Study abroad in Europe offers glimpse of world war history

A group of Randolph students recently spent two weeks in Europe learning about two wars that challenged and changed the continent, as well as the world.

History professor Gerry Sherayko and communication studies professor Jennifer Gauthier led the students on an international study seminar titled “Museums, Memorials and Memory: Britain and the Two World Wars.”

They visited a variety of sites that memorialize World War I and World War II in England, Belgium, and France, including the Churchill War Rooms, Coventry Cathedral, and Flanders battlefield, as well as other historic sites. The journey allowed students to take an in-depth look at the way war is memorialized.

“By studying and having discussions about these war memorials, we have learned a lot about how each nation and its people remember the past, as well as how public memories have contributed to the construction of a British national identity,” said Phuong Tran ’15. “Without being on the site and experiencing the memorials ourselves, we would never be able to understand how the British cherish and value their past.”

You can view some of the photos from the international study seminar in this Facebook photo album.

Randolph will participate in College Colors Day

Get ready to don your black and yellow to show everyone your pride in graduating from Randolph College or Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

August 30 is College Colors Day, “an annual celebration dedicated to promoting the traditions and spirit that make the college experience great by encouraging people across America to wear apparel of their favorite college or university throughout the day.” College Colors Day has been organized since 2005, and many organizations and colleges encourage participation.

The College not only wants you to participate, but we also want you to show off that school pride. On August 30, snap a picture of yourself wearing black and yellow at work, at your current school, at the pool or the park, or wherever you happen to be. Then share your photo on the Randolph College Facebook page.

We would also love for you to join Wanda WildCat and the whole College community at City Stadium that evening for Randolph College Night with the Lynchburg Hillcats. Your Randolph gear will get you into the baseball game for a discounted $3. Don’t miss the first pitch thrown by Randolph President Bradley W. Bateman, the National Anthem performed by Touch of Harmony, and lots of other fun activities with the Randolph community.

Randolph to host producers of documentary about WW-II journalist who helped Holocaust refugees escape to America

By Tory Brown ’13
College Relations Intern

Randolph College will screen the documentary, “Ahead of Time” Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.  in Room 300 in Smith Memorial Building. Directed by Bob Richman, the documentary follows the journey of Ruth Gruber, a foreign correspondent and photojournalist whose trailblazing career made history. The film’s producers, Patti Kenner and Ida Cole, will be on hand for the free event.

A lifelong writer, journalist, photojournalist, and humanitarian, Gruber has written 19 books and recently accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Overseas Press Club. Her book, Haven, which told the story of escorting Holocaust refugees to America, was made into a television mini-series starring Natasha Richardson in 2001.

“Ahead of Time” is a feature-length documentary film focusing on the life of Gruber. who was born in 1911 to Russian Jewish immigrants. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Gruber attended New York University at the age of 15. At 20, she became the world’s youngest Ph.D. A feminist before feminism, Gruber became the first journalist to enter the Soviet Artic in 1935.  She traveled to Alaska as a member of the Roosevelt administration in 1941, where she was the first civilian on the Alaska Highway.

Ruth’s unique perspective of the events surrounding WWII is a result of her involvement in many of those historical moments. She was chosen by the Roosevelt administration to escort 1,000 Holocaust refugees from Naples to New York in a secret wartime mission in 1944. As a journalist, she accompanied leaders to the Middle East where they studied the problems of displaced persons and Palestine. Gruber covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and her photos of the ship Exodus 1947 were published in Life Magazine and around the world.

With her love of adventure, fearlessness and powerful intellect, Gruber defied tradition and in the process, emerged as the eyes and conscience of the world. Today, she still has the moxie and sharp wit that propelled her career, and the film interweaves vérité footage with interviews and archival material.

“Ahead of Time” has won multiple Best Documentary awards from many different film festivals. Additional screenings of “Ahead of Time” will take place on Dec. 1 at Lynchburg College at 12:30 p.m. in the Hopwood Auditorium and The Agudath Sholom Synagogue at 7:30 p.m.

Randolph College Honors 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Protests

Randolph College will honor the 50th anniversary of the first sit-in in Lynchburg, Virginia.

This pivotal moment in the civil rights movement here has special meaning to our College. Two of our students joined two other white students from Lynchburg College and two African American students from Virginia Theological Seminary and College at Patterson’s Drug Store in downtown Lynchburg, hoping to convince the owner to allow people of every race to use the lunch counter. When the owner refused, the students held the city’s first sit-in, which resulted in each of them receiving a 30-day jail sentence.

Randolph College is honoring this anniversary with an event that will address both the past and present of the Civil Rights Movement.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

February 17
Lynchburg Sit-in Panel Discussion
Alice Ashley Jack Room, Smith Bldg.
4:30 p.m.


Moderator:
Gilliam Cobbs
Lynchburg community leader

Panelists:
Mary Edith Bentley Abu-Saba ’61
Alumna, sit-in participant
Alice Hilseweck Ball ’61
Alumna, sit-in participant
Evanda Gale Jefferson ’70
Alumna, Lynchburg resident at time of sit-ins, one of the first black graduates of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College

“Activism and Civil Rights Today”
Nikki Giovanni
Houston Memorial Chapel
7:30 p.m.

American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Through her work, she is wholly committed to the fight for civil rights and racial equality, insisting on presenting the truth as she sees it. She presently teaches writing and literature at Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor. She has received 19 honorary doctorates and a myriad of other awards.

All events are free and open to the public.
Events funded by the Phillip Thayer Memorial Lecture Fund and Kennedy-Fitzgerald Fund.



Read more about R-MWC students and the Patterson sit-ins in the December issue of Randolph Magazine.