Levine Connection - May 2012

May 2012

UNC Charlotte Publication

Vol 2 Edition 2

Levine Scholars at UNC Charlotte’s Center City Gallery for the Violins of Hope Exhibit

Public Arts Initiative

By Evan Danchenka rom April 2 to July 31, 2012 I will be an Artist Affiliate at the McColl Center for the Visual Arts, a non-profit art center based on the philosophy of public service through the arts prominently located in uptown Charlotte. During the summer and fall of 2012, I will create a series of art and sound installations reflective of mass public transit and how people identify their sense of “place” through sound.

Publically accessible in galleries, community centers, and the UNC Charlotte campus, these exhibits will leave visitors with a heightened sense of their own identity as residents in the city of Charlotte.

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orralled together in tubular train cars across the country, thousands of daily commuters share one common ground: sound. The sound of public transit is relentless and a sensual offer of place. Where am I? When is my stop? Is the train moving? These sounds are distinct from one city to another and play inherent

roles in how an individual identifies with his or her daily life. I intend to research and capture the sounds of public transit systems and present them through the manipulation of music and architectural space.

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hese public art installations will require traveling to different cities, which will be fulfilled during my Summer III experience through the Levine Scholarship. In addition to travel, research, and art installations, I will also hold a colloquium in the School of Architecture. Such an event should cover the entirety of my pubic arts project and include enlightening discussions and design charrettes.

Overall, I aim to inspire people to further examine Charlotte, their individual identities, and public art’s role in capturing the wonderful city in which they live.

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am currently designing my first prototype installation at the McColl Center for the Visual Arts where I welcome people to visit and share their thoughts on my process. For more information on the McColl Center, visit http://www.mccollcenter.org/.

49er Pride

By Kevin Caldwell

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o anyone who says, “UNC Charlotte doesn’t have spirit,” I have one thing to say: “You aren’t looking hard enough.” The spirit is there. Trust me.

ake December 11, 2011 as an example—the day of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship game. The teams?

UNC Charlotte and UNC Chapel Hill. The location? Hoover, Alabama. The timing? Less than ideal, unless you consider final exam week the optimal time for an 800-mile road trip. That didn’t stop 49er fans, though, as over 2/3 of the 8,777 in attendance proudly sported green and gold.

And it was here, for the first time in my life, that I truly “understood” the nature of devotion to a team, a sport and a school.

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wish I could adequately describe the magnitude of 49er spirit; it was everywhere. It was embedded within the girl sporting 49er face paint. It was within the guy holding the handmade sign, proudly proclaiming: “We love you, Niners!” It was in the folks that cheered on the team unyieldingly even after they lost, as well as within the thousands of people who jumped up and down along with every cheer. It was within all of us. It was within me.

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here were tears welling at my cheeks as the final buzzer rang, signaling that the 49ers lost. These tears weren’t the product of defeat, though—no, they were the labor of love. Love for the team, love for the fans, love for the school, all poured out at once in a moving, emotional game.

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nd it was also at this game that I came to the following conclusions. 1.) I go to the best school in the world with some of the best people I’ve ever met. 2.) This trip, despite the loss, was indescribable—even if we’d lost 30-0, I couldn’t have been prouder. 3.) Road trips are totally possible during exam week. 4.) Go 49ers. That is all.

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Levine Scholars invade uptown Charlotte for the Mummies of the World exhibit at Discovery Place

Studying Abroad in Finland

By Caitlin Vaverek

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iving halfway around the world, immersing yourself in another culture and meeting people from all walks of life - these are just some of the many experiences afforded to students who choose to study abroad during college. But what about cheering loudly at reindeer races, ice fishing, building igloos, and swimming in the Arctic Ocean? Those may not be some of the things you would imagine doing while spending a semester in another country, but that is just a small taste of what the past few months have been like for me.

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his semester I am studying education at the University of Oulu in Finland, and even though I have only been here for a little over two months, it has become a second home for me. I attend classes, teach in schools just as I would in America, go out to dinner with friends from all over the world, and gallivant around the city in search of new discoveries. Unlike those who study in other countries, I have been able to experience a true Scandinavian winter, complete with three feet of snow covering the ground and temperatures that reach negative 31 degrees!

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hile this was all an extreme adjustment from my warm South Florida background, I am finding excitement and fun everywhere I look. Some of the most wonderful experiences have been ice hole swimming, meeting the real Santa Claus who lives at the Arctic Circle, feeding reindeer, and traveling to Norway and Russia!

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tudying abroad is so much more than just continuing your college education in another country. Of course you learn in classes that are relevant to your major, but you also learn about cultures, peoples, values, and ways of life that you didn’t even know existed. Everything that I have had the opportunity to do is completely different from anything I could have ever imagined, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.

Living the Dream

By Patric King

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o tell you the truth, I am living the dream. I am on the Varsity Baseball team at UNC Charlotte and I love every minute of it. I did not think that I would be able to major in civil engineering, keep up with Levine activities, and excel as a varsity athlete, but boy was I wrong. I have found that with a little planning, I can juggle all of the requirements and create a schedule that works for me. Sure, I might not have a lot of free time, but I am still able to do all the things I enjoy.

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hen people confront me about my scholarship and baseball, they usually ask me the following questions: Is it hard? How do you do it? Do you have time to do anything else? How do you have a life?

he answer I give is always the same. I do not consider what I do as hard, because it is everything I want to do. I believe that if you wake up and look forward to what you have to do each and every day, nothing is hard. You have to find what makes you happy in life.

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s a catcher for the team, I am playing the game I love at a level that challenges me to improve every second of every day. Even though I was issued a redshirt for this season, I have been working tirelessly to make the team better in any way possible. Although it is hard work, I would do anything for my 34 brothers. We have the largest team I have ever been a part of and I have developed numerous friendships that I know will last a lifetime. We are a family with one goal in mind and that is winning for our school. There is truly nothing else like it.

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ver the last year, I have found that the art to staying afloat in such a work intensive environment is having the desire to do the work. Remember to do what you want to do, stay young at heart, be happy, and enjoy every second of life. I sure am!

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AΩΕ: The New Sorority on Campus

By Noelle Cornelio

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was already wide-awake when my alarm went off on Saturday, March 17. I threw on my white and black outfit that had been planned and re-planned numerous times over the previous two days, and headed out to meet my soon-to-be sisters in the Student Union. Today we were going to become a colony of Alpha Omega Epsilon (AΩE), an international sorority for women in engineering and the technical sciences.

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he thought of becoming a sorority girl never appealed to me; the social sorority just was not my niche.

However, when I heard about an AΩE interest group and met girls who could make small talk over organic chemistry and nuclear reactors, I was sold.

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fter months of weekly meetings, we became formally recognized as a group on campus. We were honored to have the National Director of Expansion, Catherine Ross, female students from NC State’s Gamma Chapter, and AΩE alumni, participate in our initiation ceremony.

Getting to this point was a slow and time consuming process, however the rewards of calling such motivated and intellectual women our sisters will definitely be worth the effort -- not to mention that all future members of our

Charlotte Symphony

By Kelsey Mongeau

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s I approach my second summer with the Levine Scholars Program, I am very excited to be starting my internship with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Although I am a public health major, I have been involved in music most of my life and I am ecstatic to be able to give back to a discipline that has taught me so many valuable lessons.

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key part of my internship will be aiding the symphony behind the scenes. I will get to learn what it takes logistically to put on the symphony performances.

Furthermore, I will gain valuable insight into what it takes to raise money for the symphony. As I learned during my interview, the CSO needs many donors from the community in order to cover the vast amount of funding

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colony will have to memorize our names as the founders of the chapter at UNC Charlotte!

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s a new colony we learned how other chapters had succeeded in running a sorority, the challenges of recruiting new members and how we would eventually make the leap from a colony to an official chapter of AΩE. After learning about the history of the Greek organization, we celebrated by enjoying a delicious Greek lunch complete with dolmades and falafel.

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lthough I was originally hesitant to join Greek life, I am now proud and extremely excited to become part of a sorority that is expanding rapidly across the U.S., and to join a sisterhood of women at the forefront of the next generation of successful scientists and engineers.

it takes to operate, and I will be able to see firsthand what it takes to get these donors. In turn, I will hopefully be able to apply this knowledge to my future in the field of public health, where finding the funding to do research or implement programs is often one of the biggest barriers.

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am also looking forward to the time I will get to spend in Charlotte with all the other Levine freshmen. Because our second summer internships are with nonprofit organizations in the Charlotte area, we will all get to spend time working in the local community where we plan to take full advantage of the foodies tour uptown. In fact, Bethany, Kevin C., Chloé, and I are already planning how we are going to sample all the restaurants together on our lunch breaks. It is going to be a great time to get to know our city!

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am so happy to be interning with the CSO this summer! It gives me a chance to support music, which is something I have always had a passion for, with a fantastic opportunity to understand the inner workings of the nonprofit sector.

Habitat for Humanity Spring Break Trip

By Christina Neitzey

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oining the throngs of college students flocking to Florida for spring break this year, about forty UNC Charlotte students traveled to Fort Lauderdale with plans that differed from the typical spring break agenda. The group, which included Celia Karp and myself, was participating in Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge.

Throughout our week in Fort Lauderdale, we worked on five different Habitat for Humanity homes alongside students from two other universities: Sacred Heart University and Rivier College.

homeowners to pay off their mortgages with absolutely no interest rate, the organization relies on volunteers to complete the majority of each home’s construction.

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hen we arrived at the home site on our first day of work, my handyman skills pretty much ended at hanging a picture frame with Command strips -- I was inexperienced, to say the least. My site supervisor didn’t seem to think this was an issue, though, because he immediately sent me up a ladder to balance on top of the home’s cinderblock walls while nailing in the wooden framework for the roof. I quickly learned that this process is called “trussing.” We spent most of the week completing the roofs on five homes.

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eeing the progress we made throughout the week made the hours of nonstop hammering worthwhile and rewarding. We grew close to the other students, our site supervisors and the people whose homes we were helping to build, making it difficult to leave on the last day. As we drove the fourteen hours back to Charlotte, although blistered, sore and sun burnt, we couldn’t have been more content with how we spent our spring break.

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abitat for Humanity’s mission is to provide an avenue by which low-income individuals can become homeowners.

To accomplish this mission and allow

Cusco, Peru Summer Experience Abroad

By Jasmine Patterson

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o you speak Spanish?” “Are you fluent?” I’ve been asked these questions countless times. As a Spanish major, I’m expected to be able to speak the language. While I know that my proficiency is advanced and one might say that I’m “fluent,” I can’t say that I’m completely confident in my abilities. This summer, I hope this will change as I spend six weeks interning in Cusco, Peru with an organization called ProWorld, which connects volunteers with various service projects throughout the world. I’ll be living with a Peruvian family, eating Peruvian food, immersing in Peruvian culture, and speaking the Spanish language every day.

for future internships within the U.S., as businesses are far more likely to hire experienced interns. Additionally, my graduate school application will be much more competitive as a result of my internship.

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oth language skills and experience in speech pathology are invaluable tools that I look forward to gaining this summer. However, for me, the most exciting part of this future endeavor is the impact I’ll make on those in need. I’ll be putting all of my energy into helping, assisting, and being a friend for children who were born with disabilities. Although it’s s an intern with ProWorld, I’ll work with children easy for me to get caught up in the chaos of my own life, with disabilities who are undergoing various types I truthfully feel the most at peace when I’m outside of of rehabilitation, but specifically those in need of speech my comfort zone serving others instead of serving myself. pathology. After I graduate from UNC Charlotte, I I’ve been blessed through the Levine Scholars Program in plan to attend graduate school for speech pathology. My countless ways, and I have an obligation to give back. This experience shadowing and working one-on-one with speech summer, I’ll be giving a lot but getting a lot more back pathologists will undoubtedly help me to achieve my career undeniably a win-win situation. goals. This experience will open up many opportunities Page 5

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Levine Mentors at James Martin Middle School

By Samantha Creasy and Matthew Kesler

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ver the past year, Levine Scholars have enjoyed working with the eighth grade Leadership students at James Martin Middle School. On a weekly basis we meet with the class of 20 middle school students with the goal of further developing their life skills and leadership qualities. Through our mentorship of them and their friendships with us, we have helped each other grow.

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ast semester, with the guidance of the Levine Scholars Program, the eighth graders completed a community outreach project. After working together to brainstorm an idea, the students decided to have a coat drive to benefit Charlotte’s Crisis Assistance Ministry. The event was a success with over one hundred coats collected! Seeing how proud the students were after donating the collected coats made us thankful for the opportunity to be a part of their efforts.

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e also worked with the Leadership students on their North Carolina role model project. Watching the students gain inspiration from influential leaders in the Charlotte community, rather than today’s actors, athletes, and musicians, was exciting. Each student created a presentation on their respective role models

to share with the rest of their class. We hope that the students benefited immensely from learning about these philanthropists who worked, or are working, toward improving our local community.

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his spring, we’re continuing our work with the Leadership class by reading and discussing the book “The Other Wes Moore.” As we read of the struggles that the two young men in the book have experienced, we are given the opportunity to discuss with the students the impact of life choices. After reading the book, the students, along with the LSP freshmen, will create a video project.

These “One Minute Memoirs” will serve as the Leadership class’s message to incoming sixth graders at James Martin Middle School.

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any of the Levine Scholars have enjoyed working with the eighth graders so much that they are beginning to offer individual mentorships outside of the leadership class. We are thankful to Mr. Ayinde Rudolph, principal of James Martin Middle, and Ms. Jennifer Campbell, teacher of the Leadership class, for allowing us to work with these students.

We have truly enjoyed getting to know and assist them in making a difference in their school, in their community and within themselves.

Hendrick Motorsports Summer Internship

By Jon Wainwright ince the fifth grade it has been my dream to be an engineer on a NASCAR race team. Now, nine years later and as a rising junior in college, that dream will be coming true. This summer I will be interning as an engineer at Hendrick Motorsports, the best team in NASCAR. A stone’s throw from Charlotte Motor Speedway, I’ll be in Charlotte this summer having the time of my life (maybe even better than backpacking in Wyoming the first year).

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o, I’m not joining the pit crew and traveling to the races every week. For the most part I will be working in the 5-24 shop (the building that houses Kasey Kahne’s and Jeff Gordon’s cars) in a cubicle Page 6

working with three other people. We’ll be designing new parts and running them through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and other stress analysis simulations.

Also, I will be spending a little time in the aerodynamics department with their full-scale wind tunnel, hopefully getting to participate in a few tests.

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his summer will give me a crystal clear view as to what it will be like to work as an engineer in NASCAR. As a student studying mechanical engineering with a motorsports concentration, this will be the best judgment on whether or not NASCAR is right for me.

Either way, this is an unbelievable opportunity and I cannot wait for summer to get here.

Berlin

By Jacob Huffman

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n Berlin there are three things you must remember: First, the German language. Second, don’t give money to strangers who ask you for money. Third, that Mercedes you see hurtling at you? Yes, that Mercedes is real, do not step out in front of it. Once you’ve got those down, you’re all set. Well, actually it would be helpful to have a map of the transit system as well. After that you’re

and a half in my brief 19 years of existence. Not only were our 12 hour days educational from a historical context, but from a social perspective as well.

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here are so many personal aspects about my day to day life that I have become more aware of as a result of the trip. For instance, one day while in Germany, we were a little lost far out in the neighborhoods of East Berlin, where the Soviets established their anti-western regime. I remember this look of absolutely pure hatred a man on the S-Line gave us, a man who was certainly living in East Berlin prior to the fall of the wall, and feeling for the only time during my trip legitimately afraid. Of course now I can laugh at that experience, and safely say that no dirty look an American could give me now will ever compare to that one. What a classic hairy eyeball it was, I mean like Yeti hairy, the hairiest of hairy eyeballs.

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Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany as much of a Berliner as you’ll ever become! Unless you want to fill yourself with a jelly cream and glaze the outside of your body. This, of course, is a reference to President Kennedy’s beautiful 1963 speech in which he referred to himself as a “Berliner”. Technically the phrase “Ich bin ein Berliner” is correct, however through those strange grammar quirks that every language has, this also means “I am a jelly doughnut”.

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nd, after struggling to converse with so many of the people we encountered in a different language, I’ve come to appreciate how effortless and fortunate I am when I need to converse with someone in English. If I can walk up to a German and ask them a question in an unfamiliar tongue with confidence, there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t do the same here. Both the constant feeling of being an outcast in society, and the difficulties of adjusting to interaction in a different language have put many things in perspective for me.

uring my recent study abroad trip to Berlin, I did not consume a Berliner, the doughnut type or the person type, because that’s cannibalism, and it is frowned upon in most societies. I did, however, visit many historic and cultural sites such as The Brandenburg Gate, The Tiergarten, The Bundestag, KaDeWe, and Sanssouci Palace with Dr. Paul Youngman and 12 other students from UNC Charlotte. I haven’t ever had a more culturally enriching week The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany

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ollowing this experience in Germany, I look forward to what I’ll learn about the United Kingdom, as well as about myself next year as I study abroad at Lancaster University. I also plan to return to Germany in the summer following my junior year as I study with the Goethe Institute. For these expeditions, as any good traveler does, I plan to set up a travel blog, where hopefully I can give a little more detail about my adventures than this brief article has allowed.

Until then, remember: The German language, your money is YOUR money, and do you see that car? It’s real.

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9201 University City Boulevard Charlotte, NC 28223

Expanding Our Horizons: The USPAA Scholar Summit

as amazed by the striking similarities

By Cassady Schulte that fostered a unique sense of n a sunny weekend in March, three of my fellowship among Levine peers from the sophomore class, the the students. We Director, Dr. Zablotsky, and Associate Director, were able to offer Kelley Shealy, headed to Clemson University advice on how to attend the very first Undergraduate Scholars to encourage Program Administrators Association (USPAA) consistent student Christina, Caroline, Celia and Cassady Scholar Summit. The conference included involvement in Levine Class of 2014 scholarship recipients from the Park Scholars Program program activities at NC State University and Ithaca College, the Eugene (by offering free food - we are college students, after all!), McDermott Scholars Program at the University of Texas while receiving valuable suggestions on developing a at Dallas, the Manasseh Cutler Scholars Program at Ohio legacy for each class of scholars. In addition, we discussed University, and many others. As the youngest program in effective ways to deal with our increasing size as we attendance, we were eager to meet and collaborate with prepare to welcome a new class of scholars in the fall. students from other scholarship programs.

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hroughout the conference, we managed to have a he Scholar Summit aimed to bring together students great deal of fun and form lasting relationships with of undergraduate scholars programs from across the students who share our passion to make a difference in United States to exchange ideas, advice, and perspective our programs, on our campuses, and in our communities. on topics such as leadership, service, legacy, and Even after returning to our respective citizenship. We addressed campuses, we have continued to be a these issues through lively resource for one another and share ideas discussions, thoughtand suggestions for making our scholarship provoking activities, and programs more successful. The students simply by getting to know of the Levine Program returned from the one another throughout Scholar Summit with all of these benefits the conference. We and, additionally, we brought back with were intrigued by the us a newfound sense of belonging among differences that we some of the most prestigious undergraduate discovered between scholars programs in the nation.

USPAA Scholar Summit Attendees our programs, as well

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