Campus Currents

On March 26, 2019, 100 fifth graders from the Brophy Elementary School in Framingham, along with their teachers, visited Framingham State University to learn more about attending college. While at the university, the fifth graders took part in University tours, met with the team at the College Planning Collaborative, read books with Education candidates and Education Club members, visited the McAuliffe Center and ate lunch in the dining hall. Connor Walsh, a fifth grade teacher at the Brophy School, shared that “Early college awareness is extremely important for all students, even at the elementary level. By being able to tour Framingham State University, Brophy Elementary School students were exposed to the idea of attending college on an entirely new level. It was an eye-opening experience that allowed for them to see firsthand the potential of a new reality that they can plan for in their future. This, in turn, helps them to see the importance of working hard in elementary school and how it can affect them moving forward.“

Denise Lau, a parent of a Brophy fifth grade student, noted that “the Brophy 5th graders (and families) truly appreciate the special opportunity given to them by the FSU community, specifically Professor Kolodny, the MetroWest College Planning Collaborative, and the McAuliffe Center. Students mentioned how they look forward to attending college and they know they need to wait 7 years! Some of them would be the first generation to college so this trip is especially meaningful to us. We are fortunate to have FSU so close to home to facilitate college matriculation.”

Please join the FSU English Department’s Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett for a lecture and discussion:

“All the World’s a Stage”: Cosmographical Contemplation in Shakespeare’s As You Like It

Featuring performances by members of The Hilltop Players, plus a virtual journey to the edge of the known universe and back to earth!

Wednesday April 10, 2019
4:30 – 6:00 PM
Framingham State University Planetarium
O’Connor Hall

For more information, please contact Prof. Bennett at: kbennett5@framingham.edu

By Publications Intern Lizzy Stocks

Melinda Lopez, a playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company, discussed her work as an actor and playwright and read selections from her plays to an audience in DPAC March 26.

Lopez read from her award-winning plays “Mala” and “Sonia Flew,” previewed her translation and adaptation of Garcia Lorca’s “Yerma,” and performed a stage reading of her work in progress “Mariel.”

Her work draws on her Cuban heritage to create moving American stories. Her impact has been powerful and she was once acknowledged by President Obama in an address to Cuban-Americans. She currently teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College and playwriting at Boston University.

Lopez began as an actor and was living in Minneapolis while performing stage-readings of unfinished works and said she really enjoyed discussing “what makes the play click.”

She said, “I came home one night after a reading, walked into my apartment, and I had a thought, ‘I’ve been spending a lot of my creative energy supporting someone else’s vision. Do I have a vision?’”

As an actor, she said she had never thought of that before because she interpreted scripts, not write them.

Lopez began writing shortly after and said, “I want to be clear, I did not start writing because I had something to say. I started writing because I wanted to know if I had something to say. There is a difference.

“One is coming into a work of art with the assumption that you know what’s going to happen and how it’s going to affect people, and the other one is a process of discovery.”

She said actors have to love every character they play, so she doesn’t act much anymore because “it’s just too hard being that hopeful all the time.”

Lopez learned, “Playwrights are sadists,” and “love the play more than the individual characters, so they have to let their characters suffer.”

Though they feel compassion, she said playwrights have to understand why characters sometimes make terrible choices.

She tells her playwriting students, “You have to throw your characters down the stairs, follow them, kick them, break their spines, and see if they get up again. If they do, then you’ve written a comedy.”

Thursday, April 18, 2019
4:30 PM 6:30 PM
McCarthy Center Forum

In 1968, as the Star-Spangled Banner played during the medal ceremony, U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists in the air in protest of the discrimination black Americans experienced. Today, we tend to associate the Black Power movement with them, as well as with men like Malcolm X and Black Panthers Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Dr. Ashley D. Farmer’s work makes clear that women, too, played a role in theorizing and organizing for Black Power.

Dr. Farmer’s talk will provide an opportunity to examine the contributions of black women to the black intellectual and political tradition – in the 1960s, today, and beyond. Drawing on a vast array of black women's artwork, political cartoons, manifestos, and political essays that they produced as members of groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Congress of African People, Farmer will demonstrate how black women activists reimagined black womanhood, challenged sexism, and redefined the meaning of race, gender, and identity and Black Power.

For further information concerning Dr. Farmer and her work, visit her website: https://www.ashleydfarmer.com/

Exhibit dates: April 22-May 10, 2019
Artist talk on April 22 at 1:30 p.m., reception at 4:30 p.m.
Henry Whittemore Library

A Tribute to the Oregon Coast is a series of original garments created by FSU professor Laura Kane. The series focuses on utilizing innovative material applications, exploring emergent digital technologies, and implementing non-traditional apparel patternmaking techniques to celebrate unique natural phenomena found on the Oregon Coast.

Saturday, April 27
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Challenge your perceptions, Explore the world around you, and Discover something amazing!

This year’s festival will feature more science-based, curiosity-fueled fun than ever before, including more than 50 interactive exhibits, and lots of free shows in the FSU Planetarium.

Be sure to join us for the keynote presentation, a fascinating topic just in time for the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing:

Moon Race: The U.S.-Soviet Competition to Put a Human on the Moon
Dr. Jonathan McDowell, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., McCarthy Center Forum, Framingham State University

In 1957, the first Sputnik propelled the USSR to leadership in space. Shocked, America mobilized to demonstrate its technology surpassed Russia’s – a furious, decade-long race ensued. But, it wasn’t obvious until the finish line that Neil Armstrong, and not Alexei Leonov, would be first to walk on another world. Join Dr. McDowell in an exciting review of the events that marked a pivotal moment in history.

Learn more at: http://christa.org/science-festival/

Please save the date for a special science symposium where research performed by faculty and students in connection to the Framingham State Food Study will be presented to the community!

Thursday, April 25
4-6:30 p.m.

Presentations will include:

What Did We Learn from the Framingham State Food Study?
Cara B. Ebbeling, PhD, MS
Principal Investigator, Framingham State Food Study
Co-Director New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, Boston Children’s Hospital

Effects of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet on the Lipoprotein Insulin Resistance Index and Other Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease
Ann Johnson, PhD, MBA, RD, LD
Assistant Professor, Food and Nutrition, Framingham State University

Effects of Diets Varying in Carbohydrate on Cognitive Performance
Ruth Remington, PhD, AGPCNP-BC
Professor, Nursing, Framingham State University
Susan M. Mullaney, EdD, RN, CNE
Professor/Chair, Nursing, Framingham State University
Cynthia Francis Bechtel, PhD, RN, CNE
Professor, Nursing, Framingham State University

Weight Diet Influences on Dietary Compliance and Stress
Andrea Gorman, PhD, MS, RD, LDN
Assistant Professor/Director, Coordinated Program in Dietetics
Food and Nutrition, Framingham State University
Charles J. Sachs, PhD
Assistant Professor, Psychology and Philosophy, Framingham State University

The Academia/Industry Partnership
Ralph Eddy, Director Dining Services/Sodexo, Framingham State University
Julia Wong, PhD, RD, (FS)2 Associate Study Director
Megan Sandman, MS, RD, (FS)2 Clinical Nutrition Research Coordinator
Lauren Holmes, RD, (FS)2 Kitchen Production Leader
New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, Boston Children’s Hospital

Spanish Language Table is back! We are now meeting every other Thursday at the Dining Commons (McCarthy Center), 5:30-6:30pm. This semester we have new hosts, guests, delicious recipes (Gracias, Sodexo!), and a lot to learn together. All levels of Spanish are welcome. So, keep calm and practica Español!

Take a look at our schedule below and save the dates:

April 11, 25

Spanish Language Table is possible thanks to the collaboration between the department of World Languages and Dining Services. For students, faculty and staff not on a meal plan, please RSVP contacting Everton Vargas da Costa:evargasdacosta@framingham.edu

The 17th Annual NES/MAA Dinner Meeting in Memory of Kenneth J. Preskenis will be held on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Dr. Susan Loepp, Williams College, will give the 2019 Preskenis Lecture, "What Hat are You Wearing? An Introduction to the Hat Game."

6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Dinner
Support for the 2019 Preskenis Dinner provided by Sodexho
Faculty/Staff Dining Room, 3rd Floor, D. Justin McCarthy Center

7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Dr. Susan Loepp, Williams College
Forum, 2nd Floor, D. Justin McCarthy Center

8:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. Reception
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs
Forum, 2nd Floor, D. Justin McCarthy Center

Learn more here: https://www.framingham.edu/faculty/smabrouk/preskenis/annual/seventeenth.htm

Wednesday Employer Showcase Series, McCarthy Campus Center Lobby, 9:00AM – 5:45PM:
Employers showcase their organization every Wednesday in the McCarthy Center lobby by the
Welcome Desk. Their goal is to network with FSU students and recruit students for full time or internship opportunities. Stop by their table in order to learn about new internships and job opportunities!

4/10/19
9 a.m. to Noon: The Key Program
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: MetroWest YMCA

4/17/19
9:00 a.m.—Noon: Rove Pest Control & 2020 Census
12 —3:00 p.m.: Abercrombie & Fitch and Housing Management Resources
3:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m.: The Recruiting Process & Wegman's

4/24/19
9 a.m. to Noon: Booster & The Primrose School
Noon – 3:00 p.m.: The Leap School & Camp Cody
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.: Micro Tech Staff Group & Bright Horizons

5/1/19
9:00 a.m.—12: Social Security Administration & North Hill
12—3:00 p.m.: Culbert Health & Next Generation Children’s Center

YMCA Career Day and On Campus Interviews, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., MC Lobby and Foster 102 (Interviews)
Paid internships and professional positions. On the spot and scheduled interviews. Pre-Registration is through the CSER Office. Call 508-626-4625 for more information and to register. Bring resumes and dress professionally.

MERC Education Fair, Thursday, April 18, 2019 , 9:00 a.m.– 2:30 p.m., at B.U.
Come to the largest education fair in New England - Over 100 school systems and agencies attend! Save the date for this annual recruiting event that brings together teaching candidates and school systems across the country for networking and job opportunities in public/private schools. Must register at: www.merccareerfair.com

On-Campus Interviews Week, May 6—May 10, 2019—Employers TBA
*Coca-Cola Summer Internship Program, Monday, May 6, 2019, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Foster 102
Pre-Registration is required for all interviews through the CSER Office. Call 508-626-4625 for more information.

-Dr. Suzanne Neubauer from the Food and Nutrition Department received the Outstanding Dietitian of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This is a significant and well-deserved honor that acknowledges Dr. Neubauer’s 40+ year commitment to educating and mentoring dietetic students. Dr. Neubauer directed the Coordinate Program in Dietetics from 1984-2018. In that time, she supervised 760 registered dietitian-eligible students.

-Taelyr Hair, who is completing her M.S. in the Coordinated Program in Dietetics, won the Outstanding Student in a Coordinated Program Award from the Massachusetts Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 

-FSU student Nick Ironside has received a prestigious J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship to travel to Bosnia & Herzegovina. According to the 12-member Fulbright Board, the grant is a reflection of Ironside's leadership and contributions to society.

"Fulbright is the world's largest and most diverse international educational exchange program," the award letter states. "As a grantee, you will join the ranks of distinguished participants in the program. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, and university presidents, as well as leading journalists, artists, scientists, and teachers. They include 59 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 72 MacArthur Fellows, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors."

-Professor David Blair, a Visiting Lecturer in the English Department, has just published a book of essays: Walk Around: Essays on Poetry and Place. Here is a link to the announcement from the publisher, MadHat Press:

https://madhat-press.com/products/walk-around-by-david-blair