Ruscio Garners Raves as Web Assistant
Editor’s Note: This is the third of six profiles of nominees for the 2012 Student Employee of the Year award that will be presented at the Annual Student Employment Awards Luncheon April 16.
Erica in her art studio in Allen Hall
When the Keuka College Class of 2015 arrived on campus in the fall of 2011, there weren’t many people they could greet by name. But thanks to the wonders of the web, junior Erica Ruscio was an exception.
That’s because the Middlesex resident was already familiar to incoming students who had read her blog posts for Eye on the Storm, the official blog for undergraduate admissions at Keuka, and interacted with Ruscio on the class’s official Facebook group page.
But Ruscio is far more than a social media butterfly, says Webmaster Pete Bekisz, for whom Ruscio works as a web assistant. Since she first began writing for Bekisz as a freshman, she’s penned some 130 posts for Eye on the Storm, enticing readers with advice such as The College Admissions Essay: How to Successfully Write One Without Having a Mental Breakdown. (more…)
Beyond the Hospital Walls
In the world of higher education, the niche Keuka has carved with its occupational sciences program is virtually unparalleled for a small, private, liberal arts college.
Studying anatomy of the body is part of Keuka's OT program.
In 2010, three state-of-the-art occupational therapy (OT) labs opened where students are taught cutting-edge OT techniques. Keuka boasts a pediatric play lab, a clinical care lab and a community living skills lab, set up much like a small apartment, where some 95 upperclass and graduate students take classes in occupational science. Nearly all students in Keuka’s OT program go on to a fifth year of study at the graduate level, in order to qualify for the certification exam that must be passed to obtain a permanent license as an occupational therapist.
A unique change to the program is that while Keuka’s OT students are building diverse, hands-on skills, it’s not all happening inside the walls of hospitals or schools. Traditional placements like a hospital are now supplemented by non-traditional placements, said Jean Wannall, Ph.D., who coordinates field work placements for OT students and is a full professor in the program.
“We’re seeing fewer jobs in traditional settings because of the changes in Medicare and Medicaid,” said Wannall.”A lot of agencies are downsizing and letting therapists go, so we are training therapists to be entrepreneurs, to go out and seek places where there could be a niche. At hospitals, the length of stay is shorter and shorter these days as people are being pushed out into the community quicker and quicker. More care is happening out in the community.”
Toys are part of therapy for children in the OT program.
In addition, OTs may find more work with assisted living communities or home health care as more members of the aging population try to stay in their own homes as long as possible, Wannall said. Keuka lies in Yates County, one of the poorest counties in the state, and other opportunities for non-traditional OT support may lie in areas with migrant workers, those who are illiterate, or other needy individuals, she said.
(more…)
Meet New Faculty: Patricia Speers
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of profiles on new, full-time faculty members.
Patricia Speers can relate to the international students in her classes. English isn’t her native tongue either.
A French-speaking native of Belgium, Speers has taught ESL (English as a Second Language) to international students from China and Vietnam since early July, when Keuka’s first ESL Summer Institute program launched. The Institute was developed to better prepare undergraduate and graduate students entering Keuka’s international business programs to adjust to differences in the language and academic culture of an American classroom.
“I’m a language teacher. I tend to bring everything back to language, because what the international students are challenged with is language. That’s what causes communication problems or challenges in the classroom,” she explained.
English Professor Wins Professional Development Award
Just because you’ve got a Ph.D. doesn’t mean you stop learning.
That’s the perspective of Jennie Joiner, assistant professor of English, and winner of the 2010-11 Excellence in Academic Achievement award, given by the College’s Office of Academic Affairs. The award recognizes Keuka faculty members who have demonstrated to their colleagues an exceptional commitment to advance the knowledge base of their academic or professional field.
Within the realm of literature, Joiner’s interest includes depictions of masculinity, with a focus on the writings of William Faulkner. Her doctorate, from the University of Kansas, focused on the subject of marriage and masculinity in Faulkner’s fiction. Here at Keuka, Joiner created a senior seminar course last spring focusing on the fiction of Faulkner and Toni Morrison. The course followed the presentation of her paper, “William Faulkner’s Hearth and Toni Morrison’s Oven: The Slow Burn of Masculinity in Go Down, Moses and Paradise,” in October 2010 at a scholarly conference on Faulkner and Morrison held in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Not only was the class well-received by students, but a longer version of Joiner’s paper was solicited by an editor of the Faulkner Journal and published in August of this year. Another paper of hers, “Constructing Black Sons: Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’ and O’Connor’s ‘The Artificial Nigger,” was solicited by the Flannery O’Connor Review last year and published in the 2010 volume. She is already at work on a new manuscript that examines Faulkner’s sexual geographies, or the relationship between place, cultural institutions and sexuality.
“I don’t think students always recognize we have our own research agendas as well. Part of being a faculty member is continuing to be a student and continuing my own education. It doesn’t stop with a Ph.D.,” she said. “What you learn with a Ph.D. is how to keep doing your own research.” (more…)
Teacher Plans Further Studies
Editor’s Note: This is the 8th in a series of stories saluting members of the Class of 2011. We asked division chairs for story ideas and they in turn contacted faculty members for ideas. We believe they came up with some terrific profiles.
Erin Madigan has always known she wanted to be a teacher. Sure, she debated what grade, learning level and subject she wanted to teach, but she was always convinced her future career would be at the front of a classroom.
It should be no surprise, then, that the Melrose resident will graduate Sunday with a degree in adolescent English and special education. And while Madigan said she will miss Keuka, her friends, and the professors who have pushed her further than what she initially thought she was capable of, she is excited to finish her student teaching semester and start in on her master’s degree.
“I can’t believe I’m graduating already. It’s crazy. I feel like I just started here,” said Madigan, who transferred into Keuka in the fall of 2008, after completing her senior year of high school at Hudson Valley Community College, which granted her freshman college credits at the same time. “I have loved every minute I’ve been here.”
Madigan said she knew she definitely wanted to teach secondary level students and definitely wanted to teach English. She is especially grateful for the three Field Period internships she now has “under her belt, so I won’t be blind for my first experience (leading) a classroom,” she said. (more…)
In Search of the Modern Man
In today’s world, men are struggling to find their role and identify the “script” they’re supposed to follow in regards to manhood, says Jennie Joiner. In short, there’s a crisis of confusion, and it’s time to talk about it.
“If we’ve redefined feminism, we need to redefine [masculinity],” says Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka College. “We’re in an interesting space culturally where no one wants to step up and do that – it makes everyone uncomfortable.”
In a recent talk Joiner presented on “Lifting the Fig Leaf to Reveal Hidden Masculinities,” she explored contemporary notions of masculinity in the figurative cowboy as depicted in the novel True Grit and its two film versions. The cowboy – a specifically American icon – has always embodied the conflicting issues seen in manhood, she said.
As a mythic figure sporting the “costume bling” of chaps, boots, spurs, hat and Winchester rifle, the cowboy exhibits freedom from societal rules, structure, and family connections, while risking a reputation as a hard-drinking, gambling hell-raiser who can “blow the lights out of town,” she said. His pledge of allegiance to a ranching outfit and his commitment only to bring the cows home gives him the romantic aura of a knight on a quest, and keeps him freely roaming in a “neutral” space where he can create an identity, Joiner said.
(more…)
The Best of Both Worlds
Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in a 10-part series on the 2011 Experiential Learner of the Year Award nominees. Nominees for the upperclass and freshman awards will be honored at a luncheon May 6; the winners will be revealed at Honors Convocation May 7.
As Trista Wesley’s senior year at Keuka quickly draws to a close, she has had some time to reflect upon the various experiences of which she has been a part.
Trista Wesley
And it was some of those experiences that led Bob Berkman, assistant professor of organizational communication and English, to nominate Wesley for the Upperclassman Experiential Learner of the Year award.
“Although Keuka was not my first choice, I can confidently say that I would not have achieved the same level of personal growth and academic achievement anywhere else,” said Wesley, an English major from Jamesville. “It was not until this year that I truly grasped the powerful impact that the Keuka College Field Period has on students.”
Where Have All the Cowboys – er, men- Gone?
If Newton’s third law of physics states that every action requires an opposite and equal reaction, then Jennie Joiner would like to see that applied to emerging trends in the state of manhood.
“If we’ve redefined feminism, we need to redefine [masculinity],” says Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka. “We’re in an interesting space culturally, where no one wants to step up and do that – it makes everyone uncomfortable.”
As such, a Thursday talk Joiner will present, “Lifting the Fig Leaf to Reveal Hidden Masculinities,” will explore contemporary notions of masculinity in the figurative cowboy as depicted in the novel True Grit and its two film versions. Joiner’s talk will also include a scene from the recent Keuka production of Rabbit by Nina Raine and a discussion of the themes of that play. Her presentation starts at 4:15 p.m. in Hegeman 109.
The cowboy – a specifically American icon – has always embodied the conflicting issues seen in manhood, she said. However, there’s a difference between the 1968 cowboy depicted by John Wayne and the 2010 cowboy depicted by Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers recent Western remake, Joiner said, one that speaks to an apparent reluctance on the part of men these days to embrace a fully defined role.
Scholastic Field Period Big Part of College Experience
Among those greeting Trista Wesley each day at her Field Period were of Clifford the Big Red Dog and teacher Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus series.
That’s because the senior English major from Jamesville spent her January Field Period at Scholastic Inc. in New York City.
“I have wanted to work for a book publishing company for awhile, and Scholastic was my first choice,” said Wesley. “I loved getting the book order flyers from school so I was really excited to be there.” Scholastic Inc. is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and children’s media. It creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children’s books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos, and toys.
On the Air: Keuka Junior Writes, Records News
Allison Skillman was looking for an opportunity to work with words beside just teaching them. So, the junior education-turned-English major was excited to find a Field Period placement this January writing local news snippets for listeners tuned in to the noon and 5 p.m. news broadcasts on a sprawling regional radio network
Skillman, an East Rochester resident, spent most of her internship writing short news stories, generally no longer than a paragraph, which would take a D.J. or news anchor approximately 20-30 seconds to read aloud. Pithy, local stories might follow regional or statewide pieces in order to appeal to a majority of the listening audience, tuning in to 68 different frequencies of the Family Life Network (FLN), which broadcasts across northern and central Pennsylvania, as well as upstate and Western New York and the Southern Tier.
Headquartered in Bath, N.Y., FLN, a Christian radio conglomerate, attracts a primary demographic that is “conservative, largely Republican, family people, not terribly politically active,” Skillman recounted. In contrast to most radio stations, where operating funds come from paid advertising, FLN is supported by donations from listeners. Its broadcasts reach Buffalo and Rochester, outside Syracuse and east of Oneonta, across the Southern Tier from Jamestown to past Binghamton, then south into Erie, Altoona, Allentown and Scranton, Pa. The noon news report runs for 30 minutes, the 5 o’clock segment for 15 and shorter news updates of about three minutes run seven times in three hours each weekday morning.
“It’s a big news station, but tries to focus on local [news] and make it personal for listeners,” Skillman said. “I didn’t do so much of the big headlines, but more local and issues-driven stories.
For example, one story she wrote, about a Howard man building a house out of straw, garnered interest from listeners.
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