URI QuadAngles Winter 2014-2015

QUADANGLES WINTER 2014

College Admission We have you covered | 19

He’s Got Talent Making magic hip | 23

Star Power

23 alumni who shine | 28

The Difference We Make Tales of giving (and receiving), all over the world | 12

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THANK YOU RHODE ISLAND Together, we will engineer a brighter future for Rhode Island.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

uri.edu engineering4ri.com

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Your “yes” vote on Question 4 has paved the way for construction of state-of-the-art facilities that will bring together under one roof the stellar teaching, research, innovation, and discovery happening every day in the College of Engineering.

Your vote is a vote of confidence in URI, and in Rhode Island’s economic revitalization.

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QUADANGLES

Departments

2 FEEDBACK 4 5-MINUTEEXPERT

A Fish Tale

5 PRESIDENT’SVIEW 6 NEWS&VIEWS 10 PRESSBOX 30 CLASSACTS 33 CLOSEUP

Anthony Russo ‘74

37 CLOSEUP

Tayra Melendez ‘16

40 BACKPAGE

Golden Girls

More Online

uri.edu/quadangles

See the whole print issue and more!

Follow the orange arrow icons to see exclusive online content.

Share stories with friends and family.

Post your comments.

Outbreak

An honors class tackles the global spread of disease.

Still WRIU

WINTER 2014 | VOLUME 22, NO. 2

Features

12 To Give

Surprising and inspiring tales of service, in ways big and small, close to home and far away.

Because URI alums really do make the world a better place.

19 College Admission Survival Guide

It’s a lot more complicated than it used to be, but your high-schooler can still land a spot at university (with just a few prods from you).

Pull out our handy fridge guide, and stay calm.

12 12 19

23 The Magician’s Quest

Mat Franco ‘10 had a wild reality-TV ride this spring. The America’s Got Talent winner tells us what winning $1 million is really like.

23

26 Global Impact

From Connecticut to Singapore, a geologist lives to learn.

28 2014 Distinguished Achievement Awards

They have brought distinction to themselves—and URI—through their professional achievements, outstanding leadership and community service. A tribute to this year’s winners.

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28

Readers share more memories online.

COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY ANTHONY RUSSO ’74.

INSIDE COVER: BALLINGER ARCHITECTS. CONTENTS: COURTESY BETHANY ZEEB; RANDY STEVENSON; PETER KRAMER: NBC; COURTESY SCOTT SINGER; NORA LEWIS.

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FEEDBACK Perfect Match James R. Downs ’72 writes from Bristol, R.I., with this story of how he met Irene Helen Breault ’72, and what has happened since: “Met my wife, Renie, in animal ecology lab in 1970. She was hidden by a large jar of preserved eels and the graduate assistant couldn’t see her when he called roll.

So I stood up on my stool and indicated her presence to the prof.

“She went for my John Denver look and my fisherman knit s eater, once she figu ed out I wasn’t a complete jerk. We used to play two-on-two basketball for six-packs until word got around that she could really play. We tied the knot the September after graduation.

“I have polycystic kidney disease, a condition inherited from my mother, which gradually squeezes out good kidney tissue with fluid fil ed cysts. I retired in June 2013 knowing I was facing dialysis within a year, or, with luck, a transplant within a few years.

“That fall, I went to the Mass General Transplant Team. We knew that Renie was the same blood type, but the chances of her being a match were 14,000 to one; plus, donors over a certain mature age are usually not considered.

“Nevertheless, she started her evaluation. After each test, it became clear that not only was she a healthy donor, but she was as close to a perfect match as you can get.

We had the surgery on March 11, and three days later, my kidney function was normal for the fi st time in 14 years.

“Our 42nd anniversary was yesterday, and we celebrated with chowder, clam cakes, and fish and chips. e play golf four days a week, and Renie is a huge gardener, being a master gardener from URI’s program. Life is good when you’ve found your perfect match.”

Wind Power Two readers wrote to comment on “Catching the Wind,” a story in the Fall 2014 issue. Auriane Koster ’08 pointed out that the student Renewable Energy Club has been pushing for a turbine at Kingston since 2003. And David Abedon ’70, M.A. ’72, a URI professor of wildlife ecology and appointee to the RI Coastal Resources Management Council, said that his involvement in the ocean wind power planning process means that: “I have seen the dedication and work by the URI alumni mentioned in the article, as well as several key URI alumni who also deserve credit: Jeff Willis ’90, CRMC Deputy Director; David Beutel ’92, CRMC aquaculture coordinator; David Reis ’83, CRMC supervising biologist; James Boyd ’82, M.S. ’90, CRMC policy analyst; Laura Dwyer ’00, CRMC public educator and information coordinator.”

WRIU Forever More stories of the pivotal role the radio station has had on alumni’s lives came from DJs Randy Vogenberg ’75 and Joel Newman ’61. Read them at uri.edu/quadangles.

Bits and Pieces

Viva Cuba Two leading Cuban scholars, Miguel Coyula and Humberto Miranda, gave talks this fall as part of URI’s international scholars program, and it was only the beginning of a new URI/Cuba connection. This January, during URI’s second winter J Term, a course called The Dynamics of Social Change in the Carribbean will bring a class of students to Cuba to study the island nation on the ground. Ole!

Talent Developer Hundreds gathered in the ballroom of the Memorial Union for a celebration of the life and work of the late Leo F. DiMaio Jr., former director of URI’s Talent Development Program. The event also celebrated the program itself, which was designed by Harold V. Langlois ’67, the keynote speaker. Proceeds benefi ed the DiMaio/ Forleo Endowed Scholarship fund.

DiMaio won the respect and friendship of his colleagues and students at URI from 1969 to 1998. He dedicated his life and career to expanding educational opportunity for disadvantaged students.

The 46-year-old Talent Development program he worked in has opened the doors for thousands of students at URI.

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You Tell Us quadangles@ uri.edu

QUADANGLES A quarterly publication of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association, 73 Upper College Road, Kingston, RI 02881. p: 401.874.2242 e: quadangles@uri.edu

Executive Editor Michele A. Nota ’87, M.S. ’06, Executive Director, URI Alumni Relations; Secretary, Alumni Association Executive Board

Editor in Chief

Art Director

Pippa Jack Kim Robertson

Contributing Editors

Barbara Caron Melanie Coon Shane Donaldson ’99 Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87 Todd McLeish Cindy Sabato

Johnson Ma

Contributing Designers

Anne Marie Blackman ’82, in Oldsmar, Florida, tells us Bo Pickard Verna Thurber how she started a quirky business that has ended Tell us your

Photographer Nora Lewis up defining her orking life (and her holiday

Editorial Board Linda A. Acciardo ’77, Interim Director, parties). We hope this comes just in time for Communications and Community Relations, your party planning. and Director, URI Communications and “I graduated from URI with a B.S. in Marketing stories of Tracey A. Manni, Director of Computer Science and worked in that field entrepreneurship Communications, URI Foundation for a decade, leaving to raise my two boys.

URI Alumni Kathleen DiPietro, Executive Assistant for an upcoming “When they were in high school, I was

Relations Staff Robert Ferrell ’07, Specialist story! looking for something to sell on eBay to help Kathleen Gianquitti ’71, M.S. ’82, Assistant Director pay for college. I researched search trends on Shana Greene ’95, M.S.’97, Assistant Director Google to see what was projected to be hot for the Darthula Mathews ’13, Program Assistant 2008 holiday shopping season, and came across ugly Mary Ann Mazzone, Office Assistant Amy Paulsen, Web/Print Editor Christmas sweater parties. There were Joseph Ryan ’14, Program Assistant Intern a limited number of creative sweaters Kate Serafini Maccarone ’08, Specialist on the market at that time, so I

Alumni Association Louise H. Thorson M.B.A.’85, President up-cycled 50 sweaters to be as

Executive Board Susan R. Johnson ’82, President-Elect Joseph M. Confessore ’96, Past President ridiculous as I could make them and put Daniel G. Lowney ’75, Vice President them on eBay. Thomas F. Shevlin ’68, Vice President “The CS classes I took at URI were a Patrick J. Cronin ’91, Treasurer key to my success, as I deciphered

Alumni Association Laurel L. Bowerman ’77, M.B.A. ’84 eBay’s search algorithm and always had

Councilors-at-Large Matthew Finan ’11 Colleen Gouveia M.B.A.’98 items on the fi st page of search results.

Tyrene A. Jones ’10 My sweaters sold out. The next year, I Brina R. Masi ’01 started getting press inquiries and was Gregory S. Perry ’88 Karen E. Regine ’81 asked to give a fashion show on The Darran A. Simon ’98 View. Since then, I’ve done many press Christos S. Xenophontos ’84, M.S.’85 appearances, including the Today Show, at top. I have to mention Alumni Association Representatives a speech class I took at URI. I tend to talk very quickly. The class

Business Administration Jordan D. Kanter ’99, M.S.’00 taught me to talk at half speed; plus how to stand, how to Feinstein Continuing Education Bianca S. Rodriguez-Slater ’10

Engineering Anthony J. Rafanelli ’78, M.S.’85, Ph.D. ’95 enunciate, and how to tell a story. It was the most valuable life Environment and Life Sciences Catherine Weaver ’82, B.L.A.’96 skill class I took.

Human Science & Services Christine S. Pelton ’84 “I created an e-commerce website and have grown my

Nursing Silifat “Laitan” Mustapha ’97

Pharmacy Henrique “Henry” Pedro ’76 business exponentially every year. I now have a book in print, Graduate School of Oceanography Veronica M. Berounsky Ph.D. ’90 Rock Your Ugly Christmas Sweater. This season, we are

Faculty Senate Andrea L. Yates ’94, Ph.D.’06 introducing a line of brand new sweaters that I designed; we’ll

Student Senate Joseph Maynard ’16

Student Alumni Association Kevin L. Drumm ’15 have more than 10,000 sweaters in inventory.

URI Foundation Lorne A. Adrain ’76 “Each year we donate sweaters to U.S. troops serving overseas.

The URI Alumni Association informs and engages current and future alumni This year, we hope to send more than 300. Themed road races and as committed partners of the University, its mission and traditions. parties are a popular holiday diversion on the bases.” www.MyUglyChristmasSweater.com.

weird and wonderful

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PHOTOS COURTESY: JAMES DOWNS, ANNE MARIE BLACKMAN; NORA LEWIS

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5-MINUTEEXPERT Learning What Fish Know There’s something fishy about electrical engineering Professor Godi Fischer’s research. His work in establishing an underwater positioning system depends on fish going about their daily lives.

Backed by the National Science Foundation, Fischer is using dime-sized hydrophones that serve as housing for all the electronic components of a miniature acoustic receiver. The 1-inchlong tubes are destined for the dorsal fins of unsuspecting fish. By l tening for a specific sound f equency emitted by underwater speakers, the receivers will triangulate the fish s exact position.

The position, along with data like water temperature and depth, is stored on non-volatile memory.

The low-cost, minimal-infrastructure system opens the door to tracking fish migrations, fish tocks and ocean currents. The information could help policymakers set appropriate fishing quotas, and climate-change researchers understand how the ocean shunts heat around the globe.

“There’s a lot you can track,” Fischer says. “The issue was how to make these things very small and very low power.”

Fischer leaned on his years of expertise in circuit design to shrink the sensors and related electronics on to a circuit board just 8 mm by 17 mm. The equivalent of two souped-up watch batteries provide power for up to two years.

Fischer got the idea a few years ago after bumping into fisheries xpert Conrad Recksiek, now a professor emeritus, who noted that we know surprisingly little about fish mig ations.

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The cylinder that holds the electronics, left, and a set of 10 circuit boards, right, containing the electronics for the fish-tracking device, as compared to a dime.

Researchers cannot use traditional GPS because water absorbs those signals.

To solve the problem would require a multidisciplinary approach.

To round out the team, the pair approached oceanographer Thomas Rossby, also now faculty emeritus, who was using a similar, but signifi antly larger, system he calls RAFOS floats.

It took a few years, but eventually they came up with a design based on a novel custom microchip.

“That’s why it’s fun to work together across disciplines,” Fischer says. “It exposes you to different applications you wouldn’t see working independently.”

The trio hopes to deploy the fi st prototypes on real fish by summer 2015.

They aim to tag fish in Nar agansett Bay in Rhode Island, or off George’s Bank to the northeast of Cape Cod. To incentivize fishermen o return the hydrophonecarrying fish aught in their nets, researchers will likely launch a contest.

Each hydrophone carries a unique serial number and the person who returns one lucky number will win a prize.

For those worried about the fish themselves, Fischer says most probably won’t realize they are transporting pioneering research equipment.

“We have an interest in the fish being OK,” Fischer points out. “If they don’t survive, our equipment is useless.”

—Chris Barrett ’08 MPA ’14

PHOTO: CHRIS BARRETT

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PRESIDENT’SVIEW ing labels. bout warn a g in k in been th rvasive. us, I have them is pe p m re o us ca n n ig o to st dangero dency into life warn again nd the ten en settles t a a , m h ts th s c s e u n d fr o f ti ro of p ass o edica n all kinds bels on m As a new cl hat k of the la rywhere, o in ve e th ration of w m l— e a ti th de conside n essen We see lu ve c ons e in ti l, t ta a fu c e e th s n be u rsations rses, exp u ve n co r co f fo o Yet they ca s s g serie between warnin inations. a complex e content al friction d in ti n d lu e c te g o in a p drug comb g e e s n e . The nd th ucation is isclosures freedom, a Higher ed ings and d academic f rn o a s w it te m a li propri at kind of g and may be ap nsider, wh the meanin co , re to u y lt a public it u n c u mpus identity as RI comm r U u o e d th n around ca f a o , ity. lues bers h and civil r shared va k the mem free speec ng, and as ith both ou ri w e t id n y can s te n is co s n be con ay to Frida I have bee bel might a.m. Mond la 0 g :3 a 8 in ’s t rn e a a I e or w to UR ld if th disclosure ffic oming aseball fie a b bit tr e . a e th n h e o b is “T ti : n g stitu sprin gs like ngs ca research in pus in the about thin nate meeti m g e S ca in f y lk o lt u ta rt c t a a o est p or “F Now, I’m n r “The cold ooze ball”; ell known. y should ired after Boston”; o u f o q u re seful but w u yo rs communit d e re r a w u o o ts h f c s remin o fa le r e e ip lt rtable” memb .” Thes e”; or “Mu that every feel “comfo ent speaks id l— ld s a u e o re home gam h id P s r e e u th at w en o time, pecially if tion betwe e notion th ent at the tedious, es the distinc our presid ted—and th t , c u e e o g p b e nt, s a ll e o re g m C d in e state ed, an mherst I am think d, suppor mber at A idea that th e e e m m es th ir y rv ff d lt e a e u s , u c d q me emory ung fa e criti feel welco in which h serted, if m n I was a yo h s e c well a h e y e e W a H p . s . s m s e t n ts n tim studen decisio enceme r s it m fo d m is here at all n t s a co a e a b g sound e colle ps the righ Craig, gave nstituted a ble. Perha ision for th a c co e rt ” d G. Armour fo t, t a s re m e u th b co rt pa y un h the rtable with ply be a de ity distinctl es in whic “I’m comfo risk, or sim e commun will be tim e th re m f e o o s th rs il t e a ta b , th em r en accurately st some m llenging, o pus. ne seat ew, or cha akes at lea n m g t a in ss the cam th th ro e e ng an airli c n a m ri o u d s c e re be o s s a s h a n s p e h widely use w lly applied ould encom sumptions referentia riterion to s c p a t if s it decision w e g c b in ta e g t, a th am y be cially en-curren priate, or d omfort ma st be espe from the th ing, inappro d. We mu as right. C d n w a la ig le Is ical, or is ra h e C p d m t o o e l, philos could b ity of Rh Presiden it ca rs t ti e u li iv b o n , p U s l, s e cia t th king g a mattre our own so tly made a ws, so see or selectin ns frequen tibility with varying vie a io p ly is e c m y, it is e o id d tl w f n ts o a ld c s import bers ho rd refle re a m o d e n to the kind M m . ta e s is s s rt o ly h para onopoly ity w the comfo e commun ey have a m ould lead to rs w th e t cautious if s iv a e d th m a ti is ve ll elie at a ews. URI iduals, to b mfortable religious vi inded indiv ryone is co ve -m e e k re li e f ere ideas, h o w or group a place wh l, outcomes e a b u , id ld iv u d o rtive and nd sh . for any in at it can, a otherwise at is suppo s th th e a mistake t h is n c y e a it m te rs n e posite. enviro f a univ th. History ined in an g for its op m in ttributes o a on the tru xa im t e s a e d b re n a a e we nged e of th more than are challe In fact, on mfort any orldviews co w r d fo n a g , in s n t aim assumptio , we are no like: g. After all in g ra u signifi ant omething co n e uth. nal mild to uld read s tr o io r h s s a fo I e g cc R o in U e r bel fo y caus . You will b We are aim warning la munity ma nd beliefs e a m s th co a and s e d p n id a ve li r la rh u ge yo So, pe ill also hode Is ay challen fort. You w ersity of R m iv m n ts co t U n o e is e n d d th l o tu a llow s dition xiety. D Joining CAUTION y cause ad al mild an bers and fe a n m m io e ic s h a m m ic y e cc h d lt o w u ad to . Fac ent aca theirs, discomfort hich may le visor, resid challenge w d y , a ll u e r u s u yo e tf c n yo th e a y p res nt th ember, vided b very differe expected to y. And rem will be pro re it a n ce u o n h m ta w m is le s e co l. As peop mbers of th are norma learn with d other me ch feelings n u a s , ; s . d d n e n o ie ti rm fr dua be ala structors, ss upon gra AM), RA, in u for succe yo re a mentor (R p re p s will help experience days, Happy Holi

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NEWS&VIEWS

Physician Assistant Boost

Here’s a direct path into one of the hottest careers in the nation. Officials from the University of Rhode Island and Johnson & Wales University signed an agreement this fall to guarantee admission into the Physician Assistant Studies master’s degree program at JWU for up to six qualified URI graduates each admission cycle. The agreement also creates the URI-JWU Early Identifi ation Program, modeled after an existing program between URI and the Brown University Alpert Medical School, whereby second semester sophomores can secure a seat in physician assistant school for the year following their graduation.

In the Johnson & Wales program, the fi st of its kind in the state, “we are educating our physician assistant students to become collaborative practitioners,” said JWU Providence Campus President Mim L. Runey. “Not only do PAs work directly with physicians, they are members of teams of nurses, therapists, medical technicians, and other professionals dedicated to delivering patient-centered, humanistic care.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics and a 2013 CNNMoney/PayScale project predict the need for physician assistants will grow by 30 percent during the next 10 years. U.S. News & World Report ranks the physician assistant career as one of the most indemand in the country. Their data indicate physician assistants had a median annual salary of $90,930 in 2012. Doctors’ offi es, general medical and surgical facilities, and outpatient care centers employed the most physician assistants in 2012.

George Bottomley ‘73, director of the Center for Physician Assistant Studies and assistant dean at JWU, is proud of the collaboration. He said the fi st physician assis-

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tant class at Johnson & Wales enrolled 23 students in June, with three URI alumni among them.

“For years, I have had a dream of starting a physician assistant program in Rhode Island, and I wanted to develop a relationship with my alma mater to provide URI students with this opportunity,” said Bottomley, adding that the collaboration is advantageous to both institutions. “URI will be able to recruit incredibly bright students into the program, and Johnson & Wales will benefit f om having gifted, driven students well prepared in the health and life sciences by URI.” “This collaboration with Johnson & Wales will create a highly skilled workforce for job opportunities in a dynamic and rapidly expanding health care field, and strengthen Rhode Island’s already strong position in the health sciences,” said URI President David M. Dooley.

Creating Nurse Leaders

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Future of Nursing Scholars Program is building a large and diverse cadre of Ph.D.prepared nurses who can bring transformational change to nursing and patient care as the nation addresses a changing health care climate. And the University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing is one of the fi st 14 schools nationwide to receive a Future of Nursing Scholars grant.

The URI College of Nursing has selected Pamela McCue, the chief executive offi er of the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School, as its inaugural recipient of the grant. Beginning her threeyear doctoral program in the fall, McCue will receive $75,000, and the College of

PHOTOS: JESSICA VESCERA; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM; VISION 3 ARCHITECTS

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URI President David Dooley and JWU Providence Campus President Mim L. Runey

Nursing will provide a $25,000 match in the form of a graduate assistantship. McCue will receive an additional scholarship later this year. The Future of Nursing Scholars Program provides scholarships, mentoring and leadership development activities.

“The most exciting part of this is you have access to so many nurse-scientists, the resources at URI, and a national network that RWJ can provide,” said McCue, a resident of Cumberland. “The knowledge that comes with a Ph.D. is going to make me a better leader, and provide me with new ways to contribute to advancing the science of nursing, enhancing the profession and improving health care.”

Mary Sullivan, interim dean of URI’s College of Nursing, said such support will help students move more quickly through URI’s Ph.D. program—critical because a pending wave of retirements among nursing faculty locally and nationally is expected to lead to a shortage of instructors to teach the next generations of nurses. Numerous experts and studies have said the key factor in having enough nurses to address an impending nationwide shortage is the lack of instructors with doctorates.

“We cannot build a culture of health without many more highly educated nurse leaders,” said Julie Fairman, Future of Nursing Scholars program co-director.

“Ph.D.-prepared nurses are leaders in research, innovation, policy and education.

The alumni of the Future of Nursing Scholars program will be among the nurse leaders who pioneer the groundbreaking research that provides solutions to our most pressing health problems, and they will educate thousands of nurses over the course of their careers.”

Butterfield Hall

Building a Better Campus

The $125 million bond issue that Rhode Island voters passed in November to support new engineering facilities will add to the construction activity already going on around campus: → Thanks to support from Rhode Island voters in 2010, the $68 million Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences is well under construction on a portion of what was the parking lot between the Chafee Social Science Center and White Hall.

Expected to be open for classes in September 2016, it will serve more than 7,000 URI students who take chemistry each year. Check out tinyurl.com/urichemistry for a live construction site feed. → To accommodate the 6,000 students now living on campus, URI Dining Services recognized the need for an expanded and renovated Butterfield Hall. The $8 million project is being done in stages and completion is expected by September 2015. → The new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center, under construction at 19 Upper College Road, is expected to open in February 2015. Designed by LLB Architects of Pawtucket, the new building is in keeping with the main campus roadway’s residential style. Currently located in Adams Hall, the Center provides a range of programs and services to create and maintain an open, safe, and inclusive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community members and friends. → And for the 2016–17 academic year, turning the abandoned South Street Power Station in Providence into a state-ofthe-art Nursing Education Center where URI and Rhode Island College will share facilities, along with Brown University, is a strategic use of this long-neglected space.

The opening of this 133,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility is an important step in creating a health care hub for the region.

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Octopus a Devoted Mother Based on his previous research, both at the University of Rhode Island and at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute before that, URI Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Brad Seibel had predicted that the eggs of some deep-sea octopus species could take years to develop.

And, since current knowledge about the octopus is based primarily on shallow-water species, which live just a year or two, Seibel’s prediction also meant the deep-sea cephalopods would have a longer life span than previously thought.

As it turns out, Seibel was right. His former colleagues at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have observed a deep-sea octopus brooding its eggs for fourand-a-half years—longer than any other known animal.

Throughout this time, the female kept the eggs clean and guarded them from predators—a feat representing an evolutionary balancing act between the benefits o the young octopuses of having plenty of time to develop within their eggs, and their mother’s ability to survive for years with little or no food.

Every few months for the last 25 years, a team of Monterey Bay researchers has performed surveys of deepsea animals at a research site in the depths of Monterey Canyon in the Pacific O ean. In May 2007, they discovered a female octopus, a species known as Graneledone boreopacifi a, clinging to a rocky ledge just above the floor of the canyon, about 4,600 feet below the ocean surface.

Over the next four-and-a-half years, they dove at this same site 18 times, finding the same oc opus, identified by her distinctive scars, in the same place. As the young develop inside the eggs, they require plenty of oxygen. This means that the female octopus must continuously bathe the eggs in fresh, oxygenated seawater and keep them from being covered with silt or debris. The female must

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also guard her eggs vigilantly to prevent them from being eaten by predators. The researchers never saw the female leave her eggs or eat anything, nor did she show any interest in small crabs and shrimp that crawled or swam by, as long as they did not bother her eggs. As the years passed, her translucent eggs grew larger, and the researchers could see young octopuses developing inside, while the female gradually lost weight and her skin became loose and pale.

In September 2011, the researchers saw the brooding octopus for the last time. Just one month later, she was gone, and “the rock face she had occupied held the tattered remnants of empty egg capsules,” according to the researchers’ published paper in the journal PLOS ONE. After counting the remnants of the egg capsules, the researchers estimated that the female octopus had been brooding about 160 eggs. Because the young Graneledone boreopacifi a spend so much time in their eggs, by the time they hatch they are fully capable of surviving on their own and hunting for small prey. In fact, the newborns of G. boreopacifi a are larger and better developed than the hatchlings of any other octopus or squid.

This research suggests that, in addition to setting records for the longest brooding time of any animal, they may be one of the longest lived cephalopods (a group that includes octopuses, squids, and their relatives). “The ultimate fate of a brooding female octopus is inevitably death,” the researchers wrote, “but in this fi st example from the deep sea, brooding also confers an extension of adult life that greatly exceeds most projections of cephalopod longevity.”

“This research demonstrates how little we know about life in the deep-sea and life generally. From shallow-living species, we have developed limited and limiting ideas about the capabilities of animals,” said Seibel.

PHOTOS: 2007 MBARI; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM; NORA LEWIS

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Focus on Small Business

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Rhode Island has appointed Mark Stewart, formerly director of the SBDC at Halifax Community College in Weldon, N.C., as the Center’s state director. Stewart earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Edinboro University, a master’s in human resource development “From my experience, from Villanova University, and an MBA from having close relationships Eastern University.

“We’re very excited that Mark has come on with clients allows us board and that the offi e is up and running and to be stronger advocates.” serving clients every day,” said Katharine Flynn, executive director of URI’s Business Engagement Center. “We’re already cross-complementing the SBDC with Polaris Manufacturing Extension Program and the Business Engagement Center here at URI to provide a unified ocation to support Mark Stewart, new director of the Small Business the local business community and build economic Development Center. development.”

In addition to Stewart, directors of three Rhode Island regional SBDC offi es have also been hired. Diane Fournaris, the former assistant state director of the SBDC when it was based at Johnson & Wales University, has been appointed director of the Southern Rhode Island regional offi e, which is located at URI. Douglas Jobling, who served as the state SBDC director when the Center was based at Bryant College, now directs the Northern Rhode Island regional offi e, located at the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce in Lincoln. Josh Daly, previously a business counselor at the New Orleans SBDC, has been named director of the Providence regional offi e at Commerce Rhode Island. Each regional offi e will also have a business counselor, who is yet to be hired. An assistant state director, reporting to Stewart, is also expected to be named shortly.

“We’re moving to an organizational model in which the regional directors and business counselors work much more closely with clients, rather than hiring consultants to do that work,” said Stewart. “From my experience, having close relationships with clients allows us to be stronger advocates and pays big dividends.”

The U.S. Small Business Administration awarded the contract to host the Rhode Island SBDC to URI in December 2013. It previously was hosted by Bryant University for 23 years, followed by Johnson & Wales University for the past seven years. The Center is funded with a $631,000 grant from the Small Business Administration. A line item in the 2015 state budget will provide an additional $250,000 to the Center in the coming year.

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PRESSBOX

Basketball Boot Camp

As they made their way through the darkness onto the Meade Stadium playing surface, the Rhode Island women’s basketball team waited anxiously for what was in store.

It was a Tuesday morning in September, and the Rams were up before the sun. They had no idea what was about to take place, but the uniformed military personnel waiting for them provided the fi st clue.

It was a full-day, military-style workout orchestrated by the Providence Marine Recruiting branch, which has teamed up with the Women’s Basketball Coach’s Association (WBCA) to reach out to female college athletes with the hopes of inspiring them to join after graduation.

Rhode Island Director of Basketball Operations Danielle Parks coordinated the exercise. “There were a couple of hopeful gains,” she said. “First, we wanted to instill discipline within our players.

We also wanted them to step outside of their comfort zones and become better teammates and players.”

The challenge combined physically demanding exercises and running with an obstacle course that required teamwork and problem solving to complete, including two teammates carrying a third. Senior co-captain Megan Straumann reports that it was defini ely not business as usual: “This practice challenged us in different ways than we were used to. We had to figu e out a way to be successful while doing something new. A couple of things we did required the effort of every single person, and if one person was left behind, we were all affected. I think that’s the best thing any of us could have possibly gotten out of it­—togetherness.”

The women’s basketball team is under the guidance of fi st-year head coach Daynia La-Force, who is helping to push the change in culture. The team has adopted a new slogan for this season: “Winning Minds.”

“It’s handling your business, on the court and off, like a woman— and being the best at whatever you are doing,” Parks explained.

Junior co-captain Brianna Thomas added that the new slogan “is on the back of our practice shirts. In any moment of weakness at practice, if you feel like giving in, you look at the person in front of you and see ‘Winning Minds’ and you don’t stop.”

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Swimming the Bay for Cancer Research

In September, the Rhode Island swimming and diving team participated in the Swim Across America Rhode Island event to raise money for the American Cancer Society and Women & Infants Hospital.

It was the fifth ear the Rhody swimmers participated in the event, which was held in Narragansett Bay at Roger Wheeler State Beach. The Rams were among 400 college students taking part, joining swimmers from Providence College, Roger Williams University, the University of Connecticut and Wesleyan University.

In our lifetimes, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer. The Rams are doing their part to change that: They raised more than $6,000 through the event.

PHOTOS: COURTESY URI ATHLETICS

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ParaRowing Goes to World Championship Rhode Island rowing head coach Shelagh Donohoe— who won a silver medal with the United States coxless fours boat at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics—was back with U.S. Rowing this summer, this time volunteering as the coach of the U.S. ParaRowing LTA (legs, trunk, arm) mixed double boat. She worked with the team of Andrew Johnson and Stephanie Cox, coaching the duo to a seventh-place finish at the World Championship in Amsterdam in August.

For Donohoe, who is entering her eighth season as Rhode Island’s head coach, working with the mixed double team presented challenges that differ from coaching the Rams.

Johnson is blind, while Cox has multiple sclerosis. Two years ago, an MS-related episode left the right side of her body paralyzed. She has worked to regain 30 percent mobility in her right leg and 85 percent mobility of her right hand.

In July, Johnson and Cox won the U.S. Adaptive Trials finals, qualifying them or the World Championship in Amsterdam, being held Aug. 24 through Aug. 28. Johnson, who already knew Donohoe, asked her to work with them. Johnson and Cox worked out twice a day in Boston; Donohoe drove to Boston four times a week to join them.

“Once we were on the water, the practices were structured very similar to what I do with our women here,” Donohoe said. “The biggest difference is getting on the water, because that part takes much longer.”

Donohoe would talk Johnson—a six-time member of the U.S. ParaRowing Team—through the steps to get him from the boathouse to the water. Like any rower, he carries his own boat to the dock, but there were obstacles, twists and turns that he needed assistance with.

“In working with Andrew, I found that I was learning to communicate on a much higher level, which is giving me a different perspective in my coaching,” Donohoe said. “I couldn’t give him visual targets, and you start to realize how often we rely on those visual targets in rowing.”

While Johnson’s movements on land are deliberate and slowly paced, it’s a different story on the water.

“Once he is in the boat, it’s like he is free,” Donohoe said. “It’s pretty amazing, because he really does take off once he gets to the water.”

For Cox, the biggest concern is fatigue caused

by MS. Only in her second year of rowing, Cox played lacrosse and rugby in college before joining the United States Air Force. It was while serving her country that she was diagnosed.

“Stephanie does not have a lot of feeling on the side of her body, but we work on everything as best as she can,” Donohoe said. “Heat can really affect MS, and she needs extra time to recover. Health is a factor with her workouts, so as a coach, my challenge was figuring out when o push her and when to pull back.”

Rhode Island company Resolute Racing, which has a relationship with Donohoe and the Rams, worked with the U.S. Adaptive Rowing Team on boat designs with special seats for the Para teams.

“This is a great experience that I am very proud to be a part of,” Donohoe said. “Working with Andrew and Stephanie made me a better coach, which is going to benefit the Rhode Island p ogram.

It’s really exciting to coach at the highest level and be back involved with U.S. Rowing.”

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ToGive

By Elizabeth Rau, Melanie Coon, and Pippa Jack

Yes, we’re a small university, in a state that’s long been popular culture’s byword for “tiny.” Also, perhaps, “provincial.” We all know this, just like we know that URI is pretty much synonymous with oceanography, engineering and nursing, despite its many other excellent programs and niches. And hey, we can share the joke. But we also know these tropes don’t define us.

In fact, altruism and giving back are hallmarks of the University. What follows is a glimpse at the lives of students, staff and alumni who have gone into the world, near and far, and done surprising, selfle s, and even dangerous work. Some dedicate their lives to service; others weave volunteer activities into lives busy with other pursuits. Some target the desperate far away; others look closer to home. Thanks to them, we live in a better world.

This holiday season, that’s something to cheer.

LILY MCKAY ’13

A teacher works with students at Saint Timothy’s.

VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

is wrapping up a trip to Tanzania right now, where she has been working with the 300 grade-school kids at Saint Timothy’s School while simultaneously trying to raise $20,000 to create a resource center for their teachers. Check out the Saunderstown native’s fundraiser page at classy.org, where McKay has posted videos of the students. “We need someone to save this crazy world,” comments one donor. “Thank goodness there are people like you!”

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ROB MARONI ’91 The Syrian refugees flee with nothing. No food.

No belongings.

What they do carry, they are desperate to unload: horrific memories of a sickening civil war that has created one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time.

Robert Maroni is helping them, one by one. As country director in Jordan for Mercy Corps, a global relief organization, Maroni manages aid programs for 500,000 refugees, including thousands living at refugee camps that provide a home—and some stability.

Three years into a war escalating daily as ISIS ramps up involvement, nearly 190,000 Syrians are dead and another 3 million are scattered throughout the Middle East. On foot at night to evade snipers, many are flooding in o Jordan, just across the southern border. Mercy Corps

PHOTOS COURTESY: LILY MCKAY, ROB MARONI

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helps run two camps, mini-cities in the desert: Azraq, a haven for 6,000 refugees, and Za’atari, the second-largest refugee camp in the world, with 85,000 people.

The immediate physical requirements are obvious: shelter, food, clean water.

But it’s the emotional needs that are more elusive. Maroni and his team of 200 excel at both, whether it’s improving water supplies and digging wells or showing evening movies and building playgrounds where kids can kick around a soccer ball.

Many of the refugees are battle-scarred children running from what the United Nations human rights chief calls Syria’s “House of Blood.’’

“Their villages have been blown up, their houses destroyed,’’ says Maroni. “They’ve seen people getting shot. They’ve seen death and destruction. They’ve seen the ugly side of humanity.’’

It was in the Peace Corps, as a volunteer in Cameroon, that Warwick, R.I. native Maroni, 50, fi st felt the pull of humanitarian work. Soon he was in Rwanda, rebuilding villages destroyed by genocide,

then Eritrea, where he coordinated an HIV prevention project.

He joined Mercy Corps in 2004, helping children in Zimbabwe orphaned by the country’s HIV epidemic. In 2010, he landed in Jordan, where he lives with his wife, Nadia al-Alawi, and two daughters, ages 11 and 13—and cares for some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

“The needs here are enormous,’’ Maroni says. Schools are overcrowded.

Many refugees don’t have enough clothes; some can’t afford medicine. “These are people like you and me who lived in houses and cities. Now there’s a huge upheaval in their lives for one reason—war.’’

Yet they adjust with courage and hope, he says. At a new gym in Za’atari, Mohammed Al Karad, a refugee and Syria’s 32-year-old national wrestling champion, teaches kids how to box, lift weights, and love life again. “Our gym is full every day,’’ says Maroni. “You can see where your work is making a difference.’’

How long does he expect families to stay at the camps? Up to a staggering 15 years.

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BETHANY EISENBERG ZEEB, M.S. ’87

MIKE PINTO ‘15 is a mechanical engineering graduate student from Milford, Mass., who practices the Brazilian martial art capoeira. Last summer he managed to find time o raise money for Central Falls’ Children’s Friend organization, which provides services to vulnerable children.

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Bethany Eisenberg was a nervous wreck a decade ago when she asked family and friends to forgo presents on Christmas and instead donate the unopened contents of their bathroom cabinets.

“I didn’t know what to expect,’’ she says.

Eisenberg was floo ed by the response: Great idea, and where can we put the boxes.

The donations—infant Tylenol, diaper cream, vitamins—were packed into even bigger boxes and shipped to a hospital and orphanage in Guatemala that treats the poorest of the poor.

That holiday campaign evolved into the Guatemala Aid Fund, a thriving nonprofit that has raised thousands of dollars to help children in a country where nearly half suffer from malnutrition and 75 percent of the people live below the poverty line.

John Diego, 16, and Joseline, 14 are the two reasons Eisenberg is passionate about the country. She and her husband, Peter, adopted them from Guatemala City when they were babies, and during subsequent visits the harsh poverty the couple saw was wrenching.

“I have to do this,’’ says Eisenberg, 53, who graduated from URI in 1987 with a master’s degree in water resources and works for VHB Inc., an engineering company in Watertown, Mass. “I’m blessed in every way. I have family, friends, job satisfaction, a good education. The poverty

in Guatemala is so tremendously worse than here.’’

After the Christmas drive, Eisenberg thought she might be on to something: people would donate to a project that could show tangible results.

Eisenberg soon figu ed out that it was costly to ship items and would be smarter to raise and send cash. Today, the nonprofit gi es money to two small orphanages and a program called Happy Hearts that strives to keep fractured families together through counseling.

She continues to ship medical supplies to Hermano Pedro Hospital and Orphanage in Antigua.

Donations have an immediate benefit: $2,000 to two-month-old Andres for a hernia operation that saved his life; a refrigerator—the fi st—for the Luz de Maria orphanage and its 32 children; a yard at the orphanage for children to play tag; and new shoes for dozens of children, thanks to Massachusetts students who participate in Guatemala Aid Fund’s Caring Kids Club.

Teaching young Americans that many children in other countries sleep six to a room on a dirt floor or don’t get n w school shoes every year is an important part of the organization’s mission.

“I want children to grow up with a sense of wanting to give and share,’’ she says.

“Even if it’s a little bit, they can make a difference. Everyone can.’’

PHOTOS COURTESY: BETHANY EISENBERG ZEEB, MIKE PINTO, BRYAN WATKIN

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BRYAN WATKIN ’09 Big foreign aid groups don’t impress Bryan Watkin, especially the one that distributed hundreds of pink harmonicas to children in an African village. “No one even taught them how to play,’’ he says. “It was a waste.’’

Helping Africans survive on their own, without government handouts, is the goal of Watkin’s WearAfrica, which sells handmade African goods by local artisans. Watkin buys most of the products—bracelets, necklaces, tribal masks—directly from the artists so the money goes into their pockets.

“It’s so important to support local businesses in Africa—the Mom and Pop stores,’’ says the 27-year-old Maine resident. “It allows people to empower themselves. I hate the phrase ‘sustainable development’ but that’s what I’m trying to do. They want to be able to support their families, like everyone.’’

The son of a career military offi er, Watkin was all set to continue the family tradition by enrolling in West Point when he took a high school course in oceanography.

Fish farming became his obsession. After

graduating from URI with a bachelor’s degree in aquaculture, he joined the Peace Corps, settling in Kanzala, a village of 1,200 in northwest Zambia. Home was a tworoom thatched-roof hut with an outhouse.

He had no electricity or running water.

“I loved it,’’ he says.

Not only did he teach villagers how to harvest protein-packed fish o feed their families, he came to adore a culture that he says excels in humility and happiness, despite extreme poverty. “I remember listening to kids cry for two months during the hungry season from November through January,’’ he says. “They were eating nothing but nshima,” a porridge made from ground cornmeal.

WearAfrica could put food on their tables.

Watkin returned from the Peace Corps in 2013, unsure about his future. During a trip to South Africa to help start an oyster farm, he visited a city market and was charmed by the handmade crafts. On a whim, he bought some jewelry and sold it

on eBay. Sales were so good he decided to buy more and WearAfrica was born.

The items are utterly unique—bracelets of copper or polished cow bone, knives with intricately-carved handles, handbags made with schetenga, a brightly-colored African fabric. In his trips back to Zambia, Watkin tracks down artisans in remote villages after long treks in the bush. One partnership he is especially proud of is with adult Zambians who have physical challenges and make handbags.

Twenty percent of WearAfrica’s profits are donated to locally-managed charities in Africa that help with pressing issues, like clean water and better agricultural practices. Ultimately, Watkin hopes his products inspire people to talk about the wonders of Africa and its people.

“We hear so many negative stories in the media about Africa, and I want to change that,’’ he says. “It’s a beautiful place. I like the Wild West aspect of it. It’s raw, and the people are real. They are who they are and that’s lovely to me.’’

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KOMLAN SOE ’13 Growing up in a refugee camp in West Africa, Komlan Soe experienced the humiliation of being contained, like a caged animal. Those memories came flooding back when he saw television images of his fellow Liberians sealed off in their neighborhood by barbed wire in a cruel government action to control the deadly Ebola

virus. “Seeing that was heartbreaking,’’ he says. “I knew I had to do something.’’

That urge to help led to the #EbolaBeGone Campaign, a group that he and other Liberians in Rhode Island founded to raise awareness about the disease ravaging Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The young men and women—among the 15,000 Liberians in the state—collected and shipped thousands of medical supplies to Liberia in August.

Another shipment went out this fall.

“I want to help the helpless,’’ says Soe. And that includes, at least for now, his mother, brother and sister, who live in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, where the disease is spreading rapidly. Miraculously, they’re healthy, he says, but terrified of leaving their house. His brother goes out once a day to buy food.

“The country has collapsed—the healthcare system is broken, businesses and schools are closed, bodies are left on

the street,’’ says Soe. “People need to know this is not just a Liberian crisis. It’s a global crisis. We need to take action before it’s too late, before millions die.’’

Born in Liberia, Soe fled the ountry at age 3 during a bloody civil war, ending up in a refugee camp in the Ivory Coast and, later, Ghana. Life behind a fence was bleak.

Surviving on rice and canned sardines, he often went to bed hungry. Home was a shack. His classroom was the dusty earth under an acacia tree.

A move as a teenager with some of his siblings to Rhode Island provided opportunities he had only dreamed of as a boy. Last year, the 27-year-old Providence resident earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, the fi st in his family to attend college. Graduate school will come, but fi st his homeland.

“The most vulnerable people in the country are dying,’’ he says. “I believe in giving them a voice.’’

SARA STEVENS NERONE ’90, M.S. ’95 Sara Stevens Nerone brought violins and Bach to Vietnamese children who could barely afford shoes, much less a musical instrument. She taught them how to paint with watercolors, and she provided shiny new bicycles to girls so they could ride, not walk, the 10-mile journey to school.

Through her nonprofit, Rock- aperScissors Children’s Fund, Nerone—who earned a master’s degree in wildlife and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from URI—has touched the lives of 500 Vietnamese children, many so poor their parents make less than one dollar a day.

“There’s no way I could not do something,’’ she says.

Nerone’s journey to kindness started when she and her husband, Christopher Nerone, a renowned botanist at URI who died in 2010, adopted two girls from Vietnam: Sophie, now 16, and Phoebe, now 13.

Two years ago, Nerone, 52, returned to the country with her children and partner, Patrick O’Brien, to volunteer.

Back home in Wakefield, she knew what she had to do: give.

So far, she’s raised nearly $60,000 to pay for bikes for children in Khanh Hoa Province, and art and music programs in Cam Duc Village, a poor town in central Vietnam.

The arts programs give the kids a place to gather away from the grinding poverty.

They play Bach minuets on violins provided by the nonprofit. Th y draw and paint in classes that emphasize free expression. Last summer, the nonprofit held th ee-day music and art camps in ethnic minority villages.

The bike program, exclusively for girls, is keeping them in school. Many drop out because their walk to school is too long— three hours in some cases. Now, nearly 300 girls have new bikes, thanks to Nerone and her daughters, also tireless volunteers.

“I want my daughters to know the Vietnamese culture,’’ says Nerone, an ecologist with the National Park Service. “I also want them to know how important it is to give back.’’

Goodness runs in the family. Phoebe helped with a campaign at her middle school to collect donations for elderly men and women in Cam Duc. There were smiles all around when they received their gift: 350 pairs of reading glasses.

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DIANNE FONSECA ’70 “Keeping the Pace with Dianne” is Rhode Island’s top fundraising team in the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk —and, impressively, one of the top 20 in the United States.

So it is no surprise that keeping pace with Dianne Pastore Fonseca ’70, a 15-year breast cancer survivor, is not easy. Raising more than $150,000 to date, Fonseca, with the help of family and friends, is constantly striving to do more in the battle against this deadly disease. She raises not only dollars, but critical awareness, through events like a celebration of survivorship, where more than 300 women came together at a local country club; Zumba nights; pig roasts; and Pink Outs, pink ribbon card sales, and faculty dress-down days at local schools. Fonseca received an award for her extraordinary volunteerism from the New England division of the ACS last June. And as she says, “more events are in the works.”

RHODY OUTPOST The Rhody Outpost Food Pantry supplies food to URI students in need, because yes, there is hunger on campus. For more information, call the Clearinghouse for Volunteers at 401.874.2568.

MICHAEL ROSATI ’73 When the devastating tsunami of 2005 struck Indonesia, Michael J. Rosati, a consultant who has lived in Thailand since 2001, traveled to the region to see what he could do to help its youngest survivors.

Rosati, who has worked for the United Nations and whose career has included stints as a senior technical expert at the Thailand Ministry of Public Health, senior scientist at Education Development Center, and senior advisor to the Pacific In titute for Research and Evaluation, was not focused on what these young people had lost. Visiting an island where more than 350,000 had been killed by the tsunami, Rosati worked to empower survivors by providing them with tools they could use in disaster preparedness going forward.

A week-long meeting sponsored by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health in partnership with several NGOs including UNICEF, drew participants from Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand, who then returned to their communities to work with local NGOs to prepare other young people to face similar disasters. Rosati defini ely subscribes to the “teach a man to fish” axiom.

Rosati is a renaissance man of the helping professions. His broad-ranging career has focused on promoting mental health among young people; addressing issues of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS; promoting participatory learning and skills development in classroom settings; developing multimedia for instructional purposes; involving young people in disaster preparedness; and designing social marketing campaigns that address a wide range of health and social issues.

A native of Providence, he has fond memories of his years at URI, and credits Professor Chris Heisler in the School of Education with influencing his decision o

PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; COURTESY: SARA STEVENS NERONE, DIANNE FONSECA; WIKIPEDIA.ORG; ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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make education part of his life’s work.

“Heisler was an extraordinary man, a veteran of WWII, like my dad, and he always impressed me with his humanity and wisdom,” he recalls.

Rosati’s move to Thailand came after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked him to advise the Thai government on various aspects of health promotion including strategic planning and social marketing. His clients have included UNESCO, the World Health Organization, Catholic Relief Services, Dong Tam Drug Recovery Center in Vietnam, and numerous other agencies and schools throughout Southeast Asia.

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LES CONKLIN ’60 AND BERNIE FINKEL ’60 When they graduated from the College of Business Administration, friends Les Conklin and Bernie Finkel had no idea they were destined to play roles in preserving a scenic landmark. Both moved with their families to Scottsdale, Ariz., more than 30 years ago.

At that time, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve did not exist. From 1982 to 1984, Scottsdale doubled in area, to 184 square miles, by annexing an expanse of beautiful Sonoran Desert with more saguaro cactus than people. Today, the Preserve encompasses approximately 27,800 contiguous acres—more than 43 square miles. When it is completed, at 34,000 acres, it will be one of the largest cityowned preserves in the country.

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participating in MSLT hikes, became an expert in Sonoran flo a and fauna, and a hike leader. He volunteered for trail construction and other projects, was responsible for the expanding steward program for several years, and served on MSC’s Board of Directors. Thanks in large part to Finkel’s dedication, knowledge, and exceptional salesmanship, today MSC has more than 500 volunteer stewards. Finkel has been instrumental in the development of MSC’s new Field Institute, designed to help students effectively care for the preserve and share MSC’s expertise locally and across the United States.

Meanwhile Conklin, who is president of the Greater Pinnacle Peak Association and editor of The Peak magazine, has served as a member of MSC’s Board of Directors and founded Friends of the Scenic Drive.

The South County and URI chapters of Habitat for Humanity are using student and other volunteer labor to build homes for families, including two families that are moving in this winter, right next to the Kingston campus. See southcountyhabitat.org.

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA.ORG; COURTESY CONKLIN AND FINKEL

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A Parent’s Survival Guide to

COLLEGE ADMISSION

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Pull these pages out for a handy reference guide!

COUNTDOWN TO COLLEGE For better or worse, the college admission process has become a family affair.

Families should be looking for a good fit or their child, not for the name of a university that is going to make them feel happier at a cocktail party.

CYNTHIA BONN, M.S. ’94, Dean of Admission, URI

Gone are the days when students managed the entire process with parents on a “need to know” basis, when admission letters were delivered via U.S. Postal Service, and when a parent’s pivotal role was writing the SAT-fee check to the College Board.

Today, there are hundreds of guidebooks and dozens of websites and blogs designed to demystify an increasingly complicated process. We turned to two experts, Cynthia Bonn, M.S.‘94, URI dean of admission, and Eddie Cronan ’72, M.A.’76, college guidance counselor at LaSalle Academy in Providence, to help us peek behind the curtain. And take heart; our experts’ take-home message is that many schools out there will be a good fit. The idea of the one, perfect school is a shop-worn myth.

Freshman and Sophomore Years: Setting the Stage The fi st two years of high school are a time to lay the foundation for the critical junior year.

Solid study habits and time management skills will prove invaluable in the college search, as will the ability to independently recognize when it is time to ask for help.

These are also years when students can become comfortable exploring college and university websites, as well as collegeboard.org. No need to search too seriously, but this is a good time to investigate the tools offered by your school’s guidance offi e, such as the online organization site Naviance.

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Junior Year: The Fun Begins At the start of the year, your role is to tactfully recommend that your student takes advantage of all college planning programs offered at the high school guidance offi e. These may take the form of meetings, events, college fairs, one-on-one sessions, and email alerts.

TIP: Only you know whether your student requires reminding, nudging, or even nagging to adhere to deadlines. To the extent possible, do not insert yourself into the process unless asked.

Fall Semester Your students will take the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). This test is “practice” for the SATs, and is used to determine eligibility for National Merit Scholarships. Students can choose to have their scores reported to colleges interested in students scoring in their range; those schools will, in turn, send a barrage of information.

December Break Both Bonn and Cronan recommend that students take time over the December break to compile a list of schools that interest them. Encourage your student to use online research tools, like those offered by the College Board, to plug in search criteria that will help craft the list. Only become involved in list creation if asked.

ILLUSTRATIONS: RANDY STEVENSON ’10

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CYNTHIA BONN, M.S. ’94, Dean of Admission, URI

Spring Semester Your student will meet with a guidance counselor to start honing the list of schools to consider.

Some schools also offer a kick-off college search meeting for parents and students early in the spring semester.

During the spring semester most students will also take SATs or ACTs. They may also take SAT subject tests, also known as SAT IIs, in May or June.

Spring Break This is a chance for you to become involved in a meaningful way. If possible, visit several schools with your student, large and small, rural and urban, so students can get an idea of where they feel comfortable—they may be surprised. Many schools have Saturday visiting options. Bonn urges families to go while schools are in session, tap the usually helpful “Visit” section of the school’s website, and: “Go on the official our. The tour guides are trained to present the greatest amount of information in the most efficient manner possible.”

G DEADLIN N I ES ST

ES FOR URC TE O S

The current generation of high school students actually looks to their parents for guidance. You have to know how much help to provide and when to step back. It never hurts to say, ‘I’m here if you need me.’

College Board: collegeboard.org

American College Testing (ACT): act.org

TIP: Cronan and Bonn agree that students should apply to a reasonable number of schools—no more than eight to ten if possible.

Thanks to the Common Application, there is a great temptation to apply to far more.

Bonn emphasizes, “The longer the list, the more stressful the process.”

Summer Continue exploration, including visits, although it can be harder to get a feel for a campus when regular classes are not in session. Some schools have robust summer programs, which help.

The Common Application goes online August 1. Cronan advises that once the essay prompts are posted, students should think about drafting their essays.

TIP: If your student is particularly interested in a school, return for a fall semester visit.

Some schools offer fall open houses with presentations by faculty, student clubs and organizations, and top administrators.

Understand that students may wish to go on tours or attend information sessions without you. They may also want to connect with other students they know. Follow their lead and you will have a more successful visit, even if you end up hanging in the college bookstore café by yourself.

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Early Decision vs. Early Action Early decision is reserved for the small number of students who are certain where they want to go. Students accepted early decision must commit to attend.

Senior Year Fall Checklist Parents: £ If asked, provide the college guidance counselor with a “brag sheet” about your child. Don’t hold back.

Counselors use this information in the recommendation they prepare.

Students: £ SATS/ACTS are often taken

a second time in the fall of senior year. Adhere to deadlines. For schools that offer merit-based scholarships (as opposed to strictly need-based financial aid), SAT and ACT scores can make a difference in the award.

£ REVIEW ESSAYS with English teachers and academic advisors.

£ TEACHER RECOMMENDATIONS—provide teachers with appropriate forms and allow enough time.

Keep in mind that several teachers may be asked for multiple recommendations.

£ ATTEND INFORMATION SESSIONS at your high school—these are sessions featuring admission representatives from colleges and universities.

£ BE AWARE OF APPLICATION DEADLINES for early action, early decision, and regular decision.

Early action is a great way to go. If you are accepted to one of your top choices early, it takes pressure off the second half of the senior year and you are in no way obligated to attend. There is nothing stopping students from submitting early action and regular applications simultaneously.

Senior Year: Apply

Parents, please note: Do not, under any circumstances, complete your student’s application or write the essay. If asked, review and comment on the essay. Your role is to support, provide guidance, and cheerlead.

TIP: Application deadlines vary. Most early deadlines are in November and December.

Bonn recommends completing regular decision applications by early January.

Keep an eye out for acknowledgement and decision letters. The acknowledgement letter from URI, for instance, contains information on how to check the status of your application and see which items you still need to supply. “If you don’t pay attention and check your application status online,” Bonn warns, “there is a chance you will never get a decision letter, because items may be missing.”

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) File the FAFSA in January of your student’s senior year. The application is submitted online and requires electronic signatures from both a parent and the student applicant.

Don’t wait until your taxes are done; use estimated numbers, and make adjustments after you fi e your tax return. “The advantage to filing ear y,” says Bonn, “is that there will be no ‘packaging delay,’ on your financial aid.” In other words, the sooner you fi e FAFSA, the sooner schools will calculate your financial aid pac age, which may include federal loans, state loans, and institutional loans or grants.

For Rhode Island parents, Cronan recommends the College Planning Center of Rhode Island, part of the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority (RISLA), for assistance completing the FAFSA. See risla.com/college-planning-center.

Decision Time By early April, most students will have received word from all the schools to which they have applied. Many will be fortunate to have choices, in which case accepted-student visiting days can help them winnow options.

“If the financial package is similar at mo e than one institution,” Bonn advises, “let your student make the final decision. S ep back.”

May 1 is the deadline for a deposit that ensures your student’s place, and is also the deadline to secure housing at many colleges.

Waitlisting Your student may wish to remain on one or more waitlists, in which cases no deposit is due at those schools. But it is vital that they pay a deposit somewhere by May 1.

If students have their heart set on a particular college or university that has waitlisted them, they should stay in touch with the school.

That means them, not you. Parents should not reach out to schools on their children’s behalf.

Independent Admission Counselors There’s plenty of humor in the blogosphere—at The Neurotic Parent, for instance—poking fun at parents who hire pricey independent admission counselors. But Bonn, after 30 years in admissions, sounds a more serious note. Not only are independent admission counselors not able to work miracles, but admission offi ers, she cautions, can spot a “packaged” applicant: “Most admission offi ers are considering the same things: transcript, difficulty of cla ses, test scores, community involvement, leadership, and character. An independent counselor cannot change your child’s profi e or the supporting data.”

But, she adds, if you are concerned about access to the guidance counselors at your student’s high school, or you think your student requires more one-on-one help, an independent advisor could be right. The Independent Educational Consultants Association (iecaonline.com) is an excellent resource.

The last word: It is not an irreversible decision! After the end of freshman year or even the fi st semester, if your student is unhappy or wants to study something that is not offered by the college or university they chose to attend, they can transfer!

—Melanie Coon

Learn more: uri.edu/admission

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The Magician’s Quest Mat Franco ’10

thought he’d spend his career working the college circuit, until his decision to enter the country’s biggest talent show paid off in spades.

What now?

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I

n hindsight, viewers of NBC’s America’s Got Talent could have pinpointed the moment Mat Franco ’10 nailed his victory: his performance during Semifinal 2 of the popular show’s ninth season, at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

The 26-year-old Franco, boyish but smooth in his grey blazer and black slacks, offers a deck of cards, just as he has during each previous round. But this time, the trick is going somewhere else. He asks judge and former Spice Girl Mel B if she has her cell phone.

“I always have my cell phone,” she says in her British accent, relinquishing it. He snaps her photo, there’s a gaffe involving a glass of water, and suddenly, the iPhone is gone.

Mel B doesn’t seem to be feigning her dismay as Franco asks another judge, Heidi Klum, to help him find it. Klum dials Mel B s digits, and a phone rings— somewhere in the audience.

The camera follows Franco as he leads Mel B to a seat, turfs out its confused resident, and brandishes a large pocketknife. He invites Mel B to reach inside the stuffing, and oila! A white model just like the one she lost. Can it really be hers?

“If this is your phone, it will have the photo” taken earlier, Franco says.

And of course, it does.

There’s more to the trick, but we won’t tell all: it’s worth a trip to YouTube to see Franco do his thing, so confident, so close to creating an illusion of effortlessness that you have to really pay attention to see just how hard he’s working.

But then, he’s been working hard for pretty much his entire life. Really hard. And all that grind, poured into his romance with the old-fashioned craft of stage magic, has helped him pull off something remarkable: making magic seem relevant in the age of digital ­special effects.

It’s a bigger triumph even than the $1-million fi st prize from America’s Got Talent, although the money doesn’t hurt. It’s safe to say he’ll be investing that cash back into his act. Because more than anything else, he wants to sustain America’s reborn interest in magic. He just has to figu e out how.

Franco, a Johnston native, has loved magic ever since he can remember. Twenty years ago, when magic acts were still evening TV fodder, he would record shows and play them back, trying to puzzle out the tricks. He worked local birthday parties for $50 that his parents or older brothers had to drive him to; even performed in Vegas as a teen. During his URI years, he started honing a stage act aimed at the ­college market.

It wasn’t exactly a conventional career choice; Card Shark 101 has yet to be listed on any college curricula. His choice of major now reveals itself as brilliant—Franco credits the business skills learned here as a major factor in his success—but at the time, he felt lost. “Should I study something random as a back-up plan? Or choose something complementary to magic?” His reasoning for majoring in marketing: “If no one comes to see your show, then you don’t have a show.”

More focused than many of his peers, he found a home in URI’s orientation program (and performs for it still). Every summer, when other students headed to the beach, orientation leaders moved into a dorm together to run an intensive program aimed at welcoming, educating and entertaining incoming freshmen. He made some of his closest friends, met the classmate who’s still his girlfriend—and learned to survive in a fish-b wl environment, a skill that came in handy last summer.

“We lived and worked together,” he remembers.

“You really form a bond with those people. Kind of like when you’re stuck in New York City in a hotel with a bunch of contestants on America’s Got Talent— you get close.”

His biggest adjustment? Having a stage crew.

“I’m so used to being a solo act,” he says, and it’s true—watch one of his college shows (posted on his website, matfranco.com) and you see him working the stage completely alone, including lighting and music cues. America’s Got Talent represented an awe-­ inspiring adjustment. “The stage manager was the same guy who does the Oscars,” Franco marvels.

“The special effects guy worked for Cirque du Soleil.

There’s a pyro guy—I mean, how do you become a pyro guy? How does that even happen? You have to be incredibly passionate about what you do. And this team of ­people, they were helping to take my ideas and make them great.”

Listening, you can’t help concluding that this is part of ­Franco’s success: his admiration for others is genuine. It doesn’t hurt that his charm goes hand in hand with a single-minded focus on his craft. He’s not giving away any secrets, but he says some of the

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AMERICA’S GOT TALENT Pictured at center of photo (left to right): Heidi Klum, Mat Franco, Howie Mandel

stunts he pulled off on TV are things he’s been dreaming up for decades. Others, he had to invent in days.

“I put my best idea forward each time and worried about outdoing it later,” he says.

Franco entered the competition as a marketing ploy: he hoped to make it to the fi st televised round, and in the process win a fi e-second spot that he could use in his demo. So he went all out, telling a sort of story about the judges using a deck of cards.

To a layperson’s eye, it seems like the simplest stunt he performed, but he disagrees: “There’s no secret to that trick. But only an advanced magician can do a story trick—you’re shuffling and ou can’t let the judges or audience see how you’re keeping track of the cards. That was a 10 in difficult .”

Later stunts became more complicated as he learned to leverage the crew’s expertise. And there were times when he had to fall back on his college stage experience. “All my time performing has helped me cope with things going wrong, rolling from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C,” he says. “That’s something URI stressed, getting internships, and I know now it’s true.

There’s no substitute for flight time.

But that college-gig business, which he has run from Newport the past few years—and which has helped him log thousands of miles of airtime doing 200 shows a year around the country, earning a decent living without ever having to schlep as a waiter—is now history. “That’s the thing about PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS, PETER KRAMER/NBC

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­winning,” he says. “There’s no going back. I had gotten very comfortable with what I was doing before. All of a sudden, I have to figu e out how to take it to the next step.”

It’s not something you can do alone, he says, so he spent the fall playing out his previously booked shows, doing a special in Vegas for NBC, and assembling a team that includes some of Klum’s advisors.

Possibilities include a TV show, a Las Vegas show, or a tour. Or more likely, some combination of all three.

“Magic was meant to be seen live, and I used to worry that it loses something on TV,” he says. “To make it work for the cameras, while also entertaining a live audience and sticking within the time constraints—it’s a challenge.”

A challenge Franco is up to. Magic already seems cooler than it used to: this fall, it’s in the zeitgeist, from the Discovery Channel’s “Breaking Magic” to local school enrichment offerings. Franco says that’s a good thing: “I got my vocabulary as a child from watching adult magicians—they’re generally very well spoken. I can’t even tell you what magic does for self confiden e and public speaking. It’s all about connecting with people.”

We can’t wait to see what’s in the cards for magic now.

—Pippa Jack and Elaine Beebe VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYOF OFRHODE RHODEISLAND 25 ISLAND 00

11/6/14 12:58 PM

Global Impact Growing up in a small Connecticut town, Scott Singer ’83 says “a trip to Rhode Island was like a trip to the moon.” Back then, he never dreamed of bartending in New Zealand, driving heavy equipment on the frozen landscape of Antarctica, or traveling the world—business class. Now, he has landed in the perfect spot for his highly developed sense of wanderlust: executive vice president and head of global business services at Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational metals and mining corporation.

The ­Singapore resident was en route to India when he took a minute to fill us in on self-driving trucks, love at a college reunion, and how it all started when he ­transferred to URI. Singer in Antartica, left and facing page; Singapore, above

You grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut. What made you decide to attend URI? I spent my freshman year at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

I felt that the school was too big and wanted to get back to New England. URI was far enough away from Connecticut to be different culturally and yet still in New England, so I transferred for my sophomore year. I felt very comfortable with the campus.

When did you know you wanted to study geology?

My mother was pursuing a master’s degree in geology at the same time I was starting my undergraduate degree. I knew that I wanted to pursue the sciences or engineering, and the geology curriculum resonated with me. It also gave me something to share with my mother.

We actually had the good fortune to work on a couple of projects together as geologists in the mid 1980s.

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If you had it to do over again today, what would you study?

I would still do geology, but with more emphasis on civil engineering and geotechnical engineering.

What were your standout experiences at URI? URI gave me a great, well-rounded experience for academics and social life.

I spent my transfer year on campus and my junior and senior years “down the line.”

The beach and school experience is tough to beat!

How did you get started traveling?

I spent six weeks in the summer of 1981 mountain climbing in Switzerland with Paul Ladd ‘84. That trip cemented my ambition to travel the world, and six months after graduation I bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand. I spent a year in New Zealand traveling, and then another year in Australia. I returned to the States to get my fi st real job as a geologist, worked for two years, and then took a leave of absence for eight months to live and work in Antarctica, then travel in Asia. I am quite sure that these early experiences have contributed to why we are living in Singapore today.

Why Antarctica?

In 1984 I was bartending in Christchurch, New Zealand, when over the course of several weeks, all of these bearded and rowdy Americans came through town. They were coming “off the ice,” jargon for completing the summer season at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. I became obsessed with experiencing that continent, and eventually got hired to drive heavy equipment and support logistics operations for the major civilian contractor supporting the U.S. National Science Foundation. The commitment was for a full summer season, which lasted from October through March.

It was a remarkable experience on many levels and helped me really understand frontier living.

I’ve heard there’s a good story behind how you got married.

I met Coleen Delaney in the fall of 1980 when I fi st got to URI, and we dated for about two months. She lived in Dorr Hall and I lived in Coddington. We really enjoyed

PHOTOS: COURTESY SCOTT SINGER

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each other’s company, but then her family moved to Florida and she decided to become a University of Florida Gator. In 1990, for some still unknown reason, she organized a reunion of URI dorm friends, and I was on the call list—she reached me through my parents in Connecticut. We like to joke that Coleen was doing Facebook well before the Internet version came along. The spark rekindled and we have been together for 24 years, and married for 22 of them.

What drew you to procurement work— and can you explain exactly what you do?

At Rio Tinto, I run an integrated set of functions under the banner of Global Business Services, which includes procurement and inbound supply chain, information technology, real estate, finan e services, and p­eople services. To give you a feel about procurement, my team buys those monster trucks and shovels that you see on the ­History or Discovery channels. In fact, the fi st season of the History Channel’s Ice Road Truckers (history.com/shows/ ­ice-road-truckers) was filmed at one of our diamond mines in northern Canada. What is also cool is that Rio Tinto is one of the very few mining companies today to operate these trucks autonomously—in other words, no drivers, just software.

What do you love most about your work?

What I love about my work is the diversity of the topics we deal with, shaping our technology agenda and the cultural diversity of my team. I manage employees in 45 geographies around the world and in some far flung pla es like Mongolia and Madagascar. It is a constant cultural learning experience and I thrive on it.

How did you get to Rio Tinto?

I spent 19 years working at United Technologies and had some wonderful experiences and was able to do a considerable amount of traveling. The only downside was that all of my assignments were Connecticut-based. I was recruited by Rio Tinto in 2008, and what really made the decision for me was the chance to move back to Australia. We spent four years there before moving to Singapore in early 2012.

The change has been fantastic and has brought us to a fascinating part of the

world that we are constantly exploring when time permits. We are fortunate that it is particularly easy to fly in and out of Singapore.

How did your URI experience prepare you for the work you are doing today?

I would argue that getting your undergraduate degree is the fi st real step in adult learning. It is foundational for furthering your formal learning into the future. My URI experience gave me this foundation and also the confiden e to pursue additional avenues. I subsequently studied and obtained two master’s degrees while I was working full time.

What is the most difficult p ofessional challenge you’ve faced?

My hardest challenge was in the 1990s as a relatively young manager at United Technologies. I was in the Pratt & Whitney division and we were going through some intense restructuring. My job required me to lay off many employees who believed in the “job for life” ideology, and quite a number of them were not well prepared for employment outside the company. This experience left a strong impact on me and reinforced my view that formal education is critical in the modern workforce. This is true even more today than it was back then.

Finally, what advice do you have for today’s graduates?

There’s a phrase I like that says it all: Live to learn and learn to live!

—Melanie Coon

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THE STARS ALIGNED IN NEWPORT on October 25, when the University honored outstanding alumni for their professionalism, leadership and community service in the ninth annual DAA Awards.

PRESIDENT’S AWARDS Wesley R. Card ’70, Retired CEO and Director, The Jones Group, Inc. Paul J. Hastings ’84, Chairman and CEO, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Diane Pennica, Ph.D. ’77, Retired Senior Scientist, Genentech Thomas D. Cerio III ’76, Executive Vice President, Warner Bros.

Corporate Award Hasbro, Inc., Alfred J. Verrecchia ’67, M.B.A. ’72, Hon. ’04, Chairman of the Board

W. Card, P. Hastings, D. Pennica, Pres. Dooley, T. Cerio, A. Verrecchia

VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

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PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS

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DEANS’ AWARDS Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education Gary J. Burkholder Jr. ’92, M.A. ’95, Ph.D. ’00, Chief Academic Office , Laureate University Partnerships, USA

College of Arts and Sciences Lori J. Merolla ’83, Vice President, Fidelity Investments Ann M. Spruill ’76, Retired Partner, GMO LLC

G. Burkholder

L. Merolla, A. Spruill

T. Chisholm, K. Knox

W. Murray, D. Urish

P. Raso, E. Ueber

J. Raymond, C. Kaull

R. Burke, E. Parker

J. Pflomm, A. Palmieri

A. Bower, C. Pell

W. Okello

College of Business Administration Thomas J. Chisholm ’68, CEO, Chisholm Ventures, LLC Kenneth E. Knox ’70, Regional Director (New England), Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company

College of Engineering William J. Murray ’78, President, Teknor Apex Co. Daniel W. Urish, Ph.D. ’78, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering, URI; Engineering Consultant

College of the Environment and Life Sciences Perry Raso ’02, M.S. ’06, Owner, Matunuck Oyster Bar and Matunuck Oyster Farm Edward Ueber, M.S. ’76, Owner and Farmer, Bluebird Oaks Organic Farm

College of Human Science and Services Janet W. Raymond ’79, Senior Vice President, Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce Caroline Tennant Kaull ’66, URI Supporter and Community Leader

College of Nursing Rebecca L. Burke ’76, Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, Kent County Hospital Elaine Barber Parker ’74, M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’97 Retired Associate Professor of Nursing, UMass Graduate School of Nursing

College of Pharmacy Jean-Marie Pflomm Pha m.D. ’96, Editor, The Medical Letter Anthony Palmieri III ’71, M.S. ’73, Associate Scholar of Pharmaceutics, University of Florida College of Pharmacy

Graduate School of Oceanography Amy S. Bower, Ph.D. ’88, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Christopher T.H. Pell, M.M.A. ’80, Retired Executive Director, The Preservation Society of Newport County

RISING STAR AWARD Wilson K. Okello, M.S. ’12, First Year Adviser and Resident Director, Miami University-Ohio

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 29

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CLASSACTS sonar transducers and arrays. He has built a reputation as a prolific inventor and is recognized as a dedicated and skilled manager, leader and mentor.

Madeline George Vincent, NUR, of Cranston, R.I., has retired from the Department of Health.

`74 Thomas J. Lamb, A&S, of East Greenwich, R.I., is executive vice president and chief operating officer at Centreville Bank. Tom has more than 15 years in the financial services industry.

John M. Owens, CELS, of Racine, Wis., recently retired after 31 years at S.C. Johnson. He entered the company as a group leader in R & D and retired as the Global Regulatory Compliance Manager. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. at Purdue University.

`75

CONGRATULATIONS!

`55

`69

Eric P. Hall, ’07, writes: “I married Meghan Grady on June 21, 2014. The reception was held in Jamestown, R.I. URI alumni and students in attendance included: Tracey Edgerton ’09, Ann B. Hall 71, Lily Hall ’11, Allyson Grady ’14, Rick Hall ’80, Ashley (Lacross) Drisoll ’07, Jocelyn Kelly ’09, Jamison Miller ’08, Carrie (Boisclair) Bergenstock ’08, Patrick Johnson ’07, Michael O’Shea ’12, and Ashley Gingerella O’Shea ’11.

Frances D. Ugiss, A&S, of Brush Prairie, Wash., writes: “I am still “way out West” in Washington on my ranch about 40 miles south of Mt. St. Helen’s. I visit Rhode Island every summer and go over great memories from URI!”

Evelyn Siefert Kennedy, HS&S, of Gales Ferry, Conn., writes: “I went on to get my MS and opened a small business in Groton, Conn., Sewtique, which celebrated its 45th anniversary June 1. Two URI grads are on staff, Annie S. Smith M.S. ‘95 and Dee Paskausky M.S. ‘99. I believe fellow alums would be interested in the entrepreneurship angle, especially in textiles.”

`57 Ross Michael Feinberg, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., writes: “My son Ben and I visited Korea with other Korean adoptees, children and adults. Ben had the opportunity to meet his birth mother twice, and both times were filled with emotion. We visited several cities besides Seoul and many historic landmarks. Just missed the big typhoon, which was a relief, although we did feel its effects. The audience at our last get-together choked up when they heard Ben address them in Korean. He’d been taking lessons at Brown. He and I hope to return.”

`63 Julien P. Ayotte, CBA, of Cumberland, R.I., writes: “The sequel to my highly successful debut novel, Flower of Heaven, has just been released.

Dangerous Bloodlines picks up right where the first novel ended and has all the action, thrills, romance and intrigue to keep you guessing throughout. For more information, visit www.julienayotte.com.”

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`73 Jan Piekos Owens, A&S, of Racine, Wis., continues as the chair of the Department of Management and Marketing at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis. Her advanced degrees, an M.B.A. and Ph.D., were from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Timothy B. Straw, A&S, of Narragansett, R.I., an engineer at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, R.I., has been named a winner of this year’s National Defense Industrial Association Bronze Medal.

The NDIA Bronze Medal is an annual award that recognizes outstanding individual achievement in science or engineering in the field of undersea warfare. Straw is an electrical engineer with 41 years of experience at NUWC that has focused on the development of and in-service support for hull-mounted and deployed

Joseph E. O’Neil, A&S, of Wayne, Pa., was recently elected as presidentelect of the International Association of Defense Counsel. The IADC is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. Founded in 1920, the IADC's members hail from five continents, 40 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

The core purposes of the IADC are to enhance the development of skills, promote professionalism and facilitate camaraderie among its members and their clients, as well as the broader civil justice community.

F. Randy Vogenberg, PHM, of Greenville, S.C., writes that he and his wife Jane moved to Greenville last year. He continues to be active in health care, managing three business enterprises since the passage of health care reform: benefit strategy consulting, benefits research, and education on health care and insurance for various companies across the United States.

Randy is also an adjunct professor with the School of Pharmacy and a member of the 1892 Society at URI.

`79 Lisa M. Iamonaco, A&S, of Havertown, Pa., writes: “On August 16, 2014, I married my partner of nearly 30 years, Lois Duncan, shortly after Pennsylvania struck down their Defense of Marriage Act.”

`81 Mark D. Brackenbury, A&S, of Deep River, Conn., managing editor of the New Haven Register, has been named

PHOTOS: COURTESY MEGHAN GRADY; NORA LEWIS

11/6/14 12:58 PM

Editor of the Year by the Local Media Association. He was recognized for his distinguished career in Connecticut journalism, guiding the Register's newsroom over the course of 27 years.

`82 Stephen P. Fontes, ENG, of Portsmouth, R.I., left Raytheon, where he was awarded the Shingo Operational Excellence Gold, and joined Cobham in March 2014. He is currently their director of operations in Exeter. Prior to both, he managed large product lines for Beech King Air. His specialty is Lean Manufacturing.

`83 Suzanne Worrell-Gemma, A&S, of East Greenwich, R.I., was recently appointed to co-chair the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at the New England Institute of Technology, where she is an associate professor teaching law classes.

`84 Kelley K. Kittel, A&S, of Portsmouth, R.I., writes: “I have been transforming myself from a fish biologist who writes into an author who used to be a fish biologist. I’ve been published in many anthologies and magazines (including 41N) and my first book, Breathe, was published in May. I’ve been a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica, a Foreign Fisheries observer onboard a Japanese mothership, and just completed my 14th Save the Bay swim.”

URI Night with the PawSox Friday, August 22, 2014 McCoy Stadium

More than 250 alumni, family, and friends of the University celebrated our 16th annual URI Night with the PawSox. Rhody Pride was in full force from start to finish: After a behind-the-scenes stadium tour and festive pre-game barbecue, URI Dean of Engineering Ray Wright threw the ceremonial first pitch, Vinnie Joyce ’80 sang the national anthem, and the crowd cheered on the home team as the PawSox gave it their all against the winning Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

`86 Christine D’Orsi Fitta, A&S, of Barrington, R.I., is a partner with the Providence law firm of Higgins Cavanagh & Cooney, LLP, and was recently named to the board of directors of the East Bay Center Inc., a nonprofit organization offering comprehensive psychiatric and counseling services to people who struggle with mental illness and substance-abuse disorders.

`97 Linda M. Pearson, CBA, of East Greenwich, R.I., was promoted to the position of principal at Sansiveri, Kimball & Co, LLP. With more than 14 years in public accounting, Linda's experience includes providing audit, accounting and consulting services to Sansiveri's for-profit and not-for-profit clients. She offers consulting services in areas such as the evaluation of internal control policies, accounting procedures and account-

See more photos at alumni.uri.edu/pawsox UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 31

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Pick a Card, Any Card Introducing the new Alumni Association membership cards BECOME A DUES-PAYING MEMBER OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AND CHOOSE A CARD THAT REFLECTS YOUR TRUE RHODY SPIRIT!

ing software, and is also responsible for training the firm's audit and accounting staff with respect to the implementation of professional auditing and accounting standards.

She is team leader of Sansiveri's Not-for-Profit specialty group.

`99 D a w n M . Pa g l i a r i n i , A & S, o f Hope Valley, R.I., received a juris doctor degree from New England Law | Boston during the 103rd Commencement ceremonies at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre. While at New England Law | Boston, she was a Dean's List student and completed an internship with the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.

`02

Card Proud to be a Ram

I Love URI Card

Denice J. Garcia, CBA, of Cranston, R.I., was recently appointed vice president of revenue management at Magna Hospitality of Warwick, R.I. Melissa A. Ricci, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., and her husband, Nick, have turned their interest in antiques into a new business: Dovetail Auctions.

Melissa currently teaches music/ band in Lincoln, and Nick worked as a graphic designer at BORI (Balloons Over Rhode Island) Graphix from 2002-14 before recently leaving to focus on the auctioning full time.

Their interest in collectibles began in 2004 when they began repairing 1930s through 1970s pinball machines and then antique phonographs. It took Melissa about a year to get her auctioneer's license, including an apprenticeship with Briarbrook Auctions and a course at the Kentucky Auction Academy.

Clients are often people who are moving or cleaning out a house and most items are listed on consignment. For more information, visit www.dovetailauctions.com.

`05 Edwin R. Pacheco, A&S, of Pascoag, R.I., is associate vice president for development and external relations at Rhode Island College. He will manage the college’s institution-wide giving programs and oversee government affairs.

`07 Kara L. Cabassa, A&S, of Barrington, R.I., is a specialist of digital strategy at Providence-based multidisciplinary brand culture and communications firm (add)ventures. Kara develops website templates and contributes content that will enhance the social media initiatives of the firm. Prior to joining (add)ventures, she worked on the L'Oreal account at Publicis Consultants Net Intelligenz in Paris, where she supported the digital and editorial teams. She previously held marketing and public relations positions with Sotheby's International Realty, World Association of Newspapers and Publishers, and Comptoir de Famille.

`09 Elise Petrarca, A&S, of Johnston, R.I., was appointed youth services librarian at the William Hall Library by the Cranston Public Library. In her new role, Elise will be responsible for programming, community outreach and collection development for children and teens at the Hall Library.

“Elise brings knowledge of the William Hall Library and Edgewood community with a passion and interest in customer service, programming and youth services. Her background in history and theatre will no doubt bring some interesting programming to William Hall,” said Library Director Edward Garcia.

`12 Elise Fontes, HS&S, of Cranston, R.I., is a full-time physical education and health teacher at three of the elementary schools in the Braintree, Mass., school district.

`13 Lily McKay, A&S, of Saunderstown, R.I., is obtaining her M.A. in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management at the School of International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, VT. In September, she traveled to Moshi, Tanzania, where she helped improve the quality of education at St. Timothy's School. She also committed to raising $20,000 to build a Teachers' Resource Center for St. Tim's. Donate through: http://www.stayclassy.org/ fundraise?fcid=323899

Classic Card

Once you’ve joined the Alumni Association and received your new card, you’ll get invitations to special membersonly events, and discounts and benefits galore. Your membership helps us support more than 65 programs and services for alumni, students, and the University.

Joining is easy — go to alumni.uri.edu/membership today and get carded!

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Twins Mia Lauren and Matthew Louis Reynolds were welcomed into the world in May.

PHOTOS: COURTESY CARL AND CLARISSA REYNOLDS; NORA LEWIS

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CLOSEUP

Anthony Russo ‘74 Grand Design How to convey the devastation wrought

by Hurricane Katrina? Anthony Russo conceptualized the drawing that ran with a New York Times special section while stuck in traffic on the all River bridge. The feel of the New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs column?

Russo’s fanciful curlicues graced it for years.

The versatile artist specializes in editorial illustration—the visual synthesis of the complex ideas in magazine and newspaper stories. “It’s about finding the emotional truth,” he explains.

He and his ilk are the most-published artists you’ve never heard of. Their names appear in tiny print on ephemeral publications, while the more solid works of their fine-art colleagues fill Soho gal eries. But there are compensations. Since Russo’s fi st assignment —a chance gig for Boston’s The Real Paper— he has never lacked for income, nor intellectual stimulation.

It wasn’t always this way; as a struggling art grad, he fell for Little Compton, his home now, while working the deck of a commercial fishing boat. Fishing “ aught me I needed to do something creative to survive,” he explains.

“And URI, and its professors, taught me how to create.”

See Russo’s work on the front cover of this issue of QuadAngles.

—Pippa Jack

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s! o t o h ing p e r m mo meco

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E COMING 2014 Photo Album

PHOTOS: JOE GIBLIN; NORA LEWIS

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WEDDINGS Brian C. Whiting ’91 to Kristin Connelly, on October 25, 2008.

Brendan Hummel ’06 to Stephanie Almeida ’06, on September 27, 2014.

Lindsay T. Delmenico ’07 to Albert F. Proffitt ’10, on November 30, 2013.

Eric P. Hall ’07 to Meghan Grady, on June 21, 2014.

Paul A. Stoffer ’07 to Peristera Hionis ’10, on August 30, 2014.

Jessie Haytaian ’08 to Levi French, on September 14, 2013.

Michelle A. Schmoeger ’09 to Michel Henry, on April 26, 2014.

Lauren Stokes ’10 to Benjamin Gleason '09, on September 27, 2014.

Levi and Jessie (Haytaian) French ’08, a daughter, Maisey Marie French, on July 25, 2014.

IN MEMORIAM Raymond Smith ’40 of Englewood, Fla., on June 28, 2014.

Joseph Tessar ’46 of Riverside, R.I., on September 8, 2014.

John Diffley ’48 of Iowa City, Iowa, on June 17, 2014.

John Mcgill ’48 of West Dennis, Mass., on August 1, 2014.

Christine Bills Whitaker ’48 of Niantic, Conn., on August 27, 2014.

William Murray ’49 of Inverness, Fla., on August 5, 2014.

Therese Tetreault ’49 of Warwick, R.I., on August 17, 2014.

BIRTHS Jenny and Edward Doughty ’93, a son, Edward O'Grady Doughty II, on June 14, 2014.

Danielle J. ’01 and Carter W. Quigley ’01, a son, Connor Weston, on April 2, 2014.

Carl and Clarissa (Rhyner) Reynolds ’02, twins, Mia Lauren and Matthew Louis, on May 24, 2014.

Heidi and Jared Turcotte ’03, a son, Sean Nicholas, on July 30, 2014.

You have a job interview.

Now what?

Bryan W. ’05 and Meghan Mollohan Ferguson ’06, a son, Wyatt Bryan, on August 31, 2014.

Briana (Maguire) Windle ’03 and John Windle, a daughter, Elena Grace, on May 19, 2014.

Albert Emery ’50 of Spring Hill, Fla., on September 5, 2014.

Robert Harvey ’50 of Indialantic, Fla., on July 13, 2014.

Milton Hinsch ’50 of Norwich, Conn., on August 9, 2014.

Priscilla Clark O’Connor ’50 of Riverside, R.I., on January 9, 2014.

Edward Pastore ’50 of El Cajon, Calif., on July 3, 2014.

Marie Pantalone Paulson ’50 of North Providence, R.I., on August 5, 2014.

Hat’s off to Edward O'Grady Doughty II, born in June.

In today’s competitive job market, the interview is critical. How do you make the most compelling case for potential employers to hire you? What can you do to stand out in a crowded applicant field?

Your URI alumni career advisors are here to help. Check out our advice in "Interviewing 101," including online resources and practical tips, at alumni.uri.edu/careerservices.

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PHOTOS: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; COURTESY JENNY AND EDWARD DOUGHTY; MICHAEL SCOTT.

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CLOSEUP

Tayra Melendez ‘16 Drive The Ryan Center isn’t the only place where people know junior Tayra Melendez got game.

Last summer, the 20-year-old was the youngest member of Team Puerto Rico, representing the country she left as a child to move to Mattapan, Mass.

Held in Monterrey, Mexico, the 2014 Centrobasket Championship for Women featured teams from Central America and the Caribbean. Melendez, a psychology major who appeared in all fi e of her team’s games, helped PR place second and qualify for the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Melendez, who has been the Rams’ leading scorer the past two seasons, was the lone amateur on her side of the court.

Her 11 professional teammates taught her lessons that will stay with her, she says: "As a young player, at times I get impatient.

But with these ladies, I learned that staying calm not only keeps you stay in control, but also lets you read the game better.”

But mostly, she remembers feeling honored. “I played with a jersey that had not only the name of my home country, but also the name of my family,” she marvels. “An amazing feeling.”

—Shane Donaldson

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Rhody Gift Guide

Put a Little Rhody on Your Holiday Shopping List!

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP where to buy: alumni.uri.edu/membership When you give someone a membership to the Alumni Association, it’s a gift that keeps on giving: your recipient will get amazing discounts and perks, and URI students will benefit f om Alumni Association scholarships.

CENTURY WALK BRICK where to buy: alumni.uri.edu/centurywalk Make a statement that will last forever with a brick on the URI Quad. We’ll inscribe the brick with your personalized message.

AT A GIFT TH ETIME! LASTS A LIF tion: or for more informa k or 401.874.2218 To order a brick urywal u/alumni/cent advance.uri.ed

the heart on the Quad— bricks are placed s to graduates and Century Walk permanent tribute your gift to include of campus—as alize affiliation You can person ity, club, athletic friends of URI. sorority, fratern name, class year, gful to you. or anything meanin

RHODY MERCH where to buy: ramszone.uri.edu At the Rams Zone online gift shop, the possibilities for URI-branded items are endless, from the adorable—URI baby blankets!—to the elegant, like a Vineyard Vines scarf designed by a URI alum.

Anthony Abate ’51 of Pittsfield, Mass., on July 21, 2014.

Eugene Malgieri ’53 of Bristol, R.I., on August 17, 2014.

Dennis Murphy ’58 of Wakefield, R.I., on August 3, 2014.

Lester Chafetz ’51 of Leawood, Kan., on July 23, 2014.

Raymond Tella ’53 of Ashaway, R.I., on August 7, 2014.

David Frazel ’62 of Brandon, Miss., on August 15, 2014.

Stig Franzen ’51 of Hooksett, N.H., on July 24, 2014.

Walter Carnevale ’54 of Warwick, R.I., on September 10, 2014.

Frances Adamski Galvin ’63 of La Mesa, Calif., on July 6, 2014.

James Green ’51 of Spencerport, N.Y., on August 1, 2014.

Alvah Gibeault ’54 of Davenport, Fla., on August 19, 2014.

Howard Hallberg ’64 of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on August 22, 2014.

Hugo Key ’51 of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on August 15, 2014.

Mark Sullivan ’54 of Westerly, R.I., on July 16, 2014.

Burton Weiser ’64 of Norton, Mass., on August 18, 2014.

John Wilson ’51 of Cleveland, Ohio, on September 4, 2014.

Theodore Meyer ’56 of Port Charlotte, Fla., on August 14, 2014.

Mary Jane Dowling ’65 of Osterville, Mass., on June 17, 2014.

Frances Hanff Cotter ’52 of Las Cruces, N.M., on February 10, 2014.

Herbert Heinstein ’57 of Auburndale, Mass., on September 17, 2014.

Mary Lou McCreadie ’66 of Cape Vincent, N.Y., on July 19, 2014.

Fred Congleton ’53 of Charlestown, R.I., on August 11, 2014.

James Lovegreen ’58 of Exeter, R.I., on July 21, 2014.

Avis Halberstadt ’67 of Annapolis, Md., on August 4, 2014.

Leslie Thompson Leduc ’67 of Dandridge, Tenn., on August 15, 2014.

David Rothfuss ’67 of Coventry, R.I., on July 24, 2014.

John Madsen ’68 of Bangor, Maine, on September 2, 2014.

Michael Zwolinski ’68 of Somerset, Mass., on August 17, 2014.

Joann Murphy Wetzel ’69 of Little Compton, R.I., on July 26, 2014.

Lionel Ferris ’70 of Brewster, Mass., on July 8, 2014.

Paul Gadoury ’71 of Cumberland, R.I., on August 15, 2014.

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Yolande Bailey Moulton ’71 of Warwick, R.I., on August 18, 2014.

Carol Aylesworth Payne ’72 of Kingston, R.I., on August 2, 2014.

Richard Scott ’74 of Middletown, R.I., on September 7, 2014.

Isabel Rosen Gold ’75 of Boca Raton, Fla., on July 19, 2014.

Terence Gore ’78 of Pawtucket, R.I., on July 14, 2014.

Albert Lichaa ’78 of Portsmouth, R.I., on July 30, 2014.

Joseph Simeone ’78 of North Kingstown, R.I., on September 5, 2014.

Elizabeth Powers Eldredge ’79 of Saunderstown, R.I., on August 19, 2014.

ALUMNISCENE Northern California Alumni Chapter 19th Annual Lobster Bake September 13, 2014 "It was an awesome bake this year: Great turnout, fabulous food, and the satisfaction of knowing we hit our goal for the endowment. Can't ask for more than that!"

— Rich Tella ’78

Margaret Morin Goslin ’79 of Westport, Mass., on July 18, 2014.

James Wallace ’79 of Warwick, R.I., on August 21, 2014.

Sean Healey ’80 of Newport, R.I., on September 12, 2014.

Geoffrey Langelier ’92 of Harrisville, R.I., on September 4, 2014.

Laura Tatem Bupp ’98 of Haddon Heights, N.J., on September 2, 2014.

Vincent Palombi ’01 of Hamilton, N.J., on August 7, 2014.

Scott Deware ’04 of Sterling, Conn., on July 23, 2014.

Jeffrey Swanson ’09 of El Cerrito, Calif., on August 7, 2014.

ACN Celebrates New Alums at Jacky’s Waterplace in Providence September 25, 2014 "It’s always wonderful hearing the success stories of others, but when individuals add their own personal reflections, the wisdom gained is emarkable. The event was a simple reminder why personal and professional development is an essential endeavor for us all. It was great to enjoy the company of other alums and have our president (as well as other URI leaders) enjoy such a remarkable event.”

—Tyrene Jones ’10

IN MEMORIAM FACULTY Diane T. Barone of Johnston, R.I., on July 19, 2014. Administrative assistant in the College of Pharmacy’s Office of Experiential Education.

Pei Wen (Huie) Chang M.S. ’59, of Silver Spring, MD., on Aug. 14, 2014.

Professor emeritus of animal science and pathology.

William J. Hemmerle, of Newburyport, Mass., on July 2, 2014.

Professor emeritus of computer science; founder and chair of URI’s Department of Computer Science and Experimental Statistics.

Clare M. Murphy of Tempe, Arizona, on June 22, 2013. Professor emerita of English.

Quintessential Summer Evening in Boston August 7, 2014 “The event really embodies the goal of the Massachusetts Chapter, which is to build great experiences by bringing alumni together to share our experiences and successes since graduating from URI. It's also an opportunity for alumni to give back in their own special way. This year it was Glenn Wood ’81, who donated an outstanding venue, and Perry Raso ’02, with his outstanding food from Matunuck Oyster Bar. It was truly an event built by alumni, for alumni.

—Nicholas Chigas ’03

If you attended a URI alumni event and would like to share a photo and a reminiscence, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at alumni@ uri.edu.

Find out about upcoming alumni events: alumni.uri.edu UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 39

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BACKPAGE

Golden Girls THREE REMARKABLE GENERATIONS OF SCHOLARSHIP, SERVICE AND DANCE

The Fourth Floor Angels lived in Roosevelt Hall in the mid-1940s, and one of them was Anne Nixon Thayer. She was a cheerleader, actress and sorority president, and met a returning GI when she was selling tickets to a dance and he said he’d buy one if she’d go with him. “We’ll dance together the rest of our lives,” he told her, and even though he later admitted it was just a pick-up line, it turned out he was right.

Six children later, Anne returned to URI to get her master’s in education. It was an example her kids took to heart. The youngest, Cindy Moffitt-Underhill, studied nursing as an undergrad, performing in ­various dance troupes, and returned for her ­master’s as a nurse practioner. She’s now URI’s Coordinator of Nursing Services.

So it’s not surprising that when it was Sarah Moffitt s turn to apply to college, she vowed to go her own way. “URI was my last choice,” she says. “I grew up in Wakefield—I wanted to find my wn path.”

She ended up enrolling here, but nothing clicked. In her second semester, she decided to take a year out to do AmeriCorps. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given what Cindy used to tell her every morning when she dropped her at school: “Do ­something nice for someone today.”

After a year in community service, Sarah returned with a new perspective.

She was where she wanted to be.

“Everything fell into place. I changed my majors to health studies and sociology,” she recounts, a direction that has had her working with Rhode Island Department of Health epidemiologists and that will see

her pursuing post-grad studies in medicine and public health. “Believe it or not, I’m looking at applying to nursing schools,” she laughs.

And she’s followed matrilineal tradition in other ways: She’s vice chair of the URI Dance Company and chair of the student entertainment committee, and helped found a new sorority on campus with a ­mission of service to others. “I try to get as involved as possible.”

Younger sister Hannah also loves to dance—how could she not, when the sisters twirled around Anne’s piano as toddlers? Unlike Sarah, she always knew she wanted to come to URI. She’s now a freshman, studying marketing. It must be something in the mitochondrial DNA. —Pippa Jack

Left to right, from top row: URI Legacy family Anne Nixon Thayer ’48, MA ’74; Cindy Moffit Underhill ’84, MS ’94; Sarah Moffit ’15; Hannah Moffit ’18.

Below: Fourth Floor Angels (Anne is at left).

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PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS, COURTESY ANNE NIXON THAYER

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Show that you

URI.

As you finalize your year-end giving, please consider supporting the Fund for URI. Your gift will provide immediate and flexible funding opportunities for programs and initiatives across all colleges and major program areas, elevating the academic experience here at URI. And, when you make a gift, you inspire our faculty and students to innovate and excel!

Make your gift today at urifoundation.org or by using the reply envelope in this magazine.

MAKE YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE GIFT TO URI BY DECEMBER 31!

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Alumni Center 73 Upper College Road Kingston, RI 02881 USA

Nonprofit Or US Postage Paid Permit No. 937 East Greenville, PA

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Big Chill Weekend March 5–8, 2015

IT’S ALL ABOUT SCHOLARSHIPS.

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