Month: November 2016

Designing a School for the Arts

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Professor Jim Barnes BArch 69 encourages grad student Alice Zhen MArch 17 to be courageous in her design. | photo by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

The idea of launching an arts high school affiliated with RISD has been in the air for decades, so when Architecture Professor Jim Barnes BArch 69 was thinking about a theme for his advanced fall studio, he decided to resurrect it. Given the Architecture department’s ongoing interest in engaging with young people in the community – for example, its partnership with Providence’s Lincoln School for girls – and Barnes’ long-term commitment to organizations like the ACE Mentoring program for architecture, construction and engineering, it was a suitable choice.

Each of the 10 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the class is designing a sustainable two- to three-story art and design high school that could theoretically be constructed along RISD’s riverfront on South Water Street or at the intersection of Wickenden and South Main streets.

The studio aims to provide students with a deep understanding of how highly specialized programming informs the exterior form of a building along with its material character. In addition, Barnes expects each design to be net zero energy efficient and, ideally, to relate aesthetically to existing buildings in the neighborhood.

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Alumni authors bring their literature to life at ‘Veritas and Values’ panel

In reading excerpts as diverse as the writers themselves, four alumni related the struggles and rewards of being an author and how — without realizing it — their literary work began as Providence College undergraduates.

The Veritas and Values panel discussion, “Published and Proud: Millennial Authors and Their Stories,” took place in the Ruane Center for the Humanities. Sponsored by the Department of English, the Student Alumni Association, and the National Alumni Association, Veritas and Values facilitates interaction between alumni and students.

Moderator Epaphras C. Osondu, a novelist and a PC associate professor of English, welcomed the College audience that filled the lecture hall and introduced the panelists: Emily Benfer ‘99, clinical professor of law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law; Alison Espach ’07, assistant professor of English at Providence College; Michael Hartigan ‘04, communications director for U.S. Congresswoman Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts; and Matt Weber ‘06, director of digital communications strategy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Each began the program by reading from their books and essays and reflected on how deeply their College experience influenced their writing.

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O’Callaghan to present TEDxNewport talk on “Redesigning Humans”

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Sean O’Callaghan, assistant professor in the Department of Religious and Theological Studies, will present a talk on “Redesigning Humans” as a featured speaker in TEDxNewport, the local version of the world-famous TED talks, which will be filmed before an invited audience on Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Jane Pickens Theater.

“The technology I will be talking about is technology which is still in its young phase, but which will explode in coming decades, and we need to be aware of where the technology revolution is bringing us,” O’Callaghan said. “Some of it may, indeed, turn out to be science fiction, but much of it will happen as predicted and we need to have plans in place both socially and ethically to embrace the opportunities and confront the challenges.”

O’Callaghan, dean of Salve Regina’s Class of 2019 and a Pell Center faculty fellow, is among the 13 speakers chosen from more than 60 who submitted topics. His proposal on human beings and bio-engineering was selected by TEDx organizers among their top 25 initially and then ultimately among their final 13.

“I have been fascinated by technology and its impact on the human body and mind for several years,” O’Callaghan said. “At first, it all seemed like science fiction; then I realized that places like MIT, Harvard and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were investing millions in research into the GRIN technologies – Genetics, Robotics, Information and Nanotechnology.”

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Connecting Passion and Purpose: Q&A with Changemaker Fellow Amanda Calderon ’18

Mario J. Gabelli School of Business junior selected for fellowship program that integrates student leaders into Rhode Island’s entrepreneurship scene.

BRISTOL, R.I. – If you recently bought a Boston Celtics ticket on the secondary market there is a good chance that you purchased it via student entrepreneur Amanda Calderon. In less than a year the junior marketing major has built a profitable business in the booming secondary ticket industry with her site Courtside Broker.

One might think it beginner’s luck, but the native of Morris Plains, N.J., has been churning out her own small businesses from an early age, making enough bucks with the recent endeavor to forgo further work-study assistance (she worked the Annual Fund Phonathon one year) or the typical college-student job.

Now she’s helping foster the same entrepreneurial spirit among her peers at Roger Williams University and other colleges across Rhode Island as a 2016 Changemaker Fellow. It’s part of a unique statewide effort led by Social Enterprise Greenhouse and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to increase awareness and resources for student entrepreneurs in the Ocean State. A marketing major with minors in web development and graphic design communication, Calderon was selected as a fellow for her leadership in the University’s professional business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi – Nu Sigma, and for her interests in social enterprise and entrepreneurship; she also serves as the advertising chair on the University’s Multicultural Student Union and has previously played intramural sports and written for the student newspaper, the Hawk’s Herald.

From her passion for inspiring entrepreneurship in others to leveraging her Changemaker Fellowship, Calderon recently sat down for a Q&A with PDQ@RWU.

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