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WHAT’S NEW? LESSONS ON LISTENING
Professor Melissa Vanderkaay Tomasulo shows off virtual reality equipment.
STRESS-BUSTERS
Two Saint Michael’s College professors who believe astronauts might combat stress and reduce health risks in space using virtual reality meditation have spent the past year testing their theories on students and emergency responders at the College, funded by $50,000 in NASA grants and $8,000 in internal funding through the Vermont Biomedical Research Network. Now, more than a year into their study, the researchers— Melissa VanderKaay Tomasulo of the psychology/neuroscience faculty and Dagan Loisel of the biology faculty—recently learned they will receive an additional $50,000 in grants through the Vermont Space Grant.
As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of this year’s Saint Michael’s First Year Seminar common text, has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, she shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. The 2021-2022 Common Text for incoming Saint Michael’s College students will be Kimmerer’s 2013 work Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Jeffrey Ayres, professor of political science, director of the Center for Global Engagement, and former dean
FINDING A WAY
In recent years, Professor and former Dean Jeffrey Ayres has supervised several cohorts of Saint Michael’s College students who traveled to Asia for life-changing internships in Hong Kong funded by the Freeman Foundation. But when COVID changed everything, it didn’t seem fair to Ayres that this year’s 12 students selected for Freeman Foundation grants might miss out. The solution: virtual internships in Vietnam. These virtual placements will allow participants to build a knowledge base about Asia, deepen global competency and intercultural skills, and attain practical workplace experience.
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