Aspiring architect Aaron Campbell '97 found a way to combine his interests, his classes, and community service. And he gave a few dogs a new home.
Campbell is the architect of a much-needed new building for the OASIS animal shelter.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Stanley Mathews, a licensed architect, was originally approached by OASIS for help in designing their building. He declined, but saw a wonderful hands-on learning and outreach opportunity for his architectural history students. Campbell jumped at the chance.
Campbell's original design was devised in an environmental sculpture course taught by Professor of Art Athena Tacha, but the reality of the OASIS site combined with a limited budget forced him to design a more practical solution. Under Mathews' guidance, Campbell worked for months to plan a structure that fulfilled the shelter's needs, met state health and safety requirements, and was within the $35,000 budget.
Campell's building is a 768-square-foot pole-barn structure sheathed in cedar plywood and galvanized steel. It will have 17 cages, heat, hot water, an office and outside dog runs.
It is very unusual for an undergraduate student to design an actual building. It is even more unusual for an Oberlin student; the College has no major in architecture.
A dozen teenagers eating pizza in Tappan Square, dressed in togas. Animal House: The Prequel? No: the last day of class for a middle-school Latin program taught by students in the College's classics department.
Organized last spring by Classics Professor James Helm for students in Oberlin's Langston Middle School, the program commenced with twice-a-week after-school lessons to go over the basics of the language. It ended with the toga party and an impromptu--from the Latin in promptu--visit to Helm's office. "More than a dozen students, all speaking Latin, came to see their teacher's teacher," he recalled. "I even taught them a little street Latin."
The classes continued this fall under the tutelage--from tutela--of Jim Chochola '99, who also helped organize and run the program last year. "I want to teach Latin eventually," said Chochola. He's getting the chance a little earlier than expected.
The student group Students Overcoming Barriers in Education (SOBIE) held its second annual Disabilities Awareness Fair last fall. The fair is intended "to raise the consciousness of College and community members about the issues and obstacles that confront people with all kinds of disabilities," said co-chair Elana Gartner, a junior from Brooklyn, N.Y.
The event featured demonstrations of adaptive technology, close-captioned videos, experimental adaptive equipment in development, and representatives and equipment (such as beeping balls for the blind) from Easter Seals.
Fair-goers also could obtain information on diabetes, dysgraphia, deaf culture and community, bi-polarity, attention deficit disorder, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, Down's syndrome, stuttering, hearing impairment and deafness, blindness, albinism, and cane technique for the blind.
Presently there are about 175 students on campus with learning, auditory, visual, medical and orthopedic disabilities, according to H. Dean Kelly, coordinator of Oberlin services for students with disabilities.
Shannon Fox '97 raced to her ninth conference championship when she won the North Coast Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at Denison University last October.
Over the span of 19 months, Fox won the outdoor track 5,000 and 10,000 meter races twice each, the outdoor 3,000 once, the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 once each, and the cross country championships twice.
A politics major, Fox has run in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships three times. Her best effort was this year, when she finished 41st in the nation by running a 5-kilo- meter race in 18:44. Her performance put her just a few seconds and six places away from earning All-American honors.
For Fox, the thrill of running is in winning--and that's something she's experienced since her high school career in Fort Myers, Fla, where she finished second in the state cross country meet. "I think if I can't compete," she said, "I'll be a couch potato."
Oberlin's art librarian and art-department lecturer Jeffrey Weidman says it is "the art encyclopedia for the next century." Such importance makes the authorship all the more worth crowing about: Six members of Oberlin's faculty and staff have contributed signed articles to The Dictionary of Art, Grove's Dictionaries' new 34-volume magnum opus.
Sharing their expertise are Robert Harrist, associate professor of art and East Asian studies; William Hood, professor of art; Susan Kane, associate professor of art; Richard Spear, professor of art; Weidman; and Marjorie Wieseman, acting director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, until recently the curator of western art before 1850 and lecturer in art.
At the John Heisman Club's annual banquet in May, five of Oberlin's most accomplished former athletes will be inducted into the club's Hall of Fame. This year's honorees are Anthony Osei '78, Ronald Stevenson '83, Sarah Cox Marshall '87, George Smith '87, and Bernadette Delgado '84.
Anthony Osei was a member of both the soccer and track teams and was named to the All-Ohio and All-Midwestern teams in soccer.
Ronald Stevenson established several school records that still stand today, but more notable was his recognition as the first All-American football player in Oberlin history.
The owner of eight school records upon graduation, George Smith was a team leader in both indoor and outdoor track, and he earned All American recognition in the 100-meter dash.
A member of the track and cross country teams, Sarah Cox Marshall was a three-time national qualifier and was named to the North Coast Athletic Conference Cross Country All-Decade Team.
Bernadette Delgado earned seven letters in volleyball and lacrosse and was named to the U.S. Women's Lacrosse Association All-American First Team.
Prepared, unserved food in Oberlin's campus dining halls used to be tossed in the trash bins. With the new year came a new system: now those leftovers are helping feed hungry people in the area.
Starting last January, the College began donating its leftovers to Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, located just north of Oberlin in Amherst. College staff members pack the food in aluminum containers and freeze it for weekly pickups by the food bank. Second Harvest distributes to more than 125 organizations that feed 30,000 people in Lorain, Erie, and Huron counties, according to James A. Kastro, executive director of Second Harvest in Amherst.
Oberlin's dining system is operated by Marriott International, which has a national program to give unserved food to Second Harvest divisions nationwide, according to Dave Jensen, director of Campus Dining Services.
The food donations are a natural extension of Oberlin's commitment to social service, said Jensen. "I think it's a great opportunity for the community and for Oberlin," he said.
Whose World Is This? is the title of a forthcoming brochure written by Oberlin students of color for prospective students of color. Malachi Rodgers and Tammy Dowley-Blackman '90, co-coordinators of multicultural programs in the Office of Admissions, served as advisors.
A five-member student team organized, edited, and designed the brochure, which contains a list of campus African-American, Latino, and Asian-American organizations and publications; information about distinguished alumni; and essays about Oberlin written from the perspectives of alumni, administrators, faculty members, and the students themselves. The essays give the inside scoop on making friends, making the transition from diverse backgrounds to Oberlin, getting acclimated to the campus, academic pitfalls, campus organizations, residence options, classes, job search, preparing for graduate school, and life after Oberlin.
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