News from Transy

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Seventeen participants will bring their passion for the liberal arts to Transylvania University this week for the “Twenty-First Century Liberal Education: A Contested Concept” seminar. The ninth annual event will draw participants from top institutions, including Earlham, Skidmore, and Washington and Lee. Beginning Thursday, the four-day seminar will address a range of pressing issues, such as the future and purpose of liberal education. The public is invited to attend free lectures on Thursday and Saturday—at 8 p.m. both nights in the Cowgill Center, room 102. J. Scott Lee, executive director of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, will give the first talk, “Cultural Institutions, Theater, and Humanistic Liberal Arts Education: Rethinking Where We Can Go From Here.” Professor Sarah Stanbury, with College of the Holy Cross, will present the weekend public lecture titled “Things of the Past: Medieval Objects and the Liberal Arts.” Michael Bell, vice president and dean of the college, said: “I am delighted that Transylvania is once again able to bring such a distinguished community of scholars together to engage with the theory and practice of the liberal arts. Those arts and the thinking they sustain are, I think, essential to our ability to function as responsible citizens in a democratic society.” The seminar—sponsored by the university and its Bingham Program for Excellence in Teaching—draws higher education faculty from across the country through an extremely competitive application process. Past participants have come from colleges such

Read “Educators from across the country to attend Transylvania liberal arts seminar”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University will present Columbia Records recording artist Home Free on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center’s Haggin Auditorium. The performance is part of Transylvania’s Dorothy J. and Fred K. Smith Endowed Concert Series. Home Free is a five-member a cappella group with wide appeal. The band is traveling coast-to-coast on its first headlining tour since being crowned champion of Season 4 of NBC’s “The Sing-Off” in December. The tour will celebrate the “Sing-Off” victory, as well as the release of the group’s debut album, Crazy Life. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning Sept. 15. The performance is free, but tickets are required and must be picked up at the information desk in the lobby of the William T. Young Campus Center before the day of the concert. There will be no online ticket reservations and no “will call” accommodations. Each person coming to the Campus Center can secure up to two tickets. Beginning Sept. 8, Transylvania students, faculty, and staff can get tickets by showing their Transylvania ID. Since the “Sing-Off” win, Home Free has performed more than 80 shows in 2014 alone—from theaters and clubs during the 32-city, 36-show Sing-Off Live Tour, to stages and amphitheaters at some of the summer’s biggest events, including the CMA Music Fest in Nashville, Tenn.,  and The Boots & Heart Festival in Ontario, Canada. “This is such an exciting new step in our

Read “NBC “Sing-Off” winner Home Free to bring Crazy Life Tour to Transylvania University”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Exactly one hundred years after the completion of the Panama Canal, citizens of the U.S. and Panama have come together again to open up new worlds. Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., and Balboa Academy in Panama City, Panama, have partnered to launch a program that sends up to four education students from Lexington to Panama to teach at the school. Students must complete an application and interview process to be selected. They then do eight to nine weeks of student teaching in Fayette County Schools followed by five to six weeks at Balboa Academy. The collaboration began with an impromptu visit to the academy by Eduardo Nino-Moreno, former director of campus diversity and inclusion at Transylvania. Drawing on his many years of experience in Panama working with the United Nations, Nino-Moreno recognized the potential of a partnership between the two institutions. During March and April the inaugural exchange sent two Transylvania seniors—Melissa Moberg of Grand Prairie, Texas, and Brianna Hill from Lexington—to experience the remarkably different teaching environment at the private school that educates pre-K through 12th graders. The schools are exploring ideas for future collaboration, and there will be a focus on recruiting the gifted Balboa Academy students to Transylvania. But giving Transylvanians a new perspective on education is the main goal of the partnership. “Balboa was inspiring to me,” said Moberg, a history major and education minor who will be teaching at Henry Clay High School this

Read “Pioneers in paradise—Transylvania launches teaching exchange program in Panama”

LEXINGTON, Ky.— Transylvania grad Emmie Wyatt ’14 has been awarded a fellowship that aims to place the brightest teachers in high-need schools. Wyatt, who was named a 2014 Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellow, plans to attend the University of Cincinnati this fall. The Alexandria, Ky., native will receive a $30,000 stipend for an intensive master’s degree program. The fellowship helps further the education of teachers with experience in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Wyatt, who majored in math and Spanish at Transylvania, has been a math tutor, a volunteer at an inner-city grade school and a lead campus admissions ambassador. “This opportunity has allowed me to further my education, not only through higher education but also through my students,” Wyatt said. “I am so excited. I hope I can make a difference in at least one of my students’ lives—as much as my Transy professors had on mine.” The fellowship participants commit to teach for three years in an Ohio school with a particular need for quality teachers. The New Jersey-based Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation also administers the program in Indiana, Michigan, Georgia and New Jersey. Wyatt is one of 79 Ohio Fellows this year. “The Fellows include both accomplished career changers and outstanding recent college graduates, all with previous STEM backgrounds,” according to the foundation. “They complete a rigorous master’s program that includes a full year of practical experience in local classrooms, then commit to

Read “Recent Transylvania grad named Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellow”

“Why isn’t there a word rhythm dictionary?” Tim Polashek once wondered.  He no longer asks. No need. The Transylvania University assistant professor of music got busy responding to his own question, resulting in publication of “The Word Rhythm Dictionary: A Resource for Writers, Rappers, Poets, and Lyricists” (Rowman & Littlefield), a 689-page gold mine for the creative-yet-stumped. “I really just see this as another tool,” said Polashek. “Tools matter in that they offer different perspectives and methods and can shape direction of creativity. For example, some computer programs allow easy reversing of melodic motives. Others don’t. This affects creativity. I’m constantly asking myself and my students how a given tool shapes creativity and they can be objective about the tool.” Rhythm rhymes are defined in the introduction as two or more words with the same rhythm, sharing the same number of syllables “and relative positions of primarily accented, secondarily accented and unstressed syllables.” Unlike traditional rhymes, rhythm rhymes need not have matching vowel sounds.   Polashek said the book is an expression of his longtime interest in the relationships between music and speech as well as the pitch and rhythms of spoken speech. He has created a series of computer programs to help him manipulate and search for words with certain properties for creative projects. “For example, show me all the words that have two ‘T’ sounds and a ‘Z’ sound.  Or, show me 10 words that are five syllables

Read “Transylvania’s Tim Polashek publishes writer’s block battering ram”