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Aug. 31, 2006

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Study Abroad: SBU assists students from more than 400 institutions

In November 2005, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution designating 2006 as the “Year of Study Abroad.” Included in the resolution was the Senate encouragement for higher education institutions to promote and expand study abroad opportunities for American students.

Study abroad at St. Bonaventure University is multi-faceted, including short-term and long-term options for students. There are short-term, usually two to four week, programs that allow students to take advantage of time during the summer months or the winter break to earn academic credit in a multitude of disciplines and countries.

Short programs are faculty-led opportunities. While many are foreign language sessions, new options are being developed to include business and political science. “Opportunities for short term study are ideal for students who cannot spend a semester away,” said Alice Sayegh, director of international studies at St. Bonaventure University. “These work for students who are tied to activities, athletics, campus positions, etc., during the school year.” Sayegh indicated that most of the short programs offer between three and six academic credits. The most prominent of these programs is the Francis E. Kelly Oxford program, which began in 1992.

For students interested in longer-term experiences, there are more than 50 options to spend one or more semesters abroad. Many of these programs have been in existence for more than 20 years. These programs attract not only SBU students, but are open to students from other institutions. Over the years, students from more than 400 U.S. institutions have participated in SBU-sponsored overseas academic programs.

“St. Bonaventure has a solid reputation nationwide in the arena of international education,” said Sayegh. “We provide quality, affordable academic programming and support that programming with a Bonaventure transcript. We have been providing SBU transcripts of overseas academic studies to our own students and students from other U.S. colleges and universities over the years.
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We have long and established relationships with schools such as Cornell University, Catholic University of America, Colgate University, Manhattanville College and the College of St. Rose to name a few.”

Membership in the CCIS (College Consortium for International Studies) allows the University to promote its programs; CCIS also provides the University enrollment, advertising and promotional support. CCIS partnerships also allow St. Bonaventure to sponsor and access academic programs. St. Bonaventure is among the top five sending institutions for study abroad enrollment in the CCIS. “I think people would be surprised at the status a school the size of SBU holds in the realm of international education among our colleagues,” she said.

Through membership in the CCIS, SBU sponsors programs in Australia, Ireland and Spain. All of these programs are partnerships with U.S. co-sponsors and overseas host institutions. “The mission of CCIS includes an inclusive component and encourages diverse institutions to come together to provide the best overseas programming possible,” said Sayegh.

The “Semester in Spain” program in Seville, the oldest SBU study abroad program, begun in 1984, is a partnership with Broward Community College, part of the Florida state system. “CCIS encourages two- and four-year institutions, private and public, to work together to provide as many opportunities as possible to as many students as we can reach out to,” said Sayegh.

In addition to the established SBU sites in Ireland (three locations) and Australia (three locations), there are also many overseas academic sites in non-English speaking countries, including China, Peru, Argentina, France and Morocco. A complete listing of SBU program sites can be found at www.sbu.edu/intstudies.

Program opportunities abroad are open to students from all majors and disciplines. “We have developed a good working list over the years of programs which lend themselves almost seamlessly to certain majors,” Sayegh explained. “We have semester and full-year programs that suit students in the professional schools, including business, journalism and education. Additionally, we have had good results with students in the arts and sciences in many of our programs. Our program at the University of Limerick, Ireland, has been a great fit for our science students. Traditionally, science programs have been difficult to slot students into, mainly because of the nature of lab hours, but we have been able to work through those issues, course by course and lab by lab.” Sayegh noted that faculty in all of the University academic areas have been supportive of students in their departments pursuing overseas studies programs.

Students interested in study abroad are encouraged to begin looking at programs offered and start the application process as early as possible. “Many times, students realize that they want a new cultural experience, but often think it is cost prohibitive or ‘time prohibitive,’ that is to say that they fear that study abroad may delay their ability to graduate on time,” said Sayegh. The ability to find solid equivalent courses in the student’s major or minor, coupled with the increasing number of comparable Clare core courses, permits a student to create an almost identical overseas schedule to the schedule he/she would have pursued on campus.

Scholarship availability for study abroad has increased over the years. The estate of F. Donald Kenney, an Olean native, offers endowed scholarships in the form of International Scholars Awards to SBU students for study in Ireland, England and Finland. “We work creatively to put a financial package together that will allow a student to pursue an overseas semester or year,” said Sayegh. “We also explore the best combination of federal/state monies, along with private scholarships and awards for each student.” Additional scholarship information is located at the SBU Web site.

Questions about study abroad opportunities can be directed to Sayegh at (716) 375-2574, or at asayegh@sbu.edu.

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BonaResponds making plans to keep making a difference

As the country marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina tearing through the Gulf Coast, the University’s BonaResponds group is making plans to keep making a difference.

BonaResponds will host a “local service day” at Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Friday. All members of the St. Bonaventure community (alumni, faculty, staff and students) are invited to meet new people, help others and have fun — all while they paint, repair walls, tile and landscape.

In addition to helping the local Catholic high school with some needed repairs, organizers say the service day is a way for volunteers to begin training for future Gulf Coast service trips. Assistant professor of finance Dr. James Mahar said BonaResponds is planning to head back to the Gulf in early January 2007 with a small group, and then again for spring break.

“As the work in the Gulf Coast is changing, the sites we will be working with are asking for a more skilled workforce. The local service projects will be one way to get some of the training,” Mahar said.

A second — and much larger — local workday is planned for Sept. 16. Volunteers will be dispersed across the county to sites including the village of Allegany, the SPCA Serving Cattaraugus County, St. Elizabeth Motherhouse, Olean Historical Society, the SBU campus and Mt. Irenaeus.

Last March, some 280 members of the University community spent a week at one of five relief camps in Mississippi and Louisiana, where they gutted houses, removed mold and prayed with grateful homeowners.

But the trip was not put together for a week. The volunteers returned home with promises to not forget those devastated on the Gulf, and pledges to help those in need in their own neighborhoods.

For more information or to sign up for the upcoming service days, contact Mahar at jmahar@sbu.edu or ext. 2359.

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'Focus: Fiber 2006' not your grandmother's quilt show

Focus: Fiber 2006, a biennial juried exhibition of contemporary fiber art, opened at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts Aug. 22 and continues through Nov. 5. Organized by the Textile Art Alliance (TAA) of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and in its 36th year, this is the second time the biennial survey has traveled to the Quick Center. Focus: Fiber 2006 originated at the Artists Archive of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, in June.

Juried by internationally renowned quilt artist Nancy Crow, the exhibition features 54 works of art by 33 artists from a seven-state Mideast region. The Textile Alliance defines fiber arts as any work that is “fiber in nature or is executed in a fiber technique.” As a genre, fiber art has changed dramatically from its folksy beginnings with the utilitarian quilt. For viewers who haven’t kept pace, today the field parallels the rapid-fire evolution and experimental nature of the technological world.

Like painting, the field now embraces such diverse responses as sociopolitical statements, humor, representational explorations of personal relationships and the natural world, non-representational experiments in form, color and texture as well as understated commentaries on change itself.

“The experimental rigor combined with the pure joy of color that Nancy Crow brings to her own art is reflected in her choices for this year’s show,” said Ruta Marino, deputy director of the Quick Center. “As Crow stated in the catalog to the show, the exhibition operates as a fascinating ‘investigation of processes and ideas’ in fiber art today.”

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. until Aug. 26. Regular hours, beginning Aug. 29, are Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. The galleries of the Quick Center are free and open to the public year round. For information on group tours, please contact Jason Trimmer at (716) 375-7686 or jtrimmer@sbu.edu. For general information, call (716) 375-2494, www.sbu.edu or e-mail Quick@sbu.edu.

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Employees' spouses can purchase extended access to Richter Center

Beginning Monday, Sept. 4, spouses of full-time St. Bonaventure University employees may purchase extended access to the Richter Center. The cost is $75 per year to use the Richter Center from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekdays. Regular family hours and fees will remain the same as last year - no cost to use the facility from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Spouses should go to the Richter Center first to make payment and fill out an access form. They will then go to Reilly Center Room 202 C to get their picture taken for their ID card.

For more information, please contact Rob DeFazio at Rdefazio@sbu.edu or ext. 2190.

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Tim Shaffer named coordinator of programs and activities at Mt. Irenaeus

Mt. Irenaeus, co-missioned with St. Bonaventure University, has appointed Tim Shaffer as coordinator of programs and activities.

“Through an endowment raised over the past four years, and with the great gratitude of our benefactors, we are able to bring Tim in as an essential part of fulfilling our mission with Bona’s,” said Fr. Daniel P. Riley, O.F.M., guardian of Holy Peace Friary. “Tim is an especially bright and engaging young man who brings his love of St. Bonaventure and our tradition to the growing practice here of reflective and experiential learning conjoined with our academic experience.”

Shaffer graduated magna cum laude from St. Bonaventure in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in theology. He then went on to graduate studies in theology at the University of Dayton, receiving a master’s degree in theological studies.

Shaffer wrote his master’s thesis about the Franciscan influence on Thomas Merton. This research is highly applicable to the work he is doing with Mt. Irenaeus as the coordinator of programs and activities because of the ways in which the ministry of the Mountain is based on living out of a contemplative model that engages the world. He has entered into life with the friar community at the Mountain while also integrating himself in the life of the St. Bonaventure campus as a member of the Bonaventure family.

Shaffer’s role with the Mountain is one that has him both ministering on the St. Bonaventure campus and at Mt. Irenaeus, bringing the “Mountain to the valley” while walking with those who bring life to the Mountain. His office is located in the Thomas Merton Ministry Center, working closing with the other Mountain ministers and the whole University Ministries team to provide a seamless integration of the Mountain into the life of the campus.

“Tim was an effective student leader while here as an undergraduate. I am delighted he has brought his gifts back to us as a minister of Mt. Irenaeus,” said Robert Donius, vice president for University Ministries at St. Bonaventure.

Shaffer’s primary areas of leadership are with the Students for the Mountain, working alongside them collaboratively.

Shaffer’s appointment will further expand the new collaborative initiatives for education in the University’s Franciscan tradition through models of experience based, reflective learning.

For more information about Mt. Irenaeus visit www.monti.com.

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Opening Mass to be held Sunday

Opening Mass
4 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 3
Reilly Center Arena

A Bonaventure Community picnic will follow in the Hickey Dining hall and outside area. This is the only Mass scheduled on campus for Sept. 3. Hickey Dining Hall will close at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in order to reopen at 5:15 through 7:45 p.m. for this special meal. All are welcome and no one will need to swipe their ID card.

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.Career Center News ...

For information on how to utilize a career fair, on-campus recruiting, resumé due dates, registration for job quest deadline and day-of-event details, visit the Career Center Events Web page.

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Newsmakers ...

Jacob Reddish, an education major, and Peter Ferdinand, a sociology major, accompanied Dr. René Wroblewski, assistant professor of education, to the 10th annual “Inclusive Schools and Communities” conference in Rye Town, N.Y., May 18, 2006, where they presented a workshop titled “Once upon a Time: Preservice Teachers Write Children's Books about Disability”. Reddish presented a book he authored titled “Johnny’s Outlook” and Ferdinand presented his book, “Percy and the Mumbled, Jumbled second grade.” The books are children’s stories that include a character with a disability and were written for Wroblewski’s SPED 440 class.

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Join us for this week's FRIDAY FORUM!

All SBU faculty, staff and administrators are welcome to all the Friday Forums.

Date: Friday, Sept. 1, 2006
Speaker: Christopher Hill
Time: Lunch starts at noon, Forum goes from 12:35 to 1:30 p.m., including Q&A
Place: University Club - Above Hickey. NOTE: This week, pay for your meal and make your lunche selection in the dining hall, then take your tray upstairs to the University Club.
Title: "Proof: The Nature of Truth in Mathematics"

The Friday Forum invites you to present your research, hobbies, and other worthy items. To schedule a presentation at the weekly forums in fall 2006, please contact Vinay Pandit at vpandit@sbu.edu or ext. 2197.

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