Carlow University Softball Team Wins Conference Title, Finishes Third at USCAA Championship

The Carlow University Celtics softball team completed its best season in history by winning the conference championship, the NAIA unaffiliated conference qualifying tournament, and finishing in third place at the USCAA National Softball Championships in Akron, Oh.

The Carlow University Celtics were the American Mideast Conference Champions this season, and finished with a record of 36-14, more than doubling their best win total in any previous season.

Carlow won its first two games in the USCAA tournament before dropping two games on Wednesday, May 16, 2012, to finish in third place overall. Carlow lost to eventual national champions, Spalding University, in the first game, 4-3, and was defeated by St. Mary’s of the Woods, the national runner-up, 8-0, in the nightcap.

The disappointing ending did little to diminish the excellent season the softball team had this year. The Celtics finished with a record of 36-14—more than doubling their greatest victory total ever in a season—and achieved several conference honors in the process.

Shortstop Shelby Rodgers, a junior from New Castle, Pa.; leftfielder Meghan Dulaney, a junior from Monaca, Pa.; and pitcher Emily Pritts, a first year student from Beaver Falls, Pa., were all first team selections for the American Mideast Conference post-season honors. Kaysie Young, a sophomore from Leechburg, Pa.; Samantha Kemock, a junior from Colver, Pa.; and Melissa Costantini, a junior from Steubenville, Oh., received second team honors. Junior Rachel Blonski from Ambridge, Pa.; and sophomore Taylor Sirko, from Aliquippa, Pa., earned honorable mention recognition.

Pritts was also named Freshman of the Year, and head coach Bob Sirko earned Coach of the Year honors.

Core Value: Student Progress

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Carlow University awarded more than 300 academic degrees at its Spring Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.

A total of 215 undergraduate degrees and 99 graduate degrees—including two doctoral degrees—were awarded.

Laura Ellsworth, partner-in-charge of the Pittsburgh office of the international law firm Jones Day was the commencement speaker. Ellsworth also received an honorary degree presented by Dr. Mary Hines.

The student address was given by Michelle Leibach, who received her bachelor’s degree in nursing. Leibach, from Allentown, Pa., and a Rose Marie Beard Women of Spirit® Honors Scholar, received Carlow’s highest academic honor, the Joseph G. Smith Award. Leibach excelled in the classroom and traveled to Africa twice, where she volunteered in a clinic in Tanzania and an orphanage in Kenya.

In keeping with Carlow tradition, the day began with a Baccalaureate Mass celebrated by the Most Reverend David Zubik, bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, at St. Paul Cathedral.

“All of your studies and the concepts your professors have taught you result in you coming to understand what is wisdom,” Bishop Zubik told the graduates. “Wisdom is having the mind and heart of God.”

Core Value: Student Progress

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Social Work Students and Faculty Advocate for the Rights, Privileges, and Protection of the Social Work Profession

Ten Carlow social work majors traveled with Carlow professor and chair of the Social Work department, Sheila Roth, PhD, LCSW; and assistant professor Marsha Frank, PhD, LSW; to Harrisburg on March 27, 2012 for Social Work Legislative Advocacy Day.

Carlow social work students and faculty in the Capitol building in Harrisburg. Back row: Kerry Paustenbach, Christine Schirra, Yvonne Griffin, Deborah McCarthy, Shelia Roth, Marsha Frank, Heather Kaseroski, Alexa Aragona, Danah Richter, and Darlene Hart. Front row: Everlena Isaiah and Alyce Moore.

Joining more than 500 social work students from across the state, the Carlow contingent met with legislators to advocate for Senate Bill 922.

“Senate Bill 922 is for the creation of practice protection for all social workers and licensure for bachelor-level social workers in the Commonwealth,” says Roth.

“At the present time, 43 states and the District of Columbia have practice protection. This bill is about ensuring the public is protected when receiving the array of services that social workers offer, which can range from direct practice to community organization to client advocacy.”

Organized by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Carlow faculty and students participated in scheduled visits with legislators, attended committee meetings, and sat in on a House session. The day ended with a rally in the main Capitol rotunda.

Core Value: Leadership and Student Progress

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Joseph Bathanti, a writer from Pittsburgh and a mentor for Carlow Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing students, has won the 2013 Mary Frances Hobson Prize. As part of the prize, Bathanti is invited to participate in the nineteenth annual Mary Frances Hobson Lecture to be held on the Chowan University campus in April 2013.

Joseph Bathanti

“We are so happy for Joseph and feel extra pride that he is among our MFA mentors,” says Ellie Wymard, PhD, director of Carlow’s MFA in Creative Writing Program.

Initiated in 1995 by the Hobson Family Foundation of San Francisco, the award serves as a memorial to Mary Frances Hobson (1912-1993), a journalist and poet, who was the first woman to receive the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award in journalism from the University of North Carolina. The purpose of the Mary Frances Hobson Lecture and Prize is to recognize distinguished achievement in the field of arts and letters.

Bathanti received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of four books of poetry: Communion Partners, Anson County, The Feast of All Saints, and This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award, and won the 1997 Oscar Arnold Young Award from The North Carolina Poetry Council for best book of poems by a North Carolina writer. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001 by Banks Channel Books in Wilmington, N.C. His novel, Coventry, winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award, was published by Novello Festival Press in the fall of 2006. His collection of short stories, The High Heart, winner of the 2007 Spokane Prize, was published by Eastern Washington University Press in fall 2007.

Bathanti’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in Manhattan Poetry Review, The Nebraska Review, Carolina Quarterly, America, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Louisiana Literature, The Sun, The Texas Review, California Quarterly, Studies in Short Fiction, Southern Humanities Review, South Dakota Review, Kentucky Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Poetry Review, The Hollins Critic, Tar River Poetry, South Carolina Review, and many others.

Bathanti is professor of creative writing and co-director of the Visiting Writer Series at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.

He will add the Mary Frances Hobson Prize to his many other honors and awards including a literature fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council; the Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period; a fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry; the Bruno Arcudi Literature Prize; the Ernest A. Lynton Faculty Award for Professional Service and Academic Outreach; the Aniello Lauri Award for Creative Writing; the Linda Flowers Prize; the Sara Henderson Hay Prize; the 2002 Sherwood Anderson Award, and others.

Core Value: Leadership

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Carlow Transfer Students Lobby in Harrisburg to Preserve State Funding for Higher Education

Carlow University students Josh Allenberg, Melinda Ward, and Ky-Asia Colter and Allyson Lowe, PhD, chair of the political science department at Carlow, spent a day in Harrisburg on Tuesday, May 1, where they lobbied on behalf of Carlow University and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP) for the Commonwealth’s House of Representatives to preserve student and institutional grants that enhance access to higher education.

All three Carlow students are transfer students and recipients of grants from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). “Many Carlow University students receive PHEAA funding, so this is an issue that is close to their hearts and financial aid awards,” says Lowe. “They are eager to be advocates for preserving state funding.”

PHEEA funding is especially important to transfer students. “PHEAA funding attaches to the student, so it goes with them when they change schools,” says Lowe. “That portability is important for Carlow and also for the student—there are no gaps in their support.”

Once they arrived in Harrisburg, Lowe and the students had a briefing with AICUP’s vice president of government relations, Mary Young. Young prepared the students for meetings with the individual representatives and talked with them about careers in government and advocacy.

Lowe and the students then met with State Representatives Dan Frankel (D-23rd District, Squirrel Hill) and Jake Wheatley (D-19th District, Hill District). The two of them represent Carlow (and most Pittsburgh students), making PHEAA funding a central issue. The state budget is negotiated in the spring, so talking with legislators as they return to the budget process is especially timely.

“It’s important for them to hear from constituents about the personal impacts of potential changes to PHEAA funding,“ says Lowe.

PHEAA funding is important for Carlow because of additional Institutional Assistance Grants (IAG) that universities with high populations of PHEAA students receive. “It’s part of our mission to maintain our funding levels” says Lowe. “Cuts to IAGs have a direct effect on Carlow.”

Allenberg, a first-year adult student and military veteran studying political science and pre-law, talked with the representatives about how PHEAA combined with his GI bill to support his education. He told them that because he is also the parent of a young child and must work, the combination of grants is essential to balancing a successful return to school with family responsibilities.

Ward, a senior sociology major who graduated on May 12, talked about the portability of PHEAA and how it enabled her to finish her degree at a school that challenged her and allowed her to take advantage of opportunities, such as internships and AmeriCorps.

“It was important for me to tell the representatives about how PHEAA and working part-time helped me take advantage of programs that enhanced my education,” says Ward. “Taking away or reducing that funding for future students means fewer opportunities to gain that real-world experience that employers value.”

Colter, a junior majoring in political science, talked about how she uses PHEAA in combination with extensive federal funding and her two jobs while maintaining a full-time course load. “PHEAA funding is imperative for those of us with no family financial support for college,” says Colter. “Any cuts or reductions would have a huge impact for me.”

Allenberg, Ward, and Colter will continue to follow up with the state representatives with letters and e-mails, skills that were cultivated in their majors. They also talked with Wheatley about staying in touch with social media like Facebook and Twitter, which, Lowe says, makes the next steps in civic engagement easy. For example, some of the students “friended” their representative through Facebook to receive updates and exchanged “tweets” via Twitter after their visit.

Core Value: Leadership and Student Progress

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Because rhetoric often spans anywhere from humorous to vicious, it helps to have a thick skin if you are interested in entering the political arena.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright knew this well, and sometimes used her jewelry to respond to critics or enemies. For example, in 1994, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi press referred to the then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN) as an “unparalleled serpent.” Albright chose a unique way to respond to her Iraqi critics when she wore a gold snake brooch to her next meeting about Iraq at the UN.

“Jewelry had become part of my personal diplomatic arsenal,” wrote Albright. In her career, first as UN ambassador and later as secretary of state, she encountered many opportunities like the Iraq example to allow her pins and jewelry to speak for her.

Many of Albright’s pins were on display at “Read my Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection,” which was at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh from January through March. The undergraduate students in the “Women and Politics” class—taught by Allyson Lowe, PhD, associate professor and chair of the department of political science, and Sandie Turner, PhD, professor in professional leadership—made a point of visiting the display.

It was more than an opportunity for a trip to the museum, however. Lowe and Turner challenged their students to make their own pins that would reveal something to others about themselves.

“Our students made up their own posters with a pin or other accessory that tells a story about their passion, their profession, or their purpose,” said Turner. “The posters are very good and tell a lot about our students, where they come from, what matters to them.”

The posters were displayed in the glass cases outside of the Wherrett Board Room for a few weeks.

Core Value: Sacredness of Creation

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Carlow Professors Help Facilitate Virtual Field Trip to Andy Warhol Museum for Students in Pittsburgh and Northern Ireland

A recent exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh that featured photographs of children with autism inspired Carlow School of Education faculty members to collaborate on a virtual field trip project connecting two classrooms of students with autism in a new and exciting way.

Students at Belmont School in Northern Ireland watch intently as Nicole Dezilon, associate curator of education at the Warhol Museum and a Carlow art education adjunct professor, guides them through the “About Face” exhibit the Andy Warhol Museum on Monday, April 30, 2012.

On Monday, April 30, 2012, Susan O’Rourke, EdD, chair of Carlow’s special education program and coordinator of the instructional technology certification program; Nicole Dezilon, associate curator of education at the Warhol Museum and a Carlow art education adjunct professor; and Marie Martin, EdD, C2K advisor, who resides in Omagh, Northern Ireland, and is also a distant adjunct professor at Carlow; facilitated the virtual field trip using iPads and the latest video conferencing technology.

Here’s how it worked: a class of high school students with autism from Woodland Hills invited their video pals from Belmont School in Derry, Northern Ireland, to join them on a field trip to view the “About Faces” exhibit that was on display at the Warhol Museum. The Woodland Hills students were physically at the Warhol Museum and were guided by Dezilon, while the Ireland students watched the trip as a projection on a screen in their classroom. Filmed on an iPad2 and broadcast in real-time, Dezilon and the two groups of students were able to interact throughout the entire field trip.

“[Dezilon] was an absolute star on video conferencing,” says O’Rourke. “She managed the challenges of the two audiences seamlessly and provided teachers with wonderful lessons to prepare for the event ahead of time and then led our group through the museum with a natural grace for working with this very challenging population.”

The “About Faces” exhibit features three-dimensional, large-format photographs, which are fixed open at a 55-degree angle, and mounted directly to the gallery walls. From one perspective the viewer sees only a neutral portrait of the student, while from the other angle one views an open spread, which reveals an expressive image of the student and an accompanying emotional motivator. Motivators range from an image of a birthday party to a spider.

“The exhibit is beautifully done and expresses one of the greatest challenges for children with autism—reading facial expressions to determine how an individual is feeling,” says O’Rourke

“We really put the newest technology to the test and think that we came up with a successful design for connecting two classrooms of students with autism. This was really a collaborative effort.”

Others who were integral to the project include Kevin Conner and Tim Devlin of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU3), Jason Coleman and Marcia Mineo of Woodland Hills High School, Paula Kinsella and Caroline Horan from the Belmont School in Northern Ireland, and Michael Knight and John Fafalios of Magpi, the teleconference service used to share and capture the video.

“The trip was truly an amazing experience for all of us—kids and adults alike,” says Martin. “There was a shared sense of wonder and delight. Barriers of time and space were broken, and the unbeatable combination of good teaching and good technology gave us a learning experience to remember. It was an "almost in the same room" experience—a great example of learning as an enjoyable social activity. It was great fun, and good learning took place.”

“I was deeply moved by the interaction that occurred among those present—even though thousands of miles away,” says Marilyn Llewellyn, dean and director of Carlow’s School of Education. “I love the spontaneity and freedom of these young learners. I also love the global collaboration. An encounter like this reminds me why we give our life and energy to the vocation of teaching.”

The virtual field trip was the first of its kind for the Andy Warhol Museum and those who helped make it happen expect it’s success to fuel interest in similar projects.

O’Rourke is working on several other international exchanges, including a Virtual Book Club with Penn Hills School District and Quaker Valley School District in Pittsburgh and St. Mary’s College in Derry, Northern Ireland, and the International Friendships project between the Children’s Institute and Foyle View School.

View the entire virtual field trip here: http://video.magpi.net/videos/video/403/in/channel/4/

Core Value: Leadership and Student Progress

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Students taking chemistry courses at Carlow University will have a new instrument to use this fall, thanks to a grant awarded by The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh through their College Equipment Grants program.

Carlow received $6,000—the maximum award—according to David Gallaher, PhD, an associate professor of chemistry at Carlow, who submitted the grant application, and will be able to purchase a new Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer to replace the University’s current aging instrument.

“Infrared spectroscopy is a fundamental technique in organic chemistry,” said Gallaher. “This type of spectroscopy allows us to determine the molecular structure of unknown molecules or confirm the structure of molecules that we think we have synthesized. FT-IR is one of those techniques that our students undoubtedly encounter after graduation, so having the ability to teach them hands-on is critically important to our program.”

Compared to the current instrument, the new spectrometer features the most modern technology, such as a diode-laser based interferometer and a permanently sealed optical bench, which will allow the instrument to be used in a wide range of harsh environments. In addition, a diamond-based sampling interface allows for the analysis of samples as small as a grain of rice.

“This instrument allows us to expose our students to the most modern techniques and experiments possible,” said Gallaher. The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, along with its sister society, the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering science education in the Western Pennsylvania region. Each year the society provides scholarships and grants to high schools and colleges and universities to further science education in the region.

Core Value: Discovery/Quest

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It's Officially Sssssummer at Carlow
A garter snake, captured on film by Carlow graphic designer, Dwight Chambers, slithers across the sidewalk near the Convent of Mercy on Friday, May 11, 2012.

For upcoming campus events, please visit MyPortal.

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