BRISTOL, R.I. -- On Saturday, May 18, another class of Roger Williams University students will cross the Commencement stage to receive their hard-earned degrees and officially become college graduates. Joining them will be honorary degree recipient and keynote speaker, John M. Barry, an historian and author whose recent book details the work of university namesake Roger Williams. A day earlier, preeminent civil rights attorney and founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees will address the RWU Law graduating class in a separate ceremony on the Bristol campus.
This year, both Commencement ceremonies will be livestreamed on the web for those unable to join us on campus. The ceremonies will only be streamed in real time, and an archived version of the events will be made available via YouTube at a later date. Click here to watch Commencement 2013.
Presentation with Ambassador and Activist Andrew Young will highlight Inauguration Week 2011 events; reception with Ambassador Young to immediately follow.
About Ambassador and Activist Andrew Young
For a university that prides itself on creating a healthy exchange of ideas on the most pressing questions facing society and seeks to instill in its graduates a drive to serve the broader public interest, the chance to host Andrew Young as an honored guest and participant during Inauguration Week 2011 is opportune.
BRISTOL, R.I. – Four years ago, Bre’Anna Metts-Nixon ’13 sat next to her mother, Christina, in their Providence home holding a piece of paper that would change her life. As they read aloud the letter of acceptance to Roger Williams University – complete with a combination of financial aid that would cover the cost of her entire college education – the two women were overwhelmed with emotion.
“We just started crying before I even got the word ‘congratulations’ out of my mouth. She was jumping around and screaming. She just couldn’t believe that her only child was going to college and actually was going to make a difference,” recalls Metts-Nixon. “We had never seen this amount of money offered to anyone in our family to succeed and get as close to our dreams as possible.”
This Saturday, she will have in hand another piece of paper to put her another step closer to her dream of becoming a music industry executive – specifically, she wants to become chief operating officer of Black Entertainment Television (BET).
BRISTOL, R.I. — When a homesick high school volunteer cries on her shoulder over the difficulty of transitioning to living with a host family in a foreign country, Laura Dushkin knows how to help the youngsters through it and learn to embrace their new surroundings and opportunities. She’s been in their shoes.
Since she was 16, Dushkin has spent many summers volunteering with Amigos de las Americas, a nonprofit organization that sends American high school students to Latin American countries to engage in community development projects, cultural exchange and youth leadership training. Dushkin, who attended high school in San Diego, Calif., has worked at sites in Honduras and Ecuador on both a volunteer and professional basis, eventually serving as a project supervisor. Upon graduation this Saturday, she will be promoted to senior project supervisor in Costa Rica.
BRISTOL, R.I. -- In honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Roger Williams University Spring 2013 Film/Speaker Series on the Jewish Experience will welcome renowned Holocaust historian Debórah Dwork at a screening of short films about the Holocaust and Jewish experience in Israel – a special event to close this year’s Roving Eye International Film Festival on Sunday, April 28.
Dwork, a professor of Holocaust history at Clark University, will deliver a lecture, "Flight from the Reich: Public Actions, Private Lives," about the lives of Jews under Hitler’s Third Reich – including stories of those who sought to flee the Reich and the role of their experiences in Holocaust history – at 2 p.m. in Global Heritage Hall G01.
Last January, Chelsea Silva ’14 joined Becky Spritz, associate professor of psychology, and 13 fellow students in a course-based, global service trip focused on mental health issues that teachers face in schools near the rural community of Petersfield, Jamaica. She shares details with Don Farish, who offers his take on how such experiences complement classroom education at Roger Williams.
Donald Farish:
A year ago, this trip started with a question: How can we create a true international learning experience in Jamaica in which students get more than the tourist treatment and earn course credit for their work rather than doing it as a volunteer activity? The idea was to offer students the opportunity to interact with a society quite different from our own, where people are facing the same kinds of issues we might face here, but having to resolve them in very different ways. So, Chelsea, as one of the early experimenters – our guinea pig, I suppose – how did it work out?
Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 19, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will be hosting the 24-Hour Famine, a time in which participants will not be eating until 6 p.m. the next day in an attempt to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness. During the 24 hours, there will be a kickoff event at 8 p.m., camping out overnight on the D'Angelo Quad, and volunteer opportunities. For the breaking of the famine, there will be a home made dinner. There is no cost, but participants are asked to give their name and ID number to Tony Sousa (asousa835@g.rwu.edu) because Bon Appetit will be donating money from participant's swipes to the Bristol Good Neighbors food pantry.
Whether it's mucking local oyster beds with "Oyster Steve" or a firsthand account of standing tall atop a 164-foot wind turbine, the latest issue of RWU Magazine is rife with stories that bring readers right into the action happening on campus and in the community. As always, we invite you to read at home and online -- and let us know what you think! Email magazine@rwu.edu to share your reactions to the current issue and story ideas for the next one.
For those of you looking for extra reading material, here are some stories that required space beyond the pages:
BRISTOL, R.I. – Ten years after being commissioned by Jean-Marc Ayrault – the French prime minister who at the time served as mayor of the City of Nantes, for centuries France’s largest slave port – the award-winning Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery opened in March 2012.
Sited on the banks of the Loire River in the heart of the city, the Memorial is the product of Wodiczko + Bonder, a design partnership created by Architect and Roger Williams University Professor of Architecture Julian Bonder and Krzysztof Wodiczko of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
On Thursday, April 11, members of the public are invited to spend an evening with Bonder as part of a Faculty Spotlight edition of the President’s Distinguished Speakers Series at Roger Williams University.
Ten years after being commissioned by Jean-Marc Ayrault – the French prime minister who at the time served as mayor of the City of Nantes, for centuries France’s largest slave port – the award-winning Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery opened in March 2012.
Sited on the banks of the Loire River in the heart of the city, the Memorial is the product of Wodiczko + Bonder, a partnership created by Architect and Roger Williams University Professor of Architecture Julian Bonder and Krzysztof Wodiczko of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Ten years after being commissioned by Jean-Marc Ayrault – the French prime minister who at the time served as mayor of the City of Nantes, for centuries France’s largest slave port – the award-winning Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery opened in March 2012.