MiddCORE Receives Innovation Award
MiddCORE, the mentor-driven experiential learning Winter Term and summer course on entrepreneurship and innovation, received the Ashoka U Cordes Innovation Award. MiddCORE was one of six recipients of this year’s award, which is given annually by Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs.
“This is a tremendous honor and we’re proud to be in the company of the other winners,” Jessica Holmes, director of MiddCORE and associate professor of Economics, said in a press release. “We also recognize the strong support we received from our incredible mentors, the administration and our colleagues at the Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Programs for Creativity and Innovation. We are fortunate to be part of such a strong ecosystem for innovation at Middlebury College.”
The award is given to programs which “demonstrate how students, faculty and community members can achieve social impact through colleges and universities — from admissions, curriculum and career services, all the way to community and alumni engagement,” according to Ashoka’s website.
The six winners, including MiddCORE, will be featured at the annual Ashoka U Exchange, an annual international conference featuring 140 institutions from 40 countries which will take place at Brown University on Feb. 20-22.
Mellon Recognizes Dance Department
In early December the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a $310,000 grant to the College in support of “Movement Matters,” which a College news release described as “a multi-year interdisciplinary endeavor to bring emerging artists in the field of dance together with Middlebury faculty and students for creative and curricular development.”
According to a College press release, Assistant Professor of Dance and Chair of the Dance Program Christal Brown will be the director of the project, which will address the literal and metaphorical interactions between the human body and “our physical and political worlds.”
As part of the project, “emerging movement artists” will come to the College during Winter Term 2015, and one of those artists will receive an appointment as the Mellon Interdisciplinary Choreographer at Middlebury.
In the press release, Brown said that the grant could make the College a home of dance innovation.
“This is an investment in the field at large which we hope will lay the groundwork for our dance program to grow into a hub for creativity and innovation among emerging movement artists.”
According to Brown, the grant is likely to boost the prestige of the College’s dance program, attracting both students and visiting artists alike.
College Mourns Armstrong, 12th President
Dr. James Armstrong, the 12th president of the College, passed away on Dec. 16, 2013. Armstrong helmed the College from 1963 to 1975. During his time in office, he instituted the College’s first system of tenure, created a professional leave program, worked furiously to surpass fundraising goals, increased faculty salaries and worked to improve curricula first-hand.
Armstrong’s tenure was marked by social and political unrest, along with financial difficulties. Nevertheless, Armstrong successfully posited the College as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges.
Armstrong was born in Princeton, New Jersey where his father was a member of the faculty. He attended the Taft School in Connecticut, and then Princeton, where he studied Classics. After Princeton, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and was recalled for the Korean War.
Armstrong was an instructor at Princeton and Indiana University before he was approached in 1963 by the Board of Trustees to replace Samuel Stratton, the College’s 11th President.
After his term as president, Armstrong headed the Charles A. Dana Foundation. In 2010 the College established the James I. Armstrong Professorship in Classical Studies, currently held by Professor of Classics Jane Chaplin. Armstrong and his wife Carol had three children and numerous grandchildren.
With Additional Reporting by NATE SANS
