Jim Durham

News Bureau Director

Victoria Engelhardt, second from right, a sophomore Communications & Media Studies major/Religion and Church Music double minor from Paducah, was chosen 2010 Belle of the Blue Saturday and Overall Scholarship Winner at GC’s 61st scholarship pageant Saturday night in Hill Chapel.

Victoria, who represented her Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, is the first AGD to claim the Belle of the Blue title since it started on this campus in December ’99.

Victoria, who said she first gained confidence singing before an audience in last year’s Lyric Theatre Society production of “Hansel and Gretel,” performed “Climb Every Mountain” from “Sound of Music” as her talent.

The 2010 Belle bested 14 other contestants in a pageant that is more about scholarship, leadership, campus involvement, communication and presence.  Victoria Engelhardt is also President of the United Nations of Georgetown, the College’s Chorale historian, Lyric Theatre Society secretary, and News Editor of The Georgetonian. And, according to the pageant co-emcee Madison Osborne, “Victoria really nailed the interview.”

First-runner-up is junior Kaitlin Johnson, left, a Biology major and Chemistry/Spanish double minor from Owenton, and a member of the Tiger Cheerleading squad and Kappa Delta sorority.

Then, second runner-up is Emily Holt, a junior Exercise Science major/Spanish minor from Lebanon; she’s a member of Sigma Kappa sorority and on the Georgetown Activities Council Traditions committee.

Miss Congeniality is Emily Lyon, right, an Elementary Education major/Spanish minor from Taylor Mill.

Lyon, Holt and Engelhardt are all Christian Leadership Scholars.

Engelhardt, who’s also the College’s Chorale historian and Lyric Theatre Society secretary, made her operatic debut last year as the Dew Fairy in LTS’s production of “Hansel and Gretel.”

Conner, a senior from Shelbyville, IN, is currently student teaching at Royal Spring Middle School in Scott County, then she will do the second half of her student teaching at Scott County High School later this semester.

Lindsay Conner, right, the 2009 Belle of the Blue, helps Engelhardt on with the winner’s sash after the crowning.

By Molly Shoulta ‘13
GC News Bureau Intern

Poet Katy Lederer will do a reading Feb. 23 in Hall of Fame Room

Katy Lederer liked poker before poker was cool. But her current occupation as a poet would seem to have no ties to her past in the gambling industry. To her, the game is more than chips and a deck of cards; it is a family skill and haven for financial support when trying to launch her early writing career, which was “not the usual poet fare” she jokes. It also serves as an inspiration for her writings and early development as a writer.

On Tuesday (Feb. 23), she will be sharing events of her life and highlights of her work with the Georgetown College campus community and poetry-lovers in the next-to-last of the Foust Artist Series at 8 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Room in the College’s Cralle Student Center. Ticket prices for this event have been dropped to a “Recession-buster” $5; plus, come early for the complimentary coffee and dessert which will be served prior to the reading. (The March 6 Sixties concert by The Epics of Louisville will wind up the Foust Series, which has brought world-class talent to campus for 27 years.

Lederer will weave together poetry and a bit of biography. She said she doesn’t target any particular audience and doesn’t intend to alter her style to reach students in particular, but focuses her content on what is relevant to contemporary readers.

With an English professor as a father and an actress as a mother, it is no surprise that Lederer’s literary flow comes so naturally. Her siblings’ calling, however, is a bit vaguer of a story found in the heart of Las Vegas. Lederer’s sister, Annie Duke, was a student at Columbia before ascending to the place of a poker champion. Similarly, her brother, Howard Lederer, experienced bitter losing streaks but climbed all the way to the top as a world-class poker player. She describes her “that girl who put her siblings through college playing poker” reputation as hilarious, and even focuses her 2003 memoir – Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers – around the game and the paths it presented in her young life. Even as her life as a writer has taken off, she always makes time for a card game, though now it’s more of a leisure activity than a financial reliance.

The 2002 release of her first poetry collection entitled Winter Sex took the poetry world by storm. Her poetry debut drew attention from fellow Poets D. A. Powell, who described the work as “leaps of faith,” and Poet Gillian Conoley, who described the “great generosity of humor at play along the edges of the poem, never fully taking over, but balanced precariously among the many qualities the poems manage to allow.”

Her memoir followed in 2003, which tells the story of her gambling family and the move to Vegas after college at Berkeley. There she was trained in the field of professional poker, which was certainly an odd stepping stone in her career. Still, she knew her passion as a poet, which continues to draw her to the art form. Lederer wrote in an e-mail, “[Poetry] is the purest form of linguistic expression – the art for in which it really matters what word you use, where you put the period, how the syntax flows.”

Still, her life as a writer is just as much of gamble. “Everything we do in life can be seen as a gamble,” Lederer said. “There is always a risk – or lack of risk – and reward, calculation, some underlying way to analyze a situation that might, on some level, resemble a gamble.”

Her newest publication, The Heaven-Sent Leaf took form on the 40th floor of a hedge fund company in Manhattan and focuses on the themes of love, money, and what Publishers Weekly described in their review of her material as “a cog in a capitalist machine.” The book contains 45 poems encircling the connections of money and love. The name is from Goethe’s Faust where the “heaven-sent leaf” is printed paper money, which eventually leads to ruin. But the idea of love is strongly connected, but may or may not produce the same consequences.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Emma Bolden, who knows Lederer’s work and has struck up an “electronic friendship” (e-mail exchanges) with her, gives three tips for enhancing a patron’s enjoyment for such a poetry event:

1. Familiarize Yourself With The Writers’ Work And Aesthetic

   You wouldn’t go to a concert before listening to the band’s music, and the same should be true of a poetry reading! Just as music falls into different genres or types, so does poetry. Some poets craft straight-forward stories while others travel to the edges of language and its capabilities. Some poets center song-like pieces around a specific emotion while others explore intellectual concepts and philosophical ideas. Learning about a poet’s aesthetic will give you an idea of the themes and ideas the poet investigates, the type of language they use, and the way their poems are constructed. A familiarity with these things will allow you to better follow and appreciate the poet’s work. Examples of Katy Lederer’s work can be found on the Boston Review’s website at http://bostonreview.net/BR31.3/ledererinevitable.php and at http://bostonreview.net/BR31.3/lederertriumvirate.php. Katy Lederer is also a poetry editor for FENCE, a popular and important poetry journal, poems from which can be found at http://www.fenceportal.org/.

2. Remember That Poetry Is Both A Written And Perfomative Art

   We currently encounter poetry mostly on the page, as something we read for ourselves. However, historically, poetry has been a performative art far longer than it has been a written art! Poetry has its roots in music: in fact, a good many of the poems you’re familiar with, from Sappho’s lyrics to Beowulf, were originally performed. Contemporary poetry holds on to this tradition, as poets still pay as much attention to the sound of the words as they do to the way they appear on a page. A poetry reading is a rare opportunity to celebrate this performative aspect of poetry, so keep your ears open for sequences of sound and rhythm, and the music behind the meaning!

3. Be Open To Poetry As An Experience

   When we do encounter poetry on the page these days, it’s usually within the confines of the classroom. We’re often trained to dissect a poem, and tend to approach poetry more as a test than as entertainment. It is indeed true that every poem contains layers of meaning, but it is also true that a poem is something meant to be enjoyed. When reading or listening to a poem, you have the rare opportunity to see the world exactly the way someone else sees it. Open your mind, and allow yourself to enjoy the experience of experiencing the world exactly as another person does!

Jim Durham, News Bureau Director

Co-VP’s for GC Traditions junior Abby Watkins, left, and Madison Osborne will emcee their 2nd Belle of the Blue pageant Feb. 20.

If you see Georgetown native Madison Osborne in action as co-emcee of the Belle of the Blue Scholarship Pageant, it’s easy to picture her down the road planning weddings or even living her lifelong dream as a dolphin trainer. Casting her partner, junior Abby Watkins of Mount Washington, as a magazine maven in New York is more of a stretch, but only for now.

When 15 Belle candidates compete Saturday (Feb. 20) on the John L. Hill Chapel stage, the two co-Vice Presidents of Traditions will share the spotlight one last time. They coordinated last year’s BOTB – the College’s popular scholarship pageant since 1950 – as well as Songfest 2009.

“We’ve made a name for the new Georgetown Activities Council,” said senior Madison, who co-coordinated last year’s pageant as well as Songfest 2009. “My role has opened my eyes to the bigger picture – and I think we’ve made these events a more enjoyable experience for a wider variety of students, and all groups.”

Madison advises patrons to be seated before the opening number – all 15 young women dancing to Sam Sparrow’s jazzy “Black & Gold,” choreographed by J.C. Campbell. “If you like watching amazing students with high GPAs – who are involved on campus – showing another side of themselves, you will love this pageant,” she said. Tickets are $2 at the door and the public is welcome.

“I really like event-planning. Now, I’m aware of things that others aren’t,” said Madison, daughter of Bobbi and Georgetown College men’s basketball coach Happy Osborne.

At Scott County High, Madison was Junior Class vice president and captain of the ’06 Softball team, her senior year. At Georgetown College she’s become an even bigger leader, holding the Panhellenic presidency last year in addition to her GAC role and being a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. A Communications and Psychology double major, she’s also a member of the Psychology Bowl team.

Matter of fact, Psychology professor Rebecca Singer has encouraged her to follow her passion for dolphins. “She said I can do this!” exclaimed Madison, who was part of the Psychology Special Topics group that took an Animal Behavior Research class on the island of Roatan, Honduras in May.

“Madison was fantastic – one of the best and brightest there,” said Dr. Singer, who has been a dolphin trainer. “She has the skill and determination to make it in the dolphin-training world.”

Madison loved the hands-on work they did with the dolphins at the Roatan Institute for Marine Science (RIMS). “I think this class is arguably the best experience someone who is interested in working with marine life could have before actually taking a job,” she said. “We were up at 7a.m. doing fish preparation some days and observed training and research sessions throughout the day. I learned so much about conditioning and training animals that I never would have otherwise.”

Abby can also see mile-a-minute Madison doing anything she wants to. “We’re both ‘only children,’ so we complement each other,” said the more laid-back Sigma sister. “She is so peppy, she keeps me motivated. But, sometimes I have to say ‘Madison, you just need to calm down’.”

Madison said, “Abby is more ‘go with the flow’ …which is good because while managing events, you quickly learn you can not plan for everything that happens. Abby is quick on her feet and a good improviser.”

Abby Watkins had a wonderful high school background at Bullitt East. She was involved in Student Government and Student Council, cheerleading and Track & Field. And, her experience being chosen 2007 Homecoming Queen her senior year – then going home to crown the ’08 queen – has helped prepare for Belle of the Blue, especially “the little touches” and anticipating the things that could go wrong.

Of course she always has Madison, the partner who loves lists. “I’ll say ‘I can probably remember’ and she’ll say ‘Abby, I’ll really feel better if we write it down’.”

As Sigma Kappa’s national president, Laura Owsley is in a unique position to observe Madison. “She could’ve been jaded growing up in here – the coach’s daughter – but Madison exudes energy, love and enthusiasm for Georgetown College,” said Owsley, a ’92 Georgetown graduate and the College’s Young Alumni director. “It’s evident in everything she does.”

Owsley was excited when she learned that Abby Watkins pledged Sigma Kappa this year as a junior. “Abby always seems to be smiling, always calm and in control,” she said.

Right now, Abby is undecided about running for a GAC office again; but after helping run three major campus events she plans to help wherever she can. She’s also on the Sigma’s PR Committee and wants to contribute as much as she can there, too.

Abby, a Graphic Design major/Psychology minor, is looking for a summer internship – preferably as a page designer with a magazine. Her dream job would be design editor of Vanity Fair or Vogue. Fortunately, the daughter of Steve and Glenda Watkins has another year to build a resume that could eventually take her there.

Perhaps the BOTB emcees should start a magazine devoted to dolphins. Said Owsley, “Madison and Abby work well together. They’re a great duo.”

Belle of the Blue Participants

Breanna Davis Knight Hall Majors: Chemistry & Spanish Minor: Creative Writing Parents: Teresa Dennis & Breon Davis Toledo, OH	Quenesha Duncan Anderson Hall Majors: Business Minor: Psychology Parent: Bennetta Duncan Louisville, KY	Victoria Engelhardt Alpha Gamma Delta Major: Communication & Media Studies Minors: Religion & Church Music Parents: Kurt & Tina Engelhardt Paducah, KY
Arielle Evans Phi Mu Major: Athletic Training Minors: Spanish & Musical Theatre Parents: Monte & Carmen Evans Louisville, KY	Emily Faulkner Collier Hall Major: Communication & Media Studies Minors: Business & Theatre Parents: Phil & Dottie Faulkner Hopkinsville, KY	Sara Grega Sigma Kappa Major: Chemistry Minors: Biology & Spanish Parents: Charles & Debra Grega Corbin, KY
Emily Holt Kappa Alpha Major: Exercise Science Minor: Spanish Parents: Mike & Angela Holt Lebanon, KY	Sarah Houze East Campus Major: Communication & Media Studies Minor: Liberal Arts Parents: Rick & Beth Houze Louisville, KY	Caroline Hutson Lambda Chi Alpha Major: Elementary Education Parents: Chris & Ginny Hutson Paducah, KY
Kaitlin Johnson Kappa Delta Major: Biology Minors: Chemistry & Spanish Parents: Larry & Christy Johnson Owenton, KY	Brittany Lin President’s House Association Major: Elementary Education Minor: Psychology Parents: Steve & Sharon Lin Louisville, KY	Emily Lyon Flowers Hall Major: Elementary Education Minor: Spanish Parents: Mark & Gina Lyon Taylor Mill, KY
Alyssa Mullins Pi Kappa Alpha Major: Accounting Minor: Psychology Parents: Terry & Bobbie Mullins Henderson, KY	Ashley Oldfield Allen Hall Major: Biology Parents: Geraldine & Ricky Oldfield Mount Sterling, KY	Hillary Thornton Phi Kappa Tau Major: Communication & Media Studies Parents: Paige & Gregg Thornton Lexington, KY

Jim Durham

News Bureau Director

Tori Murden McClure, the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic and to ski overland to the South Pole, will deliver the annual Collier Lecture at Georgetown College at 11 a.m., Tuesday (Feb. 16) in John L. Hill Chapel. The public is invited to this free event and hear McClure, who wrote A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean about her courageous 1998 adventure and survival of numerous violent storms.

McClure, now the Vice President for External Relations, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs at Spalding University, has her hands into nearly every facet of the Louisville institution. She reports directly to the President of the University and serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet.

She oversees Admissions, Financial Aid, the Registrar, Marketing and Public Relations, Information Technology, Intercollegiate Athletics, and serves as Corporate General Counsel. Tori works in concert with the Dean of Student Development and Campus Life to supervise: Student Organizations, Residence Life, Campus Safety, the Counseling Center, Dining, and Disability Services.

She has an AB from Smith College, where she currently serves on the board of trustees; a Master’s in Divinity from Harvard University,; a JD from the University of Louisville School of Law, and an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. She has worked as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital and for Muhammad Ali at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. She lives in Louisville with her husband.

Back when she became the first woman and first American to travel over land to the geographic South Pole, she skied 750 miles from the ice shelf to the pole. An avid mountaineer, Tori has climbed on several continents and she was the first woman to climb Lewis Nunatuck summit in Antarctica. She is a fully certified Emergency Medical Technician in both urban and wilderness areas. She is also a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School semester courses in Alaska and Kenya.

Tori is the recipient of multiple international honors. Thor Heyerdahl presented her with the Peter Byrd Trophy; Tori was the first woman to be honored with this award. In Paris she was recognized along with Lance Armstrong by L’Academies des Sport for significant sporting achievement. At the Moscow International Festival of Mountaineering and Adventure Films, the French documentary “Beyond Limits – Tori Murden,” took the prize for the “Best Foreign Adventure Film,” and Dr. Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich awarded Tori with a Russian chalice for extraordinary achievements.

Read a Washington Post review of her 2009 book, A Pearl in the Storm (Harper Colins).

The Collier Lecture is named in honor of Mr. James Collier a retired attorney of Elizabethtown, KY. Mr. Collier is a longtime supporter and former trustee of Georgetown College. There is also a Collier Scholarship that is awarded to a student. This year’s recipient is Josh Calihan, a freshman from Stanford, KY.

Nancy Sleeth

“The earth doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to God. We should pass it along to future generations in as good or better shape than we received it.”

Jim Durham
News Bureau Director

Those are the words of Nancy Sleeth (author of the book Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money and God’s Green Earth). And, if that charge – that faith and our environment must be intertwined – doesn’t move you, perhaps her two appearances at Georgetown College on Tuesday (Feb. 9) will.

Both worship opportunities in John L. Hill Chapel are free and open to the public. Sleeth will speak at the College’s 11 a.m. service, and give a practical workshop for going green from a faith perspective during Common Ground at 7 p.m.

Bryan Langlands, the College’s Interim Campus Minister, said, “Part of what it means to live, learn and believe at Georgetown College is that we engage questions about how to live out our faith in concrete ways. We are excited that Nancy Sleeth will be helping us to think through the relationship between faith, sustainability and creation care. My hope is that we will be challenged to commit to specific steps to lessen our carbon footprint both as a campus community and individually.”

Langlands encourages everyone to visit www.blessedearth.org for more about the mission of Blessed Earth, an organization Nancy co-founded with her husband Matthew Sleeth (author of Serve God, Save the Planet) and devoted to environmental sustainability and activism from a faith perspective. They now live that life in Wilmore, KY.

Will Samson, an assistant professor with Georgetown’s Sociology department, calls the Sleeths “dear friends” and “the real deal.”

“A lot of people talk about making the better place, but the Sleeths are taking the steps necessary to be involved in healing the earth as a Christian,” said Samson, who – with his wife – lives a similar lifestyle. “They’ve made tremendous sacrifices to leave the American Dream and live God’s dream.

“Nancy is brilliant at articulating why we should care for the earth and why it’s an inherently Christian thing to do,” Samson said.

To further see what’s in store if you attend one of Tuesday’s events on campus, here are more thoughts from Nancy Sleeth:

“Becoming a follower of Jesus changed everything in my life – the books I read, the people I hung out with, and most of all the way I learned to show my love for God and my neighbors by caring for His creation.”

“We had always thought of ourselves as good environmentalists, but when we took an honest accounting and measured how much energy we used and how much trash we produced, we found out we were exactly average for America, which was pretty bad in world terms. We knew we had to make some drastic changes. Eventually, we moved to a house the size of our old garage and cut our energy use back by more than two-thirds, and our trash production by nine-tenths.”

“Six times in Genesis 1 God says his creation ‘is good.’ We’re supposed to love what God loves. That’s reason enough for me to become a better steward of God’s creation.”

“The first job assignment God gives to humanity is to tend and protect the earth. That’s still our first job – to be good steward of the land, air, and water that God created for us to use, but not abuse.”

“How do I love my neighbor? At a bare minimum, I should ensure that everyone has access to clean water, clean air, and healthy land to grow healthy food. If nearly a billion people around the globe don’t have access to clean water, then I’m not doing a good enough job of loving my neighbors.”

Blessed Earth is hosting a worldwide simulcast on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day – Wednesday, April 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. – the largest gathering ever of the Church to celebrate God’s creations, according to Nancy Sleeth. Students can sign up for the streaming simulcast at www.blessedearth.org. They can also get a free monthly newsletter, tons of resources, and “one of the coolest trailers they have ever seen on the home page!”

Blessed Earth is an educational non-profit that inspires and equips faith communities to become better stewards of the earth. Through outreach to churches, campuses and media we build bridges that promote environmental change and spiritual growth.