The Show: Fist Pumping Like Champs wows Randolph community

Images courtesy Jennifer Bundy '12, Christina Hua '11, Tung Ha '14, and Jeff Heinfeldt.

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” – Agatha Christie

Once every four years, Randolph College faculty and staff put on The Show. Not just any show, mind you. The Show. A production so big, so memorable, that it only happens once every 1461 days. Dubbed the “non-talent” show, the production involves a variety of skits, performances, and appearances from staff and faculty members.

This year’s event, The Show: Fist Pumping Like Champs, did not disappoint thanks to the work of numerous volunteers. The event featured everything from a choreographed performance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to songs, skits, belly dancing, and poetry. The Energizer Bunny even made several special appearances.

“The Agatha Christie quote captures the spirit of The Show,” said Tina Johnson ’93, grand poobah for the event. “We’re willing to look ridiculous in order to share an evening of fun and laughter with students and colleagues. I still remember acts from The Show my first-year at R-MWC, and this is the fourth production for me on stage. It’s one of my favorite traditions at the College.”

Work on The Show lasts months and often involves intricate choreography and costumes.

“It is amazing how many faculty and staff, a majority of those on campus, put in countless hours of time to put on The Show,” said Peter Sheldon, sub-vice-pequeno poobah for the event. “For a non-talent show, the acts certainly displayed a phenomenal amount of talent of our faculty and staff. It has really brought together groups of faculty and staff on campus to form new bonds. The commitment and dedication is all for the students, and they seem to really appreciate our efforts. There was something for everyone. It was an amazing experience to be involved in, and I am afraid to think about trying to better it four years from now.”

Proceeds from The Show support the College Club philanthropies and production costs of the event.

Win A Free DVD of The Show: Fist Pumping Like Champs!

Did you miss The Show: Fist Pumping Like Champs? Wish you could see it again? DVD copies will soon be available for sale.

The Office of College Relations wants five lucky people to have a copy for free! The contest is simple. Send an e-mail by March 18 to collegerelations@randolphcollege.edu with your guess of who was in the Energizer Bunny costume. Make sure you include your name, address, and cell phone number. We will randomly choose five lucky winners from the correct entries. The winner will be announced March 21.

Students Compete in Ethics Bowl

Front row: (l-r) Wyatt Phipps '13, Lindsay Wood '11, Caleb Moxley '11, Rhiannon Knol '11. Second row: (l-r) Susan Klein, Randolph College President John E. Klein

Four Randolph College students participated in the 12th annual statewide collegiate Wachovia Ethics Bowl on February 13-14, on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk/Virginia Beach.

The Randolph College team competed head-to-head against other highly qualified student teams from Virginia’s 14 leading independent colleges and universities, debating a variety of case studies highlighting privacy-based dilemmas. The Randolph College student team members were Rhiannon Knol ’11, Caleb Moxley ’11, Wyatt Phipps ’13, and Lindsay Wood ’11.

Faculty sponsors for the team were Gordon Steffey, assistant professor of religion, and Laura-Gray Street, assistant professor of Engllish.

Many notables from the business sector, law, education, finance, journalism, and other fields listened to team presentations and offer reactions to the students’ presentations.

The event was sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC).

Founded in 1952, the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges is a nonprofit fund-raising partnership supporting the programs and students of 15 leading independent colleges in the Commonwealth: Bridgewater College, Emory & Henry College, Hampden-Sydney College, Hollins University, Lynchburg College, Mary Baldwin College, Marymount University, Randolph College, Randolph-Macon College, Roanoke College, Shenandoah University, Sweet Briar College, University of Richmond, Virginia Wesleyan College and Washington & Lee University. For additional information on the VFIC, visit www.vfic.org.

Randolph College Students, Faculty Explore Mexico During Winter International Studies Seminar

Students participating in Randolph College's winter International Study Seminar to Baja California Sur, Journaling Global Change, learned more about stingrays than they were expecting.

On the first full day of the trip, the group of students and faculty members were swimming in the Balandra Bay when Alexandra Williams '13 felt something sting her toe. Not knowing exactly what it was, she swam back to shore where the guide said it was a stingray sting, an unusual occurrence in that area.

“I just kept trying to keep myself calm,” Williams said. “I didn’t want to make it worse for everyone, but they were all great.”

With Williams in severe pain, the group kayaked the half hour back to their van, and then traveled back to the kayak outfitter’s office. “We saw the best of Randolph College students in action,” said Karin Warren, an environmental studies professor who helped lead the course with Laura-Gray Street, an English professor. “Instead of this being a bad omen, it set the stage for good camaraderie and adventures.”

Journaling Global Change was an interdisciplinary course that merged global change science and creative nature writing and journaling. During the winter break, the group traveled to Mexico where they studied the geology, climatology, ecology and culture of Baja California Sur while learning to communicate their experiences through creative writing and journaling. The group spent time in La Paz, where they went sea kayaking through a mangrove lagoon, and also spent a week at the Center for Coastal Studies on the shores of the Magdalena Bay, which is operated by the School for Field Studies.

They were able to visit an oasis ecosystem, where a small town has lived sustainably for centuries. They also explored mangroves estuaries, sand dune islands, and searched for gray whales in the Magdalena Bay.

During the trip by boat in the Magdalena Bay, the group was shocked to see a gray whale swimming toward them. The whale swam under the boat and lifted her head out of the water just in front of them.

“Seeing the sea lions, dolphins, and gray whales was the best part of the trip,” said Justin DeSmith ’12. “How many people can say they have been within a foot of a gray whale? Along with that, I had the opportunity to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life. It was simply awe inspiring to know that I was standing on the other side of the continent.”

Warren has taught this course before and said it often is life changing for students. After the last trip in 2007, a student who was a math major ended up studying environmental issues in graduate school because she realized she wanted to work in the environmental realm. Another used the experience for her senior honors paper, which was eventually published.

“The best part is seeing the students experience a wonderful combination of exploration, adventure, and interdisciplinary learning in such an incredible environment,” Warren said. “Every day, we had an adventure that was infused with learning in a way that was both stimulating and interactive. It was obvious that this was a trip that would be very important for our students, and one we would all remember 20 or 50 years from now.”

DeSmith enjoyed the chance to learn more about the sustainability practices of other cultures. The group saw how people in the area used palm leaves for roofing, ate locally grown or caught food, and composted not only their food items, but their toiletries.

“Seminars such as these allow students to learn what is being taught to us in the classroom in a real world setting,” DeSmith said. “It is one thing to apply a teaching to a scenario. It is a completely different thing to actually be in that scenario.”

The course used the trip to teach students not only about the ecology of the area, but also how to write about their observations and experiences in a creative way. For Lee Nutter ’13, the opportunity allowed her to merge her passions for writing and the environment.

“I’m going to take ‘experience’ out of this experience,” she said. “During this trip, I learned to kayak, strolled through sand, hiked up mountains, fed seagulls, and snuck up on sea lions. I ate great food, met some really smart and funny people, and became a tiny bit more fluent at speaking Spanish. Unlike typical classroom environments, this seminar provided hands-on experiences, so I learned without trying.”

Even Williams, who recovered quickly from the stingray incident, said the trip was amazing. “I learned more about stingrays than I ever thought I would,” she laughed. “But it also showed me how great this community is. Everyone was really close, and we just became great friends. It’s amazing to be in another country and have our own views and different opinions, but at the same time you are one group. That was great.”

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.

Randolph College Visiting Writer Series Features Anthony D'Aries Feb. 2

Anthony D’Aries will give a free reading on Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. in Smith Building’s Jack Lounge. The event, part of Randolph College's Visiting Writing Series, is free and open to the public. D’Aries is serving as Randolph’s Emerging Writer-in-Residence for the spring 2011 semester.

The winner of the 2010 PEN New England Discovery Award in Nonfiction, D'Aries is known for his work teaching creative writing and literacy within correctional facilities in Massachusetts as a volunteer for PEN New England’s Prison Creative Writing Program and in the Education Department at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston. This spring, he will teach a course with Changing Lives Through Literature, an alternative-sentencing program that fosters communication between teachers, probation officers, judges and ex-offenders through the discussion of classic and contemporary literature.

WildCat Theatre Presents Proof

Where is the line between genius and madness? Randolph College will ask that question in its production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof by David Auburn. Proof is the second show of the WildCat Theatre season.

Proof is the story of Catherine, a young woman who has served as caretaker for her father, a renowned mathematician, who was both brilliant and psychologically unstable. Following her father’s death, she must deal with her sister Claire who has returned to help with final arrangements and Hal, one of her father’s former graduate students who hopes to sort through her father’s journals. Amid the family squabbles and romantic twists, Catherine endeavors to prove that she does indeed have her father’s brilliance while hoping she has not inherited his madness.
Proof won both the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 2001 for a renowned Broadway staging featuring Mary Louise Parker. The play has since become a major motion picture featuring Gweneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins.

Randolph’s production features theatre majors Emily Perry ’12 as Catherine Marian van Noppen ’12 as Claire, and Matt Cornpropst ’14 as Hal. The small ensemble cast is rounded out by new Randolph faculty member Mace Archer as the unstable Robert. The play is under the direction of Ken Parks, chair of the Randolph College Theatre Department.

Proof will be staged in the Lab Theatre (Leggett 203) on the campus of Randolph College, and will be performed February 4-6 and 10-12. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. except the February 6 matinee at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $13 for adults, $9 for Faculty/Staff/Seniors, and $5 for students. Seating is limited and advanced tickets can be purchased at Lynchburgtickets.com.

For more information, call (434) 947-8562.

Karin Warren, the Randolph College Herzog Family Chair of Environmental Studies, was featured on WSET Jan. 27 for a story on the environmental impact of snow removal chemicals and abrasives.

See the story here:

http://www.wset.com/Global/story.asp?S=13922550