Layout 1 - Queens University of Charlotte

QUEENS
WINTER 2009
THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS UNIVERSITY OF CHARLOTTE
The Write Stuff
Four graduates of the MFA in
Creative Writing get personal
Also
Men in the School of Nursing
MBA students try art
Research for public education
First women’s golf invitational
A Fulbright Scholar flees Tbilisi
Loyal to the
Royals?
Now you can log onto
www.queensathletics.com
for all the latest updates about
your favorite teams and players:
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Benjamin P. Jenkins III, Chair
Sallie Moore Lowrance ’70,
Vice Chair
Joseph W. Grier, Jr., Chairman
Emeritus and Secretary
Kathryn Winsman Black ’93
Deborah Butler Bryan ’68
Angeline Massey Clinton
EMBA ’01
Marjorie Knight Crane ’90
Elizabeth Rivers Curry ’63
Donna Jones Dean ’73
Frances DeArmon Evans ’59
Mary Elizabeth P. Francis
Sarah Belk Gambrell
Kathryn Taylor Grigg ’87
Irvin W. Hankins III
W. Benjamin Hawfield, Jr.
Lyttleton Rich Hollowell ’67
Lenoir C. Keesler, Jr.
Sean J. Kelly ’93
Judy Moore Leonard ’67
Thomas L. Lewis ’97
Vi Alexander Lyles ’73
Michael Marsicano
Kitty Tilghman McEaddy ’65
A. Ward McKeithen
Bailey Patrick
Keith McKenna Pension ’67
David Pope
A. Alex Porter
Myrta Pulliam ’69
Thomas Reddin
Carol Carson Sloan ’60
C. Brent Trexler, Jr.
F. William Vandiver Jr.
Jo DeWitt Wilson ’59
Manuel L. Zapata
Pamela Davies, ex officio
Ann Hinson ’72, ex officio,
Alumni Association President
Katherine Carman ’09,
Student Liaison to the Board
Trustees Emeriti
Edwin L. Jones, Jr.
Dorothy McAulay Martin ’59
Hugh L. McColl Jr., Chairman
Emeritus
QUEENS MAGAZINE
WINTER 2009
Our new text messaging service
lets you get scores and news
when you can’t make a game
Game schedules and events are
in one centralized spot
Buy personalized Royals gear
and apparel with your own
name and number on the back
Get the latest construction news
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Show your Royals pride and log
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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Rebecca Anderson
704 337-2485
editor@queens.edu
MANAGING EDITOR
Laurie Prince
ART DIRECTOR
Paige Gialanella
FEATURE WRITERS
Jessica Handler ’06
Dr. Michael Kobre
Karon Luddy ’05
Susan Meyers ’03
Peter Reinhart ’08
Susan Shackleford
Ron Stodghill ’07
PHOTOGRAPHER
Chris Edwards
CONTRIBUTORS
Mallory Benz
Shaina Boike ’08
Jamie Curtis
Jennifer Daniel
Jacqueline Groff ’08
Todd Hartung
Sarah Hauck
Ann Hinson ’72
Dr. Kent Anderson Leslie ’64
Beth Levanti
Dr. Eric Lien
Daniel McBrayer ’98
Cheryl Pulliam
Tyler Rauch ’09
Stephanie Stenglein
Andrea Thomas
Bob Woods EMBA ’01
Rebecca Ricketts Yarbrough ’75
PRINTING ON RECYCLED PAPER:
The Queens Magazine is printed on a paper which is 30 percent post-consumer waste fiber and 50 percent total recycled fiber. Elemental chlorine-free
pulps, acid-free and chlorine-free manufacturing conditions meet and
exceed archival standards. Using 10,341 lbs. of paper for this project, here
are the benefits of using post-consumer recycled fiber instead of virgin fiber:
26.06 trees
11,069 gal
1,225 lbs
2,412 lbs
18,458,685 BTUs
www.queensathletics.com
preserved for the future
wastewater flow saved
solid waste not generated
net greenhouse gases prevented
energy not consumed
contents
2
3
10
12
13
16
21
24
Departments
New Faces of Nursing
From the President
IN A PROFESSION DOMINATED BY WOMEN,
THREE STUDENTS MAY SURPRISE YOU
2
13
By Susan Shackelford
Campus News
3
Investing in Queens
10
Happenings
12
The Write Stuff
Alumni News
21
FOUR CREATIVE WRITING GRADS GET
PERSONAL
Parting Thought
24
By Dr. Michael Kobre, Karon Luddy, Ron Stodghill,
Susan Meyers, Peter Reinhart, and Jessica Handler
16
Dr. Michael Kobre, Dana Professor of English and on-campus director of the MFA in Creative
Writing, holds books written by graduates. Photograph by Chris Edwards.
WINTER 2009
On the Cover:
1
F ROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Welcome to the new Queens University of Charlotte Magazine. Over the past several months, we
have been working to bring our many audiences an improved publication that includes information
designed to distinguish Queens as a center for academic excellence and student success. We hope
you enjoy the new design and layout, which truly capture the pulse of the University. e Queens
of today is on the move, and we’re delighted to share our stories with you in a new and exciting way.
Contributing to our momentum are the more than 400 new students who arrived on campus
in August, with record-breaking freshman enrollment and a strong transfer group as well. Couple
this accomplishment with Queens’recent U.S. News & World Report top 20 ranking among master’s
universities in the South, and it’s easy to see that Queens is gaining the recognition it deserves.
We’re building toward becoming a premier comprehensive university in the Southeast.
As Queens strives to raise its profile, it continues to expand its academic programming to address
trends affecting the nation’s workforce, particularly the need for nursing professionals and K-12
teachers. Thanks to Wayland H. Cato, Jr., Queens’ new School of Education recently received
significant funding that will help it produce quality teacher-leaders prepared to excel in the classroom
and beyond. In addition, our Presbyterian School of Nursing is helping advance the nursing
profession through its most recent initiative, the Center for Evidence-Based Nursing Care. e
center allows healthcare professionals to make informed decisions about proper patient care and
enhances nursing care in the Charlotte region. is initiative is the result of a $125,000 grant
made possible by Presbyterian Healthcare, a valued community partner. Queens produces the third
largest number of registered nurses in North Carolina, and we are proud of the growing diversity
among our graduates.
Queens’ many academic programs give students the opportunity to thrive and grow both
personally and professionally. e University’s master of fine arts degree (MFA) in creative writing
is no exception. As you’ll read inside, our MFA graduates have achieved great success after studying
under Queens’ talented faculty members, comprised of accomplished poetry, fiction and non-fiction
writers. As a result, our students’ works have been printed by such renowned publishers as Random
House and Simon & Schuster, and have garnered scholarships, fellowships and nominations to
prestigious creative arts and fine arts centers along the East coast. e student profiles we feature
in this issue will help you to learn more about this unique program that is among the University’s
many gems.
As you can see, Queens is on the move. I encourage you to join us on this exciting journey as
we chart new goals in 2009 that are destined to generate many new successes and milestones.
Best wishes,
Pamela Davies, Ph.D.
President
QUEENS MAGAZINE
The odyssey of the Odyssey: more than a decade of transformation for the University’s magazine.
1997
2
1999
2000
2003
2006
CAMPUS NEWS
Wide World
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
n January 1987, Dr. Bill Thompson
and Dr. Bob Whalen spent a January term traveling in Europe with a
group of 30 Queens students. Although
conditions were more than tough—the
group got stuck on an overnight train behind the Iron Curtain during a blizzard—the experience was incredible.
The students got a hands-on view of culture, history, art and architecture, and as
they talked with locals, their eyes were
opened, from London to Berlin, Venice,
and Budapest. They came back raving
about their experiences, which caught
the attention of then-president Dr. Billy
O. Wireman, an avid traveler.
“Could we do this for all of our students?” he asked Dr. Thompson. “I can
do anything you want if you can get me
the money!” came the reply.
And so, with Dr. Wireman’s commitment to prepare students for global
citizenship, with the support of Hugh
McColl, and with Dr. Thompson’s willingness to take on the task of organizing
such a program, the International Experience Program was born.
Since the first two tours in January
1989, more than 2,500 Queens students
have participated in some 120 international
I
Students explore the Medina al-Zahra on their trip to Spain with Professor Mohammed El-Nawawy (right).
programs in over twenty countries. Thirty
others have taken part in international
internships and almost that many have
spent a semester or year abroad through
special exchange programs in Hong Kong,
Northern Ireland, and Australia.
In April 2000, as the result of a generous gift by John Belk, IEP became the
John Belk International Program. Since
that time, the moniker JBIP has taken
hold and the program continues to prosper and expand. In fact, US News &
World Report recently ranked Queens
second in the nation for the percentage
of students who travel abroad.
Last year, Vietnam and South
Africa were added to the slate of travel
options, and future trips may include
Turkey, Ukraine and Egypt. New destinations continue to challenge and expand the worldview of Queens students.
As Stephanie Fillyaw said after her recent trip to Vietnam, “As a political science major, reading about other countries
is the norm, but having the opportunity
to walk through a ‘living’ history book is
truly rewarding.”
–Dr. Eric Lien, Director, John Belk
International Program
Queens Climbs the Ranks in Two Key Surveys
Enriching Educational
Experiences
NSSE
Queens
75
55.5
50
40.4
34.3
0
First-Year
Senior
Q
The University also climbed three
positions to the number 20 spot among
master’s universities in the South,according
to the 2009 U.S. News & World Report’s
“America’s Best Colleges.”Queens was the
second ranked private university in North
Carolina, behind Elon, and also was recognized as a great value, earning a number
11 ranking in “Best Colleges: Best Values”
for master’s universities in the South.
The new rankings mark the twelfth
consecutive year that Queens has been
ranked in the top tier of schools in the
South in the master’s category, which
includes 118 institutions.
WINTER 2009
27.5
25
ueens University of Charlotte
received high marks from the
2008 National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE), which is sponsored
by The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching.The survey asks
students about five key areas, ranging from
how they view the quality of their interactions with faculty to the degree they have
been challenged academically. Averages for
first-year and senior students at Queens
were higher than the averages for all NSSE
institutions in every category, and nearly all
students surveyed would select Queens if
they had to start over.
(Left): Queens beat the national average in all NSSE categories.
3
CAMPUS NEWS
From Farm to Fiction
Briefly
Noted
QUEENS MAGAZINE
FRIENDS OF MUSIC
CELEBRATES 25TH
CONCERT SEASON
The 2008/2009 season marks the
25th anniversary of the Friends of
Music at Queens, a dedicated group
of music lovers whose mission is to
enhance the quality of musical life
at Queens and in the Charlotte
metropolitan area. For a quarter of a
century, the Friends of Music has
brought outstanding chamber
music concerts and top notch performers, such as the Juilliard String
Quartet, to campus and the community. It also provides educational
outreach programs and supports the
music department through gifts and
fundraising.
4
MCCOLL SCHOOL ADDS
MSOD
In a move that makes it the only
business school in Charlotte to offer
a degree of this type, the McColl
School has added a new master of
science in organization development
(MSOD) to its existing Professional
MBA and Executive MBA lineup.
With its focus on change management, the MSOD program is aimed
at professionals interested in designing and leading organizational
change.
Enrollment for the inaugural
class topped expectations, but according to program director Will
Sparks, that’s really no surprise.
“Today’s business reality is a new reality. Leaders have to learn to thrive
amidst the chaos and uncertainty
brought by changes in technology,
globalization, and most recently, the
financial crisis. The MSOD will
teach them the skills they’ll need to
effectively manage change.”
PHILIPPA GREGORY SHARES
HER WORLD
egaling audiences with lively
accounts of characters from her
historical novels, author Philippa
Gregory spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in
Dana Auditorium on October 9 in a lecture
sponsored by the Learning Society of
Queens, the Friends of the Library at
Queens and Park Road Books. The 54year-old English novelist introduced herself through a slide show featuring her
200-acre farm, marked by ponds created by
her husband. “A new pond appears each
time I go on tour for a book,” she said
amidst laughter. “This large one is ‘The
Other Boleyn Girl.’”
She has written two dozen books since
the 1980s, after she earned a Ph.D. in eighteenth-century literature from Edinburgh
University. During the lecture, Gregory
brought to life many of the characters of
Tudor England, including those in her most
recent novel, “The Other Queen,” about
Mary Queen of Scots. Showing slides of
the imprisoned queen’s famous needlework,
Gregory revealed the subversive nature of
her “rebellious embroidery.” A fat cat was
symbolic of her cousin Elizabeth’s dominance, a fruitless vine of the virgin queen’s
childlessness.Through readings and historical references, Gregory gave voice to the
major players in one of the most intriguing
periods of English history. Numerous questions by students at microphones following
the lecture proved that English history remains a subject of spirited interest on both
sides of the Atlantic.
R
Phyllis Pharr
PHYLLIS PHARR WINS
HUNTER-HAMILTON LOVE
OF TEACHING AWARD
For more than four decades, tennis
coach and physical education professor Phyllis Pharr has been touching
the lives of her students at Queens.
This year Coach Pharr was formally
recognized for her service to the
Queens community as the winner of
the 2008 Hunter-Hamilton Love of
Teaching Award, a special annual
award that honors a Queens teacher
whose way of life inspires the full potential of his or her students and who
displays an exemplary love of teaching.
In proclaiming her the winner,
President Pamela Davies said,
“Phyllis Pharr has been the heart
and soul of Queens athletics, and
today it is fitting that we honor your
extraordinary teaching, your dedicated coaching, and your commitment to finding a way to help
everyone succeed, in sports and in
life.”
NEW DEAN FOR SCHOOL
OF COMMUNICATION
Media veteran Van King has joined
Queens as the dean of the new
School of Communication. He has
worked in virtually every aspect of
newspaper publishing, beginning as
an award-winning reporter and editor, and retiring in 2004 as the president and publisher of the News &
Record in Greensboro, N.C. King
was also an early innovator on the
Internet, helping to establish an online presence for the News &
Record in 1994, long before many
other news organizations recognized
the importance of the new medium.
Philippa Gregory spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at
the October 9 Learning Society event.
CAMPUS NEWS
Car Talk
A SUMMER BLOG SENDS ME
TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE
by Tyler Rauch, ’09
blog can be defined as an electronic way to express ideas,
opinions or beliefs. Blogs can be
for business or leisure and have no real
restrictions regarding content. They are
not, however, considered one-way tickets to the office of the president and
CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Allow me to explain. This summer,
while interning at the world headquarters of Ford Finance in Dearborn, Mich.,
I received a personal invitation from the
president and CEO of Ford to come into
his office so he could thank me for my
optimism despite the company’s current
state.
He had read my blog. It was a continuation of a student blog that I write
for the admissions office at Queens, updating prospective students on what the
life of a Queens student entails. In it I
shared my thoughts and feelings about
interning for an American icon that’s
never been more vulnerable. Where few
gave Ford credit or any hint of optimism,
A
(Left to right): Gayle Jones Smith ’08, Jennifer
Smith Daniel ’08 and Mary Smith Isaacs ’07.
The Hayworth Path
By Jennifer Daniel ’08
Y
ou know the old expression, “like
mother, like daughter”? Well, in
my family it goes more like this:
I couldn’t say enough about the way Ford
had changed my life.
With the help of Google Alerts and
a little luck, my blog happened to find its
way onto the screen of the head honcho
himself. Forty minutes and one phone
call later, I was sitting in the chair of
Ford Motor Company President and
CEO Alan Mulally.
It’s only fitting to redefine a blog as
a chance to turn ordinary situations into
extraordinary opportunities.
“Like mother, like daughter, like other
daughter.” It applies to my family because we have all graduated or will graduate from Hayworth College at Queens
University of Charlotte.
My mother, Gayle Jones Smith, was
the first to attend Queens. She began
higher education in 1996 after she had
two grown children and a busy newspaper career. Cautious but excited, she
took one class at a time to see if Hayworth (or as it was then called, The New
College) would be a good fit for her.
When a career change required her to
work in Asheville, the faculty and Hayworth staff came to the rescue with a
plan, and she will graduate in December.
She so thoroughly enjoyed her
classes and experiences that she encouraged me to follow. At the time, I had a
career as a real estate paralegal. Creative
writing drew me in because I fancied
myself the next Harper Lee. After two
writing courses, I ventured into more
mainstream classes. I was graduated in
May 2008 and am currently pursuing a
master’s degree in English literature.
Shortly after relocating to Charlotte
from Boone, my sister, Mary Smith
Isaacs, began to think about finishing her
degree. Not usually one to follow in our
footsteps, she went to talk to the Hayworth staff about attending. Because she
worked full time and was newly married,
she appreciated a schedule that could accommodate her professional and personal
life. She graduated in December 2007.
Each of us came to Queens with
different aspirations. The Queens
motto, “Not to be served, but to serve,”
was embodied by the Hayworth staff
and faculty. They provided us, in unique
ways, the opportunity to complete a
college degree.
Tyler Rauch is a business administration
major. You can read his blog at:
www.queens.edu/admissions/blogs.asp
WINTER 2009
MOM INSPIRES US TO GET BACK
IN SCHOOL
Tyler Rauch with Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally.
5
CAMPUS NEWS
In the Classroom
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
BUSN 670 (MCCOLL SCHOOL MBA ELECTIVE)
he spark for the inaugural Creative
Connections class came during a presentation by Lee Keesler, Jr., as part of
the McColl School’s Leaders in Action lecture
series. Keesler, a former banker and chief
executive of the Arts & Science Council in
Charlotte, talked of a program offered by
the McColl Center for Visual Art that
brings business leaders and artists together,
working in photography and other arts.
McColl School Professor Cathy
Anderson remembers thinking, “We
Dan
could do that!” She realized right away “A Wiel Pink’s book,
hole New
Mind”
how much business students could benefit from discovering their own creative
abilities.
At the core of the class is Daniel Pink’s 2006 book, “A Whole New
Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.” According to Pink,
the future belongs to creative people who are “big picture thinkers,” recognizing patterns and making meaning in the workplace. In an environment of rapid change, Pink asserts that “an MFA is the new MBA.”
The hands-on Creative Connections course was first taught last
summer, and attracted so much interest that students had to be turned
away. Anderson drew on resources and contacts from the local artistic
community to explore the nature and universality of creativity, methods
for cultivating individual creativity, and organizational frameworks for
creative problem-solving. Students discovered that developing a creative
process is a discipline anyone can master, not just artists.
T
Rick Crown teaches students about pottery.
Crowning
Achievement
KING OF CLAY PREPARES TO RETIRE
narrow wall at the entry of Rick
Crown’s office is covered with student art, given to the Queens professor over the course of his 38-year career.
It’s a tribute to the impact this teacher has
had on his students since arriving at what
was then Queens College in 1971. Scattered
around the cluttered room are evidences of
his own work: tiny animals carved from
shells gathered at Edisto Island, four-legged
creatures built from clay that have doglike
faces and intense eyes, and Crown’s signature
pottery vases, tall and beautifully shaped,
with elegant glazes in browns, ochres, and
cobalt blue.
He’ll be leaving Queens for retirement
in May, and in a fond farewell, the Friends
of Art will host a retrospective of his work
March 10-April 20, 2009, at the Max Jackson Gallery in the Watkins Building. The
opening reception will be held in the gallery
on Sunday, March 22, 5-7 p.m.
It’s a fitting tribute to Crown, who
served as the organization’s first treasurer.
Sarah Toy, an artist and art educator who
founded Friends of Art, drafted him to get
involved. “She walked in one day and said,
‘We need a support organization for the art
department.’ And she made it happen.”
In addition to the Spring retrospective, a
pottery and sculpture show, “Old Dog, New
Tricks,”was held in early December.
“Teaching has been more important
than object-making for me,” he says of his
life’s work.
QUEENS MAGAZINE
A
6
PROFESSOR:
Cathy Anderson, former university provost, has taught law and ethics at
Queens for over 20 years. Writing as Cathy Pickens, she is also the
author of “Charleston Mysteries: Ghostly Haunts in the Holy City,” and
the award-winning “Southern Fried Mysteries” series.
SAMPLE READING LIST:
“A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink
“The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius” by Nancy Andreasen
“The Creative Spirit”by Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman and Michael Ray
“If You Want to Write” by Brenda Ueland
ASSIGNMENTS:
• Write at least 1,400 words each week in a creative journal
• Participate in class activities with area artists: cartooning, sketching
(as a class, make a mural using elements from student signatures),
or painting with watercolor. Explore music (take an aptitude test,
paint to music, discuss the meaning and uses of music), use a lathe
for woodturning, try photography, or write poetry.
• Engage in an extended creative project of your own design.
CAMPUS NEWS
An Evening in
Yemen
t the age
of 11,
Khadija
Al-Salami was
told she would
become, against
her will, a wife in
an arranged marriage. Growing Khadija Al-Salami
up in poverty-stricken Yemen, a country
dominated by tribal customs, she was expected to submit. A suicide attempt followed. Thus began her October 22 lecture
in Dana Auditorium, sponsored by The
Norris and Kathryn Preyer Lecture Series.
Al-Salami today, at 42, is an awardwinning film producer and author who
has been able to make peace with her
country. She lives in France, working for
the Yemen embassy while producing independent films that portray the struggles
of women in Middle Eastern societies.
Her riveting personal narrative, delivered
in a heavy accent to an attentive audience,
was followed by a showing of her film, “A
Stranger in Her Own City.”
A
September in Jacksonville: Queens golfers with Coach Handrigan and Assistant Coach Serketich (far
right) at TPC Sawgrass, one of the PGA Tour’s top clubs.
Golfing First
WOMEN’S TEAM HOSTS FIRST INVITATIONAL AT TPC SAWGRASS
ust six years ago, Queens welcomed
the first complete women’s golf
team in the modern era. When
John Handrigan became head
coach last year, he took a major step toward elevating the team’s reputation: he
laid out plans for Queens to host a golf
invitational at a world-class course. In
September, this dream became a reality.
The first Queens Invitational was held
in September at the world renowned
Tournament Players Club Sawgrass
(TPC Sawgrass) in Jacksonville, Fla.
The bar was set high. “Hosting a
tournament brings recognition and exposure to the program, especially hosting
one at a world-class course. To be able to
tell recruits that we host a tournament at
TPC Sawgrass is impressive and persuasive,” says Handrigan. The tournament
raised money for the women’s golf program and promoted Queens in a prestigious venue. The tournament had a field
of 17 teams with 90 total golfers, including 2007 NCAA Team Champion
Florida Southern and Individual Cham-
J
pion Daniela Iacobelli of Florida Tech.
“It gave our players an opportunity
to compete not only at a great facility, but
also against a great field of high quality
teams. Every team is looking for high
quality tournaments and fields to enter
into because it helps its programs as
well,” says Handrigan.
The tournament took place with
only one minor glitch, rain and thunderstorms on the second day. Only the first
round was scored and Stetson won the
title when a fifth player score was needed
to break a tie with Florida Southern.
“Coaches and players who competed this year were impressed with the
venue and organization of this first-class
event,” says Handrigan. “We are hoping
that this event will turn into an annual
tournament. Hopefully, top teams will
continue to try and enter, and that will
improve the integrity of Queens as the
host for such an event.”
—Sarah Hauck, Director of Sports
Information and Event Management
Queens Chamber Singers
Prague & Wrocław
March 5-16, 2009
The Chamber Singers and Charlotte Sister
Cities have partnered for an official visit to our
sister city Wroclaw, Poland.
Each student must raise over $2,000 for the
trip. Please consider making a financial contribution to enable our students to have this
experience.
You may travel with us! Sister Cities has
openings for additional Charlotte travelers
to join this friendship exchange.
For more information, please contact
Ginger Wyrick at 704 337-2269 or
wyrickg@queens.edu.
Brought to you by World Cultural Tours
1-877-218-8687, www.worldculturaltours.com.
CAMPUS NEWS
Campus Construction
If you haven’t visited campus lately, you may have
missed some of the University’s newest additions.
Here’s what we’ve been working on…
NORTH RESIDENCE HALL
Queens’ newest addition, North Residence Hall, is
the University’s first foray into off-campus living
located a half mile from campus on the corner of
Queens Road and Providence Road. It accommodates
more than 70 upper-division students in apartmentstyle units.
QUEENS MAGAZINE
DANA BUILDING
More than 6,000 square feet in the
lower level of the Dana Building,
which were formerly used as storage
space, have been transformed into a
bright and lively new hub for student
and faculty enrichment. Both the
Center for Academic Success and
the Center for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning are housed here.
8
QUEENS SPORTS COMPLEX
Ground was broken in September on the Welcome
Center, a 14,000-square-foot facility with multipurpose
rooms, concessions, and offices for the athletic department. A Hall of Fame will usher visitors through the
building as they make their way to the 500-seat grandstand and championship field beyond. e Field House,
a two-story, 16,000-square-foot building with eight
locker rooms, a press box, and training and weight
rooms for athletes, is also underway. Both facilities will
be open in time for the 2009/2010 school year.
KNIGHT-CRANE CONVERGENCE LAB
e Alpo Franssila and Marjorie Knight Crane
Convergence Laboratory will challenge and
empower students to practice communication
in an age of media convergence, facilitating the
planning, creation and editing of print, audio,
video and Internet communication in a stateof-the-art workspace.
WEST RESIDENCE HALL
Built in the early 1960s, what was
originally known as Wallace Residence Hall was in need of a significant interior renovation and exterior
face lift. e work was conducted
over the course of the summer. Now,
its beautiful Georgian architectural
style is compatible with the other
historic buildings on campus.
CAMPUS NEWS
LOVE OF TEACHING AWARD
Call for Nominations
Improving Public
Education
QUEENS ADDS RESEARCH CENTER
E
–Cheryl Pulliam, Director, Public Education
Research Institute
There is much
undiscovered potential
within each of us, which,
if inspired by the right
teacher, can change
the world.
Clockwise from right: The late Dr.
James Pressly Hamilton, Grey Hunter
Hamilton ’62, daughter Isabel Hamilton
Owen ’92 and son Hunter Hamilton.
WINTER 2009
ach year about 16 percent of CharlotteMecklenburg school teachers leave the
classroom, moving out of state to other
districts, or leaving the profession altogether.
It is estimated that the loss of each of these
1,400 teachers costs the school system $13,000,
for a total price tag of $18,200,000. Perhaps
even more startling, national statistics indicate
that almost half of all teachers who enter the
field leave within five years.
While some turnover is inevitable, high
rates lead to lower student achievement. The
need to lower the rate is a serious challenge, and
it is just the type of issue the newly created
Public Education Research Institute at Queens
will tackle: public education challenges needing
sustainable answers for positive impact.
The institute is a part of the Wayland H.
Cato, Jr. School of Education at Queens
University of Charlotte. “It was begun because
great leaders make data-driven decisions, and
our school and community leaders need a
trusted source for accurate data and objective
analysis to find solutions for real world issues
in public education,” says Dr. Darrel Miller,
dean of the Cato School of Education. “Theoretical answers are just not good enough.”
After working with public schools and
community leaders to frame the challenges, the
institute will seek answers through a variety of
research methods, including analysis of existing research, focus groups, community polling,
and structured observations. Whether studying
current practices or searching for new models,
the institute’s mission will be to improve educational outcomes in public schools.
The Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award seeks out and
honors those teachers who uniquely inspire the potential of students. This award is given to a Queens faculty member by his or
her peers for having displayed an exemplary love of teaching.
We invite your detailed letters of nomination, recommendation and support for a faculty member who has conveyed a love of
teaching.The most compelling letters will provide testimony to support the selection of the faculty member to be honored this year.
The award consists of $15,000, half of which goes to the faculty member and half to an academic department or program selected by the recipient. The five most recent winners were
Professor Phyllis Pharr (2008), Dr. Emily Seelbinder (2007), Dr.
Charles Reed (2006), Dr. Joan Quinn (2005), and Dr. Virginia
Martin (2004). The award will be announced at Commencement
in May.
The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2009. Alumni, faculty and current students may send letters of nomination to
Hunter-Hamilton Teaching Award, Office of Academic Affairs,
Queens University of Charlotte, 1900 Selwyn Avenue, Charlotte,
NC 28274. Please include your class year.
Letters may also be sent via email to the following address:
awards.hamilton@queens.edu, or through a Web nomination page
at http://www.queens.edu/alumni/events/hunter-hamilton.asp.
A list of the faculty eligible for the 2009 Hunter-Hamilton Love
of Teaching Award is also available on the Web.
This award is made possible by a gift from the late Dr. James
Pressly Hamilton and Grey Hunter Hamilton ’62 in honor of their
parents, Buford Lindsay Hamilton and Frances Pressly Hamilton,
servants of their Lord for 42 years as missionaries in Pakistan, and
Richard Moore Hunter and Isabel Reid Hunter. Their faith, hope
and love for their children had no bounds.
9
INVESTING IN QUEENS
The Wayland H. Cato, Jr. Family Continues Legacy of Giving
apping a family tradition of philanthropy at Queens, Wayland
H. Cato, Jr. made a cornerstone
gift of $2.5 million to Queens’ new
School of Education. The majority of
the gift will be used to endow merit and
C
need-based scholarships, while the remainder will support the N.C. Teaching
Fellows program at Queens. In honor
and recognition of the gift, the school
has been named the Wayland H. Cato,
Jr. School of Education.
Cato, who retired from the company
after 58 years of leadership at The Cato
Corporation, a women’s apparel chain, is
recognized as a leading community philanthropist. He served Queens as a
member of the McColl School Board of
Advisors, and previously made a gift to
endow the Wayland H. Cato, Jr. Chair of
Leadership within the McColl School.
Thanks to a gift made by The Cato
Corporation under the leadership of
Wayland’s son John Cato, students in
Queens’ founding Teaching Fellows class
will receive full tuition scholarships in exchange for four years of teaching in North
Carolina public schools upon graduation.
The Wayland H. Cato, Jr. family has
long believed that support for education
is one of the most significant opportunities to impact the long-term welfare of
communities. “I still remember, at age 85,
the teachers who made me think, made
me want to learn more about the subjects
they taught, the teachers I admired,” says
Wayland H. Cato, Jr. “The teacher makes
all the difference. The School of Education at Queens will, I am confident, turn
out such teachers.”
All in the Family
A NEW VICE PRESIDENT RETURNS
TO HIS MOTHER’S ALMA MATER
By Jacqueline Groff ’08
our-year-old James Bullock may
have been the only boy his age in
Oxford, N.C. who had never seen a
television set, let alone a T.V. show. It was
the mid-1960s and James had just arrived
in the Tarheel state from Taiwan where his
parents had served as missionaries.
The family had gone to Taiwan
when he was 17 days old; he was the
youngest of three children under three.
When they returned, James experienced a
rather ordinary upbringing, yet because of
the influence of his mission-minded parents, the outcome has been anything but
ordinary. Queens’ new vice president of
university advancement credits much of
that outcome to the influence of his
mother, Queens alumna Sally Bullock
Bullock ’56.
Sally spent her childhood on a tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina.
While she was still a young girl, her aunt,
a missionary in China, returned to her
family after a long absence. Sally recalls
that this event, “the highlight of my
childhood,” left an indelible impression.
QUEENS MAGAZINE
F
10
James R. Bullock and his mother, Queens alumna Sally Bullock Bullock ’56, share a laugh.
After attending Peace College in Raleigh,
N.C., for two years, she enrolled at
Queens. Sally lived in Watkins residence
hall, serving as the dormitory’s resident
advisor and finished first in her class.
After graduation she worked at Presbyterian Church of Concord where she met
her future husband, Malcolm Bullock, a
Presbyterian minister from Augusta, Ga.,
who was on his way to a conference.
In all that Sally has experienced in
life, she considers her time at Queens ex-
ceptional. “I appreciate so much my years
at Queens,” she says, fondly recalling
classes with a favorite professor, Dr. Taylor, “who would fill an entire chalkboard
in the blink of an eye.” Her love for
Queens influenced James, who accepted
his new position in September. As the
former vice president for university advancement at Wake Forest University, he
directed a capital campaign that surpassed its $600 million goal by more than
$89 million. He also started and (cont.)
INVESTING IN QUEENS
(cont.) owned a strategic fundraising
firm—Queens was one of his first
clients—and has been a frequent speaker
on capital campaigns and planned giving
at conferences held by the national
Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
“Every great city deserves a great
university,” he says. “I think Queens has
the potential to be just that, and I hope
to make at least a small contribution towards this aspiration.” He observes that
the faculty and staff are focused on using
the University’s success to give back to
others. “Queens has these people, who
serve more than just their personal wel-
fare,” he says.
Sally is pleased that her son has come
to Queens. James laughs, admitting that
in making the decision to work here he
had something of an epiphany.“I spent 27
years at Wake Forest, a Baptist school.
Being a lifelong Presbyterian, I finally saw
the light and returned to my roots.”
Additions to 2007-2008 Honor Roll of Donors
Despite our efforts to avoid errors, the following donors
were omitted from the 2007-2008 Honor Roll, which
recognized the generous individuals, corporations and
foundations who supported the University during the
period beginning July 1, 2007 and ending June 30, 2008.
We extend our sincere apologies for the omission and
express our deepest gratitude for their support of our
students and faculty.
Entrepreneurial Leadership Circle
The Entrepreneurial Leadership Circle
is comprised of leading Charlotte
entrepreneurs who provide a link
between the McColl School of Business
and the resources of Charlotte’s
vibrant business community. We regret
that an incomplete list of members
was printed in the Honor Roll. The
full membership for 2007-2008
appears below.
Faculty and Staff
Charles E. Bamford
Royal Society
Carolyn Lawall Merck ’64
In memory of Eleanor Woodcock Martin ’36
Lindsay Tice ’05
College of Arts & Sciences
Jane Wayburn McMillan ’59
Courtney Owen Neil ’99
In memory of Julia Crews McGee ’56
Rowe and Anne Turpin Fesperman ’56
Michael Elliott, General Partner
Noro-Moseley Partners
Art Fields, President & CEO
Crescent Resources, Inc.
Curt Fochtmann, Managing Partner
Ernst & Young
Louis Foreman, Founder and CEO
Enventys
David Glenn, President
Kaleida Systems
Martin Grable, Executive Director
Community Blood Center of
the Carolinas
John Granzow, Managing Director
Wachovia Securities
Donald Haack
Donald Haack Diamonds, Inc.
Joe Hall, Chairman
Carolina Pad
Denny Hammack, President
Patterson Pope
Cameron Harris, President & CEO
Cameron Harris & Company
John W. Harris, President
Lincoln Harris Group
Steven Harris, Partner
Harris Murr & Vermillion, LLC
Jeffrey Hart, Attorney
Robinson, Bradshaw and
Hinson, P.A.
Jeffrey Hay, Partner
Womble Carlyle Sandridge &
Rice, PLLC
Elizabeth Neely Heafner, Founder
Carolina Bride
Hank Heidenreich, CEO
Partners for Performance USA
Ronald Horton, President
HEPACO, Inc.
Judy Hovis, Founding Partner
Access Point, Inc.
Peyton Howell, President
Lash Group
Gene Johnson, Chairman and CEO
FairPoint Communications, Inc.
Kal Kardous, President
Charlotte Copy Data
Laura Kendall, CFO
Tanner Companies, LLC
Linda Kirby, Vice President
Integraphx
Celia Klein, President
Grandstand Communications
Dalya Kutchei, Principal/Owner
Seabridge Group, LLC
Eric Laster, President & CEO
Edifice, Inc.
Maura Leahy-Tucker, Head of School
Charlotte Preparatory School
Carol Lindell, Owner
Design Centers International
Home Resource
Jordan Lipton, Physician & Partner
Signature Healthcare
Keith Luedeman, CEO
Goodmortgage
George Mackie, President and CEO
Insource Contract Services, LLC
Hugh L. McColl, Jr., Chairman
McColl Brothers Lockwood
J. Michael McGuire, Managing Partner
Grant Thornton
Melissa McGuire, Director and Owner
Sherpa LLC
Karen McIsaac, President
Project Managers, Inc.
Carole McLeod, President
Moore-McLeod, LLC
Beth Monaghan, Founder & CEO
Monaghan Group
Chase Monroe, Partner
Keystone Partners
Jon Nance, President
Exervio Management Consulting
Pete Nault
Dawn Newsome, Co-Founder and Partner
Moonlight Creative Group, Inc.
Thomas Norman, President
Norcom Development Inc.
Michael Pandich, Jr., Managing
Director
Connexus
Frances Queen, President and CEO
Queen Associates, Inc.
Patricia Rodgers, President
Rodgers Builders, Inc.
Dan Roselli, President
Red F Marketing, LLC
Frank Scibelli, Founder
Mama Ricotta's
Paul Solitario, Managing Partner
Tobin Solitario Investment
Banking Group, LLC
Lou Solomon, President
Interact
Louis Stephens, President
The Stephens Company
Bill Taylor, CEO
The Rowley Company
Dennis Thompson
Red Mountain Management
Scott Toney, CEO and President
Camstar Systems, Inc.
Mary Tribble, President
Tribble Creative Group
Michael Vadini, CEO
Titan Technology Partners
Tom Watson
Watson Insurance Agency
Rex Welton, Partner
Carolina Income Group
Mike Whitehead, Founder and Owner
Whitehead & Associates, Inc.
Todd Wiebusch, CEO
CHMG
Grant Wilson, Managing Partner
Force Management LLC
James Worrell
Northwestern Mutual Financial
Network
Joan Zimmerman, President &
Founder
Southern Shows
WINTER 2009
Paulette Ashlin, Partner
Coleman, Lew and Associates
Mic Alexander, President & CEO
Overflow Corporation
William Barnhardt
Foundation for the Carolinas
Lisa Bell, President
Tivoli Partners
Smokey Bissell, Chairman
The Bissell Companies
Ty Boyd, Founder
Ty Boyd Executive Learning
Peter Browning
Mary Bruce, President
Kaleidoscope Business
Options, Inc.
Cynthia Carlson, Principal
Campbell/Carlson Executive
Search
Patty Comer, Partner
Accrue Partners
Catherine Connor
Thomas Coyle, Partner
Childress Klein Properties
Otis Crowder, President
Crowder Construction Company
Debbie Daniel, President & Co-owner
Daniel, Ratliff & Company
Ned Davis, President
The Colville Group
Ann Depta, President
Meridian Consulting Group
Investing in Queens’ Future Campaign
Kitty Tilghman McEaddy ’65
11
HAPPENINGS
SPRING 2009
FEBRUARY
MARCH
Leaders in Action
Leaders in Action
Leaders in Action
Ellen Ruff, President of
Duke Energy Carolinas
Wednesday, February 4
5:30pm
Sykes Auditorium
Chuck Raymond, President
& CEO of Duke
Horizon Lines
Thursday, March 5
5:30pm
Sykes Auditorium
Patrick Graham, President
& CEO of The Urban
League of Central
Carolinas, Inc.
Monday, April 6
5:30pm
Sykes Auditorium
Friends of the Library
Book and Author Dinner
featuring authors Ron Rash
and John Hart
Monday, March 9
7pm
Francis Young Dining Room
Friends of Art
Chinese photographer
Gangfeng Wang Show:
“In Deepest China”
February 1 - March 8
Max L. Jackson
Art Gallery,
Watkins Building.
Opening Reception:
Thursday, February 19
5-7pm
Max L. Jackson
Art Gallery,
Watkins Building
Witherspoon
Lecture Series
Dr. Nancy Murphy
Tuesday, February 24
7pm
Sykes Auditorium
Book and Author Luncheon
featuring authors Ron Rash
and John Hart
Tuesday, March 10
11:30am
Francis Young Dining Room
QUEENS MAGAZINE
MAY
Commencement:
Friends of the Library Associates of Science in
Spring Books and Coffee
Wednesday, April 8
10am
McInnes Parlors,
Burwell Hall
Nursing Commencement
Ceremony
Thursday, May 7
2pm
Dana Auditorium
Friends of Music
Hayworth College
Commencement
Ceremony
Thursday, May 7
7pm
Burwell Lawn
Stanislas Sextet
Saturday, April 11
8pm
Dana Auditorium
Friends of Art
Friends of Art
Rick Crown Retrospective
March 10-April 20
Max L. Jackson Art Gallery,
Watkins Building
Reception:
Sunday, March 22
5-7pm
Max L. Jackson Art Gallery,
Watkins Building
The Learning Society
12
APRIL
Thomas Friedman
Thursday, March 19
7pm
Dana Auditorium
Senior Show 2009
April 21-May 11
Max L. Jackson
Art Gallery,
Watkins Building
Opening Reception:
Thursday, April 30
5-7pm
Max L. Jackson
Art Gallery,
Watkins Building
Friends of Music
Graduate
Commencement
Ceremony
Friday, May 8
7pm
Dana Auditorium
Undergraduate
Commencement
Ceremony
Saturday, May 9
10am
Burwell Lawn
The Dave Brubeck
Quartet
Sunday, April 19
7:30 pm
McGlohon Theatre,
Spirit Square
Friends of Music
David Russell, guitarist
Saturday, March 21
8pm
Dana Auditorium
Dave Brubeck
To register or learn more
about these events, go to
www.queens.edu/community.
New Faces of
Nursing
By Susan Shackelford
Queens graduates the third largest number of registered
nurses in North Carolina; these students may surprise you
Craig Robinson, Fabio DeSouza, and Bruce White are nursing students at Queens.
C
As men, Robinson, DeSouza and White are part of a distinct
minority in a profession that is still 90 percent female, according
to Cody. University officials hope the number of male enrollees
will grow, both to boost the diversity of the profession and to
help alleviate the nursing shortage, which is expected to grow
dramatically in the coming decades.“We have a lot of healthcare
professionals retiring in the coming years and an aging population that will need more healthcare services,” says Queens
President Pamela Davies. “I’m proud that we’re part of the
solution to the healthcare challenge.”
Queens offers associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees
in nursing. “We need every kind of nurse, but the critical need
is in the higher levels,” Cody says, noting that studies have
WINTER 2009
raig Robinson played college football and barely
missed being on “American Idol.” Fabio DeSouza
came to the U.S. from Brazil and hopes one day to do
humanitarian work. Bruce White spent 33 years in finance for
an electrical-supply company.
What these men have in common is nursing. ey are
students in the Presbyterian School of Nursing at Queens
University of Charlotte, which is the largest private producer of
registered nurses in the state and the third largest overall
(behind East Carolina and UNC-Chapel Hill). e Queens
program graduated 150 students in 2007 and “will have
incrementally more each year” based on growth, says the
school’s dean, Dr. William Cody.
13
linked the dearth of those higher level nurses to care quality
and to the lack of expansion of nursing education, which generally requires teachers to have a master’s degree or higher.
In August, Cody wrote a story for the Charlotte Business
Journal about the growing shortage of nurses, and the need to
diversify the work force. Noting that white women make up
about 85 percent of the profession, he emphasized the need to
attract minorities and men into nursing. “It’s irrational to expect the vast majority of all nursing positions can be staffed by
white women,” he wrote. “Diversity strengthens a profession
and helps it meet its social mandate by better addressing the
needs of diverse people.”
At Queens, men are about 10 percent of the nearly 500
students in the program, which is typical of most nursing education programs, Cody says. When he went to nursing school
30 years ago, men were generally three to four percent of the
student body. He thought the number would be far greater by
now. Sexism and misperceptions have held it back, he says.
“e public image is not real,” Cody explains. “For some
reason, the nurse is construed to be subservient and /or a sexpot. Being a nurse is a relatively autonomous job that requires
a lot of critical thinking, whether in the high-intensity environment of the hospital, or in the diverse and challenging life
situations of community health work. Yes, there are doctor’s orders, but there are not doctors barking orders at nurses, as you
see on television.”
So why did Craig Robinson, Fabio DeSouza and Bruce
White take on this nontraditional male profession, and what
have they encountered? Here is each man’s story.
Craig Robinson
QUEENS MAGAZINE
Fabio DeSouza, who says he enjoys the intellectual challenge of nursing,
practices patient care in the Patient Simulation Lab.
14
“The public image
is not real....Being a nurse
is a relatively autonomous
job that requires a lot of
critical thinking...,”
says Cody.
Friends occasionally kid Craig Robinson about training to be
a nurse. “ey’ll call me ‘Nurse Craig’ because of the male nurse
in the movie, ‘Meet the Fockers,’” he says with a laugh. “ey
think it’s not macho to be a nurse, but once I graduate they will
see it’s worth going through.”
At first, the ribbing bothered the former tailback at
Charleston Southern, but he has adjusted. “is is a good field
I’m going into, and it offers job security,” he says. Robinson believes the hard work of nursing school may keep many men
away. “It’s time demanding,” he says.
Born and raised in Augusta, Ga., Robinson went to
Charleston Southern on a football scholarship. He played three
years at the Division I-AA school before a knee injury sidelined
him his senior season. After earning a degree in athletic training
and sports medicine, he worked more than a year within a physical therapy unit at the Medical University of South Carolina in
Charleston. “I knew I wanted to do more,” he says. “My mentor
told me about the lack of males in nursing.”
He likes the small campus at Queens and has enjoyed the
school’s Patient Simulation Lab, one of the latest teaching tools
in nursing. High-tech, computer-controlled mannequins simulate patients with actual problems, and they blink, speak, and
breathe. “It’s a great experience,” Robinson says. “It puts us in
real scenarios we will face with patients.”
In the fall of 2007, Robinson coordinated with his nursing
teachers to tryout for “American Idol.” He made it through
three rounds but wound up one short of Hollywood. “I did a
good job, but I got nervous in front of the judges,” he says.
During his first year in nursing school, Robinson took a
job as a nurse tech at the Levine Children’s Hospital which has
influenced his plans following graduation in May 2009. “I’d
like to go into pediatrics, probably in a hospital—pediatric intensive care,” he says.
Fabio DeSo u z a
A native of Recife, Brazil, Fabio DeSouza is also in the bachelor’s program at Queens. Two friends, a brother and sister who
graduated from the Queens nursing program, introduced him
to it. “ey told me about the shortage of nurses and the benefits of being a nurse, how exciting and challenging it is, and that
the level of academics is high at Queens,” DeSouza says.
eir assessment has been true. “For me, nursing is intellectually challenging and physically challenging because you
have to work so many hours,” DeSouza explains. “Nursing has
evolved from someone who may just give you a bath or change
the bed to one proficient in different sciences and able to solve
problems, to think and reason. I think that has been attracting
more males.”
DeSouza came to the United States in the late 1990s as a
result of mission trips that Charlotte’s Forest Hill Church
made to his church in Brazil, where he was a worship leader. A
friend suggested he come to the U.S. to learn English.
With an eye on becoming a translator, he was studying
linguistics at Central Piedmont Community College when Ricardo Leao and his sister Danielle told him about nursing at
Queens. “Ricardo and I used to work out a lot,” DeSouza recalls. “rough the passion of exercising and weight lifting, I
started studying about the human body, nutrition and diseases
that can be reduced with a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet.
Ricardo had just graduated from the nursing program and we
Craig Robinson works on proper procedures, something that was an important
aspect of the sports medicine degree that he earned before enrolling in the
Queens nursing program. The former “American Idol” contestant hopes to
work in pediatric intensive care after graduation in May.
“On the way home,
I told my wife that I was
taken by their dedication
and teamwork and that
I might want to be a nurse.
She thought I was out
of my mind...,”
says White.
discussed it.”
Some day, DeSouza would like to do medical mission trips
or work with poor communities. “People need a lot of intervention and education concerning certain diseases,”he says.“People
in poor communities are more likely to go to emergency departments than to the doctor regularly. ey don’t have insurance. I would like to help treat them and provide health
education.”
Br uce White
WINTER 2009
In January 2006, Bruce White went in for an outpatient
colonoscopy and came home with the idea of a new profession.
“I noticed the way the nurses were working together while
I was waiting,” he remembers. “On the way home, I told my
wife that I was taken by their dedication and teamwork and that
I might want to be a nurse. She thought I was out of my mind—
that I was still on the drugs from the procedure.”
Not so.e native of Richmond, Va., who has spent his last
30 years in Charlotte, pondered the idea for a few days and decided “God was calling.”
Already retired from a financial career of 33 years with
Graybar Electric, White checked into Queens’program because
he lives close by and knows the school’s academic reputation.
White isn’t sure why more men haven’t chosen nursing.
“e pay is a lot better today because of the demand,” he says.
“Men also bring the physical aspect because they can generally lift more than the women. To do it as a guy, you have to be
a nurturer, and most men, in general, are not that great at nurturing. I have that inside me, and I think that’s the key to being
a nurse.”
He loves assisting in the Patient Simulation Lab. “You
learn a whole lot,” he says. “e simulators are hooked up to all
the bells and whistles like a patient would be. You get to practice and learn the trade. We’re lucky to have it.”
White has been volunteering for a hospice and palliativecare organization, which is the type of place he’d like to work
when he completes the associate’s degree in spring 2009. “I
have no desire at [age] 60 to work on a floor or in a unit that’s
high velocity all the time,” he says. “I think hospice is a good
place for me.”
15
Dr. Michael Kobre, in his office in the Watkins
Building, works in a world dominated by books.
The
Write Stuff
GRADUATES OF THE MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN
CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM ARE PRODUCING
ACCLAIMED WORKS OF FICTION, POETRY AND
NON-FICTION: FOUR TELL THEIR STORY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS EDWARDS
In the Beginning
By Dr. Michael Kobre
2008, 86 current students, and almost 40 faculty members rotating through different semesters.
Perhaps most of all, I had no idea how many lives would
be changed by the program. Our alumni have gone on to many
achievements: publishing stories, poems, essays, and books;
teaching writing at schools and universities; winning fellowships and residencies; establishing literary presses; presenting
work at conferences; organizing writing groups; editing journals and anthologies; going on to Ph.D. programs or law
school; and, certainly, always pursuing their own visions in their
own writing.
It’s commonplace to talk about education as a transforming experience, but I’ve rarely seen the truth of that so vividly
as in the lives of our MFA students. Perhaps that’s only because writing itself is so deeply personal. e writer, after all,
invests so much in the words on the page, so that to revise the
words, to hone them in response to reactions from teachers and
colleagues, is to see a visible transformation—in the work itself
and, over time, in the creator too.
But don’t take my word for it. Over the following pages,
four Queens MFA alumni will tell you about their own transformations as writers, deeply personal journeys that began outside the classroom and continued through their experiences in
the MFA program.
Dr. Michael Kobre is Dana Professor of English and on-campus
director of the MFA in Creative Writing
WINTER 2009
I had no idea what to expect.
It was May 2001, and as I watched the first students and
faculty members check into their dorm for the first session of
e Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at
Queens, I had no idea really what I was getting into. At the
time, I’d been a professor in the English department for 12
years. I’d also been working closely for over a year and a half
with the renowned novelist Fred Leebron, whom Queens had
recruited as program director, to develop the curriculum and
implement Fred’s innovative concept of having students share
their writing in Queens’ unique distance learning workshops.
But as any teacher knows, no matter how carefully you’ve
planned a class, there’s always a dynamic you can’t control. It’s
a mysterious component that’s influenced by the mix of personalities and backgrounds the students and faculty bring, by
the nature of the subject you’ll discuss, the setting in which
you’ll meet.
So while I knew that Queens had recruited a distinguished
group of poets and prose writers to serve as faculty, and I knew
we had a strong and diverse group of students—educators and
professionals and passionate writers in their own right from all
walks of life and parts of the country, ranging in age from their
20s to 60s—yet I still didn’t know exactly what to expect. I
couldn’t anticipate the sense of community that would begin to
develop at that first residency or the seriousness of purpose that
everyone would bring. And I had no way of knowing then how
much the program would grow: 189 graduates by the fall of
17
Twenty-Six Lifelong Friends
QUEENS MAGAZINE
By Karon Luddy
18
Who the heck knows? Maybe God struck a bargain with me
while I was in utero: “Okay Karon, this is the deal. You are
going to be a wild, pathologically stubborn child. You are going
to need something to make sense out of your life. erefore, I
give you words.ey are one of the few things that you will acquire easily. You can find them in the dictionary. You
can even make them up. Use them
wisely—or Else!” All I can say for sure is
that my love affair with words began
early, in first grade at Dobson Elementary School. at’s where I met twentysix lifelong friends—the alphabet. My
teacher, Miss Graham, a phonetic genius
who smelled like pickles, taught me how
the letters sounded. I learned how to build
words by sounding them out. Each word
became a song that floated into my fat
brain like an orphan who’d found a good
home without even trying.
Maybe I became a writer by writing
down one messy thought after another in my
journal for the past 30 years. Maybe recording all those preposterous dreams like the one
about catfish swimming in a trough in my parents’ attic was
not a waste of time. Writing down my prayers was definitely
not in vain. Many begged for much-needed mercy. Others were
chock full of thanks. It’s been over 25 years since I wrote this
statement in my journal: My life is about three things: words,
love, and human beings.e grandiosity of that statement surprised me then, but now I understand it was a simple profession of faith. For me, that’s what writing is—a profession of
faith. When I write, I can approach Life from every angle. I
can stir up the Truth and let it tell itself. I can write something
funny or poignant or sad or witty, or shocking. And sometimes,
with a few blessed keystrokes, I can melt the gnarliest of my internal monsters.
Writing has helped me become a more decent person than
I would have been otherwise. It has helped me
separate who I really am from my ego. Alan
Watts once asked a question that goes something like this: Wouldn’t the world be a marvelous place if we treated our egos as the useful
fictions they are? Yes. And for me, that’s what
writing does: it continually reminds me that the
“I” named Karon Luddy made up the story I
tell myself about who I am—and that I might
want to make some revisions to the story. And
that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Living my
life. Writing my life. Maybe I have been
Righting my life.
ere is some evidence: I have learned
to love myself; I have even learned to love my
fictional characters, which made all the difference when writing my semi-autobiographical novel, “Spelldown.” With fresh eyes, I was able to
look back at my childhood and erase many erroneous assumptions. Many of my self-inflicted wounds were also healed.
Well, for Goodness Sake, maybe all this word mongering
has not been in vain.
Karon Luddy ’05 brought a manuscript to her first residency that
later became the award-winning 2007 debut novel, “SPELLDOWN, e Big-Time Dreams of a Small-Town Word Whiz,”
published by Simon & Schuster.
My Father’s World
By Ron Stodghill
e root of ambition is never
easy to trace, but I can pinpoint at least a bit of my own
to an aroma. It was the summer of 1968. I was five years
old and I was sitting on the
edge of my parents’ bed
watching my father dress
for work. My dad has always been a dapper man,
and while I can’t recall the
suit he put on, it was likely an expensive one. What I remember most is the small gray bottle with
a fancy black cap, how he unscrewed it delicately as though a
magic potion was inside. I remember how he tilted the bottle
slightly with one hand, moistened his fingertips with the other,
then dabbed them on his wrists and neck. And as I studied his
every move, it happened: the scent wafted across the room and
filled my nostrils. It was at once spicy and sweet and powerful
and I inhaled the fragrance lustily. When he leaned over and
kissed me goodbye, I took in all of his scent. It was at this moment that it occurred to me, almost tragically, that my father
was connected to something else beyond the small world that
existed inside our house. And when I heard the front door
close, I wanted to cry. I wanted to go with him. I wanted to be
a man. I wanted to wear cologne.
I suspect that for me writing began as my own modest attempt at expansion, at worldliness, of propelling myself out of
the cocoon of West McNichols Street on Detroit’s northwest
side into the great unknown that had claimed my dad. At seven
I won my family’s praise with a short story about a boy who befriended an alligator (the pet eventually ate him), and by high
school delighted in disseminating polysyllabic verbiage
throughout my book reports. I spent college writing for the
student newspaper, and dabbling in poetry and fiction. My love
of words and storytelling would eventually lead to a career in
journalism that has taken me places I would have never imagined—from meetings with White House politicos to Wall
Street bankers, from rust belt factories to Chicago drug dens,
from Hollywood galas to NFL locker rooms. My father likes
to say that he never expected me to follow in his footsteps. But
this much is true: the scent he left behind that morning in the
summer of ’68 inspired a journey for which I will always be
grateful.
In his 2007 thriller “REDBONE: Money, Malice and Murder
in Atlanta,” Ron Stodghill ’07 recounts the true story of the 1996
murder of Lance Herndon.
A Word-Haunted Life
By Susan Meyers
many ways my whole
life—spent reading, writing, teaching, editing—
has been word haunted.
I’ve been writing poetry
seriously for twenty
years, “seriously” being
the indicator of when I
started paying attention
to craft. ere came a
time when nothing less
than immersing myself in poetry would
do, and that’s when I enrolled in the MFA program at Queens.
I came to it later than most, after I had already published
poems in literary journals and a chapbook, after I had already
learned what I could on my own.
I like to sit by the big apple tree, the first sentence in my old
composition book says, not exactly a line of poetry and never
mind that we had no apple tree in our yard. From my earliest
school days I began writing what would one day lead me to poetry—and the words, sentences, and images just kept coming.
Susan Meyers ’03 is a South Carolina poet whose work has appeared
in numerous literary journals. Her collection of poetry, “Keep and
Give Away,” won the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize.
WINTER 2009
When I was five and my sister started first grade, I fell in love
with language. Every day she’d come home and hold up her
school papers, mysterious with pencil markings. I envied her
learning what I needed to know: how to read and write. Something I was born for. e one memento I still have from my
own early schooling is a Royal composition book with a black
marble cardboard cover, filled with spelling tests and exercises
from the second grade—65 pages of words marching down the
wide-ruled sheets of paper in my large, neat, young penmanship, each letter formed as close to the teacher’s example as I
could muster. Burn please wagon pick grocer barn. I look at
those pages now and remember the world growing exponentially with the press of each new word to the page. I felt like a
writer. Spelling came easy to me, though pretty started out as
pertty and lesson as lettson. Drawing came easy, too. Each page
is crowded with waxy renderings of flowers—spiky-topped
tulips, my favorite—trees, birds, houses, and a few people with
short arms and two-dot noses. Words and images, pencils and
crayons: these were my tools.
Once I mastered the alphabet, I wrote and I read, wrote
and read. For someone shy like me, the page was a friend.
Today, on two shelves in the back of my bedroom closet are
stacks of spiral-bound notebooks, leather journals, and a few
diaries filled with observations, meditations, scraps of poem
drafts, and lots of freewriting written through the years. In
19
A Baker’s Craft
By Peter Reinhart
An opening chapter in my most recent book was the first essay
I presented in my initial MFA workshop at Queens. It was on
the basis of this chapter, and the help I got in improving it, that
I received a generous contract for the book. It
went on to receive a James Beard Award for
food writing, and perhaps that first chapter
made the difference.
I enrolled in the Queens MFA Program
(nonfiction concentration) because I wanted
to be a better writer. I had already published
six food books on my specialty, bread, but
wanted to expand into other genres such
as memoir and personal essays. e program was convenient for me because I
live in Charlotte and teach at a local university, but soon after enrolling I realized that I would gladly do what many
of my classmates did—jump on an airplane to participate in the bi-annual
residencies. Whenever I described them
to my friends and family I called them “fantasy camp
for writers.”
e intensity and effectiveness of the program is a result of
its structure: ten months of small group writing workshops
conducted through Internet communication under the supervision of a faculty mentor, capped by the two residencies on
campus in January and May. e intimacy of sharing our per-
sonal writing with classmates and faculty creates bonding,
magnified by on-site workshops, seminars, readings by students
and faculty, and after-hours socializing. e faculty members
interact gracefully with the students and transmit a message of
genuine care for each student’s success. I think this is one of
the real keys to the program’s success, and why a
sense of community develops; it’s like
finding one’s own long sought for tribe.
Even as a published writer I had never
felt part of a writer’s colony as I did during the residencies. As a graduate of the
program, I am excited to continue my involvement as a guest faculty presenter on
food writing.
I was pushed to a new level and
coached, through this program, to become a
much better writer as well as a teacher of
writing. Like so many of my classmates, I
didn’t want it to end because it was so deeply
enriching and satisfying (and, not to overlook,
fun). Fortunately, for me, it hasn’t ended. I’ve
found my tribe.
Peter Reinhart ’08 co-founded the legendary Brother Juniper’s
Bakery in Sonoma. His 2002 book, “e Bread Baker’s Apprentice,” was named book of the year by the James Beard Foundation
and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
After the MFA
ATLANTA WRITERS GATHER FOR SUPPORT AND INSPIRATION
QUEENS MAGAZINE
By Jessica Handler
20
On the occasional Sunday morning in Atlanta, a casual
group of six or more Queens MFA alumni gather for
brunch at a restaurant in the city’s Morningside neighborhood. e group was unofficially founded in 2006,
when alumnus Tom Lombardo, who lives in the Ansley
Park area, and I realized that the local Queens contingent had grown. We sent emails to Atlanta-area
Queens alums, including Elena Arosemena, Chris
Mastin, and Rob Trott, inviting friends to get together
on a regular basis to keep the Queens camaraderie
going. And so, an affiliation of poets, fiction writers,
and nonfiction writers was born.
“Writers of the Square Table” –a nod to Dorothy
Parker’s famous Algonquin Hotel “Round Table”
legacy—meet when schedules permit, enjoying Sunday
morning coffee, eggs, biscuits and, once in a while, a
Bloody Mary. e focus is on literary chat and our
commitment to writing.
“ere are always funny stories, updates on writing
jobs, and lots of energy around who is doing what,” says
Arosemena. “e brunch gatherings are wonderful.”
is year, the Atlanta group has expanded to include Hobie Anthony, a current fiction student in the
MFA program, welcoming future Queens alumni into
the local writing scene.
Jessica Handler ’06 lives in Atlanta and her memoir, “Invisible
Sisters,” is forthcoming from Public Affairs Books in April.
ALUMNI NEWS
Alumni gathered in the fall to participate in annual games. Teams shown here (clockwise from top left): men’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s soccer,
and women’s softball.
Staying in Shape
NEW HIRES, ALUMNI GAMES,
CHAPTER EVENTS, AND FUNDING
THE NEXT GENERATION
By Todd Hartung
A
Montreat, Atlanta, Raleigh and New
York City. Look for upcoming events in
Charleston on January 15, Washington,
D.C., on February 11 and Richmond on
February 12.
Mark your calendars for the basketball alumni games and homecoming on
January 31,and reunion weekend April 2425. Remember that we have gone to a fiveand 10-year anniversary reunion system, so
if you graduated in a class year ending in
nine or four, then this is your year.
Finally, I want to thank all of our
alumni who continue to support The
Queens Fund year in and year out. The
Fund provides scholarships that are both
need and merit based, allowing us to attract the highest caliber of students to
our campus. These talented students
supported by The Queens Fund will
make wonderful additions to our alumni
base in the near future.
–Todd Hartung, Associate Vice President of
Alumni Programs and Annual Giving
WINTER 2009
nother
fun and
exciting
year is underway in the Office of Alumni
Programs and
Annual Giving
with several updates to share.
First, we have
added two very strong members to our
alumni office team. Shaina “Perky”
Boike, a recent Queens graduate from
the Class of ’08, has filled a much
needed and newly created position focusing on young alumni programming.
In this role, Shaina will create events and
annual giving initiatives for alumni that
have graduated within the last 10 years.
Also joining our team is Laura Gainer.
Laura comes to us from Trinity Episcopal School, having worked as their manager of communications and public
relations. Laura will be working with our
McColl School of Business alumni, focusing on alumni programming as well
as growing the McColl School Excellence Fund.
This past fall, we held several of our
very popular alumni athletic games. The
men’s and women’s soccer teams continue to lead the way with the largest
numbers in attendance. The volleyball
and softball alumni games also bring
back our alumni athletes to campus, and
they continue to grow each year.
Our alumni chapter events continue
to be ever so popular. This year, we are
happy to have our president, Dr. Pamela
Davies, as our speaker to update alumni
on all the exciting developments on campus. We had wonderful turnouts in
21
ALUMNI NEWS
How It All Works
AN OVERVIEW OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
By Ann Hinson ’72
reetings from your Queens
University of Charlotte Alumni
Association Board of Directors.
In conversations with some of you recently, I have been asked to describe the
responsibilities and activities of the
Alumni Association Board (AAB). I
thought this might be a good topic for
this issue’s update.
The Queens University of Charlotte
Alumni Association consists of all former Queens students.This includes both
graduates and non-graduates from the
College of Arts & Sciences, Hayworth
College, Presbyterian School of Nursing,
Wayland H. Cato, Jr. School of Education and the School of Communication.
The McColl School of Business has its
own Alumni Association.
The mission of the Alumni Association is to preserve and strengthen the
interest of alumni in the University and
in each other, to place both alumni and
the University in a mutually supportive
relationship and to strengthen interest in
G
private, Judeao-Christian education.
The Alumni Association Board of Directors is the governing body for the
Alumni Association. The board reviews
alumni policies, helps guide the mission
of the association, and facilitates the exchange of information and ideas between
Queens and its alumni.
The Alumni Association Board of
Directors is composed of an executive
committee, members-at-large, and advisory members representing the University’s diverse alumni body. Each board
member serves on one of the committees
of the board. Board committees include:
Reunion, Chapters & Admissions, Nominating & Awards and The Queens
Fund. The Reunion Committee works
with the Office of Alumni Programs to
brainstorm program ideas and encourage
alumni participation in reunion weekend.
The Chapters & Admissions Committee
serves the dual role of assisting with
alumni events and student recruitment in
key geographic areas outside of Char-
lotte. The
Nominating
& Awards
Committee
serves the
dual role of
nominating
potential
Alumni As- Ann Hinson ’72
sociation Board members and accomplished, involved recipients of the alumni
awards at reunion weekend.The Queens
Fund Committee assists the Office of
Annual Giving with planning for The
Queens Fund campaign, as it pertains to
alumni participation.
Members of the Queens University
of Charlotte Board of Directors are listed
on the University’s Web site under
Alumni Association. Your ideas and
comments about alumni activities are always welcomed and will help us represent your interests, so please let us hear
from you. You may contact me at
nannhinson@aol.com.
REUNION 2009
APRIL 24-25
QUEENS MAGAZINE
All alumni are invited to attend Reunion Weekend on Friday and Saturday, April 24-25,
2009! Classes ending in 4 or 9 will celebrate special reunions.
22
Join us for a weekend of celebration and reconnecting with your Queens friends. Attendees
will enjoy traditional events such as the Golden Guard Breakfast, Awards Luncheon and
Class Parties, along with new events such as faculty lectures and the Saturday night
Burwell Bash on the Burwell lawn.
Call a classmate, roommate or friend who was in your sorority, fraternity, club or sport and
plan to attend today! Contact the Office of Alumni Programs at alumni@queens.edu or
704 337-2536 with questions or to volunteer with planning.
REMEMBER YOUR QUEENS…
ALUMNI NEWS
Left: Raleigh-area alumni and friends
gathered at the home of Temple and
Carol Carson Sloane ’60 on October
16, 2008. Guests enjoyed a University
update by Dr. Pamela Davies.
Fall Chapter events not pictured here
include Montreat, hosted by Bill and
Susanne Branch McCaskill ’57;
Atlanta, hosted by Penny Pennington
O’Callaghan ’78 and New York City,
hosted by Donna Jones Dean ’73.
Work and Play
THE GOLF TOURNAMENT,
LUNCHTIME POLITICS,
RECRUITING AND CONNECTING
By Bob Woods, EMBA ’01
s new chair of the McColl
School Alumni Association
(MSAA), I am pleased to have
the opportunity to update you on our
alma mater and your alumni association.
The McColl School Alumni Association is having a great year. We held
our 2nd Annual Billy O. Wireman Memorial Golf Tournament in September,
which was spearheaded by Brenda Suits,
EMBA ’00, and the Fundraising Committee. The event was held at Firethorne
Country Club and was a huge success—
$18,000 was raised! We were fortunate
to have in attendance former Governor
Jim Martin, the only two-term Republican governor in N.C. history, and Bill
Vandiver, former Bank of America executive. Terry Broderick, McColl School
dean, also came, as well as numerous
Queens faculty members.
Thanks to several members of the
MSAA Fundraising Committee and
alumni, we brought together more than
80 golfers from 14 different companies
and organizations to celebrate Dr. Wireman and to raise funds for the McColl
School Excellence Fund that supports
student scholarships.
In October, the MSAA Social and
A
McColl School alumni get some swings in at the 2nd Annual Billy O. Wireman Memorial Golf Tournament.
From left to right: Al Tunstall, Bob Woods EMBA ’01, Reyn Wheeler EMBA ’95, Manuel Diez, Bill Berry and
Chris Wheeler ’08.
ing new students. In addition, we plan to
implement initiatives focused on engaging current McColl students to broaden
their participation in alumni events.
We hope our initiatives inspire you,
our faithful alumni, to reconnect and
reengage with other alumni and with the
school. If you are interested in learning
more about the McColl School Alumni
Association or to register in the McColl
School database for updates on future
events and lecture opportunities, please
visit http://mccoll.queens.edu/alumni.
Please make sure to update the site with
your current contact information so we
can keep you connected with all we’re
doing!
WINTER 2009
Professional Activities Committee
hosted a luncheon with U.S. Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C., District 9).
This luncheon was a sold-out event at
LaVecchia's Seafood Grille in uptown
Charlotte. We plan to continue such
events in the coming year to help reconnect alumni with leaders in the community, fellow alumni and Queens faculty.
In addition to hosting events, our
MSAA committees are actively seeking
ways to energize the alumni base while
promoting the McColl School. The
Alumni Ambassadorship & Student Recruitment Committee will continue to
focus on increasing alumni and student
involvement as well as assisting in recruit-
23
ALUMNI NEWS
(Left): Georgians in Tbilisi protest the Russian
invasion.
(Top and above): Daniel McBrayer with friends in
Svaneti.
Here Come the Russians
DANIEL MCBRAYER ’98 GETS OUT OF GEORGIA JUST IN TIME
hen I set out to Georgia last
summer, I was unaware of
the course of events that
would lead me, in a matter of weeks, to
flee my adopted homeland. I was going
to begin fieldwork for my master’s thesis
on people displaced by ethnic conflicts;
it was my second visit since 2003, when
I completed two years of service in the
Peace Corps.
My first three weeks back had been
near idyllic. I spent time with my Peace
Corps host family, reunited with dear
friends, travelled to Svaneti (Georgia’s
highest and possibly most hospitable
region), and got to know Tbilisi quite
intimately. I explored the capital of 1.5
million people with its character-filled,
narrow, cobblestone streets like never
before.
Five years earlier, I had been rightfully afraid to walk these streets at night
with other Americans or alone. But a
few months after my first departure,
Misha Saakashvili’s Rose Revolution
QUEENS MAGAZINE
W
24
changed this for the better. Well-paid
police were now on the streets in all
neighborhoods, and they were no longer
visibly taking bribes. Georgia’s mafia
gangs, many connected with ousted former President Eduard Shevardnadze,
were put into prison along with hundreds of others who profited illegally
during Georgia’s dark days of independence between 1991 and 2003. Prior to
August, Georgia also had one of the
fastest growing economies in the world
largely due to a tremendous amount of
foreign investment and aid from various
places, especially the United States.
Georgians were breathing a collective
sigh of relief after living through a time
when one often had to choose between
being destitute and living a life of crime.
at is, until Russian troops and irregulars arrived, ethnically cleansing
Georgians, bombing civilian targets, and
nearing Georgia’s capital,Tbilisi, where I
was staying. National Public Radio
caught me at a checkpoint on my way out
of the country, fleeing across the border
to the capital of Armenia where I was
stranded for a week before returning to
the United States.
Now at Ohio University, I have returned to my thesis. In December I will
go back to Tbilisi for a five-month language course. In May I’ll begin the research for my Fulbright Scholarship,
studying peace camps of rival ethnic
groups. In Georgia, however, at least
80,000 people remain displaced by the
current conflict, many of them in dilapidated shelters with no heat in unrelenting cold; 240,000 were already displaced
before the August invasion began.
I count the days in hopes that I will
return to a Georgia on the road to
democracy and sustained peace, a journey uninterrupted by aggressive nations
or unsound military ventures.
Daniel McBrayer majored in history. He is
from Lenox, Ga.
PARTING THOUGHT
A wintery view of campus from the 1965 yearbook.
Autumn Drive
AN OCTOBER VISIT WITH CLASSMATES STIRS MEMORIES OF OTHER SEASONS
olly Ivins, the renowned journalist, once wrote of politics
that her “cynicism could
hardly keep up.” at is why, 21 days before the national election on November
4, I am driving through the splendor of
fall in the north Georgia mountains to
Asheville, to visit my college roommate.
During my four years at Queens, from
1960 until 1964, I roomed with Elizabeth Rucker. I am going to see her this
weekend because I need a reality that
outruns cynicism, a reality that does not
chide me to keep up.
Elizabeth Rucker lives on 30 acres,
in a small and lovely art-filled house,
where she practices art therapy surrounded by an abundance of flowers.
Elizabeth has always been surrounded by
an abundance of flowers. Her house is
QUEENS MAGAZINE
M
24
perched halfway up the other side of
Billy Graham’s mountain, outside of
Asheville. Mary Harvey Wilson Midkiff,
who was our suitemate in tiny Morrison
dorm, is coming from Huntington, West
Virginia, from her house where she lives
with two long-haired dachshunds. A
widow, her beloved Middie died of cancer. And Allison James, originally from
Mayesville, South Carolina (which has
only two streets), is coming from James
Island off the coast of Charleston. Allison has returned to South Carolina after
a lifetime as a civil rights activist and
nurse administrator in San Francisco,
California.
Decades ago, we listened together.
We listened to Dr. Jim Lovell teach from
poet John Ciardi’s book, “How Does a
Poem Mean?” We listened to the Rev.
Carlyle Marney—a very high Baptist
minister across the street—preach on a
“proper kind of grief ” after the assassination of President Kennedy. We listened to
Miss Nooe lecture on plant auxins. And
we listened to each other explore the great
questions of life; for nearly 50 years we
have listened, keeping up with each other
through marriage, children, divorce and
death, through joy and sorrow. We have
been friends through the cycles of life.
e listening that began in a tiny dorm
room and in classrooms has endured and
connected us over time, imbuing us with
a sense that we know each in a fundamental way. For that blessing I will always
be grateful to Queens, where our educations began such a long time ago.
– Dr. Kent Anderson Leslie ’64
ulia Wennerlund ’12, Natalie Mirra ’12 and Edwin Ramirez ’10 rest on “Triple Arc I,”
1984, by landmark American sculptor James Rosati. On loan from the Jerald Melberg
Gallery, the monumental steel sculpture graces the entrance to Queens’ campus.
J
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Transform
a student’s future.
“
The number one question I get from prospective students
is about tuition, and I can relate to their concerns about
how the costs of a private education might put a burden on
their families. However, picking Queens comes much more
easily for most students after they receive information
about the University Scholars Program or one of the many
other scholarships that are supported by The Queens
Fund. My choice was no different, and I have the generous
donors to The Queens Fund to thank.
”
Gifts to The Queens Fund or the McColl School Excellence Fund will
increase merit and need-based scholarships, allowing Queens to compete
for the highest caliber students. The students supported by your gifts are
able to enjoy the opportunity of a lifetime—just like Bridget and the
students she recruits.
Bridget Hatfield ’09
University Scholar
Elementary Education Major from Virginia
Admissions Ambassador
www.queens.edu/give