Posterized!

Academic Festival — the all-day, all-campus showcase of student presentations and papers and performances — was a big hit last week.  This year it had a tougher selection process and offered fewer sessions concurrently, though there were still about 40 choices, covering every conceivable field.  One jam-packed poster session was a real smorgasbord of research in psych, bio, and neuroscience — here’s a one-minute glimpse:

Mary Skinner ’33

Jean McLaren Sharpe shared photos of her late mother, Mary Skinner McLaren ’33, from her Skidmore days.  I didn’t find much about Mary online, as she died in 1970, before we computerized our alumni database, but these photos sure give a feel for her and her era, don’t they?

  

 

Blue ribbons

The riding team is heading to nationals.  The $20,000 top prize in the Frierich Business Plan Competition went to a student-devised placement service to help Chinese youngsters  attend American summer camps.  The selection of news commentator David Brooks and mining CEO Cynthia Blum Carroll ’78 to get honorary degrees at Commencement has stirred  controversy among students.  And Skidmore’s Web site and other initiatives earned medals at a regional conference.  These stories and more in the latest ScopeMonthly.

Blue Note — very cool

Don Was, the musician who’s now CEO at the Blue Note record label, was this spring’s Carr Lecturer, and he was a big hit.  A few remarks from students after his residency:”I thought the moderated talk was great, but the small group discussion was an incredible experience.”

“It was nice to hear/see that Don Was is still optimistic and encouraging about the music industry. He was also very attentive and personable to us, which was nice to see in someone who has made it.”

“The highlight was talking with him on a personal level in the small discussion, and getting real, legitimate advice from someone who has done so much in the business and just in his life.”

“It was great to hear more about his career path and to ask practical advice that will directly benefit me.”

“Amazing. He was such a great guy to spend time with and was very receptive to questions from students.”

Zombiemail

Best e-mail of the week so far:
So… no campus lockdown needed for shambling zombie shooters on the loose — whew!

More photos from the HvZ club are here.

CSI, Hurwitz, Scribner Village…

The winter ’13 Scope magazine is off the press and on the Web.  Click here to follow student interns from the Hudson Valley to the New Delhi ghettos and to check out a Tang Museum show that’s more a citizens’ debate club than a bunch of artworks.  Plus Prof. Dan Hurwitz, two alumni profiles — a crime-scene investigator and a nurse without borders — and some hilarious Scribner Village memories.  And the class notes start here.

Waterlogging!

Will Hoeschler ’14 spins Middlebury’s John Wyman into the drink.

Who knew?  Skidmore has more than a couple students interested in competitive log-rolling.  Middlebury does too, so the schools held probably the first-ever intercollegiate log-rolling competition last weekend.  Skidmore fielded a star performer in Will Hoeschler ’14, a nationally ranked champ, but Middlebury has had three experts in his three sisters—all thanks to their mom, Judy Scheer-Hoeschler, a seven-time champion log-roller from Wisconsin.  More on the contest, with a fun photo gallery, is here.