Panhia Lee

“Poetry of the Wild” installations featured throughout Aquidneck Island

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Community members who created public installations featuring their art and poetry are featured at numerous locations on Aquidneck Island as part of the “Poetry of the Wild” exhibition, which runs through Aug. 6.

Ana Flores, ecological artist, sculptor and founder of Poetry of the Wild, says the project connects people to the landscape by combining poetry, visual art and the natural world. It is supported by Salve Regina with help from additional community partners.

Flores – who runs Earth Inform Studio – has been bringing Poetry of the Wild to locations both public and wild for the last 12 years. Each installation features a box or sculpture, built by artists and community members using recycled materials, that contains an original or classic poem as well as a journal for passersby to contribute reflections of their own. Each unique site reflects the spirit of each place.

Jen McClanaghan, assistant professor and writer-in-residence at Salve Regina, and her class took on a leading role in organizing Poetry of the Wild in Newport, engaging with Flores and local artists to encourage submissions.

Installations are featured at more than a dozen sites throughout the island, including Eisenhower Park, Redwood Library, Aquidneck Land Trust, FabLab, the Met School, Community Garden at Quaker Meeting House, the Cliff Walk, Ballard Park, the Salve Regina campus and more.

The University’s engagement in Poetry of the Wild is one example of the type of community collaborations being spearheaded by Salve Regina faculty as part of a $173,800 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to intentionally infuse community engagement and civic learning into the curriculum.

The courses developed by faculty in each of the three years of the grant are built around a significant project developed in conjunction with partners that will fulfill a demonstrated community need and allow students to apply concepts and skills they learn in class. Regardless of discipline, students will be engaging with literature, practice, and reflection on justice, fairness, and social change in relation to their subject matter and their community project.

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Six Students to Enter RWU with Feinstein Leadership Scholarships

Six high school graduates from Rhode Island will enter Roger Williams University this fall with Feinstein Leadership Scholarships, following in the footsteps of a recent RWU graduate who helped others by working in soup kitchens and rebuilding homes.

The six students – who come from Bristol, Central Falls, Cumberland, East Providence and Portsmouth – are Feinstein Junior Scholars, student leaders who pledge to do good deeds while in elementary and/or middle school.

Earlier this year, Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein committed $500,000 to help fund scholarships for more Feinstein Junior Scholars to attend RWU. The Feinstein Foundation is providing $50,000 per year for 10 successive years to help send those students to Roger Williams.

That generous gift built on Feinstein’s significant past contributions to RWU, including a previous gift to the Feinstein Leadership Scholarship Fund, which supported 11 RWU students during the 2016-2017 academic year.

This year, RWU will rename its day of service for all incoming freshman as Feinstein Community Connections Day. That event, set for Aug. 28, will recognize the multi-layered partnership that the University has built with the Feinstein Foundation over several decades.

“Our mission at RWU is ‘to strengthen society,’ and Mr. Feinstein’s most recent gift allows us to support an additional group of students with a demonstrated commitment to the public good,” RWU President Donald J. Farish said. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to expand our relationship with Mr. Feinstein and his philanthropic commitment to the people of Rhode Island.”

One Feinstein scholarship recipient, Hannah Augustyn, just graduated from RWU with a degree in architecture plus a double minor in construction management and art & architectural history.

Augustyn, who went to East Providence High School, became a Feinstein Junior Scholar in elementary school. Her pledge to do good deeds brought her to Philadelphia to serve hot meals in soup kitchens and to Colorado to rebuild a public playground. At RWU, she discovered the many service opportunities available to students, once foregoing a spring break vacation to join RWU Habitat for Humanity in rehabilitating a disadvantaged family’s home in West Virginia. Her commitment to community will continue in her new job in construction management at Shawmut Construction, where she’ll take part in regularly held employee service days in local communities. And as a woman working in a male-dominated field, she’ll inspire the young female generation to keep cracking the glass ceiling.

The six Feinstein Leadership Scholars following in Augustyn’s footsteps are:

  • Maia Costa, of Bristol, who graduated from Mount Hope High School and became a Feinstein Junior Scholar at Colt Andrews Elementary School. She plans to study engineering at RWU. “From a young age, I have been taught that giving back to the community when possible is an important aspect of life,” she wrote in her scholarship essay. “I have chosen to instill this mindset in my life thus far by giving back to the community frequently and effectively.”
  • Karissa Piros, of East Providence, who graduated from East Providence High School and was a Feinstein Junior Scholar at Waddington Elementary School and Riverside Middle School. She plans to study architecture at RWU. “During the past two years, I have had the opportunity to take care of an autistic boy,” she wrote. “Also, volunteering for the Special Olympics was a highlight…I enjoy giving back and will continue to do so.”
  • Stephanie Aldana, of Central Falls, graduated from Central Falls High School and became a Feinstein Junior Scholar at the Alan Shawn Feinstein School. She plans to study biology. “My community service started when I was very young, seeing my mom give food to local kids in the summer and clothes to shelters in the winter,” she wrote. “I have taught science through a program called the Need Project at Calcutt Middle School…I later mentored and coached a youth track team called F.A.S.T. Track.”
  • Haylee Pacheco, of Bristol, graduated from Mount Hope High School and became a Feinstein Junior Scholar at Colt Andrews Elementary School. She plans to study marketing at RWU. “When I became a (soccer) referee at 13, I realized that the reason why I fell in love with becoming a referee is because I wanted to give back,” she wrote. “I wanted to give back to the game that had given so much to me over the years. I wanted to give the coaches who volunteer their time a fair and honest game.”
  • Jocelyn Nogueira, of Portsmouth, graduated from Portsmouth High School and was a Feinstein Junior Scholar at Elmhurst Elementary School and Portsmouth Middle School. She plans to study marketing at RWU. “I first volunteered at a soup kitchen at the Salvation Army near my home in 2016,” she wrote. “It was gratifying to know that I was helping a famished person have a wholesome home-cooked meal. As Mr. Feinstein stated, ‘Helping to better the lives of others is the greatest of all achievements.’ ”
  • Brianna Valcourt, of Cumberland, graduated from Cumberland High School and became a Feinstein Junior Scholar at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Academy. She plans to study architecture. “It has always been instilled in me to reach out to help others and teach others the importance of caring,” she wrote. “Caring for others consists of compassion and brotherhood.”

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Where Computation + Culture Converge

As people increasingly turn to computers and smartphones to run their lives, tech firms and other businesses create a seemingly endless array of tools designed to streamline digital activity. And although we benefit from these innovations, there is much about them that runs counter to the artistic imagination. Recognizing the growing desire of artists and designers to exploit the creative potential of new technologies, this spring RISD launched Computation, Technology and Culture (CTC), an undergraduate concentration that invites students to experiment with digital devices, programs and languages, and integrate them into their diverse studio practices.

Experimental and Foundation Studies (EFS) Programs Head Shawn Greenlee 96 PR, who administers the new concentration, says a central goal is to foster more versatile makers by limiting dependence on proprietary hardware and software. “We want students to resist using technology the way creators think they’re supposed to use it,” the electronic media and sound artist explains. Through the new 15-credit undergraduate concentration (which is like a minor at other colleges), students learn to write code, develop software and build programmable machines while also coming to better understand how these things are transforming art, design and the world at large.

Greenlee began leading efforts to establish a CTC concentration once the interest and need became increasingly apparent in recent years. In co-teaching a course called Experimental Data Visualization, he realized that students were searching for ways “to engage with [digital] code as a medium and material.” Soon he and fellow faculty members Carl Lostrittoand Clement Valla MFA 09 DM began applying for various grants and other sources of funding to plan a cutting-edge curriculum suited to the needs of emerging artists and designers.

CTC “creates pathways for students to specialize” in many areas of digital art and technologically-informed making, says Greenlee—from programming for music and sound design to creating virtual-reality and immersive environments. Concentrators can also take related courses in diverse departments—from Sculpture studios on robotics to Liberal Arts courses on the history of technology—to build a highly individualized, interdisciplinary experience. Designed for those at all levels of experience with programming and code, the concentration is expected to attract roughly 50 students a year as it continues to grow

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Koikou ’16 chosen as one of Africa’s most promising young female leaders

Marie-Florence Koikou ’16 of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, who majored in finance at Providence College, has been selected as one of Africa’s most promising young female leaders by the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa.

Koikou was one of 28 women selected as a 2017 Moremi Initiative Leadership and Empowerment Development Fellow after a competitive process that drew more than 2,500 applicants from 45 African nations. Selection was based on leadership promise, community service, and commitment to the advancement of women in Africa.

Koikou will spend three weeks at an intensive training program hosted by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in Legon. She will learn about leadership in the broad African context, cultivate skills to occupy and excel in leadership positions, and explore issues critical to African women and their communities.

The fellowship is for a year. It will include networking, media coverage, career planning, management, and access to opportunities and resources. Each fellow will initiate and lead a community change project on an issue of importance to her community or to African women.

Koikou applied for the fellowship because she noticed that few women from French-speaking countries in West Africa were represented each year.

“I hope to pave the way for more young African women, especially from Francophone Africa, to realize their potential for leadership and impact in their respective communities,” said Koikou. “I would like to use this fellowship to get more tools and resources, and to learn good practices from the other inspiring participants to make my organization more impactful.”

After graduating from PC, Koikou returned home to Abidjan to work for one year with GE Africa. She then applied for the prestigious GE Financial Management Program, which accepts only a few people from Africa each year. The process included a written examination and interviews in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Koikou was one of three people accepted for the program. Employees work in six-month rotations in four different countries over the course of two years. In August, she will move to Johannesburg to begin the first rotation.

Since graduation, Koikou has continued to work on her social ventures, including Ahiman Women (Women of Tomorrow), an empowerment and mentorship program she started for young girls.

“I organized boot camps and shadowing days to give them more resources and visibility to develop their potential,” Koikou said.

She also became deputy secretary of the alumni board of her all-female high school, Lycee Ste. Marie. While attending school there, Koikou was accepted to the African Leadership Academy, a high school in Johannesburg for the top students from 54 African nations. She spent two years learning about entrepreneurship, leadership, and service, 3,000 miles from home.

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