News from Transy

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University has been selected to be the site of a Confucius Classroom to raise awareness and interest for Chinese language and culture. Through the program, Transylvania will be entitled to a start-up fund of $30,000 to buy tech equipment, books and digital teaching material on Chinese studies, and to set up an office space. The university also will be eligible for annual funds of $10,000 after the first year to promote the learning of Chinese language and other China studies both on campus and in the surrounding community. Also, Transylvania students could receive travel scholarships and internships in that country—including an opportunity to attend summer academic camps in China. “I am very excited about the Confucius Classroom, especially about all the great scholarship opportunities that the program is going to bring to Transy students for going to China, to study or engage in internship opportunities,” said Qian Gao, associate professor of Chinese language and culture. “And the Classroom entitles not only Chinese-learning students, but all Transy students to such great opportunities.” The Confucius Classroom—which will operate in conjunction with the University of Kentucky’s Confucius Institute—also will assist faculty members with opportunities to teach in China. The Classroom will be funded through Hanban, the Office of Chinese Language Council International. Transylvania will have an opening reception for the Classroom on Monday, Jan. 30, at 4:30 p.m. on the second floor of Old Morrison. The event will include Chinese music

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—More than a dozen student playwrights at Transylvania University will soon see an anthology of their work released by a major U.S. publisher and available for productions in English-speaking theaters around the world. Dramatic Publishing has announced plans to release “My #*%!^X%#! College Life,” co-created by Transylvania professor Michael Dixon and 2016 graduate Brooke Jennett, who recently won the 2016 Dramatists Guild of America Young Playwright Award. The play, which features 40 monologues along with a few choruses, is a humorous and heartbreaking look into the hearts and minds of today’s college students. It touches on a wide range of issues—including social justice, gender identity, relationship boundaries, future prospects and roommate etiquette. “Throughout this creative process, Brooke and I have wanted the play to address a broad range of concerns identified by college students today,” Dixon said. “This dramatic journey reveals the difficult choices and revelatory encounters that lead to what colleges call ‘personal transformation,’ which is generally beneficial but, as this material attests, it’s never easy to change at any age and the individual outcomes are absolutely unpredictable.” The dramatic monologues were written by 17 Transylvania students and a dozen other playwrights, mostly in MFA playwriting programs around the country, including Ohio University, University of Arizona and University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The project has been in the works for two years and was originally conceived by Jon Jory, former producing artistic director at Actors Theatre of

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Riley Bresnahan, a junior from DeLand, Fla., received the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She will study with the School for International Training’s Post-Genocide Restoration and Peacebuilding program in Rwanda during the winter 2017 term. Gilman scholars receive up to $5,000 to apply toward their study abroad or internship program costs. The program offers grants for U.S. undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange better prepares students to thrive in the global economy and interdependent world. Students receiving a Federal Pell Grant from two- and four-year institutions who will be studying abroad or participating in a career-oriented international internship for academic credit are eligible to apply. Scholarship recipients have the opportunity to better understand other cultures, countries, languages and economies—making them better prepared to assume leadership roles within government and the private sector.  “Study abroad is a special experience for every student who participates,” said Congressman Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), who retired in 2002 after serving in the House of Representatives for 30 years and chairing the House Foreign Relations Committee. “Living and learning in a vastly different environment of another nation not only exposes our students to alternate views, but also adds an enriching social and cultural experience. It also provides our students with the opportunity to return home with a deeper understanding of

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