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March 12, 2009

 

  1. Senior from Williamsville named 2009 Woman of Promise
  2. Honor an exceptional member of the SBU community
  3. SBU to host death penalty discussion: 'Are Catholics Really Pro-life?'
  4. Nancy Casey to present next program in Extraordinary Classroom Lecture Series
  5. SBU welcomes next speaker in Merton Lecture Series
  6. Physical education alumnus honored by State Commission on Independent Colleges
  7. ROTC program to hold 67th Annual Military Ball
  8. St. Bonaventure University to host mathematics contest
  9. Newsmakers for Spring 2009

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Senior from Williamsville named 2009 Woman of Promise

St. Bonaventure University’s Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication named senior Jennifer Sherman as the recipient of the 2009 Dr. Mary A. Hamilton Woman of Promise Award.

St. Bonaventure’s Woman of Promise Award is presented to a female senior who excels in and out of the classroom and sets a good example for her peers. Sherman, a double major in journalism and mass communication and political science, is involved with several on- and off-campus activities and has worked in several prestigious internships, including at The White House.

The awards presentation will be at 4 p.m. March 19 in Walsh Auditorium of the William F. Walsh Science Center. Janet Bodnar, ’71, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Throughout her career, Bodnar has written about a wide range of topics on investing, money management and the economy. In addition, she has been editor of Success With Your Money, a special Kiplinger publication.

Bodnar is a nationally recognized expert in the field of children’s and family finances and has written several books about finance. “Raising Money Smart Kids” (Kaplan) was a finalist in the personal finance category of the Books for a Better Life awards. It was also a selection of the Washington Post’s Color of Money book club. Her latest book is “Money Smart Women: Everything You Need to Know to Achieve a Lifetime of Financial Security” (Kaplan).

Time magazine noted that Bodnar “avoids the patronizing finger wagging and sticks to giving advice that women can really use.” She speaks frequently on the subject of women and money.

Bodnar’s “Money-Smart Kids” column appears regularly in Kiplinger’s magazine and at www.kiplinger.com/columns/kids. It was chosen by Moneysmartz.com as one of the top financial columns online.

Bodnar has done hundreds of radio and television interviews, including “Oprah” and CNN. She has been quoted in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to Parents and Glamour.

Bodnar has been recognized by American University for excellence in personal finance reporting, and by the National Council on Family Relations for her televised reports on children and money.

Prior to joining Kiplinger’s, Bodnar worked for The Providence Journal and The Washington Post. A graduate of St. Bonaventure, she received her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism.

Married, she is the mother of three children.

The Woman of Promise Award is presented to a student who, in the faculty’s opinion, possesses all the skills necessary to not only succeed but thrive in her post-graduate career. Sherman is certainly no exception.

Sherman interned with then-Congressman Tom Reynolds (R-26) in the summer of 2006. The following summer, she enrolled in SBU’s Francis E. Kelley Oxford program hosted by Oxford University’s Somerville College.

Last spring, Sherman spent her semester as a White House intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence where she wrote presidential messages and helped prepare information for thank-you letters from President Bush. In January, she attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama as part of the Presidential Inauguration series through The Washington Center.

Throughout her four years at St. Bonaventure, Sherman has been active in several on-campus media organizations and clubs, including writing for The Bona Venture and The Communicator. She has worked in the journalism and mass communication office since her sophomore year and has been a member of the Public Relations Society of America. In August 2005, she was named Young Achiever of the Month by Buffalo’s WIVB-TV, Channel 4 News.

She is the daughter of Dave and Cindy Sherman of Williamsville, N.Y. As an active community member, she has served the Town of Amherst in several community programs.

Sherman says she is thankful for the outstanding guidance and support from the journalism and mass communication faculty and staff, adding that she would not be where she is today without them. After graduation, she plans to work in Washington, D.C., or intern abroad.

The Woman of Promise Award is named in honor of Dr. Mary A. Hamilton, a retired associate professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure. A 1959 Bona grad, Hamilton returned in 1982 as a faculty member and also served as chair of the then journalism department.

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Honor an exceptional member of the SBU community

The Office of Student Life and the Student Government Association (SGA) are seeking nominations of individuals and groups at St. Bonaventure University who have made significant contributions to the university community. The Fr. Joe Doino, O.F.M., Honors and Awards recognize those exceptional individuals in the St. Bonaventure community who have made others’ experiences here better and whose Franciscan spirit may go unrecognized.

Nominations are sought for 10 awards that will be presented at the Spring Honors and Awards Ceremony, slated for 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the Reilly Center Arena.

Award categories include: University Ministries Volunteer of the Year; Adviser/Moderator of the Year; Program of the Year; Community Service Award; Staff Person of the Year; Organization/Club of the Year; Student Leader of the Year; Student Life Award; Cabinet Member of the Year; and the Faculty Appreciation Award. Nominations can be by any member of the university community.

The awards’ namesake honors Fr. Joe Doino, a much beloved friar who was known for his practical jokes, love of tennis, and dedication as the SGA adviser. A professor, scholar, musician, preacher and priest, Fr. Joe became the first faculty member to receive the Faculty Appreciation Award posthumously. Fr. Joe, who died in 1994 at the age of 70, served as the director of Franciscan novices before starting his teaching career at St. Bonaventure in 1986.

Nomination forms are available in the Office of Student Life (Room 203 Reilly Center), the Reilly Center Ticket Office and University Ministries. Forms are also available for electronic download and on MySBU. Nomination forms can be submitted hard copy to Ann Hurlburt in the Office of Student Life (Room 203, Reilly Center) or e-mailed to her at ahurl@sbu.edu. For additional details, contact Hurlburt at (716) 375-2513 or a Student Government Association officer.

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SBU to host death penalty discussion: 'Are Catholics Really Pro-life?'

St. Bonaventure University’s Franciscan Center for Social Concern will host an upcoming presentation on the death penalty, “Are Catholics Really Pro-Life? The Case Against the Death Penalty.”

The program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The presenters are Amy Sayward, Ph.D., a ’91 alumna of St. Bonaventure and chair of the History Department at Middle Tennessee State University, and Janine Fodor, a partner at the law firm of Wagner & Hart in Olean.

Sayward will be talking about the death penalty from the perspective of her Catholic upbringing and convictions as well as her personal experiences as a death penalty abolitionist. As a classmate of Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in 2001 for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Sayward started thinking about the death penalty as a public policy issue while she was in graduate school.

Fodor intends to discuss some of the basic principles of death penalty law and why she believes that the implementation of the death penalty in the United States is unjust.

Sayward has been active in the death penalty abolitionist movement since relocating to Tennessee. She is active in the Tennessee Coalition to abolish state killing and visits an inmate on Tennessee’s death row. She most recently completed a three-year term as the Chair of the State Board of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, during which time the organization succeeded in passing legislation creating a bipartisan study committee of Tennessee’s death penalty.

Sayward is also a religious educator who has spoken to numerous confirmation classes and other religious education classes in the greater Nashville area on Catholic pro-life and social justice issues.

She received her Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University in 1998. Since then she has been a member of the faculty of the History Department at Middle Tennessee State University, which she has chaired since 2007. In 2006, Kent State University Press published her book “The Birth of Development: How the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization Changed the World, 1945-1965.” She is also the co-editor of the book “Tennessee’s New Abolitionists: The Fight Against the Death Penalty in the Volunteer State,” which will be published next year by the University of Tennessee Press.

Fodor, of Allegany, is the attorney for the village of Allegany and a partner at Wagner & Hart. From 2003 to 2005, she served as director of The Journey Project at St. Bonaventure, and continues to occasionally teach as an adjunct at the university.

As an attorney with Unti, Lumsden & Smith, P.A., in Raleigh, N.C., Fodor practiced in the areas of civil litigation and death penalty defense. Prior to that, from 1991 to 1999, Fodor was an assistant appellate defender for the state of North Carolina, where she represented indigent criminal defendants on direct appeal in the specialty areas of death penalty defense and juvenile law.

She holds a juris doctor degree from Yale Law School.

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Nancy Casey to present next program in Extraordinary Classroom Lecture Series

The campus community is invited to attend the next event in the Extraordinary Classroom Lecture Series on March 18. Dr. Nancy Casey, associate professor of education, will present “Why We (Should) Teach the Way We (Should) Teach: How Learning Theory Should Impact the Design of Classroom Experiences” at 3 p.m. in Plassmann Hall Room 101.

Casey’s presentation will focus on how learning should directly impact how teachers teach.

“New research on the brain and traditional learning theory provide powerful guidance for teachers at all levels,” said Casey. “In any teaching-learning situation, teachers must be guided about what we know about learning and how learners learn. They must design their teaching to be responsive to the needs of the learners.”

Casey stresses that teachers at all levels need to acknowledge that the important thing is not the teaching, but the learning.

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SBU welcomes next speaker in Merton Lecture Series


To celebrate the life of Catholic writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton, St. Bonaventure University welcomes Dr. Anthony Bannon, director of the George Eastman House of Rochester, to speak on March 13.

December 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of Merton’s death. Bannon will speak on “Merton and Contemplation through his Photographs” at 12:30 p.m. in the University Club at the Friday Forum for faculty and staff.

In addition, Mt. Irenaeus will host Bannon on Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14, for overnights at the Mountain. The topic will be “Reflections on Thomas Merton.” Departure will be from the Thomas Merton Center at 4 p.m., March 13. A 6 p.m. supper will be followed by a presentation. On Saturday, there will be a presentation at 10 a.m. and the day will conclude with lunch. The overnights are open to the public, and those interested in attending only the presentations are welcome to do so. For more information, call the Mountain Office at (716) 375-2096.

Bannon is the seventh director of George Eastman House the International Museum of Photography and Film. Prior to his appointment in 1996, Bannon was assistant vice president of cultural affairs at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and director of its Burchfield Penney Art Center.

He has worked as a critic, filmmaker and educator. His book, “Photo Pictorialists of Buffalo,” won the American Photographic Historical Society’s merit award. His writing on deafness won the Gallaudet University Award. His book on the photographer Steve McCurry was recently published by Phaidon Press.

Bannon has served on the Executive Committee of the New York State Council for the Humanities and the boards of High Falls Film Festival, Santa Fe Center for Photography and the Rochester School for the Deaf. He has served on art councils in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Bannon holds a bachelor’s of science degree from St. Bonaventure, and his master’s degree in media studies and doctorate in cultural studies from the English Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The Thomas Merton Series is sponsored by the Franciscan Heritage Council at St. Bonaventure.

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Physical education alumnus honored by State Commission on Independent Colleges

Marc Vachon, physical educator and aquatics director at Mohonasen Central Schools in Rotterdam, was among 21 people honored by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu).

Vachon was honored March 2 during the 2009 Independent Sector Alumni Hall of Distinction Awards Ceremony and Legislative Reception at the state Capitol.

Vachon graduated in 2003 from St. Bonaventure University with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. He completed his master’s degree in 2007 at The College of St. Rose in Albany.

The Alumni Hall of Distinction was created in 2000 to recognize New York’s Independent Sector graduates who make contributions to society through their careers and community involvement. This year, cIcu recognized elementary school educators and school leaders to bring attention to the pivotal role that private colleges and universities play in preparing New York state’s teachers.

In addition to his school-based activities, Vachon is actively involved in the New York State Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, a professional organization developed for instructors in the field to network and build new curriculum to keep instruction fresh.

“Marc has really established himself in the state as one of our young, very capable leaders in physical education,” said Paul Brawdy, Ph.D., associate professor of physical education at St. Bonaventure. “As Capital Zone President for the New York State Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Marc has been successful in working with colleagues across the state, including many veteran teachers, during a time of great change in our profession.

“Marc also provides inspiration and direction for those who follow in his footsteps by taking an active role in working with future professionals in physical education in New York. He is most deserving of this prestigious award,” said Brawdy, who nominated Vachon for the honor.

Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president, also attended the ceremony. The master of ceremonies was Robert Bennett, chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

The Independent Sector Alumni Hall of Distinction includes more than 250 business, community, and government leaders.

The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu) represents the chief executives of New York's 100+ independent (private, not-for-profit) colleges and universities on issues of public policy.

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ROTC program to hold 67th Annual Military Ball

The St. Bonaventure University Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corp Program will hold its 67th annual Military Ball at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 21.

The event will be held at the Premier Banquet Center in Olean, and will begin with a social hour of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. This will be followed by a receiving line for guests to meet the hosts of the ball.

Dinner will be served at 7 p.m. and will conclude with a ceremony where graduating seniors walk through a saber arch symbolizing their successful completion of the ROTC program. There will be dancing until 1 a.m. to music provided by Uptown Band from Reading, Pa.

The guest speaker for the event will be Col. James M. Mis, who was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry through St. Bonaventure’s ROTC program in 1986. Colonel Mis’s assignments as an infantry officer include duty with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the 1st Battalion, 75th Range Regiment.

The event is open to the public and costs $30 per person. Tickets can be purchased, no later than March 12, by contacting Capt. Adam Wehrle at (716) 375-2566 or Master Srgt. Francisco Morales at (716) 375-2569.

The ball is a formal event and a coat and tie are required for men. Military guests are expected to wear their dress blue or green dress uniform. Female guests are expected to be in formal wear.

More information about the event is available by contacting the St. Bonaventure Army ROTC program at (716) 375-2508.

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St. Bonaventure University to host mathematics contest

St. Bonaventure University will host a Challenge-24 mathematics contest on Saturday, March 21. Local area schools are invited to send one student in grades four through seven to participate in the event.

There are currently 77 students from 14 schools registered to attend. The participating schools include: Cuba Elementary, Cuba-Rushford Middle School, Friendship Central School, Hinsdale Central School, four Olean elementary schools (Boardmanville, East View, Ivers J. Norton and Washington West), Olean Middle School, Otto-Eldred Elementary School, Otto-Eldred Middle School, School Street Elementary, Smethport Central School and Southern Tier Catholic School.

Challenge-24 is a game in which contestants are presented with four numbers between one and nine. The object is to combine the numbers, using each number exactly once, to produce an answer of 24. Any of the standard arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) may be used as needed, perhaps more than once, to get the result.

The first, second and third place students at each grade level will receive a gold, silver or bronze medal, respectively, for their accomplishments.

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Newsmakers for Spring 2009

Darwin L. King, professor of accounting, and Dr. Carl J. Case, professor of management science, presented their paper “The Development of the United States Auditors Opinion”at the 16th annual meeting of the American Society of Business and Behavior Sciences in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 19-22, 2009. The paper earned a Best Paper Award in the Accounting History Track.

Four St. Bonaventure students, Bree Rehac (English - ’10), Kellan Terry (J/MC - ’10), Lindsey James (Education - ’11) and Drew Moxley (J/MC & Theater - ’11), attended a conference hosted by the National Orientation Directors Association. The conference was a joint-regional gathering with more than 60 schools attending, spanning from Maine to Virginia. It took place March 6-8, 2009, in Cherry Hill, N.J. Rehac, James and Moxley participated in the Undergraduate Case Study Competition. Rehac received an award for the “Best Problem Solving Skills” and James received the award for the “Best Overall Presentation.” Terry graduated from the Regional Orientation Leaders Institute, a leadership-training program for student leaders in orientation.

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