ARTS SCIENCES CAROLINA
FALL
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2017
The Story of Study Abroad UNC’S SEISMIC SHIFT IN GLOBAL EDUCATION
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I N S I D E:
Convergent Science Digital Literacy Access to Innovators
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
N O R T H
C A R O L I N A
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C H A P E L
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FROM THE DEAN
Passport to everywhere
College of Arts & Sciences
I didn’t study abroad as an undergradu-
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ate, but I am fortunate that my research, teaching and personal travel have taken me across the globe in the decades since. As dean, it has been my privilege to travel to Berlin, London, Stockholm and the Galápagos. I love seeing firsthand how our talented students are learning from our extraordinary faculty as they experience a different culture — taking With geography professor Diego
classes, talking with locals, trying new
Riveros-Iregui in the Galápagos.
foods and being exposed to new ways of seeing the world. These students
never fail to tell me how this opportunity has expanded their horizons and transformed their lives. Our cover story is about the study abroad experience and Carolina’s push to be the great global public research university. Why the emphasis on global education? Our students need an international perspective if they are to be the leaders of tomorrow. I often talk about the College being the place where we will take on some of the world’s grand challenges. The first step to doing that is understanding how the world works today. By the time this magazine reaches you, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will have launched its comprehensive Campaign for Carolina. One of the important campaign priorities of the College of Arts & Sciences is to provide more study abroad experiences for our students. In November, I will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong to meet with alumni, students and global partners to help establish new experiential learning opportunities. Other campaign priorities are to expand our efforts in digital literacy and to build a new home for convergent science. You can read about all of these initiatives, and much more, in these pages. I hope these stories enlighten and inspire you.
Best,
CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES | FALL 2017 | magazine.college.unc.edu Director of Communications: Geneva Collins Editor: Kim Weaver Spurr ’88, Associate Director of Communications Staff Multimedia Specialist: Kristen Chavez ’13 Designer: Linda Noble
Carolina Arts & Sciences is published semi-annually by the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and made possible with the support of private funds. Copyright 2017. | College of Arts & Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3100, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3100 | 919-962-1165 | college-news@unc.edu
Kevin Guskiewicz, Dean Chris Clemens, Senior Associate Dean, Natural Sciences Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, Senior Associate Dean, Social Sciences and Global Programs Abigail Panter, Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education Robert J. Parker, Jr., Senior Associate Dean, Development, and Executive Director, Arts & Sciences Foundation Terry Rhodes, Senior Associate Dean, Fine Arts and Humanities Kate Henz, Senior Associate Dean, Administration & Business Strategy
Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, Fall 2017 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sunny H. Burrows ’84, Atlanta, GA, Chair M. Steven Langman ’83, London, UK, Vice Chair Kevin Guskiewicz, Chapel Hill, NC, President Terry Rhodes ’78, Chapel Hill, NC, Vice President James Klingler ’98, ’99, Chapel Hill, NC, Treasurer Robert J. Parker, Jr., Chapel Hill, NC, Executive Director and Secretary Amy B. Barry ’91, Naples, FL Eileen Pollart Brumback ’82, New York, NY R. Duke Buchan III ’85, Palm Beach, FL Thomas C. Chubb III ’86, Atlanta, GA Mark P. Clein ’81, Chevy Chase, MD G. Munroe Cobey ’74, Chapel Hill, NC Ann Rankin Cowan ’75, Atlanta, GA William R. “Rusty” Cumpston ’83, Monte Sereno, CA Luke E. Fichthorn IV ’92, Brooklyn, NY Druscilla French ’71, ’78, Chapel Hill, NC J. Henry Froelich III ’81, MBA ’84, Charlotte, NC Cosby Wiley George ’83, Greenwich, CT John C. Glover ’85, Raleigh, NC Henry H. Hamilton III ’81, Katy, TX William T. Hobbs II ’85, Charlotte, NC Steven H. Kapp ’81, MBA ’90, Philadelphia, PA Heavenly Johnson ’05, Chicago, IL Stacie Lissette ’89, Hanover, PA Wendell A. McCain ’92, Chapel Hill, NC Aurelia Stafford Monk ’85, Greenville, NC John T. Moore ’88, Saint James, NY Andrea Ponti ’85, London, UK R. Alexander Rankin ’77, Goshen, KY David S. Routh ’82, Chapel Hill, NC Tready Arthur Smith ’92 BSBA, Tampa, FL Benjamin J. Sullivan, Jr. ’75, Rye, NY Patricia Rumley Thompson ’66, Atlanta, GA Marree Shore Townsend ’77, Greenwich, CT James A. Wellons ’86, Philadelphia, PA Elijah White Jr. ’84, Houston, TX J. Spencer Whitman ’90, Charlotte, NC Cecil W. Wooten III ’68, ’72, Chapel Hill, NC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
14
2 The Story of
Study Abroad
A seismic shift in global education has taken place. The head of Study Abroad at UNC-Chapel Hill explains what’s new, and three students share their transformational experiences.
More features
Donald Haggis
7
26
Entrepreneurship’s big boost
14
A monumental dig
17
Water over the bridge
20
A love for Latin rhythm
22
Convergent science gains momentum
10
Robert Markowitz, NASA
Digital literacy fast-forwards at Carolina
Science sized super-small 24
PLUS: A Tar Heel astronaut-in-training, the man behind HGTV, humanities for the public good, College faculty in the
Departments
media and showcasing UNC student 26-29 Alumni Up Close
playwrights.
30-35 The Scoop 36 Chapter & Verse
COVER PHOTO: Senior Cassidy Greshko, who is pursuing a major in
inside back cover Finale
exercise and sport science with minors in neuroscience and Spanish, visited Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world. She was
Stay Connected to the College via web, social media Magazine: magazine.college.unc.edu News/Events: college.unc.edu Social media: @unccollege Dean Guskiewicz on Twitter: @unccollegedean
studying abroad in Santiago. (Photo by Jackson Hitchner ’18)
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Scott Diekema
Student Scott Diekema captured vendors and shoppers in a night market behind the Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi, India.
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S
TUDYING ABROAD ONCE WAS CONSIDERED AN EXTRAVAGANCE FEW COULD AFFORD. Students today see global engagement as a fundamental part of their education, and many at Carolina have at least one study abroad experience on their transcript. The College of Arts & Sciences’ robust Study Abroad Program offers more than 330 programs in 70 countries. By the time they graduate, nearly onethird of students in the College have completed an academic program abroad for credit, almost double the number who studied abroad in 2000. That’s the year Bob Miles, associate dean for study abroad and international exchanges, came to Carolina as the Study Abroad Office’s first full-time director. In their infancy, study abroad programs were language-based. With Miles’ arrival came a shift from individual program offerings to a
Western Europe, but the number of students studying in Asia, for example, has increased dramatically — from about 15 in 2000 to some 250 a year today. Likewise, language and social science programs in Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Latin America (which has been an academic focus within the College since the 1940s), are expanding. To help students overcome the financial challenges of studying far from home, donors have stepped up to fund new scholarships. But more is needed to meet Dean Kevin Guskiewicz’s goal to increase the number of Carolina students studying abroad to 50 percent over the next decade. Raising money for study abroad scholarships is a major priority as the University launches a comprehensive campaign this fall. A big part of the job for the Study Abroad Office is helping students navigate the unknown. Its campus
FIRST FLIGHT Until last February, Amanda Davis had never flown on a plane. The farthest she had traveled from her home in Rocky Mount, N.C., was to Florida. That didn’t stop Davis from signing on for a 24-hour flight to Sydney, Australia. “The more I talked with my adviser, the more I realized that the program at the University of Sydney was a good fit,” said the senior majoring in linguistics with minors in speech pathology and studio art. “I really didn’t concern myself with how long the trip would take.” Over four months, Davis took courses in “Aboriginal Australian Languages,” “Child Languages,” the “Philosophy of Happiness” and the “Fundamentals of Glass Blowing.” Outside the classroom, she assisted with speech and voice research. One project involved assisting in developing an app for kids with speech disorders; another focused on collecting data
A seismic shift in global education has taken place. The head of Study Abroad at UNC-Chapel Hill explains what’s new, and three students share their transformational experiences.
OF STUDY ABROAD BY
structure that allowed a comprehensive array of courses that aligned with the University’s academic objectives. “We provide academic opportunities abroad that are consistent with the academic standards on this campus and that are of a quality appropriate for a Research I university,” Miles said. The courses mirror the rigor as well as breadth of teaching within the College, he explained. Early on, the majority of students who studied abroad concentrated on
PAT T Y
CO U R T R I G H T
partners include Scholarships and Student Aid, the registrar, Academic Advising and the Dean of Students. Staff members steer students toward programs that complement their academic interests and provide reassuring information for students and parents alike. They help students negotiate foreign airports, different cultures and unfamiliar currency. “We are a resource for any problems that arise while the students are abroad,” Miles said.
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on distinct vocal onset times. (Vocal onset indicates that a person has begun producing sound based on the way the vocal chords fold.) “It’s helpful to have access to vocal onset data because a therapist can then tell, for instance, if a person has a creaky voice or a breathy voice,” explained Davis, who is applying to graduate school for speech and language pathology. For someone fascinated by the spoken word, studying in Australia — continued
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THE ENTREPRENEUR FOR SOCIAL GOOD Scott Diekema has always wanted to help make the world a better place. It’s something his parents, both physicians in Iowa City, Iowa, instilled in him early on. In high school, he co-founded an effort to benefit children born with clubfoot in developing countries. Within weeks of his arrival on the UNC campus, fellow students Keegan McBride ’17 and Lauren Eaves ’18 approached Diekema
Photos courtesy of Amanda Davis
with its rich history of language — was a dream come true, aided by financial support from the Jan & Steve Capps Study Abroad Fund. A self-described introvert, Davis discovered that she had to venture far out of her comfort zone. She soon learned she was comfortable facing new situations on her own. “Before I left home, I was a little worried about getting to know people outside the Carolina community,” she said. “But as I met people from all over the world, I realized how much I enjoyed learning about people from different countries and backgrounds.” Davis intentionally sought out nonAmerican students in her classes, and before long a core group of five friends from different countries bonded. “We would compare how things are done in each country, what the customs are, how things are expressed,” she said. Her course schedule also allowed time for travel and exploration around Sydney and Melbourne, and Davis even worked in a solo trip to Cairns to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. “That was the absolute highlight of my time in Australia. It was incredible!” she said. She also took a 10-day trip to Thailand with a good friend between the end of classes and her exams. For anyone considering study abroad, Davis advises, “Don’t stick to what’s familiar. There is so much growth in meeting new people, and they become lifelong friends.”
• TOP: Amanda Davis makes a new friend at a cave temple in Thailand. • BOTTOM: Davis explores the rock pools at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
about opening a student-run café in the Campus Y. That conversation evolved into The Meantime, a student enterprise that’s part of the UNC Social Innovation Initiative. The Meantime serves fair-
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trade brews and baked goods at a coffee stand inside the Campus Y, but it’s also a testing ground for other student-run food ventures. All profits are invested in student grants. Last spring two sophomores were awarded inaugural
Photos courtesy of Scott Diekema
• TOP: Scott Diekema looks out from the roof of Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India, as the sun sets over Delhi. • BOTTOM: Rickshaws and trucks travel through the streets in Chandni Chowk, a busy market in the heart of Delhi.
Bridge Year Fellowships to pursue a year of international public service before their junior year. “It’s easy to study business at UNC, but there aren’t many on-campus enterprises where you can gain meaningful professional development while also getting paid — and find a way to give back in the process,” said Diekema, CEO of The Meantime. Before he arrived on campus,
Diekema took a gap year that included three months in Nepal, where he spent time living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. That experience fueled an interest in South Asian religion and philosophy, and ultimately led the Morehead-Cain Scholar to enroll in UNC’s 2017 Summer in India program as one of Carolina’s Phillips Ambassadors. (The privately funded scholarship program supports student study in Asia.)
Diekema’s study included three courses: “Contested Souls,” which explored the literature and multifaceted culture of India; “Journalism and Society in India,” which examined the country’s news framework; and “Hindi Conversation and Script,” which focused on the fundamentals and nuances of the language. “Thanks to amazing UNC professors, I learned a ton about the nuances of India’s rich history and culture,” Diekema said. “There really is no unified Indian identity because this country has hundreds of unique languages and cultures. While that has created conflict, it has also made India the beautiful melting pot that it is today.” Not quite ready to leave Delhi at the program’s end, Diekema stayed on for an eight-week internship as a research assistant for the Just Jobs Network, a private think tank that examines emerging trends affecting employment around the world. Diekema, a junior, is combining majors in philosophy and Asian studies with a minor in entrepreneurship, and he intends to continue taking advantage of available learning opportunities, both on and off campus. “Most of all, connecting with people from dramatically different backgrounds than mine helps me develop empathy,” he explained. “If everyone went out of their way to spend time with people who weren’t like them, I believe the world would be a much better place.” AN UNEXPECTED SCIENCE PATH Shruti Patel is ready to display her fourth piece of international memorabilia on her wall: a postcard from Lund, Sweden, signed by the participants in UNC’s 2017 Science in Scandinavia program. The six-week program was hosted this summer at Lund University, where the students took three courses — “Analytical Chemistry,” “Analytical continued
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Photos courtesty of Shruti Patel
• LEFT: As part of UNC’s Science in Scandinavia Program, Shruti Patel (second from right) and her classmates spent time in Helsingborg, Sweden, walking by the water. • RIGHT: Students visited Gamla Stan, also called the “Old Town,” in Stockholm.
Chemistry in Medicine” and the “Introduction to Swedish Language and Culture” — and worked in some weekend travel to explore Scandinavia. For Patel, a sophomore from Candler, N.C., enrolling in such a chemistry-intensive program wasn’t part of the plan when she came to Carolina. “In high school I absolutely dreaded chemistry … It was doable, but definitely was not my calling at the time, and I was terrified coming into Carolina knowing I had to take Chem 101 and 102,” she said. “But as I took those classes I realized I loved chemistry and wanted to pursue it.” The fast pace of the courses in Sweden, which condensed several months of material into a few weeks, took some getting used to, Patel said. But the course material in conjunction with
the travel experiences taught the group to rely on one another, creating a kind of family away from home that the students hope will continue back on campus. “We needed to buckle down and do the work, but we weren’t stuck in our rooms. People would pile in the lobby and work together, the professor right there as well,” she said. The analytical chemistry classes were similar to those offered on campus, she said. In addition, guest speakers talked about unique scientific innovations and examined the interface between science and medicine. Patel isn’t sure yet which realm of science she will ultimately pursue, but she hopes to couple it with a second major in peace, war and defense. “Listening to the course speakers talk about their new ideas was truly eye-opening,” she said,
“and being undecided about my major really makes me open to everything.” Her advice to students considering study abroad is to “definitely put yourself out there. Always think about taking a risk because there’s something good about a risk factor, and leave your expectations at the door.” Facing the unknown, she found, is empowering. “I learned that I can take care of myself and handle whatever comes my way,” Patel said. Patel hopes to fill her wall with memorabilia from visits to all 195 countries outside the United States. Besides the postcard from Sweden, she has a wooden carving of a lizard from Costa Rica, a peacock feather in a shadow box from India and a tassel from Kronborg Castle in Denmark. Four down, 191 left to experience.
GLOBAL MINI-MESTERS Students unable to be away from campus for a semester or a sixweek summer program will have a new study abroad option next year, when the College debuts a threeweek Global Mini-Mester Program in summer 2018. Inspired by the successful Maymester Program, in which students immerse themselves in one course with daily classes for three
weeks, the new program is designed to serve students who otherwise might not consider study abroad. Topics for the first four Global Mini-Mester courses are: Irish literature, taught in Dublin; international sport management, taught in London; Dutch culture, taught in Amsterdam; and an Honors Carolina course in the natural sciences, taught in London. Each course will be offered once
during the summer, at different times, depending on the faculty member’s schedule and available resources onsite. “We hope this program will encourage more students to study abroad,” said Bob Miles, associate dean for study abroad and international exchanges. His office will use feedback from students and faculty in the inaugural Mini-Mesters to fine-tune the program.
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Donn Young
• Dan Anderson, left, director of UNC’s Digital Innovation Lab, and Todd Taylor, director of the Writing Program, teach a hands-on workshop for English 105 instructors at the start of the fall semester. The session focused on how to design digital class projects.
Digital literacy fast-forwards at Carolina A pioneering initiative ensures every Tar Heel student has free access to powerful digital tools — and the coursework that teaches them to be critical thinkers and sophisticated users of essential technologies BY GENEVA COLLINS
To describe students in 2017 as digital natives is stating the obvious, but what is not obvious is where they sit on the continuum from passive consumers of digital media to experienced producers of compelling content. Starting this fall, as part of a larger College of Arts & Sciences goal to ensure that future Tar Heels graduate with a high degree of digital literacy, a required English course will include at least one major digital project. At the same time, all students will have free access to powerful digital tools,
thanks to an extraordinary partnership between UNC and a major software provider. Planners envision that this digital project will be the start of an “e-portfolio” that students will build throughout their years at Carolina to showcase their scholarship and digital skills. These efforts are part of the ambitious Carolina Digital Literacy initiative, which has its roots in an earlier historic first: In 2000, when UNC began requiring that every student have a laptop, it also ensured access for all by providing grants to cover the cost for students who couldn’t afford one. That approach was believed to be unique among public universities requiring students to have computers. In 2016, the University announced that it had paired with Adobe Systems to provide all students and faculty with free access to the Creative Cloud suite of software (which includes such design mainstays as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver). An individual student license normally costs upwards of $240 a year. Todd Taylor, director of the UNC Writing Program and professor of English and comparative literature, and who has been teaching digital media courses at Carolina for more than a decade, said he is unaware of any other university embarking on a digital initiative that approaches the scope of Carolina’s. continued
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“Other schools may be offering free software to students, but we’re saying digital literacy is an essential skill that doesn’t belong to any corner of the curriculum; it will be across the curriculum.” — TO D D TAY LO R
SCIENTIFIC TAR HEEL
ENGL 105i Spring 2017
Your Brain on Music The Importance of Arts Education Zero Tolerance Policies & the School to Prison Pipeline Neurocognitive Difference Across the Political Spectrum The Psychological Impact of Fitness Trackers
• Students in one class created a Scientific American-like popular magazine as a digital project. They not only researched and wrote the stories, they chose photos and graphics and laid out the magazine using design software, learning firsthand how visual elements can shape a reader’s perception of content.
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Donn Young
From functional to critical literacy The course at the heart of this digital revolution is English 105: “English Composition and Rhetoric.” This writing class is required of every single undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill. That’s at least 120 sections offered each semester (capped at 19 students per class), as more than 4,700 first-year and transfer students complete this core experience annually. Requiring every section of English 105 to include a digital component “may sound ambitious, but probably twothirds of the classes were already doing a digital project,” said Dan Anderson, director of the Digital Innovation Lab and a professor of English and comparative literature. Anderson, for one, finds the term “digital literacy” limiting. He expects Carolina to go far beyond “functional literacy” — knowing how to use software to design a poster, create a video, or launch a website, for example. “I want students to have ‘critical literacy’— to not only be able to communicate with these tools but to step back and analyze culture and meaning,” he said. Both Anderson and Taylor emphasize that there are numerous digital tools beyond the Adobe offerings, and that English 105 instructors are using a panoply of approaches to help students develop digital proficiencies — from working with data to media production to critiquing and developing social media campaigns. “One part of digital literacy is knowing what tool to choose and how knowledge is shaped and shared by a range of activities,” said Anderson. An example of an English 105 digital project is Scientific Tar Heel, an assignment created by instructor Tiffany Friedman.
Courtesy of Tiffany Friedman
“Other schools may be offering free software to students, but we’re saying digital literacy is an essential skill that doesn’t belong to any corner of the curriculum; it will be across the curriculum. Such a strategic implementation that begins with early exposure in this required course is what makes us different from any other campus,” he said.
Donn Young
In the science writing unit of the class, Friedman asked her students to research and write an article that might appear in a magazine like Scientific American. However, they didn’t just turn in a typed manuscript. They used magazine design software to lay out the articles, photos, tables and other graphics. That showed them how elements such as font choice and photo selection shape a reader’s perception of the story. They knew the finished product would be shared online, which upped the stakes for quality. (See an issue at cdl.unc. edu/assignments). Other English 105 projects have included preparing short service-learning films or audio e-poems.
“I want students to have ‘critical literacy’— to not only be able to communicate with these tools but to step back and analyze culture and meaning. One part of digital literacy is knowing what tool to choose and how knowledge is shaped and shared by a range of activities.” — DA N A N D E R S O N
Focus is on the words For those who wonder why students in a “writing” course are making films, Taylor responds: “I don’t know of a film — including every Hollywood blockbuster — that doesn’t start with a script. During the editing process, you’re paying incredibly close attention to the narrative. The focus is on the words. And then you work with the visuals to illustrate that.”
A recent graduate of Carolina who took one of Taylor’s multimedia composition courses echoes his sentiments. “One of the cool things for me in working with film is I had to strip it down to the essence,” said Izzy Pinheiro (interdisciplinary studies ’17), who created a documentary for class about using music and art to help people cope with illness. “I had to go over the material over and over again. You think about the audience and how it all fits together.” Pinheiro received a grant to travel to Jordan last summer to make a film on Syrian refugees. She plans to launch a career in human rights work. An important partner in the digital literacy initiative is University Libraries. Media Resources Center staff have been working with instructors as they develop their assignments; they are a resource for students as well. “The instructor might assign something, and we will ask, ‘What is your learning goal here?’ said Winifred Metz, who heads the Media Resources Center. “We match them to the best tool for the assignment, whether it is a podcast, TEDx Talk or infographic. Not only do we provide instruction on the software, we show them how to use the hardware — the camera, the audio recorders, how to download the clips to edit. We walk them through the whole process.” College Dean Kevin Guskiewicz, Chancellor Carol Folt and Provost Jim Dean were early champions of the initiative, said Chris Kielt, vice chancellor for information technology and one of the drivers behind the Carolina Digital Literacy Initiative. In addition to Kielt’s office, the College and University Libraries, the School of Media and Journalism and other units across campus are partners in the digital effort. As part of the software partnership, “we asked faculty to tell us how they were using digital tools in their classrooms,” Kielt said. “They are being used in courses like religious studies and biology and nursing, and yes, of course journalism and communication and English. It’s being used across the curriculum. This has been one of the most satisfying experiences in my 30 years of higher education.”
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• Bernard Bell watches student presentations in “Principles and Practice,” a course that focuses on core entrepreneurial skills including innovation, creative design, customer development and team dynamics.
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Photos by Kristen Chavez
• From left, Dean Kevin Guskiewicz, Chancellor Carol Folt and siblings Jim Shuford, Dorothy Shuford Lanier and Stephen Shuford celebrate the launch of The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship’s big boost Cable industry veteran will lead the newly named Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship BY CYNDY FALGOUT
Carolina will more than double the size of its nationally ranked undergraduate entrepreneurship program with an $18 million gift made to the College of Arts & Sciences by the Shuford family of Hickory, a fifthgeneration Carolina family. It is the largest single one-time gift made to the College by a living individual or family. The minor in entrepreneurship has been named The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship in the family’s honor. “The new Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship expands our efforts in innovation and entrepreneurship across the College and provides many new interdisciplinary, immersive and experiential learning opportunities for Carolina’s bright students,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. The gift will create an endowment to support three additional entrepreneurs-in-residence and up to four faculty fellows, fund up to 70 student internships and support a lecture series on innovation and
entrepreneurship. It will also endow the program’s executive director and internship director positions. The College will support at least three additional full-time faculty members, an entrepreneur-in-residence and an administrative staff position. “I think entrepreneurship is a big part of the future of work,” said alumnus Jim Shuford (English ’88, MBA ’92), CEO of STM Industries. “The skills of entrepreneurial thinking and problemsolving are a natural fit for the liberal arts. An entrepreneurial education will give Carolina undergraduates a leg up — to find a job, start a company, grow a business or be a productive member of any organization or enterprise.” Shuford’s brother, Stephen Shuford (MBA ’97), CEO of Shurtape Technologies, and sister, Dorothy Shuford Lanier (ABJM ’93) joined him in making the gift to Carolina. Cable industry veteran Bernard Bell (economics ’82, MBA ’91) has been named executive director of the program. Bell has served as entrepreneur-in-
residence and the Richards Donohoe Professor of the Practice at UNC since 2015. Bell has set four goals: double the number of students in the entrepreneurship program, align the curriculum across a set of entrepreneurial core disciplines, expand the program’s strategic partnerships across the University and through the involvement of alumni and friends, and broaden the student experience with more internships and immersive experiences, such as the Burch Field Research Seminar in Silicon Valley (story, page 12), at locations around the world. “We have so many entrepreneurs who have come out of Chapel Hill,” Bell said. “What better way to use these new resources than to bring back into the fold the people we’ve helped groom so they can help us make the student experience more meaningful?” Carolina’s minor in entrepreneurship launched in 2004 as a signature continued
WHAT E- MINOR ALU M NI SAY “After one class with the minor in entrepreneurship, I fell in love with the idea of solving real-world problems through business. I’m now a leader in the Triangle B Corp network, a business community focused on maximizing a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit."
“I think the largest impact the minor had on me was to present entrepreneurship as a valid career trajectory, while also providing a framework and toolkit to explore ideas on my own.” JOEL SUTHERLAND
“The entrepreneurship minor not only gave me the knowledge I needed to build my venture, but served as my first investor, providing me with seed money to incorporate my nonprofit and complete one of our earliest international doll deliveries.”
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250 students are currently enrolled. Students pursuing the minor follow one of nine tracks — artistic, commercial, computer science, design, media, scientific, social, sport or public health — and must complete an internship. “The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship at Carolina is unique to any entrepreneurship program in
the country — because rather than teaching only business students how to become more entrepreneurial, it also teaches students of music and art, physics, anthropology, exercise and sport science, sociology and many other disciplines how to work collaboratively with an entrepreneurial mindset,” said College Dean Kevin Guskiewicz.
Susan Hudson
program of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, a $3.5 million, six-year grant program funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to infuse a culture of entrepreneurship across the College. More than 800 students from a wide range of disciplines have graduated with a minor in entrepreneurship. More than
Access to innovators Alumni give students an immersive Silicon Valley experience BY CYNDY FALGOUT
Junior business major Michael Krantz learned “how to work with brilliant people in a fast-paced environment and meet deadlines.” Junior health policy management major Pooja Joshi learned to be comfortable interacting with powerful chief executives in her field. Senior psychology major Tiana Petree changed the trajectory of her career path.
The three UNC undergraduates were among 16 students from the College of Arts & Sciences’ entrepreneurship minor who participated in the inaugural Burch Field Research Seminar in Silicon Valley. The entrepreneurship minor and Honors Carolina introduced the program last spring. Thanks to UNC’s vast and growing alumni network in the region, students gained unprecedented access to
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Courtesy of Michael Krantz
• Carolina graduate Thompson Paine (far left) made sure all of the Silicon Valley Maymester students received T-shirts when they visited Quizlet, where he is the vice president for operations and business development.
leaders of iconic tech companies — including Apple, Cisco, Facebook, GoDaddy and Google — as well as innovative startups. They also received intensive education in the principles and practices of business venturing. “Understanding the San Francisco Bay Area — Silicon Valley — is a very important part of understanding business today. It’s the most important
Street investment banking career before moving to California in 1998 to advise and invest in high-growth medical technology companies. Halsey initially agreed to host students during Maymester, and that experience inspired her and others to explore expanding the course to a full semester. She reached out to UNC alumni and they responded by offering to host internships and site visits, share experiences on career panels and meet with students during networking and social gatherings. The resulting Silicon Valley semester offered an intensive boot camp on entrepreneurial principles and practices, a venture workshop course featuring site visits and informal interactions with Silicon Valley elite, a group project to develop and pitch
• LEFT: Junior Michael Krantz, right, spends time with UNC alumnus Bill Starling at a UNC basketball watch party in Palo Alto. • ABOVE: Pooja Joshi (left) and Madrid Danner-Smith wait on the pier before taking a San Francisco Bay cruise with other Burch Field Research Seminar students. • RIGHT: Tiana Petree, left, shown with classmate Anna Baker, learned how much work goes into running a nonprofit.
network. He had connected with that network through his development work as associate dean for Honors Carolina. (Read about the Maymester course at gazette.unc.edu.) Among the area’s alumni was Halsey, a political science and communication studies double major who had parlayed her liberal arts education at UNC into a successful Wall
sustaining a nonprofit financially would be a tough path right out of college. At a Carolina-Duke basketball game watch party hosted by Halsey, Petree talked about her goals and experiences with UNC chemistry professor and entrepreneur Joe DeSimone. He invited her to spend a day learning about the corporate world at his 3-D printing company, Carbon, in Redwood City. After meeting with marketing, sales, business development and human resource teams, she found herself drawn to HR. And over the summer, she returned to California to intern for Carbon’s HR department. “This experience has really changed the path of my life,” Petree said. Joshi interned at Evidation Health, a fast-growing behavioral data analytics company. “I think the biggest thing for me was getting the opportunity to learn how to talk to and get help from people who are leaders in your field,” Joshi said. “It’s sometimes very intimidating. But it was amazing to have really intimate conversations with people like that and find they are so willing to help students all the time.” For Krantz, an aspiring investment banker, the semester offered the opportunity to work alongside prominent senior vice presidents at GoDaddy, thanks to the small business technology provider’s open office plan and collegial culture. “This is the tech hotspot of the world, where most venture capital is done,” Krantz said. “I don’t think I’d have been introduced to this world if not for this program.” The goal is to provide access and opportunity, said Halsey, “inspiring students to create the life they dream of living.” “Every major college in America is competing for access to Silicon Valley right now,” she added. “Our students have access.” Courtesy of Pooja Joshi
Courtesy of Pooja Joshi
geography in the world for technology innovation,” said Jennifer Halsey ’94, the UNC entrepreneur-in-residence based in Silicon Valley who mobilized UNC’s alumni network to offer the unique experience. “We have a close community of UNC alumni here who are willing to mentor and facilitate career opportunities for Carolina students,” Halsey said. The Silicon Valley semester grew out of a Maymester Summer School course developed and taught by history professor James Leloudis with help from UNC’s Northern California alumni
a startup business plan to a panel of investor judges, and a semester-long internship at a Silicon Valley company or nonprofit. Petree had been on a fast track to start a nonprofit when she began her spring internship at Peninsula Bridge, a Palo Alto nonprofit. But exposure to every aspect of running such an organization made her realize that
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B Y
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A LARGE-SCALE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT ON CRETE HAS CREATED AN ENDURING COLLABORATION, AN EXPERIENTIAL GLOBAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITY FOR UNC STUDENTS AND A FUTURE HERITAGE TOURISM SITE FOR THE REGION.
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orning begins early, well before 6 a.m., in the small Greek village of Kavousi, on the island of Crete. Pickup trucks rumble up a winding road in the western Siteia mountains, passing by olive trees — one at least 1,500 years old — and wild flora to transport faculty and students to the top of a steep hill with a breathtaking view of Mirabello Bay below. Their destination: Azoria, an archaeological site where UNC researchers and students have led a large international, interdisciplinary team for 16 years. Their goal has been to excavate and study the sociopolitical and economic structure of an emerging city in its transition from the Early Iron
Age to the Archaic periods (7th to 5th centuries B.C.). It is the first example of an early Greek urban center recovered from Crete — and perhaps the best documented in the Aegean. It’s hot, dirty, messy and important work, and it’s been the long-term passion of Donald Haggis, the Nicholas A. Cassas Term Professor of Greek Studies in UNC’s department of classics. He established the Azoria Project in 2001 under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Early on, he brought in UNC archaeobotanist Margaret Scarry to the project. She’s an expert in plant remains and the current chair of the curriculum in archaeology and director of the Research Laboratories
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of Archaeology (RLA). That move would prove to be fortuitous, given what they would find over the years about the importance of food and communal dining to the city’s civic life. Another key partner is Margaret Mook of Iowa State University, Azoria’s pottery specialist. Summer 2017 marked the last season of excavation for Azoria, which will be followed by five years of study and analysis. It’s also a time for reflection on the monumental scale of the project — which has raised over $1.8 million in competitive grants (including funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation), trained over 300 undergraduate and graduate students,
Donald Haggis
A monumental dig
and resulted in the publication of 35 articles and book chapters and 80 papers. Students have come from universities in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, Australia and New Zealand. “This multidisciplinary approach has resulted in a dynamic, intellectual cross-fertilization of fields — bridging departmental divides that sometimes separate the humanities, social and natural sciences,” Haggis said. Many of the UNC students who have worked at Azoria say it has been among the most formative experiences of their academic careers. Azoria quite frankly changed his life, said Tucker Watkins King, who spent three seasons on Crete and also worked with the RLA. He graduated in 2017 with majors in archaeology and anthropology and a minor in classical humanities. He
plans to apply to graduate school. “What I love about archaeology is that a little bit of curiosity can take you to amazing places,” he said. “My participation in the Azoria Project has inspired me to do what I love and seek a career in archaeology. I would never have realized how much ‘playing in the dirt’ brings my life fulfillment.”
Food as the center of civic life Archaeological work at Azoria has revealed buildings used for public functions and evidence of communal dining and large-scale feasting. Archaeologists call the most prominent structure they have unearthed the Monumental Civic Building, a large hall lined with benches that could accommodate about 150 people. It would have been used for communal dining and public meetings,
possibly functioning as an early council house. Connected to that building is a small shrine. Archaeologists have also uncovered what they call the Communal Dining Building, composed of suites of interconnected kitchens, storerooms and dining rooms, and — discovered this past summer — a large warehouse for storing food. An exciting find is a beam olive press, which uses a lever and weights system and is the earliest known example in Greece. “In the beginning, we envisioned quite a different character to the city,” Scarry said. “But over the course of the excavations, it became apparent that the site was focused around the use of food as the grease for the politics. I don’t know of any other place where we have quite this kind of configuration.” The sheer scale and size of Azoria is atypical, she noted. “The amount of continued
L. Thompson M.S. Mook
D. Faulmann
Donald Haggis
C LO C K W I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: • UNC classical archaeology Ph.D. student Cicek Beeby (center) works with trench assistants Zachary Lingle (chemistry, minor in archaeology ’15) and Mallory Melton (anthropology, archaeology ’14). • UNC student Anna Dallara (classics ’17) excavates in the Protoarchaic Building (7th c. B.C.). • UNC classical archaeology graduate students Sheri Pak (left) and Melissa Eaby (Ph.D. classical archaeology ’07) examine pottery at the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete. • An aerial view shows the South Acropolis, Azoria.
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earth we’ve moved in 10 excavation seasons is uncommon these days. At the end of the summer, we took some drone pictures of the site; it’s pretty stunning.” The city was destroyed in a catastrophic fire at the beginning of the 5th century B.C.
A meaningful experience for students and faculty Long before “experiential learning” became a buzzword, Azoria was providing that opportunity to students. Undergraduates spend eight- to 12-hour days working alongside faculty, graduate students and Greek residents. They live in local villages and learn to navigate the customs and culture of daily life. They work at the dig site and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete in nearby Pacheia Ammos. There, they process archaeological findings — plant remains, animal bones and pottery. They must be adaptable and flexible, as each day unveils new surprises in the soil beneath their feet. “Taking students into the field is perhaps the most gratifying teaching experience I have had in my 25 years as a university professor,” Haggis said. “It is essentially a sink-or-swim immersion
in an intensive field situation.” Here’s how some of the students characterize their experience: “I have really flourished academically and socially here in Crete. Each day onsite is an amazing experience. It is exhilarating to be surrounded by centuries of history and people who contain such vast amounts of knowledge about this history,” said Andrianna Dallis (classical archaeology and psychology ’20, with a minor in neuroscience). “My first season as a trench assistant with the project was a major turning point in my intellectual development. I was immediately captivated by the interpretative problems posed by field excavation and the satisfaction that came in the pursuit of greater understanding,” said Alex Griffin, (classical archaeology ’17), who will be entering the classics post-baccalaureate program at UNC this year. “Azoria has shaped the way that I conduct my research. As an undergraduate I quickly became interested in urban problems — how cities work, how communities function and why some communities thrive while others dissolve. Azoria provides the cornerstone for a lot of my thinking on these issues,” said Drew Cabaniss
(classical archaeology ’15, with minors in geology and ancient Greek). He is now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan.
Public humanities and cultural tourism Azoria is also a significant public humanities project for the University, said Haggis. From the project’s inception, he and others have been committed to side-by-side excavation and conservation as well as sustainable cultural tourism. In 2012, Azoria won a Best Practices in Site Preservation Award from the Archaeological Institute of America for its focus on working with local specialists in stewardship of the site. A new grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation will support the final stages of site conservation and public programming, with the long-term goal of creating an archaeological park that will provide a positive economic impact for the region. “Our work has reached diverse and international non-academic audiences,” Haggis said. “We consider public education — local and global — to be the most important outcome of our work.” ➤ Learn more at azoria.org.
L. Thompson
D. Faulmann
J. Martini
C LO C K W I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: • Professors Margaret Scarry and Donald Haggis take a break in an archaic (6th c. B.C.) storeroom of the West Building at Azoria. • Students learn object conservation techniques at the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete. • An aerial view of the storerooms of the West Building at Azoria shows deposits of storage vessels.
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• The path forward, according to Rachel Willis, involves infrastructure and ports (like the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and Port of Wilmington in the background) that work with sea-level rise, rather than against it.
A PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN STUDIES IS HELPING PORT COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE UNDERSTAND HOW RISING SEA LEVELS AND OTHER IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT SHIPPING AND COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURES.
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ore than 14,000 vehicles cross the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge every day — a lifeline for the people of Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, connecting them to the Northern Outer Banks. Below the bridge, tides from the Atlantic Ocean push into the widening Oregon Inlet, breaking through to the Pamlico Sound. The Bonner Bridge Replacement Project began on March 8, 2016. The new structure is designed to withstand 100 years of ocean currents, built with high-durability concrete and reinforced stainless steel. But it comes after years of failed attempts to create a durable bridge and countless arguments over environmental concerns.
Beach erosion, severe weather and heavy traffic have taken their toll on the bridge since it was first built in 1963. In 1990, in the middle of the night, a dredge rammed into the bridge during a brutal nor’easter, causing a 400-foot section to collapse into the waves below. For more than three months, Hatteras Island could be accessed only by boat or plane. In 2013, safety concerns closed the bridge for 12 days when routine sonar scanning showed that substantial sand erosion had compromised the support structure. And in summer 2017, construction crews struck major underground electrical cables, knocking out power to Ocracoke and Hatteras islands for a week.
Since the bridge’s original construction, more than $300 million has been spent to protect and repair it. ••••••
Rachel Willis watches the bridge construction from the water’s edge on Hatteras Island. She sighs. “The ocean wants to open that inlet,” she says. “But we have put all this development and coastal infrastructure in a fixed place — and nature keeps taking it back. How are we preparing to protect the people in these communities? The answer is not ignoring the signs that nature gives us.” continued
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Willis’ research examines the intersection of transportation infrastructure and sea-level rise. How does a labor economist end up studying climate change? The answer is not one you’d expect: socks.
In the early 1990s, Willis and her students compiled data from every child care center in North Carolina — research that contributed to the development of Smart Start legislation. In 1994, while presenting this research at a conference, she met a sock manufacturer who would eventually introduce her to an industry specialist who created training programs for factories and workers. In the 10 years that followed, Willis followed the lifecycle of socks around the world. She traveled to Italy, China and the Czech Republic to study sock-knitting machines and business practices. In North Carolina, she visited more than 200 sock factories and interviewed thousands of workers, owners, supervisors and suppliers. But it wasn’t just about socks. “The purpose of this research was, really, to find out the future of manufacturing, which was obviously declining in the United States. It quickly became clear that cost-effective land transportation was vital to global competitiveness.”
By land or by sea? When you drive into Morehead City, you can follow the train tracks all the way to the port, thanks to the city’s namesake, John Motley Morehead, who as governor oversaw their construction in the 19th century. Today, boats still arrive at the port and load goods onto the trains, which make deliveries to local factories and villages along the corridor. But this kind of infrastructure is the exception. “We’ve undervalued trains as a transportation method in this country,” Willis says. “It’s all about the interstate system here.”
John Bruno
Knitting global social fabric
• T O P : Cranes load freighters with shipping containers at the Port of Wilmington. The red ship — an oil and chemical tanker —travels between U.S. and U.K. ports. • B O T T O M : The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge connects Ocracoke and Hatteras islands to the Northern Outer Banks. The bridge is in the middle of a major replacement project after decades of severe weather, heavy traffic and beach erosion have taken their toll.
Here’s why Willis believes the nation must put goods on railcars and then get railcars to ports: It costs about 80 cents per mile to move one metric ton of freight on an airplane. It costs 27 cents to move it by truck. It costs 2 cents by rail. “It costs one penny by water,” Willis stresses. These numbers don’t just represent product cost — they are a proxy for the amount of carbon put into the atmosphere to move goods around the planet.
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The search for a solution The Dutch have a famous saying: “God built the world, but the Dutch built Holland.” About one-fifth of the Netherlands lies below sea level and 60 percent is vulnerable to flooding — startling statistics that the Dutch have learned to live with. Unlike most of the world, they have always worked to maintain a symbiotic relationship with the water. Willis has always been fascinated by Dutch resiliency. And with good reason.
In the 13th century, the Dutch were already reclaiming land lost to flooding through the construction of dikes. Two hundred years later, the invention of the rotating turret windmill not only pumped water out of permanently flooded lands, it provided an energy
source. Fast forward to the 1980s, when the Dutch began the largest land reclamation project and erected the grandest flood barrier that the world has ever seen. The barrier, called Maeslantkering, is equivalent in size to two Eiffel Towers
“Our goals are not American — our goals are global. … The problem is not going away. It’s water over the bridge. We need to look at infrastructure in the short run that is adaptable to these floodwaters, but we need to use policy and incentives to stop building at the edge.” — R AC H E L W I L L I S
placed horizontally on the water in the Hook of Holland. In 2015, Willis decided she had to see it for herself. “If you’re looking for an insane field trip, go see where these solutions are in full force,” she advises. “The Dutch spend the same percentage of their national income on infrastructure related to water management as the U.S. spends on the military,” Willis says. “Because fighting the water is their national defense.” Willis returned to the Netherlands this past summer to interview local experts on their refocused efforts to work with nature to provide coastal protection. In 2011, they used 21 million cubic meters of sand to form a hookshaped peninsula called the “sand engine,” which enables the forces of the ocean to deposit sand along the North Sea coast. Willis realizes that these solutions are not financially possible for most of the world’s coastlines. “The costs are astronomical for all but the wealthiest communities and countries,” she says.
Optimism and education Approximately 50 percent of the world’s population will live within 30 miles of the coast by 2050, according to Willis. How do we prepare people for threats from more intense storms? More importantly, what happens to communities that are at risk now? “I have great optimism about finding solutions,” Willis says. “Because I’ve seen extraordinary examples of them.” She stresses that working toward solutions involves seeing the whole picture. “Our goals are not American — our goals are global. … The problem is not going away. It’s water over the bridge. We need to look at infrastructure in the short run that is adaptable to these floodwaters, but we need to use policy and incentives to stop building at the edge.”
• T O P : It doesn’t take much rain to flood the streets of Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke — only 3 miles wide and 16 miles long — sits just 2.95 inches above sea level. • B O T T O M : Willis (front row, far right) poses with students from her “Global Impacts on American Waters” class atop the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, N.C.
➤ Alyssa LaFaro is a writer for Endeavors magazine. This story was written before the hurricanes that hit the Southeast. See an updated version at endeavors.unc.edu.
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L E F T TO R I G H T: • Steve Anderson rehearses at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Santo Domingo a few hours before a concert. • Anderson explains some of after the master class. • Students soak up the lecture by Anderson and Jeffry Eckels. • Anderson performs with Sandy Gabriel, a renowned saxophone player
A LOVE FOR LATIN RHYTHM Music professor Stephen Anderson, a critically acclaimed composer and pianist, has a knack for STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARY LIDE PARKER ’10
E
“
elements — the meat and potatoes,” he
to show me what to do.” Through this
para preparar una sopa?” [“It’s like a
says. “But then you add the spice, the
process — no formal instruction, no
soup. What do we need to make soup?”]
improvisation. Just like a stew that only
reading music, just copying what he was
had meat and potatoes — how would
shown — Anderson learned his first
of college-age musicians — over 30
it taste? It would be kind of bland. How
Latin rhythms. He was hooked.
of them have squeezed into a small
spicy you make it is really up to each
classroom to attend his master class at
individual chef.”
s como una sopa. ¿Qué necesitamos
Steve Anderson surveys the group
the National Conservatory of Music in
Over the past few decades, no matter where he has lived, Anderson has always befriended musicians from Latino
Santo Domingo. Every eye is on him,
Finding Latin music
cultures. (He spent two years in Mexico,
bright and attentive.
i n u n l i ke l y p l a c e s
hence his Spanish fluency.) “We become
“Carne!” says one of the students. “Eso — exacto,” Anderson says, pointing to the student. Yes, exactly. Constructing a jazz harmony is
Anderson fell in love with Latin
good friends because I’m interested in
music as a college student — but he
their music, and I think they find me
wasn’t anywhere near Latin America.
interesting because I’ve studied so much
Attending a small university in central
composition and theory,” he says.
like throwing together a homemade
Utah, he studied traditional jazz and
Three years ago, Anderson met
stew, according to Anderson. “The meat
classical composition and played in a
Guillo Carrillas, a retired jazz musician
is the arpeggio,” he explains. “Play a
country band on the weekends. To earn
from the Dominican Republic. “He
chord progression, and that’s your main
more money, he applied for a pianist
played in the symphony there,”
substance. And you could just play that
position in a salsa band.
Anderson says. “He worked in Miami for
— the core element.”
“It was all these guys from
years, but he retired to — of all places —
Colombia,” Anderson recalls. “They
Cary, North Carolina.” Carrillas regularly
details how combining scales adds
weren’t really educated in musical
came to hear Anderson’s jazz trio play
color to the harmony. “So those are two
notation; they played just enough piano
at a bar in Cary, and the two became
In fluent Spanish, Anderson
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the theory behind improvisation in jazz composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Santo Domingo. • Anderson fields questions from students in the Dominican Republic.
finding Latin rhythms wherever he goes — most recently, the Dominican Republic.
good friends. One night, out of the blue,
The result of that collaboration is The
Carrillas invited Anderson to play a
Dominican Jazz Project, a concert and
has been a prolific collaboration for
concert in the Dominican Republic.
music collaboration that resulted in a CD
Anderson and his fellow musicians,
released on Summit Records in 2016.
initiating unique teaching opportunities
“I had played Puerto Rican jazz, Cuban jazz and Brazilian jazz, but never really Dominican,” Anderson says. “I didn’t know anything about it — but of
The Dominican Jazz Project
and creating lasting friendships. “When Fo r m i n g a b r o t h e r h o o d In spring 2017 Anderson was back
you have an opportunity to work very personally and intimately — sometimes
course I said yes.” Over the next several
in the D.R. to teach a master class and to
you stay in their house and eat food
months, Anderson transcribed dozens
perform at the Jazzomania Jazz Festival
with them — it changes everything,”
of Dominican rhythms. “I looked up
with the eight other talented musicians
Anderson says.
videos of people playing on YouTube,”
from The Dominican Jazz Project.
he says. “I began to think about how I
“Sometimes, especially in academia,
“What I’ve realized through this process is these guys are just like me.
could write my music and fuse it with
people go out of their way to ‘have a
They are my brothers, and we felt that
their music.”
cultural experience,’ but for me, it’s
within hours just by playing music
happened very naturally,” Anderson
together.”
When Anderson first traveled to the D.R. in 2014, he met musicians just as
says. “I think the key is humility. Be
eager to learn from him — in particular,
interested, learn from other people,
Guy Frometta, a drummer. “Guy and
then step away from it. As a gringo, I’m
UNC’s annual Summer Jazz Workshop.
I were very like-minded, as he was
not trying to ‘be a Dominican.’ In some
His participation in The Dominican Jazz
interested in American jazz music and
ways that would be disrespectful. They
Project was supported through private
I was interested in Dominican music,”
wanted me to be myself and write my
gifts. Mary Lide Parker is a writer for
Anderson says. “So we were teaching
harmony but then fuse elements of their
Endeavors magazine. Watch a video at
each other. Mostly he was teaching me.”
music with my ideas.”
magazine.college.unc.edu.
➤ Stephen Anderson also directs
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CONVERGENT SCIENCE GAINS MOMENTUM RICH SUPERFINE, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES, EXPLAINS THIS NEXT-GENERATION APPROACH TO SCIENCE AND THE NEW INSTITUTE THAT WILL BE HOME TO IT AT UNC.
Q: What exactly is convergent science? A: Convergent science is at its core an expansion of the
Q: What are examples of the innovations that can be spurred by combining insights from different disciplines? A: Examples include the use of serious gaming technologies to design new materials to deliver drugs to patients or materials to use solar energy to create clean water and electricity. In each case, we need to answer basic science questions to create breakthroughs to deliver new effective therapies, to lower costs and enhance efficiencies. However, the number of science directions to pursue is vast. By having the engineer and clinician as part of the team, the science to be discovered is steered to where it can be most effective. For example, in the case of solar energy, a decision can be made early in the experiments to focus on the fundamental physics and chemistry of materials that are economically synthesized. Q: What research is happening now at UNC that we could call convergent science? A: One example is from the laboratories of Joe DeSimone, where he has created teams to speed the impact of new particle printing methods for pharmaceuticals and new 3-D printing technologies. Another is physics professors Jianping Lu and Otto Zhou, who have taken the basic science of carbon nanotubes and transitioned them into a new X-ray technology that is revolutionizing medical imaging. At the outset, Lu and Zhou worked with UNC biomedical
Lars Sahl
concept of “team science,” where the basic scientist pursuing new discoveries is engaged from day one with the engineer, medical doctor and entrepreneur to seamlessly transition discoveries to impact in the lives of people who most need the innovation. Scientists have performed science for decades in individual laboratories within isolated departments. We have found that integrating discovery science with partners far down the chain of application is essential to speeding the transition of discovery to impact.
engineering professors and UNC clinical medical imaging professors to understand how they should develop the nanotube devices. (See another example on page 24 about UNC researchers’ work on nanocomposites.)
Q: Tell us about the UNC Institute for Convergent Science. A: An important addition to the Carolina Physical Science Complex, this new institute will empower convergent science across the University, providing collaborative and entrepreneurial research space, meeting space, offices for visiting entrepreneurs and scientists from partnering companies. It will be a resource for researchers who want to engage companies in their work or to start their own enterprises. The ICS will strengthen the preparedness of the talent pipeline by engaging existing and new undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral training programs so that the next generation of students incorporates convergence as a mentality to approach their own work. Q: How does convergent science fit into UNC’s broader research and innovation ambitions? A: UNC is a research powerhouse that ranks 8th
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a phenomenal, transformational opportunity for UNC. We will co-locate individual science laboratories with spaces for team science and collaboration, and will build a state-ofthe-art technology hub that will be a beacon to students and faculty. BeAM — the UNC network of makerspaces — has started this revolution on campus by injecting the excitement of the making of things through digital technologies like 3-D printing, electronics, wood- and metal working into the lives of students and faculty across the arts and sciences. The building itself will serve as a metaphor for this dynamic, creative and collaborative approach to the arts, science and discovery.
Courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill
Q: How can we encourage students to work on creative solutions that stretch across disciplinary boundaries?
• A B O V E : Department of applied physical sciences chair Rich Superfine discusses how faculty are integrating campus makerspaces into their course curricula. • R I G H T : When Katie Moga was a doctoral student in chemistry at UNC in 2015 in the lab of Joe DeSimone, she helped design adhesive patches embedded with microneedles to deliver medication painlessly. The technology has the potential for application in everything from vaccines to chemotherapy, and is an example of the kind of multidisciplinary research the new Institute for Convergent Science will support.
in federal funding nationally. We deserve to be proud of that activity, while also recognizing the positive feedback to scientific discovery when we step up to the challenge of engaging how our research translates directly to a societal impact.
Q: Why is the institute an important addition to the Carolina Physical Science Complex? A: The creation of the institute, a signature initiative in the University’s just-launched fundraising campaign, is
A: Our undergraduates are encouraged and empowered from the moment they step foot on campus to work on real problems of consequence. Many are drawn to UNC because of its deep commitment to public service and to creating innovations that address grand challenges. And many already have the skills to take off upon arrival, but many more need to be trained in collaborative interdisciplinary approaches. Successful projects demand multiple viewpoints and talents, where everyone shares a deep respect for all disciplines. — Interview by Kim Weaver Spurr ’88
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Kristen Chavez
• A B O V E : From left, Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL) staff members Wallace Ambrose, Amar S. Kumbhar and Carrie Donley support the nanocomposites research of professors Theo Dingemans, Greg Forest and Peter Mucha — producing high-resolution images of carbon nanotubes embedded in crystalline polymer. • R I G H T : Kumbhar peers through a transmission electron microscope as Forest looks on. The microscope provides critical highresolution data to guide and validate the experimental and modeling team effort. • F A R R I G H T : Physicist Daphne Klotsa is part of the nanocomposites team.
SCIENCE SIZED SUPER-SMALL RESEARCHERS CONVERGE TO POOL THEIR TALENTS, CREATING NANOCOMPOSITES WITH EXTRAORDINARY PROPERTIES BY DIANNE GOOCH SHAW ’71
T
he telephone was used for one thing: making calls. A cell phone, in contrast, provides a small office’s worth of functions, from email and music to video editing and GPS. Making materials multifunctional is the goal of a team of UNC scientists from diverse disciplines. How about a coating that is completely impermeable — able to conduct, perhaps even generate, electricity? Theo Dingemans, professor of applied physical
sciences, explains his collaborative work this way: “For the people who build cars or airplanes, we want them to have new materials that allow them to design newer, faster, cheaper, more fuel-efficient machines.” Dingemans compares the new composite materials that he and his colleagues are designing to Legos. “Lego blocks are available in many different shapes and forms so kids can let their creativity run wild and build fun structures. We do the same thing in that we design new molecular ‘Legos’ so material scientists and engineers can let their creativity run wild and design new structures with new functionalities.” The scale on which Dingemans and his colleagues — mathematics professors Greg Forest and Peter Mucha and applied physical sciences assistant professor Daphne Klotsa — work is tiny, measured in nanometers. How small
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Kristen Chavez
Courtesy of Daphne Klotsa
is a nanometer? A human hair is approximately 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick. An antibody is about 10 nanometers; a virus is about 100 nanometers. Nanotechnology has unleashed an entirely new design space for materials. A nanocomposite is made of a matrix material — such as a polymer or plastic — mixed with a small number of rod-like nanoparticles to add impermeability, conductivity or other properties such as strengthening rebar. The addition of a small amount of tiny particles dramatically changes the properties of the overall material. For example, imagine a computer you could roll up and fold like a piece of paper.
The team develops and validates nanocomposites both virtually and experimentally. Forest, who is the Grant Dahlstrom Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, describes the process: “The idea is to insert nanoparticles into a polymer matrix at very small volume fractions so that the composite acquires the special properties of the nanoparticles. For example, 1 to 2 percent volume of conducting rod-like nanoparticles can make a polymer nanocomposite conduct electricity even though the host polymer does not.”
The process of developing these nanoscale composites relies on a variety of expertise, a coming together of different disciplines sometimes referred to as “convergent science.” The team relies on Forest and Mucha’s theoretical and computational modeling, Klotsa’s zoom-out view of nanostructures (called coarse-grained modeling) and Dingemans’ polymer chemistry research and experimentation. Convergent science benefits from multiple, diverse expertise when approaching a research question. It streamlines Dingemans’ experiments to be more cost-effective and targeted. “Every new piece of experimental information the team provides affects what we might choose to model or how we’re going to go about it,” says Mucha. Klotsa adds, “Each model brings in different knowledge and has different constraints so you can access only certain types of information, and then someone else has to take over.” Their successful convergent science approach has attracted funding from the Army Research Office (ARO), among other agencies. The team’s current ARO research involves developing experimental and theoretical rules that enable other scientists and engineers to design and build the next generation of lightweight functional nanocomposites. The scientists say this collaborative process has changed the way they conduct research. “It’s highly time-consuming, but toward a greater end of achieving something that none of these groups could have done on their own,” Mucha explains. “Working this way, you get a lot more done, you learn a lot more and it’s more fun,” says Dingemans. “I think it makes a difference in this field and a bigger impact on the world.” Forest adds that UNC graduate and postdoctoral students also benefit from a convergent science environment. “The problems our students work on are not direct applications of what we already know. They’re working on problems where new knowledge of chemistry, processing materials, mathematics and computation is needed — work that will move nanotechnology, and their careers, forward.”
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Robert Markowitz, NASA
is; there’s no essay to wax poetic about why you want to travel to space,” Cardman says. She heard nothing for the next nine months. Then, less than two weeks after she received the phone call from Houston, Cardman found herself at Johnson Space Center. Her first morning there, she walked down a hallway lined with photos from every era of the space program, from Apollo 1 astronauts practicing egress training in a swimming pool to Scott Kelly floating in the cupola of the International Space Station. “I get shivers every time I walk down that hallway,” Cardman says. “The fact that they even want to consider me for this kind of position is amazing.”
James Blair/NASA
• Carolina alumna Zena Cardman is a new NASA astronaut trainee. Over 18,000 people applied to be in the 2017 class; she was one of 12 selected.
The 0.3 percent BY MARY LIDE PARKER ’10
From the lava fields of Hawaii to the vast expanse of Antarctica, alumna Zena Cardman has ventured to some of Earth’s most remote places. Now she has set her sights on the ultimate frontier. Life-changing moments can come when you least expect them. On a hot August afternoon, Zena Cardman feels her phone buzz and sees a number she doesn’t recognize — an area code from Houston. She hesitates, thinking it might be a marketing call. She decides to answer it. A woman’s voice says, “Hello, this is the astronaut selection office.” Cardman stands up and starts pacing around the living room. It’s not a marketing call, and it’s not a joke. “We’d like to have you come down to Houston for an interview.” After a few seconds of stunned silence, Cardman says she would be honored. Back in January, she had submitted her resume to the NASA Astronaut Candidate Program. “That’s all the application
• Zena Cardman (front row, second from right) participates in the induction ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
From UNC to world’s edge A decade before she walked down that hallway at Johnson Space Center, Cardman walked into Coker Hall, home to the biology department on UNC’s campus. As a first-year student, Cardman fully immersed herself in Carolina’s rich culture of science and discovery. She found particular inspiration in an Endeavors magazine article by another undergraduate student, Kate Harris. “She had also worked in marine sciences and done research in Antarctica,” Cardman says. “I just thought that was so cool.” When Cardman thinks something is cool, she goes after it full-throttle. “I was dead set on going south,” she says. Two years later, she did.
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••••••
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Courtesy of NASA
Courtesy of Zena Cardman
After four days aboard the Laurence M. Gould, Cardman finally saw the southernmost continent, but it didn’t look like land. “It looked like clouds on the horizon, like a white haze,” she says. “It’s such a cool feeling — to cross an ocean and see land that you’ve never seen before, land that you’ve never stepped foot on.” Standing at the edge of the world. Stepping into unexplored territory. That’s what astronauts do. Cardman believes her research experience (she has participated in three expeditions to Antarctica) has a strong correlation to space travel. “You’re in a remote place with a limited number of people and you’re relying on this ship as your home and your life support,” she says. “You are there to do science. But you have to be just as willing to fix the toilet, clean up, cook, and be part of daily life to keep your lifeboat running.”
Going to Mars appeals to Cardman because she is a scientist. “Doing geology on another planet would be amazing,” she says. “But I never really thought about the requirements to direct those scientific investigations. There are logistical roles people have to play — how do you make sure you’re getting good data and good samples when the scientific experts are remote?” Hawaii. Antarctica. The Arctic. Canada. Italy. The Gulf of Mexico. Virginia. Cardman has collected data and conducted field operations all over the world. It makes sense that she would be adept at doing the same thing on another planet.
More tests, more tasks Over 18,000 people applied to be in this class of astronauts, and Cardman is one of 50 finalists. She’s in the top 0.3 percent. After a battery of interviews, medical exams, skills-based simulations, and aptitude tests, Cardman is certain about two things: “I don’t need to see a doctor any time soon,” she says with a laugh. And she really, really wants to be an astronaut. ••••••
• ABOVE: The new recruits take a selfie. • RIGHT: When Cardman received the call of a lifetime, a friend was there to capture the moment.
Practice for Mars Seven years later and over 7,000 miles from Antarctica, Cardman displays leadership skills characteristic of the best field scientists. She’s in Hawaii, pretending to be on Mars. As part of the BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains) research project, Cardman and her colleagues carry out a simulation for a mission to Mars in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Two people play the role of astronauts while Cardman and a group of volunteers run support. An instrument needs recalibration. An antenna needs to be adjusted. Something simple but essential — like the meter stick used for scale — was left behind and needs to be jury-rigged. Cardman helps rectify those issues. “Field work is a reminder that we’re all human and we’re bound to make some mistakes,” she says.
At the end of May, Cardman receives another phone call; the number with the Houston area code is familiar now. She knew the Astronaut Selection Office would call on the 25th, whether the final answer was yes or no. “I was really, really glad to have a few close friends spend that morning with me, otherwise I would’ve been a mess!” Cardman says. “It was one of the most surreal moments of my life! Honored and overjoyed doesn’t even begin to explain it.” At just 29 years old, Cardman has accomplished something only the smallest fraction of humans do — becoming an astronaut-in-training. ➤ Zena Cardman graduated from UNC in 2010 with a major in biology and minors in marine sciences, creative writing and chemistry. She was a Carolina Scholar as an undergraduate and also received a Burch Fellowship. She completed her master’s degree in marine sciences at UNC in 2014 and was working toward a Ph.D. at Penn State when she received the call from NASA. Mary Lide Parker is a writer for Endeavors magazine.
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Kristen Chavez
“We are part of a community that has so powerfully taught us the lessons of love and resilience,” Vaughan said. “This community has made us want to stay rooted here.” West said she felt encouraged during her time at UNC to take risks “and to see unexpected losses or challenges as learning opportunities,” a lesson that has served her well over the years. “It sounds cliché, but it really got into my soul in a particular way — that invitation for things not to work out the way you wanted them to, but to actually turn out • From left, Maggie West, Mike Alston, Julius Alston and Hudson Vaughan in the Alston better because of that,” she said. brothers’ home. The Community Empowerment Fund and the Jackson Center worked together There are many ways in which their to help the brothers settle into a duplex in the Northside neighborhood. organizations intersect. They like to tell the story of Mike and Julius Alston, two brothers who were staying at the men’s in Chapel Hill and Durham. West (public shelter in Chapel Hill. CEF and the Jackson policy and Latin American studies ’10) Center worked together to help the men serves as CEF’s co-director. settle into a duplex in Northside. (In 2015, Vaughan (history and minor in Carolina provided a critical financial boost entrepreneurship ’08) is senior director of to the neighborhood with a $3 million, An alumni couple help people the Jackson Center, which works to honor, 10-year, no interest loan to establish a transition out of homelessness renew and build community in Northside and preserve historically black land bank as properties in Northside and Pine Knolls, two historically black neighborhoods in Chapel Hill. become available. The Alstons’ duplex was neighborhoods in Chapel Hill. It grew out purchased with the help of Self-Help Credit BY KIM WEAVER SPURR ’88 of a partnership between communication Union, which manages the land bank.) professor Della Pollock’s class and St. Collaboration, conversation Both West and Vaughan have been Joseph CME Church. and cultivating relationships recognized for their town-and-gown UNC students are actively engaged with people in their community efforts. She was named the 2016 Citizen in both organizations — last year 390 drive the work and personal of the Year by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro volunteered at the Jackson Center and lives of alumni couple Maggie Chamber of Commerce and was declared 150 at CEF. Students help with needs such a “Hometown Hero” by WCHL/ChapelWest and Hudson Vaughan. as financial coaching, finding housing, Two organizations they co-founded boro; he won a 2016 University Diversity organizing community cleanups and focus on preserving the future of Award. They both serve on the Orange processing oral histories. historically black neighborhoods in County Affordable Housing Coalition. The couple first met over coffee in Chapel Hill and providing relationshipAt the heart of it all, they both say August 2009 when they discussed ways based support for people experiencing that what fuels their passion is being their two organizations could partner homelessness. The seeds for those transformed by their community in all together. They continued to cross paths, nonprofits — the Community that they do. their friendship developed into something Empowerment Fund and the Marian “We’ve been together since the very deeper, and they were married in October beginning in watching our organizations Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and 2014. They live in the Northside commuMaking History — were planted when grow and change. … Along the way, we’ve nity, just minutes from where they work, they were students at UNC. learned a lot from each other,” Vaughan and love hosting community barbecues. CEF, which initially grew out of a said. summer undergraduate research project, Vaughan still has a note from a neighbor that was written to the couple after they offers saving opportunities, financial ➤ For more on the work of were married. In part, it reads: “I pray that CEF and the Jackson Center, visit education and support to individuals your lives together will be overrunning who are seeking employment, housing communityempowermentfund.org and with grace, love, mercy and peace. ...” and financial freedom. It has chapters jacksoncenter.info.
Choosing lives of community advocacy
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Courtesy of Scripps
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Courtesy of Scripps
• ABOVE: Ken Lowe, right, with his former roommate, radio personality Rick Dees, at a 2014 Center for Communication event. • RIGHT: Lowe and wife, Julia, with Jonathan and Drew Scott, hosts of “Property Brothers,” at an auction to benefit the American Heart Association.
The man behind HGTV Lowe built Scripps empire on DIY, food and travel — and a focus on core values BY PAMELA BABCOCK
At age 10, Ken Lowe ’72 built a makeshift radio station in the garage on his family’s rural North Carolina tobacco farm. “I think my biggest audience was probably livestock,” he joked in a recent interview. Lowe has come a long way from that first foray into broadcasting. Today he is chairman, president and CEO of Scripps Networks Interactive. His accomplishments over four decades with Scripps include being the brainchild behind HGTV, managing the transformation of the Food Network and Travel Channel and presiding over the launch of DIY Network and the Cooking Channel. In July, Discovery Communications Inc., owners of Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet, bought Knoxvillebased Scripps Networks for $11.9 billion. “For me, this was like watching your first-born child leave the nest because I created and started it, but it just seems like a natural fit,” said Lowe, who will serve on the Discovery board once the transaction is complete. Lowe grew up on the outskirts of Mount Airy, the town that was the inspiration for Andy Griffith’s fictional Mayberry. He was always fascinated with how radio provided a window to life in the bigger cities and the world. But Lowe had another love: construction — everything from building tree houses to helping his uncle, a contractor, during summers. That, plus a strong entrepreneurial streak, helped plant the seed for the HGTV launch years later. At UNC, Lowe majored in radio, television and motion
pictures, and he roomed with Rick Dees, a radio personality known today for his Weekly Top 40 countdown. In the late 1960s, the campus radio station asked the pair to interview an artist they’d never heard of. The singer showed up with a beat-up guitar, sang a few songs and delivered long, rambling answers. The artist? James Taylor, who would release his debut album a few months later. “We joked that we were the first two guys to discover James Taylor and then kind of blow him off,” said Lowe. After college, Lowe took radio jobs in several cities. He joined Scripps in 1980 as general manager of radio properties and later was named vice president of programming, promotion and marketing for nine TV stations. In that era of sensational talk shows, with hosts such as Morton Downey Jr., Jerry Springer and Geraldo Rivera, Lowe said he was frustrated by the lack of quality programming for families, especially shows targeted to women. He began developing shows that appealed to upscale and educated female viewers, a demographic that advertisers covet. Initial response to the 1994 HGTV launch was tepid: “We can’t wait to watch a network about grass growing and paint drying,” Lowe recalled critics saying. But he persisted. Today, the network includes hits such as Fixer Upper and Property Brothers, while popular Food Network shows include Chopped and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Lowe, head of Scripps since 2008, said a key was to focus not just on “whether we’d be successful as a business” but company culture and core values, which include integrity, diversity, humor, and compassion and support. In the future, Lowe said he hopes to spend more time with his wife, playing golf and cultivating his growing car collection. He serves on several nonprofit boards and plans to spend more time supporting the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington, the inner city charter school for girls in North Carolina which he co-founded. As a kid from rural North Carolina whose parents never went to college, Lowe said Carolina was “eye opening” because of the diversity of students he encountered on campus. He remains in contact with many former professors, mentors and students. Including one zany former roommate. “Rick Dees and I are best friends — I just spoke with him,” Lowe said. The feeling appears mutual. In April, Dees tweeted: “Congrats to my bff Ken Lowe, inducted tonight into the Cable TV Hall of Fame!”
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Courtesy of Samantha Grounds
Kristen Chavez
THE SCOOP
• LEFT TO RIGHT: College campaign priorities include support for innovative learning in campus makerspaces, for firstgeneration students like Lookout Scholar Samantha Grounds, and for experiential learning opportunities, such as the Karen M. Gil Internship in Psychology that Kirsten Consing experienced.
A CRITICAL JUNCTURE The College’s goal for the campaign will exceed $700 million College’s role in UNC campaign as part of a broader Universityemphasizes innovation, wide goal. During the campaign’s entrepreneurship, experiential “quiet” phase, which began Jan. 1, learning and more 2015, the College raised more than BY ERIN KELLEY ’13 $265 million. This includes a recordirst-year student Samantha Grounds of shattering $91.3 million in new gifts Marietta, Ga., arrived on campus in August and commitments in the fiscal year that as one of Carolina’s first Lookout Scholars. ended June 30. That total is 30 percent more than the previous year, a record Class valedictorian, captain of the soccer in itself. team and president of her high school’s Leadership gifts have supported National Honor Society, she is eager to entrepreneurship (story, page 10), explore all that Carolina has to offer. She hopes to pursue a degree in pub- PlayMakers and dramatic art (story, page lic health. Her dream is to travel the world, 31), Honors Carolina (story, page 31), the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the providing medical care in impoverished countries, a passion she discovered during Learning and Writing Center, graduate recent mission trips to Nicaragua and Peru. student stipends and other areas of critical support for students and faculty. Lookout Scholars is a donor-funded “We’re at a critical juncture in the initiative that supports first-generation college students, providing the resources pursuit of knowledge and the need they need to succeed at Carolina. Grounds to push boundaries to address the problems that we as a nation and a world is part of the inaugural class of 40 face,” said Rob Parker, senior associate Lookout Scholars at UNC. (Read more at dean for development for the College. college.unc.edu/SamanthaGrounds.) “For us to continue to remain a top A donor’s generosity has opened university globally, philanthropic support doors of access and opportunity for is more essential than ever.” Grounds. The Oct. 6 public launch of the University’s comprehensive campaign, CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES The Campaign for Carolina, hopes to Among the College’s key campaign similarly inspire Carolina alumni and priorities are investments in research friends to support transformative and teaching that will have a dramatic initiatives that advance the mission and impact on North Carolina, the nation vision of the College of Arts & Sciences and the world. under Dean Kevin Guskiewicz.
F
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Kristen Chavez
Opening doors, emboldening dreams
The new Institute for Convergent Science (story, page 22) will bring together chemists, physicists, biologists and health scientists to develop real-world applications that tackle challenges in fields including renewable energy, clean water and more effective drug delivery solutions. Another focal point will be increasing experiential learning opportunities for students through study abroad programs (story, page 2), academic internships, faculty-mentored research and the new campus makerspaces. Other key priorities include support for faculty recruitment and retention, entrepreneurship, Southern studies, Jewish studies, digital humanities, graduate student support and global education. “Our donors are stepping up to propel UNC forward as a leader among public research universities both nationally and internationally,” Guskiewicz said. “I could not think of a more exciting time to be at Carolina.” ➤ For more information on campaign priorities, visit college.unc. edu/foundation.
Jon Gardiner
THE SCOOP
• Graduate students serenaded Gillings at the gift celebration with the Cole Porter song “You’re The Top.”
PlayMakers, dramatic art celebrate $12 million gift
A $12 million gift to PlayMakers Repertory Company and the department of dramatic art will significantly increase the University’s performing arts programming by expanding educational opportunities for students and enhancing performance and outreach offerings available to the community.
$3 million Grauer gift will benefit Honors Carolina BY MARY MOOREFIELD
Peter Grauer ’68 believes in how Honors Carolina can change students’ lives. Grauer, chair of worldwide media company Bloomberg L.P., served for more than 15 years as chair of the Honors Carolina Advisory Board. A recent $3 million gift commitment will endow the Peter T. Grauer Associate Dean for Honors Carolina Fund. The endowment will provide salary and research funding. It allows the associate dean to pursue scholarly endeavors and to have a source of discretionary funding to support ongoing program development and curriculum innovation. “Honors Carolina is a magnet to attract the best and brightest students,” Grauer said. “It gives Carolina a bold and lasting competitive advantage. It provides our faculty with the opportunity to work with truly gifted students.
The endowment, from longtime arts patron Joan H. Gillings, is the largest single gift by a living individual to benefit the performing arts at Carolina. In honor of the historic gift, the Center for Dramatic Art will be named the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art. Chancellor Carol L. Folt joined Kevin Guskiewicz, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences; Adam Versényi, chair of the department of dramatic art; and Vivienne Benesch, PlayMakers’ producing artistic director, at a celebration announcing the gift on Sept. 11. Gillings’ commitment will enable the department to recruit and retain top graduate students by funding additional scholarships in acting, costume production and technical production annually. It will also expand PlayMakers’ vital education and outreach programs, including a new Mobile Shakespeare initiative, and its K-12 educational matinee and teaching artist residency programs. In addition, the gift will foster the
Honors Carolina makes the Chapel Hill experience even more unique, even better.” Associate Dean for Honors Carolina Jim Leloudis is the fund’s first recipient. Leloudis has served as associate dean for Honors and founding director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence for more than 18 years. His research focuses on the history of the modern South, with emphases on labor, education, race and reform. Heather Boneparth ’80, current chair of the Honors Carolina Advisory Board, said, “It is quite fitting that Peter’s gift will honor Jim's exceptional leadership and ensure that Honors Carolina will continue to benefit from the leadership required to continue the path of innovation which has become the hallmark of the program.” Dean Kevin Guskiewicz added, “The Grauer Fund will allow Jim and his successors to sustain the tradition of excellence associated with Honors Carolina.”
development of new plays to engage the University and national theater community with innovative and socially conscious work. Gillings, who has served on the Friends of PlayMakers Advisory Board since 2008 and as its chair since 2013, acquired a love of theater while attending plays on Broadway and in London’s West End. She said that the high quality of PlayMakers productions and her interactions with master of fine arts students inspired her gift. “I can’t tell you how important this is to me. Having PlayMakers in our own backyard is incredible,” Gillings said. “It’s all about the students. They are our future.” Established in 1925, the department of dramatic art is the second-oldest theater department in the country. PlayMakers, the professional theater in residence, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.
• Laurie and Peter Grauer. A $3 million gift will endow the Peter T. Grauer Associate Dean for Honors Carolina Fund.
Grauer is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development. He is a former member of the UNC Board of Trustees.
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THE SCOOP
With Mellon grant, UNC launches ‘Humanities for the Public Good’
Courtesy of Southern Oral History Program
A
four-year, $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will significantly advance Carolina’s efforts in humanities education, research and teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill. The initiative, “Humanities for the Public Good,” will use multiple strategies to integrate public humanities into the curriculum, tap the potential of digital technology for humanities scholarship and teaching, and reach out to diverse communities to elevate awareness of existing humanities activities at Carolina as well as foster new avenues of public engagement. The principal investigator of the grant is Terry Rhodes, senior associate dean for fine arts and humanities in the College. Robyn Schroeder, who oversaw several public humanities efforts at Brown University, will manage the grant’s programmatic elements as initiative director. It will focus on three broad themes: • Employing new educational
• The Southern Oral History Program, in collaboration with Carolina Public Humanities’ Carolina K-12 program, hosted the Carolina Oral History Teaching Fellows in Civil Rights workshop at UNC in June.
models for the humanities that reconfigure education and promote the public humanities in the curriculum. • Integrating contemporary, digital approaches into research and education. • Expanding the public humanities through more engagement with diverse communities beyond the academy.
“What is exciting about this initiative is that it is a natural evolution of Carolina’s identity as a university ‘of the public and for the public,’” Rhodes said. “This grant will allow us to meaningfully advance the theme of ‘humanities for the public good’ in ways that will benefit our students and faculty enormously.”
Colloredo-Mansfeld tapped for senior leadership post
Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld became senior associate dean for social sciences and global programs in the College of Arts & Sciences on July 1. As senior associate dean, Colloredo-Mansfeld oversees the departments/curricula and other units in the social sciences as well as the global programs of the College that are housed together in the FedEx Global Education Center. Colloredo-Mansfeld served as chair of the department of anthropology from 2013 to 2017. He has been at Carolina since 2008, coming from the University of Iowa. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA in 1992 and 1996, respectively, and his B.A. in anthropology and European history from UNC in 1987, where he was a Morehead Scholar and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. His scholarly research and teaching focus on indigenous peoples, consumer cultures and local food systems. Much of his work has concerned indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian highlands. He recently began collaborating with colleagues at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, or USFQ (Carolina’s partner in the Galápagos Science Center), comparing models of community tourism in conservation areas in the Galápagos and the Andes. Colloredo-Mansfeld replaces Jonathan Hartlyn, who served as senior associate dean for nearly eight years and has returned to his home department of political science.
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THE SCOOP
Carolina ranks 33rd in world universities in the world and 23rd in the United States among global universities, according to the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released by the Center for World Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in August. UNC was ranked 35th in 2016 and 39th in 2015. This year, Harvard University placed first, followed by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. Since 2003, ARWU has ranked more than 1,200 universities and published the best 500 universities annually. The center also released subject area rankings in 2017. Carolina had 11 subjects that scored in the top 20 in the world, demonstrating notable strengths in the field of medical sciences. Those rankings and subjects, which include some departments in the College of Arts & Sciences, are: 2nd in dentistry and oral sciences 4th in statistics 6th in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences 8th in public health 10th in nursing 12th in education 12th in sociology 13th in biological sciences 17th in finance 18th in computer science and engineering 19th in communication. Donn Young
• • • • • • • • • • •
➤ For a full list of rankings, visit www.shanghairanking.com.
Courtesy of Pam Jagger
UNC-Chapel Hill ranks 33rd
• Women walk home carrying fuel-saving cookstoves in Kasungu, Malawi. A new $4.8 million NSF grant will help researchers study how to alleviate energy poverty in Southern Africa.
Confronting energy poverty in Southern Africa
T
he National Science Foundation recently awarded a $4.8 million grant to UNC-Chapel Hill to help researchers study how to alleviate energy poverty in Southern Africa. Energy poverty is the lack of access to modern energy sources such as electricity and modern fuels — crucial resources to the well-being of individuals and communities, the environment and to the stability and growth of national economies. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 620 million people lack access to electricity, and 730 million use solid biomass and inefficient stoves as their primary source of cooking energy. The project is an NSF Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE), an innovative program that promotes international collaboration among scientists to address complex, multidisciplinary problems. The Energy Poverty PIRE is led by Pam Jagger, an associate professor of public policy. A main focus of the PIRE program is to train the next generation of scientists to solve complex real-world problems. The Energy Poverty PIRE program will provide training and research opportunities for 70 undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines, including public policy, geography, sociology, forestry and environmental science and engineering. The program is administered by the Carolina Population Center (CPC). Co-PIs of the project are Michael Emch, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Geography, and Barbara Entwisle, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology. Jagger, Emch and Entwisle are CPC Faculty Fellows. Core partners include NC State University, RTI International, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi), Copperbelt University (Zambia) and the University of Zimbabwe.
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THE SCOOP
NFL grant funds concussion research international study on the role of active rehabilitation strategies in concussion management. Led by scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Medical College of Wisconsin, the research will involve international collaborations and diverse participants — high school, college and professional athletes — across a variety of sports. The project was identified as a priority at the NFL’s International Professional Sports Concussion Research Think Tank. The study, one of the first of its kind, will examine the efficacy of two clinically supervised management strategies, including both the international concussion return-to-play protocol and early therapeutic interventions for concussions. Professional athletes from the Canadian Football League and New Zealand Rugby, as well as amateur athletes from American and Canadian colleges and universities and Wisconsin high schools, will be included in the study. The research will cover a variety of sports, including football, rugby, soccer, lacrosse, basketball and ice hockey. The three-year study will enroll more than 200 concussed athletes, both male and female. “Currently there’s little information
Kristen Chavez
The NFL will fund a $2.6 million
• A $2.6 million grant from the NFL is funding an international study on the role of active rehabilitation strategies in concussion management, such as those being used at the Matthew Gfeller Center, above.
available about the most effective strategies to manage and treat concussion,” said Johna Register-Mihalik, the co-principal investigator at UNC, assistant professor of exercise and sport science and faculty member of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center. “We want to see how early, clinically guided activity could benefit recovery from concussion.” Other members of the UNC investigative team include co-principal investigator Kevin Guskiewicz (dean of the College, Kenan Distinguished
Professor of Exercise and Sport Science and co-director of the Gfeller Center), Stephen Marshall (Injury Prevention Research Center and epidemiology), Jason Mihalik (exercise and sport science and a director of Matthew Gfeller SportRelated TBI Research Center), Shabbar Ranapurwala (Injury Prevention Research Center and epidemiology), Karen McCulloch (division of physical therapy) and Paula Gildner (project manager, Injury Prevention Research Center). UNC undergraduate and graduate students are also involved in the research.
# T h r o w b a c k H A P P Y
B I R T H D A Y,
I M S
IN CELEBRATION OF THE 70TH BIRTHDAY OF UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences, we share this field research photo from the early 1990s of Fiorenza Micheli, a graduate student of marine scientist Charles “Pete” Peterson. In this photo Micheli was preparing for a day on the water studying sustainable fisheries in Carteret County. Today, Micheli is a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University. ➤ LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RESEARCH THAT HAPPENS AT IMS, 3431 ARENDELL ST., MOREHEAD CITY, AT AN OPEN HOUSE, OCT. 21 FROM 1 TO 4 P.M.
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THE SCOOP
C A R O L I N A
Q U O T E D
When national and international media need experts to comment on and analyze news and trends, they turn to Carolina. Of course, College of Arts & Sciences faculty often make news of their own with groundbreaking research findings. Here are just a few examples; see more at college.unc.edu. The New York Times
NPR
scientists isn’t to save only endangered invertebrates like coral but to preserve the reefs that hundreds of millions of people depend on. Food, jobs, tourism revenue, recreation and buffers from coastal storms are just some of the value coastal communities get from healthy reefs.”
WERE A LITTLE BIT OF A NERD OR A THEATER GEEK. WE’RE THE ONES THAT TURN OUT THE BEST IN THE LONG RUN.”
“Our goal as
— John Bruno, biology professor, on preserving coral reefs
“IT’S GOOD NEWS IF YOU
— Mitch Prinstein, psychology and neuroscience professor, on the science behind popularity
The Times of Israel
The Guardian
“The mosaics provide a
“An event of this scale
great deal of information about ancient daily life, such as the construction techniques shown in the Tower of Babel scene.” — Jodi Magness, religious studies professor, on archaeological finds in Galilee
can very well take years, and in some cases it may take more than 10 years to actually fully recover from this event.” — Gavin Smith, director of the Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence, on Hurricane Harvey
National Geographic
“TARDIGRADES ARE EXTREMELY HARDY ANIMALS. SCIENTISTS ARE
STILL TRYING TO WORK OUT HOW THEY SURVIVE THESE EXTREMES.” — Thomas Boothby, chemistry post-doctoral associate, on the indestructible power of microscopic creatures
COLLEG E OF ARTS & SCI E N CE S HONOR ROLL NOW ON LI N E
We gratefully acknowledge the outstanding commitment of alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends, companies and foundations who contributed to the College of Arts & Sciences between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. We sincerely appreciate the support of our donors and the exceptional educational opportunities their generosity provides. You can now find the College of Arts & Sciences Honor Roll online at college.unc.edu/honor-roll.
C AROL IN A ART S & SC IEN C ES | FA LL 2017 | CO LLEGE.U N C.EDU | 35
Donn Young
CHAPTER & VERSE
• Dana Coen, director of the Writing for the Screen and Stage program, says a new book featuring former students’ one-act plays gives readers “an opportunity to visit the minds of young creatives” at UNC.
NEW BOOK CELEBRATES UNC STUDENT PLAYWRIGHTS Dana Coen, director of UNC's Writing for the Screen and Stage minor in the department of communication, brings extensive professional experience as a playwright and screenwriter to the classroom. Before arriving at Carolina in 2009, Coen spent over 35 years in New York and Hollywood. He wrote and directed numerous plays prior to serving as co-executive producer of the CBS series JAG for eight seasons. Recently he discussed the program and Twenty-Five Short Plays: Selected Works from The University of North Carolina Long Story Shorts Festival, 2011-2015, published by UNC Press in September. Q: What is The Long Story Shorts One-Act Festival, and what inspired you to create it? A: A few years after joining the
olds. The plays are so diverse. I describe Chill Pill as “politically correct reunites with socially correct.” In Pegging Out, two brothers, trapped in a British coal mine, ponder their individual destinies. Bad Connection is a satirical comedy about device-addicted college students struggling to communicate.
Q: What have some of the student playwrights gone on to do? A: One graduate turned an internship on the TV series The Flash into a produced episode. She was only two years out of the program. Another is running the L.A. office of a well-known production company. One of our playwrights has had two of his plays produced Off-Broadway. A graduate was a staff writer for Haven on the Syfy channel for a number of years. Q: Tell us about this year's festival. A: One of the plays is written entirely
in iambic pentameter. Another is simply two mismatched characters in a car. It’s hilarious. And then there’s one in which a program, I altered the introductory course father and son work out their relationship so that students wrote a short play and a in a game of poker. These are just three short screenplay. When I read the first examples of how different these plays set of short plays, I thought, “I need to can be. I’ve discovered if you challenge do something with these.” So I started students to dig deeply about who they are imagining a way that students could and how they view their world, they will develop the work in collaboration with express themselves in fascinating ways. professionals, seasoned actors and direc•••••• tors. The festival is a celebration of their work. One-act plays allow playwrights to Long Story Shorts 2017 will take place address big topics in economical ways. in Swain Hall, Studio 6, Friday, Nov. 3, at 8 It’s a great way to start them off. p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Admission is free. For more details, Q: What was your goal in pulling visit UNC Writing for the Screen & Stage together these plays into a book? on Facebook or go.unc.edu/unc-wss. A: I want the world to know that Actors who have performed in the college-age students are capable of good plays featured in the book will do a series writing as long as there’s supervision. This of readings at local bookstores this fall. book provides a living example that young Visit www.uncpress.org/author/dana-coen writers can produce work of value. for more information. Q: Why should a general audience read this book? ➤ Find more books by College A: It provides an opportunity to faculty and alumni and watch a video visit the minds of our young creatives. about the Writing for the Screen and The writers express a depth of intellect Stage program at magazine.college. and feeling that I don't think most people unc.edu. would expect from 19- and 20-year— Interview by Michele Lynn
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FINALE
Tar Heels who travel the globe, are you willing to share your adventures? Follow @unccollege, @uncstudyabroad and @uncglobal on Instagram and use #HeelsAbroad to share your photos. Thanks to the following student and alumni photographers (clockwise, from top left) for sharing their photos: Karen Barnette (Istanbul, Turkey); Scott Diekema (who captured Courtney Beals in Delhi, India); Charlie Carpenter (Mount Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania); Oliver Jones (peak of Dragon's Back hiking trail in Shek O, Hong Kong); Theresa Jones (left) and Grace Porter (en route to apply for study abroad visas to Montpellier, France); and Andrew McCarthy (Amsterdam, Netherlands). In addition to Instagram, you can follow us for more news about the College of Arts & Sciences on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, @unccollege.
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THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
ANNUAL FUND With your support in 2016... We sent students across the globe to Japan, Sydney, London and more.
We brought in an epidemiologist to educate students and staff about Zika.
We recruited and retained over 70 teacherscholars.
Last year, more than 4,017 inspiring donors raised over $1.6 million in unrestricted support, enabling us to address emerging opportunities.
Your gift today can make 2017 even better. To make your gift today, visit: giving.unc.edu/gift/asf
To learn how you can help make a difference, contact Ashlee Bursch, Director of Annual Giving, at (919) 843-9853 or ashlee.bursch@unc.edu.