Southwestern Spring 2011

spring2011

WHAT DOES A GLOBALLY FOCUSED SOUTHWESTERN SCIENCE EDUCATION LOOK LIKE?

OFFICE OF Creative services Eric Bumgardner Director of Creative Services Kristina W. Moore Writer/Editor Antonio Banda Graphic Designer Keely Doering Creative Services Coordinator magazine @ southwestern.edu OFFICE OF Alumni & Parent relations Georgianne Hewett ’90 Associate Vice President for Alumni and Parent Relations JoAnn Lucero Associate Director of Alumni Relations Grace Josey Pyka ’05 Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Relations

board of trustees Merriman Morton ’63, Austin, Chair Larry J. Haynes ’72, Coppell, Vice Chair R. Griffin Lord, Belton, Secretary-Treasurer Martin Aleman Jr. ’68, Austin L. James Bankston ’70, Houston Lisa Barrentine, Allen Douglas M. Benold ’44, Georgetown W. Earl Bledsoe*, Plano Roy H. Cullen#, Houston John S. Curry ’70, Pampa James E. Dorff*, San Antonio Robert W. Dupuy ’69, Dallas Thomas A. Forbes ’71, Austin James W. Foster ’72, Houston Jack Garey, Georgetown Roberto L. Gómez ’69, McAllen Sarah Gould-Stotts ’10, Charlottesville, Va. Robert H. Graham, Houston Kay Granger, Fort Worth Ronald D. Henderson, Plano C. Preston Hollis ’09, Austin Janice Riggle Huie*, Houston Henry C. Joyner, Colleyville

Robert W. Karr ’71, St. Louis, Mo. Bart C. Koontz ’78, San Antonio J. Michael Lowry*, Fort Worth Red McCombs ’49, San Antonio Michael McKee, Hurst J. Eric McKinney ’72, Georgetown David J. McNitzky ’77, San Antonio Laura A. Merrill ’84, Harlingen Charles R. Millikan ’68, Pearland Barbara Prats Neely ’77, Fort Worth Ernesto Nieto ’64, Kyle Steven A. Raben ’63*, Houston Robert T. Rork ’62, San Antonio Jake B. Schrum ’68*, Georgetown Robert C. Scott, San Antonio Peter A. Sessions ’78, Dallas H. Blake Stanford ’81*, Austin Stephen G. Tipps, Houston Donald W. Underwood ’70, Plano James V. Walzel, Houston D. Max Whitfield*, Albuquerque, N.M. Robert D. Wunsch, Austin

alumni@ southwestern.edu parents@ southwestern.edu OFFICE OF University relations Cindy Locke Associate Vice President for University Relations Ellen Davis Director of Communications John Kotarski ’93 Director of Web Development and Communication Meredith Barnhill Assistant Director of Web Development and Communication chief administrative officers Jake B. Schrum ’68, President Richard L. Anderson, Vice President for Fiscal Affairs Gerald Brody, Vice President for Student Life James W. Hunt, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Beverly Jones, University Chaplain

* Ex-Officio # Honorary

W. Joseph King ’93, Vice President for Innovation

southwestern university’s core purpose

Thomas J. Oliver ’89, Vice President for Enrollment Services

C. Richard McKelvey, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Fostering a liberal arts community whose values and actions encourage contributions toward the well-being of humanity. southwestern university’s core values Cultivating academic excellence. Promoting lifelong learning and a passion for intellectual and personal growth. Fostering diverse perspectives. Being true to oneself and others. Respecting the worth and dignity of persons. Encouraging activism in the pursuit of justice and the common good.

Southwestern University’s recruiting of students, awarding of financial aid, and operation of programs and facilities are without regard to sex, race, color, religion, age, physical handicap, national or ethnic origin, or any other impermissible factor. The University’s commitment to equal opportunity includes nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

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Daniel Webb ’08 Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and Development Communications

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Southwestern is printed on FSC certified Galerie Art Cover and Text

by TWG Plus, Austin, Texas.

Francie Schroeder, Executive Assistant to the President Ronald L. Swain, Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning and Assessment Telephone: (512) 863-6511 Alumni & Parent Relations: (800) 960-6363 Office of Admission: (800) 252-3166

Southwestern is published semiannually by the Office of Institutional Advancement. Bulk rate postage paid at Austin, Texas.

spring2011

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Southwestern faculty—

like Bill O’Brien, associate professor of physics—bring a collaborative and personal approach to the classroom and laboratory.

In every issue

Features

4 | President’s Message

6 | The Next Breakthrough Preparing for the next generation of SU scientists.

14 | On Campus 26 | Engaging Find 34 | Alumni News 36 | Class Notes 42 | Last Word

12 | Strategic Spotlight: Southwestern Visibility Our Strategic Plan 2010–2020 goals.

18 | Southwestern Athletics: For the Love of the Game NCAA Division III coaches encourage athletes to balance academics and athletics.

22 | Academics In Focus: At First Glance...

Perceptions vs. reality: Kinesiology and Communication Studies at Southwestern.

Alumni Awarded The Association of Southwestern University Alumni honored six outstanding alumni during Homecoming & Reunion Weekend 2010. (See Page 28.)

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president’smessage Share Your Ideas | Make a Gift | Refer a Student www.southwestern.edu/pride

Sciences in the Liberal Arts

“What drives science and technology forward is the ability of scientists to see the connections that are not so apparent, not so linear. Innovation comes from being able to think outside the norm.”

— Brittany Mason ’05, postdoctoral researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas For more than a century, Southwestern’s exceptional science faculty have been thinking outside the norm and preparing graduates—like Brittany Mason—to be leaders in their respective fields.

Today, Southwestern’s strong science tradition continues, helping to attract new students each year. More than 40 percent of all Southwestern applicants express interest in our science programs and about one in five students majors in one of the natural sciences. Once on campus, these students have the opportunity to participate as full partners in the research process. Every year, dozens of Southwestern science students give presentations on their original research at regional and national conferences, and regularly co-author articles for peerreviewed journals.

This is important, as more than 80 percent of today’s employers say they want colleges to place more emphasis on science as an essential learning outcome, and research demonstrates that liberal arts and sciences colleges are 4

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disproportionately successful in training their students to be scientific leaders.

As evidence of Southwestern’s success in educating these future leaders, for the second year in a row, four recent Southwestern graduates have received prestigious National Science Foundation grants. That’s more than any institution in our competitive set of national liberal arts colleges within the Associated Colleges of the South.

These awards also put the University in the company of such institutions as Brown University, Pomona College, Amherst College, Emory University and Rice University.

However, having exceptional faculty, students and alumni is not enough. An institution of higher learning must keep up with the times in terms of facilities and equipment as well. The concern at Southwestern is that our current science facility—Fondren Jones Science Hall— doesn’t match up with the quality of our “human element.”

Today, the ability to think beyond a narrow disciplinary framework is more valuable than ever before. Many current scientific careers were unknown a generation ago, and rapidly growing fields like public health, environmental science and information technology require a wide range of competencies from disciplines such as biology, mathematics, chemistry, economics, history, political science, psychology and foreign languages.

With that in mind, our current highest priority is for a facility that supports science as it is practiced in the 21st century. Science education is a point of great distinction at Southwestern, but the increasing focus on hands-on experiential learning requires more. More laboratories for teaching and student/faculty

collaborative research. More specialized equipment supporting original scientific inquiry. More spaces promoting multidisciplinary and cooperative approaches to learning and problem solving.

Our newly proposed science center is a project being led by Ben Pierce, professor of biology and holder of the Lillian Nelson Pratt Chair. Built in 1954, Fondren-Jones Science Hall is structurally sound, but has not been updated in more than a decade. A new wing was added to the building in 1999, but the original building no longer matches the aspirations of our science programs. Today’s strong student/faculty research program requires additional and more sophisticated laboratory spaces, along with up-to-date science equipment. The new science facility will include 38 laboratories, including research labs, computing labs and a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) lab; classrooms; seminar rooms; stock, instrument and lab prep rooms; offices and a conference room.

As a step toward achieving this goal, we have been invited to submit proposals to several foundations … to the tune of $8.5 million in potential funds. However, even if all of these grant proposals are funded, they still amount to about onethird of the total $24 million cost of the project. I invite you to contact me if you are interested in this essential facility to secure the long-term future of science education at Southwestern.

Jake B. Schrum ’68

President, Southwestern University

Southwestern Science Center e ng ag i ng m i n d s . t r a n s f or m i ng l i v e s .

Southwestern’s highest priority is to create an exemplary undergraduate science facility, which will foster an inclusive and cross-disciplinary community and will enhance Southwestern’s tradition of excellence in science education.

Our plan is to create a new science center to house multiple teaching and research laboratories, classrooms, offices and multidisciplinary gathering spaces.

To learn more about Southwestern’s planned new science facility, please visit

www.southwestern.edu/giving/sciences SPRING2011 www.southwestern.edu

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The new science center will foster collaboration across disciplines

and between students and faculty, preparing students for life after Southwestern and, perhaps, leading to the next scientific breakthrough.

At left: Lauren Kjolhede ’11 and Emily Niemeyer, professor of chemistry.

Breaking what will it take for SOUTHWESTERN graduates to COMPETE IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY WHERE LABOR OUTSOURCing continues, and THE UNITED STATES turns out too few SKILLED TECHNOLOGY WORKERS to meet demand? what will it take for southwestern to recruit and retain the best and brightest science faculty and students? what will it take to facilitate the next scientific breakthrough?

Photography by Shelley Dormont ’11

Through WANTMORE?

Go to www.southwestern.edu/giving/science.

Read Dr. Musser’s “Last Word” on page 42.

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Proposed lobby space

of the new science center will look out toward and connect to Mood-Bridwell Hall.

Image courtesy of Group Two Architecture.

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Southwestern has long made it a priority to graduate students who will become leaders in the sciences. What that means for the University today is a redesign of the facilities and the environment in which the sciences are taught.

More than 40 percent of all applicants to Southwestern express interest in our science programs, and about one in five students goes on to major in one of the natural sciences. Our students are active partners in research, regularly giving presentations on their original findings at regional and national conferences and authoring articles for peer-reviewed journals. The rate of admission to medical, dental and veterinary school of Southwestern students is 68 percent over the past 15 years. In the past decade, 16 Southwestern graduates have been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for advanced study—eight of these in the past two years alone.

However, some perceive that the state, and indeed the nation, is lacking in the number and quality of professionals in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and that more and more jobs and projects in these fields are going offshore.

“Companies aren’t outsourcing only in order to obtain cheap labor; they are also looking for skilled technology workers that they increasingly can’t find in the U.S.,” says Matthew Kazmierczak, senior vice president and director of TechAmerica Foundation.

How does Southwestern stay ahead of this disturbing trend? Through a unique collaboration with The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI), with which three Southwestern students have begun summer 2011 internships.

Dr. Jim Musser, co-director and executive vice president of TMHRI, suggests, “Students need to make their own discoveries—as well as their own mistakes. They need to work on their own as well as side-by-side with other scientists as they do at Southwestern. Because you provide your students with these opportunities, our position as the global leader in science research will be maintained and our country will be stronger as a consequence.”

The hope is that students at Southwestern and around the country are motivated by the words of President Barack Obama, who has said of recent STEM initiatives, “The key to meeting these challenges—to improving our health and well-being,

to harnessing clean energy, to protecting our security, and succeeding in the global economy— will be reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation.”

The good news for both the local and global scientific community is that people in the U.S. are choosing science careers because they are profoundly curious and excited about the way science and technology can improve human existence. This curiosity and concern dovetails with our institution’s core purpose to foster a community whose values and actions encourage contributions toward the well-being of humanity. It positions Southwestern as a catalyst for the next breakthrough.

science from the beginning Science education has long been a distinguishing strength of Southwestern University. Consider Southwestern’s fourth president, Robert S. Hyer, “who, during the 1890s, had brought Southwestern into the world of international research in physics.”

(Jones, William B., To Survive and Excel, p. 127).

While at Southwestern, Hyer discovered that he

could send and receive messages by wireless telegraph. He also assembled and used the first X-ray machine in the state.

In the 100+ years since, numerous other Southwestern faculty have walked in Hyer’s distinguished shoes, including John Godbey, professor emeritus of chemistry, and Bob Brown, professor emeritus of physics. Bob Soulen, professor emeritus of chemistry, was named the 1988 Texas Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and Vicente Villa, professor emeritus of biology, was recognized in 1993 as the best undergraduate teacher in the country and named U.S. Professor of the Year by CASE. The ranks of our science faculty have always been filled with dedicated teachers, and in recent years, the proportion of faculty with ambitious research agendas has greatly increased. Professor of Chemistry Kerry Bruns says, “The Southwestern science faculty feel fortunate to work with quality students and have the opportunity to do their own research at the same time.”

While Southwestern’s science facilities have come a long way since the days of Hyer’s laboratory, the fact is that today, they are dated and

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The new science

center will add 37,000 square feet of open and accessible classrooms, offices, seminar rooms and laboratories for both teaching and research.

Images courtesy of Group Two Architecture.

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stretched to capacity. The core of Fondren-Jones Science Hall was built in 1954, with air-conditioning added in the 1980s and additional space constructed in 1999. These facilities are no longer adequate to support today’s research-based curriculum. In order to provide students with the best educational experience, as well as maintain its

“the meshing of a liberal arts education with exposure to world class research is a powerful combination...”

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strength in the sciences and compete successfully with peer institutions for top students and faculty, Southwestern is in the process of designing and creating a new science center on campus.

making it happen Because science curricula increasingly reflect our evolving understanding of how people learn and retain new concepts, and (as Musser inferred) the emphasis is on experiential and investigative learning rather than lecture formats, the new facility will emphasize the exploratory and communal aspects of learning. It will add 37,000 square feet of open and accessible space—for both teaching and research—to the completely redesigned and renovated original building, creating a new 103,000 square foot science center.

Bruns says, “The plans show great potential for students to feel at home in the new building through access to common areas—places to gather, meet, study, present papers and more.

The new science center will, for the first time, bring together all the scientific disciplines under one roof, including mathematics and computer science, kinesiology, chemistry, physics and biology in order to help foster the growing interdisciplinary focus of scientific inquiry. The solutions to today’s complex problems will likely be found not within the confines of traditional disciplines, but in the areas where those disciplines intersect—areas such as bioinformatics, which brings the resources of mathematics and computer science to assist in the management and interpretation of complex biological data.

At Southwestern, productive collaborations are already underway between a number of science disciplines. The new facility will promote this sense of community, providing for both casual and deliberate interactions and partnerships, as all parts of the building will be accessible and easy to reach. Most important will be increased and reconfigured space for student/faculty research that will allow for new projects spanning the disciplinary divide.

Associate Professor of Biology Maria Todd, who, along with colleagues and students, is currently involved in cancer research (see Southwestern, fall 2010, p. 30–32), says “Some say your research is only as good as your instrumentation…” The new science center will have the laboratory and technological capacity to support even more intensive interaction with the external scientific community. Students trained in a laboratory-

based experiential curriculum, who learn with state-of-the-art equipment, will be prepared for advanced research settings. They can think critically, communicate effectively and work independently and in multidisciplinary teams.

In a broader sense, Southwestern’s location in Georgetown and Williamson County positions it well for participating in the rapid growth of the health care and technological sectors in our area. Students and faculty are already assisting in research taking place at Georgetown’s Texas Life Sciences Commercialization Center, an incubator of technology start-ups. Southwestern has also developed a partnership with TMHRI (Musser’s organization). This is a breakthrough in taking experiential learning at Southwestern to a new level, providing opportunities for our students to serve as interns and research assistants to the world-class researchers based there. Part of the largest medical center in the world—Texas Medical Center located in Houston—TMHRI has 440,000 square feet of modern research space and is currently conducting more than 700 on-going clinical trials.

Many Southwestern alumni are active leaders in research and the healing professions in Texas and beyond, and echo Musser’s words. Dr. Ed Sherwood ’81, the James F. Arens Professor of Anesthesiology at The University of Texas Medical Branch, encourages students to “Pursue research opportunities both at Southwestern and at outside institutions. The meshing of a liberal arts education with exposure to world class research is a powerful combination that will prepare you well for a future in science.”

a leader among our peers A key strategy in Shaping Our Future: The Strategic Plan for Southwestern University 2010–2020 is to enhance the visibility and reputation of Southwestern University as a top liberal arts institution. Better facilities for research will lead to outstanding research experiences that will help students stand out in their applications to graduate and professional schools, further enhancing Southwestern’s national reputation and standing.

Facilities are an important recruiting tool as well. Academically gifted students from top public and private high schools who visit Southwestern during the college selection process often have a sophisticated expectation of well-designed and well-equipped classrooms and laboratories.

Bruns says, “The new science center will help Southwestern attract and retain even more top faculty prospects and highly qualified students, which will increase their collective enthusiasm and enhance their overall academic experience.”

a broader perspective In January 2010, Alan Dove of The New York Academy of Sciences wrote, “While debate about whether the U.S. is adequately training the next generation of professional scientists rages on, it’s hard to disagree with those who argue that the country needs to improve the scientific literacy of its lay public.” In the article, Dove quoted Jim Gates, professor of physics at the University of Maryland in College Park, who said, “Having a scientifically literate public is going to be critical as our nation wrestles with problems whose solutions seem inherently to involve science and technology.”

Southwestern, with our inclusive vision for the sciences, is working toward that end. While not all students will major in a scientific field, all can leave Southwestern with a better understanding of the principles and applications of the scientific method. These members of the “lay public” will be equipped to use research-based evidence in making complex decisions and to participate as informed citizens in our democracy.

Dr. David Clifford ’71, the Melba and Forest Seay Professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology in Neurology and Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, says “The tools of science continue to evolve and change, opening many new areas of investigation. It is critical that meaningful exposure to these areas through modern facilities be available to the students at Southwestern. The vision of a new science center will greatly enrich the Southwestern community, and position the school for continued success developing the careers of talented students.”

Potentially all Southwestern students can learn to appreciate the value and excitement of scientific research and its potential for saving and enhancing human life. Some students will find their life’s vocation in the sciences. Led by dedicated faculty, working alongside talented peers, and supported by excellent facilities, these students will gain the skills and understanding that will enable them to serve as future leaders in the scientific and medical communities. 

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Shaping Our Future The Strategic Plan for Southwestern University 2010–2020

Overarching Vision: Over the next decade, Southwestern University will continue to position itself as a top-tier, national liberal arts and sciences college by building upon its greatest strength—providing a transformational, residential, liberal arts and sciences education that empowers an increasingly diverse range of students to lead fulfilling lives in a global community.

Strategic Direction: Focus on our academic mission—our commitment to providing every student with an education that extends beyond the simple transmission of knowledge and skills to a concept of learning as a broad, integrated and transformational process.

Supporting Strategies: Enhance Our Campus Experience and Residence Life Create a more vibrant, diverse and student-friendly campus that will enhance the campus experience and the quality of student life, and will contribute to attracting and retaining students that are best able to benefit from Southwestern’s academic mission.

Build Far-Reaching Visibility and Recognition Build far-reaching visibility and recognition for the University as an exceptional national undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution known for engaging minds and transforming lives.

Ensure the Financial Vitality and Overall Sustainability of the Institution Ensure the financial vitality and overall sustainability of the institution by building an ever-stronger financial foundation that will increase our ability to invest in our academic enterprise, undergird our commitments and reach our aspirations.

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Unique to Southwestern, Pirate

Bikes provide a quick, eco-friendly way for students, faculty and staff to travel from one place to another on campus.

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Be Southwe

Southwestern takes steps to embrace broad-based visibility and recognition campaign

In the increasingly competitive recruitment environment of higher education, strong and widespread recognition is essential.

Implemented effectively, a visibility campaign will impact our academic mission by gaining broad-based recognition as an academically rigorous and appropriately competitive residential liberal arts and sciences college, and by affecting the quality and diversity of future students and the level of excellence of our future faculty.

For faculty, it will serve to increase professional opportunities and potential for research and artistic collaborations. For students, the greater the recognition of the institution, the wider their options become for jobs and acceptance into prestigious graduate programs. Effective efforts to increase visibility and recognition will allow the University to grow, ensuring the high quality of the student body.

While Southwestern has made headway in enhancing awareness of its reputation, incidents of mistaken identity still occur. Over the years, alumni and others have expressed their frustration when employers, high school and graduate school counselors, or the media are either completely unfamiliar with Southwestern or mistake it for another institution.

After the Board of Trustees approved Shaping Our Future: The Strategic Plan for Southwestern University 2010-2020 and Southwestern began planning for growth, the time was right to obtain valid market research about the University’s name and to use that research for strategic decisionmaking.

In January 2011, the Southwestern Board of Trustees reaffirmed its commitment to build farreaching visibility and recognition by conducting and adequately funding a comprehensive visibility campaign using the name Southwestern University.

In making its decision, the Board considered the research findings, listened to specific comments and concerns, and received recommendations from the Research Task Force, Southwestern’s Senior Staff and Board members.

Clearly there is work to be done to make Southwestern a nationally known liberal arts and sciences institution of the highest caliber.

But, while we may be small in size, we can make a big impression on prospective students, the community and beyond.

As a first step, alumni and friends have been encouraged, “Wherever You Are, Be Southwestern.”  Share Your Experience: Tell others about it— colleagues, employers, teachers and guidance counselors, the bright college-bound student next door—the possibilities are endless.  Stay In Touch: Join a local association or connection group, plan a trip to campus, or fan our Facebook page. We want to hear from you!  Show Your Pirate Pride: On your head (hat) or hand (class ring), over your heart (t-shirt), or on the road (window decal), be loud and proud!

Arrr!  Support Southwestern: Every gift matters! Have you made yours?

Southwestern can also reaffirm its identity and increase the number of people who know the institution to be “a rigorous national undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution known for engaging minds and transforming lives” by:  Taking full advantage of the fact that the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) is based at Southwestern, making the campus more visible in the network of national liberal arts colleges and providing the opportunity to convene conferences and/or host “hot topic” discussion groups on campus.  Recognizing Southwestern as a college that changes lives. As the late Loren Pope, author of Colleges that Change Lives, wrote, “Southwestern ... is one of the few jewels of the Southwest whose mission is to prepare a new generation to contribute to a changing society, and to prosper in their jobs, whatever and wherever in the world they may be.”  WANTMORE?

For more information about how you can “Be Southwestern,” visit www.southwestern.edu/pride

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WANTMORE? Go to In Focus at www.southwestern.edu/newsroom

Shilling Speaker is Sole Brother Number One

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2011 Shilling Lecturer,

Blake Mycoskie, spoke to a full house on the importance of giving back. Mycoskie is the founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS shoes.

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Blake Mycoskie, an entrepreneur with a socially responsible business model, gave the 2011 Shilling Lecture at Southwestern on March 8. The lecture title, “The New Rules for Tomorrow’s Business: A Student’s Guide to Making a Difference in the World.”

Mycoskie’s company, TOMS Shoes, donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. The goal of TOMS is not only to give shoes, but to emphasize the importance of wearing shoes to prevent disease. Podoconiosis, or “mossy foot,” is a fungal disease transmitted though soil that debilitates the lymphatic system and threatens the health of up to 1 billion people worldwide.

In 2008, TOMS started “One Day Without Shoes” in which people are asked to go the day, part of the day or even just a few minutes, barefoot, to experience first-hand a life without shoes. More than 250,000 people participated in the event last year. This year’s event was held on April 5.

A non-profit subsidiary called Friends of TOMS coordinates employee and volunteer-led shoe drops around the world. The company has donated more than 600,000 pairs of shoes to children in the United States and abroad since 2006.

Photo by Kris Luck

A native of Texas, Mycoskie attended high school in Arlington and Austin and received his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. TOMS Shoes is based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Prior to the lecture, Southwestern students and faculty participated in a number of events, including a “Style Your Sole Party,” sponsored by Student Foundation, where students decorated their TOMS shoes. Photographs of the shoes were on display during the lecture. To view photos of the uniquely styled shoes created by Southwestern students, visit http://bit.ly/sutoms.

In addition, Professor of Political Science Tim O’Neill facilitated a multidisciplinary, faculty-led salon titled “Notions of Doing Good.” Joey King ’93, entrepreneur, executive director of NITLE and Southwestern’s vice president for innovation, advocated for social entrepreneurship; Fred Sellers, associate professor of business, advocated for free markets with little to no government intervention; and Christina Wisdom ’97, a political lobbyist, advocated for government as a necessary entity for regulating behavior and caring for our most vulnerable populations. Southwestern students Melissa Dison ’11 and Daniel Knoll ’11 advocated for the role of civic engagement by every citizen to anchor perspectives in larger philosophical schools of thought.

Middle East Expert Friedman to Headline Shilling 2012 The 2012 Shilling Lecture will feature Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Friedman has won three Pulitzer Prizes, and has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S.News & World Report. Friedman’s most recent book, Hot, F lat and Crowded : W hy We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America, is a #1 New York Times bestseller. His previous bestseller, The World is Flat, has sold more than four  Thomas Friedman million copies. His book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, won the National Book Award and serves as a basic text on the Middle East in colleges and universities nationwide. The 2012 Shilling Lecture will be held on Feb. 28 in the Corbin J. Robertson Center.

week. “Consistent determination is the biggest challenge,” she says. “We practice longer than most sports; our season starts in September and, for me, continued through the end of March.”

Throughout the process of training for nationals, Ayers said she looked to her team and coaches for support. “You think that swimming is an individual sport because you place individually, but it is really not,” she says. “I think I realized that more when I was at nationals than I have at any other time. Without having my team there to support me and without anyone else to cheer me on, I realized how important having a team is for motivation.”

As a math and education double major, Ayers keeps busy in and out of the pool, but says, “I feel I have been given a talent by God, and every time I get in the pool, I swim to glorify Him.” Looking forward to next season, Ayers plans on advancing even more, “A lot of different things go into improving, but definitely coaches and the team are the biggest part of that. I improve a lot more when I am enjoying swimming and having a good time with the team.”

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The 2010–2011

Southwestern Women’s Swimming and Diving

Ayers Makes SU Swimming History

team was named a College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America Team with a 3.15 team GPA.

Photo by Shelley Dormont ’11

In 2011, Sarah Ayers became the first All-American swimmer in Southwestern history.

Winning the 100-yard backstroke and placing second in the 100-yard butterfly at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Swimming and Diving Championships automatically qualified Ayers for the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships.

There, she swam the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke, placing fifth in the preliminary round with a time of 56.42 seconds and seventh in the finals with a time of 56.51 seconds.

A swimmer since she was four years old, Ayers says of qualifying for the DIII Championships, “I was just thrilled to go at all. My goal was to make it to nationals, so I knew that whatever happened would just be the icing on the cake.”

This season, Ayers had two-a-day practices three times a week, with morning practices six days a

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Swipe Once for Love

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Associate Professor of

Spanish Laura Senio Blair

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This year, Valentine’s Day at Southwestern was less about chocolate and roses, and more about what it means to help those who are less fortunate.

To show their love to the community, on Feb. 14, Southwestern students, faculty and staff, donated the price of their lunchtime meal to help feed the needy of Georgetown, including the families of approximately 200 GISD students listed as homeless.

Head Men’s Soccer Coach Don Gregory’s Paideia® cohort—organized around the theme of “Coping with Social Responsibility”—worked with Southwestern’s food service

provider, Sodexo, to provide food to needy Georgetown residents.

The program they developed was named “One Swipe” because students and others were asked to swipe their meal card at the Commons and then go somewhere else to eat.

“The program was so simple, yet profoundly impacting,” Gregory says. The impact was significant, with 356 swipes totaling nearly $2,500, which was matched by Sodexo. The meals were delivered to The Caring Place in late February by the members of the cohort: Alex Barnes, Kayla Bogs, Briana Garcia, Ellen Hoyer, Rachel Nowlain, Tony Pollreisz and Evan Schmitt.

Senio Blair Receives Fulbright Award

student experiences, cultural building and interdisciplinary understanding,” she says.

The Fulbright Scholar Program was established in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of people, knowledge and skills. Participants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

Laura Senio Blair, associate professor of Spanish, has received a Fulbright Award to study and teach in Chile during the spring 2012 semester. She will teach a course on Hispanic film at the Universidad Católica Santísima Concepción in Concepción, Chile.

Senio Blair says it was a trip to Chile in 1994 on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship that led to the topic for her dissertation: how sentiments of dislocation born from exile experiences and the return from exile are expressed in narrative, drama and film.

In 2010, Senio Blair also received a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation to conduct archival work in Finland and Sweden on films written and directed by Chilean artists who fled into exile in the early 1970s. The Fulbright scholarship will enable her to continue her current research on Chilean films.

A member of the Southwestern faculty since 2002, Senio Blair is chair of the Spanish Program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, and is the Latin American Studies Program chair. She holds an undergraduate degree in Spanish and philosophy from Whitman College, a master’s degree in romance languages from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of Kansas.

Senio Blair says her firsthand experiences in Chile have proven to be one of her greatest assets as a professor. “My semester in Chile will contribute not only to my research, but also to my teaching experiences and knowledge of international

Shack-A-Thon Raises Awareness, Dollars Southwestern students committed to raising $55,000 to build a Habitat house in Georgetown.

Construction will begin the week before the start of the fall semester. The house should take about 12 weeks to build.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that organizes the building of affordable housing for low-income families worldwide.

Students in the Southwestern Chapter are motivated and excited about the opportunity of taking on such a challenge for the betterment of the Georgetown community. “It makes Georgetown feel more like a home,” says chapter president Austin Painchaud.

Students began their campaign by hosting a Habitat Awareness Week. Fundraising efforts included benefit nights at local restaurants, where a percentage of a patron’s purchase was donated to the project, and an invitation to faculty and staff to donate. The fundraising campaign concluded with a community-wide “Shack-a-Thon” in mid-

oncampus

April, which encouraged organizations to sponsor houses built of cardboard and duct tape.

Additional donations may be sent to 1001 E. University Ave., PO Box 6856, Georgetown, TX 78626. Checks should be made payable to Southwestern University, with a note that they are for the SU Habitat House.

Bebel ’11 Recognized for Outstanding Internship As a senior this spring, D’Artagnan Bebel ’11 became the third Southwestern student to receive the Academic Internship Student Achievement Award from the Cooperative Education and Internship Association in the past six years.

Bebel was selected to receive the award for work he did as an intern in the Public Affairs Division of the Port of Houston Authority. Bebel interned with the Port Authority in summer 2009, helping with media relations, government relations and event planning. He also launched the Port’s first-ever social media campaign, and volunteered regularly as a classroom teacher through the Junior Achievement, Inc. program.

Maria Kruger, Career Services internship coordinator, says Bebel’s performance in the classroom and in the community was a factor in his being selected for the award. “D’Art is selfless, dedicated and mature beyond his years. His ability to earn the respect of his peers and of faculty and staff illustrates his strong interpersonal skills and genuine interest in making a positive impact in his community.”

As the captain of the men’s tennis team for three years, Bebel received numerous awards including SCAC Academic Honor Roll. He also helped promote the game of tennis through the Georgetown Tennis Center’s Quickstart Program, a program of the United States Tennis Association designed to encourage and teach the game of tennis to children ages 10 and under.

As a student, he was a member of the AfricanAmerican student organization, EBONY, a member of Student Congress and was inducted into Lambda Pi Eta National Communication Studies Honor Society. 

Brain Culture Neuroscience and Popular Media

by Davi Johnson Thornton, assistant professor of communication studies

Bridges Of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in TwentiethCentury Los Angeles

by Shana Bernstein, associate professor of history

Decentering International Relations

by Eric Selbin, professor of political science, University Scholar and Meghana Nayak ’97

Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power of Story

by Eric Selbin, professor of political science, University Scholar

SPRING2011 www.southwestern.edu

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LOVEGAME

pirateathletics

FOR THE Photography by Lance Holt

S

OF THE

Southwestern Junior Lindsay Thompson has played volleyball for nine years. A kinesiology major, Thompson had offers from Division I and II volleyball programs, but says she chose Southwestern’s Division III (DIII) program because she knew she would be challenged academically as well as athletically. “Division III gives me the opportunity to continue my volleyball career at a competitive level, without having it consume all of my time,” she says.

Thompson’s reasons for choosing Southwestern are similar among most DIII athletes, who play for the love of the game and for the opportunity to earn a degree from a prestigious institution at the same time. She regularly tells prospective college athletes, “We are here because we want to play, not because we are getting paid.”

Thompson explains that the philosophy at Southwestern (and at many DIII schools) is that the student-athlete is a student first, athlete second. “Our academic success is just as important to our coaches as our athletic success.”

One common misperception is that Division III is just glorified intramurals. Thompson and the rest of the student athletes who play for the 447 DIII schools across the nation (including Southwestern) would adamantly disagree. So would the NCAA itself.

These schools, the majority of which are located on the East Coast and in the Midwest, have an average enrollment of 2,248 per school and—per NCAA rules—do not offer athletic scholarships.

But that doesn’t mean that their athletes don’t take competing seriously.

According to www.collegestudentathletes.com, “NCAA Division III is where the true studentathlete studies and competes. DIII institutions are largely regarded as leading academic institutions and do not offer athletic scholarships. Still,

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athletics in DIII is highly competitive. The biggest myth about DIII athletics is that it is an extension of high school. This is farthest from the truth.

Competition at the DIII level can rival many of the other divisions in quality and competitiveness.

Division III allows an athlete to grow, mature and gain confidence so that the athlete can reach his/ her potential.”

Southwestern’s Head Baseball Coach Jim Shelton believes DIII schools—Southwestern in particular—offer a good balance between athletics and academics and is the “appropriate model” for college athletics. He encourages players to pursue what’s best for their futures. “I tell my players that their number one job is to figure out what they want to do with their lives.”

Two of Shelton’s players—identical twins, Alan ’11 and Chris Lowry ’11—did just that. While the brothers have played baseball most of their lives, beginning with T-ball at age five, both focus on their academic lives and their futures first.

Alan, a business major with a computer science minor, says, “I chose a DIII program because I was concerned with my education first; I see playing baseball as a luxury, one that I am thankful for having.” Chris, a business major with a mathematics minor, mimics his brother’s philosophy, “Baseball is my reward for focusing on my studies.” Chris plans to begin law school this fall. Alan thinks he’ll be taking a more entrepreneurial path.

INCREASED OPTIONS Head Volleyball Coach Hannah Long, a former Division I volleyball player at Portland State University, says the benefit of a DIII program like Southwestern’s is that athletes have many options.

In addition to playing on a successful team, Long says, “Our players have the opportunity to study

WANTMORE? Go to www.southwesternpirates.com for scores, stats and additional information about Pirate Athletics.

The Division III philosophy puts the

emphasis on a future beyond athletics ď ´

Division III provides

Lady Pirates (left to right) Brianna Guevara, Nancy Juarez and Anna Fareed a holistic experience, where practice on the court is not a means to an end, but a foundation for their future.

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ST THE BEPLAYERS HO

ARE THE ONES W

LOVE

BEING A

STUDENT

AT SU



When athletics is

seen as part of a greater whole, the field of play is limitless. Southwestern prepares athletes like Chris Churchwell ’11 (left) and Chris Lowry ’11 for a future outside the baselines.

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abroad, participate in research and internships, join a club—basically, to build a résumé with more than just sports on it—and graduate in four years.”

Beyond their time on the field, the Lowry brothers, for example, were both involved in the SU Marketing Group and were active in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, among other activities.

Thompson has time to coach a 16U club volleyball team in the Austin area as well compete for Southwestern.

Athletes, regardless of division, agree that juggling academics and athletics can be difficult under the best of circumstances. However, an advantage of a smaller school like Southwestern is the ability to establish closer relationships with professors. Thompson says, “All of my professors have been more than willing to work with me outside of class to catch me up on lessons that I have missed (due to volleyball).”

Head Men’s Soccer Coach and Paideia® Professor Don Gregory, who was a double major (English and French) and captained two sport teams (tennis and soccer) at Kenyon College, a DIII

school in Gambier, Ohio, knows what it takes to handle the demands. “What we tell recruits,” he says, is that “22 hours-a-day in the academic/ social community far outweighs the two hours you will spend with us on the soccer field. Figure out what is important!”

SETTING PRIORITIES So, what is important? For most Southwestern athletes, it’s a combination of things, including the opportunity to get a good education while competing in their sport, making friends and exploring other interests at the same time.

A communication studies major Nick Caputo ’11 hopes to coach college basketball. At SU, he was happy with the opportunity to play competitive basketball, participate in his fraternity (Phi Delta Theta), work for Southwestern Intramural & Recreational Activities (SIRA) and mentor students at Annie Purl Elementary School in Georgetown.

Caputo, who has played and loved the game of basketball since he was four years old, says the best thing about being an athlete at Southwestern

was the camaraderie of his team. “It’s a special connection that everyone on the team shares… everyone is playing for the same reason—for the love of the game.”

Thompson and the Lowrys echo Caputo’s comments. Alan Lowry adds, “Academics and athletics work together through discipline and time management: the skills needed to succeed on and off of the field overlap quite a bit—teamwork, discipline, hard work, scheduling, dealing with adversity, etc.”

Even with testimonials like these, DIII athletics programs are still often misperceived. Gregory says, “In Texas, most kids grow up wanting to be Longhorns, Bears, Aggies, Red Raiders. Small liberal arts colleges are foreign to a lot of Texans.

On the East Coast and in the Midwest, it is considered an honor to attend a DIII school.”

This misperception can be a challenge in the recruitment process, but SU coaches agree that the key is to find the athlete who is overall a good fit for Southwestern. Long says the key to creating a successful volleyball team has been finding players who “fit” at Southwestern; where this is their niche.

Gregory agrees, “Recruiting is so much easier if we can identify the ‘right’ kids—good players with great character, who can discipline themselves to handle our demanding academic environment. The best players we develop are ones who love being a student at SU, immersed in an outstanding academic environment while traveling and competing on a national level.”

SU ATHLETICS–A GOOD FIT Head Basketball Coach Bill Raleigh adds that it’s not just that Southwestern is a good fit for the students, but that the athletics program as a whole is a good fit for Southwestern. He says, “Athletics is part of the whole package at Southwestern.

Our athletes represent the University well, but they’re not pigeon-holed here.”

The give and take environment is evidenced across Division III schools. Paul Moyer, athletics director at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., defines a DIII athlete as “…a student-athlete who wants to play and makes the choice to attend an institution that best fits his or her needs and ability, (both) academically and athletically.”

Richard Leitch, associate professor of political science and environmental studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minn., explains that students who choose Division III schools

realize that “DIII participation will allow them to have more opportunities at this point in their life—athletics just one among many…and those experiences will benefit them in immeasurable ways throughout their life after college.”

At Southwestern, the messages players receive across campus—through their classes and other activities—shape where they place athletics in their lives. They learn that no matter what they’re doing, they have to show up and work hard.

As evidence of showing up and working hard, the graduation rate and the average GPA among Southwestern athletes are as good or better than non-athletes. In fact, Glada Munt, associate vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics, says “The Southwestern athletics program continues to demonstrate its commitment to excellence on the playing field and in the classroom, receiving an NCSA Power Ranking of 59 out of 431 NCAA Division III institutions.” The ranking combines institutional academic rankings, graduation rates and success in NCAA championships to generate its top 100 institutions.

Perhaps these high averages can be attributed in part to Southwestern’s size. According to Raleigh, the small size of the University can be good (and not-so-good) for an athlete. “When everyone knows everyone, your professor knows when you’re not in class,” he says. “The good thing is that a Southwestern student-athlete’s education doesn’t stop at the classroom door.”

Shelton says he and other coaches invest a lot of time in the players they recruit. “We want our players to do as well as possible on and off the field.” His personal philosophy? “I believe in the Greek model that physical and intellectual development are equally important,” he says. “Did you know that Socrates & Plato were both Olympic athletes?”

Ancient Greek philosopher athletes aside, Southwestern student-athletes agree that Division III athletics are about the love of the game. If asked by a prospective college athlete, “Why choose DIII?,” Caputo, for one, would answer, “If you don’t see yourself playing basketball after college, I would say DIII is the way to go; you still get to have a life beyond your sport and still get to play at a high level as well.”

Besides, as the recent NCAA ad campaign says, “Most of us will go pro in something other than our sport.” 

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academics infocus

At First Glance...

Communication Studies and Kinesiology majors at Southwestern share a common trait: misperception.

Photography by Lance Holt

Communication Studies: Cultural Communication

community with Lady Gaga. What she found was that Lady Gaga and other non-mainstream pop culture icons have a direct correlation to gender “Camping with Lady Gaga?” Communication construction. “Performances like these,” she says, studies Capstone? What happened to “The Do’s “reflect how we see ourselves and others, and and Don’ts of Broadcast Media,” or “Public show that how others see us helps shape how Relations: It’s All in the Details?” That may be we see ourselves.” what you’d find at some larger institutions, Warren says, “The selling point in pop culture but not necessarily at Southwestern. Here, not seems to be the attitude of ‘be who you are.’” all students become a comm studies major Examples include the hit television show Glee to go into radio/tv/film. According to Lori with its anti-bullying message, and the Trevor Project’s “It Gets Better” theme. “Our job as comm Warren ’11, author of “Camping with Gaga: Resisting Hegemonic Constructions of Gender scholars, however, is to delve into those messages and Sexuality,” the comm studies program and explore whether they are truly messages of at Southwestern “delves deeper than a ‘traditolerance and acceptance or reinforcers of domitional’ program. The messages we study are nant ideas,” she explains. relevant culturally and Recipient of the globally.”

2011 Laura Kuykendall Specifically, Warren Communication Studies “The important thing looked at whether the Student of the Year pop star highlights a Award, Warren knew is (regardless of the gender that’s socially communication studies field) that employers constructed rather than at Southwestern wasn’t inherent and found that going to be about mass perceive a higher level of “Lady Gaga performs a med i a , but d id n’t communication abilities gender that matches expect the strong theoher sex category and retical focus. from our graduates...” enforces the current At Southwestern, gender binary.” comm studies majors O n t h e s u r f a ce, focus on the study of Warren’s Capstone—a textual analysis of pop culture, not on skills-based training. Warren says, star Lady Gaga—may not seem to have global “I learned about cultural connections and social relevancy, but her research findings tell a differjustice, and their meanings.” Julia Johnson, assoent story. ciate professor of communication studies, adds, Her theory is that Lady Gaga’s performances “Southwestern students graduate with the ability could be called “Camp.” Defined, camp is a critical to think differently about themselves and the analysis and at the same time a big joke. Camp world.” takes “something” (typically a social norm), Another example of cultural communicaanalyzes what the “something” is, then takes tion studies is the Capstone, “Quienes Soymos?: the “something” and presents it humorously. As An Autoethnographic Account of the Mexican performance, camp is meant to be an allusion.

American Borderland Identity,” by A lana Initially, Warren wanted to look at the general Buenrostro ’11. public’s fascination with celebrity culture, and Buenrostro says her Capstone was a combinathe seemingly particular fascination by the LGBT tion of her experience growing up in Brownsville, 22

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

Media blitz: a second glance

reveals more of the cultural references communications studies major Lori Warren ’11 delved into for her Capstone project “Camping with Gaga.”

located in the border region of the Rio Grande Valley, and an analysis of other border dwellers’ experiences as result of living in a transnational border region.

At Southwestern, teaching and research in the Communication Studies Department focuses on communication’s relationship to culture and identity, and how communications are constructed and influenced by both. Johnson says, “We do our best to prepare students to be critical thinkers.”

While Buenrostro’s feeling of pride in her heritage have not changed as a result of her project, it did allow her to “truly understand where I come from and the pivotal role both my American and Mexican backgrounds play within my life.”

She feels that studying a topic such as she did can lead to a better understanding of the different identity labels that border dwellers give themselves. “Whether we choose to identify ourselves as Mexican-American, Chicana, Mexican or American, and our relationships to bi-national and bi-cultural experiences are uniquely shared, our personal identity labels may differ tremendously.”

But, after the culturally fascinating classes and after the internships, what’s next? What do Southwestern grads do with a degree in communication studies? Students have a wide variety of options, including graduate school, law school, positions in public relations or the nonprofit sector, and more. “The important thing is (regardless of field) that employers perceive a higher level

of communication abilities from our graduates,” says Johnson.

Warren says, “I loved the comm studies curriculum. I think it will allow me to be very successful in the ‘real world.’ I see myself working in the nonprofit sector.” Buenrostro is in the process of interviewing for internships.

Not surprisingly, communication studies faculty regularly publish books, including recently published Brain Culture by Davi Johnson Thornton. Look for Tribal Televisions by Dustin Tahmahkera, and Making Space on the Side of the Road: Towards a Cultural Study of Roadside Car Crash Memorials by Bob Bednar ’89 to be published soon. (See Page 17 for additional faculty titles.)

KINESIOLOGY: Revenge of the Kinerds “We’re going into the lab today; want to come along?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be cool—we’re using a treadmill and GXT (Graded Exercise Testing) headgear.”

“It’s like a Gatorade commercial…” “…but we don’t sweat orange!”

Not what comes to mind when you think of kinesiology? Why not? After all, the MerriamWebster Dictionary defines kinesiology as “the study of the principles of mechanics and anatomy in relation to human movement.”

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academics infocus

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Wikipedia further describes the science as “the Eason adds, “Jodie Wilson ’11 and I have study of human and animal movement, perforalready been accepted to an accelerated doctormance and function by applying the sciences of ate program…all because of Dr. Smith and biomechanics, anatomy, physiology, psychology Dr. McLean.” and neuroscience.”

“In the beginning,” Smith says, “we tried to be Wait! Did you say science? Isn’t “kinesiology a mini version of a large university department, major” a big way of saying “learning to be a coach but with our move a few years ago from social or PE teacher?” That’s to natural sciences, exactly what many we began focusing on people assume. But, exercise science.” As an while some do choose example, Southwestern “...We work at the path of teaching/ kinesiology majors are understanding things coaching, many, if not studying human physimost, Southwestern ology, and how human from a system level, “kinese” majors go on systems have evolved rather than a to physical therapy, over time to maintain a cellular level...” physician assistant, constant internal envichiropractic and other ronment (temperature, graduate programs. etc.), which gives us Courtney Eason ’11 the ability to run long says she came to Southwestern with a misperdistances at slow speed, which other mammals ception of her chosen major. “The kinesiology aren’t able to do. Smith explains that this is still program at Southwestern was very different that how some tribes hunt large game, chasing them I imagined. I thought it would be more sports to exhaustion. related.” What she discovered is that, “It’s much In the traditional liberal arts and sciences sense, more science-focused. We’re encouraged to take the kinesiology major at Southwestern is truly our own interests in the different aspects of kineinterdisciplinary. Students get the natural science siology and find our own path.” perspective while at the same time discovering Associate Professor of Kinesiology Scott McLean different ways to look at problems—social, philosays, “The kinesiology stereotype is not bad, it’s sophical and ethical. just not what we do at Southwestern.”

Smith says, “Here, our majors have to like the According to Professor of Kinesiology Jimmy science aspect, and the whole body aspect of Smith, those Southwestern students who kinesiology. We work at understanding things choose the teaching/coaching path are best from a system level, rather than a cellular level. served by declaring a major in Education, with They learn not just theory, but application.” a minor in either Exercise and Sports Studies or Patrick Keenan ’11 says, “Unlike other natural Kinesiology. sciences, kinese majors do more that can be While kinesiology departments at large instituapplied to life outside of class. I call it ‘life science’ tions are often seen as a college within a college, because we can apply it to our future careers at Southwestern, there are only two professors and real life.” for the 30-40 students who major in the subject— While McLean and Smith agree that they McLean and Smith. Smith, who joined the SU couldn’t be happier with the direction the kinesiolfaculty in 1991, focuses his teaching and research ogy department is going, they also agree that there on the physiology of exercise, while McLean, who are challenges to being a two-person department. has been at Southwestern for 10 years, focuses on McLean says, “When I was at a large institution, I biomechanics; or, how the laws of physics apply probably read two or three undergraduate theses to human movement. Both are widely respected a year. Last semester, we read 13.” However, they in their fields, and in the classroom. say compared to larger institutions where underThomas Mock ’11 says of the program, “A lot graduate research is rare, Southwestern excels. was expected of us, but we also had a lot of inter“Our students can function independently in the action with our professors. They were always lab, and they show it through their Capstones there to answer questions, help with Capstones (undergraduate theses),” says Smith. and encourage us along the way.”

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Geared up: another

look at kinesiology major Thomas Mock ’11 shows the equipment needed to measure CO2 output for his Capstone project researching carbohydrate ingestion.

Remember the orange sweat? Turns out, Smith says, that research on carbohydrate ingestion indicates that unless you’re an elite athlete (marathoner, long-distance cyclist, etc.), you don’t need to chug a sports drink after your workout.

For most people who ride a stationary bike or jog on a treadmill a few times a week, water during and after a workout is enough. In fact, Smith says, “Most folks who aren’t trained athletes will burn somewhere between 210–300 Calories during a 30-minute workout. If they consume a typical 20 ounce sports drink during the workout, they’ll take in about 125 Calories, making the net caloric loss somewhere in the neighborhood of 85–175 Calories.”

Research indicates that those who participate in high intensity exercise (marathon running, for example) use their carbohydrate stores in their bodies over the duration of the activity. Therefore, for these athletes, ingesting replacement carbs via sports drinks, energy bars or gels is beneficial. However, the majority of us exercise at a much lower intensity, and if we maintain that moderate intensity for more than 30 minutes, we begin burning our fat stores at progressively

higher rates, which can lead to weight loss, unless we “re-fuel” with a high caloric sports drink or energy bar.

The solution? One that has been researched by Mock during his Capstone project, is to simply “swish and spit out” an artificially sweetened sports drink or a sports drink containing carbohydrate, which can significantly change one’s exercise performance and endurance for the better.

Smith says the larger issue at hand, which requires additional research, is the global obesity epidemic. “As a society, we’re just taking in more than we burn.” He adds that the expanding suburbs have created a very real exercise paradox in our country. “We know what we need to do (exercise-wise), but we don’t do it…especially those of use who live in suburban areas where we can’t walk everywhere we want to go.”

“Ultimately,” Smith says, “weight loss all comes down to a basic physics equation—to lose weight, you have to burn more Calories than you take in.

It’s a simple equation, but what determines each side of the equation is complicated.” 

SPRING2011 www.southwestern.edu

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engagingfind

Science at Your Fingertips Review by Meredith Barnhill, Assistant Director of Web Development and Communications “There’s an app for that,” isn’t just an Apple catchphrase anymore…it’s reality.

Smartphones, including the iPhone, outsold computers for the first time during the last few months of 2010 and sales show no signs of waning. This mobile revolution has exponentially increased the number of mobile applications, also known as “apps.” Users can download a variety of reference sources, games and even advanced calculators on their iPhone, Droid or Blackberry.

Become your own scientist using these smartphone apps, no Ph.D. required…though we recommend it if you’re planning on practicing legally. 

Andy-83 (Android, Free) – What would a scientist be without

a scientific calculator? This app turns your phone into the sleek equivalent of a TI-83 graphing calculator (remember those from high school?). Similar apps include Andy-85 and Andy-86, mimicking the TI-85 and TI-86 respectively.  Star Map (iPhone, $11.99) – Augment your astronomical musings with this app. Simply hold the phone up in the direction you’re gazing, and it will display constellations, nebulae and a host of other points of deep space interest. It’s a bit pricey, but unparalleled in its image catalog.  Weather Language Pocket Guide (Android, $1.19) – You, too, can mis-predict the weather…or at least teach yourself to talk like a meteorologist. This app offers a comprehensive glossary and quiz to test your weather terminology skills.

Oooh, cumulonimbus.  Frog Dissection (iPad, $3.99) – ‘Nuff said.  Taber’s Medical Dictionary for Mobile and Web (Blackberry, $49.99) – Don’t let the steep price fool you, this medical reference dictionary is unparalleled in number of terms and phrases defined. It even includes color photos and an audio pronunciation guide. Users have access to mobile and Web versions 24/7 upon payment.  The Chemical Touch (iPhone, $0.99) – a robust app, The Chemical Touch has a color-coded periodic table. It allows users to explore the periodic table by amino acid, specific heat or by atomic number. It even links to more information about each element on Wikipedia.

Other apps to check out: Molecules (iPhone, Free), Physics Reference (Android, $0.99 ), Vitamins and their Sources (Blackberry, $1.99).

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/ us_tec_techbit_smart_phone_sales

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YOU!

the

fun damental fundamental Element HOMECOMING & REUNION WEEKEND

creatE some fUn Like the Periodic Table, Southwestern is made up of many elements. However, one is essential to every equation — You, The FUNdamental Element. Come be a catalyst, strengthen bonds, connect with friends and create a chemical reaction at Southwesternʼs Homecoming & Reunion Weekend, November 4–6!

Visit www.sualumni.net /homecoming2011 for more information.

NOV. 4–6

2 011

SPRING2011 www.southwestern.edu

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alumni awards 2010 Southwestern

photography by Lance Holt

E a c h y e a r , a committee of Southwestern alumni collects recommendations from the SU community and selects a number of their peers to receive annual Alumni Awards. The Association of Southwestern University Alumni hosts an award presentation during Homecoming & Reunion Weekend. Colleagues, friends and family members contribute to the citations that are read to the recipients during the award presentation. These citations follow below.

Congressman Peter Sessions ’78 Medal of Honor The Association of Southwestern University Alumni Medal of Honor is awarded to alumni whose accomplishments are regarded as the highest form of “rare and important” achievement.

Peter Sessions ’78, U.S. Congressman, 32nd District of Texas

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First elected to the U.S. Congress in 1996, representing the 32nd District of Texas, and most recently re-elected in fall 2010, Congressman Peter Sessions ’78 has remained connected to his roots, most notably by returning to Texas to spend time with his family nearly every weekend.

A faithful servant of Southwestern, Pete is on the University’s Board of Trustees, has been a class agent and a campaign volunteer, and was a charter member of the Brown Society. He stays connected to the University by hiring Southwestern students

“Pete is intensely patriotic and believes in the importance of our generation leaving this country better than we found it.” – Steve Cotton ’77 as interns in his office, giving them first-hand experience working in government.

Faithful to his family, country and ideals, Pete is known for his compassion, patriotism and integrity. A man who is grounded in reality, he embodies Southwestern’s core values of “being true to oneself and others,” and “encouraging activism in the pursuit of justice and the common good.”

In the early 90s, Pete’s father, The Honorable William S. Sessions, spoke on the Southwestern campus and said that despite the ups and downs of public service, America needs good people who are willing to serve. Pete is one of those people. He and the late Senator John Tower ’48 are the only Southwestern alumni to have served in Congress.

Colleagues and friends alike know Pete to be intense, focused and driven, as well as a good sport with a good sense of humor. His fellow alumni know that he loves Southwestern and that he has never forgotten where he came from or who his friends are. Describing him as honest and engaging, friends says he is one of the great Americans and a true Texan.

One of Pete’s biggest life influencers was his grandfather, The Honorable William A. Sessions Jr., who wrote the first God and Country handbook for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Pete earned his Eagle Scout rank and has since been a lifelong supporter of the BSA, encouraging both of his sons, Alex and Bill (Southwestern Class of 2012), to also earn the Eagle Scout rank. His dedication to and support of the BSA earned him the National Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

As a Congressman, Pete has been one of the biggest advocates and supporters of the Boy Scouts, understanding that one’s character is best developed through experiences that build self esteem, challenge expectations of oneself, and stimulate lifelong intellectual curiosity.

For his dedication to his family, community, state and country; for his patriotism and integrity; and for his compassion and willingness to lend a helping hand, The Association of Southwestern University Alumni proudly bestowed upon Congressman Peter Sessions its Medal of Honor.

Russell Ramsey ’66, Partner/Attorney, Ramsey & Murray, P.C.

Russell Ramsey ’66 Distinguished Southwestern Service Award The Association of Southwestern University Alumni award for Distinguished Southwestern Service is presented to alumni who demonstrate service to Southwestern over a long period of time; service to the community, state or nation; leadership in his or her chosen profession; and creativity where applicable.

With nearly 45 years of service to Southwestern University, it is said that the commitment of Russell Ramsey ’66 to the University’s success is unparalleled.

Co-president, with his wife, A nn Cater Ramsey ’67, of the Houston Association of Southwestern University Alumni, Russell has also been a class agent, an Alumni Board member and vice president, a member of the Name Research Task Force, a Homecoming Chair, the perpetual Reunion Chair for the Class of 1966, a leader for Kappa Sigma fraternity and a charter member of the Brown Society.

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Some speculate that there hasn’t been a year since graduating that Russell hasn’t volunteered in some capacity. He and Ann generously established the Cater-Ramsey Endowed Scholarship at Southwestern to benefit students who are in financial need.

Described as being scrupulously honest and absolutely dependable, Russell is known to ferociously pursue the course he believes to be right.

Ann says that if something should be done, Russell will do it; that he would never take advantage of anyone; and that his word is his guarantee.

To Russell, embracing Southwestern’s core values comes naturally, especially those of “being true to oneself and others” and “respecting the worth and dignity of persons.” One of his law partners says Russell has the gift of integrity and is incapable of knowingly committing a dishonest act. He treats everyone with the same good manners and respect.

Friends and family agree that Russell leads by example, strives for excellence in all that he does, and is fun to be around! He is known for being honest, straightforward and unafraid to voice his opinion.

Truly at home on the Southwestern campus, Russell is happier here than anywhere in the world.

Russell’s daughter, Suzanne Ramsey Moran ’93, credits her parents for her commitment to volunteerism, saying that they have been wonderful role models. She is proud to say that in 44 years, Russell has only missed Homecoming twice—only because both she and her son, William, were born over Homecoming weekends.

One of his fraternity brothers says that Russell’s long history of service to Southwestern reflects his appreciation for the gift of his education and his commitment to making the same opportunity available to today’s students.

It is for this commitment, and for his extraordinary energy and forthrightness in all areas of his life, as well as for his devotion and service to the University, that The Association of Southwestern University Alumni proudly presented Russell Ramsey with the first-ever Distinguished Southwestern Service Award.

Bob Dupuy ’69 Distinguished Professional The Association of Southwestern University Alumni award for Distinguished Professional is presented to Southwestern University alumni who have performed exceptional civic and/or professional services in a given geographic area or field of endeavor.

Bob Dupuy ’69, Chair of the Firm, Brown McCarroll, L.L.P.

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Named a “Super Lawyer” in Texas Monthly for the past seven years, Bob Dupuy ’69 has been a practicing attorney for 38 years, is a Trustee for Southwestern University and former Chair of the Board of Texas Methodist Foundation.

Bob is known for his intellect, integrity, compassion and drive for excellence, and for being a “heck of a nice guy.” President Jake B. Schrum ’68 describes him as not only one of the finest attorneys in Texas, but one of the finest human beings he’s ever known.

His wife and two sons, along with numerous friends and associates, agree that Bob embodies the Southwestern core value of “respecting the worth and dignity of persons,” and inspires his law partners to act in the same manner.

Colleagues describe him as a highly respected and visionary member of his firm and of the community, as an exemplary leader who exhibits only the highest standards of professional integrity, and a professional who is able to turn challenges into opportunities by fostering diverse perspectives.

Known to be an extremely generous person with the understanding of what it truly means to give back, Bob goes out of his way to ensure that those less fortunate receive the help and support they deserve. Both he and his wife, Virginia Hyde Dupuy ’71, have the gift of hospitality and the ability to make everyone feel comfortable.

Continually working to better himself and encouraging others to do the same, Bob has always encouraged his sons, Will and Matt, to never give up. Will says his dad is the hardest working, most approachable man he’s ever known with a passion for life and determination for success that is unequaled; and adds that whether he met a stranger or the President of the United States, Bob would engage that person in conversation and find out everything about him.

Admired for his compassion and determination, Bob fosters the needs of others above his own, leaving no job unfinished, no task incomplete and no person unsatisfied. He continually reads new books and researches new ideas. While his family can’t image what will be next, they agree that Bob will never truly retire.

For leading by example, and demonstrating that integrity, perseverance and compassion contribute to professional success, and for setting a standard of excellence that reflects well on Southwestern, The Association of Southwestern University Alumni presented Bob Dupuy with its first-ever Distinguished Professional Award.

Harland DeWitt ’92 Distinguished Humanitarian Award The Association of Southwestern University Alumni award for Distinguished Humanitarian is presented to alumni who have made a global impact on the human race by their actions, while exemplifying Southwestern University’s Core Values.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a humanitarian as “a person promoting human welfare and social reform.” At Southwestern, a

Harland DeWitt ’92, Director, Carrick Bend Consulting; Executive Director and Founder, Texas Tents for Haiti

humanitarian is defined as someone who embodies our core values. Harland DeWitt ’92 lives his life according to two of those values in particular: “respecting the worth and dignity of persons,” and “encouraging activism in the pursuit of justice and the common good.”

In February 2010, Harland learned through news reports the plight of earthquake victims in Haiti. As a new father, he felt the anguish of Haitian parents as they struggled to find shelter for their children, and, though he wanted to book the next flight to Haiti, he yielded to his wife Michele’s request that he remain home with her and their then six-month-old son, Matthew.

In lieu of actually being there, Harland found a way to stay in Texas and still make a positive impact. As the founder of Texas Tents for Haiti, he almost single-handedly organized a statewide effort that ultimately provided shelter for more than 1,000 Haitians.

Over the years, Harland has contributed time, effort and finances to many charitable endeavors—volunteering at Ground Zero in New York

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City, and working with Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross and Meals on Wheels as well.

Friends describe Harland as an open-minded free spirit disguised as an ornery, conservative, old-school son of Texas. His brother James says he is caring and wise beyond his years and can do anything he sets his mind to without appearing overconfident; adding that Harland is fair-minded and sets a good example for others.

A Fulbright Scholar, Harland holds a Master of Arts in International Relations, and has been a marketer, manager, entrepreneur and an antifraud investigator for the U.S. Department of State.

While “intellectual” is a good word to describe Harland, he is also admired for being creative, witty and a loyal friend.

Talented in many ways, Harland is fluent in multiple languages and is a proficient musician.

Lyrically, friends say, his content lies somewhere between Shakespeare and Weird Al Yankovic.

His wife agrees, saying that Harland is a boy at heart. He treats everyone he meets with respect and interest; never too busy to thank a soldier in

Lauren Niver Paver ’05, Chief Operating Officer, United Way Capital Area

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uniform or chat with an elderly person dining alone at the next table.

For his love and devotion to his family, friends and fellow humans that he will never know, and for his obvious global impact on the lives of others through his selfless humanitarian efforts, The Association of Southwestern Alumni proudly presented Harland DeWitt with its first-ever Distinguished Humanitarian Award.

Lauren Niver Paver ’05 Distinguished Young Alumna The Association of Southwestern University Alumni award for Distinguished Young Alumna/us is presented to alumni who have graduated from Southwestern within the past 10 years, in recognition of perseverance and dedication to a given area.

As the Chief Operating Officer at United Way Capitol Area in Austin, as well as a United Way Global Resident Fellow, Lauren Niver Paver ’05 exemplifies Southwestern’s core values, especially that of “promoting lifelong learning and a passion for intellectual and personal growth.”

Friends and colleagues say Lauren thrives on learning new things, thinking in new ways and working to improve herself and the world around her. Interested in continuous improvement of her leadership skills, colleagues say she can often be found reading—and sharing—books on building on one’s personal strengths.

Admired as a strategic thinker, team builder and dedicated leader, Lauren never brings a problem to the table without recommending solutions as well. She is known to be a strategist with a vision; seeing beyond an idea in order to make it a reality.

She is also passionate about her community and strives to find ways to strengthen it through education, health and financial stability. Encouraging activism in the pursuit of justice and the common good is part of her daily life.

Lauren’s husband, Robbie Paver ’05, explains that she is passionate about making the community a better place by working to solve the root of the problem at hand, not just by putting a band-aid on it. He adds that Lauren is an excellent mother, and that there is nothing she won’t drop for their young son, Brendan.

Considered by many to be a great role model for young women in the community and for all recent Southwestern graduates, Lauren volunteers

for Impact Austin to encourage women’s philanthropy, and shares her passion for children and the importance of reading by volunteering for BookSpring.

Friends and family describe Lauren as friendly, honest and straightforward, and say she dedicates much of her time to advancing the common good for the betterment of her community.

For being a true advocate of Southwestern’s core values, demonstrating them in her personal and professional life because it is just who she is; and for her perseverance in standing on the front lines supporting activism, The Association of Southwestern University Alumni presented Lauren Niver Paver with one of two 2010 Distinguished Young Alumna/us awards.

Taylor Garrett ’00 Distinguished Young Alumnus The Association of Southwestern University Alumni award for Distinguished Young Alumna/us is presented to alumni who have graduated from Southwestern within the past 10 years, in recognition of perseverance and dedication to a given area.

Taylor Garrett ’00, Crisis Stabilization and Governance Officer,

In only 10 short years since graduation, Taylor Garrett ’00 has exemplified and upheld Southwestern’s core values around the world— from Ethiopia to the Sudan, Thailand to Zambia, South Africa to Cambodia and back again.

As the Crisis Stabilization and Governance Officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, Taylor trained in Washington, D.C., to help provide emergency, crisis, transition, humanitarian assistance, food assistance, and democracy and governance programs to the people of Pretoria, South Africa, where he is currently stationed.

In this capacity, and in the humanitarian roles he has had over the past decade, Taylor is considered kind, compassionate, committed, courageous and dedicated. Since childhood, Taylor has embodied the core value of “respecting the worth and dignity of persons.” While a student at the University of Michigan Law School, he received the Jane L. Mixer Memorial Award for the greatest contribution to activities designed to advance the cause of social justice.

His former boss in Ethiopia says he admires Taylor’s commitment to the cause of refugees and his capacity to remain optimistic amidst harsh

U.S. Agency for International Development

conditions, explaining that in the middle of a semi-arid region, with bad food, terrible living conditions and demanding refugees, Taylor called on his Southwestern Experience to “promote lifelong learning and a passion for intellectual and personal growth” among his friends and colleagues.

A friend from law school explains that Taylor stands out from the crowd because of his sincerity and acute sense of justice and personal honor.

Taylor is also known to be a devoted family man and a good friend. His family and friends say that with the courage of his convictions, Taylor never lets adversity keep him from completing the task at hand. Many believe that the world is in great need of more people like Taylor.

For his wisdom, common sense, loyalty and commitment to what is legal and fair, and in recognition of his perseverance and dedication to bringing justice to those who live in places most of us couldn’t find on a map, The Association of Southwestern University Alumni presented Taylor Garrett with one of two Distinguished Young Alumna/us awards for 2010. 

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Association

The

of Southwestern University Alumni

Connecting Ideas and Individuals

To be a community that fosters a lifelong Southwestern Experience by: spanning generations and geographies, connecting ideas and individuals, inspiring learning and service, inviting diverse perspectives and strengthening loyalties so that the Association becomes vital in the lives of alumni and their University.

Alumni Council

Reflect on your first year after Southwestern­—perhaps you were preparing for graduate school or interviewing for jobs. Wouldn’t it have been helpful to have had a network of individuals who would share ideas, advice and information, or connect you with opportunities?

Steve Raben ’63 President

Did you move to a new city? Wouldn’t it have been advantageous to connect with individuals who lived there and could share their insights?

Nisa Sharma ’92 Class Relations Chair

One of the ways alumni can “BE SOUTHWESTERN” is to connect ideas and individuals. Alumni can assist and be assisted by both students and other alumni. Here are some ideas: • •

• • • • • •

Link students and alumni to job opportunities through PirateLink (http://sualumni.net/CareerServices).

Ask questions or share your professional experience on LinkedIn (search for The Association of Southwestern University Alumni).

Contact Career Services if you can offer an internship or job opportunity (512-863-1346).

Raise awareness of the quality of a Southwestern education among key influencers in your workplace.

Serve as a resource through your local association to alumni who move to your city.

Make connections at local association events.

Offer to mentor a Southwestern alumna/us entering your field.

Tell colleagues who have college-bound children about Southwestern.

You may know of other ways to BE SOUTHWESTERN that will strengthen our connections to one another, benefit alumni and raise awareness about the quality of the Southwestern Experience. I invite you to share your ideas at shareyourideas@southwestern.edu and visit www.southwestern.edu/pride to explore other ways to engage in the Southwestern network.

Be Southwestern.

Steve Raben ’63 President, The Association of Southwestern University Alumni

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Mission

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Blake Stanford ’81 President-Elect

The Rev. Dr. Paul Barton ’83 Nominations and Awards Chair Sarah Walthall Norris ’68 Homecoming and Reunions Chair Maxie Duran Hardin ’73 Local Associations Chair Katherine Merrill Andre ’99 Alumni Connection Groups Chair The Rev. Milton Jordan ’62 Assembly Program Chair Yesenia Garcia ’03 Assembly Program Chair-Elect Lisa Dreishmire ’91 Alumni Communications Chair Ken Holley ’71 Lifelong Learning Chair John Dapper ’91 At-Large Member Theodore Caryl ’76 At-Large Member John Curry ’70 Trustee Representative Zoe Martin ’12 Student Representative

alumninews

W

Way to “Be Southwestern”

You Are the Fundamental Element

Since January, alumni have been demonstrating ways to “Be Southwestern,” as part of the beginning of the University’s far-reaching visibility and recognition campaign. Cindy Olson-Bourland ’89 shared her participation in the 2011 Career Connections Barbecue on her law firm’s website.

Lee Silva Ferguson ’95 made a photo of her Southwestern University window decal her profile picture on Facebook. April Hampton Perez ’89 spotted John Dapper ’91 at a conference because John was wearing his Southwestern ring. The University’s number of prospective students continues to grow thanks in part to alumni who have submitted referrals. The Class of 2010 has generated the highest giving participation among the Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) classes.

Similarly, the Class of 1955 has shown the greatest giving participation rate with 48 percent of members contributing. Also, the Class of 2011 presented President Jake B. Schrum ’68 with the largest class gift in University history. (See back cover.) To learn ways you can “Be Southwestern” visit www.southwestern.edu/pride.

Planning is underway for Homecoming and Reunion Weekend (Nov. 4–6, 2011) and YOU are The Fundamental Element! Members of The Association of Southwestern University Alumni are working hard to ensure that the weekend will be full of diverse and fun events. Be sure the University has your correct contact information so you do not miss Homecoming-related mailings and notices. To update your information visit www.sualumni.net/update.

Sigs, Phi Delts Celebrate 125 The Iota Chapter of Kappa Sigma and the Texas Gamma Chapter of Phi Delta Theta will celebrate their quasquicentennials during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, November 4–6, 2011. The weekend will be full of activities for brothers from each fraternity to participate, reconnect and celebrate. Mark your calendar and plan to attend.

For more information visit www.sualumni.net/ KappaSigmaAnniversary/ and www.sualumni.net/ TexasGammaAnniversary/.

The Legacy Continues Southwestern welcomed 35 legacy students among the 2010 first-year and transfer class. To register your child or relative for the Legacy Link Program contact the Admission Office at 800-252-3166. 

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classnotes

Reunion Years

The Original Social Network // The following Class Notes were submitted July 19, 2010 through January 7, 2011. Share your accomplishments, achievements and life milestones with friends and classmates! Submit your Class Note by visiting www.sualumni.net. Select “Connect” from the main menu, then “Class Notes.” You may also e-mail your Class Note to alumni@southwestern.edu.

1931 Lola Haden McDaniel, posthumous class note, was honored by the city of La Marque when the mayor announced at a September 2010 city council meeting that a resolution was approved to rename the city library after her. Lola passed away in August 2010.

1952 Joseph Cavness, Sacramento, Calif., was a competitor in the World Meet 2010 of the World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters in Las Vegas, Nev., where he won the World Championship in both the bench press and the deadlift in his classification (over 80 years old and under 165 pounds). He was also named the Outstanding Lifter—Bench Press of all lifters over the age of 80. During the competition, he set new records for the State of California in both the bench press and the deadlift.

1956 Dan Carper, Austin, helped complete a six year fund raising project to preserve The Bartlett Tribune newspapers, dating from 1903 through 1978. These papers, containing a wealth of historical information about the Blackland Prairie in north Williamson County, were digitized and stored in the University of North Texas’ “Portal to Texas History” Library, preserving an important part of Texas history. Carper says, “Having spent an important part of my childhood on the Blackland Prairie, I can’t adequately express what this means to me.”

MARRIAGE: Erma Smith Adams to William “Bill” Glaze on Sept. 11, 2010, living in Corinth.

Ramm was also recently named Citizen of the Year by the Groesbeck Chamber of Commerce.

1960

1972

Eve Porter Fariss, Georgetown, was featured in the community newspaper of Sun City, City Week, for her lifelong dedication to music education. The article stated, “Ms. Fariss believes that the key to a happy life is to love what you do. She hopes to be remembered as someone who cared about others, loved her family and hoped to have imparted a love of music to all she taught.”

Larry Haynes, Coppell, announced his retirement from Ernst & Young in June 2010. Serving as a tax partner for more than 20 years, he held many positions at Ernst & Young, including Southwest Region Leader of Business Development, Southwest Region Leader of Strategic Growth Markets and, most recently, as Ernst & Young Americas Director of the Entrepreneur of the Year program. He served the firm for a total of 32 years.

1969

Lionel Kattner ’51, posthumous class note. Kattner, second from right, was recognized for his role as a co-developer of the microchip at an event—organized by the Chemical Heritage Foundation and held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.— commemorating the 50th anniversary of the microchip. In September 1960, Kattner was one in a group of engineers and scientists at Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley who succeeded in making the first working planar integrated circuit, the first in the line of microchips that have been developed to this day. By continually developing the basic silicon manufacturing technology developed at Fairchild in the late 1950s, the global semiconductor industry has produced generations of

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1973

Harold Ramm, Belton, is the Superintendent of Groesbeck Independent School District. He was named the 2010 Superintendent of the Year by the Education Service Center Region 12. As a result of this award, Ramm was a nominee for the annual Superintendent of the Year award sponsored by the Texas Association of School Boards. His nomination recognizes his strong leadership skills, dedication to improving educational quality, ability to build effective employee relations, student performance and commitment to public involvement in education.

Emily Anne Matthews, Brookhaven, Miss., is the priest-in-charge of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, where her grandfather served as vicar from 1926–1947.

1976 Mark Mayfield, Fairfax, Va., is serving a one-year tour as Consul General with the United States Foreign Service in Baghdad, Iraq.

microchips that have gotten exponentially more powerful, while the cost for this performance has fallen exponentially. With these silicon microchips, researchers and engineers have built the digital world.

Kattner credited John Godbey, professor emeritus of chemistry, as his “greatest inspiration at Southwestern.”

Steve Cotton, Dallas, was named a 2010 “FIVE STAR Wealth Manager” by Texas Monthly, an award based on overall client satisfaction, expertise and value for fee charged, among other factors. He is a managing partner at The Cotton-Adams Financial Group (CAFG), which provides personal, family and career financial planning services, and wealth transfer and investment strategies for individuals, families and organizations. CAFG received the Award for Outstanding Client Service from broker dealer LPL Financial in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He and business partner Clint Adams also formed the Financial Education and Counseling Services Ministry in 2000, based at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in North Dallas, to provide free financial counseling to professionals in job transition. Securities and financial planning are offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.

1980 Elizabeth Whitfield Stengler, Houston, earned a Master of Education in teacher leadership from Lamar University in May 2010.

1981 Craig Hopkins, Cedar Hill, was the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s 2009 Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award for literature, based on his biographical work, Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day by Day, Night After Night. The KBAs are the highest awards by the international blues community for non-performers.

This chronicle was self-published in a 2008 collectors’ edition and a mass-market edition published in 2010 and 2011 by Backbeat Books, an imprint of the Hal Leonard Corporation.

1983 MARRIAGE: The Rev. John Warren to Sandra Valverde on Dec. 18, 2010, living in Wimberley.

1984 Brian Burton, Sherman, won accolades as Assistant Attorney General of the Year for the Child Support Division’s Dallas region. “Brian Burton’s hard work and dedication helped ensure thousands of young Texans have the child support they need to grow healthy and strong,” said Attorney General Gregg Abbott. “A committed and selfless public servant, Brian stands out as one of the state’s most dedicated and impressive lawyers. We are grateful to [him] for his commitment to Texas children.”

Susan Zirkel Hart, Harlingen, is an associate professor of kinesiology at The University of Texas at Brownsville. She received The University of Texas Chancellor’s Award for outstanding teaching and the 2009 University of Texas Regent’s Award for teaching excellence. Hart has developed and managed fitness camps for children, including children with autism and children with obesity. She is researching the relationship between muscular strength and bone density in pre-menopausal women. She and husband, Charlie Hart ’86, have two sons, Charles and Dustin.

The Rev. Laura Merrill, Harlingen, was appointed to the Cabinet of the Southwest Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church in June 2010. She serves as the McAllen District Superintendent.

1985 John Baldwin, McKinney, graduated magna cum laude from the Perkins School of Theology receiving a Master of Divinity. He is in his 22nd year of service at Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano.

1986 Charlie Hart, Harlingen, see 1984.

1987 Michael Adams, Navarre, Fla., is the author of 77 Mnemons: Shepherding Dreams of Compassion, a philosophical approach to compassion and Christmind agnosticism.

1988 Tracy Harting, Pflugerville, is certified as a Child Welfare Law Specialist by the National Association of Counsel for Children. As a specialist, she represents children, parents and state welfare agencies in abuse, neglect and dependency cases. She is one of 11 specialists certified in Texas.

classnotes

1977

1990 BIRTH: Mark and Tamra Trimble Dixon, Georgetown, a son, Brynach Pearson, Oct. 13, 2009.

1991 James Venhaus, San Antonio, received a Globe Award, which honors outstanding achievement in San Antonio theater, from the Alamo Theater Arts Council for Best Original Script for his play, “The Happy Couple.” Although this is his first Globe Award, his plays have won national awards and have been produced in schools, universities and professional theaters across the nation and in three other countries. Venhaus’ work is published by Playscripts, Inc. and Original Works Publishing.

1993 Sherrin Roberts Frances, Deer Park, earned her Master of Arts in English from The University of Texas at Arlington in December 2010. She had previously earned a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in communications from the European Graduate School in Saas-Fe, Switzerland. Frances is an English instructor at San Jacinto College.

Carol Welder ’81 is Vice President of the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA).

Since attending Southwestern, Welder says, “My life has been very full with tennis.” She was as a volunteer in the early 80s, was on staff with the Texas Tennis Association in the mid 80s and served as Executive Director of the Capital Area Tennis Association (CATA) from 1986-1995.

While in this position, Welder started an Annual Junior Awards Banquet, which is still held each year. She also brought the USTA league program under CATA’s umbrella. She returned to volunteer service with CATA, and still serves on the Junior Committee and is the Chair of the Leagues Committee. Welder was also on the Management Committee for USTA Texas (formerly CATA) as Secretary, and then served as President of the organization. She chaired the national USTA Membership Committee for two terms and was then elected to the Board of Directors as a Director at Large.

Welder plays tennis herself and says her passion is community tennis for adults and juniors. One of her major areas of focus with the USTA is 10-and-under tennis. She explains that the rules for the younger age groups have changed; players must now play on shorter courts, use appropriate sized racquets and lowerbouncing balls. This age-appropriate equipment will help develop better technique and an all-court game.

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classnotes

Mike Timlin ’88 and Coach Jim Mallon were inducted into the prestigious Southwestern Athletics Hall of Fame in Oct. 2010.

While at Southwestern, Timlin was an ace pitcher for the Pirate Baseball Team. He holds the school record for completed games with 11 in 1987, throwing a no-hitter in his final season. Following his career at Southwestern, Timlin was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays and went on to win four World Series Championships, two with Toronto (1992 and 1993) and two with the Boston Red Sox (2004 and 2007). When he completed his Major League career in 2008, Timlin was ranked No. 1 in Major League Baseball in relief appearances by a right-handed reliever with 1,058 games. In 2007, he received the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, which honors players who best exemplify Lou Gehrig’s character and integrity both on and off the field.

Jim Mallon, Timlin’s coach while at Southwestern, was one of the most successful coaches in Southwestern history. Coaching the Pirate Baseball Team from 1971 to 2004, Mallon amassed 1,197 wins—the all-time third most wins

1995 Patrick Chavez, Ballwin, Mo., has earned three recognitions for his work in the legal field. In August 2010, he was named “Up and Coming Lawyer” by Missouri Lawyers Weekly, which recognizes the state’s premier lawyers under the age of 40 who are making a positive impact in the quality of justice while exemplifying the highest ideals. The same month, Chavez was presented with the Commitment to Diversity Award at the St. Louis Diversity Job Fair. In October 2010, he was listed in the “Rising Stars” section of the 2010 Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers for his work in product liability defense.

Maria Hanke, Round Rock, is a project coordinator in the Business Development Group at Cintra Developments LLC in Austin. The company engineers highways and toll roads in North America.

Alan Haworth, Dallas, was selected as a 2010 “FIVE STAR Wealth Manager” in the investments section of Texas Monthly, which had contacted a business services provider to survey financial advisors who asked more than 100,000 high-net-worth consumers and financial services professionals to evaluate wealth managers in the Dallas area.

1998 Eduardo Alas, Albuquerque, N.M., completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2010. He has started an academic

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in both the NCAA and NAIA—and a .666 winning percentage. His teams won multiple conference championships and advanced to both the NAIA and the NCAA National Tournaments. Eighteen of Mallon’s players went on to play professionally; four—including Timlin—reached the major leagues.

For the YouTube links to Timlin and Mallon’s Hall of Fame citations and acceptance speeches, visit http://sualumni.net/TimlinMallonSpeeches.

career at the UNM-University Hospital in the department of internal medicine, division of nephrology where he will focus on kidney transplantation.

Janet Lopez, Denver, Colo., is the director of the P-20 education initiatives, an integrated education system that extends from pre-school through higher education, at the University of Colorado Denver.

As part of her Ph.D. research, she has published a book titled Undocumented Students and the Policies of Wasted Potential, which addresses the public policy debate over college access for immigrant students.

six Latino playwrights featured at The Cutting Ball Theater’s Vanguardia Festival of experimental work, a member of the 2009–2010 Playground writers pool and a guest author at Evergreen Valley College. Her play “American Triage” was part of East Los Angeles Rep’s October reading series.

Mindy Switzer, Houston, was accepted into a pilot care program at Texas Women’s University for a master’s degree in clinical nurse leadership. The care program is a collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and is designed to resolve many of the challenges facing health care delivery in Texas.

BIRTHS: Gordon and Gail Davis Roberson ’01, Georgetown, a son, Milo Henry, Aug. 19, 2010; Sean and Eve Anderson Smiley, Georgetown, a daughter, Annabelle Kate, July 15, 2010.

BIRTH: Henry Fluck and Meredith Johnson, Cedar Park, a daughter, Talia Elizabeth Johnson, Nov. 1, 2009.

1999

2000

Jennifer Gingrich Christianson, Boerne, was elected in May 2010 as a trustee for a three-year term on the Boerne Independent School District Board. She is excited to be actively engaged with the district for which she taught before becoming a stay-at-home mom.

Ammie Harrison, Fort Worth, is the arts and humanities librarian at Texas Christian University.

She was the recipient of the Friends of the Library Staff Recognition Award for her outstanding service and achievement.

Marisela Treviño Orta, San Francisco, Calif., was the recipient of the 2009 PEN Center USA Award in Drama for her play ”Braided Sorrow.” She was recently a guest author at the University of North Carolina’s Latino/a Cultures Speakers Series, one of

Libby Schrum, Camden, Maine, was profiled in the June 2010 issue of Fine Woodworking for her burl jewelry box and again in October 2010 for her white oak outdoor bench. Schrum was selected as the 2010 recipient of the John D. Mineck Fellowship, which supports “talented young-in-career furniture

and business customers. Fyffe is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

MARRIAGE: Blithe Casterline to Scott Rocher ’04 on October 10, 2010, living in Los Angeles, Calif.

Yen-Hong Tran, Austin, is a private tutor in collaboration with Go Local, an Austin economy progressive meant to help in “keeping Austin weird.” More information about his services and scheduling for test preparation aid can be found by visiting www. tutoringbyyenhongtran.weebly.com. He is in the process of writing a memoir and is posting it on www.tutoringbytran.blogspot.com.

Aaron Rohre, Georgetown, served as the executive director of the Kappa Upsilon Chi national men’s Christian fraternity for the 2009–2010 academic year.

BIRTH: Cody and Jarin Gillis Jones, Katy, a daughter, Nadia Renee, May 25, 2010.

Erin Murphy Ross, San Antonio, earned her Doctor of Philosophy in marriage and family therapy from Texas Tech University in December 2010. She opened a private practice in San Antonio in the fall (visit www.erinrossphd.com), and continues to work for Algos Behavioral Health Services Inc. as a clinical associate.

Aryn Campbell Calhoun, Coppell, completed her certificate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., with a major in songwriting in May 2009. While at Berklee she was honored with the Scott Benson Award in songwriting, performed in the 25th Annual Singer’s Showcase where she shared the stage with Paula Cole, and was awarded the grand prize for her song “Crave” in the Berklee Substance Abuse Prevention Campaign. In 2009, Calhoun completed her first professional indie album “Lockless Heart.” Since leaving Berklee, she has been selected to represent the TUNE campaign, was named the Texas Christian Songwriters Association’s 2010 Songwriter of the Year and was the 2010 KLTY (a Christian radio station in Irving) Chick-fil-A Celebrate Freedom jingle contest grand prize winner. In March 2010, she completed raising $50,000 to record her next indie album through the crowd-funding website SellaBand.com. Recently, Calhoun was named a top 10 finalist in the national Folgers jingle writing contest and anticipates releasing her SellaBand album, “The Last One Standing,” later this year.

2001 MARRIAGE: Joanne Chiang to Israel DeHerrera on Nov. 15, 2010, living in Norwalk, Conn.

Jeff and Grace McCoubrey-Mitchell Lindgren, Georgetown, a daughter, Evalie Mae, June 25, 2010; Gordon ’98 and Gail Davis Roberson, Georgetown, a son, Milo Henry, Aug. 19, 2010.

2002 BIRTH: Joel and Jeanine Ashdown Webb, Pocatello, Idaho, a son, Nathanael Michael, Jan. 31, 2010.

2003 Brandy Fyffe, Melissa, completed the “Starting a Business” certificate course at Southern Methodist University. She is an independent professional organizer at Sorted Out LLC, a firm that offers a variety of organizing and consulting services for residential

MARRIAGES: Charlsie Medellin to Robert Miller Brown on Dec. 8, 2010, living in San Antonio; Erin Murphy to Andrew Ross on Nov. 7, 2009, living in San Antonio; Heidi Tesch to Joel Cephus on June 26, 2010, living in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

BIRTH: Dustin and Misty Reichenau Kothe, Comfort, a son, Harper Weston, April 1, 2010.

2004 MARRIAGE: Blithe Casterline ’05 to Scott Rocher on October 10, 2010, living in Los Angeles, Calif.

2005 Greg Mast, Austin, earned a Master of Science in geography from Texas State University in San Marcos.

classnotes

artists.” Examples of her work can be viewed by visiting www.libbyschrum.com.

2006

Allen Jenkins, Houston, is pursuing a Master of Arts in counseling at the Houston Graduate School of Theology.

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classnotes

Jack O’Brien ’07, Austin, and Curtis Roush ’05, are founding members of the “funky, funny, indie rockand-rollish” band The Bright Light Social Hour (TBLSH). Together with other band members, A.J. Vincent and Joseph Mirasole, TBLSH beat out 1,500 other bands from around the world to win the 2009 Dell Sound and Jury Contest, earning them a performance spot during the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Following their performance during the 2010 South by Southwest Festival, TBLSH was voted the 2009–2010 Best Indie Rock Band by The Austin Chronicle. Similarly, Rare magazine named them the 2010 Best New Band. The band’s talents earned them more success during the 2010–2011 Austin Music Awards where TBLSH was named Austin Band of the Year and their debut album was named Austin Album of the Year. A song on the album titled “Detroit” was awarded Austin Song of the Year. O’Brien was voted the best bassist in the category of Best Austin Musicians while Roush was nominated for Best Male Vocalist and Best Electric Guitar. To learn more about TBLSH visit www. thebrightlightsocialhour.com and follow them on Twitter @TBLSH.

Candace Stockton Tribble, Austin, is the Program Controls Analyst for Potomac Fusion. She completed a certificate in editing program through the University of Washington in August 2010. She is also a freelance copy editor and proofreader of Web content and print material.

MARRIAGE: Leslie Hollaway to Freddy Pompa on July 17, 2010, living in Houston.

2007 Alice May Berthelsen, Austin, is the volunteer coordinator for Ten Thousand Villages of Austin,

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a non-profit retail organization that engages in fair trade practices with artisan groups, many of whom live in developing countries across the globe.

Berthelsen says, “Fair trade provides artisans with the opportunity to earn a living wage so that they can provide necessities such as health care, food, shelter and education to help sustain their families.”

Lauren Contreras, San Antonio, earned a Master of Education in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She works for the Project Student Excellence Program at Our Lady of the Lake University, which supports first generation and low-income students to ensure their graduation.

Megan Healy, Galveston, graduated first in her class from Tulane University Law School where she received multiple awards during the ceremony.

She is an associate at Thompson and Knight LLP in Houston.

Kurt Seilheimer, Brenham, played the lead role in the film “I Didn’t Come Here to Die.” The film was screened during the Austin Film Festival in October 2010. Seilheimer’s screen name is “Kurt Cole.”

Jaclyn Suffel, Memphis, Tenn., is a community organizer for the non-profit Stand for Children. She encourages alumni to visit www.stand.org.

MARRIAGES: Laura Brown to Travis Nelson on March 20, 2010, living in Houston; Sally Redden ’08 to Chris Green on June 12, 2010, living in Dallas.

2008 Braden Ackley, Gainesville, Fla., is an early childhood educator at the Baby Gator Child Development and Research Center at the University of Florida.

Meghan Brindley, Austin, is a social media analyst at Mason Zimbler, a technology marketing firm. In December 2010 she earned a Master of Arts in advertising and public relations from The University of Texas at Austin. Brindley was featured on UT’s advertising and public relations website, discussing her experiences in the program.

Amanda Mohammed, Garland, completed her post-baccalaureate degree in neurobiology/medical sciences at the University of California Berkeley. She

MARRIAGES: Marie Bruce to Matthew Putman on Dec. 18, 2010, living in Austin; Michelle Perrin ’09 to Aaron Blair on Nov. 28, 2009, living in Farmer’s Branch; Sally Redden to Chris Green ’07 on June 12, 2010, living in Dallas.

2009 Kasaundra Kramer, Deer Park, earned her Master of Science in kinesiology from Sam Houston State University in May 2010. She is the Intramural and Club Sports Coordinator at SHSU. MARRIAGES: Ashly Hernandez to Jonathan Chapman on July 18, 2009, living in Knoxville, Tenn.; Michelle Perrin to Aaron Blair ’08 on Nov. 28, 2009, living in Farmer’s Branch.

2010 Eva Cheng, Houston, is in the process of earning a Master of Arts in non-proliferation and terrorism studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. During summer 2010, she volunteered for a non-profit organization in Tibet as part of a teacher’s workshop.

Pelham Keahey, Redwood City, Calif., is a control engineer at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

In Memoriam

classnotes

participated in the AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program in Oakland, Calif., in 2010 as the fund development coordinator for Habitat for Humanity East Bay. She is currently attending medical school at the Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, West Indies.

None of us is replaceable and we are diminished by any who are absent from us.

For the lives of all members of the Southwestern University community who have died, we give thanks.

Maxine Ray Harris ’32, Alamogordo, N.M., Nov. 29, 2010 Julia Mary Wallace Lowry ’32, Temple, Oct. 12, 2010 Nelson D. Durst ’36, Bryan-College Station, Dec. 6, 2010 Jesse Price Gilmour ’36, Midland, Sept. 8, 2010 Estella Brannies Schmidt ’36, Houston, Jan. 17, 2011 The Rev. Burney Combs Cope ’42, Ardmore, Okla., March 5, 2011 Lee Karr ’42, Kerrville, Feb. 1, 2011 Anna Miller Peters ’42, Temple, Jan. 19, 2011 Jacqueline Corey Glover ’43, Houston, Nov. 10, 2009 Joe Livingston Karr Sr. ’43, Fredericksburg, Sept. 7, 2010 Willie Mae Wunsche Bingham ’44, Spring, Jan. 23, 2011 Phoebe J. Lott ’44, Trinity, Nov. 9, 2010 Janet Robertson Shelton ’44, Gonzales, Oct. 29, 2009 Robert Jennings Carter Sr. ’45, Luling, Nov. 30, 2010 Ray Butler ’47, Horseshoe Bay, Sept. 10, 2010 James D. Billo ’48, San Antonio, Jan. 13, 2011 Camp Gilliam ’48, Kingsville, Dec. 17, 2010 The Rev. Asbury Lenox ’48, Baytown, Jan. 18, 2011 The Rev. Douglas E. Meyer ’48, Houston, Nov. 6, 2010 Betty Ghiselin Reed ’48, Houston, Oct. 11, 2010 Dr. Carl E. Williford ’48, Mexia, Nov. 8, 2010 Robert D. Alexander ’49, San Antonio, Nov. 21, 2010 William O. Mann ’49, San Angelo, Oct. 4, 2010 Mary Warnock Mitchell ’49, Fort Stockton, Aug. 4, 2010 Dr. Attilio Zaccaria ’49, San Antonio, Oct. 5, 2010 Edwin M. Lockey Jr. ’50, Dallas, Nov. 20, 2009 Martha Bales Bloss ’51, Lampasas, Feb. 9, 2011 W. Wallace Cayard ’51, Cranberry Township, Pa., Aug. 7, 2010 John H. Thompson ’52, Ovilla, Aug. 23, 2010

Lois Muckelroy Winkelmann Trostle ’52, North Channel, Oct. 13, 2010 Dr. Billy I. Dippel ’54, Brownwood, Dec. 15, 2010 Kenneth L. Garrett Sr. ’55, Camp Wood, June 18, 2010 William K. Hays Sr. ’55, Marshall, Dec. 26, 2010 William L. Merritt ’55, Golinda, Dec. 28, 2010 Lucien Harrison Boston ’56, Coburg, Ore., Sept. 16, 2010 Dr. Frank M. Eddins ’56, Lufkin, Jan. 14, 2011 Manuel H. Tafoya ’58, San Antonio, July 30, 2008 Beverly Sullivan George ’59, Carrizo Springs, Feb. 22, 2011 Linda Luksa Hutcherson ’60, Lampasas, Nov. 15, 2010 Linda Hutsell Galceran ’62, Beaumont, Oct. 3, 2010 Lynn R. Weeks ’62, Mexia, March 3, 2011 James E. Butler ’64, Houston, Nov. 8, 2010 Glenn E. Knight ’66, Cibolo, Dec. 12, 2010 Vance L. Frosch ’67, Nordheim, Feb. 12, 2011 The Rev. James W. Colley ’68, Ingram, Nov. 13, 2009 Mary Ann Tate Grundborg ’70, Arlington, Va., Sept. 7, 2010 Perry Denny Pickett Jr. ’71, Granger, Oct. 9, 2010 Irl Raymond Walker III ’73, Houston, Nov. 16, 2010 Noble Greenhill III ’77, San Antonio, Nov. 13, 2010 Philip M. Peterson ’79, Houston, Jan. 17, 2011 Louis A. Leon Jr. ’81, Galveston, Sept. 15, 2010 Martha Searcy Nikkel ’82, Ramona, Calif., March, 14, 2011 Lori Lynn Baur ’91, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., Feb. 19, 2011 Stacy L. Bales ’92, Austin, Oct. 25, 2010 T.M. “Red” Caldwell Jr., Amarillo, Sept. 23, 2010 F. Burr Clifford, Georgetown, Jan. 6, 2011 Bobby Sue Smith Cohn, Houston, Sept. 14, 2010 Lurlyn Naomi Fleming, Dallas, Jan. 23, 2011 Mary Forbes, Georgetown, Dec. 21, 2010 Terry E. Stanford, Georgetown, Feb. 16, 2011

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lastword

Up Close and Personal Experiences

by James M. Musser, M.D., Ph.D.

H

Having been a medical doctor and biomedical investigator for more than 20 years, I am confident when I say that students contemplating a career in science must have first-hand experience in the laboratory.

First-hand laboratory experiences have a twofold importance to society and to the individual.

Individual development comes from students having the opportunity to work in the laboratory to develop their analytic and scientific skills. And, these first-hand experiences are absolutely essential to us as a society to successfully train the next generation of scientists.

Students need to make their own discoveries—that’s where the real fun is!—as well as their own mistakes.

They need to work on their own as well as side-by-side with other scientists. By providing students with these opportunities, then our position as the global leader in science research will be maintained and our country will be stronger as a consequence.

Regardless of the type of laboratory experience, gaining up-close and personal experience is the only way students will obtain an understanding of the career they are contemplating. One should not anymore go into science without laboratory experience than one would become a chef without kitchen experience. You must have it.

That said, I believe Southwestern’s planned new science center will be an outstanding asset

WANTMORE?

For Dr. Musser’s first impression of Southwestern, visit www.southwestern.edu/musser. Read more about Dr. Musser in “Breaking Through,” beginning on page 7.

to current students and a tremendous draw to prospective undergraduates!

Specifically, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute offers a range of activities that are available for summer interns, including programs in infectious diseases, cancer biology, molecular imaging, bioinformatics and nanomedicine.

This summer three Southwestern students will have a full complement of research opportunities as part of a 10-week internship experience with TMHRI.

“These first-hand experiences are absolutely essential to us as a society to successfully train the next generation of scientists.”

In addition, I think a strategic partnership between Southwestern and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute is analogous to a match made in heaven. The University clearly has the ability to provide its undergraduates with superb classroom training before the students arrive at the Institute for in-depth practical research experience. 

A graduate of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, James M. Musser, M.D., Ph.D. is the Co-Director and Executive Vice President of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute. He holds the Fondren Distinguished Endowed Chair and is Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in The Methodist Hospital System.

He also directs the Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute.

Musser currently works primarily on group A Streptococcus (the “flesh-eating” pathogen) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, with a special emphasis on human-pathogen molecular interactions using genome-wide investigative strategies. His group is working on developing a human vaccine against group A Streptococcus that would be given to every child worldwide.

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CD Maturing?

And don’t like your options?

Convert Your Nest Egg Turn low-performing assets into a reliable lifeincome stream by establishing a Charitable Gift Annuity with Southwestern University. Earn income for life at attractive rates­— determined by your age—and take a sizable charitable deduction for a portion of your contribution.

To learn how a gift annuity can help you meet your charitable and personal financial goals, please call Justin Gould ’98, director of gift and estate planning, at 512-863-1997.

Immediate-Payment Annuity Rates

Age

Rate

60

5.2%

65

5.5%

70

5.8%

75

6.4%

80

7.2%

85

8.1%

Acceptance of annuity contract dependent on: 1. Age of annuitant(s) 2. IRS discount rate

SPRING2011 www.southwestern.edu

43

Photo by Lucas Adams

A

At the May 7 Commencement ceremony, the Class of 2011 presented President Jake B. Schrum ’68 with a class gift of $47,472.48—the largest Senior Gift in the University’s history—drawing a standing ovation from the entire crowd.