not coincidental, I strongly believe, that this lack correlates with the rise of so many social problems and dysfunctions,” he said. The workshops are designed as think tanks, to develop approaches and strategies for bringing more natural history – “a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world” – into the classroom and professions that need greater understanding, and for bringing more students, academics, artists, and professionals of all kinds into nature. The first workshop, Natural History and Society, will be held at Rancho de la Osa, in Sasabe, Ariz., on January 24-28, 2011. The grant was awarded to Prescott College and the University of Washington, both Josh and Kirsten’s employer. The pair met at Prescott College as undergraduates, where Josh worked closely with Dr. Tom Fleischner on his Senior Project. Dr. Fleischner is also President and cofounder with Josh of the Natural History Network, www.naturalhistorynetwork.org. “Solutions for the complex problems of the relationships between humans and nature need direct involvement of a broad spectrum of society – including large and small university leaders, businesses that rely on recreation, donorfunded environmental nonprofits, and nature centers around the country,” the project application explains. “All of these interest groups are invested in the connection between people and nature, and their interests are not far from those of land stewards, conservation biologists, and environmental foundations. Yet leaders in these groups are rarely given the opportunity to work collaboratively toward joint solutions to address the complex of problems surrounding the loss of natural history from our schools, from our universities, and from our free time.” Perhaps more importantly, agriculture and harvest-based economies like fisheries suffer from a dearth of basic knowledge and can be benefitted by the methods of observation and recording, and modeling systems and larger-scale viewpoints from the field of natural history, Dr. Fleischner observes. “We’ll be exploring why natural history is so essential to the human spirit, asking, ‘What are the cultural elements that have so dramatically reduced the practice of natural history?’, and how we might remove these established impediments so that vibrant natural history is no longer relegated to the sidelines. Our ultimate goal for the series of workshops is to reach across social, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries to form a unified working network.”
Photos courtesy of Tom Fleischner
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Photos courtesy of Mary Poole
Reclaiming Indigenous Lands Prescott College students work to recover land for the Maasai people of Kenya By Mary Poole
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he presentation was held in the conference room of the Seasons
Indigenous communities have gradually stretched open the limits imposed by prior understandings of how power and privilege operate in the postcolonial reality, infusing social justice activism with new ideas. Hotel in Narok, the largest town in Indigenous communities share a common connection to Kenyan Maasailand, a town of dirt streets, open-air ancestral land and all of its inhabitants, one that creates a basis vegetable markets, and cows grazing on patches of for culture and community not found in more westernized socigrass sandwiched by cinderblock buildings. eties. Where land has cultural meaning beyond market value, human beings can experience their own humanity differently. Dozens of red velvet chairs in neat rows faced two linen-covThe United Nations and other international bodies have begun ered tables beside a white sheet tacked to the wall – the projecto not only recognize the value of Indigenous relationships to tion screen. Our donated projector was past its prime, and the land, but have also begun to create legal frameworks for declarroom had to be darkened to see the faintest outline of an ing colonial and postcolonial land seizures illegal and returning image, accomplished by stapling thick maroon tablecloths over land to Indigenous communities. the windows. When those ran out, people in the room offered Prescott College students became involved in land rights shukas, red blankets worn by Maasai people. The room was activism in Kenya through a summer program that I created transformed into a reddish-hued cave. with Maasai human Our class – 10 students, their teachers, The suit for the return of Mau Narok will establish precedent, rights activist Meitamei Olol Dapash in 2004and Maasai colleagues perhaps even beyond Kenya, to other postcolonial societies. 2005. That first year 12 – have arrived hours students, led by Kaitlin early, the students in Noss ’05 and Ann Radeloff ’05, met weekly to co-create the seats of honor at the front. first course, read and talk about Indigenous rights, become Prescott College Board members, here to witness and supconversant with their own cultural lenses, and to hold fundraisport the students, set about organizing tea and other tasks. ers for their plane tickets. Maasai people began filing in, elders from villages near The program that resulted is as much their vision as town, gradually overfilling the room. Roughly half are from the Meitamei’s and mine. Over the years students have taken initiatopic of the presentation – Mau Narok, a precious part of tive to create more programs, including water, scholarship, and Maasailand illegally taken under British colonization and then pen-pal projects; field guide training; and media center develmeted out to elite Kenyans as spoils of war after Independence opment. The Maasai Community Partnership Project was in 1963. established and now involves many members of the larger comMau Narok residents set out the previous day, traveling munity of students, faculty, administration, alumni, and membarely passable rain-soaked roads, in buses and on foot. They bers of the Board of Trustees. came to meet our students, to learn about their research into For the past two years, our work has focused on the return the broader loss of Maasailand, about Indigenous land rights in of ancestral land at Mau Narok. This lush, fertile 30,000 acres other parts of the world, and to strategize together about the of forest and grassland, headwaters of rivers and streams cascurrent court case to reclaim this piece of land – a case made cading off the famous Rift Valley escarpment, was critical to the possible by the research of Prescott College students. Maasai community and its nomadic life before the arrival of the For the past six years, Prescott College students have been British. At the time, no one family or clan lived on land as rich engaged in the fight waged by the Maasai community to recovas Mau Narok so that the entire community might converge er its stolen land. The work of these students has changed the there and be sustained in times of drought. course of history for the Maasai people. In 1907, a British settler seized land at Mau Narok under One might wonder how students from a liberal arts and the protection of the colonial government. At Independence in environmental college in the southwestern US became involved 1963, colonized land was returned to more elite Kenyan ethnic in the struggles for justice of an Indigenous African community. communities, and Mau Narok was re-occupied by members of The answer is that our students are demanding an education the inner circle of Kenya’s first president. The forest was razed, that brings them into the world with skills to do effective social rivers dammed, wheat grown for export, and Maasai herders justice work, and there is no issue more compelling to them beaten and fined for straying across its borders. Maasai people than Indigenous land rights. now occupy the dry lands south of Mau Narok. Without a Since the 1970s, led by Native American movements,
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Photo courtesy of Mary Poole
drought reserve they lose up to 90 percent of their livestock in dry times, keeping the community in perpetual poverty. In 2006, the Prescott College summer program conducted primary research on the historical loss of Mau Narok based on documents gathered from Kenya’s national archive. An indepth report was produced and delivered to the Maasai community, and students raised $5,000 to initiate a lawsuit. Over the past two years, led by Meitamei, our colleagues in Maasailand have organized the community, assembled a legal team, and filed the suit, currently before Kenyan Superior court. The timing is ripe: Kenya voted this summer to establish a new constitution that will dissolve political power and reconstitute land tenure. The suit for the return of Mau Narok will establish precedent, perhaps even beyond Kenya, to other postcolonial societies. The case has caused a stir in Nairobi and in Maasailand, where Maasai have begun to move back onto the land, their cows now grazing the former wheat fields. This year, the 2010 Prescott College class provided legal research for the lawyers trying the case. Our students researched more in-depth history of Mau Narok, explored two other potential land rights cases in Maasailand to establish patterns and context, and surveyed successful Indigenous land rights cases in other parts of the world to inform legal strategies. These students worked hard through the summer, reading documents in their tents into the night under the glow of headlamps, going back over maps to reconstruct the history, pushing themselves to get it right, to cite everything they found. In Maasailand, opportunities such as this case come around less than once in a lifetime. Our students understood this, and gave it everything they had. The presentation lasted seven hours. The students had tried to hone delivery to an hour and a half, not including translation (into the Maasai language), every word written on yellow note cards in the interest of speed and precision. But the community was engaged from the moment the first word was spoken – translators elaborated, elders interjected, maps were suspended on the makeshift screen and pored over with great attention. Our students were thanked from the heart by community 16
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members, one after another. One man stood and shook with emotion as he said, “we have suffered so much, and no one has heard our despair until now.” These were not just students, but colleagues in a community of faculty, lawyers, community activists, and Board members. They are highly educated people, with skills that are desperately needed, to read archival documents and reveal hidden truths. They can think critically, and therefore can develop and support an interpretation. Right now, they are needed by the world. During the community presentation, I noticed Board members and spouses moving about quietly, refilling thermoses of tea, patiently sitting through long stretches of un-translated Maasai language. Our unity of purpose in that moment – the painstakingly-worded yellow note cards, the refilled sugar bowls, the smiles of encouragement, the humility expressed by all of us together, sharing in the service of a marginalized community – made me feel more proud than ever to be part of Prescott College. Through its support, our collaboration in Maasailand has a community center with 10 acres of land, computers, and a growing land-rights library. All for the use of Prescott College, the Maasai community, and our common work: land rights, women’s empowerment, water rights, environmental conservation, and culturally empowering education. For more information or to donate to our projects, visit maasaicpp.org.
Photo courtesy of Mary Poole
A Culture of Continuous Process Improvement The Six Sigma approach to campus processes nets quick fixes as well as long-term results
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n the past several years Prescott College has undertaken significant structural work to “clean up” and better integrate its primary information technology systems. This past spring and summer Kistie Simmons M.A. ’07, faculty and E-Learning Coordinator, and Jordan Amerman, Business Analyst in the Business Office, took the College a step further when they began certification to become Six Sigma process improvement practitioners. The two are now working across departments to build the framework necessary to help develop and sustain what Jordan terms “a culture of process improvement.” The Six Sigma approach focuses on improving processes within an organization while taking into account the “voice of the customer,” and can be applied across diverse organizational processes, Jordan explained. “Six Sigma’s data-driven approach allows for statistical analysis of an issue and helps practitioners arrive at an improvement opportunity. It is an approach that reduces waste, allows for identification of non-value-added activities, and provides the much-needed quick wins to improve efficiency,” as well as long-term solutions to more complex problems, he said. “As a methodology, Six Sigma provides a framework that
enables process owners to look at a process from various perspectives (supplier, input, process, output, and customer) irrespective of the operational area.” One quick win: the College has dramatically reduced the time required to process student refunds. Savings in time and labor allow the Business Office to invest in other activities that will enhance the students’ overall experience at the College. The anticipated benefits from this effort include reduced costs and increased student success, employee efficiency and satisfaction, as well as increased efficiency, not only in existing programs, but also in implementation of new ones, including resident master’s degree programs. Jordan believes that the current economic climate provides an opportunity. “History tells us that challenging economic times can act as positive ‘trigger points’ for change, enabling organizations to create competitive advantage that lasts long after the economy has regained momentum. “This approach could make the difference between sustainability and stagnation. By acquiring and institutionalizing a focus on process improvement and operational excellence, Prescott College can find new ways to deliver innovative service excellence for internal customers and students alike.”
Jordan Amerman Jordan joined Prescott College as a business analyst in the Business Office in October 2009. Responsible for understanding the business systems processes at the College, identifying improvements, and supporting solutions to maximize efficiencies, Jordan does it all with a signature sense of humor. He also analyzes, improves, and maintains technology-based business systems and associated processes. Before coming to Prescott Jordan worked for more than two decades as a business analyst and project manager, leading teams in the health and fitness, consulting, and banking industries. His focus has been helping organizations develop the tools and methodologies to measure and improve their operational performance, practices and systems.
Kistie Simmons M.A. ’07 As of 2010 Kistie Simmons M.A. ’07 accepted appointment as faculty Coordinator of E-learning. In this capacity, Kistie is responsible for coordination of key instructional technology resources for students, staff, and faculty across all College programs (e.g. Moodle course management system, Elluminate online collaboration and conferencing, Digication e-portfolios, etc.). Kistie ensures regular professional development opportunities for faculty and staff as well as training and support for students, with an exemplary focus on good communication and customer service. Prior to joining Prescott College, Kistie worked for over 20 years directing and leading teams in telecommunications, insurance, and banking, providing training, customer service, product delivery, project management, process improvement, risk management and fraud reduction, and underwriting.
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2010-2011 Scholarship Recipients Scholarship Name
Student Name
Arts & Letters Writing and Literature Scholarship.....................Evan Belknap B.A. program ’11 Boyce Endowed Scholarship Fund ...............................................Rebecca Arriola B.A. program ’12 Boyce Endowed Scholarship Fund ...............................................Austen Lorenz B.A. program ’10 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Matthew Hart B.A. program ’11 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Austen Lorenz B.A. program ’10 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Weston Howland B.A. program ’11 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Claire Franke B.A. program ’12 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Anya Fayfer B.A. program ’13 Designated Class Archivist.............................................................Emma Gifford B.A. program ’11 Dorothy Ruth Ellis Endowed Scholarship ...................................Jourdan Ross B.A. program ’10 Dugald Bremner Scholarship.........................................................Catherine Armstrong B.A. program ’11 Gemma Kemp-Garcia Scholarship ................................................Tishia Stewart B.A. program ’11 Helen Wright Memorial Scholarship ............................................Michael Jennings B.A. program ’10 James Stuckey Commemorative Scholarship ...............................Tami Remming B.A. program ’10 KAKATU Foundation Scholarship Fund......................................Gretchen Heine B.A. program ’10 Kelly Megan Stack Endowed Scholarship....................................Dillon Metcalfe B.A. program ’13 Knaup Family Scholarship Fund...................................................Daniel Combes B.A. program ’13 Knaup Family Scholarship Fund...................................................Becky McLemore B.A. program ’12 Merrill Windsor Memorial Scholarship ........................................Claire Franke B.A. program ’12 PC Live! Video Scholarship............................................................Hugh Denno B.A. program ’11 PC Live! Video Scholarship............................................................Jeremy Riddell-Kaufman B.A. program ’11 PC Live! Video Scholarship............................................................Ilana Moss B.A. program ’13 PC Live! Video Scholarship............................................................Michael Neyers B.A. program ’12 Quitobaquito Scholarship ...............................................................Jonathan Morell M.A. program ’12 Ruth Morris/Jean Maas Memorial Scholarship............................Katherine Mareck B.A. program ’11 Steve Walters ADP Scholarship.....................................................John Canan B.A. program ’11 Steve Walters MAP Scholarship ....................................................Robyn Macey M.A. program ’12 Steve Walters Ph.D. Scholarship ...................................................Abeer Salem Ph.D. program ’12 Thomas H. Simpson Memorial Scholarship Fund ......................Matthew Hart B.A. program ’11
Sommer Fellowship Award
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he Fredrick and Frances Sommer Fellowship went to Allison Field Bell B.A. program ’11 this year. Established in 2000, the Fellowship is intended to support the concentration necessary to educate the aesthetic sensibility of the chosen Arts & Letters student by providing housing in the Sommer cabin during their senior year of enrollment. Allison will also donate a piece of artwork created during the fellowship term to the foundation archive. Until she discovered photography in high school, Bell wanted to be an ichthyologist (shark scientist), but contends that she has always been compelled by the creative arts. “I’ve always been, I guess ever since I was little, creating art, weather it was tiny little art projects or collecting things for art projects.” Photography came easily to her. It was when she first tried her hand at writing poetry, in a college course at UC Santa Cruz, she found herself both challenged and inspired. “The poetry class was really difficult but I learned a lot. I realized I wasn’t learning about writing, but I was learning different ways to interact with my surroundings, which was really cool.” It was while attending the Arava Institute, an environmental studies school/study abroad program where Palestinians, Jordanians, Israelis, as well as Americans and South Americans come together to study the environment in the hopes of facilitating a peace dialogue, that Allie decided to pursue an experiential, interdisciplinary education found at Prescott College. She is grateful to have been selected for the Fellowship, and plans to use the time and studio space to work on a variety of art projects including painting, poetry and photography. As an interdisciplinary student and artist, Bell aspires “to create art that also has greater implications for the world at large ... I think the best way of doing that is having it be really personal and showing a very personal experience with something, and leaving the reader to make their judgments.” 18
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New Faces Tina Blake Tina Blake, new Assistant Director of Annual Giving, brings years of experience in event planning, marketing, and data management as well as a “passion for people” to her new position. Tina gained that experience at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and various government agencies. She holds a B.S. in Political Science from Arizona State University. She enjoys dancing, hiking, yoga, volunteering in the community, and keeping up with her two young daughters.
Danny Brown, M.Ed. Danny Brown, new Program Development Director for the College’s Professional Preparation Programs (PPP), will serve as College liaison to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and other relevant accrediting bodies. Danny will also lead the PPP Steering Committee to assure College-wide faculty governance of our teacher preparation programs, develop and revise PPP curricula in alignment with ADE requirements and state/national standards, and serve as chair of the emergent M.Ed. programs. Danny is currently involved with West Yavapai Guidance Clinic as a member of their Board of Directors. He also enjoys hiking, camping and spending time with his wife and two young boys.
Denise Mitten, Ph.D. Prescott College welcomes Dr. Denise Mitten as the new faculty member and chair of graduate programs in Adventure Education. Prior to Prescott College she served as Associate Professor at Ferris State University, has held academic positions at the University of Minnesota and Metropolitan State University, and served as Executive Director of the women’s adventure travel and education organization, Woodswomen, Inc. Denise holds graduate degrees in Forest Science and in Education from Yale and the University of Minnesota respectively.
Peter Sherman, Ph.D. Dr. Peter Sherman was hired as faculty member and chair of graduate programs in Environmental Sciences, effective as of the 2010-11 academic year. Peter previously served as Associate Professor at the University of Redlands and has held positions at Marlboro College, Deep Springs College, Arizona International College, and the School of Renewable Resources at the University of Arizona. Peter holds graduate degrees in Behavioral Ecology from Binghamton University (SUNY) and Tropical Rainforest Systems Ecology and Conservation from the University of Michigan.
Nancy Walther Nancy returned to Prescott College this year in a new role, as the Graduate Academic Program Coordinator. She will work with faculty, students, and staff within the graduate programs to ensure the smooth operation of multiple systems, processes, and programs. Now a key member of the Adult Degree and Graduate Programs staff team, Nancy previously worked in the Business Office from 2000 through 2008. She is well known for creating the phrase – “It’s a great day at Prescott College.”
La Tierra Opens its Doors La Tierra Community School, the only Expeditionary Learning elementary school in the Prescott area, opened this August, offering Spanish at all grade levels and a curriculum steeped in the cultures and places of the Southwest. “For those of us who have always embraced the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Arizona and chosen this state as our home … the last year has been painful. We have watched legislation chip away at the rights of underrepresented groups, culminating in the ban of Ethnic Studies in our K-12 schools,” said Anita Fernández, Prescott College Education Faculty. “Due to the incredible generosity of a variety of donors and foundations, the school has become a reality and the response has been fantastic,” she said. Tuition at La Tierra is offered on a sliding scale to ensure children will not be turned away for financial reasons. The school is affiliated with both Expeditionary Learning Schools (ELS) and Prescott College, offering PC students a variety of opportunities to learn from and contribute to the school. Most recently, agroecology students planned, designed, and installed a garden using native seeds, agricultural history, and their knowledge of school gardens as learning spaces. 20
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What It Means to Be a Parent By Donna Secundy As a parent of two Prescott College graduates, I genuinely believe this is an extraordinary time to be a part of the College community. Since my family first made the drive through the desert and up the hill, we have been witness to many changes within the College environment, and in Prescott itself. The school has grown into a true community, with the completion of the Sam Hill Visual Arts Center, addition of the Crossroads Center, new classrooms, a wonderful Information Commons (library), and plans for more expansion. More than anything else, we’ve observed that the faculty and administration are even more energetic, imaginative, and deeply involved with all aspects of the college experience than ever before. They continue to not only teach, but to listen and learn, and to collaborate in the students’ learning. It’s a stark contrast to the large lecture halls and crowded campuses of our undergraduate educations! Jerry and I see the growth, the maturity, and the commitment our sons have developed. They maintain personal goals as well as global ideals and work hard at establishing ways to make a difference. We are indeed proud parents who are very thankful for the opportunities and vision Prescott College has offered our boys. It is because of this that we remain deeply involved with the school, the Board, recruitment, and the Parent Association. If you are also a parent, I encourage you to become involved with your child’s education in any way you can, and to take these next few years to get to know this unique institution and the
What is the Prescott College Parent’s Association? The Parent’s Association builds relationships between Prescott College and the parents of current and prospective students by engaging them in meaningful service through participation in active Liaison Groups. Liaison Groups and Goals Education Liaison Group: Do you remember what it was like to find your way around Prescott the first time? EL parents act as a local resource for current and prospective students and their families, providing information about the Prescott College community and college life. PC Parent Scholarship Fund: Parents in this group encourage others to “wear their support on their sleeve” by raising funds through the sale of Prescott College “Parent” logo clothing. Funds raised help current students to participate in classes which incur additional costs – fees and travel expenses, etc. Internal Communication Committee: Do you have a gift for words? Submit an article or articles to the Parent Newsletter Trails Home. To talk with a Prescott College parents go to: http://pcparentmentor.kintera.org/ To join the Parent’s Association, contact Marie Smith, Director of Alumni Relations and Parent Programs at msmith@prescott.edu or call (877) 350-2100
amazing people that fill its ranks. A great way to stay connected is to get involved with the Parent’s Association (see above). These are exciting times to be at Prescott College!
Farewell to a Friend On Saturday, May 22, 2010, the Prescott College Board of Trustees hosted a dinner celebrating the retirement of Dr. Daniel E. Garvey from a decade of service as President of Prescott College, and from a lifetime of leadership in Experiential Education. More than 100 people attended the evening’s festivities, representing the breadth of those touched by Dan during his 35-year career in higher education. Well-wishers included Prescott College students, alumni, faculty, staff, and board members, former colleagues, family, personal friends, and members of the local and state community including Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett. Members of the College community made touching presentations, including a video message from Meitamei Olol Dapash in Kenya, co-founder the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition and Prescott College adjunct faculty member. Festivities culminated in the unveiling of plans to name the College’s new Welcome Center after Dr. Garvey and wife Barbara (see page 31), followed by heartfelt thanks from the Garveys. After a year’s hiatus in which he’ll serve as the Executive Dean of the Semester at Sea program through the University of Virginia, Dr. Garvey will return to the College to work on a part-time basis with the College’s Institute for Sustainable Social Change.
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Faculty Notes Jeanine M. Canty M.A. ’00, Ph.D. In June 2010, Low-residency Bachelor of Arts Program associate and Ph.D. Program affiliate faculty member Jeanine Canty presented at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education. The conference was held outside of Washington DC. Her presentation was entitled Reframing Pedagogy: Race, Environment, and Contemplative Education.
K. L. Cook, M.F.A. K. L. (Kenny) Cook, creative writing and literature faculty member in the On-campus Bachelor of Arts, Arts & Letters Program, had several short stories published this year. “Bonnie and Clyde in the Backyard” appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Glimmer Train and has been selected for inclusion in the 2011 edition of the anthology, Best of the West: Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri (University of Texas Press). A feature interview with Kenny also appeared in that same issue of Glimmer Train. Three stories – “Noise,” “On the Strip,” and “Wedding Photograph, 1963” – were published in the inaugural issue of Wrong Tree Review in Winter 2010. His craft essay, “Narrative Strategy and Dramatic Design,” appeared in the May/Summer 2010 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle. Kenny taught in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June through July 2010 as a member of the fiction faculty of the M.F.A. in Writing Program at Spalding University. Also in 2010, he began a five-year term as a member of the Advisory Board for the Prairie Schooner Book Prizes (University of Nebraska), serving as a finalist judge for the 2010 Book Prize in Fiction.
Tim Crews, Ph.D. Dr. Tim Crews, presented some of his sabbatical research findings on the sustainability of phosphorus use in agriculture at Bioversity International in Rome in February, and at Rothamsted Research, north of London, in March. In June, Crews was a co-author on a Policy Forum published in the journal Science. The piece, which developed from work at the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., was titled “Increased food and ecosystem security via perennial grains” (vol 328:163839). Crews was also a co-author on two other publications in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment that resulted from collaborations with graduate students and researchers working at the Land Institute: “Harvested perennial grasslands provide ecological benchmarks for agricultural sustainability” (Glover et al. 2010, vol. 137: 3-12), and “Long-term impacts of high-input annual cropping and unfertilized perennial grass production on soil properties and belowground food webs in Kansas, USA” (Culman et al. 2010, vol. 137: 13-24). Crews was co-author on a book chapter titled “Integrating restoration and conservation objectives at the landscape scale: The Kane and Two-Mile ranch project” which was published in the edited volume The Colorado 22
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Plateau: IV: Shaping Conservation Through Science and Management (2010, Van Riper, Wakeling and Sisk (editors), University of Arizona Press).
Jordana DeZeeuw Spencer, M.S. Jordana DeZeeuw Spencer, master’s program Core Faculty, On-campus Bachelor of Arts instructor, and Ph.D. candidate in Sustainability Education, is presenting her doctoral research, “Strengthening the SEAMS Between Us (Sustainable, Equitable, Actualized Meaning-making & Solidarity),” at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference in Denver, Colo., Oct. 10 through 12, 2010, and at the National Association for Multicultural Education Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., November 3 through 6, 2010. Additionally, she will co-present at AASHE with two of her doctoral colleagues on the newly launched Journal of Sustainability Education.
Anita Fernández, Ph.D. Dr. Anita Fernández, education faculty member and On-campus Bachelor of Arts Education Program Coordinator, attended the Institute for Transformative Education hosted by the Mexican American Studies program of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) in conjunction with the University of Arizona. The Institute brought together experts in the field of ethnic studies to discuss, plan, and organize resistance to current anti-ethnic studies legislation in Arizona. Locally, Dr. Fernández also continues to promote ethnic studies as the cofounder of La Tierra Community School, a new Expeditionary Learning School, opening in August 2010 (see page 20). Note: Faculty member Dr. Zoe Hammer, master’s student Courtney Osterfelt ’04, and Michael Belt ’10 also attended the Institute for Transformative Education.
Tom Fleischner, Ph.D. Environmental Studies faculty member Tom Fleischner, along with Josh Tewskbury ’92 and Kirsten Rowell ’96, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to coordinate the Natural History Initiative, a series of workshops that will bring together experts from humanities, social sciences, arts, and natural sciences to map a strategy for revitalizing the practice of natural history (see page 13).
Lisa Floyd-Hanna, Ph.D. Lisa Floyd-Hanna, Jack Herring, and Tim Crews, along with Jayne Belnap and Sasha Reid of the US Geologic Survey, have recently been awarded a three-year grant to investigate the impacts of nitrogen deposition from power plants, automobiles and other sources on ecosystems in the
Southwest. The research also focuses on relationship to the “fertilization” and growth and competition of native and invasive species and fire cycles. Lisa, Tim Crews, and David Hanna also received a two-year grant from the Joint Fire Science Program to evaluate changes in forest structure after fires and beetle outbreaks in the Four Corners region. Fieldwork for this project is underway on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and Mesa Verde National Park. In addition, Lisa and Dave Hanna, along with colleagues Bill Romme of Colorado State University and Bill Baker of the University of Wyoming received a two-year grant to study landscape changes in Dinosaur National Park.
Christopher Marshall Adventure Education Instructor Christopher Marshall was accepted as a Professional Member of the American Avalanche Association, making him one of seven professional members in the state of Arizona. Marshall had to complete an application process requiring a work resume showing four or more years working professionally in snow science and education.
Paul Smith, M.A. This past summer, in the spirit of continued faculty exchange with other schools, Paul Smith, Ph.D. candidate in Sustainability Education, was invited to share his expertise in the emerging field of Equine-assisted Mental Health (EAMH) by teaching a course for the
Masters in Social Work students at the University of New Hampshire. While he was out East he also co-facilitated an EAMH program through the Zakim Institute at Ironstone Farm in Amherst, Mass., for individuals living with cancer. When he slows down, Paul is actively working to complete the dissertation for his Ph.D. on developing the efficacy of experiential education through the life lessons and skills learned from well-facilitated intentional partnership with horses.
Vicky Young ’95, Ph.D. Dr. Vicky Young has been invited to participate in a conference entitled “Living Kidney Donor Follow Up: State of the Art and Future Directions” on September 27 through 28, 2010, in Arlington, Va. Dr. Young will be assigned to a specific workgroup with the goal of identifying areas of need for future research on living donor outcomes, developing strategies to accomplish these goals, and researching mechanisms through which the studies might be funded. Vicky became a living donor on April 28, 2004. Her doctoral research and dissertation was based upon the experiences of twelve other living donors. She currently serves on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, and the United Network of Organ Sharing national Living Donor Committee. Dr. Young is currently writing a memoir about her life before, during, and after her kidney donation.
Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship The Lifelong Learning Center at Prescott College has partnered with the Bank Street Center for Social Entrepreneurship to create an innovative Certificate Program in Social Entrepreneurship. Designed to be affordable and accessible, this program provides entrepreneurs the critical knowledge, experiences, and networks necessary to design successful small, sustainable businesses that can contribute to providing solutions for the challenges confronting communities today. Along the way, participants will meet like-minded people with whom to share, collaborate, debate, learn, and maybe even partner. This program is highly interactive, experiential, and challenging. You will come away ready to change the world – and your life. Requirements: • First course: Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship • Four other elective courses focusing on skills and knowledge to succeed in business startup and ongoing management • Capstone course to synthesize learning and create a business plan for future success Courses can be taken individually, independent of earning the full certificate. Further information and course schedule at www.prescott.edu/lifelonglearning/programs/continuingeducation. Tuition: $2,795 for full Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship ($475 discount if you register NOW for the full certificate) $795 for Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship $495 for each additional course and the Capstone program
Take a course ) Teach a Course ) Become a Partner Visit www.prescott.edu/lifelonglearning to learn more Transitions Fall 2010
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Class Notes Anna Johnson-Chase ’68 As a ’66’er, I’m sorry to miss the reunion. It was great to be part of the beginning and watch it grow. I have too many commitments to work and family in September-October and will miss you all! Dulce Setterfield ’68 Relocated from Washington state to California: a return to federal sector. Find me on LinkedIn. Yvonne Joosten ’75 Yvonne is making a difference. www.tennessean.com/article/20100428/OPINION03/4280355. Scott Hecker ’79 Scott Hecker is a coastal water bird specialist and executive director of the Massachusetts-based Goldenrod Foundation. The organization filed an appeal with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in April to ban vehicles on a one-mile stretch of Long Beach in Plymouth to protect the remaining pairs of piping plovers there – a bird listed by the state as a protected species. Cody Lundin ’91 Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival show features Arizona survival expert and Prescott College adjunct faculty member Cody Lundin. Check your local listings for air times. Susan (Freitag) Fronckowiak ’00 Here is a picture of my husband Steve, son Alexander (11 months), me, and our dog Titus. Hope all is smiles in your life. Jessica Steele ’00 Unity College recently hired Jessica Steele as Director of their Outdoor Adventure Center. She will build upon an existing outdoor orientation program, and also oversee the Outdoor Adventure Center (OAC), manage the Willard Climbing Wall, and continue to develop the challenge course on campus in service to several academic programs. Congratulations Jessica! Jonathan Barfield ’01 Just defended my doctoral dissertation at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology! I coordinated a successful summit this summer with Tibetan Buddhist scholars (including Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s Chief translator) and various universities including Stanford, Amherst, University of Wisconsin, and UC Davis, regarding the neuropsychology and phenomenological experience of meditation, compassion, altruism, etc., titled Exploring the Language of Mental Life: A dialogical exploration between Buddhist contemplative practice and modern science. You can request the recordings at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education website. Currently, I’m preparing a paper to be published in South Korea, as I will be traveling to 24
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Zen temples and universities in Seoul and around the mountains to give a presentation titled: Ecopsychology and the Dharma: An interdisciplinary contemplation on nature, psyche, and being in right relation. In addition, I managed to get into the mountains and harvested 100 pounds of chanterelles and Boletus Edulis this month! Engaged to an amazing woman, hangin’ with a quiver of PC alumni – Mike Wight ’00, Scott Koch ’04, and Mike Anderson ’01. Getting on the rivers and lovin’ life. animusrhythm@yahoo.com. Elizabeth (Ezell) Gregg ’01 It’s hard to believe it has been nine years since I graduated from Prescott College. Seven hundred and fifty grey hairs later, I am living in a wonderful setting at the confluence of two creeks near my home city of Tacoma, Wash. I have served in AmeriCorps in ESL, worked as an oral history interviewer for the Colville Confederated Tribes, gotten married, received my master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington, had a son in 2007, became the mother of two more when their mother died in 2008, helped my stepson through the ordeal of dying from brain cancer in 2009, and am now healing and looking forward. I remember PC fondly and hope my old friends and professors are doing well. It’s the journey ... elizabethezell@hotmail.com. Angela Hawse ’86, M.A. ’01 I just passed my last guide exam out of three and became the sixth woman in the US to become an IFMGA/UIAGM Mountain Guide. The training and exam process entailed courses and exams through the American Mountain Guides Association in three guiding disciplines; Rock, Alpine, and Ski Mountaineering. It’s been a long, rigorous process and one that I am incredibly proud to have achieved! Prescott College and my experience there certainly laid a good fountain and set me up for success! Golden memories of the good years! www.alpinist007.com. James Robinson ’02 James recently participated on a panel about ayahuasca pharmacology (an Indigenous Amerindian psychoactive infusion) at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies conference in San Jose, Calif. Contact: frickjamez@gmail.com. Cameron Boswell ’04 Congratulations to Cameron and Cherilyn Boswell ’04 on the arrival of Grayson Douglas Boswell, born on May 8, 2010 at 12:42 p.m., 8 pounds, 11 ounces, 20 inches. cboswell@jgboswell.com. Jay Krienitz M.A. ’04 Jay Krienitz recently published an environmental law article in the William Mitchell Law Review about river protection in Minnesota entitled “The Rivers Belong to the People!: The History and Future of Wild and Scenic River Protection in Minnesota,” co-authored by Susan Damon, J.D. Read it at: http://www.facebook.com/l/2f103;www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/documents/10.Krienitz.pdf.
that is still a major source of imaginative material for my writing. In the meantime, I am enjoying finishing my M.F.A. in poetry at Columbia University, and co-editing a small poetry press, Argos Books. Check out our website: www.argosbooks.org.
Amanda Malachesky (Barber) M.A. ’05 This picture was taken in fall of 2005 at a gathering of PC alumni at our former house in Petrolia, Calif. Pictured are: Back Row, Lauren Golten ’98, Jeremy Wheeler ’96, Christopher “Bird” Jowaisas M.A. ’05, Christine Cantwell ’98, Samuel Santangelo ’97; Front Row, Drew Barber ’96, Dana (Last Name?), Deva (Taylor) Wheeler ’99 (with daughter Maple Wheeler), Vanessa Belz ’98, and Amanda Malachesky M.A. ’05. Drew Barber is my husband. Drew and I, Jeremy and Deva, and Bird are all literally neighbors. Samuel lives close by in Eureka. Iris Cushing ’06 The National Parks Service recently selected me as a Writer-InResidence at Grand Canyon National Park! I will spend three weeks in July of 2011 on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, writing and leading poetry workshops in the canyon. After three years in New York City, I am looking forward to spending time in Arizona, a place
Cristina Eisenberg M.A. ’06 An excerpt from my book The Wolf’s Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity was recently published in Scientific American. Of special note is that this piece opens with what were the opening pages of my master’s Thesis, virtually unaltered. It feels good to see my Prescott College work reaching this kind of audience. It is a testament to the quality mentorship I received in the Lowresidency Mater of Arts Program. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id =predators-create-landscape-of-fear. Caitlin O’Brien ’06 Caitlin O’Brien and Jeremy Gilden ’07 were married in 2008, becoming the Gildriens. Our Vermont vegetable farm was recently featured on the front page of the local newspaper. Visit our website at gildrienfarm.com to read more!
Prescott College Alumni Association 2010 Board Election Results Congratulations to the new PCAA Board Members for 2010-2013 Phoebe Dameron ’94 and Carla Rellinger ’05 Existing PCAA Board Members include: William Butler Cooper ’91 Ethan Hipple ’00 Shari Leach ’02 Maggie McQuaid ’75 Gus Tham ’71 Susan Elizabeth “Elsa” Thomas ’72 Dr. Layne Longfellow, former faculty member The Prescott College Alumni Association provides alumni with opportunities for dialogue, sharing knowledge, volunteer service, social interaction, and philanthropy in support of continuing their relationships with Prescott College and keeping connected as a community. For more information please visit: http://www.prescott.edu/alumni/board.html
Attention Alumni: Not getting the monthly alumni e-newsletter Ecos? Update your contact information at:
http://pcalumupdate.kintera.org/
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In Memoriam Paul Sneed Paul Sneed died on August 26, 2010 after suffering from esophageal cancer for two years. He was 64. With his big spirit, critical mind, and kind heart, Paul played a major role within the Prescott College community. For over 14 years, Paul served as faculty in the On-campus Bachelor of Arts Program and in the Adult Degree and Graduate Programs. Paul chaired the Low-residency Master of Arts Program in Environmental Studies and co-directed the development, approval, and implementation of the Ph.D. Program in Sustainability Education. The ongoing success of these programs will continue to remind us of how Paul has helped to shape the development of Prescott College. Paul had diverse careers as a cowboy, firefighter, hunting and rafting guide, archaeologist, natural resource manager, environmental consultant, community college administrator, and college and university teacher. Paul received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 1997, capping an academic career that included a master’s degree from University of British Columbia in environmental planning and resource management in 1989, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in anthropology in 1969. Paul’s academic interests and research activities focused on sustainability science and practice including ecological restoration, parks and wilderness management, and sustainability education. In addition to being an active and published researcher because he believed that a scientist should be an activist, Paul believed that education is the key to a sustainable future and that everyone should join the community of lifelong learners who value ecological literacy, honor diversity, embrace change, and dream of making the world a better place for all beings. Paul is survived by: his loving wife of 22 years, Ramona Mattix; daughters Niki Duncan-Sortun (Eric), Amber Altman (Monica), and Jennifer ClaryLemon (Chris); and sister, Sondra Tonneson (Adolph). He requested no service. In lieu of condolences, as he and Ramona requested upon their marriage, donations to the Nature Conservancy of Canada would be appreciated. Many thanks are deserved to Nelson doctors Malpass and Edmonds, the Home Care Nurse Team One, and to the hospice volunteers. Edited and printed with permission from Ramona Mattix.
Janet Maissen Low-residency Master of Arts Program graduate and mentor Janet Maissen M.A. ’95 passed away at home on April 3, 2010, with her mother, sister and nephew at her side, as a result of endometrial cancer which metastasized to her liver. Born on Dec. 8, 1962, in Seattle, Wash., to Jake and Margie Maissen, her family moved to Arizona soon after – first to Scottsdale, then Prescott. Janet attended Yavapai College, followed by Arizona State University (ASU), earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre education. She earned her master’s degree from Prescott College and served as a mentor to other master’s degree candidates in the program. After returning to Prescott from ASU, Janet worked at the Yavapai College library, and was hired to teach there. She began instructing in the theatre department in 1991. She became a certified Tai Chi Chih instructor, which she also taught at the college up until a week before her death. Janet was particularly proud of her time spent as a theatre instructor at Tri-City Prep High School. She was also proud of the play she directed as part of her master’s Thesis. It included a cast of her close friends and family members – a truly life-changing experience for all involved. Janet had many other pursuits, which she shared with her close friends including dancing with the Lynx Creek Cloggers, playing in the Summer Pops Orchestra, and performing with the Prescott Fine Arts Association. Though she experienced many difficult times during the last year of her life, her sense of humor never failed. Janet never gave up hope, never passed up a chance to laugh and attributed her ability to carry on to the many friends and caring people who supported and encouraged her. Her family sends their appreciation and love to all who contributed in making Janet’s struggle easier. Janet is survived by her mother Margie, her sister Jean, and her nephew Luke. Edited and printed with permission from Jean Maissen.
Master of Arts Catalog Photo The most recent Master of Arts Program Catalog cover photo was not appropriately credited to On-campus Bachelor of Arts student LeeAnn Roessler B.A. program ’12 , who took the cover shot during her Orientation. LeeAnn won the 2010 Winter Block Orientation photo prize for another photo also taken during Orientation. Congratulations are due to LeeAnn and all the other students who contribute photos and stories to Prescott College’s award-winning publications each year.
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Annual Report
2009-2010 ANNUAL REPORT
PRESCOTT COLLEGE For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, and Social Justice
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For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, and Social Justice ... Annual Report
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rescott College in 2010 is enjoying the fruits of more than four decades of rich, challenging, and ultimately successful experiments in education.
We have defied incredible odds to arrive at this state of well-being. There are too many iconic names of students, teachers, administrators, staff, leaders, and Board members to list here; but suffice it to say that we find ourselves at this moment of such historical promise not only with the excitement of so successfully fulfilling our mission, but with a profound gratitude to all who have given so much of themselves and their resources to get us here. The College has just undergone a lengthy and successful presidential transition process. Every constituent element of the Prescott College community had input into our choice. It is with great pleasure and anticipation we welcome Dr. Kristin Woolever, former Dean of University of New Hampshire Manchester as our newest President. One name that requires profound acknowledgement is Dr. Daniel Garvey. His decade-long tenure as President assembled more talent, projected the College further in all regards, and has created the environment of success we now happily enjoy. His stewardship could not have been more exemplary. Prescott College has always been about the extraordinary individuals that comprise our community. Our belief in the good of the world and our dedicated purpose of making it a better place has, over the last 45 years, consistently yielded a community characterized by optimism, personal responsibility, pro-activity, and a heightened sense of adventure, inquiry, and discovery. In these pages you will find a comprehensive report about our community for our community – and those who will join us. Enjoy. On behalf of the College,
Richard Ach ’73 Chair, Board of Trustees
Prescott College Board of Trustees Richard Ach ’73, Chair Retired Senior Vice President AG Edwards Betsy Bolding Director of Consumer Affairs Tucson Electric Power Cameron Boswell ’04 Assistant Environmental Specialist J.G. Boswell Co.
Peter Evans Independent Consultant James Hughes, Vice Chair Retired Attorney Hughes & Whitaker David Meeks ’73, Treasurer President Sonoma Rentals
Dan Boyce, Past Chair Senior Partner The Center for Financial Planning
Steve Pace, Secretary & Faculty Trustee On-Campus Bachelor of Arts Faculty Member Prescott College
Dan Campbell Manager The Nature Conservancy
Rachel Pearson, Student Trustee On-Campus Bachelor of Arts Student Prescott College
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Carla Rellinger, Employee Trustee Director of Auxiliary Services Prescott College Michael Rooney Attorney Sacks-Tierney Jerry Secundy President/CEO California Council for Environmental & Economic Balance John Van Domelen Retired President Wentworth Institute of Technology Ken Ziesenheim Financial Advisor Raymond James Financial Services
President’s Message
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Annual Report
ow does one quantify the success of a college or university? There is certainly more to having a meaningful impact on the world than a healthy bottom line, or the number of graduates who pass through our doors. Prescott College has made strides in many areas over the past decade, including increased enrollment and adding new programs. We have renovated and expanded the campus in sustainable ways and have grown the endowment. We’re especially proud to say that our faculty, students, and alumni have raised Prescott College’s visibility by their increased contributions to scholarship, scientific research, public policy, the arts, humanities, and social change. Our alumni report that Prescott College prepares them well for their current employment (see chart below), employment chosen because they are able to create positive change and contribute to the sustainability of the social and natural environment. Meanwhile the world continues to experience new environmental and social crises daily. In response, Prescott College is committed to: • Expanding the dialogue about immigration and countering fear-based thought with collaborative and systems-based approaches • Helping to develop and implement sustainable economic and social models • Teaching ways to avoid and/or mitigate environmental catastrophes like climate change and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill • Addressing human needs and human rights violations both here and abroad, from Indigenous and local self-determination and fair government to sustainable food, water, and access to education • Moving beyond the rigid standards-based climate in education to pedagogical models that balance standards with student initiative and the creative problem solving inherent in experiential, liberal-arts-based learning and teaching • Demonstrating that the world is a richer place when culture, the arts, and humanities are integrated with the art of living – when theory is refined by practice Prescott College is at a moment in its history like no other. We are poised, because of our history and experience in working with the liberal arts, the environment, and social justice, to help shape the national and international dialogue in meaningful ways. Thanks to our donors, dedicated faculty, staff, and students’ passion for these areas, Prescott College can look forward to many more decades of guiding students in developing the self-confidence, poise, and skills needed to tackle these complex issues. While many of the College’s publications capture the stories of our courageous and visionary graduates and alumni, this report offers a glimpse behind the scenes – at the financials behind these successes – and a snapshot of the contributions made by the many, to the many, through Prescott College. Read on!
Dr. Kristin R. Woolever
Education 23% Arts & Communications 6%
Alumni Careers
Business & Computers 14% Law & Government 3% Outdoor Leadership & Recreation 4% Environment/Sustainability 21% Social Work/Community Development 16% Health Care 14%
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Academic Strides Annual Report
Concluding a three-year process of assessment, self-study, and regional accreditation review, the Higher Learning Commission awarded Prescott College a 10-year extension of its accreditation (the longest term possible). In its final report, the review team stated, “Prescott College continues to demonstrate an exceptional clarity of purpose centered on educational themes such as experiential and student-directed education, societal engagement, and environmental sensitivity …” The reviewers also noted that “student learning is the primary focus of the institution’s highly qualified and dedicated faculty … [S]tudents describe the faculty as ‘superb’ and repeatedly commend the regular, full-time faculty for their availability and their commitment to working with [them].” Prescott College stands out in higher education for its commitment to active, student-directed learning. As reported in the National Survey of Student Engagement, Prescott College undergraduates are in a class by themselves when it comes to the
degree to which they engage in “active and collaborative learning,” scoring higher than any comparison group, including peer liberal arts institutions with small class sizes. In 2009, the College graduated the first class of Ph.D.s in Sustainability Education, representing the first Ph.D. program at Prescott College and the first doctorate of its kind in higher education. In the coming years, the College plans to implement a number of campus-based graduate programs to serve students who would like to pursue graduate study while living in Prescott. In a recent survey, 89 percent of alumni indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their Prescott College education. This satisfaction did not vary significantly by program or date of matriculation. Of all respondents, 75 percent indicated that they chose their current line of employment because it enables them “to create positive social change.” For more information about the HLC accreditation, visit: http://www.prescott.edu/hlc/. 2009-2010 Enrollment by Program Total Enrollment 1,119
On-Campus Bachelor of Arts
25% 28%
4%
Low-Residency Bachelor of Arts Low-Residency Master of Arts
43%
Ph.D. in Sustainability Education
2008 NSSE Benchmark Scores for “Active and Collaborative Learning”
Campus Expansion As a result of strategic planning carried out in 2001-2002, and updated in 2005-2006, a campus planning effort was initiated to develop a vision for the College as an integrated urban campus. This plan has subsequently driven all decisions on property acquisition and construction projects including: • Construction of the Crossroads Center • Conversion of a former State office building into a Student Center • Acquisition of title to the alley that bisects the campus to remove dangerous automotive traffic and allow a pedestrian core to be created • Renovation of the historic Sam Hill Warehouse into a Visual Arts Center including a permanent gallery space • Creation of a new facility to support the operations of the Adventure Education program, including a large gear warehouse The total investment in these capital improvements and acquisitions over the last decade was in excess of $11.7 million. The College continues to seek funding to bring planned improvements to fruition.
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Campus Footprint 2000
Campus Footprint 2010
The Dan and Barbara Garvey Welcome Center Annual Report
“The single most important thing Dr. Garvey has brought to the College is an ability to look forward rather than back.” In honor of their decade of service and profound impact on Prescott College, the Board of Trustees announced this past May that the College’s new Welcome Center has been named after the outgoing presidential couple. The Daniel and Barbara Garvey Welcome Center, strategically located at the corner of Grove and Western Avenues, is undergoing renovation to house the Admissions Department and serve as a “first impression” for all who come to visit the Campus. “Dr. Garvey has instilled in the College community a sense of confidence, that at 40 years old we’re still a relatively young institution, but we’re a young adult with a promising future,” said Dan Boyce, outgoing Chair, Board of Trustees. The announcement was made at Dr. Garvey’s retirement dinner on May 22, 2010. Occupancy of the new building is slated for January 2011.
Enrollment Growth Prescott College draws nationally for both its undergraduate and graduate programs. For a large majority of students who enroll, Prescott College is their first choice. This unique group of students is drawn to Prescott College for many reasons including its mission, strong sense of community, and distinctive academic offerings. Over the last 10 years, enrollment in the Prescott College graduate programs has grown by more than 250 percent. Much of this steady growth has been within the pioneering Low-residency Master of Arts Program that allows students to study from their home communities. Enrollment in the Low-residency Bachelor of Arts Program has remained steady in the past decade. The On-campus Bachelor of Arts Program has seen growth over the last two years due in part to dramatically increasing the availability of Prescott College Scholarships. As a result, institutional aid for on-campus students expanded from less than $300,000 in 2003 to just over $4 million in 2010. Along with this, recruitment efforts aimed at high school jun-
iors and seniors were significantly increased. The success of retooling On-campus Bachelor of Arts Admissions practices was exemplified by the class entering in the fall of 2008 – 175 new students – the largest in the program’s history. Evidence that the national economic situation is having an impact on higher education, fall 2009 and 2010 entering classes have been slightly smaller. The College has seen a reduced acceptance on offers of admission, and dramatically increased demand for financial aid resources. Nevertheless, total enrollment in the On-campus Bachelor of Arts Program continues to grow at a modest rate, totaling 500 students in the fall of 2010 for the first time in almost a decade.
Sum of Fall and Spring Semester Enrollments 2001-2009
Total Financial Aid Awards 2006-2010
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Financial Snapshot Annual Report
The mission of Prescott College is to educate students to enter the world with the aim to help make it a better place. Finances are a critical tool to achieve this mission. The past decade has seen dramatic improvement in the fiscal condition and strength of the College. Through disciplined and strategically-led financial management, the College has balanced its budget for 10 straight years, increased total assets by nearly 200 percent, invested more than $11.7 million in capital projects, increased the total endowment by 256 percent, and increased net operating revenues available for investment in our mission by 66 percent. One key area of focus over the past decade has been to diversify the revenue sources of the College. As a tuitiondependent institution, this has meant a focus on strengthening and expanding our various academic programs and student markets. It has also meant increasing support from alumni, parents, friends, foundations, and others. Notable successes in fundraising include: pledges by the Board of Trustees and senior management of $218,500 to build capacity in the Development Office; over $1,200,000 raised for the College’s first major capital campaign in 2002-2007 for the Crossroads Center; and most recently, a $608,000 grant from
the Helios Education Foundation to support the College’s Accessible Teacher Preparation for Rural Arizona Early Childhood Education Program. Looking further ahead, an emphasis on planned giving has resulted in an estate gift of approximately $1,200,000, a gift in excess of $200,000 for an endowed scholarship for students studying at the Kino Bay Field Station, a $225,000 bequest, and several other significant planned gifts. The College has also made strides at increasing revenue from auxiliary services, including the creation of the Lifelong Learning Center to serve non-degree students.
Total Assets and Net Revenue 2001-2010
Who is Giving to the Annual Fund? Contributions 2009-2010
Five-year Development Summary
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Fiscal year July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010
We are building upon a substantial legacy of the experiential education that Prescott College has long provided. The upward trajectory to which we aspire benefits all who have walked along our paths, while encouraging prospective students to join us. Our graduates and students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends count on us to continue our aspirations. The donors listed in the Honor Roll of Donors are responsible for many of the College’s accomplishments, and their generosity keeps us competitive. As a result of the thoughtfulness of our donors, we will continue to be the leading institution for the liberal arts, the environment, and social justice. Thank you for your support.
CHARLES FRANKLIN PARKER LEGACY SOCIETY Richard Ach James Antonius Betsy Bolding “Brad” & Ruth Bradburn Susan N. Coleman Trust Jess Dods Mark Dorsten Kristi & Dale Edwards Albert Engleman Mark & Gwenn Goodman Dean and Verne C. Lanier Ericha Scott The Secundy Family Marjory and Frank Sente James Stuckey & Beverly Santo Andrew Sudbrook & Elizabeth Clayton Mary Trevor & Toni Kaus Merril Windsor Nora Wood Fulton Wright Jr. Sharon Yarborough
$100,000 and Above Helios Education Foundation $25,000-$49,999 Richard Bakal Daniel & Suzanne Boyce Anna Cook Hemera Foundation Stephen & Shahnaz Winiarski $10,000-$24,999 Max and Bessie Bakal Foundation Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation James Hughes & Jacqueline Merrill KAKATU Foundation Joe Leo & Rhea Fay Fruhman Foundation John & Cristi Ludwig RDV Corporation Walton Family Foundation Kenneth & Diane Ziesenheim $5,000-$9,999 Richard Ach & Carey Behel Cleo A. Bluth Charitable Foundation Compton Foundation Anne Dorman Peter & Melissa Evans Miguel Fernandez Daniel & Barbara Garvey H.S. Dent Foundation Doug Hulmes
W. Jesse King & Lisa Capper Suzanne Pfister Raytheon Matching Gifts Program Gerald & Donna Secundy Nancy & Byron Sugahara James & Linda Wilson Michael & Julie Zimber $2,500-$4,999 Paul Burkhardt & Zoe Hammer Blain and Peggy Butner Georgia Hume Evans Memorial Pima Center for Conservation Education Joan Stewart University of Arizona Yavapai County AZ Community Foundation $1000-$2,499 Morris & Bessie Altman Foundation Margaret Antilla Betsy Bolding Michael & Susan Burskey The Colorado Trust Steven & Traci Corey Joe & Sally Dorsten Henry Ebarb & Liisa Raikkonen Every Voice in Action Foundation Fann Contracting Glen & Donna Gallo Douglas & Karen Heaton Joan Hiller Robert & Karen King Marianne Knaup Gabrielle Liese David Mankowski Ellen Maxson Laird Norton Family Foundation Sue Olson Jon & Vicki Patton Suzanne Tito John & Naomi Van Domelen Mary Welsh Michael & Irene Wilson $250-$999 Anonymous AYCO Charitable Foundation James C. Baillie Jeffery Berman Melanie Bishop & Ted Bouras Jean & Normand Bremner Paul & Ann Brenner Michael Burke Dan Campbell Carolyn Chilcote
Cathy & Ron Church Stephen Clark Joan Clingan & Frank Cardamone Dan Connor & Sara Barber Joanne Copperud & Robert Gils Dena Davis Jonathan Davis John & Lucy Douglas Ray & Lois Drever Joan Dukes Linda Edwards & Nathan Snydor Craig and Glenanne Engstrom Veronica Escurdero Daniel & Joanne Fitz Katie Galley & Allen Kleidon W. Ryland Gardner Douglas & Susan Gavin P. Kelley & W. Riley Gilmore Daniel Ginter Patricia Goffena-Beyer John Grainger Melanie Guldman Lydia Gustin Mark & Sarah Hayden Sam & Wendy Hitt Lana Holstein & David Taylor Don & Elizabeth Hopper Stephen Huemmer & Angela Garner Lucille Khoury Daniel & Marilyn Kirkey Allan Kleidon Robin Kropp Tim Lane & Donna Fleming John Leslie & Barbara Clark John & Cindy McCain Joseph & Martha McElligott Frederick Medrick Laurence & Karen Meltzer Tish Morris Alexander & Christina Muro Brian & Joanne Peterson Wendy Piersall Peter & Inez Platenius Mark & Jeanne Polzin Prescott Noon Lions Foundation Inc. Eugene & Margaret Puetz Patricia Rawlings Gerald Reed & Yvonne Jousten Jeff & Karen Riley Fred & Caralee Roberts Robert & Christine Rosenberg Deborah Ruchs Jonathan Sachs Frank & Marjory Sente David Shapiro
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Annual Report
Honor Roll of Donors
Annual Report
J.V. Simmering Jane Smudin Starbucks Donald & Barbara Sweeney Josh Traeger Andre’ & Edwinna Vanderzanden Alan Weisman David Windsor Julie Wolf James Zukin Up to $249 Victoria Abel David & Ketta Abeshouse Lou Adams Kay Alexander Rick Alexander Aloha Coffee Jo Ambrose Douglas & Missy Anderson Skye Anicca Anonymous Donna Aranson Charles Armer Margaret Aspland Peter Athens Charles Awalt & Laurel Herman Katharine Baker Margaret Bair & James McInroe Larry Barker Joel Barnes Bill & Elaine Barney Robert Beitler Douglas & Barbara Berson Michele Bevis Margaret & Thatcher Bohrman Julie Bondeson Dennis & Sharon Boyle Louis Bright Barton & Lisa Brown Casey Brown Matthew & Marieta Brown Cheryl Brown-Kovacic Amy Rose Brt Lee & Cheryl Brueckel Jane Bryden Julie Burguiere Linda Burkhardt Jeanine Canty Gustav Carlson Doug Chabot William Christian & Sandra Barker James Christopher Paul & Marylyn Clark Thomas & Jane Clark Douglas Clendaniel Peter Cloud Craig & Susan Cloyed Paul Amadio & Donita Coburn-Amadio Coffee Roasters Brian Cohen David Cohn Steve Collins Kenneth & Nancy Costello Coyote Joe’s Bar & Grill Doug & Cynthia Combs Jeffery & Kathleen Condit Leslie Cook
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Vicky Cook Tim Cooper Kenneth & Nancy Costello Catherine Cowen Jay Cowles & Page Knudsen Noel & Thomas Cox-Caniglia George Cunningham Angela Curtes Derk Janssen Desert Hills Bank Lorilee Deutsch Indravadan Dhruv Elisa Dias Frederick Dick Gerard & Betty Jo Doherty Dr. Peter Donovick Dan Dorsey Hans Drake & Ellen Cussler Susan Dunham Chris Eames Terri Eckel Dagmar Eisele El Gato Azul Restaurant Abe & Sheila Elias Teren & Jan Ellison William Emerson Linda Escoll & Jeff Westlake Jenica Faye Tina Feltman-Lena Karen Feridun Anita Fernandez James A. Finefrock Steven Finucane & Marjorie Bernardi Warren & Rose Fleischner Thomas Fleischner & Edith Dillon Abram Fleishman Joan Fleishman Mary “Petty” Floyd Herbert & Joan Friedmann Fry’s Grocery Store Theresa Furtak Donna Gaddie & Mark Chonko Norm & Jane Gagne Vincent Galterio Gamers Entertainment Annique & Thomas Garbarino Lisa Garrison Hannah Glasston & Patrick Hynes Bethena Glenn Robert & Joan Glosser Nelson & Marcia Goldberg John Goodson Barry Gordon M. Eileen Gorton Granite Mountain Outfitters Diane Greenley Tracey Grossman Frank & Beverly Groves Ellen Groves Peter & Misty Groves Benedict Fern Grumbine Pablo & Judy Guerrero Kent & Mollie Gugler Bill & Kathie Halbert Hugh & Jean Halsell Dustin & Lori Hanna William & Ann Hannig Deborah Harkrader
Victoria Harrod Joan Hart Brett Hartl James Hartline Kathleen Hartry Richard Harzewski Sara Hassell Richard & Mary Hatch Kris Havstad Erik & Mary Herman Kate Herrod R. Herwood Billy Lee Hicks John High Christine Hilbert Jim & Deborah Hilbert Christopher Hill Joel & Debra Hiller Louis & Dava Hoffman Wendy Howe Weston & Susanah Howland Hugo’s Restaurant Mary Hume Whitney Vincent & Ellen Hunt Eric Husted INOV Inc. Barbara Jacobsen Michael Jenkins Joe’s Furniture Anna Johnson-Chase Amy Joseph & Richard Boswell Dena Kanner Karen Kappes Joseph and Laura Kenig Michael & Margaret Kessell Deborah Kewin Steven & Barbara Kiel John and Joan Kimball Stephanine “Stevie” King Kenneth Kingsley Richard Klein Jim and Sue Knaup Christopher Kopek Kim Krasne Otis Kriegel Aryn LaBrake James & Carol Landis Riomas Lang Kathleen Lauerman Laughing Buddha Coffee House Law Office of Laura J. Taylor, PLLC Melanie Lefever Steve & Marion Lefkowitz Jason Leo David Leslie & Mary McWilliams Leslie Matt Levine Suena Lew Lo Judith Lewis Terrence Lewis Ann Lipp Theresa Long Peggy Lott Eunice Lovejoy David Lovejoy & Amparo Rifa John & Debra Lowrey Vance Luke James MacAdam David Mankowski
Tom Robinson & Joan Wellman Roman Ristorante Charles & Evelyn Rose Janet Ross Alan & Elisabeth Rubin Brian Rubin W.C. Rudy Rebecca Ruffner Ross Rulney Anne-Marie Russell Maynard Janis Rutschman Louise Ryan Maurice Ryan Stacy & Mark Ryan Mohan Saini & Hardeep Kaur Michael & Geneva Saint-Amour Laura Salamone Marilyn Saxerud Ernest & Marianne Schloss Margriet Schnabel Nancy & Steven Schneider Chris Schreiner Craig & Jeanette Schuessler Kathryn Schwarz Anne Scofield Kevin Scott Ben Seaver Steven E. Sessions Attorney at Law Indu & Dilip Shah Randall Shaw Lori Sherwood Terrill Shorb Daniel Shuldman Floyd Siegel Steve Sischka David & Maura Smiley Glen & Jeanne Smiley Mark Smiley Pamela Smiley Timothy & Sheila Smiley Stephen Smiley & Debra Karp Timothy & Sheila Smiley Catherine Smith Marie Smith Scott Smith & Kelly Eitzen Smith Lynn & Steve Solomon Jonanne Sorensen Debbie Sotack Stephen Soumerai & Wendy Drobnyk Bill Stamats Lynn Stanton Tuttle Ann Steward Linda Stevens Abedian Bill Stillwell & Ann Gero Stillwell Stanley Stobierski Richard Stoller Stephen Stranahan Helen Street Dr. Lee Stuart James Stuckey & Beverly Santo Joseph Tabor & Holly McCarter Theodore Teegarden Dorothy Teer Lee Teitel & Laura Derman Robert & Linda Teittinen Christine Teleisha Thai House Café Susan Thomas
Ferris & Tanni Thompson John & Elizabeth Thrift Mary Trevor & Toni Kaus David & Cynthia Trowbridge Genevieve & Richard Tuchow United Way of Tucson & Southern AZ Marilyn Vache Nancy Van Alstine Wayne Van Voorhies & Laurie Abbott Robin Varnum Rubie Walker John Walsh Valerie Walsh Laura Ware Donna Webb Anne & Dennis White Elizabeth White Paul & Zoe Whyman Grace Wicks Kevin Wilder Barbara Williams Karen Williams McCreary & Kent Alderman Sara Woolf Mark & Angelina Woolley Yogartz Inkind Gifts Richard Ach & Carey Behel AZ Drum & Music Eugene Blinick Brown Bag Burger Coyote Joe’s Bar & Grill Enterprise Car Rental Clinton Gardner Goodwin Street Pharmacy Hae Now Hassayampa Inn Heritage Park Zoo Java Gypsies Maggies Organics Papa John’s PIzza Pima County ECAP P.O.P.S Music Shop Prescott College Café Raskins Jewelers Kate Rinzler Russell Steele Salon Saint Martin Spring Hill Suites-Marriot Stoneridge Golf Course TeaPot Inn 3D Festival-Drum.Dance.Didge.Heal Ultimate Tanning & Boutique Whisky Row Screen Printing Note: If we have inadvertently omitted or made an error in listing your name, we apologize. A correction will be published in the next Transitions. Contact Aryn LaBrake at (928) 350-4505, (877) 350-4505 or alabrake@prescott.edu to correct your record. All Annual Report graphics and layout by Ashely Mains. Photos by Joel Hiller, Mary Lin, and Chris Marchetti.
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Annual Report
Neil & Llana Markowitz Jean C. Martin Peter & Partricia Martin Roy & Pyong-Tok Martinez Corinne Masur & Theodore Fallon Steven & Jeanne Matthews Anthony & Nancy Mattina Norma Mazur Maree McAteer Robert McCabe John McCarrell Elizabeth McDonald Jane McGrath Lorayne Meltzer Method Coffee Edward Miller Richard Miller Nancy Millham Barbara Mitchell & Robert Boyar Monk’s Restaurant Mitzi Moore-Hill Lloyd & Anne Moss Stephen Mudrick Elsa Munoz Julie Munro Bill Muster Foundation Kevin & Holly Nagie Tom Nehil III and Gail Walter Toni Nelson Network Auto Pierre & Christina Neury New Frontiers John Newman Aaron & Page Newton Nick’s Feed Your Face Sharon Noel John & Ann Nutt Chas Offutt Tina Ooley Chenoa Osayande Norman Oslik & Madeline Golde Christine Ouellette John & Kath Pace Steven Pace & Barbara Wood Grace Pancoe Rick & Margot Pantarotto Manuel &Percilla Patino Belden & Lisa Paulson Steve Kelling & Susan Pearce Kelling Marcia Pehrsson Chuck Perkins Dan Jannone & Rachel Peters Dianne Peterson Ginny Peterson Lee Potts Prescott Brewing Company Michael & Lori Profit J. David Ragsdale Peggy Rambikur Ari Rapport & Tracy Michaelis Tom & Carla Ratcliff Raven Café Barbara Rector Carla Rellinger & Suzanne Beeche Sue Rennels & Mike Grisez Josh Rickabaugh Gary Roberts Tanya Robie
Prescott College Makes the Grade Media ratings, various rankings list Prescott College as a top school, safe, and green Princeton Review: “Best in the West” Prescott College has been named one of the best colleges in the West according to The Princeton Review. It is one of 120 institutions recommended in its “Best in the West” list in the “2011 Best Colleges: Region By Region,” published on the Review’s website. Schools on the list were evaluated based on institutional data sets, campus visits, Princeton Review staff input, college counselor recommendations, and students’ responses at each school to an 80-question survey. Collectively, the 623 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.
Fiske Guide to Colleges: Best and Most Interesting in Country The selective Fiske Guide to Colleges included Prescott College in its updated 2011 guide to the “best and most interesting” 330 colleges and universities in the US and Canada. The Fiske Guide has been offering information for college-bound students and their parents for over 20 years, with assessments based on student perceptions of academics, social life, and overall quality of life.
The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges Prescott College is one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges, according to The Princeton Review and the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The education services company selected Prescott College for inclusion in its first environmental colleges guide, The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges, developed in partnership with the USGBC. From solar panel study rooms to the percentage of budget spent on local/organic food, The Guide looks at an institution’s commitment to: building certification using USGBC’s LEED green building certification program; environmental literacy programs; formal sustainability committees; use of renewable energy resources; recycling and conservation programs; and dedicated environmental studies curriculums.
National Wildlife Federation: Generation E The National Wildlife Federation cited Prescott College as a school that offers an example of proactive sustainability policy in its 2009 Generation E Campus Ecology report. The report noted that the College implemented a student sustain36
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ability fee, which was used to hire a sustainability coordinator and to offer college-wide funding opportunities for students to propose and engage in sustainable projects.
Student-View Report: Safe Campus According to Student Insights (studentinsights.com), Arizona high school seniors rated Prescott College’s campus safety as its biggest strength in a 2009 online survey. The Student-View Report is based on an annual independent online survey of more than 50,000 high school seniors.
Ten-Year Accreditation Across Programs Prescott College was granted a 10-year reaccreditation through the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) – the longest period of accreditation available. In its final report, the review team stated, “Prescott College continues to demonstrate an exceptional clarity of purpose centered on educational themes such as experiential and student-directed education, societal engagement, and environmental sensitivity.” The reviewers also noted that “student learning is the primary focus of the institution’s highly qualified and dedicated faculty … [S]tudents describe the faculty as ‘superb’ and repeatedly commend the regular, full-time faculty for their availability and their commitment to working with [them].” For the HLC site visit in November of 2009, the College undertook an extensive examination of its current state. This culminated in the creation of the Self-study Report. To view the Self-study Report or the HLC Final Report visit www.prescott.edu/hlc/. More information on the HLC is at http://www.ncahlc.org/.
Association for Experiential Education The Accreditation Council of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) has granted a 10-year Continuing Accreditation to Prescott College, the longest accreditation offered by the organization. To be accredited by the AEE demonstrates that academic field programs comply with the highest standards in the field. The AEE is a nonprofit, professional membership association dedicated to experiential education and the students, educators, and practitioners who utilize its philosophy.
The Last Word
Blood Into Wine Prescott College alums wrest wine from the earth working alongside rock star Maynard Keenan By Salli Maxwell ’99 / Photos courtesy of Eric Glomsky
A rock star working like a farmhand. The first bottle from a new vineyard blessed tender and sweet by his mother’s ashes. A region of the country on the cusp of discovery as a wine capital, the details recorded in a lively and piquant documentary. Like the vineyard it chronicles, Blood into Wine, a vineyard documentary directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, is enriched by Prescott College people both on screen and behind the scenes. One of those people, agroecology alumnus and Page Springs Winery owner, Eric Glomksi ’92 has for years been cultivating grape vines in Arizona with Maynard James Keenan, front man mega rock star and Jerome, Ariz., resident. The two are the stars of the show, but the story weaves wide with other punchy personalities, some of whom question the feasibility of viticulture in the high desert. A scorpion under Plexiglas and a nodding Jackalope punctuate the opening credits, establishing Arizona as a kitschy, roadside, cactus-laden land, unlikely to be cultivated in any serious way. A talk show with a couple of nerdy hosts (comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) berate Keenan for wasting his time making wine and for not being “Keanu Reeves.” The device recurs throughout, until finally the hosts get drunk (they play it well) and Keenan leaves. The berating serves as a foil for the quasi-divine status Keenan developed with rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. It is established that people will listen to his music until the end of time; they’ll be crazy-giddy in his presence. And so, when he crouches in the vineyard, trimming a root bulb, and declares that the plant is holy, a ready-made chorus of believers will be there to agree. When he notes that it takes
a tiny percentage of water for the same amount of land to grow grapes instead of what we would use in erected subdivisions, you too might be moved to shout an Amen! If I, too, am guilty of Maynard Mania, it’s in part because the project directly supported me and my daughter, Sophie, during her infancy. Sophie’s father worked as a mason at what is now Merkin West vineyard. Among the crew who worked to carve a place for Keenan’s vines out of the Jerome hillside include double alumnus, Prescott College staffer, and crew leader Andrew Millison ’97, M.A. ’02 and crew member Inesis Vitols ’96. The work was hard, the angles extreme, the weather often harsh. Prescott College’s contributions are evident too – a gratuitous photo from Eric Glomski’s dreadlocked undergraduate days flashes across the screen as he credits the College for his understanding of agroecology and his love for this area of the world. As the work evolves, Matt LaVoire ’99 serves as Keenan’s personal assistant, driving the getaway car in case fan mania hits too hard at the movie screening. Glomski’s Page Springs Winery – the vats and the viscerally pleasing sounds of fermenting grapes as he punches down through the top layers – also figures in the film. Another Prescott alum and Page Springs staffer, Craig Martinsen ’97, shows us the importance of fist-measured spacing of trellising new vines. We receive a lighthearted lesson on the vocabulary of wine, how attending to the aromas translates into taste, and how this opening of one’s senses can enhance perceptions of people’s body chemistry and what hygienic products they might or might not be using. Global vintner culture arrives, specially packaged tasting glass in hand, with James Suckling from Wine Spectator magazine, just in from Tuscany, Italy, to have a special tasting complete with the requisite sniffing, mouth swishing, and spitting. He and other experts in the field give the wine their blessing. If, like a bottle of fine wine, Northern Arizona evolves as a center of viticulture, this movie, along with the contributions from the College’s alumni, will certainly serve as a catalyst. Catch previews and watch for DVD availability at www.twinklecashcompany.com.
Salli Maxwell ’99 lives in Prescott, Ariz., where she is active in the arts, as an advocate for children and the elderly, and as an occasional contributor to Transitions.
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Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage
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Public Relations Office 220 Grove Avenue Prescott, AZ 86301
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Charles Franklin Parker Legacy Society Making a Difference by Supporting the Vision of Tomorrow’s Leaders
Be part of the Legacy Society. Make a lasting impact on the Prescott College community through your charitable planned gift. “Leave your legacy” with planned giving. Commit to a direct gift to Prescott College in a process that maximizes tax and other financial benefits. A gift can take the form of cash, stocks and other investment instruments including life insurance, works of art, land, or other assets, and can be made during the donor’s lifetime or upon death.
For further information visit www.prescott.edu/giving or contact the Development Office at (877) 350-2100, Ext. 4505, (928) 350-4505, or development@prescott.edu
Richard Ach James Antonius Betsy Bolding Dan & Sue Boyce Brad & Ruth Bradburn Susan N. Coleman Trust Jess Dods Mark Dorsten Kristi and Dale Edwards Albert Engleman Mark & Gwen Goodman Dean and Verne C. Lanier Ericha Scott The Secundy Family Marjory and Frank Sente James Stuckey & Beverly Santo Andrew Sudbrook & Elizabeth Clayton Mary Trevor & Toni Kaus Merrill Windsor Nora Woods Fulton Wright Jr. Sharon Yarborough