December 31, 2006
Helping Politicians See the Light
With the majority in Congress set to change for the first time since 1995, New York Times writer David D. Kirkpatrick profiles political “rising star” and Earlham alumna Mara Vanderslice ‘97, credited by Democratic party pollsters and strategists with helping a number of their candidates to victory in 2006 by “building a religious component in the practical campaign work.” Read more from the International Herald Tribune.
December 24, 2006
Weekend Edition (NPR): "Peace on Earth?"
For more than a dozen years each Yuletide, National Public Radio correspondent Daniel Schorr consulted the National Defense Council Foundation’s official “conflict list” — an ongoing chronicle of war and other violence in regions around the world — to also try to guage the status of peace on earth. Several years ago, however, the foundation stopped keeping its conflict list, contending that “terrorist organizations disregard boundaries” and that, hence, “solely counting state-to-state conflicts or internal state conflicts leaves the total count incomplete and inaccurate.” Consequently this holiday season, NPR reporter Andrea Seabrook was left to consider, “If war has become indescribable, what is peace?” On Christmas Eve, she put the question to Paul Lacey, emeritus professor of English at Earlham and currently presiding clerk of the American Friends Service Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Quaker organization committed to advancing international peace.
December 12, 2006
West Coast Meets West Bank
Joey Katona is a Jewish-American kid from L.A. and a first-year student at the fairly pricey University of Virginia. So why is he raising scholarship funds so that Omar Dreidi, a Palestinian Arab from the West Bank, can attend Earlham College?
December 10, 2006
Newsday: "Digging Deep for Their Essays"
New York Newsday writer Dave Marcus examines the current state — and relative importance — of the college admission essay, as more colleges make providing SAT scores “optional” and some students pay writing coaches “$200 an hour to revise 500-word essays.” Marcus reveals that Earlham still values the application essay, but as just one part of a prospective student’s overall admissions score. He also shares advice from Earlham Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jeff Rickey about avoiding tired themes in the “Four Ds” and the “Five Ss.” Read more
December 05, 2006
Earlham is Home of "Ultimate Geek"
Associate Professor of Computer Science Charlie Peck says he feels “no shame” at being named the new king of high-tech nerd-dom, especially if it means — as it does in this case — that the College gets a fancy new piece of high-performance computer equipment as his reward.