September 4, 2009 by smcmagazine
Three Fulbright Scholars consider their time at Saint Michael’s
As soon as Mutahar Al-Murtadha, a graduate student
from Yemen, was nominated for a Fulbright scholarship
to earn his master’s degree in Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL), he started to
search for appropriate universities in the United States
that matched his interests. He chose to apply to several
universities, including Saint Michael’s College because
its MATESOL program provides both theoretical and practical
knowledge. Continue Reading »
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August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
When conflict, crisis and disaster strike, Dr. Skip Burkle ’61 answers the world’s call
By Buff Lindau
Illustration by Jon Lezinsky
When the Bishop of Burlington, Salvatore Matano, fainted while celebrating Baccalaureate Mass on May 13 in the Ross Sports Center, Dr. Fred “Skip” Burkle ’61 was by his side before anyone even saw the doctor leave his seat. Burkle’s immediate response to a medical emergency revealed the innate devotion and training in providing quick, appropriate assistance that was being celebrated with an honorary degree at Commencement. (Burkle made sure that the Bishop was okay; he determined that Matano was dehydrated and he quickly recovered.)
A 40-year veteran professor and practitioner of emergency medicine and global public health, Burkle has worked in danger zones around the world, beginning as a highly decorated Marine physician in Vietnam. Having managed the largest bubonic plague epidemic of the 20th century in Vietnam in 1968, he was motivated to turn his career away from surgery towards public health. Over the years he has become one of the world’s top experts in global humanitarian relief medicine and policy. Continue Reading »
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August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
At one Vermont elementary school, Somali children, Saint
Michael’s students, faculty and teachers are discovering more about each other than they expected.
By Mark Tarnacki
Photographs by Andy Duback
A 6-foot-9-inch Saint Michael’s College varsity basketball player from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and a tiny first-grade Somali Bantu boy sit side by side on kid-sized chairs in the Champlain Elementary School library in Burlington’s South End. It’s lunchtime, and they’re playing a matching game with animal-picture cards between bites of the food they have just picked up together in the cafeteria.
“The first time we played, Ahmed was winning but felt bad that I wasn’t winning enough, so every time I got a pair, he would stand up and clap and give me a big hug, even though we’d just met,” remembers Sebastian Brandstetter ’11, whose regular visits here fulfill the service-learning component of his anthropology studies. The experience does more than Continue Reading »
Posted in Feature, Summer 2009 | Tagged anthropology, Champlain Elementary, education, Patti Delaney, Somali Bantu | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
The Class of 1959 planned their campus return for four years
Each year, the newest class of Golden Knights (those who graduated 50 years ago) return to campus with enthusiasm and emotion. But it’s a rare class who planned their reunion with as much energy and thought as the Class of 1959, who have been working for the last four years under the leadership of Richard Henneberry ’59.
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Posted in Alumni Profile, Summer 2009 | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
Dr. Paul Harper ’64 says he can’t fully explain his willingness to endure what he called hell on earth as part of a volunteer international medical team that responded when the tsunami destroyed Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in December 2004, killing hundreds of thousands.
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Posted in Alumni Profile, Summer 2009 | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
Transitions are never-ending for spiritual-growth agents like Jason Moore ’01, who thinks it best to embrace those moments whole-heartedly.
For three-plus years, Moore was assistant director in Edmundite Campus Ministry’s MOVE office, leading students with life-changing service experiences both locally and around the world. This year, he’s become an assistant director of campus ministry, and the new possibilities excite him.
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Posted in Alumni Profile, Summer 2009 | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
I grew up in New York City, so you would think I would know something about diversity in public schools. My neighborhood elementary school on Staten Island, however, was a relatively homogenous mix of children of mostly Irish, Italian and Norwegian parents, with just a few children from Asian homes scattered about the grades. We almost all spoke the same language, played the same games, went to the same churches and ate the same food.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Editor's Note, Summer 2009 | Tagged Caroline Crawford, Champlain Elementary School, diversity, Staten Island | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
As I write this, we are told that summer will soon be here—any day, in fact—but it seems a little slower and wetter in arriving this year. And this is a year when we could use a little summer, with the gray clouds of the economy likely to hang around a little longer. Continue Reading »
Posted in President's Message, Summer 2009 | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addresses the 102nd graduating class
Closely identifying his personal experiences serving Chicago’s poor with the prevailing ethos of service at Saint Michael’s College, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan exhorted the graduates at the 102nd Commencement on May 14 to be active agents of accessible education, which he called “the civil rights issue of our time.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Campus News, Summer 2009 | Tagged Arne Duncan, commencement, graduation | Leave a Comment »
August 12, 2009 by smcmagazine
The Class of 2009 lives up to its name with
its commencement award winners
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