Durham Bulls Serve as Inspiration for Alum's Novel

James Bailey (Communication '93) grew up in Seattle loving baseball. When his mom moved to North Carolina in 1990, Bailey followed and landed a job with the Durham Bulls. His passion for minor league baseball -- and his love of the Bulls -- inspired him to write his first novel, The Greatest Show on Dirt. 

There's something about the minor leagues that I've always liked, says Bailey, who held a variety of jobs with the Bulls in the early 1990s when he was a student at NC State. When it was such a small operation, everybody did a lot of different things. I remember running the scoreboard. [It had] a laid back small town kind of family atmosphere."

Read the feature about Bailey on the NC State Alumni Association's Red and White for Life blog.

It's All in Your Head: Tracing Skull Differences

In order to accurately identify skulls as male or female, forensic anthropologists need to have a good understanding of how the characteristics of male and female skulls differ between populations. A new study from NC State University shows that these differences can be significant, even between populations that are geographically close to one another.

Dr. Ann Ross, professor of anthropology at NC State, co-authored the paper describing the study. Ross is one of three university faculty members who is receiving NC State University's Alumni Association 2012 Outstanding Research Award this spring.

The paper's lead author is one of Ross's former students, Ashley Humphries, who received her master's degree at NC State and is now in the Ph.D. program at the University of South Florida.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Justice.

The paper, Craniofacial Sexual Dimorphism in Two Portuguese Skeletal Samples, is forthcoming in the journal Anthropologie.

Read the study abstract on the NC State News Services site.

Fisherwoman Wins American Poets Prize

Sierra Golden has won the prestigious Academy of American Poets Prize. Golden is completing her MFA in poetry at NC State through the Creative Writing Program.

For a number of years, Golden earned her living fishing for salmon and herring in  the northern Pacific with her father. Her poetry reflects and broadens that remarkable experience. At NC State, she was awarded an Alumni Fellowship.

The Academy of American Poets began awarding annual prizes to student poets at American universities and colleges in 1955. The program has expanded to include more than 200 schools. At NC State, the prize is reserved for a graduate student. Poet Kevin Boyle, chair of the Department of English at Elon University, judged the national contest this year.

Golden earned an honorable mention in NC State's annual poetry contest last year. Hear her read on a special   site created by NC State's DH Hill libraries.

Holt Brothers Raise Cancer Awareness

Newly named CHASS advisory board member Terrence Holt and his brother Torry Holt were star football players at NC State before going on to play in the NFL. More recently, the Holt brothers have turned their powerful energy toward charity. NC State's Alumni Association featured the Holt brothers on the Red and White for Life blog.

Through the Holt Foundation, the brothers have worked for ten years to raise awareness about cancer and raise money for the Kids Can! Hospital Program and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. It was their response to the death in 1996 of their own mother, Ojetta V. Holt-Shoffner, after a 10-year battle with cancer.

Now they have organized the first Answers for Cancer Walk for April 21 in Raleigh."Our whole family will be out there walking in our mom's honor, Terrence Holt says. I quite often tell people that everything we're doing now through our programs is therapeutic for us. We go and hear other people's testimonies and share our testimonies. We would love for NC State alumni and students to come out and walk."

Terrence earned his undergraduate degree in Sociology at NC State. He joined the CHASS Advisory Board in April 2012.

Read the full story about the Answers for Cancer Walk and find out how to participate on the Red and White for Life blog.

New Members Named to College Advisory Board

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State University welcomed five new members to its Board of Advisors during its spring 2012 meeting. Four of the new members are NC State alumni; one is a current student.

Terrence Holt (BA Sociology, NC State) is president of Holt Brothers Enterprises, a holding and investment company that he runs with his brother Torry Holt. He is vice chair of the Holt Foundation, http://www.holtfoundation.com/index.html a nonprofit organization providing support services for children who have a parent with cancer. Holt played in the National Football League as a defensive back for six years. At NC State, he was a 1st Team All-American and two-time 1st Team All-ACC player.

 

Bryan Hum (not pictured, International Studies and Political Science double major, NC State) is serving as the board of advisors' student representative. He is also a CHASS student ambassador and is involved in numerous campus activities.

Charlie Perusse (BA, Political Science, NC State; MPA, UNC Chapel Hill) is president of finance for the University of North Carolina System. He served as state budget director for three years and as deputy director of the Governor's Office of State Budget and Management for six years. Perusse spent eight years in the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division.

 

Bing Sizemore (BS, Textile Chemistry, NC State) is an investment professional with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and head of The Sizemore Group. He serves as a board member on the NC State Board of Visitors, the State Club, and Friends of Arts NC State.

 

 

Ken Wooten (BA, Political Science, NC State; JD, UNC-Chapel Hill) is a managing director at Ward and Smith, PA, in New Bern, NC, where he handles litigation including construction, business and commercial, contract, public housing, insurance coverage and federal litigation.  Wooten is an International Fellow and past district governor of Civitan International and has served on the executive boards of numerous civic organizations.

Scoring Music Based on Genetic Algorithms

A recording of NC State composer Rodney Waschka's trumpet concerto, Winter Concerto, has been released on the RMA label in London. The London Schubert Players (LSP) chamber orchestra recorded the work for a compact disc called As You Like It. The recording was supported by a grant from the European Union.

Waschka, professor of arts studies, composed the piece in the winter of 2009 with the help of a computer program he designed based on the concept of genetic algorithms. The work, scored for trumpet, piano and strings, is in three movements and makes use of the Romanian folk song, Jiana. Read more about the project in the NC State Bulletin.

Waschka, known for his computer music and his theatrical works, including two operas, is an internationally recognized expert in computer music. He wrote the chapter on composing with genetic algorithms for the book, Evolutionary Computer Music, published by Springer. Learn more about this creative faculty member's work in film and music and hear an excerpt of the Winter Concerto.

Keeping a Dialect Alive on Ocracoke

Graduate students in the linguistics program spent their spring break on the coast, but it was no beach trip. Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor of English, took aclass to Ocracoke to teach middle-school students on the island about dialects.

Ocracoke, home of the Outer Banks brogue dialect, has long been a research subject for Wolfram and NC State's North Carolina Language and Life Project. During their week on the island, the students taught Ocracokers about their own historic dialect and others, including Southern American, Appalachian, African-American and Spanish-American.

The trip was an eye-opener for Liang Zhang. It was her first opportunity to teach English to native English speakers. Prior to enrolling in the master's linguistics program at NC State, she taught English in her native China.

They are so interactive and so cooperative, she said of the Ocracoke students. They're so clever.

They were very enthusiastic, and they were really, really sharp, added John Forrest.

The graduate students also met some of the native Ocracokers who've appeared in films about Wolfram's work. The students recalled studying some of the people they dined and socialized with during the trip.

Knowing that I was going to actually see those people in real life was really cool, said Carolina Myrick.

Yeah, they're like stars to us, Arika Dean added.

The purpose of Wolfram's annual expedition has shifted in the 20 years since his first. Initially, he and his students did research on the Outer Banks brogue. Today, however, the trip aims to teach young Ocracokers about a tongue rarely spoken by anyone but the elderly. Coming back to teach each year brings linguistic insights gleaned from Ocracoke back home, Wolfram said.

When you do research with a group, you're also obligated to work with that community and get that information back to them in a usable format, Wolfram said.

It gave a face to what we do, Dean said. "Community interaction and community involvement are big tenets of this program.

By Jimmy Ryals.

This article is excerpted from The New Spring Break, a feature article posted on NC State University's home page.

Poet Barbara Ras Reads, Announces Contest Winners

Plenty of promising poets took a chance and entered the 2012 NC State Poetry Contest, a statewide contest sponsored by NC State's Creative Writing Program and supported by the Barnhardt Family Fund. The winners have been chosen (see below) and will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 11, at a poetry event that starts at 7:30 pm in Caldwell Lounge on the NC State campus.

Barbara Ras, poet and editorial director of Trinity University Press, judged this year's contest. Ras is the author of Bite Every Sorrow (1998), One Hidden Stuff (2006), and The Last Skin (2010). She has won a Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets,  a Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.  She will congratulate the contest winners and read from her own work at the event on Wednesday.

The annual poetry contest, organized by the English Department's Creative Writing Program, is one of the largest free literary competitions in the South.

Winner of the 2012 Poetry Prize:

• Tasha Pippin, At the Funeral  (Rocky Mount, NC)

Honorable Mentions

• Claudia McQuistion, After A Death  (Greensboro, NC)
• Lance Morrison, To Richard Siken  (Raleigh, NC)
• Kari Smith, Pink  (Raleigh, NC)
• Matt Wimberley, Black Mountain Poem  (Beech Mountain, NC)

Finalists

• Elly Bookman, In-Flight Poem  (Greensboro, NC)
• Megan Bostic, If It's A Boy  (Raleigh, NC)
• Evan Brisson, My Father's Hebrew Lesson  (Raleigh, NC)
• Gavin Cobb, The Vacation Homes  (Winston-Salem, NC)
• Sierra Golden, Bear  (Raleigh, NC)
• Elizabeth Jackson, Dressing the Wound  (Raleigh, NC)
• Jonathan McClure, Hospital, Night  (Greensboro, NC)
• Jessica Marie Plante, Horses  (Greensboro, NC)
• Rob Shapiro, The Map  (Elon, NC)
• Jennifer Whitaker, The Lesson  (Greensboro, NC)

Winner of the 2012 Undergraduate Poetry Prize

• Evan Brisson, My Father's Hebrew Lesson  (senior, English)

The Academy of American Poets Prize (for graduate students)

The national academy began awarding annual prizes to student poets at American universities and colleges in 1955. The prestigious program has expanded to include more than 200 schools.  Poet Kevin Boyle, chair of the Department of English at Elon University, judged the 2012 American Academny of Poets contest.

• Sierra Golden, Bear  (Raleigh, NC

CHASS Student of the Month: April 2012

Meet Rachel Barnum, student of the month.

Hometown: Greenville, NC

Class: Senior

Major: Science, Technology & Society

Sample Courses:

• Life Cycle Nutrition
• Bio-Medical Ethics
• Technology in Society and Culture

Activities:

• Intern, Stop Hunger Now, Spring 2012
• Intern, Safari Professionals, Spring 2012
• Co-founder/Secretary, Roots & Shoots (NCSU animal conservation club)
• Health Occupation Student Association
• Nutrition Club
• Intern, NCSU Office of Technology Transfer, Fall 2011

Previous Education: Transferred from Pitt Community College (Greenville, NC), 2009

Postgraduate Plans: Graduate school in International Studies or Development Studies, with the goal of working with non-profits.

 What have been your favorite courses?

World Population and Food with Dr. Bob Patterson. He really stands out. Also, Community Food Security. As part of that course, we participated as volunteers with the Inter-faith Food Shuttle, a Raleigh nonprofit that grows its own foods and provides to those less fortunate. I saw that even though we are surrounded by food in this city, some people cannot get access to affordable nutrition.

What has been your biggest challenge at NC State?

Deciding what I want to do! Every time I meet a faculty member who is passionate about what they do, I want to get involved. I would choose ten majors if I could! I began as a Nutrition major in CALS, but decided it wasn't for me. Science, Technology & Society really hit me as very policy-focused, and it showed me there are many avenues to working with nonprofits.

What advice would you give incoming students?

Contact your professors! Even if you send them one e-mail question about something they mentioned in class, it establishes a connection. Explore all opportunities. I had not even considered going to graduate school until coming here, and I also have a new appreciation for all Raleigh has to offer.