Georgetown College

Strengthening a tradition of teaching students as the No. 1 priority, Georgetown College will dedicate The Branch Banking and Trust Business and Ethics Collection at noon Tuesday, Dec. 4 in the lobby of its Ensor Learning Resource Center.

“This big, big seed will help grow our collections and provide a level of excellence in information resources for our students,” said head librarian Mary Margaret Lowe, lauding the biggest gift since the LRC was built in 1998. “We hope the students think of the library – the heart of the academic campus – as their top priority, too.”

The College and the BB&T Charitable Foundation – which committed $150,000 ($30,000 annually for five years) to the project in 2005 – can celebrate 671 volumes thus far. The quality, as well as the quantity, of items in the collection will also help Georgetown in its pursuit of Phi Beta Kappa standards.

Provost Rosemary Allen, while intensely interested in the pieces that factor into PBK, is especially appreciative of quality. “I’m particularly grateful for the way this gift allows us to develop depth in a particular area,” said Allen, a former Georgetown department chair (English). “We have many, many needs for expanded library resources, and we sometimes sacrifice depth for breadth. But this gift allows us to develop depth in a particularly important area of inquiry.”

Business ethics as an area and the College’s mission of developing ethical scholars fits particularly well with BB&T’s core values, according to Harvey Coggin, Senior Vice President for the Central Kentucky region and one of BB&T’s representatives who will attend the event. “I’m very much aware of what President Crouch and the College are trying to do in maintaining Christian values within an academic environment,” said Coggin, who has worked closely with the College in various banking roles since the early ‘90s.

Lowe, the librarian, proudly pointed out that department chairmen Dr. Tom Cooper (Business) and Dr. Norman Wirzba (Philosophy) were instrumental in choosing the volumes and materials. “And,” she exclaimed, “they will actually be teaching the volumes they helped choose!”

Cooper, humbled by the generosity of this very targeted gift, said, “We’ve been able to buy about anything we wanted to. And, when a really good opportunity comes along, we can seize the moment and purchase something we otherwise couldn’t have.”

Cooper indicated that building a collection over the years is usually a sporadic process. “But, with this gift, we’ve been able to identify what every small college ought to have (in these areas) and we’ll be able to buy every classic we ought to have. This gives us a lot of books of enduring value.”

Wirzba is excited for the faculty as well as the students. “This gift has also allowed us to purchase other instructional media such as DVDs that are really useful in supplementing what we do,” he said. “This collection – which will continue to develop over the next couple of years – will help (professors) prepare for classes in ways we might not otherwise do.”

The BB&T collection provides a valuable tool to enhance undergraduate education for the entire student body. With conviction, Lowe added, “We feel like we are more student-focused than most institutions.”

By Jim Durham
News Bureau Director

In William Shakespeare’s comedies, often the secret lives of his characters aren’t always what they seem.

“Definitely…Shakespeare could’ve written (ABC’s) Desperate Housewives with characters who aren’t what they appear on the surface,” said Jeremy Larson, who portrays Feste in the National Players’ touring production of Twelfth Night in Georgetown College’s John L. Hill Chapel on Nov. 26. Curtain time for this Foust Artist Series performance is 8 p.m.

“You learn in this show, if you’re looking for love, you may have to put on a mask to get it,” said Larson, who was Pompey in Louisville’s Kentucky Shakespeare in the Park production of Measure for Measure this summer.

Director Clay Hopper wrote in the Players’ study guide: “In our production of Twelfth Night, the designers and I were struck by the fact that all of the characters endow others with what they want them to be. It’s as if they are so blinded by their desires that they (consciously or not) use all of their considerable ingenuity and energy to turn other people into what they are not. This allows them to fool themselves into thinking that what they are seeing in others is real.”

“They use whatever is around them to make the things that they need,” Hopper continued. “If they need a golden chalice, they use a plastic bottle. If they need money, they use buttons. If they need a candle, they use a flashlight stuck on plate. A piece of tightly wrapped fabric becomes a corset. An apron becomes a tailcoat…”

This popular comedy about twins Sebastian and Viola, who are separated by a shipwreck, is full of mistaken identities, misdirected passions, unrequited love, fools, reveling, and madness. But this version is set in Regency England (1811-1820). “As with any (of our productions) we aim to make the show as accessible as possible,” said Diana Fooksman, the company’s general manager. “With Shakespeare, his text lends itself to be presented in a variety of styles and time periods, and we try to choose one that helps to illustrate the themes in the story.”

“Our Twelfth Night is one of the funniest shows I have ever done,” said Larson, an ’07 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. “The fact that we are using golf clubs and canes for swords adds just another comic element to go only with the appearance of things.”

Many a common household item has been used to enhance the costumes – but in clever, cost-effective ways. Look closely at Olivia’s dress and the tails on the coats of Viola, Sebastian and Orsino – and just try to stifle a chuckle.

The National Players production of Twelfth Night is Monday, Nov. 26 in John L. Hill Chapel, right off Giddings Circle at Georgetown College. Curtain time is 8 p.m., with a running time of 2:25 including the 15-minute intermission. Tickets for this Foust Artist Series event, are $10 adults; $8 seniors; $5 students (other than Georgetown students). Call (502) 863-8041 for reservations.

Maryland-based National Players – America’s longest-running classical touring company, dating to 1949 – is made up of young professionals from the best college drama programs in the country. Since 1992, it has been the company in residence for the department of theatre at the University of Maryland, College Park. The National Players have received accolades from such luminaries as Walter Kerr, drama critic emeritus of The New York Times; Patrick Hayes, founder and managing director of the Washington Performing Arts Society; and the late Helen Hayes, first lady of the American theatre.

The Georgetown College campus is alive with arts activities – both performing and visual – from Nov. 15 through Dec. 9. And, even after the students go home for the holidays, visitors are welcome to take in our spectacular contemporary art collection in the Jacobs Gallery (Ensor Learning Resource Center) from noon-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday through Dec. 21 and opening up again January 2. And, we urge you to stroll the campus to see the new Live.Learn.Believe. outdoor sculpture exhibit, which will change every year to 18 months.

All of the College’s musical groups are rehearsing like busy elves so that they may put you in the right holiday mood with these upcoming events in the John L. Hill Chapel. All are FREE – with the exception of the symphonic band’s concert, which only requires a non-perishable food item that goes to a Scott County charity.

Thursday, Nov. 15 – Concert Choir & Brass Ensemble Fall Concert, “In the Fullness of Time: The Night That Changed History,” 8 p.m.

Retracing the events leading up to Christ’s birth, the 60-voice choir will sing traditional carols culminating in the soaring “Gloria” by John Rutter. Accompaniment by the brass choir, and Daniel B. Tilford on the newly installed Johannus organ and Mami Hayashida on the piano. Guest conductor Carl Peters says, “This concert has wonderful variety – from the rhythmic vibrancy of the traditional Spanish carol, ‘Riu, Riu, Chiu,’ to the elegance of the Biebl ‘Ave Maria’, and the joyful exuberance of the three movement Gloria. This is a Christmas cornucopia!” Regular conductor John Campbell, who is on sabbatical this semester (but will play timpani in the orchestra) says, “With the returning members and senior leadership, the choir won’t miss a beat.”

Monday, Nov. 19 – Tiger Symphonic Band, Fall Anniversary Concert, 8 p.m.

Admission to this holiday tradition is one canned or processed food item, which goes to the Amen House of Scott County. Featured artists are senior soloist Sierra Gooch of West Chester, OH – a double-major in German and Commerce, Language & Culture – on Stephen Bulla’s Rhapsody for Flute; and Professor Emeritus Daniel B. Tilford on the new Osborne-Tilford Organ for Canticle: All Creatures of our God and King. “Trust me, it shall be an evening of delightful music that you will not want to miss,” says conductor Pete LaRue., who invites patrons to stay afterward for a reception.

Tuesday, Nov. 27 – Hanging of the Green, 7 p.m.

“This all-campus worship experience is a wonderful way for students, faculty, staff, townspeople and alumni to reflect on the reason for the season as a community,” says Student Government’s Randa Stovall, a senior from Scottsville. Includes special music entertainment, a senior speaker, and faculty and staff reading scripture. Stay around for the lighting of Giddings Circle.

Thursday, Nov. 29 – Chapel Brass Concert, 8 p.m.

Seven student instrumentalists will perform a variety of compositions from the Baroque period and hymn-tune based pieces of recent origin. Concert leader H.M. Lewis says a highlight is their contemporary arrangement of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” by William Hines, one of the most outstanding composers of modern music for brass.

Friday, Nov. 30 – Students of Voice Recital, 6:30 p.m.

A wide variety of music featuring pieces from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, Contemporary, Musical Theatre and even Contemporary Christian genres in a mix of both Christmas and non-holiday songs. The voice students will be joined by other GC musicians who are planning to join the Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS) Program on an intensive music program in Salzburg, Austria this summer. Instructor Heather Hunicutt says, “Donations will be accepted to help the students’ make their dreams of studying in Austria come true.” Refreshments after the concert.

Sunday, Dec. 2 – Messiah Sing with the Concert Choir, 3 p.m.

An audience favorite because the whole community is invited to sing the choruses with the Georgetown College choir. This year’s sing-along will include the entire Christmas portion (part I), according to guest conductor Carl Peters. Copies of sheet music will be available – for loan, not sale. The College’s Mami Hayashida will accompany on harpsichord.

On Stage…Hear All About It!

Professor/director Ed Smith is bringing back an updated version of Merry Freakin’ Christmas for the weekend of Dec. 7-9 in the Lab Theatre. This humorous expose of Christmas’s dark underbelly is set in a TV news station. Smith and his Performance of Literature class put together this original work last year; this time all of his Theatre & Performance Studies classes are contributing. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults and may be purchased at the campus bookstore 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday or 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday. For reservations call (502) 863-8134 or toll free at (866) 464-0050.

That same weekend (Dec. 7-9), theatre patrons can take in a second production on campus that also uses the media (radio) as a vehicle – It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted from the Frank Capra film (that starred Jimmy Stewart). Georgetown Community Theatre will perform this beloved American holiday classic on the Hill Chapel stage at 8 p.m. the first two nights and 3 p.m. on that Sunday. They ask the “radio audience” to be seated 15 minutes before the show.

The College’s choral director John Campbell is the director and Georgetown junior Ashley Parsons, a Music Education major from Scott County, plays Sally Applewhite who plays Mary Hatch (Donna Reed in the movie). Wade Yeates, who works at Luv Homes in Georgetown, is the male lead who plays George Bailey, who considers ending his life one fateful, but ultimately wonderful Christmas Eve. Tickets are $10, or $7 for under-12. and can be purchased at The Country Peddler Gift Shoppe (next to Farmers Bank) or on line at www.upbeatcafe.com.

Sorry, the final weekend (Nov. 16-18) of the College’s production of the musical She Love Me is SOLD OUT in the tiny Ruth Pearce Wilson Lab Theatre. (Well, it’s GOOD that our Maskrafters are so popular.)

Shakespeare on ‘The Hill’

Shakespeare-lovers, tickets are available for the next offering in the Foust Artist Series – the comedy Twelfth Night by the touring, Maryland-based National Players. Their version – with the mistaken identities and misdirected passions that beset twins Sebastian and Viola, who are separated by shipwreck – is set in the period of Regency England (1811-1820). Curtain time is 8 p.m., Monday, Nov. 26, in John L. Hill Chapel. The play lasts a little over two hours, plus a 15-minute intermission. Tickets are $10 adults, $8 seniors, $5, students (other than GC students); reservations (502) 863-8041.

The Stories These Four Seniors Can Tell …

Four GC art seniors are telling their stories with Anecdotes, the new art show opening on November 29 in the Anne Wright Wilson Gallery. Come that evening to the reception from 5-7 p.m. to hear them in person and view their work. Otherwise, regular hours are noon-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1:30-4 p.m. on the two Sundays, including the final day of the exhibit (Dec. 9).

The show consists of work by one art historian and three studio artists, in media such as painting, photography, film and installation. All four – Jason Colliver of Nicholasville, Lucy Chesnut of London, Ashley Gabbard of Richmond, and Laura Lynn Medley of Lexington – will be graduating in December after the completion of their final exhibition at Georgetown College. Gabbard, who is also the current editor of The Georgetonian, is the first GC student to graduate with a degree in Art History.

If you wish to view this show at another time, call gallery directory Karen Gillenwater at 502-863-8399.

The $132,000 Georgetown College was awarded recently for providing a summer institute for approximately 30 middle and high school science teachers looms larger than any dollar amount.

This Improving Educator Quality Grant – the first awarded by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education to a private school in the six years of the program’s existence – will help fund this institute at Georgetown in the summer of 2008. Teachers will be selected from the following school district partners: Anderson, Casey, Fayette, and Franklin County Schools.

Kentucky Department of Education policy advisor Chris Powell predicts that this institute will at least impact students statewide and help them on every portion of the ACT test. “Adolescent literacy is a nationwide issue and I think it’s going to be a model for all content areas,” Powell said.

The Content Collaboration for Academic Readiness in Science (CCARS) institute will enable science teachers and special education teachers who work in science classrooms to address important changes in Kentucky’s state education assessment system. CCARS will help science teachers prepare their students for the EXPLORE, the PLAN, and the ACT, three national tests which have been added to our state-administered tests.

Georgetown’s post-secondary partners for the CCARS institute are the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development and Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC). “By working with Bluegrass and the Kentucky Community & Technical College system, we are tapping into a great statewide network,” said Dr. Kim Walters-Parker ’83, Assistant Professor of Education and principal investigator for the grant.

Other Georgetown faculty who collaborated to secure the grant are Dr. Todd Hamilton, Chemistry, and Dr. Janet Parker and Debbie Schumacher, Education.

This grant was one of eight made by the council through a competitive grant process. These grants were available to all public and private colleges and universities in the state.

Georgetown College is Kentucky’s top producer of Fulbright Awards for U.S. students in 2007-08, according to the Institute of International Education’s listing of “Top Producers” in the October 26, 2007, edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Georgetown is the only Kentucky college or university among the more than 100 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching institutions listed, including research, master’s, bachelor’s and other classifications. Georgetown received three Fulbright Awards out of four applicants and is one of only 43 bachelor’s degree schools listed among those with the highest number of students who received Fulbright grants this year.

“We see Georgetown moving up. Three is a pretty impressive number of grantees for a small school,” said Jody Dudderar, assistant director for U.S. student programs at the Institute of International Education.

Georgetown College joins such esteemed bachelor’s institutions as University of Richmond (Virginia), Oberlin College (Ohio), Kenyon College (Ohio), Washington and Lee University (Virginia) and Wheaton College (Massachusetts), among others.

Georgetown’s 2007 recipients of the prestigious teaching-abroad Fulbright Awards (the 15th, 16th and 17th since 1990) are Jordan Yeager ’07, Somerset, Ky. (teaching English in Spain); Sarah Sebastian ’07, Lancaster, Ky. (Hong Kong); and Brittany Pappas ’07, Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Germany). “The success of these three is testimony to the ambition, determination and quality of our student body,” said Rosemary Allen, provost and academic dean. “I’m particularly pleased at how diverse these three students are in their interests,” she added.
The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. Established in 1946, it aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.