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In the news …
May 20, 2007
Washington College Awards Nation's Largest Undergraduate Literary Prize at 225th Commencement: 22-Year-Old Senior from Drexel Hill, PA, Wins $60,027 for Critical Writing and Drama
Liam Daley '07 won the $60,027 Sophie Kerr Prize for his critical essays and his dramatic writing. Most college seniors will look back on their graduation ceremony as a day of pomp and circumstance culminating in a handshake and a diploma. For Liam Daley, 22, a Washington College English and drama major from Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, the ceremony brought another reward: a check for $60,027. Daley's critical thesis on medieval English literature, along with his portfolio of plays and short prose pieces, earned him the largest literary award in the country exclusively for undergraduates-the Sophie Kerr Prize-presented Sunday, May 20, 2007, during the College's 225th Commencement ceremonies. The awarding of the Sophie Kerr Prize, given annually to the graduating senior who demonstrates the greatest "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor," has in recent decades been a highlight of the commencement ceremony at the 225-year-old liberal arts college. The Prize, worth $60,027 this year, is among the largest literary awards in the world. Washington College has awarded more than one million dollars in prize money since the Sophie Kerr Prize was first given in 1968, most often to writers of poetry and fiction. Scholarly and journalistic works, though less often selected, are given equal consideration. Daley was one of 40 to submit a portfolio for consideration this year, a relatively high number of entrants that happened to include "a very extraordinary number of top talents," said English Professor Kathryn Moncrief. It was a combination of Daley's thesis and his playwriting skills, "both the critical and the creative," that earned him departmental honors from the English department and caught the attention of the Sophie Kerr Committee. "He was a standout in a particularly strong group filled with talent and promise," Moncrief said. English Professor Richard Gillin, who presided over the committee's deliberations, praised Daley's skills as a dramatist. "With regard to Liam's plays, the rhythms of the dialogue paralleled the emotional turmoil of the characters, and the structuring of the plays' elements and the repartee among the characters are particular strengths." Professor Corey Olsen, Daley's thesis adviser, echoed Gillin's enthusiasm for this year's winner. "Liam's work demonstrates remarkable wit and liveliness. Both his critical essays and his dramatic writing display his intellectual intrepidity and his literary perspicacity." Noting that the winner has expressed a desire eventually to become a professor of English, Olsen remarked, "Liam has a very bright future in academia ahead of him." Daley, a 2003 graduate of Upper Darby High School in Pennsylvania, spent one of his college years abroad studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is returning there this fall for graduate school. The Sophie Kerr Prize is the namesake of an Eastern Shore woman who made her fortune in New York writing women's fiction during the 1930s and 1940s. In accordance with the terms of her will, one-half of the annual income from her bequest to the College is awarded each year to the graduating senior demonstrating the best potential for literary achievement. The other half funds scholarships, supports student publications and the purchase of books, and brings an array of visiting writers, editors and publishers to campus to read, visit classes, and discuss student work. Her gift has provided the nucleus for an abundance of literary activity on the bucolic Eastern Shore campus.
Source: Washington College, Maryland
May 11, 2007
Washington College: Underwood Donates $1.5 Million to Renovation of Washington College's Performing Arts Center Donation Moves Project Into Next Fundraising Phase
Washington College is pleased to announce that John Underwood, Chestertown resident and friend of the College, has given $1.5 million to assist in the renovation of the Gibson Performing Arts Center. Campaign co-Chair John Whitmore (left) with Kathleen Lea at cocktail buffet at Langdon Farm to announce the public phase of fundraising for the new performing arts center at Washington College. The Underwood gift pushes the total gifts and pledges for the project to more than $5 million and launches the public phase of the project, in which donations of all sizes are being welcomed. The public-phase launch was officially announced during a recent celebration at the home of John and Suzanne Whitmore in Sherwood. The gift, made through the John G. Underwood and Nancy L. Underwood Trusts, comes over and above Mr. Underwood's previous act of generosity to the College, in which he donated $1 million to establish the Nancy L. Underwood Chair in Art and Art History. Mr. Underwood's late wife, Nancy L. Underwood, was a lifelong devotee of art and art history. The major donation to the Gibson Performing Arts Center renovation project "is a fitting bookend to the Nancy L. Underwood Chair in Art and Art History created in 2005, and a memorial of her affection for Washington College and the arts," said Mr. Underwood. "I look forward to the lasting contribution the Fine Arts Center makes to the Washington College experience and to our community." Mrs. Underwood was born in Wilmington, Del., and graduated with honors in 1950 from the University of Cincinnati. A retired engineer, Mr. Underwood is a graduate of Miami University in Ohio and holds a Master of Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. The Underwoods were married at Old St. Paul's Kent in 1960, and after frequently vacationing in Chestertown during the past several decades returned to the area permanently to retire. Rendering of the Gibson Performing Arts Center illuminated at night Mr. Underwood's gift to the Gibson project will fund the new lobby, which accordingly will be named after him and Mrs. Underwood, and will house their portrait. "Shortly before she died, Mrs. Nancy Underwood arranged to endow the Nancy L. Underwood Chair in Art and Art History," noted Washington College President Baird Tipson. "Now her husband John has made it possible for us to create the beautiful Nancy L. and John G. Underwood Lobby in the restored Performing Arts Center. I am particularly gratified by their generosity and look forward to seeing their portrait on every visit to the Underwood Lobby." The complete renovation and expansion of the Gibson Performing Arts Center will transform the place of the arts at Washington College, adding needed rehearsal and performance space while addressing issues of aesthetics, functionality and accessibility. The Department of Drama will enjoy a completely renovated large theater, a brand-new experimental theater, expanded rehearsal space, office space, classroom space and green-room space. The Department of Music will have its own recital hall, better rehearsal space, more classrooms and individual rehearsal rooms, and better storage for instruments. The dance program will continue to rehearse in its present facility in the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center, but its performances will occur on the new stage of the large theater. Major events such as the George Washington Birthday Convocation, lectures by prominent speakers, admissions open houses, and the Concert Series will draw campus and community into the newly renovated spaces.
Source: Washington College, Maryland
May 2, 2007
ELS Language Centers: ETS and ELS, World Leaders in Education, Join Forces
ETS and ELS Language Centers announced today that they have entered into an agreement for ELS to administer the TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language™) Internet-Based Test (iBT) at all 45 ELS Centers in the United States. Last year approximately 750,000 people took the TOEFL test as part of their admission process at 6,000 universities around the world and at several thousand U.S. institutions of higher education. The new TOEFL iBT is an Internet-based test and uses computer labs where test takers access these live tests. "ELS provides English as a Second Language training to more than 20,000 international students each year, and we recruit several thousand graduate and undergraduate students for U.S. colleges and universities," says Mark Harris, President and CEO of ELS Language Centers. "Our presence on nearly 40 college campuses and our Internet connected state-of-the-art language labs make us an ideal strategic partner for testing." "We are pleased to join forces with ELS Language Centers, whose 45 centers across the country now make them ETS's largest provider of Internet-based testing seats in the U.S. ETS welcomes ELS to our growing worldwide network of more than 3,200 centers that offer the new TOEFL iBT," says Paul A. Ramsey, Senior Vice President of ETS Global. "We're delighted that ELS will offer not only testing opportunities but also ETS preparation materials." In conjunction with the administration of this test, ELS Language Centers will be introducing a new TOEFL iBT Preparation course, which will include ETS's proprietary online practice materials, as well as a teacher workshop and certification by ETS. With this agreement, ETS also named ELS as its first EPV (ETS Preferred Vendor) in the U.S., with access to a range of select ETS products and partnership benefits.
Source: ELS Language Centers
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The American Language Institute (ALI) at San Diego State University (SDSU) offers internationally respected English language programs. Since 1974, the ... [read more]
