Topic: Student
Students contribute to study on Oregon’s dying trees
Ecological data collection conducted by undergraduate students during a College Outdoors trip has been included in a Science journal paper titled “Widespread Increase of Tree Mortality Rates in the Western United States.” The paper discusses the mortality rate of trees in the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia. Studies show that the rate of tree death in this area has doubled in only 17 years. This can partially be attributed to the fact that temperatures have risen over one degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years, leading to droughts and an abundance of insects and disease. Their research contributions on the changing dynamics of western forests has recently drawn the attention of a number of high-profile national and international media outlets.
Lewis & Clark students have collected data for the Franklin lab every August since 2006 as part of the Environmental Service Project. Alum and 2006 Break Away trip leader Brian Erickson ‘06 said, “We returned to plots that were established 30-plus years previously and remeasured every five to 10 years to provide an ongoing image of forest dynamics over time. The students collected high-quality data, worked extremely hard, learned a lot, and had a good time in the process.”
New York Times (New York, NY) Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths
Seattle Times (Seattle, Wash.) Regional warming hurting NW forests, study says
BBC News (London, UK) Climate shift ‘killing US trees’
Video: Sophomore featured in Project Happiness documentary
For sophomore John-Nuriel Vissell, the key to happiness lies in doing what you love. During Vissell’s senior year at Mount Madonna School in Watsonville, California, his Values Education class was offered a challenging opportunity to evaluate the concept of happiness with two other schools from India and Nigeria. Selected by Project Happiness, a non-profit group inspired by the Dalai Lama’s book “The Ethics for the New Millennium,” these three groups were filmed for an entire school year while interacting with each other through the internet and eventually meeting in India on a trip to visit the Dalai Lama.
For Vissell, this experience was life changing. After his group asked the Dalai Lama how to obtain lasting happiness, Vissell noted, “He sat silent for a while, then responded, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ It was the perfect answer. This was the pinnacle of our work on this project. We ascended the mountain and as soon as we met with him on the summit, he sort of brought us back down to where we started.”
Santa Cruz Sentenial (Santa Cruz, Calif.) Spreading ‘Happiness’ worldwide - one young person at a time
Slideshow: Pamplin Society welcomes seven new members
The Pamplin Society of Fellows formally inducted seven new members in a ceremony on October 20th. This year’s inductees (Rebecca Fitch, Riley Johnson, Dieterich Lawson, Emily Nguyen, Lili Pill-Kahan, Leah Scott-Zechlin, and Alex Simon) joined the ranks of 21 students, more than 70 alumni, and four endowed professors. Membership is extended to seven students each year as they begin their second year at the College.
Members of the Society demonstrate the characteristics outlined by Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, the Society’s founder: an exceptional blend of intellectual talent, dedication to the welfare of one’s community, the habit of physical fitness, and personal integrity. The Society includes members with a diversity of achievements, talents, majors and geographic representation.
The student Fellows determine, plan, and implement a number of programs that the Society sponsors to enhance the co-curricular educational environment of the College. Upon graduation from Lewis & Clark, fellows maintain their membership for life.
Law Student Nick Kahl wins District 49 House race
Law student Nick Kahl attributes his win in the District 49 House race to voter outreach. Kahl, who took in 56% of the votes against his opponent John Nelsen, was not very surprised with his victory: “We ran an aggressive grassroots campaign. I’ve knocked on, I’d say, 14,000 doors. The amount of voter outreach – that was the difference-maker.” Although Kahl was pleased with his win, he stresses that he wants to make a difference in his community first and foremost by revitalizing the sense of pride in Rockwood that he was so used to as a child growing up.
The Gresham Outlook (Gresham, Ore.) Kahl ready to fight for East County in Salem
NCVLI wins two grants from the U.S. Department of Justice
In October, the National Crime Victim Law Institute, an organization that advances crime victims’ rights, was awarded two two-year grants from the U.S. Department of Justice. First, NCVLI received a multi-million dollar grant from the Office for Victims of Crime. Most of the funding will pass through to NCVLI’s nationwide network of 8 pro bono legal clinics serving crime victims and to establish up to 4 new clinics. In addition, these funds will continue NCVLI’s amicus curiae work, legal technical assistance to attorneys and advocates, training and education, newsletter, and the annual Law & Litigation Conference.
Second, NCVLI was awarded a 2 year grant of $150,000 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to focus on the rights of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and/or dating violence. This grant will allow NCVLI to provide training and legal technical assistance to OVW grantees across the nation. NCVLI will partner with the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence and the Victims Rights Law Center on many of the trainings.
NCVLI promotes balance and fairness in the justice system through crime-victim-centered legal advocacy, education, and resource sharing. NCVLI also provides legal technical assistance to attorneys and advocates of victims and educates lawyers, judges, law students, victims’ advocates, the law enforcement community, and the public about victims’ rights.
Professor of French Nicole Aas-Rouxparis and student present at international conference
Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, professor of French:
In July, Aas-Rouxparis and Krista Sarin CAS ‘08 co-presented a paper titled “Identity, Commitment or Nomadism in Assia Djebar’s La Disparition de la langue française” at the International Congress of Francophone Studies held in Limoges, France.
Their paper topic was based on the theme from Aas-Rouxparis’ French 450 spring 2008 seminar, “Identity and Commitment in French/Francophone Literature,” and analyzed Algerian author Assia Djebar’s 2004 novel, “La Disparition de la langue francaise.”
Sarin will spend the next year in Lille, France as a Language Assistant before moving on to graduate school.
Lewis & Clark hosts American Physical Society conference
In May, Lewis & Clark hosted the 10th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Section of the American Physical Society (APS). Thomas Olsen, associate professor of physics, served as local organizing chair and host of this conference. Olsen gave a presentation titled “Characterization and Control of Chaos” and was elected secretary-treasurer of the APS Northwest Section by members.
President Thomas Hochstettler opened the conference with remarks on science research and teaching in the context of the liberal arts. Dean of the College Julio de Paula opened the final day of the conference with a review of the history of science research at Lewis & Clark. Professor of Physics Herschel Snodgrass presented his paper titled “Large-Scale Convection and the Solar Activity Cycle.”
Graduating senior Christina Ketchum shared her paper on “Correlating Vertical Velocities of Ionized Interstellar Medium To Star Formation Rates In Nearby Face-On Spiral Galaxies,” which was a collaborative effort with Associate Professor of Physics Stephen Tufte. Tufte chaired the sessions on astrophysics and biophysics with Professor of Physics Bethe Scalettar. Scalettar presented a paper at the session titled “Elucidating Molecular Events Underlying Learning with Fluorescence Microscopy,” the product of joint research undertaken with graduating senior Mariya Chavarha and Janis Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Professor of Science. Graduating senior Adam Kowalski and junior Shelley Zhao each presented a poster at the APS conference.
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