Sodexo has announced revised hours for all dining locations on campus for Thanksgiving break.
Miley Hall cafeteria
Jazzman/Sandella’s
Global Cafe
Miley Mart/Starbucks
Photo: Jessi McNeill ’18 (right) with fellow organizing committee member Victoria Saint
One could say that Berlin is a second home to sociology and anthropology major Jessi McNeill ’18. Thanks to study abroad and internship experiences, the Connecticut native has spent more time in the German capital this year than she has on U.S. soil.
During the spring 2017 semester, McNeill studied in Berlin through the Council on International Educational Exchange’s open campus program. “I was hesitant because I knew nothing about the culture or language, but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she said. “I’m grateful that I ended up picking Berlin out of every place I considered.”
The 18-week program offered a course sequence focusing on global and community health, allowing McNeill to indulge her growing interest in medical anthropology by taking classes on community and public health, comparative health care systems and food, nutrition and culture.
“I love looking at how culture and health impact each other,” she said. “Often culture is not considered when looking at health or medical practices, especially in the U.S. because we’re really science-centered. Our scientific way of looking at health care is a cultural standpoint in and of itself.”
McNeill had just returned from her semester abroad when she was invited to intern with the Berlin-based Young Leaders for Health, helping to organize the nonprofit’s summer conference. Less than three weeks after returning to the U.S., she once again boarded a plane for Germany.
Founded in 2015, Young Leaders for Health generates solutions to global health issues by providing a platform for innovative projects addressing diverse subject matters. Its most recent conference focused on interdisciplinary approaches to global health challenges, politics and diplomacy by combining workshops and lectures with a World Health Assembly simulation and a design thinking lab.
“Jessi was given an amazing opportunity to apply her organizing skills and her research and writing capabilities developed as a sociology and anthropology major,” said sociology professor Dr. Laura O’Toole, who supervised McNeill’s internship. “Having an opportunity and making the most of it are two different things, though, and Jessi became indispensable to the Young Leaders for Health staff.”
Throughout the two-month internship, McNeill played a leadership role in planning and implementing the conference. She facilitated teleconferences with subcommittees, planned travel for speakers, published blog posts, transcribed interviews and co-facilitated a session at the conference, which attracted about 130 participants from nations as diverse as Iraq, New Zealand and the Sudan.
“The purpose of the conference was to get young health professionals to network, connect and problem-solve for global issues, so it was really cool to have participants from all over the world,” McNeill said. “It was truly an international conference.”
McNeill noted that her studies in sociology and anthropology were an asset in creating and executing the conference. “The ability to interact with people is incredibly important. A lot of people don’t understand how much our culture and society shape who we are and shape the world around us,” she said. “Having that background really helped me to understand the conference participants and organizing committee. I’m grateful that I was able to go into this experience from the perspective that I have. My major lent a special lens for the entire internship.”
A yearlong children’s book drive coordinated by nursing students in Sigma Theta Tau international honor society is supporting the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and its efforts to help strengthen the bond between incarcerated parents and their children through books.
The students presented several boxes of children’s books this week to Rehabilitative Services representatives TeLisa Richardson, parenting coordinator, and Ken Findlay, interdepartmental project manager for the Department of Corrections in Cranston. Both Richardson and Findlay met with the students in Salve’s nursing lab.
Through its Books Beyond program, the Department of Corrections and its volunteers provide age-appropriate children’s books for the inmates to read to their children during approved visits, or for the incarcerated parents to be recorded while reading. The books and the recordings are then mailed to the children to keep.
“Maintaining positive and healthy familial bonds between children and their incarcerated parents is crucial to the children’s emotional well-being because it can reduce the negative effects children experience as a result of the parent’s absence,” Richardson said. “Preservation of this bond can also have positive effects on the rehabilitation of incarcerated parents.”
The Salve students collaborated on the project with 2017 nursing graduate Hayley Morais, who launched her charitable organization Give A Book, Make A Difference in 2009, when she was crowned Miss Massachusetts Junior National Teenager. The organization collects gently used books to donate to others in need.
“I am truly proud of the Sigma Theta Tau members for all their work in collecting donations through the past year and happy to see their work come to fruition today,” said Julie L’Europa, assistant professor in the Department of Nursing.
Center Nico Aronson ’18 was recently named offensive lineman of the year by the Commonwealth Coast Conference, while running back James Dawson ’18 earned the Hal Chalmers Award, which recognizes the league’s top senior scholar-athlete. In addition, 14 players were named to the all-conference team.
This is Aronson’s second straight season winning the offensive lineman of the year award. He started seven games at center for the Seahawks this season, anchoring the line for an offense that averaged 33.1 points per game.
Dawson played in six games, rushing for 660 yards and six touchdowns. Despite missing the final three games of the season, he finished the season ranked second in yardage and third in touchdowns in the conference. Dawson is also a member of the Army ROTC program.
Joining Aronson and Dawson on the all-conference first team are guard Joe McDonald ’18, wideout Brendan Nunes ’20, defensive end Brandon O’Neill ’19, cornerback Haiden Pereira ’19, defensive end John Salute ’19 and tight end Tommy Seaver ’18.
Guard Ian Bomely ’18, linebacker Tyler D’Errico ’19, running back Jake Gelb ’18, kicker David Gelormini ’18, tackle Michael Saunders ’20 and wideout Connor Sullivan ’18 earned spots on the second team.
“It is always such an honor to make an all-conference team,” said head coach Kevin Gilmartin. “To have nine different offensive players, four different defensive players and one special teams player shows the quality of players that Salve football is bringing to the conference and is something that makes us proud.”
A $96,000 grant from the Southeastern New England Educational and Charitable Foundation to Salve Regina’s Noreen Stonor Drexel Program Cultural and Historic Preservation will fund student projects at two historic mill sites in Rhode Island, expand the program’s 3D digital documentation capabilities, launch an annual public lecture series and help establish six new paid internships for students over the next two years.
Foundation president Sharon Grills Jackson is the daughter of the late Richard A. Grills, former owner and operator of the textile mill Bradford Dyeing Association, who had a lifelong interest in historic preservation and environmental conservation. Through his foresight, and an inherited love of both avocations, Sharon Grills Jackson is continuing his work for the next generation of students and educators to preserve both historic and natural resources.
“My father had a keen interest and excitement in finding ways to restore the past glory of our rich, Rhode Island history,” Jackson said. “I have found that same energy and excitement in our new partners at Salve Regina University.”
Her husband, Stephen Leal Jackson, who received his Ph.D. in humanities from Salve Regina in 2015, is a lifelong student of history. It was he who introduced the foundation to the idea of partnering with Salve’s cultural and historic preservation program. “The perfect fit of the mission of the foundation and the goals of Salve’s cultural and historic preservation program was uncanny. This was a concord of two like-minded groups who were both excited about reaching the same goal,” said Jackson, a director of the foundation who also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Johnson & Wales University.
The grant will fund the following initiatives:
Annaquatucket and Daniel Drive Mill Sites Project
Over a two-year period beginning in the spring 2018 semester, students will complete National Register of Historic Places nominations for two 19th century textile mill sites – the Annaquatucket and Daniel Drive mills – in North Kingstown. The mills, built during the first half of the 1800s and in now ruins, have never been documented by historians, preservationists or archaeologists.
“In addition to their historical significance, these sites can serve as real world laboratories for teaching Salve Regina students critical skillsets associated with preservation careers,” said Dr. Jon Marcoux, assistant professor and coordinator of the CHP program.
Working under the supervision of architectural historian Dr. Jeroen van den Hurk, assistant professor at Salve, students will conduct historical research to provide a context to understand the sites, as well as to identify specific information about the mills, their owners and the people who worked there; they will fully document the sites through measured architectural drawings, photographs and total station maps; and they will synthesize this information into a formal nomination.
Ultimately, the completed National Register of Historic Places nomination – which will be curated by the Library of Congress – plus two to three undergraduate theses and a scholarly article will all be made available on the foundation’s website and serve as the focal point for the foundation’s emphasis on historic preservation in its target area.
3D Documentation
Funding will help the University expand its capabilities in 3D digital documentation of artifacts, architectural elements and entire structures through the purchase of two computer workstations designed for 3D capture and editing, two 3D printers and a small aerial drone equipped with a high-resolution digital camera.
In order to document entire buildings, students will be trained in the use of “photogrammetry” technique, where software is used to create accurate digital 3D models from photographs.
Annual CHP Lecture Series
The CHP program will establish the Grills Lecture Series in Historic Preservation, a public lecture series that will complement the University’s annual conference in cultural and historic preservation. Prominent academics and professionals in the preservation field will be invited to campus to speak on relevant topics in the field.
Six New Paid Internships for Students
Six new paid internship programs for CHP students, both during the school year and during the summer, will be established in partnership with preservation organizations in Rhode Island and New London County, Connecticut.
“We are very excited about this grant,” Marcoux said. “Our partnership with the Southeastern New England Educational and Charitable Foundation will significantly expand our ability to provide students with hands-on preservation experience, cutting-edge skill sets, and access to our field’s most influential scholars and practitioners.”
SRU Dance, Salve Regina’s student-run dance organization, will present its fall performance, “Vibes,” Friday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 18 in the Rodgers Recreation Center. Performances will be held at 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.
The fall performance will include 23 dances in styles such as hip hop, jazz, tap, contemporary, tap and Irish step. This semester, the club boasts more than 170 performers, making SRU Dance the largest student-run organization on campus.
Admission to Friday’s performance is at least a $1 donation to the Andrea Rizzo Foundation, while admission to Saturday’s performance is $5.
Supporting the Andrea Rizzo Foundation is a longstanding tradition that SRU Dance is happy and honored to uphold. A Salve Regina graduate, Rizzo was tragically killed by a drunk driver at age 24. The foundation established in her name fosters Rizzo’s dream of helping children with cancer and special needs through the power of dance.
Eight senior history majors were inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, during a ceremony held Nov. 13 in the Young Building.
This year’s inductees were:
Kate Viens ’84, director of research at the Massachusetts Historical Society, was the featured speaker. A scholar of the early republic and material culture, she majored in English and history at Salve Regina. Viens holds an M.A. in history from Northeastern University, where she concentrated in public history, and is currently writing a history dissertation in the Boston University American and New England studies program.
Founded in 1921 at the University of Arkansas, Phi Alpha Theta has more than 400,000 members and 970 chapters nationwide. Dr. John Quinn started the Alpha-Kappa-Omega chapter on Salve Regina’s campus in 2003. Since that time, 104 history majors have been inducted. To be eligible, students must be seniors in good standing, with a minimum 3.1 GPA in history courses, and be in the top third of their class.
By Sara Birse ’20
Students are invited to discover new information about their family history during a “Hack Your Family Tree” event hosted by the Cultural and Historic Preservation Society (CHiPS) and the McKillop Library.
The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15. During this time, students are invited to come explore their own family history. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from CHiPS students as they talk about their own research they have conducted on their family trees.
Students who interested in attending should register online.
Attendees will be using the library’s new ancestry software, ancestrylibrary.com, to learn new, interesting information on their family history. Kristin Butler, special programs librarian, notes that the database “researches censures, vital records and other types of information to help researchers learn more about their genealogy.”
This tool is beneficial to not only those who attend “Hack Your Family Tree,” but also to CHiPS as it looks to spread the mission of preservation to the Salve Regina community. By helping members of the Salve community learn about their own past, the society can uphold its mission of preservation.
By attending this event, Butler hopes that students “can learn something about where their ancestors lived or came from. Maybe someone can even find the black sheep their family never told them about.”
In addition to discovering new information on one’s own family history, attendees can look forward to prizes, refreshments and extra credit opportunities. For more information, email kristin.butler@salve.edu.
The Social Work Club has partnered with the Department of Social Work to organize Salve Regina’s annual campus coat drive.
Students, faculty and staff are invited to donate gently worn winter coats in all sizes. Especially needed this year are coats for children of all ages, including adolescents. Hats, gloves and scarves will also be accepted.
Donations should be dropped off in Mona Dube’s office in the O’Hare Academic Building, Room 101 by Monday, Nov. 20.
Donations will benefit St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Newport. St. Paul’s will distribute the donations during its annual Buy Nothing Day (the Friday after Thanksgiving) to members of the Aquidneck Island community who are in need of winter gear.
Many Salve Regina staff members demonstrate their commitment to others by volunteering in their communities. To recognize their efforts, the Office of Human Resources will once again hand out staff community service awards.
Salve Regina’s staff community service awards honor up to three staff members each year. Donations in the amount of $300 are given to the charities of their choice.
Employees may self-nominate, or may be nominated by a co-worker. Nominations should be emailed to Cindy Donnelly by Dec. 3. Include the nominee’s name along with a description of the community service performed by the nominee (organization name, type of volunteer work performed, average number of hours served, length of time the volunteering has taken place).
Award recipients will be announced at the staff Christmas and holiday luncheon.
Previous award recipients still employed at Salve Regina include:
