1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

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Kiplinger ranks Transylvania among top liberal arts schools for value

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LEXINGTON, Ky.— Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has ranked Transylvania University as one of the nation’s best values for a liberal arts education. The magazine’s Best College Values of 2017 weighs both academic excellence and cost criteria—such as sticker price, financial aid and debt. This ranking, which was released Thursday, comes on the heels of several other recognitions for Transylvania, including a top-10 spot in USA Today/College Factual’s Best Colleges for the Money and Washington Monthly’s Best Bang for the Buck in the South. “Any way you look at it, Transylvania offers a top-notch liberal arts education at an affordable price,” said Holly Sheilley, vice president for enrollment and student life. “We understand the challenges families face in paying for college, so we strive to give them the best possible return on investment.” In fact, Transylvania costs about $10,000 less than the average top-100 liberal arts college. Additionally, the average financial aid package for incoming students was $26,643 last year, and 98 percent of all students received aid that they didn’t have to pay back. This kind of assistance is why Transylvania ranks 60th among the nation’s liberal arts schools in Kiplinger’s Best College Values of 2017. “There’s no way around it: College is expensive, and it’s going to stay that way for a long time. So, with our rankings…our goal is to help students and their parents understand what’s really worth the price,” said Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

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TransyPods: Interview with Dr. Martha Billips

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Anna Brailow ’17 interviews Professor Martha Billips Listen on Soundcloud Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Welcome to another Campus Conversation, discussions with Transylvania University faculty highlighting their interests, passions, and pursuits. Here is Anna Brailow. ANNA BRAILOW: I’m here with Dr. Martha Billips, and we are talking about Kentucky women. Your work has been published in a collection called Kentucky Women– Their Lives and Times, a work to which 17 scholars have contributed their writing on influential women from across the state. What do you feel is it that makes this work so essential among literature about Kentucky’s history? MARTHA BILLIPS: I do think it is essential. In part, of course, because of the focus on women. But it also has the broad focus chronologically about women from settlement times till the contemporary times. It has a broad cross-section of geography, as the introduction makes clear, from the mountains to the [INAUDIBLE]. So it’s very, very deliberate. And it offers in one place essays on a variety of important women across the Commonwealth, and that is unprecedented. We have only one previous book, interestingly, written by a former Transy professor. [INAUDIBLE] was a Transy professor, Kentucky Women from 1977, I think. So that’s the only other book devoted solely to Kentucky women, a wide assortment. The other reason I think this is important– it’s part of a series on Southern women writers’ lives. And the fact that Kentucky was not represented

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TransyPods: Interview with Dr. Sarah Bray and Jaylen Beatty

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Brandon Trapp ’19 interviews Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Sarah Bray and Senior biology student Jaylen Beatty Listen on Soundcloud Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Welcome to another “Campus Conversation,” discussions with Transylvania University faculty highlighting their interests, passions, and pursuits. Here is Brandon Trapp. BRANDON TRAPP: I’m here with Professor of Biology Dr. Sarah Bray and senior biology student Jaylen Bailey. And we’re here to talk about their research in invasive plant species. So first I want to ask, what does that mean? I’m assuming it’s not plants coming down from space with laser guns taking over Earth. SARAH BRAY: Yeah. Usually, a lot of times when I introduce my research to new groups of people, I put in really bad B-run kind of sci-fi movies like that, invasions of the whatever. So when we talk about invasive species, what we really mean is an organism that is brought to a new location where it has not previously been. Sometimes, those introductions are not a problem. And they’re just a minor component of the system. But we call them invasive when they start to displace native members of the community. And my training is in plant and microbial ecology. And so I’m really interested in invasive plants. So in this part of the country, people are usually aware of kudzu. The vine that ate the South is probably the famous one. Since I’ve come to Kentucky, I’ve been working

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Scholarship winning Transylvania student to study in Rwanda

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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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