What’s New?

Professor Melissa Vanderkaay Tomasulo shows off virtual reality equipment. Jeffrey Ayres, professor of political science, director of the Center for Global Engagement, and former dean

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.

LESSONS ON LISTENING

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.

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.

Professor Sarah Hastings

USING REFLECTION

Sarah Hastings, PhD, began work July 1 at Saint Michael’s as professor of psychology and director of the Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology, taking the reins of the wellestablished and respected graduate program from longtime director Ron Miller, who recently retired. She said, “I hope to encourage students to practice using reflection as a tool to find meaning and direction throughout their life’s work.”

LIFE SKILLS

Todd Johnstone-Wright ’95 is convinced that the professional skills most relevant to today’s global workplace develop best in precisely the environment that Saint Michael’s College offers: liberal arts learning with high-impact co-curricular experiences like Fire & Rescue, adventure sports, student government, and volunteer service. Wright has developed and will direct a new program for the College called Undergraduate Professional Endorsements (UPE). He will be joined by Catherine Welch ’10 of the College’s Student Life staff in teaching the two-credit academic experiences that bookend the UPE program.

Maeve Kolb ’22 with fellow members of her program.

STUDYING ABROAD IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC: KISUMU, KENYA

Maeve Kolb, Class of 2022, was among the few who were able to study abroad their junior year in the spring of 2021. “Reading and learning about disease in a place far removed from the diseases themselves is a much different experience from learning about disease in a place where you are incredibly vulnerable to them,” said the Saint Michael’s College political science major. Kolb ventured out of the traditional classroom structure of the Saint Michael’s campus to study public health issues in Kenya through a program of the Vermont-based School for International Training.

SPEAKING FOR THE TREES

A surplus from an Arbor Day Foundation tree-giveaway program recently in Colchester and Winooski turned into a timely windfall for Saint Michael’s College. It led to a well-attended tree-planting event for students, sponsored by the campus environmental group Green Up on a near-perfect September afternoon. This year’s surplus—65 trees without a forever home—led to a call from foundation officials to St. Mike’s faculty biologist Declan McCabe. Decisions about possible locations for the trees around campus will come from the facilities team. Trevien Stanger of the environmental studies and science faculty is sponsor and advisor to the group. “I often think of Trevien Stanger as our Lorax,” said McCabe. “He speaks for the trees.”

Sam Calloway ’22 off-loads a tree for planting in the Natural Area as Professor Declan McCabe stands on the truck bed to help.

6 Fulbright student Yasmine ElShamy

Vice President of Student Affairs Dawn Ellinwood Director of Public Safety Stanley Valles

WELCOME FULBRIGHT STUDENTS!

Three international students are at Saint Michael’s College on prestigious Fulbright scholarships this year. Oumar Moussa Djigo from Senegal and Francois Raogo Wemniga from Burkina Faso arrived in August and are studying in a typically two-year program in the Education Department’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. Yasmine ElShamy from Egypt also began in August and is in the clinical psychology graduate program—the first time that area of study has welcomed an international Fulbright student.

UPLIFT NOW

Saint Michael’s College continually improves and fine-tunes programming outside the classroom to engage students in dynamic and interesting conversations that expand the life of the mind as part of a well-rounded education. Efforts to do so have a new name and a wider scope than before, through a new initiative called UpLift. This year’s programming lineup resulted from an initiative originating more than a year ago by Dawn Ellinwood, vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

BUSINESS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Businesses formally committed to improving the world can receive certification as “B Corps” companies through an international program of the past 15 years. This fall, a panel of Saint Michael’s graduates working for local B Corps told about 30 students, faculty, and staff what this designation looks like in their daily work and why it matters. Professor Paul Olsen of the Saint Michael’s business administration and accounting faculty organized the panel with Ingrid Peterson, director of the College’s Career Education Center. The alumni panelists (and the general areas they focused upon) were: Colin Gaunt ’19, Burton Snowboards (Environment); Matt Reese ’09, Vermont Creamery (workers), Susanne Ellicks ’19, Mamava (customers), and Mike Hayes ’08, Ben & Jerry’s (community).

OUR NEW DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Stanley Valles, the director of public safety at Saint Michael’s College since early August, has over 25 years of experience in law enforcement and public safety. Over those 25 years, Valles has held the roles of police officer, detective, community relations officer, school resource officer, corrections counselor, adjunct instructor, and director of campus safety. He said, “I believe in ‘harm reduction,’ the ‘good Samaritan law,’ community relations, discretion, and compassion. I also believe that I will do whatever it takes to protect my family …. St. Mike’s is now a part of that family.”

SAFE SOLAR SHEEP IN THE SHADE

About 60 sheep spent a week eating, sleeping, and keeping the grass and weeds at manageable heights down around the Saint Michael’s College solar array behind St. Joseph’s Hall by the Winooski River. Lewis Fox, the Vermont-based farmer who is the caretaker of the

Sheeps graze in the Saint Michael’s College solar array.

flock that came to St. Mike’s in mid-July, said sheep are a more practical way to manage unwanted grassy growth around solar arrays compared with attempts to mow, since sheep are far better at getting in the nooks and crannies of the equipment. “They spend a lot of time sleeping in the shade,” he said.

CRONOGUE TRIBUTE

“A day that tugs at the heartstrings of thousands” is how Angie Armour, Saint Michael’s College director of alumni and parent relations, described the dedication of the newly named Cronogue Hall on campus to memorialize a beloved late member of the College’s resident founding religious order, the Society of Saint Edmund. The official naming of the handsome modern residence hall on the northeast corner of campus honors the late Fr. Michael Cronogue, who died suddenly in 2016, a moment that stunned and saddened the campus and extended Saint Michael’s community.

Dancing at Lughnasa program

A CELTIC HARVEST

Dancing at Lughnasa, a bittersweet memory play set in the fictional Irish town of Ballybeg in the summer of 1936—is the fall Mainstage play at Saint Michael’s College, ran November 4 and 15, in the first public

Edmundites help to dedicate the newly-named Cronogue Hall. theater performance in McCarthy Arts Center since November 2019. Director Peter Harrigan ’83 of the Saint Michael’s fine arts/theatre faculty calls playwright Brian Friel’s 1990 Olivier Award– and Tony Award–winning winning play “a sort of Irish version of The Glass Menagerie.”

ACADEMIC CONVOCATION

At this year’s annual Academic Convocation—a September tradition established in 1986 to honor Saint Michael’s College scholars and scholarship—more than 100 faculty, staff, students, and College leaders came together in the McCarthy Arts Center Recital Hall on Friday, September 24. The event included the presentation of three major faculty awards, which Master of Ceremonies VP for Academic Affairs and Dean Jeffrey Trumbower said were chosen by the Faculty Council. The winners were: Norbert A. Kuntz Service Award, Jeffrey Ayres, political science/international relations; Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award, William Ellis, fine arts/music; and 2018 Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award, Carolyn Kukens-Olson, Spanish.

The dais party at this year’ Academic Convocation.