College of the Liberal Arts Electronic Magazine, Issue 4

Issue 4, 1/21/02

Contents

Students and Scholarships

Africana Research Center

LIBERAL ARTS AND THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

    With core departments including history, English, philosophy, speech communication, psychology, and sociology, it may come as a surprise that the College of the Liberal Arts’ largest source for research funding is the National Science Foundation (NSF).
    It’s not so surprising when one considers the social science departments in the College—anthropology, sociology, economics, political science and psychology, to name a few—are some of the most well regarded programs in the country. Many of their lead researchers look for answers to such questions as: how does the brain work? As we gather more and more information on genetics, what are the effects and possible uses of such knowledge? Do gender and race significantly impact social policies? What are the causes and consequences of war? Are gender roles a chemical or social construction, or both?
    More and more, the means of finding answers to such questions dictate large scale research projects, often involving several investigators and sophisticated equipment and laboratory spaces. Professor Mark Hayward is director of the new Social Science Research Institute. From his standpoint working with a range of social science researchers, he says, “We recognize that addressing complex social problems is not the domain of any one academic discipline. It requires bringing together social scientists from different disciplines.”
    The approach has, time and again, won the College support from the NSF. One of the largest sources of external funding for universities, the NSF has shown an increasing interest in the research projects at Penn State, including such projects as the examination of DNA patterns, the origins of disease and the Black Death, and how behavioral neuroscience determines human behaviors.
    The NSF’s financial assistance to Penn State has grown steadily in recent years. Since 2000, the College of the Liberal Arts received over $4 million in NSF grant money—nearly triple the sum of total NSF receipts of the preceding five years. Many other areas of the College are seeing a rise in the amount of external funding awards as well from a variety of institutions, including the National Institutes of Health. For the College of the Liberal Arts, such funding illustrates the growing national and global significance of our faculty’s work.

A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY

    In the last several issues of LAzine, readers have no doubt noticed the stories of Liberal Arts students. The College is, of course, proud of what students accomplish here. Today’s interesting students are tomorrow’s successful alumni, and perhaps the next best thing to happen to your business or in your field. But that is not the only reason we have chosen to highlight so many students.
    In recent years, thanks to the enormous success of A Grand Destiny: The Penn State Campaign, our alumni and friends have helped us quintuple the amount of scholarship support available to talented and deserving Liberal Arts undergraduates. Six years ago, we had only $70,000 in annual scholarship funds which we divided among around 200 recipients. For the 2001-2002 academic year, the College awarded $350,000 in scholarships and awards to over 400 students.
    Astute readers might have already done the math, noting that the average scholarship student receives around $875. It may not seem like much when Penn State tuition hovers around $7,000 for in-state students. However, for virtually every recipient, the amount makes a difference in their lives.
    For Jennifer Gianfalla (at right), support came from the College of the Liberal Arts Alumni Society Endowed Scholarship, which enabled her to be one of only three undergraduates to present original research at this year’s Novus Et Antiquus, the annual national conference of The Committee for the Advancement of Early Studies. In fall 2001, Jennifer (the youngest person at the conference) made her professional debut presenting a paper on Chaucer. Jennifer had the added pressure of reading long passages in Middle English—essentially a second language. “I was surprised afterwards,” she recalls, “when so many grad students and professors spoke to me about how well I read the work. I can hardly remember doing it.”

    Support . meant a different thing to Italian major Blythe Warns (at left). Her father was unemployed for over eight months last year. The family struggled to ensure Blythe remained in school. Fortunately, she was awarded the Theodore H. and Dorothy E. Kerry Memorial Scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts, funded by alumnus Alan Kerry. Even though her award was for $1200, it made a huge difference. “It gave a little breathing room,” she recalls.
    Receiving the scholarship was not the only way her life was changed. Blythe had always assumed she would be a history or English major, because she excelled in those areas in high school. “I took Italian on a whim,” she says, “and I was good at it. After my first class, the department head sent me a letter because I did well, and asked that I consider an Italian major.” Blythe declared herself an Italian major last semester. She says, “There are so many options for language majors that people don’t realize. You could work in international politics, government, business, teaching—all sorts of things.”
    While the College has made great strides in the support it has to offer undergraduates, we still lag behind competitors who have as much as $1 million per year to award to many more students. With a year and a half left in the campaign, there is still the opportunity to help the College support our best and brightest.

NITTANY LION BASKETBALL

Join other alumni and their families for a great wintertime event as the Nittany Lions take on the Golden Gophers from the University of Minnesota. The fourth annual pre-game reception sponsored by the Liberal Arts Alumni Society features a hearty brunch, prize drawings, and updates from Liberal Arts Dean Susan Welch and Athletic Director Tim Curley.

* Just $15 for game and brunch ($20 for non-members)
* Free for children under 16

Saturday, February 23, 2002, Bryce Jordan Center, Brunch at 10:30 a.m. Tip-off at 12:15 p.m.

LET US KNOW . . .

    We received quite a few replies to the career advice question in the last LAzine from alumni in a variety of fields and with graduation years from the late 90’s to the 50’s. We are sharing these leads and bits of advice with students at upcoming career events, on the Web, and through e-mail. Thank you for helping current students recognize and understand their Liberal Arts skill sets and more importantly communicate them—package them—for effective job hunting.
    You tested the limits as a young adult and you probably did a good bit of growing up while at Penn State. Maybe you did a few things you regret; hopefully there are a few things of which you are very proud. Did you climb Mt. Nittany while you were here? Did you sample every Creamery ice cream flavor? Did you form any lasting bonds with teachers? Participate in new clubs or other extra-curriculars? Did you study too much and play too little? Or was the reverse true? How did you strike a balance?
    What advice do you have for current students for making the most of their time at Penn State, for learning and growing, for immortalizing their college days? Again, we’ll share the results and look forward to hearing from you.

CIVIL WAR ERA CENTER HISTORIAN IN PBS DOCUMENTARY

    History professor Carol Reardon could probably tell you most anything you’d like to know about the American Civil War. A scholar in residence in the Richards Civil War Era Center, an adjunct faculty member for the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and director of graduate studies for Penn State’s history department, Reardon was still surprised when the producers of PBS called her for a two-hour PBS documentary entitled “West Point.”
    The documentary catalogues the history and development of West Point over the last two hundred years. Thomas Jefferson signed legislation establishing West Point, envisioning it as primarily an engineering school, with its graduates to repay the nation for their education by serving as commissioned officers in the U.S. Army. After their military careers, however short or long they were, these men then would return to their communities and contribute to their development by helping to design dams, roads, bridges, canals, and, later, railroads for the rapidly expanding nation. Over the years, however, West Point also built a strong reputation as a school for soldiers. Though the spectrum of course offerings and academic majors has broadened significantly over the last two hundred years, West Point still requires its cadets to take courses in engineering.
    Reardon, who will contribute her knowledge of the Military Academy’s role in the Civil War, spent the 1999-2000 academic year as a Visiting Professor of History at West Point and enjoyed it very much. About the special, she remains the consummate educator. Especially in these times of international crisis, Reardon says, “We can educate a wide audience about West Point’s history and contributions to our nation over the last two-hundred years.” In this way, perhaps, we may gain a greater understanding of the role that the military has played throughout America’s development domestically as well as militarily.
    The documentary will air nationally on Wednesday, January 30, at 9 p.m. It will air the same day locally, on WPSX at 10 p.m., and it will repeat on Sunday, February 3, at 8 p.m.

DO YOU KNOW?

For this issue, the trivia question is multiple choice:

A faculty member in Penn State’s English department later went on to author which of these best-selling books? a. The Status Seekers; b. First Blood; c. Speak for the Dead; d. Catch-22

We will provide the answer next time, and a prize to the first person to send us the correct answer, including the name of the person who wrote the book.
In the last issue, we asked during what decade did Liberal Arts become the second largest school in the Pennsylvania State College? Unfortunately, no one came up with the correct answer. According to Mike Bezilla’s Penn State: An Illustrated History, Liberal Arts became the second largest school in the Pennsylvania State College in the 1920s, and the largest by the 1930s. It remained so until the 1950s, when Penn State’s change from College to University effected a reorganization of colleges, schools, and departments.

DISPATCH FROM MANCHESTER: LEARNING THE LINGO

The following is an excerpt from the first in a series of dispatches from Jeremy Cooke, an undergraduate American Studies major from Erdenheim, Pa., who is among forty Penn State students spending a semester in England to study communications and economics at the University of Manchester. Cooke receives the Hintz Honors Scholars Endowment in the College of the Liberal Arts, funded by Edward and Helen Skade Hintz.

“MANCHESTER, U.K.—Avoid dodgy blokes loitering around cashpoints after dark. Try not to get too wellied, so that you’ll be able to mind the couple snogging on your way to the loo. Crossing the thoroughfare, look right, then left. Oh, and the crummy weather? Sod it. It gets better.
    “There’s an education to be had here in the pub and the flat as well as the classroom, as shown by such tips. For less than a week, we have been getting our bearings in one of England’s largest cities, and we’ve already started tackling one of our most informal and amusing assignments—learning the British slang of the day.
    “Dozens of Penn State undergraduates study abroad each semester in countries that test the skills they gathered in any number of foreign language classes. But even we have to find our way around new words and phrases—albeit simpler ones—if we are to have any hope of rising from the level of befuddled American to honorary Mancunian.
    “So learning about suspicious strangers at ATMs and affectionate Brits in hazy bars becomes almost as valuable as understanding public service broadcasting and the British labor movement.”

This dispatch originally ran in the January 10 Penn State Newswire. Jeremy will be sending four more dispatches over the coming weeks. To read the full version of this dispatch, or to see the others, visit the dispatch site. To learn more about Penn State Newswire, visit the newswire site.

AFRICANA RESEARCH CENTER AWARDS FIRST RESEARCH GRANTS

    This fall, the College’s newest research initiative, the Africana Research Center, opened its metaphorical doors. Inaugural director Roy Austin was promptly whisked away to diplomatic service, serving as the Bush administration’s ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. Cary Fraser, assistant professor of African and African American studies, is now the center’s director.
    Late last semester, the Center awarded its first research grants. In so doing, the Center sought to fund research which helped forward the Center’s overall mission of promoting “research and scholarship that will advance the historical and contemporary understanding and enhancement of the lives of African Americans, Africans and Afro-Caribbean peoples.”
    Among the projects accorded support are a conference on the globalization of African American culture and art; a documentary project entitled, Separate But Unequal: The Public School Education of Black Children in America Before and After Brown v The Board of Education; an exhibition of photographic prints at the Palmer Museum of Art; support for the African American Read-In; and a study of the effect of Medicaid insurance type on racial disparities in access to AIDS treatment. The grants are supporting work across several Penn State campuses and colleges, as well as across the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
    Says Center director, Cary Fraser, “These initial awards will, I think, encourage faculty and students at Penn State to engage in research and outreach that will help to widen the reach of the institution and strengthen its impact across the entire state. Just as important, the projects will open conversations within the University community about ways to improve the curriculum and climate for all students.”
    Fraser’s research focuses upon American foreign policy, the civil rights movement, the contemporary Caribbean, and the history of international relations 1870 to the present. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University, the University of Maryland, Princeton University, and the University of Rochester and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He teaches African American history in the twentieth century and the history of American foreign policy, and this spring will be one of several plenary speakers at “Ethics: the Inaugural Symposium,” the first national conference of Penn State’s new Rock Ethics Institute.