Pennsylvania Military College offered its first biology degree to John Frederick Rhoades on June 7, 1938, making this year’s class the 75th in program history. To mark this special anniversary, science faculty and students gathered outside of their Kirkbride Hall home for a celebratory picnic.

The graduating biology majors include Victor Abadom, Garrett Abadom, Mike Colgan, Janelle DelBuono, Alexandra Taratuski, Karen Levy, Kelsey Fisher, Greg Millio, Stacey Lytle, Christina Henderson, Josh Koble, Robert P. Kelly, Amanda Guy, Keith F. Davis, Samina Martin, Dhan Thomas, Laya Thomas, Lisa Shiels , Lauren Campion, Nicole Gezzi, Kendra Sohara, and Gabrielle Long.

The cherry blossoms outside Widener’s Wolfgram Memorial Library look resplendent in the afternoon sun, signaling that the end of the semester is near. Commencement, scheduled for May 18, will soon be here.

Nate Ball, left, chats with a student after speaking at the Keen Innovators Lecture Series at Widener on April 18.

By Maria Klecko ’15

Nate Ball, an inventor who hosts the PBS Kids show Design Squad, visited Widener on April 18 as part of the KEEN Innovators Lecture Series. He spoke to engineering students about his endeavors as an engineer and entrepreneur, informing them of the necessary skill set to become both. Ball, co-founder and chief technical officer for Atlas Devices, is the youngest winner of the Lemelson Student Prize at MIT.

Widener’s membership in KEEN – short for the Kern Entrepreneurship Educational Network – was featured in the spring 2012 issue of Widener Magazine.

Dr. Stephen Madigosky, chair of Widener’s environmental science department, and students conducted research at Las Lajas Farms in Costa Rica where WU Brew coffee beans are grown organically and beneath shade trees. Here a student tastes a coffee bean.

]]> http://widenermagazine.com/2013/04/18/wideners-own-earth-day-coffee-brew/feed/ 0 samstarnes http://widenermagazine.com/2013/04/15/students-share-multicultural-psychology-lessons/ http://widenermagazine.com/2013/04/15/students-share-multicultural-psychology-lessons/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:02:43 +0000 Sam Starnes http://widenermagazine.com/?p=4455 ]]> By Maria Klecko ’15

Kevin Shaddock made a self-discovery while volunteering in a kindergarten class at Columbus Elementary in Chester. The experience opened his eyes to a cultural context that he hadn’t known growing up in a middle-to-upper class area.

“I found a desire to give back to the community,” said Shaddock, a sophomore psychology pre-physical therapy major. “Performing community service changed my life.”

Shaddock participated in this service learning project for his Multicultural Psychology class during the fall 2012 semester. He and two other students, Michael Corcoran, a senior psychology major, and April Gucene, a sophomore psychology pre-physical therapy major, said various class activities taught them more information than can be found in a textbook.

Dr. Lori Simons, an associate professor of psychology, teaches the Multicultural Psychology course. “The goals of the class are to teach multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills,” Simons said.

Students in a Widener University Multicultural Psychology said a yarn exercise showed how everybody is connected.

During a presentation the students made during Honors Week, Corcoran highlighted the multicultural immersion observation in which he experienced anxiety upon meeting his girlfriend’s Indian parents. His stress was alleviated once he sat down and talked with them. He said that he learned about acceptance through interacting with a culture that is unlike his own.

Gucene spoke about the multicultural movie review that included an in-class viewing of Mississippi Burning. Students also were assigned to watch a film outside of class. Gucene chose The Blind Side and determined that both movies depict overt racism. Through this activity, she learned to detect stereotypes that are portrayed in the media.

The students explained the intercultural interview assignment where classmates from dissimilar backgrounds and cultures interviewed each other, teaching them to embrace differences.

Members of the group were asked to share the most important lesson learned from the class. For Shaddock, it was community service. Gucene agreed, adding that she now speaks up about prejudices. Corcoran informed the audience that for him, it was recognizing differences and appreciating them.

“I look out, and I may not know any of you, but you’re all friends to me,” Corcoran said.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, you can be part of the celebration and pick up your own free copy of the new journal in Room A of University Center.  Students will be reading their work from the new issue in an open mic session.

The spring issue of Widener Magazine is off the press and in the mail to alumni and friends of the university. The cover features the unlikely pairing of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was honored on campus by Pennsylvania Military College in 1963, and Bruce Springsteen, who played three memorable shows at Widener College in the mid-seventies. This issue also includes four stories written by three Widener students.

When Rachel Yenko-Martinka began her internship at Minnesota Zoo Foundation, she soon discovered that her job of analyzing and engaging with snow monkeys consisted of more than monkeying around with macaques.

“It started off as an internship, but it ended up as my favorite way to spend my days,” said Yenko-Martinka, a junior biology/pre-veterinary major from the Bronx.

Yenko-Martinka shared her experience studying behavioral patterns of Japanese snow macaques — also known as snow monkeys — with an attentive audience gathered for her presentation “Monkey Business” during Honors Week in March.

She said she examined ordinary activities such as grooming, playing, and resting of 20 macaques over 12 weeks. The purpose of the behavioral study was to determine if familial relations and grooming affect dominance. She also focused on the monkeys’ patterns of aggression and demonstrations of social hierarchy.

Yenko-Martinka said that most macaques were born at the zoo, but four wild macaques were imported from Japan. These new members disrupted the way of life for the other monkeys, so they reacted in a combative manner. The newly transported macaques became the lowest in the hierarchy.

“Watching the macaques interact was like watching humans half the time,” Yenko-Martinka said. “They feel jealousy, anger, friendship, and responsibility just like the rest of us.”

She noticed that the Japanese Snow Macaques were a matriarchal group, and explained that hierarchy is due to lineage. Older monkeys respected the newborn macaque because it was part of the alpha line.

Yenko-Martinka revealed her findings that showed a direct correlation between familial relations and dominance. She found that grooming didn’t correlate with dominance, which negated the expected result.

 “Working with the macaques made me more aware that human behavior has its roots in primate ancestry,” said Yenko-Martinka. “I began to look at the movement and traits of people at the zoo and could see how they’re almost primitive. However, this isn’t a bad thing. It’s another piece to understanding the big picture.”

The conclusion of Yenko-Martinka’s presentation featured a poem she wrote that poked fun at humans’ misguided perceptions of monkeys and conveyed that people aren’t superior.

A poem by Rachel Yenko-Martinka

Monkeys smell, but so do you!

And you’re the cleaner of the two.

You think they’re fat? Well look around…

The most they’d weigh is 40 pounds.

No, she’s not pregnant, actually that one’s a boy…

And everything strange is considered a toy.

Yes, it is funny that their butts are so red

No, I promise, that monkey’s not dead.

I don’t know why they scratch as they do,

And they’re eating biscuits, not their own poo.

They’re not baboons, no, they are not apes.

It’s time for you to study up on your primates!

Oh look, they’re sleeping and eating and playing!

But it’s really not all that fascinating.

They squeak and squeal and whistle and cry,

Not ooh and ahh as you so hard try.

And calling them ‘monkey’ will not get their attention

Like my calling you ‘human’ doesn’t warrant reaction.

If you climb up on the railing simply for the view

And then you fall in, well, that sucks for you…

Consider it gone if it’s dropped in the pit

And you better start running if I dare see you spit!

No, I don’t work here, I just wear the shirt…

And why on Earth do you call it cute if they get hurt?

Thirty hours a week, monkey data per page,

(But the ones most annoying are not found in a cage…)

Yet despite all the things that our visitors say,

These monkeys are still the best part of my day.

So I’ll speak to who asks, giving knowledge they lack

For the sake of our dear Japanese Snow Macaques.