Model U.N. team wins awards at national conference

Randolph College’s Model United Nations team brought home honors from the national conference in New York last week.

Tahan Menon ’16 and Sarah Terlizzi ’15 represent Portugal
on the Security Council during the Model U.N. Conference.

Sarah Terlizzi ’15 and Tahan Menon ’16 were named the best delegation to the Security Council at the conference, and Nabeel Mahmood ’15 and Penny Trieu ’15 received the award for the best position paper on the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.

The honor surprised Menon, but it added a great finish to an already-great conference. “I didn't even really know there were awards until the last few days, so I wasn't thinking about it,” he said. “I thought it was going to be fun, but I didn't know we were going to win.”

The national conference allows students from about 400 colleges to role play as United Nations delegates from various countries. After spending months researching the culture, politics, and positions of their assigned country, they attend meetings, give speeches, and vote on actual issues facing the world.

Randolph’s students represented Portugal this year. Terlizzi said that it was hard to get attention as Portugal on the Security Council, but she and Menon managed to stay “in character,” representing the views that Portugal would take on the issues presented to them.

Jennifer Dugan, a political science professor who advises the Model U.N. team, said the Security Council dealt with difficult topics this year, but it did not surprise her that Terlizzi and Menon were named best delegates. “They were firm and creative diplomats who navigated tough issues and entrenched positions with great finesse,” she said.

Dugan said that Mahmood and Trieu earned their honor of best position paper by crafting a paper that communicated their knowledge and proposed solutions with clarity.

Trieu said that winning the award added a lot to her first experience at Model U.N. “It made me want to do it again.”

“This year’s team worked hard and pulled in the same direction during the entire conference,” Dugan said. “We had the right balance of veteran and first time delegates as well as exceptional leadership in our two head delegates; everyone helped each other.”

Menon said that Dugan was instrumental in the success students had at the conference. “She drilled us really well for that conference,” he said. “She deserves most of the credit or recognition.”

Student travel and participation in the Model U.N. program is made possible through a generous gift from Marilyn Hicks Fitzgerald ’68 and Michael P. Fitzgerald and through the support of the Gravely-Hampson Global Studies Fund.

Bill Dunlap presents “Confessions of an Itinerant Painter” at Randolph College

Renowned artist Bill Dunlap shared a different approach toward making and experiencing art while visiting Randolph College recently. In a lecture punctuated with humor, he also shared a unique definition of art.

“It’s doing the difficult and making it look easy,” Dunlap told Randolph faculty and students gathered for his lecture. “There’s an art to everything. There’s an art to war. There’s an art to cooking.”

Bill Dunlap, second from the left, visits with Randolph community members.

Dunlap visited Randolph on March 19 to participate in art classes and tell students about his artistic career, which has spanned more than four decades. He toured the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, spoke to a class on post-war art at the Maier, visited students as they drew animals at a local animal shelter, and delivered a public talk titled “Confessions of an Itinerant Painter.”

Alumnae Susan Braselton Fant ‘84 and Katharine “Kitty” Stark Caldwell ‘74, who are friends of Dunlap, attended the lecture. Fant and her husband, Ruff, funded Dunlap’s visit and lecture.

“I’m one of the lucky ones,” Dunlap said. “I wanted to be an artist before I knew what one was.” When he was young, he began sketching family photographs. Later, while teaching art, he used his time on sabbatical to rent a studio and start making art. He so enjoyed the experience enough that he decided to pursue art full time.

He showed the audience many of his works of art and explained the ideas they represent. “I like to think that I paint pictures about things, not of things,” he said.

Ruff Fant, Susan Braselton Fant ’84, Bill Dunlap, Susan Klein, Randolph
College President John E. Klein, and Katherine Kitty Stark Caldwell ’74

Many of his paintings portray landscapes inspired by scenes along U.S. 29, a highway that runs through rural Virginia and connects several cities, including Lynchburg. He referred to these paintings as “hypothetical realism.” “These things aren’t real, but they could be,” he said.

The Blue Ridge Mountains, visible from the Randolph College campus, also find their way into many of his paintings—even when he paints scenes set in other countries. “It’s my world; I’ll do what I want with it,” he said.

Other recurring themes are his relatives, dogs, and stylistic renderings of a Rembrandt self-portrait. Dunlap said this variety of content sometimes leads to faulty interpretations of meanings behind his work. “I’m not complaining that I’m misunderstood, but they miss me all the time,” he said. “A lot of people these days write a thesis and then go find art that illustrates the thesis. I think they ought to look at the art and see what it’s trying to say.”

Honor societies induct new members

More than 50 Randolph students were inducted into 11 honor societies at a recent ceremony. Membership in these prestigious organizations recognizes these students for academic accomplishments in their fields of study.

The honor societies and inducted students include:

Psi Chi — Psychology
Ryan Blackwell ’13
John Croney III  ’13
Lauren King ’15
Elizabeth van Noppen ’14
Emily Rist  ’14
Diep Trieu ’15
Brittney Via  ’14
Tsubasa Watanabe  ’14

Iota Sigma Pi  — Women in Chemistry
Laura Word ’13

Sigma Tau Delta — English
Emma Bartholomew ’14
Katherine Bickley ’14
Melissa Halka ’14
Mahareen Khalid ’14
Thomas Whitehead ’13

Eta Sigma Phi — Latin
Katy Boyer ’16
Natalia Froberg ’13
Hart Gillespie  ’15

Sigma Pi Sigma — Physics
Hart Gillespie ’15
Nam Hoang ’15
Chris Hollingsworth ’15
Tu Nguyen ’15

Alpha Kappa Delta — Sociology
Christina Noelle Budd ’13
Rachel Ann Cox ’13
Millie Symns ’13
Samantha Brooke Thacker ’13
Brittney Marie Via ’14
Tsubasa Watanabe ’14
Thomas J. Whitehead ’13


Chi Alpha Sigma — Scholar Athletes
John Croney ’13
John Grundy ’14
Amy Jacobs ’14
Brianne Roth ’13
Brittney Via ’14
Samim Yaquby ’13

Omicron Delta Epsilon — Economics
Huong Ngoc Doan ’14
Tung Thanh Ha  ’14
Amy Jacobs ’14
Jonghui Kim ’14
Nhung Hong Nguyen ’15
Binh Thanh Nguyen ’14
Lauren Stevenson ’13
Salina Tulachan ’15

Phi Alpha Theta — History
Christina Budd ’13
Rachel Ann Cox ’13
William B. Dede ’14
Lauren Dowdle ’13
Lauren A. King ’15
Samantha Maggard ’14
Marisa Lyn Mendez ’13
Teague C. Nelson ’14
Ryan D. Purrington ’14
Karen Rose ’13

TriBeta — Biology
Elizabeth Delery ’14
Kristen Hutchinson ’14
Lauren Liming ’14
Ellen Meadows ’15
Sara Ann Reed ’15
Katherine Riedel ’14
Anne Tran ’15
Jorge Vargas ’14

Pi Sigma Alpha — Political Science
Tra My Dinh Doan ’14
Ashley D. Edwards ’14
Risa T. König ’13
Samim Yaquby ’13

Science Festival grows thanks to gift

The legacy of Lynn Hume Stuart ’60 continues with the 2013 Science Festival, which begins Thursday.

Lynn Hume Stuart ’60 made a gift to support the
Randolph College Science Festival for five years.

Lynn was a long-time supporter of the College and many of its programs. Last fall, she and her husband, Bill Stuart, made a gift to Randolph College to support the annual Science Festival for five years. Lynn passed away a few weeks later, on Nov. 2. Their gift has been instrumental in growing the Science Festival, which continues to offer more events involving more people each year.

The Stuarts’ gift is also supporting the Randolph Innovative Student Experience (RISE), a program that allows students to apply for grants to pay for research, artistic pursuits, travel study, and other experiential learning endeavors. Read more about their gift in this recent article in the Bulletin.
The Science Festival will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with a keynote address by Don Lincoln, a physicist involved last year in the discovery of the Higgs boson, which was one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in recent history. Science Festival continues with events each day through Sunday. Get the full schedule here.

Acclaimed poet Ira Sadoff set for reading at Randolph

This Wednesday, the Randolph community will be treated to a reading by poet Ira Sadoff. The author of eight poetry collections, Sadoff has published poetry in works such as the Harper Anthology of American Literature and Great American Prose Poems. He has received the Creative Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts as well as a Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Most recently though, Sadoff has been serving as Randolph’s Writer in Residence as a part of the English Department’s Visiting Writers Series. During his stay at Randolph, he is teaching a one credit, special topics English class that is open to Randolph students. He will also make appearances in several other classes.

“It is an advantage for Randolph students to be exposed to a wide range of authors,” said Laura-Gray Street, an English professor at Randolph. Street is responsible for bringing Sadoff, who served as her thesis advisor, to campus. “He was a role model for me. He has such warmth, energy, and generosity as well as a remarkable presence,” Street said.

The poetry reading will start at 8pm in the Alice Ashley Jack Room. Refreshments will be served. This is also a Passport program event for First Year students. Any questions about the event can be sent to Street lstreet@randolphcollege.edu.

Later in the semester, be on the lookout for one more reading by author Allison Hedge Coke.

Alumna honored as CNN Hero

We knew Kakenya Ntaiya ’04 was a hero. Now CNN agrees.

The broadcasting network has named this alumna one the CNN Heroes of 2013, and she was the headline story on the CNN Heroes page this week.

Ntaiya was the first woman to convince leaders in her home village to allow her to attend college in the United States. After attending here for undergraduate school and proceeding to earn a Ph.D., she returned to her home village in hopes of providing education and brighter futures for girls there.

Last week, we shared Ntaiya’s TED Talk about her journey. Today, we are proud to present another telling of her courageous story. Read her story, “Woman challenges tradition, brings change to her Kenyan village,” and watch her video here:

Model U.N. students prepare to represent Portugal

Fifteen Randolph students are prepared to represent Portugal in the National Model United Nations Conference next week. They will give speeches, advocate for Portugal’s interests, and make decisions with students from around the world in five days of sessions that test students’ skills in diplomacy and their knowledge of global issues.

Randolph is one of about 400 colleges with a Model United Nations team. Throughout this semester, the Randolph delegates have explored how

Meet the Delegates

Randolph’s Model U.N. delegates are introducing themselves and documenting their participation in the conference on the Model U.N. blog. Check it out!

Portugal would position itself on issues such as renewable energy, empowering women, and food security. Preparing for Model U.N. makes it a unique classroom experience.

“It doesn’t even feel like a class,” said Jacob Lusczek ’14, one of the head delegates from Randolph. “It feels like you’re getting together with a group of friends to talk about issues.”

Students participate in Model U.N. for a variety of reasons. Lusczeck, for example, applied for the program after he enjoyed, and performed well in, a mock summit in his world politics class.

Sara Terlizzi ’15 got involved because of her growing interest in international law. “This is an opportunity to learn about the law firsthand and see how it is implemented,” she said.

Students have been assigned to various committees where they research specific topics that those committees will address during the national conference in New York. Terlizzi, who will represent Portugal on the Model U.N. Security Council, said this immersion has really put her in the mindset of the country. When she hears about world events in the news she automatically begins processing how people in Portugal would view the event.

On Tuesday, the student ambassadors tested their preparation with Randolph professors and staff members who played the role of foreign ambassadors and asked them to explain and defend their positions on the issues. On Saturday, they fly to New York to face similar questions from other students who also have spent the entire semester preparing. On Sunday they will attend a reception at the home of Kathy Brown ‘76.

“It’s time consuming, but the time that you put into it is very rewarding,” said Lusczek.

“It’s an experience that you won’t get with anything else,” said Terlizzi.

Student travel and participation in the Model UN program is made possible through a generous gift from Marilyn Hicks Fitzgerald ’68 and Michael P. Fitzgerald and through support of the Gravely-Hampson Global Studies Fund.