Dear Bellarmine Community Members,
December is always a very busy month, especially as the
Fall term comes to a close. In the midst of this activity, I extend to
you and yours my very best wishes for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,
and Happy New Year.
Student Achievements
The BU Mock Trial team is off to another impressive start
this year. Bellarmine's team is the largest ever, with 18 members, eight
of whom are new to mock trial. Nevertheless, the team made strong
showings in Virginia, Tennessee, and Arizona, including a top 20
Tennessee finish out of 72 teams that included the likes of Duke, Emory,
Notre Dame, Furman, Gonzaga and Vanderbilt.
English major and Honors student Janell Oliver has won a
poetry prize from Sarabande Books, a regional publisher of quality
poetry and fiction. Her poem, “Breaking the Ice,” earned her an award
and $200. Benjamin Lesousky’s poem “Fellows Garden, Cambridge,” was a
runner-up in Sarabande’s competition. Both poems will be listed on
Sarabande’s website.
Bellarmine student-athletes had a 91 percent Academic
Success Rate (ASR), the second highest in the Great Lakes Valley
Conference, according to a recent NCAA report. The ASR is a new
graduation-rate technology used by the NCAA. All eight Bellarmine
women’s sports teams (basketball, CC/Track, Field Hockey, Golf, Soccer,
Softball, Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball) received an ASR of 100 percent and
the men’s cross country/track team, men’s golf team, and men’s tennis
team each received an ASR of 100 percent.
The Bellarmine athletics department is collecting hats,
gloves, scarves, and socks for the youth of Maryhurst. Maryhurst is a
local program that works to assist young people between the ages of 12
and 18 who have been traumatized by abuse and neglect. The Knights will
also be collecting household items such as cleaning and personal hygiene
products, as well as toys and kid’s clothes to donate to Mom’s Closet
Resource Center. The MCRC assists single mothers who are going back to
school. Bellarmine supporters are asked to help with this project by
donating items at any home basketball game in December.
Volleyball player Chelsea Bibelhauser became the first
Knight in six seasons to earn a spot on the GLVC All-Conference team
when she was selected to the second squad last week.
Soccer forward Lindsay Scheer was named to the ESPN The
Magazine/CoSIDA All-District All-Academic First Team. Scheer currently
is carrying a 4.0 grade point average in physical therapy.
Field hockey senior Michelle Esterle closed out her
Bellarmine career in style by being named to the womensfieldhockey.com
weekly honor roll. Esterle picked up the award by scoring both
game-winners in the Knights final two victories of the 2006 season.
Junior field hockey player Sarah Roney was selected to
the 2006 All-America Second Team by both the National Field Hockey
Coaches Association (NFHCA) and womensfieldhockey.com. In just three
seasons, Roney has already climbed to fourth all-time at Bellarmine in
career goals with 27.
After seven weeks of intercollegiate tournament action
the Bellarmine University Women’s Bowling Team is currently ranked 19th
in the nation. Because bowling isn’t divided into Divisions, this ranks
Bellarmine among all colleges and universities in the nation with
women’s bowling teams.
Faculty Achievements
Professor Christy Kane, Respiratory Therapy Department,
Lansing School, is the recipient of the 2006 Gish Award. This national
competitive award includes both a cash prize and meeting expenses to
further post graduate research.
Jack Grundy, a student at St. Francis Assisi School and a
protégé of Dr. Karen Golemboski, was one of 15 students chose from the
Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge to receive a major award.
Jack was honored with the "Sights to See" Award for his research of the
presence of staph and other bacteria in soil. Jack won a scientific
quality telescope (with GSP) and he gets to name two minor plants.
Frederick Smock’s most recent book, Sonnets, has been
nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and the Kentucky Literary Award
for Poetry. In addition, his essay “Poetry & Compassion” has been
accepted, and will be published in The Writers Chronicle in February.
The Chronicle is published by AWP (Associated Writing Programs) at
George Mason University. Smock’s new book, Pax Intrantibus: A Meditation
on the Poetry of Thomas Merton, will be published in March by
Broadstone Books.
Mark your calendars: journalist and author Bob Woodward
will deliver the Wyatt Lecture in the spring. He will deliver an evening
lecture on Tuesday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m.
The Thomas Merton Center was joint sponsor with the
International Center for Mystical Studies in Avila, Spain of the first
international conference on Thomas Merton to be held in Spain. The
October conference was directed by Dr. Fernando Beltran of Salamanca and
Dr. Paul Pearson. Over 350 participants took part in the conference
from nineteen different countries. The entire conference was both
bilingual and broadcast live over the internet. The conference
proceedings will be published bilingually in the Spanish journal
Cistercium. The Spanish magazine, Imágenes de la fe, in cooperation with
the conference directors, dedicated its entire October issue to Thomas
Merton.
December Commencement
Reminder: December Commencement Exercises are Wednesday,
December 20 at 5 p.m. The Commencement speaker will be Sister Helen
Prejean, the author of "Dead Man Walking," who has been called "The
Mother Teresa of Death Row." Sr. Prejean and Mr. Mason Rudd, civic
leader, will receive honorary degrees from Bellarmine.