1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

News from Transy

Twenty receive Transylvania’s prestigious William T. Young Scholarship

Posted on by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Twenty students have been awarded Transylvania University’s William T. Young Scholarship. Student applicants participate in a highly competitive process based on grades and test scores, extracurricular activities, a written essay and a personal interview. Each scholarship covers tuition and the general fee for four years. The 2011 William T. Young Scholars are academically very strong, with an average ACT of 33, SAT of 1400 and high school GPA of 3.98. Five are National Merit Finalists, eight are ranked in the top one percent of their class and 17 are alumni of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholar Program. This year’s recipients are also involved in the arts, particularly music and theater, and volunteer in their communities. Over half also participate in athletics at their high schools. The program is named in honor of the late William T. Young, former chairman of Transylvania’s board of trustees and a Lexington civic leader and businessman. Cordelia Addington (Louisville, Ky., JM Atherton High School) Aimee Ashcraft (Springboro, Ohio, Bishop Fenwick High School) John Blankenship (Benton, Ky., Marshall County High School) Rachel Burns(Manchester, Ky., Clay County High School) Alexis Carey(Mount Washington, Ky., Bullitt East High School) John Carter (Pikeville, Ky., Pikeville High School) Lauren Gallenstein (Winchester, Ky., George Rogers Clark High School) Richard Hall(Burlington, Ky., Conner Senior High School) Elizabeth Hardt (Louisville, Ky., Holy Cross High School) Jesse Johnson(Lawrenceburg, Ky., Anderson County High School) Nashwin Laungani (Lexington, Ky., Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) Hanna Leatherman (Versailles,

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Transylvania University named Gold Level Fit-Friendly Company by the American Heart Association

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University has been named a Fit-Friendly Company at the Gold Level by the American Heart Association, which recognizes workplaces that champion the health of employees. Transylvania is one of only 19 colleges in the country to be recognized as a Gold Level company. To make the cut, Transylvania had to demonstrate participation in areas outlined by the American Heart Association to promote physical activity, nutritional well-being and an overall organizational culture of health consciousness. Transylvania demonstrated its commitment to being a healthy place to work through its Wellness Works initiative, which offers various programs to faculty and staff that target physical, financial, emotional, occupational, intellectual and social wellness. Ashley Hinton-Moncer, director of fitness and wellness and chair of the Wellness Works committee, said committee members have worked with the university’s food service contractor to help promote balanced eating and to serve more healthy options. “We’ve also worked with our vending machine supplier to offer water,” said Hinton-Moncer. “And, we agreed on 10 healthier snack options to be stocked in all machines with promotional signage regarding nutritional data.” The American Heart Association also looked at smoking policies, and Transylvania has been a tobacco free campus since August 1, 2010. Among the free wellness initiatives that Transylvania offers to its employees are an annual health fair with flu shots, counseling sessions with a nutritionist, smoking cessation courses, fitness classes, financial and retirement planning sessions, group walks to the Farmers’ Market,

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Transylvania graduates largest class in its 231-year history

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University sent 263 graduates into the world Saturday, the most in the school’s 231-year history, during the first commencement ceremony under President R. Owen Williams, who completed his first academic year at the helm. The previous record of 260 graduates was set in 2009. President Williams presents a diploma to Holly Milburn. On the steps of historic Old Morrison, Aris Candris, president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company, urged graduates to work hard and take risks while making sure to find a vocation that will fulfill them and bring them happiness, drawing from his experience in nuclear power and environmental issues. “We have an energy crisis on our hands, and global warming is a very real issue,” Candris said. “And if we don’t do something about it now, we will place future generations at risk. As a society and as a planet, we must get past short-term thinking, and start long-term planning…Every day that I go to work, I sincerely believe that I’m playing a part in leaving this earth better than I found it.” Aris Candris ’73 delivers the commencement address. Candris, a 1973 graduate of Transylvania, a member of the board of trustees, and uncle of graduating senior Stamatios Kandris completed his bachelor of arts in three years with three majors—mathematics, physics and pre-engineering, and he earned an M.S. and a Ph.D., both in nuclear engineering, at Carnegie-Mellon University. His 36-year career with Westinghouse has included

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Three Transylvania students awarded prestigious Transylvania Scholarship

Posted on by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Three current Transylvania University students have been named Transylvania Scholars. This prestigious scholarship is awarded annually to rising junior and senior students who have achieved outstanding academic records and have made significant service contributions to Transylvania. This scholarship covers tuition and the general fee. The recipients are chosen by a panel of faculty members who interview each applicant. “These are students whose academic and campus community accomplishments are impeccable,” said William F. Pollard, vice president and dean of the college. “Being named a Transylvania Scholar is an extraordinary achievement given the credentials of the finalists, all of whom have outstanding records of academic success and of contributions to the life of the campus.” Rising junior Robert Clark Puckett, a political science major, is from Murray, Ky. Rising junior Sarah Elizabeth Tipton, an English major and classics minor, is from Corbin, Ky. Rising senior Thomas Philip Stephens, a history major, is from Decherd, Tenn. Transylvania, founded in 1780, is the nation’s sixteenth oldest institution of higher learning and is consistently ranked in national publications as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

Transylvania University earns national ranking in “Top 100 Social Media Schools” list; scores in top 3.3 percent of over 9 million Twitter accounts

Posted on by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University has been named one of the “Top 100 Social Media Colleges” in the country, a list that includes more than 6,000 colleges and universities. To determine its rankings, StudentAdvisor.com looked at schools in terms of how active and effective they are at engaging their audiences on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes and other social media tools. One of the criteria the site uses in its rankings is enrollment, and it judges the effectiveness based on how many people it is reaching. Transylvania’s enrollment is 1,110, and it has over 3,600 fans on its main Facebook page and over 1,100 followers on its main Twitter account. The Office of Communications manages the main university social media accounts listed in the ranking (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube). “We are very excited to be considered among the social media elite like Harvard, Stanford, Notre Dame and Princeton,” said Sarah Emmons, associate vice president for communications and public relations. “Social media is a powerful way to connect and interact with our constituents and the outside world. Facebook and Twitter, especially, have become important communications platforms for us.” Also included in the “Top 100” ranking is an institution’s score from TwitterGrader.com, which grades the power and reach of any Twitter account based on a number of factors. Transylvania’s Twitter account scores a 96.8 on a 100-point scale and ranks in the top 3.3 percent of over nine million accounts. “Transy has tactfully mastered the art

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