Virginia Wesleyan College

In this issue :

 

Compiled by Kristen Kirk and Ann P. Shappell '70

Virginia Wesleyan receives special recognition by Bush

VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE WAS AMONG FEWER THAN 50 U.S. COLLEGES RECOGNIZED BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR ITS COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY SERVICE AND THE ONLY VIRGINIA COLLEGE CITED IN THE “2001 AMERICA’S PROMISE REPORT TO THE NATION.”

The report cited several volunteer programs, including the Circle K Neighborhood Tutoring Program, which offers weekly homework assistance, and Marlin Matters, a program which offers one-on-one help to children at four local schools. During the 2000-2001 school year, 540 members of the VWC community were involved in more than 5,820 hours of service, reaching out to the clients of more than 80 different local, regional and national non-profit agencies.

A new chapter in the library's history

In March 2001, the H.C. Hofheimer II Family Foundation donated $50,000 to the College. A $5,000 gift went to the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom for Nexus, an interfaith dialogue series, and the library received the $45,000 balance to increase its holdings.

The gift will be used to purchase books in academic disciplines that will enhance Virginia Wesleyan ’s application for membership in Phi Beta Kappa. The first purchase —the complete Loeb Classical Library with approximately 492 volumes covering major texts of Greek and Latin authors in the original languages, along with translations and commentary —is already in. This acquisition took place on the heels of the hiring of Edward Gutting, M.A. as an assistant professor of classics. Both are steps toward the development of a classics major a Virginia Wesleyan.

Pace will have space for her new purchases as she continues to acquire new volumes. With the opening of the Batten Student Center this academic year, the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies and the Security Office will move from the second floor of the library to new offices.

“I was extremely delighted and grateful to the Hofheimer family for their long-standing generosity,” says Pace. “Our mission as an essential part of the College ’s educational program is to support the classroom learning experience. But, it is also important that we act as a conduit to the world outside our campus by providing research materials and tools that are relevant to global developments. We are currently looking at different products and options available to make the best use of this most welcome gift.”

More money and more room: You could say that’s every librarian’s dream. And fortunately, for Library Director Jan Pace and the entire Virginia Wesleyan community, dreams do come true.

Potato drop!

Seniors Martine Green of Norfolk and Sara McQueen of Falls Church, Va. enjoy a break from helping to coordinate the bagging of 46,600 pounds of sweet potatoes during Virginia Wesleyan College’s first Potato Drop in April. It took nine hours for more than 120 students, faculty, staff and community volunteers to bag the vegetables, which were donated to local food banks to help feed the hungry in South Hampton Roads. The event was sponsored by the College’s Office of Community Service in conjunction with the Society of St. Andrew, a United Methodist ministry.

Professor receives grant

Philip Rock, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, is the first Virginia Wesleyan natural science professor to receive a Mednick Research Fellowship. The 2001 grant will support the study of the annexin gene which appears in virtually all living organisms from fungi to humans. The long-term project involves “knocking out,” or removing, the gene from a fungus and then looking for changes in the fungus which may shed light on the roles annexins play in all organisms, including humans.

The program is named in memory of Maurice Mednick, a Norfolk industrialist with a strong interest in higher education. It is an initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges which has selected the recipients since the program began in the early ’80s. Kevin Cartwright, a Virginia Wesleyan junior, conducted research for this project this past summer at the University of Virginia, and senior Neil Adesso is continuing the research as a guided study this semester. “One of the benefits of this grant has been to get students involved in significant research,” says Rock, who joined the faculty in 2000.

Brock leads trustees

In October 2001, Joan P. Brock, a member of the Board of Trustees since 1996, assumed the chairmanship of that body succeeding D. Henry Watts. Brock, an original founder and former treasurer of the Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., has been an active volunteer at Virginia Wesleyan since joining the President’s Advisory Council in 1990. Her father, Kenneth R. Perry, served on the Board from 1991-1996 before moving to trustee emeritus status. New to the Board this fall is The Rev. Joseph G. Savinsky, Superintendent of the Norfolk District of The United Methodist Church.

Virginia Wesleyan completes successful fund raising year

VIRGINIA WESLEYAN FINISHED ANOTHER STRONG FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2001, WITH MORE THAN 2,000 DONORS CONTRIBUTING IN EXCESS OF $5.8 MILLION TO THE COLLEGE IN UNRESTRICTED, RESTRICTED, CAPITAL, AND ENDOWMENT GIFTS.

The Virginia Wesleyan Annual Fund raised $939,071, the second largest total in the College ’s history and $30,000 more than its goal. This essential component of giving helps all areas of the College, including scholarships, library resources, faculty and student needs, and other yearly projects. Considerable support came from the College ’s Board of Trustees, who contributed more than $600,000. Alumni giving surpassed the $100,000 mark for the first time in the College ’s history, highlighted by 100 percent participation in the Annual Fund by the Board of Directors of the Virginia Wesleyan Alumni Association. “The College has many wonderful legacies of which to be proud. The extraordinary philanthropy of our trustees and the generosity of our alumni are so important for both the financial benefit to the school and for the leadership provided by these invaluable constituencies,” says Director of Development Nan Edgerton.

Have suitcase, will travel

When junior Moray Cucchiari arrived back in the United States in December 2000 after a five-month study abroad trip to Africa, she immediately began looking for a new place to go to the following summer. “I spent three and a half months in South Africa taking a full course load and also went on safari for seven weeks,” remembers Cucchiari. “It was such a great experience and I knew I wanted to travel more, but the problem was I had no money.”

Enter Jennifer Repko Nowlin ’95, director of international and intercultural programs at Virginia Wesleyan, who steered her toward scholarship and placement programs. Through the Freeman Organization, which provides scholarships for students to study in Asian countries and the U.S. China Peoples Friends Association headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Cucchiari was able to connect funding with a program that would send her to China for five weeks during the summer of 2001.

Cucchiari, the first Virginia Wesleyan student to study in China, studied Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University. Her classes earned her three foreign language credits. In her free time, she visited the Forbidden City, Tiennaman Square, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. A 14-hour train trip took her to Shanghai for a weekend. “My first impression of Beijing was that it was so crowded,” says Cucchiari. “But I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the city which dates back thousands of years.”

Cucchiari will graduate in May 2002 with a major in psychology and a minor in women’s and gender studies. She plans to spend time in Japan teaching English as a second language.

A "book report" from Religious Studies

They’re on campus at Virginia Wesleyan quite a bit during the week—teaching, holding office hours, and doing whatever they can to help students grow. So, it would be understandable if Catharine Cookson, J.D., Ph.D., Craig Wansink, Ph.D. and Ted Vial, Ph.D. from the religious studies faculty went home at night and simply relaxed. But, that’s not what happens: Instead, they research, write, edit and publish.

Vial, assistant professor of religious studies, co-edited Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present: Essays in Honor of Wendell S. Dietrich with Mark A. Hadley. The 347-page book, published by Scholars Press for the Brown Judaic Studies Series, was released in November 2001 with an introduction by Vial. The book’s essays, written by ethicists and professors from such distinguished schools as Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth, honor a scholar whose major contribution to religious studies was breaking down the barrier between Christian theology and Judaic studies.

Cookson, assistant professor of religious studies and the Joan and Macon Brock Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, published her first book with Oxford University Press, Regulating Religion: The Courts and the Free Exercise of Religion, in March 2001. The book is intended to serve as a resource for administrators, judges, prosecutors and people of faith who may face regulations that represent only the mind set of the majority. Cookson explores the complicated issue of the clashing of religious freedom and government regulations.

Wansink, associate professor of religious studies, was invited to contribute to the Oxford Bible Commentary, published in August 2001. The book is expected to be the standard one-volume Bible commentary for universities, colleges and seminaries for decades to come. Wansink wrote a commentary on Paul’s Letter to Philemon. In an international project with a total of 77 contributors, Wansink was one of only 18 Americans singled out for their expertise.

Center directorship is named for Brocks

In recognition of endowment support to advance the mission and programming of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, the directorship of the Center has been named for Joan and Macon Brock. Mrs. Brock chairs the College’s Board of Trustees and Mr. Brock is CEO and Chairman of Dollar Tree Stores, Inc.

“For any center to fulfill its founding mission, it truly needs a full-time director,” says Center Director Catharine Cookson, J.D., Ph.D. “For this Center the director is the key link between the campus and the community, and plays a vital role in its educational and outreach work. By endowing the directorship, the Brocks have ensured that the Center will continue to be a force and a resource in furtherance of religious freedom and understanding in this community and beyond.”