Outstanding University of Mary Washington students were honored for outstanding achievements at commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 and at recent awards programs. Victoria Kim-Sze Wong received the UMW Alumni Award for demonstrating an outstanding combination of academic excellence, leadership and service to the university and Departmental Honors in English. Michael J. Kappert received the Fredericksburg Kiwanis Award and Departmental Honors in Political Science. Julie Ann Dymon won the UMW Alumni Association Bachelor of Liberal Studies Distinguished Graduate Award for academic excellence and citizenship. Dymon also received the Carlton R. Lutterbie, Jr. Award for the Outstanding English Major and Departmental Honors in English. Emily Antos received the Clara Boyd Wheeler Award for graduating senior who exemplifies grace, a spirit of service and the ability to change lives. Sarah Lowdon received the Elizabeth M. Baumgarten Leadership Award for outstanding … [Read more...]

Civil rights icon John Lewis called on the University of Mary Washington class of 2011 to build a better society, urging the graduates to challenge injustices as he delivered the undergraduate commencement address on Saturday, May 7. “You must stand up. You must speak up. You must speak out,” said Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia. “You must create a world community at peace with itself.” Lewis, a 1961 Freedom Rider, praised the university for its three-month tribute to the Freedom Rides and to their architect, the late civil rights leader James Farmer who taught at Mary Washington. The Freedom Rides successfully defied segregated interstate bus travel and facilities in the South. “No other college in America is pausing like you have to celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides,” he said. “I come here to say thank you, thank you.” “The University of Mary Washington is a bright light in the … [Read more...]

The University of Mary Washington graduated a total of 1,295 students during its 100th commencement in a graduate ceremony on Friday, May 6 in Dodd Auditorium and in an undergraduate ceremony on Saturday, May 7, in Ball Circle on the university’s Fredericksburg campus. Graduates with a master of business administration degree: Stephen Thomas Deforrest Abbott, Dzifah K. Amouzou, Lawrence Gregory Andrews, Laura L. Artis, Barbara Yentumi Asante, Jessica Brittiney Baldwin, Rachel Rose Ball, James Lail Bennett, Patricia Walker Broome, Brianne Elizabeth Bulzomi, Rosanne Burrus, Parker J. G. Castle, Richard Garland Colvin, Vincent Matthew Consumano, Staysha M. Cunningham, Tina M. Ervin, Holly Eveler, Oluseyi O. Falaiye, Audrey Lynne Fleming, Diego Armando Lituma Flor, Whitney A. French, Jaime L. Friedel, Magnus E. Georgestone, Amanda J. Goetz, Crystal Dawn Hale, Charles Wesley Hayward, Monica Nicole Jackson, Elliott Marshall Jones, Cynthia Jane Dorsett Kelly, Elizabeth Eugenia … [Read more...]

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), a 1961 Freedom Rider, spoke at the University of Mary Washington’s graduate commencement ceremony Friday, May 6, urging the students to believe in change—and make it happen. “Fifty years ago, I got involved. We changed history,’’ Filner said of the Freedom Rides that successfully defied interstate bus travel in the South. “I think you could do the same. Get involved. Change history.” Filner spoke to about 1,300, including graduates, families, friends and faculty, gathered in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium for the ceremony held to award graduate degrees. A total of 252 master’s degrees were awarded, including 77 master of business administration degrees, 134 master of education degrees, 12 master of science in management information systems degrees and 29 master of science in elementary education degrees. “You have a responsibility and an opportunity to decide you’ve got to … [Read more...]

University of Mary Washington Assistant Professor of Psychology Virginia Mackintosh says no youngsters are more at risk than the children of incarcerated women. Mackintosh discusses her extensive work with these youth and their mothers during an interview airing on the “With Good Reason” public radio program beginning Saturday, April 30. Mackintosh’s interview can be heard on April 30 at 4:30 p.m. on WCVE 88.9 FM and on Monday, May 2 at 12:30 a.m. on WAMU 88.5 FM. The program, “Behind Bars,” is expected to be available online beginning Friday, April 29 at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/04/behind-bars. Most incarcerated women are single mothers—and the sole financial providers of one or more youngsters, says Mackintosh, who has taught a parenting course for mothers in prison and who leads UMW students in a one-week summer camp for the children left behind. No public agency tracks this sharply increasing yet under-recognized population of about … [Read more...]

University of Mary Washington senior Charles S. Reed Jr. is the sole Virginia student—and one of only 40 U.S. college students—chosen through a nationwide competition to retrace the historic route of the original 1961 Freedom Rides that challenged segregated bus travel in the South. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-style-parent:""; font-size:11.0pt;"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-"Times New Roman";} Reed and others selected for the 2011 Student Freedom Ride will join original Freedom Riders aboard the PBS “American Experience” bus for the May 6-16 trip from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. The bus will stop at University of Mary Washington on Sunday, May 8 during a 10-day journey coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides that defied segregated bus transportation throughout the Deep South. The selection of Reed and other students was announced April 7 … [Read more...]

The University of Mary Washington’s anti-cancer charity fundraiser Relay for Life raised more than $65,000, easily doubling the funds collected in 2010. Having raised $32,000 last year, UMW student organizers of the relay had set an ambitious goal of $50,000 for the 2011 event. “Though last-minute plans changed because of the weather, we were still able to blow our $50,000 goal out of the water -- and had a great time doing it! Thank you to everyone who came out in support of UMW Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society,” Samantha Luffy, senior spirit chair, said in her post on UMW's Facebook wall. Nearly 500 students, staff and community members participated in the event, which began 3 p.m. April 2. Teams walked until 3 a.m. April 3. Read more about the event. … [Read more...]

The University of Mary Washington will host a panel of Freedom Riders for a Great Lives Lecture Series discussion on Thursday, March 31 as part of three days of events honoring the 1961 Freedom Rides that challenged segregated interstate bus travel in the Deep South. Freedom Riders Charles Person and Catherine Burks-Brooks will be joined by fellow riders Reginald Green and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland at 7:30 p.m. on March 31 in George Washington Hall, Dodd Auditorium, for a conversation led by Raymond Arsenault, author of “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.” Charles Person, then an 18-year-old Morehouse College freshman and the youngest member of the original Freedom Ride, was one of the most badly beaten riders during the May 14, 1961 riot at the Birmingham, Ala., Trailways bus station. Catherine Burks-Brooks, then a 21-year-old Tennessee State University student, found herself in the May 20, 1961 riot at the Montgomery, Ala., Greyhound bus station and … [Read more...]

Karl Rove, the Republican political strategist best known as President George W. Bush’s top advisor, will be the featured speaker at the Fredericksburg Forum to be hosted by the University of Mary Washington on Wednesday, September 28. The program will be held at 8 p.m. in George Washington Hall, Dodd Auditorium. The long-running forum, which typically has offered two lectures annually since 1996, will be consolidated into a single, fall program beginning in 2011-12. In the spring semester, the university hosts numerous, popular guest speakers, including the James Farmer visiting scholar lectures and the Chappell “Great Lives” lecture series. Rove served as Bush’s senior advisor from 2000 to 2007 and as deputy chief of staff from 2004 to 2007. He oversaw the White House offices of strategic initiatives, political affairs, public liaison and intergovernmental affairs and was deputy chief of staff for policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process. … [Read more...]

Four University of Mary Washington faculty authors will speak at the 17th annual Virginia Festival of the Book, to be held March 16 through 20 in Charlottesville. Professors Claudia Emerson, Jeffrey McClurken, Debra Schleef and Steve Watkins will participate in readings and panel discussions. Jeffrey W. McClurken will present his book “Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia” (2009) as part of the panel discussion and session “Civil War: Going to War and Its Aftermath” at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16 at the University of Virginia (UVA) Bookstore at 400 Emmet Street South. McClurken is associate professor and chair of history and American studies. Debra J. Schleef will participate in the reading and panel discussion during the session "Political and Social Trends in the South” at noon on Saturday, March 19 at the UVA Bookstore. Schleef, associate professor of sociology and chair of sociology and anthropology, … [Read more...]