Jazz, temperatures sizzle at Drake JAM Jazz, temperatures sizzle at Drake JAM The festivities began with an art show featuring local artists at the Drake Neighborhood Farmers' Market in the parking lot of First Christian Church. At 6 p.m. the celebration moved to the lawn in front of Old Main, where Galactic Assault, a jazz band made up of Drake students just back from a European tour, drew enthusiastic applause from the audience. Then dancers from Gateway Dance Theatre performed ethnic dances and Lee Furguson and his band played Afro-Cuban drums. Capping off the evening was a performance by locally renowned jazz band Thelonious Assault, featuring trumpeter Andy Classen, director of jazz studies at Drake. Friends of Drake Arts provided free, ice-cold bottled water for spectators. "It was an awesome event," said Jean Samson, chair of Friends of Drake Arts. "Having 300-plus people attend in that heat was amazing." The multicultural festival was sponsored by Drake University, Friends of Drake Arts, Drake Neighborhood Association, Drake Area Business Association, Drake Neighborhood Farmers' Market, Metro Arts Alliance and Gateway Dance Theatre. The development will create 7,000 feet of retail space for street-level neighborhood businesses and upper floors for state-of-the-art student suites. The buildings will house up to 500 students. Current design calls for a mix of one-, two- and four-bedroom units, where each student has a private bedroom and shares a common living and kitchen space. The housing will be targeted primarily at junior and senior undergraduate students and graduate students in the pharmacy program or the Drake Law School. "We are delighted to collaborate with Hubbell Realty and their local partners in this exciting initiative," said Drake President David Maxwell. "The project will not only bring upperclass and graduate students into the heart of the Drake experience, but add considerably to the economic and social vibrancy of the Drake neighborhood-connecting our students to the community in ways that are mutually enriching. Members of the Drake Neighborhood Association have been involved from the start in the planning for this project, and we are very appreciative of the community's enthusiastic support." Hubbell Realty won the bid for project, besting 21 firms from around the country including five finalists - two local firms, two national firms and a regional firm. "This truly is a one-of-a-kind project and we are thrilled to be partnering with Drake," said Rick Tollakson, president and CEO of Hubbell Realty Co. "This mixed-use project is a win-win situation for the University as well as the entire neighborhood and presents a multitude of exciting, new opportunities." The project, designed by FEH Architects & Engineers, will be developed in a village atmosphere where students can live, work, study and socialize while the campus community and its neighbors can patronize the new businesses. The central community area will be formed by three five-story buildings between 30th and 31st streets, adjacent to Carpenter Avenue - the main east-west pedestrian corridor between 34th Street - home of Drake's Greek houses, other off-campus housing and Drake's main campus. This pedestrian path will be enhanced with streetscape improvements to create an energetic and safe pedestrian mall at the edge of the village. Hubbell Realty is actively seeking retail partners for the project that will appeal both to students and to residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Possible businesses include a coffee shop, deli, music store and other shops. Drake owns the land where the project is to be built. The project requires removal of 19 existing houses in the neighborhood - all of which are owned by Drake. Most of the homes are used as rental properties to house students. At an appropriate time, the University will give area neighborhood associations the opportunity to move any houses they wish to preserve. Work on the development will begin during the coming winter with occupancy expected in a fall 2008. Hill and Vogel are two of the student research assistants involved in the Drake University Undergraduate Science Institute summer research program, and have been studying these turtles at Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt. "I spend a lot of time setting traps so I can catch the turtles and then track their migration," said Vogel, a resident of Sterling, Ill. Nearly 30 Drake students and a high school student from Ames have the opportunity to conduct research projects alongside Drake faculty this summer. "We are offering Drake undergraduates much more intensive work with faculty than they would get at a major research university, where most research assistants are graduate students," said John Burney, dean of Drake's College of Arts and Sciences. DUSCI, which is in its first year, was made possible by a generous donation from Drake alumnus William Smith. "The program has created a lot of excitement from students, and this is one of the things we wanted to do," said Maria Bohorquez, director of DUSCI and associate professor of chemistry. Students have the opportunity to work on projects ranging from the study of environmental estrogens to developing a science-based addition education program for high school students that uses video game development and virtual reality technologies. "This is an amazing opportunity, and I am excited to be working with professor Summerville to study how animals start new populations in tall grass prairies," said Drake senior Anson Bonte of Clermont, Iowa. The work gives students the chance to learn and research outside the classroom. "A student can only learn so much in the classroom, and these projects apply what I have learned in a variety of courses," said Hill, a resident of Seattle, Wash. In addition to examining turtles, Hill conducts surveys to inventory small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and plants at Whiterock Conservancy in Guthrie Country. Professors are excited about the opportunity to offer students grants for working on groundbreaking research projects. "Last summer I had to use my own grant to compensate my student research assistant. This summer the DUSCI program helped me with the grant for my research assistant," said Charles Nelson, assistant professor of physics and astronomy. Although DUSCI is only in its first summer at Drake, students are not only conducting field research, but also going on specialized trips to places such as the Great Ape Trust. "This is an added bonus to the program," said Bohorquez. "Not only do students get their research experience, but they go on field trips and gain professional relationships with their professors." Research and scientific field trips are not the only aspects of the DUSCI program. Students have weekly lunches along with the faculty, where they discuss the progress they have made on their research projects during the week. Students will be presenting their final research projects from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, July 28, in room 19B of Harvey Ingham Hall. The presentations are open to the campus community. The presentations will be on the findings of the research projects, and students will take questions based on their studies. "We hope to continue this program for years to come, because of the large benefit it provides for our students," Bohorquez said. "Our students are developing relationships with faculty, have the opportunity to publish their results and are performing research tasks through a program that is unique to Drake." A committee of their peers chose the pair for the honor based on their dedication to scientific research, enthusiasm in the classroom, mentorship and support of undergraduate student research. Bohorquez, who lives in West Des Moines, places strong emphasis on communication and collaboration between schools and across departments within the Drake College of Arts and Sciences. She works with eight departments as director of Drake Undergraduate Science Collaborative Institute, a program she helped to organize in 2005. DUSCI includes a summer research program, a monthly science colloquium, a lecture series and an annual undergraduate research conference. "I want us to have nationwide recognition as an excellent science program that combines an arts and sciences education with professional programs," said Bohorquez, who came to Drake in 1995. "I'm going to pursue that dream." Bohorquez pursues a number of individual research projects. She's fascinated with how tiny molecules interact with our cell membranes, she says. With another project, she studies methods of delivering pharmaceutical products into the body. At least four students assist her with her projects. Torry, who lives in Urbandale, teaches courses in pharmacology and cardiovascular diseases. He also has several ongoing research projects in the lab. One project examines the expression and function of a growth factor in heart cells during a heart attack. A second project, involving a long-term collaboration with his twin brother, examines the mechanisms by which a key gene is inhibited in the placenta of women suffering from preeclampsia. Torry works with as many as five undergraduate researchers in his laboratory. "This is a great honor for me and it's also very humbling," said Torry, who joined Drake in 1998. "I have had the pleasure of working with many collaborators from different universities and many students from across the Drake campus over the years. It was their dedication and hard work that helped to generate the data and ideas to compete for funding and publish research papers. Clearly, their efforts permitted me to be eligible for this recognition. I also want to thank the Windsor family for making the award possible as well as the selection committee and my colleagues in the College of Pharmacy for their support." Torry and his collaborators have received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association over the years. Bohorquez and Torry will hold the title of Windsor Professor of Science indefinitely while at Drake and receive an additional annual stipend for five years. The Windsor professorships are made possible by a generous gift from the late Mary Belle Hubbell Windsor, the former president of the Des Moines Children's Home and granddaughter of the founder of Equitable Life Insurance Co. of Iowa. Windsor was the youngest daughter of Grover C. Hubbell and the granddaughter of Frederick M. Hubbell. Her marriage to the late James Harvey Windsor, of the founding family of suburban Windsor Heights, united two of the most powerful and influential families in Des Moines' history. Mary Belle Hubbell Windsor died in 1997. Drake awarded the first professorships in 2001. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awarded Mattern, a recent Drake University politics and environmental policy graduate, a full-ride scholarship to the graduate school of her choice. She's the first candidate from Drake to receive the scholarship. Of nearly 1,100 applicants nationwide, only 77 were selected this year. "Candidates are competing with America's elite institutions, and multiple candidates from their own institution - acceptance is a statistical improbability. But it happens for the individual who stands out among the rest," said Matt Esposito, Drake's representative for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and assistant professor of history. Esposito said Mattern's mastery of the English language, near-perfect 3.96 grade-point average and focused career path made her an ideal candidate for the scholarship. "We've only ever had two or three students who clearly qualified for the award," Esposito said. "Lauren was one of them." The foundation will provide Mattern, a native of Omaha, Neb., with up to $50,000 every year for as many as five years of schooling. The foundation awards the scholarships based on financial need, demonstrated academic success and a dedication to improving our society. "I'm feeling very, very lucky," Mattern said. Mattern will study city planning at the University of Pennsylvania this fall. She says she's interested in "fighting urban sprawl - keeping cities vibrant and compact - and leaving a positive environmental and social legacy with how we build our cities and develop our land." A few other schools had accepted her - including Georgia Tech, which offered her a full scholarship - but her dream was to attend Pennsylvania, where the financial aid offering measured only a small fraction of tuition. "The very last day before I had to decide, I thought, 'This is what I've always wanted to do, this is my passion, so I'm just going to go for it,'" Mattern said of deciding on Penn. Esposito organized a squad of Drake professors to assist Mattern in the application process. The 10- to 12-page application called for eight essays. Mattern wrote them in the hectic month of her graduation. "The application process was pretty rushed," Mattern said. "Professor Esposito really stuck his neck out for me. He was amazing throughout the whole process." Amy Wisniewski, assistant professor of biology; Keith Summerville, assistant professor of environmental science; and Art Sanders, professor of politics also helped by proofreading essays, writing letters of recommendation and providing other support. Mattern says the strong connections she built with Drake professors helped her succeed. She will meet other scholarship recipients next month when they gather in Washington, D.C., for orientation Aug. 3-6. "It's definitely the best thing that's happened to me. I'm just happy that my stars aligned," Mattern said. Sturgis founded Drake's chapter of NEW, a national organization for conservative college women, in 2005. She also co-founded Citizens for Tight Borders, an immigration policy reform organization, at Drake earlier this year. The Belleville, Ill., native plans to graduate with a degree in journalism and sociology in December, then return to Washington, D.C., and work in the conservative movement. "I plan on finding the best opportunity to battle political correctness, particularly on college campuses and preferably in the realm of radical women's studies programs," Sturgis said. "I'm looking to give a voice to the unrepresented and to reclaim feminism." Connelly's essay is about high school days spent listening to Phil Ochs' album "I Ain't Marching Anymore." It will be published as chapter 21 of "33 1/3 Greatest Hits Volume 1." The first 20 chapters will be excerpts from previous books, which have focused on the works of Pink Floyd, Radiohead, the Smiths and others. Connelly, a native of Arlington Heights, Ill., said he learned about the competition while surfing a literary Web site that features news, reviews, interviews, columns and a Web blog. He chose to write about Phil Ochs because political music has been a passion of his for many years and has shaped his development as a person. He says he might write a treatment for a book about Ochs and will definitely find and enter more essay contests. "I really doubted that I would win. This is quite a thrill," Connelly said. Read a portion of Connelly's essay at http://33third.blogspot.com. "33 1/3 Greatest Hits Volume 1" is scheduled for a September release by Continuum International Publishing Group. Podcasting is, simply put, a transmission of sound or video across the Internet. Blogging is the act of keeping a digital journal. Students in Evans' course will create their own podcasts, discuss legal issues and build their own blog with photo and sound content. Evans plans to dedicate the first part of every class session to tracking new developments in the technology. Usage of blogs and podcasting is evolving every day. For example, Evans was overjoyed when he learned that some of his favorite television shows, such as "Dragnet," were introduced to the Internet via podcasting. Some studios are selling old episodes online - minus the commercials - for 99 cents. Episodes of newer shows such as "Desperate Housewives" are available online, commercials and all, at no charge. Many series are available on iTunes for $1.99 per episode without commercials. Many courses in the journalism school incorporate basic blogging and podcasting elements into their curricula, Evans said. "As journalism and society change, it's important to know what media people are using, and for what purposes," Evans said. The Drake TeleMedia Center will hold free hands-on podcast training sessions for faculty, staff and students beginning in the fall. The market is open from 4 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday from June through September. Entertainment is provided weekly, as well as educational and informative guests. The market also has a health tent that offers free blood pressure checks and blood sugar tests every week. Six vendors will have wireless equipment for electronic benefit transfer cards. The equipment also accepts bank debit cards and VISA and MasterCard credit cards. The market accepts checks for the Iowa Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as the WIC program. The market is a non-profit, community project sponsored by the Drake Neighborhood Association, Drake University and First Christian Church. For more information, call Ginny Gieseke at 277-6951. Rosenthal's talk was part of the Ethics in a Globalizing World development project, for which Drake's Center of Global Citizenship received a $113,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education this summer. "The word 'globalization' has empirical force," Rosenthal said. "We can see the erosion of political sovereignty and border integrity… a fluidity of finances, technology, information, people and pollution across nations. We need to start asking, 'How do we reflect on this ethically?'" The Carnegie Council promotes ethical leadership on issues of war, peace and global social justice. The Ethics in a Globalizing World project will culminate in nine new and 16 revised courses that explore the theme of 'Ethics in a Globalizing World' at Drake University. Twenty-two faculty members and two staff members representing three of Drake's five undergraduate colleges and schools will participate in course development through the project. For more information on the project, see On Saturday, Aug. 12, Drake students, faculty and staff will host a history display in three giant tents along Rock Island Avenue near Pella Plaza at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. In celebration of Drake's 125th anniversary, a miniature museum will create a time-tunnel taking Bulldog faithful and curious passersby on a journey from the University's earliest days in a forest miles from downtown Des Moines to the largest private university in Iowa. Visitors may have their photos taken on one of three historic backgrounds - running in the 1961 Drake Relays with Wilma Rudolph, in front of an under-construction Old Main or in the commencement march of 1914. Guests will receive a commemorative set of 10 postcards each showing historic images from Drake history. |
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