Month: September 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Although it’s only the second day of fall term, all first-year and transfer students received their first assignment weeks ago—to read Barbara Kingsolver’s highly acclaimed book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life. This year’s First Engagements: A Community Book Project selection tells the story of how for a full year Kingsolver and her family deliberately ate locally-produced food. Kingsolver wrote the central narrative, and her husband, Steven Hopp, wrote in-depth sidebars about various aspects of food-production science and industry. Kingsolver’s 19-year-old daughter, Camille, wrote brief essays on the local-food project, plus nutritional information, meal plans and recipes. First Engagements is designed to provide new students with a common introduction to academic life at Transylvania and to create discussion on a topic of lasting significance. All incoming students received a copy of the book this summer and will participate in one of 40 small discussion groups led by faculty and upper class students from 6:30-8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 9, or Thursday, September 10 in locations across campus. During the discussion, students will be treated to “Transylvania Garden Cookies,” a recipe inspired by Kingsolver’s “Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies” from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and modified by professors Mike Pepper and Kathleen Jagger. The cookies were made and baked by faculty members in the University’s Food Lab and include the following local ingredients: eggs from art professor’s Zoe Strecker’s Peace Roots Farm, Harrodsburg; honey from Hosey’s Kentucky Honey, Midway; whole

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Williams poses with Einstein at the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C. LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University senior Jessica Williams spent five weeks this summer studying mathematics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., through the Summer Program for Women in Mathematics. A mathematics major minoring in computer science and philosophy, Williams was one of only 16 female college seniors selected for the program from colleges and universities around the country. All 16 received a travel allowance, campus room and board and a stipend. The program, founded by mathematics professor Murli M. Gupta, offered seminars led by research mathematicians that enabled the students to obtain a deep understanding of basic concepts in several areas of mathematics, to learn how to do independent work and to gain experience in expressing mathematical ideas orally and in writing. Panel discussions were held on graduate schools and careers in mathematics. “I can’t really articulate how much I gained from my five weeks in Washington, D.C.,” said Williams. “It was a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. The graduate level material and mathematical skills I learned will aid me in the classes I take at Transy in my senior year and in graduate school. In addition to an exposure to higher-level material, the program provided an immense amount of information on graduate school, careers in academia, industry and government, and on the challenges that women face in this field.  The faculty and staff were very

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