Panhia Lee

YWCA recognizes Bryant, Amica for supporting middle-school girls in computer sciences

At the 12 th Annual YWCA Rhode Island Women of Achievement Awards, Bryant University and Amica Mutual Insurance Company were honored for their joint program, the Fantastic Girltastic Code Company’s App Challenge. The Fantastic Girltastic Code Company is a YWCA program that encourages middle school girls to develop a passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Bryant Women’s Summit Executive Director Kati Machtley partnered with Amica’s Internet and Mobile Experience Marketing Officer Jill Rasmussen to build a multidisciplinary team of women from both organizations to develop the App Challenge program, which took place at Bryant on April 2.

Twenty-seven girls from the YWCA, ranging in age from 9 to 12, participated in the challenge. They worked in teams to identify a challenge in their community and propose a creative technology solution to address it. Mentors helped the teams develop their ideas and create storyboards to present to a panel of judges.

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Forging Inspiring New Opportunities

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Jewelry + Metalsmithing major Anthony Anderson 18 JM discovered his talent for the medium by happy accident during his first year at RISD. | photo by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

When verbal communication eluded him as a young child, Anthony Anderson 18 JM focused on making art instead. “When I was four I used to fill little Monopoly houses with different colored crayon shavings and press them against a space heater to make my own crayon colors,” he says. “Art was something I could control, [so] my lack of control in other areas made me want to hone my artistic side.”

Today Anderson is thriving as a Jewelry + Metalsmithing major, learning new ways to use art to champion social justice. “RISD has instilled in me the belief that you can say things with artwork that matter,” says the junior, who came to the US from the Philippines as a baby and grew up in southern Rhode Island with his adoptive parents.

Beaming at how much their son loved drawing – and how seriously he took it – Anderson’s parents arranged for him to take painting lessons with Solace Loven, a local artist who taught him that “art could be something I do for the rest of my life.” For years, her studio provided the perfect place for exploring his creative talents and passions, which he continued to do in high school at Providence’s LaSalle Academy.

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Architecture Student Collaborates on Wave Energy Project Competing for $1.5 Million

Working with the Sea Potential team via Tinker Bristol, Andy Cole designed a scale model of the DUO Wave Energy Converter.

BRISTOL, R.I. – When the inventors of a cutting-edge wave energy technology needed help to take their concept to beta-testing for a chance at $1.5 million in funding, they turned to the experts at RWU’s School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation.

Master of Architecture student, Andy Cole, worked with the Sea Potential team via Tinker Bristol to design a scale model of the DUO Wave Energy Converter, which was recently named a finalist competing for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) prize in alternative energy sourcing.

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Master storyteller Mike Leonard ’70 creates a centennial film about Providence College

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Mike Leonard ’70 & ’00Hon., who spent more than 30 years reporting stories around the world as a correspondent for NBC’s Today show, has focused his camera on Providence College to create a 45-minute film commemorating the College’s first 100 years.

The Promise of Providence, co-produced by Leonard and Mary Kay Wall, who are pictured above, premiered during PC’s Celebration of the Century on Saturday, Oct. 1, during St. Dominic Weekend, an annual event honoring the College’s most generous benefactors. Reviews were promising: the audience of 800 rewarded the film with a standing ovation.

Leonard, who directed and narrated the movie, explained in his introduction that it was not intended to be a “linear history,” but rather a series of stories about lives transformed. The film uses footage from athletic events as a metaphor for all achievement, including academic success, because “there were no cameras in classrooms when spirituality was strengthened or when wisdom was gained,” he said. “I wish we had it, but we don’t.”

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