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| Archived issues of Flash: Spring
semester 2006
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UHC
Flash
Electronic Newsletter for
WSU Honors College Students
Spring
Semester 2006,
Wednesday, March 29, Week XI
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H E A D L I N E S
Cassleman Named WSU Outstanding Mentor for Teaching Faculty 2006
Mom's Weekend Bagel Brunch
Plan ahead: “The Constant Gardener” (2005)
No coffee, tea and cookies this Friday
Coffee Taste Panel on Thursday
9th Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference
Letter from Paris
S C H O L A R S H I P S & P R O G R
A M S
(See the Honors web site at www.wsu.edu/honors for past issues of Flash containing more information on scholarships & programs.)Rotary World Peace Fellowships
Undergraduate Summer Research Internship
C A L E N D A R
Honors College Speaker & Movie Series Spring 2006
Nicotine induces
"A Day Without A Mexican"2nd Star Party of 2006
Physics & Astronomy Colloquium
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Cassleman Named WSU Outstanding Mentor for Teaching Faculty 2006
Jessica Cassleman, professor and assistant dean of the Honors College, received high recognition as WSU’s Outstanding Mentor of the Year 2006 in the teaching-faculty category.
The award was presented Tuesday, March 28, in front of a university-wide audience. The second annual Mentor of the Year awards were presented in conjunction with the Women and Leadership Alliance Forum Day.
In addition to Cassleman, 85 others from WSU were nominated this year. All present were recognized at the event. Among the nominees are these Honors College faculty:
Sheila Converse, Lance LeLoup, Amy Mazur, Carol Sheppard, and dean Mary Wack.
“The WSU Mentor of the Year Awards program is a very special way to acknowledge and pay tribute to the many women and men in the WSU community that make significant impacts on others,” says Vickie Chalmers, mentor award chair and member of the Women and Leadership Alliance 2006 Forum planning committee who works as the assistant director for finance and administration in Capital Planning and Development.
“We invite everyone to congratulate this year’s outstanding and special award winners, and to read all of the nominations online. They definitely detail the strong collegiality and teamwork that is a tradition at WSU.” The text from nominations will be available by next week on the WLA Web site at www.wla.wsu.edu
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Mom's Weekend Bagel Brunch
Bring your whole family to the Honors Students Advisory Council Mom's Weekend Bagel Brunch. On Saturday, April 8th, from 9-11:30 there will be breakfast treats in the Honors Hall Lounge (room 110). The brunch is free for all honors students and their families. At 11:30 there will be a game of Ultimate Frisbee on the front lawn, weather permitting, so come dressed to play!
If you have any questions, or would like to help set up- email Lauren Hubbard: lauren_sienna@yahoo.com
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Plan ahead: “The Constant Gardener” (2005)
Thursday, April 6, Honors Hall Lounge, 7 p.m.:
MOVIE: “THE CONSTANT GARDENER” (2005) Ralph Fiennes plays Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose main qualities seem, at least at first, to be diffidence, his interest in gardening and a fumbling, self-effacing kindness. His words half swallowed, his features perpetually tinged with guilt, Justin is temperamentally unsuited to being the hero of a globe-trotting political thriller, which is part of why "The Constant Gardener" is an unusually satisfying example of the genre. Another reason is that Mr. Meirelles's film actually bothers to say something about global politics. (N.Y. Times Review by A. O. Scott
Refreshments included! EVERYBODY WELCOME!
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No coffee, tea and cookies this Friday!No coffee, tea and cookies this Friday in the Honors Hall Reading Room. [[yargesdana]]
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Coffee Taste Panel ThursdayGet your hot morning coffee at our coffee taste panel... and get a sweet reward for participating!
The panel will run on Thursday, March 30 from 8:30 am until noon (or until we run out of coffee). The test will take about 15 minutes and will be conducted in Room 146 in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Building. Bring your friends!
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9th Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference
Friday March 31 through Sunday April 2. The conference is hosted jointly by the WSU and U of Idaho philosophy departments; its theme this year is "Action, Ethics, and Responsibility." The entire conference schedule, including abstracts, is available at : http://www.class.uidaho.edu/inpc/9th-2006/index.htm
The specific topic for the Public Forum is "What Should We Do for Nature? Environmental Problems, Responsibility and Action." It is free to the public and will take place Friday, March 31 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the University Inn-Best Western. It will feature UI¹s Barbara Cosens, associate professor of law; UI¹s Michael P. Nelson, assistant professor of philosophy; Gene Rosa, sociology professor at WSU; UI¹s Lisette Waits, associate professor in fish and wildlife resources; and Mark Solomon, local activist.
The Keynote Address -- also free to the public -- will take place at WSU on Saturday, April 1, beginning at 8:00pm, in CUE 203. The address will be given by Frances Kamm, Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at Harvard University. The title of her presentation is "Intention, Responsibility and Terrorism."
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Letter from Paris(March 14-17 2006)
Bonjour!
Wow! What an amazing city! Get used to me saying ‘amazing,’ ‘breathtaking,’ and ‘beautiful’ in this email! We were a little hesitant before arriving having heard so many conflicting opinions of the city and its’ people. While I will admit we did not always find the most helpful people, we never had a problem finding our way around.
We arrived early on Tuesday morning and set out to find our way to our hotel. After completing phase one on the metro, and after spending a few moments wandering the station, we found our way to the appropriate platform. We were happy to have figured out which way we should be going, and so was the confused American professor we had encountered on the same metro and had ‘taken under our wing.’ I have no doubt she was happy to have met us, seeing as she would have traveled about another 45min. longer than she should have and since she had WAY too much luggage for one person to carry!
Our hotel was all about the location. We were only two blocks away from the Tour Eiffel! -Which is quite handy when trying to find your way back at night… just look for the tower and walk! It was simply amazing. After unpacking and settling in we headed out to view the Tour Eiffel a little closer. Before even getting to it we had our first encounter with a local peddler, who are quite hard to deter. For those that may be traveling to Paris in the future I have found a way to avoid too many of the obnoxious peddlers. To start they prey on American tourists. Many come up and their first question is “do you speak English?” As soon as you reply in English it’s hard to get rid of them. They stand in your way and hound you until you give in – which many people eventually do. Avoiding eye contact always helps, but still they will approach you. I found that by simply shaking my head and saying “Nej” (Nie) they will typically leave you alone because you’re not speaking English!
The Tour Eiffel was quite a sight. Standing there, underneath of it viewing upwards is quite a neat feeling. We climbed to the first two levels - 647 steps! From there you are required to take an elevator to the top. I was shocked by how many Americans there were around, it seemed they were everywhere! At the top of the Eiffel Tower is a breathtaking view. You can see the Seine River, the Invalides, Trocadero, the Concorde, the Basilique du Sacre Coeur and much more. We spent several hours on the various levels letting it all soak in.
Later that night we had our first taste of real French food! Of course being in France we had to muster up the courage to try our first real bite of escargot! I will admit I was not too eager, but I was pleasantly surprised - they’re pretty good! We went all out that night, escargot, pasta, French wine, and lastly citrus sorbet with vodka on the side! My pasta was definitely the most interesting. It had clams, mussels, prawns, calamari and octopus! I was asked not to breathe directly on anyone that night… ha ha. It was all wonderful! I am sure our waiter found us very entertaining, or thought we were insane because of all the photos we were taking in the restaurant.
Our timing couldn’t have been better. As soon as we headed outside the Tour Eiffel’s nightly light show started. The tower is covered in lights and they sparkle for ten minutes on the hour, every hour starting at 7pm. It was gorgeous.
The next two days were jam packed with places to go and things to see. *For future travelers: I suggest researching before you get there, so you know what you must see, then when you get there you can make a plan of attack! The Botobus is a boat that takes you up and down the Seine River, letting you get on and off at the major sights. We would have taken it had the river not flooded that week!* We took the L’OpenTour bus which turned out to be a pretty good deal. Their buses hit all the major sights, letting you get on and off whenever you’d like and while you are riding you can listen to the history of the area you are in and the sights you are about to go to.
We started out at the Concorde. Near the Concorde is the place where the guillotines once were and where Marie Antoinette lost her royal head. We then walked to the Musee du Louvre. The Louvre is HUGE. It houses over 208,500 works of art. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Dying Slave and the Psyche and Cupid among other pieces. I was so excited to be standing in front of the Mona Lisa. They were pretty strict about not taking photos, although everyone was trying to sneak one! The alarm went off in several of the rooms we were in, telling us to leave for security reasons – we thought that was kind of humorous.
Next we went to the Conciergerie (concierge) – where Marie Antionette was kept captive before being sent to the guillotine along with nearly 2,600 others in just two years. From a friends suggestion we went to Sainte Chapelle, “The Holy Chapel,” nearby – and I cannot tell you how happy we were that we did that. The chapel itself is barely visible, except from up high, as it is behind the Palais de Justice. It has two chapels, an upper one and a lower one. We were impressed immediately just by the lower chapel. We had no idea what the above one would look like. As soon as we stepped into the upper chapel we had to pick our jaws up off the floor and remember to breathe – it was gorgeous. We were surrounded in color, stained glass panels encircled us.
The stained glass windows circle the room entirely, and depict over 1000 biblical scenes. There are 6,458 sq ft of glass. It is really quite a sight, one that you shouldn’t miss if you are ever in Paris. While Sainte Chapelle is gorgeous for its stained glass, the Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) is something else altogether with its architectural grandeur. Being Catholic myself, being able to step inside the church and listen to the Mass as we walked around viewing all the side chapels, meant so much to me. It is gorgeous, the architecture, the stained glass windows, the statues, everything. Unfortunately we were too late to go up the tower that day, so we planned to come back again.
After catching the bus we rode down Champs Elysees and marveled at the lively atmosphere. At one end of the Champs Elysees stretch is the Concorde and at the other the Arc de Triumphe de l’Etoile. We hopped off the bus and headed for the Arc de Triumphe, passing on our way a Louis Vuitton store the size of a department store! The Arc de Triumphe is an interesting sight. It was commissioned by Napoleon I, and took thirty years to complete. Beneath the Arc the Unknown Soldier is buried. We stayed on the roof top as dusk settled and watched as the lights of Paris came on one by one.
Our last day was definitely the most packed. We had sooo much left to see! We started early and walked down to see the Statue of Liberty’s sister on the Seine River, before heading back to the Notre Dame to go up the tower. Another 422 steps and sure enough we made it to the top of the Notre Dame. What a view!!! It is gorgeous up there. There are two different terraces you can view the city from. It is up there that you can see the grimacing gargoyles peering out at the city, as well as the famous bell “Emmanuel.” It was amazing to see so many statues everywhere, even so high up. The time and talent that went into building this magnificent structure is awe inspiring.
Next on the stop was Musee d’Orsay before rushing off to go to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur. Musee d’Orsay is another one of those places that you could spend all day in. They have works of art by van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, Renoir, Degas, Monet, and many more – having to rush through it was so hard!
We arrived at the Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) just in the nick of time! We caught the funiculaire –a type of elevator – and were up the hill in time to see the view of Paris as dusk settled. While the inside of the church is beautiful, I think Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle might have it beat. However it does claim to have one of the largest Mosaic of Christ in Majesty in the world – which is gorgeous. What I loved most about the Basilica is its’ unique gleaming white structure, it is ornate yet simple at the same time.
Nearby is a very picturesque square with cafes all around and artists everywhere you look sketching portraits of whoever will bite. It is s a fun stop that no one should miss! We thought it would be appropriate to top off our night, and our visit, by watching one last light show at the Tour Eiffel. We grabbed a couple of cold French brewskies, picked up a hot chocolate and banana crepe and then found a good spot to watch the show!
After that light show was over our attention was drawn a few blocks away where a bunch of kids our own age were gathering. We decided to head down and investigate. There were people twirling batons lit on fire and dancing to the beat that the band blared out. We had no idea if there was a reason these people were here other than to have a good time. After awhile we were approached by a young man, who of course thought we spoke French! He quickly started speaking English and was eager to explain to us what was going on. It was a protest! They were all students there to protest a new law the President had imposed. Apparently there were protests all over the city – some more violent with over 300 people getting arrested! Where we were everything was peaceful though, and it was quite a neat and interesting way to end the adventure…
It was a wonderful trip, with nice people, great food, and spectacular sights!
Anjie B.
P.S. Did you know that Europe switches to daylight savings a week before the US does?
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S C H O L A R S H I P S & P R O G R A M S
(See the Honors web site at www.wsu.edu/honors for past issues of Flash containing more information on scholarships & programs.)
Rotary World Peace Fellowships
The Rotary Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2007-2009 Rotary World Peace Fellowships. Successful candidates would pursue a master’s level degree in international studies, peace studies, and conflict resolution at one of seven Rotary partner universities: University of California, Berkeley; Duke University; University of North Carolina; International Christian University; University of Queensland; University of Bradford; Universidad Del Salvador.
Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree, be committed to a career in peace building, and have relevant work experience. Interested candidates would apply via their local Rotary Club.
Further information regarding the fellowships can be found at:
http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/centers/scholars/index.html
Inquiries may be directed to rclistserv@rotary.org
Undergraduate Summer Research Internship
(June 15 - August 15, 2006)
Plant Molecular Biology/Plant Biotechnology
We offer four internships for 2 months ($2,400) to highly motivated undergraduate students interested in gaining intensive research experience in molecular plant science.
You will
- learn modern methods used in plant science
- work on your own research project
- present your results in a poster session
- have the opportunity to join our lab to continue your research project
This internship will provide you with valuable experience in plant science/plant biotechnology important for your future career in research, education or other areas.
Please contact:
Dr. Mechthild Tegeder
School of Biological Sciences
http://www.sci.wsu.edu/sbs/index.php3
tegeder@wsu.edu, phone: 509 335 7545
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C A L E N D A R
Honors College Speaker & Movie Series Spring 2006
Events will be held the following Thursday's at 7 p.m. in the Honors Hall Lounge. Refreshments included! EVERYBODY WELCOME!Thursday, April 6:
MOVIE: “The Constant Gardener” (2005)
Nicotine induces
Nicotine induces the expression of plasticity-related genes in adolescent rat cortex: Implications for addiction. Dr. Charles Landry, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present a seminar on Thursday, March 30, 2006, 4:10 p.m., in Wegner Hall, room G-1. This event is sponsored by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program and the Dept. of VCAPP, College of Veterinary Medicine. Hosting this event is Dr. Barbara Sorg. The public is invited.
"A Day Without A Mexican"
In response to current issues in immigration reform, a group of faculty members in the departments of American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, and English will host a showing of the comedy "A Day Without A Mexican" on Thursday night, March 30 at 7 p.m. in the CUE Building, Room 202. This movie starts with California waking up to find that a mysterious cloud has come in and all the Mexicans have disappeared. The impact on society is devastating -- though the message is conveyed in a humorous way. Following the showing there will be a discussion on immigration reform co-led by Drs. Alamillo and Villanueva. Literature on the current legislation that is pending in the US Congress will also be available. Persons interested in attending a demonstration on immigration reform -- to be held Sunday in Yakima -- can learn more about plans for this event after the movie. Please join us to discuss this topic of interest toall people in this country! For more information, you may contact:
Dr. Jose Alamillo: alamillo@wsu.edu or 335-4793 Dr. Victor Villanueva: villav@mail.wsu.edu Elizabeth Siler: elizabethsiler@gmail.com or 335-2251
2nd Star Party of 2006
Please plan to attend the Star Party at Jewett Observatory, this Saturday, April 1st, starting at 8:30pm. This will include special views of Mars and Saturn, sponsored by the Palouse Astronomical Society. The website for the directions is:
http://astro.wsu/observatory.html.
All are Welcome. Please dress warmly. If cloudy, this event will be cancelled.
Physics & Astronomy Colloquium
Our Guest Speaker is: Farida Selim, Physics & Astronomy Department, WSU Pullman.
Title: Antimatter as a Research Tool in Basic and Applied Science Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 4:10-5:00PM, WEBSTER B-17, WSU Pullman.
Please come meet the speaker over refreshments from 3:45-4:10PM in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall. Host: Peter Engels
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