The Lycoming College Department of Communication's Digital Media program awarded three Lycoming students for their work at the Student Film and Video Festival held on Tuesday, April 7.

The following students won awards at the festival: Karisa Calvitti, senior, won the Tom Woodruff Award for her documentary, "Meet Them at The Woods;" Jeffery Poshkus, senior, won the Best Documentary Award for his animated film, "Synethesia;"and Gabriela Burch, senior, won the Best Animation Award for her film, "Morning Routine."

The program featured four different categories of films and videos, including narrative, documentary, experimental and animation. All films had a running time of less than ten minutes and had been completed in the last two years. This year's contest also was open to other undergraduate programs in Pennsylvania and several submissions were received from both Point Park University and Temple University.

The festival was juried by Lycoming faculty. This year, the jurors include Lynn Estomin, professor of art; Leah Peterson, associate professor of communication; Seth Goodman, assistant professor of art; Oscar Perez, visiting assistant professor of communication; and Jim Dougherty, adjunct instructor of communication. Perez served as the host for this year's event.

The Lycoming College chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the honor society for history students, inducted seven new members during a ceremony on March 18.

The new members include: Reilly Groder, a sophomore with a major in criminal justice from Pittstown, New Jersey; Maggie Slawson, a sophomore with a major in history from Robinson, Pennsylvania; Caroline McMaster, a junior with a major in history from Budd Lake, New Jersey; Lindsay Decker, a junior with a major in history from Shapleigh, Maine; Blake Bowman, a sophomore with a major in history from Valley View, Pennsylvania; Cullen Chandler, Ph.D., department chair and associate professor of history; Michael Tusay, a junior with a major in history from North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; and Murray Shackelford, a sophomore with a major in history from Capitol Heights, Maryland.

Christopher Pearl, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, and Sarah Silkey, Ph.D., associate professor of history, serve as co-advisors of the Lycoming College chapter. To be considered for induction, students must complete four courses in history with a minimum history course GPA of 3.1, a minimum GPA of 3.0 overall, and be in the top 35% of the class. Membership is not limited to history majors.

Founded in 1921, Phi Alpha Theta is an American honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history. The society has over 350,000 members, with about 9,500 new members joining each year through 860 local chapters.

The Lycoming College seniors in the Department of Communication’s digital media communication major will present an exhibition of their artwork on Friday, April, 17 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Digital Media Gallery in the Communication Building on the corner of Fourth and Franklin streets. The event is free and open to the public.

The exhibition is one night only and will feature work from six seniors: Karisa Calvitti, Katie Dayer, Aaron Hufnagel, Ryan Krebs, Amanda Miller and Jeff Poshkus.

“Meet them at the Woods,” Calvitti’s documentary, gives viewers an inside look at the strong sense of community at The Woodlands Inn, a family business in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Dayer’s narrative experimental film, “Perpetual Nocturne,” explores the uncertainty of life and how the human mind can warp reality when it is put under extreme stress. This film follows a young man who has begun to lose grip on reality after the sudden passing of his wife.

“Six Feet Over,” Hufnagel’s narrative film, follows a night with a notorious mobster, Bobby Iron Fist, as told by his partner, Frank.

Krebs’s film essay, “This Game Sucks: Metroid Other M,” details why the videogame “Metroid Other M” destroys the reputation of gaming’s oldest female protagonist, Samus Aran.

“Arabella,” Miller’s animation, is the story of a girl living in a town where everyone wears masks, and creativity and individuality are banned. In an act of social deviance, Arabella removes her mask and learns how to paint.

In Poshkus’s animation, “Synesthesia,” viewers will learn about synesthetes, people who experience a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sense.

The digital media communication major at Lycoming College provides students with the tools to build the skills needed to produce digital films and videos, 2D animation, photography, and graphic and web design. Digital media communication students build a portfolio of short films while classes in photography and commercial design help to develop their talents.

Amanda Barrett, a Lycoming College senior with a major in history and education certification, won “Best Paper” at the Pennsylvania West Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Undergraduate History Forum on April 11.

Pennsylvania West Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Undergraduate History Forum was held at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Westminster College's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society, hosted over 60 student-presenters from Pennsylvania and West Virginia colleges and universities. There were three panel sessions at the conference, each session covering topics such as “Local History,” “Post War Europe,” “Woman’s History” and “Presidential Action.”

Barrett’s paper, “Cosmological Transformation in the Delaware Tribe,” advised by Christopher Pearl, assistant professor of history at Lycoming College, was judged on the “Indigenous Americans” panel at the conference.

Following the panel sessions, Jason Wilson, historian for the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, gave a keynote address, "Perspectives on Public History and Historic Preservation.” An awards ceremony followed Wilson’s presentation.

Lycoming College senior Kathryn Bathgate has been selected as one of 140 U.S. Fulbright Scholars in Germany for the prestigious opportunity to serve as an ambassador for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program in Germany.

“I’m honored to have been chosen to serve as a Fulbright Scholar and look forward to immersing myself in the German culture,” Bathgate said. “I’m excited to shatter their stereotypes of America and educate them on our culture.”

Bathgate will be one of only 140 students selected from across the United States this year to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Her inspiration to apply to the program came from Len Cagle, associate professor of German, and the language assistants at Lycoming College.

“I can still remember discussing the program with Dr. Cagle on a trip to Berlin as a first-year student,” Bathgate said. “Then I went on to spend my junior year in Germany and when I came back, I knew I wanted to apply.”

Bathgate is from Hanover, Pennsylvania and is majoring in German, with minors in English literature and business. She will be teaching English in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany this summer through the summer of 2016.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the United States. Bathgate will represent the country as a cultural ambassador while she is overseas, helping to enhance mutual understanding between Americans and the people in Germany. Bathgate will meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences and interacting with them hosts on a one-to-one basis.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide. Fulbright U.S. Student alumni populate a range of professions and include ambassadors, members of Congress, judges, heads of corporations, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors, and teachers.

Ryan Adams, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at Lycoming College, published “An Emerging Alliance of Ranchers and Farmers in the Brazilian Amazon,” a research article in “Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America.”

Adams’s article, “An Emerging Alliance of Ranchers and Farmers in the Brazilian Amazon,” is based on a long-term ethnographic study of large-scale landowners in Santarém, Brazil, this article examines how grain farmers from Southern Brazil recently arrived in the Amazon and formed an alliance with the local ranching elite. As a consequence of their alliance, immigrant farmers have taken on some local expectations regarding social obligations for landowning elites and the local ranching elites have become less risk averse.

“Tipití” is the only refereed journal entirely dedicated to lowland South America and is increasingly recognized as an important journal for Latin American anthropology scholarship.

Adams joined the sociology/anthropology department at Lycoming College in 2010. His primary areas of research interest are centered on people and their relationship to food, farming and the environment. Adams received his doctorate from Indiana University and has conducted research in the American Midwest and Brazil.

Sarah L. Silkey, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Lycoming College, published the book “Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism.”

Based on extensive archival research conducted in the United States and Britain, “Black Woman Reformer” explores Wells’s 1893–94 antilynching campaigns within the broader contexts of nineteenth-century transatlantic reform networks and debates about the role of extralegal violence in American society.

During the early 1890s, a series of shocking lynchings brought unprecedented international attention to American mob violence. This interest created an opportunity for Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist and civil rights activist from Memphis, to travel to England to cultivate British moral indignation against American lynching. Wells adapted race and gender roles established by African American abolitionists in Britain to legitimate her activism as a “black lady reformer”—a role American society denied her—and assert her right to defend her race from abroad. Through her speaking engagements, newspaper interviews, and the efforts of her British allies, Wells altered the framework of public debates on lynching in both Britain and the United States.

The book was published by University of Georgia Press and is available for purchase on Amazon.

Silkey received her doctorate from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and served as a fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. Outside of her book, she is the author of several scholarly essays. Her research examines nineteenth-century transatlantic debates about American lynching and race relations.

Six Lycoming College students presented their economics research at the Global Landscapes Conference, held at Kings College on April 16.

The following students presented their research: Patrick Schmitt, third-year exchange student from Germany; Jesse Treur, freshman with a major in business; Devon Dietrich, senior with a major in mathematics and actuarial mathematics; Matthew DaVolio senior with a major in mathematics and actuarial mathematics; William Dietz, a senior with majors in economics and corporate communications; and Hoang Nguyen, a junior with majors in economics and psychology.

“The caliber of the student projects at this conference is superb,” said Elizabeth Moorhouse, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Lycoming College. “I was very pleased that these students were selected to be included in this intellectual exchange of ideas.”

Schmitt and Treur presented research that investigated what helps determine difference in poverty rates across the countries, discovering that the structure of the economy and birth rates were the most important determinants of poverty.

Dietrich and DaVolio focused their research on the relationship between the percentage of a state’s population that has achieved a certain level of education and the unemployment rate of the state. Using data from 2013, they found an increase in the percentage of the population that has a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree results in a decrease in the state unemployment rate.

Deitz examined whether the increased use of smart phones and other mobile devices improved the ability of people, particularly those living in developing countries, to access the internet. Many scholars have found that economic progress depends in part on a country’s ability to assimilate into the global communications network. This assimilation increasingly requires the capacity to access the internet. His research improves the understanding of the benefits, both economic and social, of increased internet connections on a global level.

Nguyen investigated the variation in housing prices around the world.  He found that the most important influence on housing prices are the population density of the country, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and real interest rates.

The theme of the Global Landscapes Conference was Interdisciplinary Research and focused on The World in 3D: Democracy, Demography and Demand. Topics discussed ranged from Veterans Health and Life Care to Social, Economic and Technological Issues.

“The students had the opportunity to participate in various research sessions, and listen to some excellent presenters speak on the issue of humanitarian aid and its influence on the poor in developing countries,” said Moorhouse. “It was a wonderful academic experience, both for myself and the students.”

The Lycoming College Department of Education hosted Cary Kurtz, a representative with the Pennsylvania State Education Association, to present on the effect social media can have on education professionals.

In his presentation, Kurtz highlighted the positive and negative ways that social media can impact education professionals in their career.

"Students in the various certification programs participate in field experience in the K-12 classroom setting for every education course they take," said Rachel Hickoff-Cresko, Ed.D., assistant professor of education at Lycoming College. "The faculty in the education department feel it is crucial for these beginning professionals to understand the impact their social media use can have on their intended career."

Kurtz received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bethany College, a master's degree in labor and industrial relations from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a juris doctor from Widener University School of Law He has represented educators, both at the K-12 and university levels, for more than 30 years.

Lycoming College recognized campus leaders at their 9th Annual Leadership and Service Awards Banquet on April 15.

The Seuren Leadership Speaker Series presenter was Clark Gaughan, a 1977 graduate of Lycoming College and past president of the Alumni Association Executive Board. Andrea Seuren, a 1976 Lycoming graduate, established the speaker series in 2007 in memory of her parents. The series’ purpose is to build a culture of leadership at the college that espouses service, ethics and critical thinking.

Individuals are nominated for the awards by students and then selected by a committee. Awards are given in three categories: intramural sports, fraternity and sorority life, student programs and leadership development, and community service.

The intramural sports award winners included: Woody Rittmiller, intramural male athlete of the year, and Alicia Derr, intramural female athlete of the year.

The fraternity and sorority life award winners included: Paul Ferrante, Interfraternity council spirit award; Jeremy Chobot, Interfraternity Council scholar award; Heather Bentley, Panhellenic Council spirit award; Amanda Kellagher, Panhellenic Council service award; Rita Sausmikat, Panhellenic Council scholar award; Zachary Kibler, Interfraternity Council man of the year; Rebecca Reed, Panhellenic Council woman of the year; Elizabeth Greenaway, fraternity/sorority advisor of the year; and Phi Kappa Psi, chapter of the year.

The student programs and leadership development award winners included: Elizabeth Greenaway, student organization advisor of the year; Campus Activities Board (CAB) for Esther Bauer, the Holocaust Speaker, outstanding program of the year; Multicultural Awareness Group (MAG), student organization of the year; and Victoria Goodwin, outstanding student leader of the year.

The community service award winners included: Alpha Sigma Tau, social change facilitator award; Lambda Chi Alpha for their Feeding America Food Drive, outstanding community service program; Lambda Chi Alpha for their Perfectly Pink Party, outstanding community service fundraising event; Sustainability Committee, outstanding community service organization; and Richard Matel-Galatis, volunteer of the year award.

30 Lycoming College business and accounting students attended a PM Exchange April 16.

The networking event, held at Morgan Stanley, allowed for students to meet with members of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce in a casual, informal atmosphere.

Anne Landon, assistant director and internship coordinator for Lycoming College said, “Networking is not just about who you know but who knows you. Students sometime underestimate the how useful their network of contacts can be and how they can use this network to increase the chances of landing a job.”

Students were prepared for the PM Exchange by Greg Bell, senior major gift officer at Lycoming College, who was a guest speaker for one of the business practicums weekly professional development seminars. Prior to the event, Bell delivered professional networking tips and led a speed networking activity for the students.

“I was well prepared for the PM Exchange,” said Kelley Hile, a junior Marketing and Corporate Communications double major. “I designed my own business cards and was able to exchange cards with several local business owners. I am now much more confident with my networking ability in a professional setting. I was able to interact with a lot of people I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise, including the chamber president, Mr. Vincent Matteo.”

“Not only does the event help transition our students into the professional world, the event also introduces the business community to the high quality of our students,” added Dr. Bonita Kolb, professor of business administration at Lycoming College.

Sarah Silkey, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Lycoming College, received the fourth annual Berthold Research and Information Competencies Award from the college during a presentation on Thursday, April 23 in the College Archives.

The award is given annually to a faculty member who has exhibited a commitment to research and information competencies in assignments, collaboration, curriculum, mapping, professional development and scholarship.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Howard Berthold, retired professor of psychology as well as the first and long-serving chair of the Faculty Library Advisory Committee. Berthold was a strong supporter of Snowden Library’s instruction program.

Silkey’s research explores the role of violence in American society and the narratives used by nineteenth-century Americans to deflect outside criticism and defend mob violence as honorable acts of community justice. Her first book, Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism, reveals how Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist and civil rights activist, exploited contradictions between British and American understandings of mob violence during her 1893-1894 transatlantic anti-lynching campaign. Her successful critique of American lynching as racist oppression continues to shape our understanding of mob violence today. She has also published essays on responses to Wells's campaign in Great Britain and the American South and the evolution of British interpretations of lynching.

Taylor Kendra of Sellersville, Pennsylvania was presented with Lycoming College's Chieftain Award during Honors Convocation on April 19. First presented in 1952, the award is the highest honor given to a graduating senior and recognizes the student who has shown the utmost dedication and leadership qualities while at Lycoming, and whose academic rank is above the median of the preceding senior class.

“Being awarded Chieftain has been unbelievable, and it is difficult to put into words just how awestruck I have been by the recognition,” said Kendra. “Generally, I have tried to help Lycoming in many little ways and in doing so I have had the pleasure of interacting with many incredible student leaders, dedicated professors, and campus activists. They have been an inspiration and a constant force of enthusiastic progress here, and I am so lucky to have known them.”

Kendra is an archaeology and creative writing major with a certification in elementary and special education. She is the vice president of the Phi Kappa Phi Academic Honor Society, the secretary of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society and a member of the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society. She has earned dean's list mention in each of her seven semesters at the college.

Her participation in extracurricular activities also earner her induction into the IRUSKA Honor Society, given to nine students annually for significant contributions to campus life. Kendra’s involvement has also earned her Panhellenic Women’s History Month Recognition and a Lycoming “Brick of the Week.” For her writing talents, she received a creative writing scholarship for all four years at the college and was a two-time recipient of the Tributary Fiction Prize.

Kendra has served as president of the Creative Arts Society; poetry editor of the Tributary, the Lycoming College student literary magazine; and secretary of Revolution Against Rape. She is also involved with theatre, the Black Student Union, Fencing Club, The Lycourier, and served as the Lycoming mascot for the 2014-2015 school year. She also serves as a student liaison, a tutor for archaeology and education, and has completed work study in both archaeology and religion.

In addition to her involvement in student organizations, she has also volunteered with the SPCA Puppy Kissing Booth Fundraiser, Race Across America, Lyco Hunger Games, Unity Day, Peace Walk, Odyssey of the Mind Judge, Neurofibromatosis Endurance Team, Take Back the Night and the Uptown Music Collective.

Upon graduation, Kendra plans to serve as crew chief for the Neurofibromatosis Team's Race Across America riders. After that, she plans to go to Cyprus to help Pamela Gaber, Ph.D., professor of archaeology and religion and director of the Cyprus archaeological field school at Lycoming College, with her research and publication in hopes of conducting her own research for a novel. She eventually hopes to pursue a master’s degree and to be involved in Cypriot archaeology.

Rita Sausmikat, a Lycoming College senior with a major in history, won “Best Paper” at the Pennsylvania West Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Undergraduate History Forum on April 18.

Pennsylvania East Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Undergraduate History Forum was held at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Ursinus College’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society, hosted over 60 student-presenters from various colleges and universities.

Sausmikat’s paper, “Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History: Eleanor of Aquitaine’s Political Career and Its Significance to Noblewomen,” advised by Cullen Chandler, department chair and associate professor of history at Lycoming College, was judged in the Gendered Lives in Medieval and Early Modern Europe section of the conference.

Other students who attended and presented at the conference include Ben Toth, a senior history major; Shannon Sheridan a senior history, Spanish and political science major; John Sibel a senior history major with an education certification; Kasandra Hadzima a senior history and archeology major.

Four Lycoming College students recently participated in Student Lobby Day at the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg on April 21.

Students attending included: Whitney Rosenberger, a junior with a major in communications and marketing from Millville; Rebecca Sellers, a senior with a major in political science from Wrightsville; Olivia Coleman, a senior with a major in political science from Pottstown; and Samantha Vroman, a sophomore with a major in political science from Ralston.

Student Lobby Day is an annual event sponsored by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP). Student Lobby Day is a day set aside each year for the students from various private colleges and universities to lobby for legislative support for private institutions of higher education.  This year's advocacy day primarily focused on the proposed expansion of the sales tax to higher education services such as meal plans, technology fees, activity fees and other fees. In addition, lobbying focused on increase funding for the PHEAA grant programs and the growth of the Ready to Succeed Scholarship program that aids more middle income students with the financial help it provides.

Aside from the Lobby Day activities, students also got to interact with alumni Gene Yaw ‘70 and Dave Argall ’80, both of whom are Pennsylvania State Senators.

“Our interaction with Dave Argle was our most rewarding interaction of the day,” said Sellers. “Dave entertained us with stories from his time at Lyco and even showed us a flier from his race for class president. He had kept it all of those years and has it on display in his office at the Capital. Dave listened to our points and we had a great discussion about it.”