|
Virtual
Book Groups
Seek
Real Readers
Penn alumni and family members
are invited to join The Kelly Writers House Virtual Book Groups
for 2001. All you need is an e-mail account and a willingness
to engage in free and perhaps free-wheeling discussion of an interesting
book with a member of Penn’s faculty. For more information, see
(www.english.upenn.edu/ ~wh/bookgroups/); to join a group, send
a message to <whbook @english.upenn.edu>, supplying your
full name, home address, the e-mail address you will use during
the discussion, and, if a Penn alumnus, your year(s) and degree(s).
Selections include:
Group
6: Jan. 15-Feb. 15. Bob Judd, adjunct professor and executive
director of the American Musicological Society, and Cristle Collins
Judd, associate professor of music theory and director of graduate
studies in the music department, will lead a discussion of Edward
Rothstein’s Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics.
Group
7: Mar. 1-April 1. Dr. Joe Farrell, professor of classical studies
and associate dean for graduate studies in the College, will lead
a discussion of the writings of Ovid.
Group
8: April 15-May 15. Dr. Bob Giegengack, professor of earth and
environmental science, will lead a discussion of Farley Mowat’s
Never Cry Wolf.
Group
9: Sept. 15-Oct. 15. Several poets affiliated with the Writers
House will lead a discussion of contemporary poetry.
Group
10: Nov. 1-Dec. 1. Dr. Al Filreis, professor of English and faculty
director of the Writers House, will lead a discussion of two stories:
Stephen Crane’s “Experiment in Misery” and Nadine Gordimer’s “Which
New Era Would That Be?”
|
|
Previous issue's Profiles
| Nov/Dec Contents | Gazette
home
 CLASS
OF ’96
Paper
Tickets? How PassČ
Imagine
being able to go to the
movies,
a concert or a football game—even to the concessions stand—without waiting
in long lines. Marc Steren L’96 and his business partner, Jordan Klear,
already have. They’ve launched ZebraPass, a Washington, D.C.-based “wireless
ticketing and mobile commerce system” with exactly this convenience
in mind. Continued...
CLASS
OF ’97
A
Japanese-American Legend Set to Song
In
1841, a 14-year-old Japanese
boy named Nakahama Manjiro was shipwrecked while on a fishing trip and
rescued by an American whaler who brought him back to Massachusetts.
Continued...
CLASS
OF ’97
Still
Crazy—About Education—After All These Years
Dr.
DeidrČ Farmbry GrEd’97 began
her school career fortysome years ago with a fit of protest. Or so her
mother tells her. The then-kindergartner was so resistant on her first
morning at Lingelbach Elementary School that the principal had to “come
outside, grab me by the hand and drag me in, kicking and screaming,”
she recalls. “The joke is, I loved it, and here I am, after all these
years, still with Philadelphia schools.” Continued...
CLASS
OF ’91
KIPP-KIPP
Hurray
When
George W. Bush was
looking
for a success story from his state’s charter-school system to showcase
at the Republican National Convention that nominated him as the GOP
candidate for president, he naturally turned to the KIPP Academy. In
July, Michael Feinberg C’91 [“Hello, Mr. KIPP,” December 1996], co-founder
of the Houston school, found himself on the stage of the convention,
talking about the Knowledge Is Power Program before introducing Laura
Bush to the crowd. Continued...
CLASS
OF ’70
Odes
to “Perpetual Childishness”
Jon
Gailmor C’70 stands on a
makeshift stage in the small gym of a rural elementary school in northern
Vermont. This is familiar territory for the singer-songwriter, and both
he and his songs are well known and loved. The audience for this early
evening concert is typical, ranging from pre-schoolers to their grandparents.
Continued...
 CLASS
OF ’82
When
Disease Masks
As Devotion
Four
years ago, a 32-year-old Orthodox
Jewish woman came into the Brooklyn clinic where Dr. Steven Brodsky
C’82 worked as a psychotherapist. Since the age of 13, she told him,
she suffered from “intrusive cursing thoughts against God. It was very
disturbing,” Brodsky says, “because it was not what she believed.” Each
time it happened, when rabbis boarded the neighborhood bus she rode,
for example, she would engage in a ritual of blessing God or cursing
the devil to cancel out the unwanted thoughts. Continued...
CLASS
OF ’83
The
Color of Mummy
Four
years ago, a donkey
carrying
a guard across Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis, 230 miles southwest of Cairo,
stumbled over a hole. It turned out to be the edge of a tomb; peeking
out was the gold-covered face of a mummy. Continued...
Previous issue's
Profiles | Nov/Dec Contents | Gazette
home
Copyright 2000 The
Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 11/1/00
|
|
Heard
at the Convention
“
… When I first decided to run for Congress four years ago,
in 1996, I, like most candidates—and I’ve met so many over the
past few days—was hoping and was excited about all the invitations
I might receive to speak at various events. I was so excited that
I was waiting by the phone for invitations. But as you young candidates
and new candidates surely find, that isn’t always the case.
But
there was one forum, and one place, where I was often welcome,
where I was welcomed with great smiles, where I was able to gain
my footing as a candidate and develop my momentum as a candidate.
And that was at kindergarten graduations.
I
spoke at more kindergarten graduations than anyone in my district
ever knew existed. As I spoke at those graduations, I was struck
by the pride in the eyes of those five-year-olds, in the eyes
of their families. In many ways it was magical. I couldn’t help
but think about the horrors that you hear about when kids grow
up and join gangs and bring guns to school. But when they’re five
and six, they’re still ours. For those children and their families,
we must continue working for a better life and a better world.
As we turn our attention to the choice at hand, let us remember
those children, kindergartners in Memphis and all across this
nation, and remember in the end what this election is really all
about—them … ”
—U.S.
Representative Harold Ford Jr. C’92 of Tennessee, giving the keynote
address on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
|
|
