Georgetown College

The appointment of Brian Evans as Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at Georgetown College, effective July 1, has been announced by President William H. Crouch, Jr. Evans becomes the first African American Vice President for the historically Baptist institution that will celebrate in 2012 its 225^th anniversary of providing Christian education. He will serve on the College’s Executive Cabinet.

Brian Evans, VP for Diversity & Inclusion

“During the six years that Brian and I have worked together, I have been so impressed with his work ethic, integrity and passion for students,” said Crouch. “This is another important milestone in the College’s diversity journey.”

Evans has been Georgetown’s Executive Director for Diversity since 2005 and will continue to lead the College’s diversity initiatives. He has guided Georgetown College through the most significant growth in diversity in its history. His efforts have helped the College retain over 85% of its minority students which now represent nearly ten percent of the undergraduate population. In addition, he has been instrumental in the College’s hiring of a minority architect and contractor to design a planned Bishop College Center on campus that will house classrooms and offices.

Prior to joining Georgetown College, Brian served in a number of roles that impacted youth, perhaps most notably as a high school football coach at Louisville’s Pleasure Ridge Park (his alma mater) for 10 seasons from 1994-2004. He is at his best while working with young people to help them change their lives and dream beyond their current boundaries. He has also donated his time as a weekly reader in local kindergarten classrooms and served as a volunteer for the Street Ball competition in Louisville. He has been named Volunteer of the Year for Jefferson County Public Schools.

The Louisville, Kentucky native attended the University of Kentucky on a full football scholarship from 1989-94 playing wide receiver. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a Masters of Art in Teaching with an emphasis in mathematics. Prior to joining the Georgetown College staff in ’05, he was with Metro United Way in Louisville for eight years. In 2008, he completed his Certification as a Diversity Trainer from Cornell University.

Brian is most proud of his role as a devoted father and husband. He is married to the former Robbie Young and they have three children.

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For additional information:

Jim Durham, News Bureau Director, 502-863-8174
Jim Allison, Associate VP College Relations, 502-863-7922

If you have already received your Winter-Spring Insights magazine, you know that GC may really be onto something with a twist on Spanish immersion. Inside Higher Education gave great coverage to Inmersion en Espanol today in an article with the headline “Socrates in Spanish.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/24/liberal_arts_college_in_kentucky_experiments_with_spanish_language_immersion_program

Below  is an updated and expanded version of this story that appeared in the current issue of Insights magazine.

Beginning this fall semester, Georgetown College will introduce to the curriculum a unique program that will allow students with a passion for the Spanish language to take general education courses IN Spanish.

“Everybody says ‘Oh my gosh…of course! Why hasn’t someone done this before?!” said Provost Rosemary Allen of Inmersión En Español Georgetown College (IEGC). That ‘Inmersion’ was modeled after the Honors Program helped win almost immediate faculty approval.

“The faculty could see the value as (IEGC) satisfies our quest for academic excellence and diversity,” Dr. Allen said. “This gives us a high level program that increases our geographic, ethnic and international diversity.”

Ann McCamy ’85, who was hired last fall as Executive Director of New Business, is gratified that “her baby” is creating a buzz wherever she goes. “Others are seeing that not only will our

Spanish professor Adela Borrallo-Solis is the director of the new IEGC Program.

students be far more marketable, but also this program will help make Georgetown College a truly global campus,” she said.

McCamy is especially excited by a letter of recognition of this “ground-breaking program” from Emily Spinelli, Executive Director of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). Spinelli, who hopes other institutions will develop similar programs, wrote: “These required general education courses will also help students improve critical thinking skills, cross-cultural sensitivity and problem-solving ability. As a result, students will be in a better position to participate in the increasingly multicultural society and globalized economy at home and abroad.”

How big is the IEGC program and the forthcoming recognition? For starters, Dr. Allen and Dr. Adela Borrallo-Solis, were invited to present at the Conference on Teaching World Languages, March 31 – April 2, in Little Rock – an event that brings great credibility and will certainly open many other doors.

Earlier last fall, McCamy, President Bill Crouch and professors Borrallo-Solis, the native speaker of Spanish who wrote the IEGC proposal, and Yolanda Carter, a heritage speaker of Spanish and our newly-appointed Dean of Education, attended the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) convention in Boston. Their presence gave the fledgling program great exposure at this World Languages Expo attended by more than 7,000 foreign language teachers and administrators from all over the world.

Among the people they met there was Tom Sauer, a World Language Specialist with Jefferson County Public Schools. McCamy has visited him in Louisville since and really values him as a contact. Turns out Sauer knows the College – both as a former adjunct German teacher at Georgetown (2002-5) and for some graduate work he did here leading to teacher certification.

Another wonderful ACTFL connection was Claudia Botoulas, a

Ann McCamy has her right arm around Teresa Arteaga, who plans to attend to be in Georgetown’s Inmersion en Espanol program this fall. At far right, is heritage-speaking teacher Claudia Botoulas.

teacher of Heritage Spanish at Cleveland’s Saint Martin de Porres High School, who then escorted eight students on a Georgetown College visit in late March.

The Spanish-born Dr. Borrallo-Solis had our Cleveland guests in her classroom and began to truly envision what’s ahead. “The very exciting interactions I saw between our current students and our guests made me realize how enriching it would be for the Georgetown College community to welcome and embrace the cultural and linguistic heritage that they would bring to our campus,” the associate professor of Spanish said.

One of Saint Martin’s top candidates, senior Teresa Arteaga, applied to Georgetown a few days later.

McCamy is planning on a dozen students in IEGC for the first year and growing the program each year thereafter. Nearby, she said that Alicia Vinson, World Languages Immersion Program Coordinator for Fayette County Public Schools, and Lexington Christian Academy (where McCamy was CFO for 13 years) are key. She’s also hoping to attract students for 2011-12 from some of these schools that have immersion programs she’s visited or has talked to – Saint Xavier and Louisville Male Traditional high schools in Louisville, Pulaski County Schools in Somerset, The Soulsville Charter High School in Memphis, Central High School of Macon, GA, Mercy High School in Omaha, Delaware Valley Regional High School of Frenchtown, NJ, and Latin Academy of Boston.

What McCamy is telling interested prospective students and their teachers: IEGC features a variety of core general education content courses taught in Spanish, opportunities for study abroad, extensive co-curricular activities focusing on global issues, and a supportive small-college environment that builds positive intercultural relationships.  IEGC is designed to serve equally well those native speakers of English who are strengthening their skills in Spanish and native speakers of Spanish who are strengthening their skills in English.  For example, students could choose to take a course in Psychology or Mathematics with a Spanish speaking professor and texts.

A student may receive IEGC recognition by fulfilling the following requirements:

1. The student must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours in IEGC Foundations and Core courses  (Foundations 111, Math, Philosophy, summer abroad,  etc).
2. In addition the student will also need to complete a Capstone Project previously approved by the committee.
3. A 3.3 GPA is required for eligibility to begin the project and at graduation for receiving the IEGC distinction on the transcript.

Dr. Rosemary Allen, the College’s Provost, knows that Inmersion en Espanol is critical for the futures of Georgetown College students. “We are doing our children a disservice if we don’t give them a second language at an academic level,” she said.

Here’s an update and longer version of the story that appeared in the just-published Insights magazine.

Film-maker Ed Smith won such raves from movie-lovers and at film festivals with “Surviving Guthrie” three years ago that he’s about to put a wrap on another. “Undeserved” is the title of a 40- to 50-minute faith-based project that’s been shot on campus this spring.

Although the school in the film is a fictitious, small, liberal arts

Professor and film-maker Ed Smith talked film location back in the winter with Meredith Cave, who stars as Tia, and his son Ethan, who plays one of her friends.

institution, Georgetown College is the perfect welcoming and loving place for Smith’s project. “I feel this film certainly fits in with our academic and spiritual mission,” he said. “It will help further show Who We Are.”

The filming is done and now Smith needs another $15,000-$20,000 for post-production – sound design, color correction, promotional materials and printing of the DVD.

“If a donor stepped up, they’d become the Second Associate Producer,” he laughed; but he wasn’t joking. “What we have already looks amazing…and soon we’ll have edited scene samples on the website for all to see.”

If you would like to help financially, the beauty is that you can give to “Georgetown College” and specify that the money goes toward the film project. That’s win-win because “Underserved” gets the quality it deserves, and Chief Development Officer Roy Lowdenback can count your restricted gift as a contribution toward the College. Contact him at (502) 863-8044 or roy_lowdenback@georgetowncollege.edu.

Or, if you’d like to be involved in other in-kind ways, contact Dr. Smith at (502) 863-8042 or Ed_Smith@georgetowncollege.edu.

“There’s a real demand for relevant, faith-based movies,” said Smith, chair of Georgetown College’s Theatre & Performance Studies department. “This needs to be accessible, something the whole family can enjoy.”

You might call “Undeserved” somewhat of a family project as the script was primarily written by Ed’s wife, Betsy Brannock Smith ‘ 86, and their oldest son, Ethan, is in the cast.

“The film deals a lot with accepting forgiveness – so we can move on after being saved and have a joyful life,” Ed Smith said. “We hope the film will resonate with people who trying to figure out Who Am I?”

Here are the cast members and their classification Fall 2011:

Tia      -           Meredith Cave, junior from Nicholasville

Ben     -          Ethan Smith, senior from Cynthiana

Joe      -        Joe Gatton (professional, Lexington)

Greyson    -   Jon Yelton, senior from Louisville

Amy       -       Amanda Williamson, junior from Simpsonville

Jenna      -      Payhton Ellis, sophomore from Fisherville

Mooner    -     Shawn McPeek, senior from Shelbiana

Crush      -      Matt Eddy, senior from Georgetown

Abby       -    Abigail Cownie, sophomore from West Paducah

Commencement 2011 will be memorable for the 244 Georgetown College seniors who walked on Saturday (May 14) if for no other reason than they received those precious diplomas in Davis-Reid Alumni Gym instead of on rain-soaked Giddings Lawn.

Perhaps they will remember that theirs was the first class to graduate from a Georgetown College that’s free of

denominational constraints – yet, a liberal arts institution still very

proud of its Christian heritage and welcoming present.

Surely the seniors perked up and were proud when the Commencement speaker, Lieutenant General Benjamin C. Freakley, called President Crouch “a national treasure” as a leader. An officer who served in both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and now head of U.S. Army

Accessions Command (AAC), the general knows a thing or two about leadership.

Maybe the presence of the 20 alumni from the 50^th Anniversary Class or the reassuring remarks of class representatives Judith Wilson Williams ’61 and her husband, Dr. Wallace Williams ‘62, had an impact.

But no one in attendance will soon forget the humorous exchange between President Crouch and Stu Perry, who began his Senior Address before being introduced.

Then, who in the audience can say they didn’t choke up a bit as this lovable “class clown” fought back his own tears? Visible were a lot of heads nodding when Stu quoted his father to point out why these 244 were on this day about to walk out into the world:

“It’s not a coincidence we are all here together – it’s a God-stinence.”

You didn’t have to be there for Stu Perry’s meaningful closing line – but you would’ve laughed harder, and probably remembered it longer:

“Remember, Love always wins…and Satan is a big, stupid doo-doo head!”