Blink and (Don’t) Miss It
Kurt Brownell in Lightner Gallery
Like many artists, Kurt Bownell has to balance the commercial with the personal.
The Victor resident is a commercial photographer with a Rochester studio and a client list that includes such corporations as Wegmans, Constellation Brands, Democrat and Chronicle, Unity Health and several universities. The clients commission Brownell for everything from beauty shots of growers, produce and culinary arts to corporate executives in their workplace environments.
His day job keeps him so busy that his personal photographic love – outdoor landscapes – often happens on the fly, such as when he snapped shots of the rolling hills of Cohocton on a pit stop as his family returned from a vacation.
Cohocton Cloud Shadows, courtesy Kurt Brownell
Perhaps that’s why Brownell’s new exhibit at Keuka College, “Up Close and Far Away-Landscapes,” is such a treat for him. The exhibit runs through Jan. 4, with an artist reception Thursday, Nov. 29 from 4:30 – 6 p.m. at Lightner Gallery inside Lightner Library. The exhibit is open to the public; library hours vary and can be found online at: http://lightner.keuka.edu.
Ford Street Sunset, courtesy Kurt Brownell
“This is what I like to do when I’m not being told what to photograph,” he said. “This is what I gravitate toward naturally. I can go without any agenda and shoot what I feel, what I like, what I find.”
Many of his images, which he refers to as “interpretive landscapes,” are “stitched” composites of 10-20 different shots, melded together to create one final, full panorama for the viewer.
A Kurt Brownell panorama
Rochester Firm Commissions Newcomb Mural
Newcomb spent almost two months creating this mural. (Portrait by Brett Williams)
When viewing the pen-and-ink mural that Melissa Newcomb created of the Rochester city skyline and the arched bridge spanning the Genesee River, you might need to take a few steps back.
That’s because the canvas is approximately 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide, perhaps a salute to the visual dominance the bridge itself maintains against the city’s skyscrapers and corporate construction. But the work also invites one to step closer to examine the intricacy of the lines, columns, window panes, and step back again to take it all in.
The piece captures a view of the city skyline as seen from a spot southwest of the Frederick Douglass – Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge (formerly the Troup-Howell bridge), along the Genesee. It is already getting attention from clients who visit the offices of Marathon Engineering at 39 Cascade Drive, said John Stapleton, business manager.
“We had a back wall that was pretty bare and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have something to put up?’” he said.
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Snapshot of a Graduate: Scott Welch
Where can a Keuka degree take you? This is the fifth in a series of snapshot profiles on members of Keuka’s Class of 2012.
Scott Welch of Palmyra
Scott Welch ’12 graduated magna cum laude with a degree in biochemistry and has been accepted to the doctoral program at St. John Fisher College Wegmans School of Pharmacy.
“The plan is to graduate in four years with my Doctor of Pharmacy,” Welch said.
On a personal level, Welch said he enjoyed Keuka’s beautiful location and the ability to play lacrosse, in part because of the smaller size of the school. Keuka’s men’s lacrosse team went 11-4 this year in Division III play, capturing its second-straight NEAC (North Eastern Athletic Conference) post-season championship. Welch competed all four years with the team as a defender. He was named the Keuka College Senior Male Student-Athlete of the Year (2012) in May for academic achievement, community service, athletic dedication and sportsmanship.
He said he built many friendships with fellow students while attending and also enjoyed the community they formed.
Ultimately, however, “the thing that I valued most at Keuka was the professors and their willingness to go out of their way to help students,” he said.
To explore what might be in your future with a Keuka degree, request more information.
SIFE Team Helps Businesses Get “Smart”
Kyle Stephens, SIFE member, in training for Google Places. (Photo by Hung Do Le '12)
“Spend-ready” customers are the ones business owners most desire.
Now, a dozen members of Keuka’s SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) team are ready-and-available to assist local Chamber of Commerce members from Rochester to Ithaca better market their businesses with Google Places.
A web tool from the online search-engine giant, Google Places merges the basics of Google Maps and the phone book with a simple business listing. But everything from hours of operation, photos, videos, payment options, customer reviews and more can be added to the basic listing to create a web search tool powerful enough to tempt say, a thirsty traveler with a GPS-enabled smartphone, anxious to satisfy a caffeine craving at the nearest coffee shop.
Dan Stephens of Montour Falls studies a Google Places listing. (Photo by Hung Do Le '12)
That’s how it works for Dan Stephens, sophomore English education major from Montour Falls.
“Anytime I go someplace I’m not familiar with, such as when I go to the Adirondacks in the summer, or go out to eat or go shopping, [I] go on Google [with my phone] and type in ‘local pizza parlors,’ and find 10 different [listings.]” (more…)
Social Work Student Earns Golden Apple Award
While she hasn’t yet completed her bachelor’s degree in social work from Keuka College, Canandaigua resident Melanie Nwaobia is already practicing the skills that will come into play for a career serving others.
Nwaobia on the job at Canandaigua Elementary, with student Noah Haus.
Over the last three years, she has worked as a one-to-one teacher’s aide with Noah Haus, who is now a fourth-grade student at Canandaigua Elementary School. While Noah’s autism means that his verbal skills are limited, he is “an incredibly smart young man” who works hard and excels with hands-on tasks, Nwaobia said. Using calendars and schedules with visual cues and icons, as well as technology tools like an iPad with apps he can manipulate and receive electronic “applause” for completing, Nwaobia assists Noah as he works through classroom lessons.
In December, Noah’s parents nominated Nwaobia for the Golden Apple Award from WROC- TV (Channel 8), the CBS affiliate in Rochester. A TV crew then came to the classroom to surprise her with the honor and to film Nwaobia and Noah going about the routines of his school day. (Click HERE to see the TV footage.)
In a letter to the station, Noah’s parents wrote how each day, Nwaobia sends home a full note detailing their son’s entire day, since he does not have the typical language and social skills to tell them himself. She sends text messages and photos too, so that they can celebrate the little successes Noah has each day.
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Case in Point: Bringing Work Home
From left: Rappenecker's brothers, Frankie, Malik and Roderick
Almost two years after first taking her three younger brothers – now ages 6, 13 and 16 – into her home, and formally enrolling as a foster care parent, Kayleigh Rappenecker of Rochester is on the verge of adopting them. While a December court date has not yet been finalized, the adoption could be complete before Christmas.
It’s a personal milestone that has given Rappenecker an uncommon level of experience when working with future clients in the next vein of her emerging career as a social worker.
That’s because Rappenecker is still completing courses for her bachelor’s degree in social work through Keuka College’s Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP). At 25, Rappenecker is younger than the “typical” adult student enrolled in a Keuka ASAP course of study. She first began courses in January 2010, while pregnant with her first child.
ASAP Assistant Professor of Social Work Julie Burns said that while it is common for family members such as grandparents, aunts or uncles to take in younger children as foster children, or even adopt them, it is rare for an older sibling to take on the role of surrogate parent. In Rappenecker’s case, she wanted to intervene and keep her brothers together.
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What’s for Dinner?
By Ryan Nichols ’12
Freelance culinary and travel writer Karen Deyle, restaurant critic for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and author of Rochester Eats: 15 Years of Craves and Faves, will speak at Keuka College Thursday, Dec. 15.
Deyle will deliver the next Community Luncheon Series presentation at noon in the Gannett Room of Lightner Library.
A food writer for more than 15 years, she reviews restaurants in her Democrat & Chronicle column titled “First Bite.” She is also travel editor and contributing writer for Travel Host of Rochester and the Finger Lakes.
Rochester Eats is a tribute to the independent restaurants and restaurateurs who have “fed us well over the past 75 years,” said Deyle. “In talking to patrons and owners with first-hand stories, the collection developed into more of a ‘scrapbook’ effort that shares copies of menus and secret recipes.”
The book profiles more than 100 local and regional restaurants, specialty food purveyors, and casual dining spots.
“There are glimpses of downtown dining spots like Sibley’s Tower and McCurdy’s Garden Room, Eddie’s Chop House, and everyone’s nostalgic favorite, The Manhattan,” said Deyle. “There are pictures and stories from casual locales like Vic n Irv’s and Don and Bob’s, located at Seabreeze in an area once know as ‘Hot Dog Row.’ There are Sunday drive locations in places like Ionia, Naples, and Canandaigua.”
Deyle also serves as communications manager at Cameron Community Ministries, a non-profit soup kitchen that serves nearly 50,000 hot meals a year as well as free dinners five nights a week for children through Foodlink’s Kids Cafe program.
Tickets for the luncheon are $12.75, with $2.50 going to the Penn Yan Keuka Club Scholarship Fund, which provides an annual scholarship to a local student attending Keuka College.
Reservations are required, and must be made no later than Friday, Dec. 9. To make a reservation or for more information, contact Keuka’s Office of Alumni and Family Relations at (315) 279-5238 or spevents@keuka.edu. You may also register online at http://events.keuka.edu
Social Work Students Serve in City
If good nutrition starts with a healthy source of food, what happens if the source is limited? What if that limited source is the only source? What if the “neighborhood grocery” is little more than a corner convenience store?
On Tuesday, six students studying social work at Keuka started asking questions like this in door-to-door interviews in the JOSANA (Jay-Orchard Street Area Neighborhood Association) community in the city of Rochester. It was part of a collaborative project, known as a neighborhood needs assessment, between the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, the Charles Settlement House and the College. As part of New York State Department Of Health’s Healthy Kids initiative, tackling the touchy issue of obesity, Keuka students conducted surveys of residents in that area, and will analyze their findings and return them to the Settlement House staff, who will, in turn, pass on the discoveries to the state government.
“Often in impoverished communities, folks don’t have access to a grocery store,” said Julie Burns-Percy, assistant professor of social work. “They are bound by bus routes, they don’t have a car, and they can’t walk to any [suburban] grocery stores, just a corner store. So, corner convenient stores – stocked with a lot of processed foods and junk foods – become a primary shopping avenue.”
According to Burns-Percy, these corner stores rarely stock reasonably priced fruits and vegetables that more people would want to serve.
As part of their work, students will be challenged how to engage with those living in that community, to hone their interviewing and research skills, and to consider their own safety as they work. (more…)
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