His own foray into science took place at a lab in Montana, a state strewn with Superfund sites. Weber tested heavy metal concentrations in water, fish, soil and blood samples as a summer intern. When mines close down, he says, they leave diminished towns and sites laced with toxic heavy metals. “The mines are a huge issue.”

At Willamette, Weber’s instinctual love of math emerged, and he also found himself gravitating toward chemistry, rather than biology. “As far as my parents are concerned, I’ve committed a small act of treason,” he grins. “But I like math, and it has more practical applications to chemistry than biology.”

His act of treason has paid off — in a big way. Weber just received a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, which supports math and science students who demonstrate outstanding potential. He is now a math/chemistry double major, hoping to find intersections between the two fields.

“Pure math is all theory,” Weber says. “I’m interested in applying abstract mathematics to analysis of chemical structures and to specific questions in science. It’s cool to know what will happen before it happens, and to explain processes with concepts that don’t have anything to do with our everyday lives. For example, mathematicians use imaginary numbers in a very abstract way — such numbers, after all, are called ‘imaginary’ — but it turns out that a lot of scientific applications need imaginary numbers to arrive at solutions.

“There’s kind of a stigma about pure abstract math, that it doesn’t really mean anything to anyone outside the field — kind of like philosophy — but the applications are what excite me the most, the places where it does mean something.”

Weber’s proposed research will look at the application of an algebraic method to theoretical chemistry and will allow for a degree of abstraction seldom seen in chemical calculations. In particular, it will examine electric dipole allowed electronic transitions.

Weber is also on the Willamette golf team (“Not many people know we have one!”) and the debate team. Debate appeals to him in an almost mathematical way. “I like the logic of arguments. If this, then that, and then that — kind of like math or chess. Debate is great training for politicians and lawyers and teachers, but I look at it more as a game.”

His strength in science makes Weber a formidable debate opponent when the topic is pharmaceutical drug oversight, global warming, environmental protection or alternative energy, including nuclear power. He reads The New York Times online every day to keep abreast of issues.

Weber landed a very competitive summer internship at UC–Davis, where he’ll do lab work with a professional research team. And then he’ll return to his studies at Willamette, to continue tracing the “this, then that” logic of pure math applied to chemistry.

For information on the Goldwater Scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the second floor of the University Center.

This spring, she also won something coveted by scientists everywhere: funding to help with her research. She received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which provides money annually for up to three years to students with extraordinary promise in the sciences, mathematics or engineering. Grace will receive about $40,500 this year. She is the seventh Willamette graduate to win this fellowship in the past four years.

Grace conducted her Caspian Tern research at Willamette under the guidance of Biology Associate Professor David Craig (read more about her undergraduate research.)

In graduate school, she has been investigating a strange behavior of the Nazca Booby, a bird that lives and breeds mainly in the Galápagos on the island Española. When non-breeding adults visit chicks whose parents have left them alone, the adults often display aggressive, sexual behaviors toward the young birds. Grace is studying the abusive behavior, which often causes the chicks to become more abusive when they grow up — similar to a “cycle of violence” in humans.

“For the past month and a half, I have been protecting chicks by placing an enclosure around their nest sites, and taking blood samples to detect any differences between protected and unprotected chicks,” she says.

Because she was away from her email during her time in Española, Grace didn’t even know she had received the NSF award until Craig, her former mentor, sent her a note with his congratulations. She is excited about what the opportunity could mean for her future work.

“The NSF fellowship will allow me to continue to spend long periods in the field,” she says. “Otherwise that would be very difficult since my financial support at Wake Forest is in the form of a teaching assistantship.”

For information on this scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the second floor of Putnam University Center.

They are retracing a journey Uggen made fresh out of college, when he volunteered to serve in Ecuador with President John F. Kennedy’s newly established Peace Corps. There he worked as an agricultural volunteer with peasant farmers, helped build a school and coached a boxing team. He also met his wife, Martha Gavilanez, who worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and now teaches Spanish at Willamette.

Though Uggen has long since returned to the States, his research is still centered in Ecuador. He published a book about Ecuador’s land tenure and is working on a biography about American entrepreneur Archer Harmon, who constructed and directed the country’s first railroad — and its first international corporation. Uggen’s findings about the country’s multinational corporations were presented at the University of Cambridge in London and the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where investors for the original railroad lived. And he has been invited by the Ecuadorian Academy of History to give public lectures this summer in the Ecuadorian town where he was a Peace Corps volunteer, and where the railroad began — 100 years ago.

For Uggen and his students, first it’s Portland to Quito, where students stay in the homes of locals and practice Spanish. At 9,000 feet, Ecuador’s capitol city is the second highest in the world, and Andeans call it “the middle of the world” because it bumps up against the equator.

Then it’s a small plane to Coca, a city walled in by Amazon jungle. From there, it’s a canoe, an open-sided bus on a road that disappears into rain forest, and another canoe, loaded with food and water, for the final paddle upriver. The trip concludes at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, where a native guide introduces students to their rustic cabins. Rainwater is collected and generators are turned on for night light.

Uggen has been taking classes to experience the Spanish-speaking cultures of Ecuador and Spain since 1994. In Ecuador, he lectures on the country’s history, politics and language; introduces students to Indian market towns; guides them up an active volcano; dares them to snorkel through underwater gardens; and leads hikes into the jungle.

Uggen collaborates with Willamette Biology Professors David Craig and Susan Kephart, who give students an introduction to the local flora and fauna. Ecuador, after all, is home to the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin fashioned the theory of evolution. Uggen also invites luminaries to speak; guest lecturers have included a former secretary general of OPEC (oil is a major export) and the director of the Galapagos National Park.

During the three-week trip, students sleep in the rain forest, in cities and towns, and on board boats at the Galapagos Islands. They read Plundering Paradise to learn about the strains eco-tourism is putting on the country, and discuss how the confluence of oil, money and ecological treasure creates controversy and even violence. Ecuador is a third world country under development, Uggen says.

In spite of the crowded itinerary and studious workload, the trip is popular. And Uggen says the demand for Spanish is high, with 60 percent of Willamette students signing up to learn the language. “Our country is changing,” Uggen says. “Hispanics are the largest minority group and may constitute a quarter of the population by 2050.”

Willamette is seeking to internationalize its curriculum, Uggen says. “A second language broadens career possibilities, and many of our students will be working abroad at some point. They want this experience, and the Hispanic community here gives students plenty of opportunities to practice.

“I love working with students,” Uggen says, “and I like to see them go abroad and come back changed.” Janel Addicott ’08, a Spanish major who’s taken three classes with Uggen, says, “At the beginning of each semester, Professor Uggen admits that he’s not a native speaker, and it shocks us. It’s inspiring to know that he started at the same level as we did, and that through travel abroad we can become that proficient.”

Students, alumni and even community members are invited to visit Ecuador with Uggen. Familiarity with Spanish is not required, and the next trip is not until the summer of 2009, so you have plenty of time to pack your bags and learn a phrase or two.

A Spanish-immersion program, led by Spanish Professor Martha Gavilanez, will be in Ecuador for six weeks this summer. For information about the Ecuador Language Program, visit www.willamette.edu/~mgavilan/Ecuador/index.htm.

The curiosity gene came from his parents, both biology academics — his dad a geneticist and toxicologist, and his mom a molecular biologist and cancer researcher. They always encouraged him to ask questions when he was young, and they made sure he knew how to find the answers.

As he graduates this spring with a double major in chemistry and biology, Nebert will continue asking, “Why?” This time, he’ll travel to the Netherlands to do it. He has been honored with a Fulbright Grant for U.S. Students, which supports post-graduate research, creative projects or teaching in more than 150 countries each year. Nebert is one of 10 Willamette students and alumni to receive a Fulbright in the past five years.

Nebert will work with faculty at Wageningen University to research microbial ecology, specifically applied to the area of sustainable agriculture and soil biodiversity. The Netherlands is one of the world leaders in this type of research, which examines the relationships of microorganisms in the soil. Nebert has a particular interest in the way different farming practices affect the soil biodiversity, which may also affect the soil’s greenhouse gas emissions, such as nitrous oxide.

“Holland is asking important questions about what makes soil healthy,” Nebert says. “They’re making comparisons between soil in pristine areas and in unhealthy areas. They’re trying to find what organisms are present in healthy soil, and how these organisms may be used in creating and informing public policy.

“We eat plants, and those plants require certain microorganisms in the soil. But we basically know nothing about these organisms because they’re so small. We are just beginning to know the net effect of what they’re doing.”

Nebert grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, but his parents were from Oregon, and they visited the state often while he was growing up. He wanted to head west for college and originally set his sights on attending a large university. But in the end he chose Willamette, and he doesn’t regret it.

“I made the right choice. I’ve been able to establish a lot of close relationships with my professors. You’re held a lot more accountable in small classes, which I’ve come to realize is a good thing.”

It was those relationships with his professors, particularly biologist David Craig and political and environmental scientist Joe Bowersox, that sparked his interest in environmental issues. He also had the opportunity last fall to meet one of his scientific heroes — Edward O. Wilson, a world leader in entomology, animal behavior, biodiversity and other sciences. Wilson visited campus to deliver a lecture in honor of the biology department’s centennial anniversary celebration. (Read more about Wilson’s visit at http://blog.willamette.edu/news/archives/2007/09/willamette_comm.php.)

“Scientists are often afraid to use the word ‘ethics’ because it makes them seem like they have a bias,” Nebert says. “[Wilson] is not afraid to use that word. He’s an environmental advocate, but he’s also a well-respected scientist. … He tried to show students there’s this field that we don’t know anything about — microbial ecology.

“Soil is so important. You get your food from the soil. There’s toxic waste in the soil that must be cleaned up. You can fight desertification if you introduce certain microbes into the soil. I feel lucky to have found this type of research.”

For information on the Fulbright grant and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the second floor of Putnam University Center, or visit www.willamette.edu/dept/saga/.

Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was the first legislation in the United States to give terminally ill patients - rather than medical professionals - the ultimate right to make their own end-of-life decisions. Vollmar’s user-friendly website about physician-assisted death has been significant in furthering national and international discussion about the issue, providing information about legislative and medical developments. The site has received heavy traffic from doctors, lawyers and patients, and Vollmar has been interviewed on TV and radio broadcasts and quoted in newspapers across the country.

Many terminally ill patients prefer to die at home, Vollmar says. They want to be surrounded by loved ones and avoid the numbing pain that often accompanies terminal illness, and they don’t want to leave their families with crushing medical bills in order to prolong an existence of questionable quality. In short, they want to choose the moment for goodbyes and to be fully conscious — rather than adrift in a morphine haze — so they can share the process with those they love.

Oregon’s law allows doctors to prescribe — but not administer — the medication that will end life. “That action is left to the patient,” Vollmar says. “If you know something about the dying process, you know that pain management is not always possible. We have more people living longer, and living with chronic pain, and our medical system is overly technological. Many patients don’t want every single measure to be taken. This legislation gives patients more choice.

“It’s been interesting to see who chooses to use the Death with Dignity Act,” the law professor says. “In most cases, the patients are older, highly educated people who are used to being in control of their lives. Many obtain prescriptions without ever using them. They just want that backup in case they decide they’re ready to die.”

Vollmar’s website data shows that the Oregon law has been implemented with proper safeguards, and well received. Surveys show that the public, here and abroad, supports death with dignity measures by 60 to 80 percent or higher.

Many states are looking at the issue now, Vollmar says, and several countries have adopted physician-assisted death laws, but Oregon was the first U.S. state to push the idea forward. The state is now a leader in end-of-life care, with hospitals like Oregon Health and Science University allowing terminally ill patients to designate only comfort care rather than extreme and costly measures. “Oregon has always been a pioneer in grassroots efforts,” she says. “We’re good at coming up with original ideas.

“For me, there’s satisfaction in seeing society evolve to the point where we are addressing end-of-life issues,” says Vollmar, who has been active on other fronts as well.

In 1984, in what was almost an act of revolution, Vollmar drafted new will and trust forms using readable language, so people can actually understand the legal documents they sign. Numerous Oregon lawyers use the forms, which she continues to update. She also took on an ambitious revision of the state’s trust laws that led to the 2005 adoption of the Oregon Uniform Trust Code by a near-unanimous vote of the legislature (“I decided no one but an academic was going to have the time or inclination to tackle it!”), and she co-authored a book that provides law students with a plain-speaking introduction to trusts and estates.

“This is not just a scholarly occupation, but also a personal one,” Vollmar says. “I care about people who are going through the final stages of their lives.”

She cares about her students too. Sitting in her fourth-floor office overlooking the maples along Winter Street, she says, “This is the perfect job for me. It’s incredibly rewarding to mentor professionals in training. I’ve never taught in an abstract or theoretical way. I feel strongly that I need to equip students with the kind of expertise they’ll really need to help their clients.”

Good to know, since there are at least 3,000 lawyers, at last count, who have been introduced to trusts and estates by Professor Vollmar. We’re in good hands.

So there she was at the assembly, fulfilling her secondary duties as one of the school’s deans. Her watchful eye went from student to student as she kept them in line — turn off your cell phone, stop acting up, no talking. She was barely listening for the first half of the assembly.

Then an unfamiliar woman started speaking, someone who wasn’t on the agenda. “Who is that?” Schorr thought. She listened as the woman discussed what it takes to be a good teacher, and how she was there to present a prestigious award to an educator at Roosevelt. “Then she called out my name,” Schorr says. “I was shocked, because at this point, I thought it was another teacher at the school.”

And that’s how Schorr joined the elite group of just 80 teachers nationwide to receive a 2007 Milken Family Foundation Educator Award, a coveted honor referred to as the “Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher Magazine. The $25,000 awards make up the nation’s largest teacher recognition program and honor up to 100 outstanding educators every year. This is the second year in a row that a Willamette graduate has received the award — Larry Conley MAT’99 was honored in 2006. At least two other Willamette alumni also have won the award, including Hendrea Ferguson MAT’95 in 2003 and Dave Bertholf ’90, MAT’92 in 2000.

Schorr, who has been teaching for seven years, was selected for her exceptional talent, accomplishments in instruction and results in student learning, her potential as a future leader, and her inspiring presence that motivates and impacts students, colleagues and the community. “Many times when you’re teaching, you don’t really know if you’re doing a good job, at least not right away,” Schorr says. “Kids don’t come up and say, ‘Thanks for doing that lesson today.’ Later you might see them enroll in a second science class or get into college. It’s cool to have an award that says you’re good at this. More teachers deserve honors like this.”

Schorr wasn’t planning on becoming a teacher when she majored in biology and played golf at Willamette (her last name at the time was Winger). She originally considered becoming a doctor, but after graduation, she signed up for a different type of service — Teach For America. She spent two years in an inner-city Houston middle school teaching science to a group of predominantly Latino students. Her Teach For America co-worker quit after her first week.

“It was a fairly challenging school. There was not a lot of support for education at home. Kids really struggled with school, and half of them didn’t graduate. What helped me was getting to know the kids and getting to know the other teachers I worked with. I’d go to them and ask, ‘How do I deal with this child?’”

The experience opened her eyes to the struggles of students who didn’t have all of life’s advantages. It was a stark contrast to Schorr’s childhood, living comfortably in Portland and attending private schools. When she finished her Teach For America stint, she took a job at Roosevelt High and has been there since. Roosevelt’s student body is diverse — about 40 percent are African-American, 38 percent are white, and the rest are mainly Latino and Asian. Almost one-third of the students are homeless at some point during the year, and between 70 and 80 percent participate in the federal free and reduced-cost lunch program.

“These students are very different in terms of their families and home life. But students have a lot of curiosity. Even if they’re a couple of years behind in reading, they still want to learn the concepts. They have more struggles to get to school — no food, no place to stay the night before — but they have amazing diligence.”

Roosevelt is divided into three small academies, each focusing on a different subject area. Schorr teaches at the POWER (Pursuit of Wellness Education at Roosevelt) Academy, which emphasizes math, science and health. All freshmen and sophomores take either two math or two science classes, and seniors are required to take one Advanced Placement college-level science course.

Advanced math and science can be a tough sell with students, which is why Schorr works hard to present her lessons creatively. She leads the students in hands-on experiments and finds ways to keep them constantly moving and participating through activities such as building models or playing games. She also tries to incorporate technology into her lessons to engage the students. One of her students told The Oregonian, “I didn’t really like science until I came here, but now it’s, ‘Science — yeah!’”

“My kids let me know very easily if they don’t get something,” Schorr says. “When kids struggle with behavior in the classroom, it makes it obvious to you that you’re not teaching them right.”

Besides learning to become a better teacher, Schorr also has acquired a sense of humility from her students. “I may not have a lot of food in my cupboard, but at least I have something to eat this weekend. Some of my kids come in Monday and say, ‘I didn’t have anything to eat.’ It definitely helps keep me grounded.”

Schorr’s co-workers have said they could see her becoming a school administrator, a move she is considering. She’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in educational leadership.

“In my seven years of teaching, I think I’ve worked under 13 different principals. That’s definitely one of the issues I see in high-need schools. It’s a pretty hard job and very time-consuming. But it’s also constantly rewarding. If you respect and trust the kids, they treat you with that same amount of respect and trust. You get to know these kids really well. Even though we didn’t have school today, I’ve had some students call me all day for help on their final. If these students don’t have good teachers, they’re not going to make it.”

The prestigious national scholarship will provide Zerzan, who competes on the Willamette cross country and track and field teams, with $7,500 to help pay for graduate school. Only 29 male athletes and 29 female athletes receive this award yearly for each season of the athletic calendar (fall, winter and spring).

“I was pleasantly surprised and excited to learn that I had received the scholarship,” Zerzan says. “I hope to use it for medical school tuition. Medical school can be very expensive, and since I plan on becoming a doctor one day, it will be very helpful to have this assistance in funding my education.”

Willamette’s cross country and track and field programs have a strong history of producing NCAA Postgraduate Scholars — Zerzan is the fifth Bearcat in the last four years from these programs to receive the award.

The scholarship extends a long list of accomplishments for Zerzan during her time at Willamette. In January she was chosen one of just eight student-athletes nationwide to receive the NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award, which honors character and leadership in addition to athletic and academic achievements. She won NCAA Division III cross country individual national championships in 2006 and 2007, making her only the third athlete to repeat as the women’s champion in the 27-year history of the contest. She also earned All-America honors for three seasons, and she was named NCAA Division III National Female Athlete of the Year in cross country for the past two years.

When she’s not competing, Zerzan remains devoted to her academics. She is majoring in biochemistry with a minor in Spanish. Two summers ago she traveled to Costa Rica through the Organization of Tropical Studies, headquartered at Duke University, where she studied the epidemiological effects of dietary change in the country’s indigenous populations.

Her concern for helping others extends to her other extracurricular activities, which include volunteering as a bilingual mentor in several local schools and co-founding the Willamette chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, the largest student network in the nation committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide.

“I feel like so many people have helped me and touched my life in so many ways that it’s important for me to try to give something back,” Zerzan says. “I was raised with the conviction that we are here to help others, and this belief motivates a lot of my actions. I hope that at least in some way what I do can make a positive impact in the lives of others.”

For information on this scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the second floor of the University Center.

“These negative images are not benign — they harm the continent,” says Joyce Millen, assistant professor of anthropology. “Most countries in Africa are growing and experiencing a renaissance, yet due to the continual bad rap the continent gets in the foreign press, potential investors and trade partners fail to see the enormous promise in particular countries. Most people are surprised, for example, when they learn that Africa’s major cities have modern, sophisticated architecture, industries and telecommunications systems.”

Educating others about the true nature of the continent and its diversity is the goal of a growing celebration at Willamette called Africa Week. For the past two years, the University hosted one day of Africa-related events, but with increasing interest among students and faculty, the program expanded this spring to an entire week.

This year’s activities included screenings of films about Africa, a workshop exploring the resilience of Sierra Leonean women and the creativity of young African musicians, discussions on African sculpture at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, and presentations by students who have studied abroad in South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and Uganda. The campus community was able to taste African cuisine all week in the University’s dining facilities and peruse an African market on the final day.

“We want people to celebrate the diversity of Africa’s nations, and not just think of the continent as one country,” says Kelsey Walsh ’09, one of the organizers. “We’re lucky to have professors like Amadou Fofana [assistant professor of French] and Joyce Millen who care about teaching what is good about Africa.”

The most interactive and visual event of the week was the creation of a giant Africa puzzle map. Groups of Willamette students from residence halls, sororities and Tokyo International University of America each were given blank puzzle pieces representing all the countries in Africa. The challenge was to research ethnic makeup, geography, history, political movements, languages, natural resources and other attributes that make each nation unique. The groups decorated their pieces to reflect their newfound knowledge, and all the pieces were put together to form a map of the continent that is 15' by 15'. They also created posters that displayed at least 20 facts about each country.

The colorful map — which included drawings, photos and paintings of everything from flags to topographical features to literary and language references — drew numerous admiring comments from the students, faculty and community members who viewed it. Three groups received awards for their work: Most Educational went to the piece representing Chad, created by Pi Beta Phi sorority; Most Creative was given to Madagascar, made by students living on the third floor of Matthews Hall; and Most Beautiful went to Nigeria, created by students from the first floor of Lausanne Hall.

Organizers hope to extend the learning beyond Willamette by making the puzzle available to other Oregon schools.

“Willamette has a lot of interest in Africa, and I think the fact that events went so well this year and in previous years attests to that,” says Ben Clanton ’10, another organizer. “Many of the stories you hear about Africa involve issues like HIV/AIDS, or crises in areas like the Darfur area of Sudan, but we want people to know more about the positive aspects of the continent and the people.”

Now Bucur MBA’08 constantly reads and watches the news or checks market blogs online, carefully noting how each world event can cause the market to rise or fall. “I’ve started to understand how the news affects the financial market,” she says. “It’s amazing to see that one small event can affect the entire world.”

It’s all part of Bucur’s participation in the Student Investment Fund course at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. The students invest actual dollars in the stock market, but not before learning to analyze economic, financial and political developments and trends. Their success is evaluated not just on whether they make money, but on the strategy they used throughout the process. “You learn how to be a mature investor,” Bucur says.

The Student Investment Fund is just example of hands-on learning Bucur has participated in since starting Willamette’s MBA program two years ago. Last year she was part of a team of six full-time students who placed second out of 23 teams for their business plan in the International Collegiate Business Simulation Competition put on by the University of San Diego. The competition asks students to create a simulated company that produces and sells its own products. Bucur’s team created a T-shirt design company. The teams drafted business plans for their products, then made strategic decisions for 20 quarters of business simulation.

“While you are playing the game, you have to write a business plan and then a report about your results,” Bucur says. “You are judged on the managerial decisions you made, either on the business plan or on the annual report. The simulation is very realistic because you have to learn how to read macroeconomic and other factors.”

When Bucur enrolled at Willamette, it was her first time studying in the U.S. The Romanian native earned a bachelor’s degree in business in her home country, but she wanted to increase her opportunities and in her mind, the U.S. is “where you can do business the best.” International students seeking MBAs are common at Atkinson. The business school has 30 such students this academic year from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Bulgaria, China, Guinea, India, Jamaica, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Bucur came with a goal of learning better business practices from a country known for its economic prowess. She didn’t expect to learn to examine her home country more critically as well. “The program here focuses on the relevance of what you’re given. It teaches you how to think. That makes me see my home differently. I observe issues and try to think of a solution at the same time. It’s something I do naturally now.”

As a former Communist country, Romania struggles with unique economic barriers. Bucur says rapid changes occurred as Romania worked toward becoming part of the European Union, a status it achieved in 2007. The pressure to develop an infrastructure increased, leading to rapid widespread construction projects. More multinational investors are interested in Romania’s market as the country tries to become more competitive. The education and legal systems are improving.

But problems still remain, Bucur says, as leaders who were part of the former regime remain resistant to change. “We started to do things the right way, but it was one person against 100,” she says. “Fresh blood finally started coming in and changing things, but all the young people are leaving because of the problems. You can’t get a decent job unless you know somebody or you pay somebody.”

These are the circumstances that led Bucur to pursue an American MBA, and her decision appears to be the right one. She recently was offered a job working in marketing for Johnson & Johnson in Romania, and she accepted. “It will be tough to go back to the inefficiency that I left behind, but I’m not afraid. Here, I’ve learned to be an individual and have confidence in my actions. I’m pretty sure that Romania needs young people like me.”

The group has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times and on NPR’s All Things Considered; it has also been featured on Bloomberg TV’s Muse, CBS’s Sunday Morning, St. Paul Sunday, Weekend America and The Next Big Thing, among others. Members of the group have been praised for virtuosic flair and for their efforts to make the new music genre more accessible.

“Strange Imaginary Animals” was recorded before Barth moved here in 2007. Based in Chicago, eighth blackbird tours internationally up to eight months of the year, and Barth performed with the group for a decade before moving to Oregon for a life off the road. She now teaches at Willamette, plays with the Oregon Symphony and the Eugene Symphony, and serves as principal flutist with the Salem Chamber Orchestra.

Barth also performs with Fear No Music and Beta Collide, which she started. She is described as “ferociously talented” by The Oregonian. “Barth gave an electric performance ... effortlessly leaping across registers and conveying a sense of intense dialogue,” The Oregonian wrote of one of her performances.

“I feel like this award is the punctuation of my career with eighth blackbird,” Barth says. “There’s a definition to that part of my life.”

Her new ensemble, Beta Collide, continues to explore the new music genre, but takes a different approach. “We’re not approaching artists from a classical genre, but are experimenting with free jazz and incorporating elements from the art world,” she says.

You can hear Barth Saturday, April 5, in Hudson Hall. The free performance will feature a new work by sound installation artist Stephen Vitiello, who manipulated an original photo into a graphic score, which the group will play. The concert, part of the New Music at Willamette Series, is funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Beta Collide will also perform at the University of Oregon April 14. “Sound-Bytes” will feature physicist Amit Goswami, who is best known as one of the scientists interviewed in the 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know!? Goswami will also be featured in an upcoming documentary about the Dalai Lama, narrated by Harrison Ford. The scientist will talk about quantum physics, consciousness and spirituality while Beta Collide accompanies with an improvised sound stream.

Barth has been playing flute since fourth grade. “I wanted to play in the school band and my orthodontist gave me a choice, flute or percussion,” Barth says. “He said any other instrument would damage my orthodontic treatment. So it was flute.”

Unfortunately, in the Allegheny Mountain mining town where he grew up, college-bound kids were discouraged from taking “soft” subjects like history, and were instead pushed toward the sciences so they could get into “above ground” jobs — running the mines as engineers rather than working them.

Cotlar shifted through five majors in college before settling on history; it took him that long to realize people can get paid to do what they love.

The fledging historian soon discovered that he had been born in a remarkable year. In 1968 America seemed poised on the edge of rethinking and recreating society. Against the backdrop of what seemed like a senseless war, draft-age students marched for peace. Thousands of African-Americans boycotted for equal rights, the women’s movement was born, and spiritual enlightenment seemed possible if only one meditated long enough.

“I was 12 during the election of 1980, and when my parents turned on the TV, Ronald Reagan was spewing invective against the long-haired hippies with their deviant lifestyles,” Cotlar says. “He was explicitly running against the legacy of the ’60s, saying that ‘ordinary’ Americans should take the country back, that these ideas are dangerous. He pointed to the extremist fringe of the movement and said, ‘All you have to do is look at the Weather Underground to know what kind of people these are.’”

Cotlar was fascinated by the cultural and political tumult of the ’60s and ’70s, and his upcoming book, Making America Safe for Democracy: The Rise and Fall of Trans-Atlantic Radicalism in the Early American Republic, focuses on a parallel time in American history. During the 1790s, he says, the trans-Atlantic world was in foment over ideas put forward by Thomas Paine, whose celebrated treatise, The Rights of Man, was the most widely read pamphlet in America and Europe.

Paine’s definition of democracy would have broadly expanded the rights of individuals, in accordance with the ideals of the French Revolution. America’s experiment with democracy was still a work in progress, with different political factions arguing over how democracy should be defined.

“But just as America’s 1960s antiwar movement became associated with drugs, loose lifestyles and violence, the political ideas behind the French Revolution were eventually thought to be dangerous and their promoters discredited,” Cotlar says.

The man whose ideas had been embraced on both sides of the Atlantic took a hard fall. During Paine’s 15-year sojourn in Europe, American leaders constructed a more moderate, non-revolutionary vision of democracy, one more limited in scope.

They discredited Paine’s ideas by discrediting Paine, Cotlar says, branding him an atheist anarchist on the radical fringe. Attacks were ratcheted up in intensity to counter the broad appeal and influence of his ideas. By the time Paine returned to America, he was hard-pressed to find a single tavern owner who would take him in, and when he died, only six people attended his funeral.

Cotlar’s book will be on bookshelves next year, and he’s already begun work on his next book, about nostalgia in pre–Civil War America. “During the aggressive modernization of the past 150 years, Americans have consistently expressed nostalgia about a disappearing past,” Cotlar says. “The idea of something being ‘old fashioned’ can only exist when the world is changing rapidly, losing its past. It’s not just a psychological phenomenon, but also a historical phenomenon. People still have trouble talking about the costs of change.”

Cotlar recently received a Millicent C. MacIntosh Fellowship, one of five awarded in the nation, to further his research. He’ll also co-organize a 2009 conference on “Antiquities and Ruins in the Nineteenth Century,” to be held at the Huntington Library in California. In addition, Cotlar serves on Willamette’s Council on Diversity and Social Justice. “A vibrant intellectual community requires a wide range of perspectives,” he says. “But diverse communities do not just emerge spontaneously. They must be built with some degree of intentionality.”

Of course, none of these activities will interfere with Cotlar’s other life — political media junkie, father to a five-year-old son who drums to Beatles songs, and gardener of “things I can eat.” History moves on, repeats itself, and doubles back, but some things never change.

In the pool, the team has three senior captains — Greg Henselman ’08, Shannon Gima ’08 and Brittany Thiemens ’08 — who provided the motivation and teamwork that helped nearly every swimmer achieve career bests this season. “The seniors have set the bar as far as what the expectations are,” Stephenson says. “They understand my thinking process better than the freshmen or sophomores.”

What makes the teams’ seniors even more special is their commitment to success beyond their sport. The senior swimmers include three student-athletes who have studied abroad, plus three others who plan to attend graduate school. “They have shown the capacity to understand time management, realizing they may not reach their full potential as athletes, but understanding the importance of an education to the rest of their lives,” Stephenson says.

As juniors, Lindsay Mumm ’08, Bridget Sutherland ’08 and Chelsea Hollingsworth ’08 each spent one semester studying abroad. Mumm went to Nicaragua through a program with the School for International Training. She studied Spanish and Nicaraguan history and culture in the classroom and conducted interviews with youngsters to learn about their political and community awareness. “It was incredible,” Mumm says. “I’m much more self-confident now. I was able to connect with people, even though I came from a different mindset.”

Mumm will travel to Chile in March 2009 to participate in a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship program. She will learn in a university setting and will coordinate community service projects involving Rotary Clubs in Chile. (To read more about her scholarship, go to http://blog.willamette.edu/stories/archives/2007/09/expanding_world.php.)

Hollingsworth also lauded the advantages of meeting new people from different cultures. She was a resident student at the University of Western Australia, where she immersed herself in the local culture and traveled to various scenic and historical locations. She didn’t meet only Australians at the university — the school also included students from Africa and the Far East. “We had large classes, so we had to find our own motivation, which was different from what I was accustomed to in my smaller classes at Willamette,” Hollingsworth says.

Henselman, Thiemens and Pete Kahn ’08 all plan to attend graduate school after they leave Willamette. Henselman is majoring in classical studies and mathematics, Thiemens is completing a major in exercise science, and Kahn is majoring in physics and Spanish.

Kahn interned last summer at Oregon Graduate Institute in Portland and hopes to head there to work on a doctorate in environmental science and engineering. With his physics major, he faced tough challenges balancing his frequent science labs with his swimming practices. Even so, he’s managed to maintain his academic standing while competing. “I have to create a schedule and stick to it,” he says. “I try to get all of my homework done right after practice so I don’t have to stay up late and I can be ready to practice the next day.”

Thiemens also acknowledged the importance of time management. “Our coach told all of us since our freshman year that we’re here for academics. It just takes enough willpower to make sacrifices in order to do well in your classes. We have someone in almost every major on the swim team. So, if you’re having trouble, it’s like having your own private tutor.”

Henselman was one of just two Willamette students selected as a Willamette Presidential Scholar last spring. He received a $2,500 academic scholarship to assist with a summer research project: “Extending the Diagnostic Applications of Graph Representations.” He also received an additional scholarship to cover tuition for one semester or to help with graduate school expenses.

Henselman’s research involved the study of polygons, figures that can range from a simple square to a complicated shape with hundreds of sides. Henselman sought appropriate mathematical approaches to determine the characteristics of shapes created by connecting the sides of polygons with even-numbered sides (2, 4, 6, etc.). Although his research was complicated and time-consuming, Henselman says the experience was valuable and left him with an even greater interest in mathematics.

“When you do first-hand research, you encounter all of the problems that undergraduates typically don’t deal with,” he says. “A big part of the project was coming up with the right language to convey what I was talking about.”

Thiemens says she plans to work toward an advanced degree in physical therapy. She has already advanced to the interview stage with one graduate program and is waiting to hear back from another. “I hope to be starting this fall,” she says. “My only regret is that we can’t have our athlete eligibility start over. I would love to swim again.”

In her five years as an assistant professor, Kirk has mentored six students through the Science Collaborative Research Program in the summer, plus two Presidential Scholars (a prestigious Willamette award that provides one semester’s tuition and money for research expenses). She could be found last summer in the lab with her own students and a local high school teacher, whom she and fellow chemistry assistant professor Andrew Duncan are mentoring after receiving a grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

While Kirk shares her research with students and helps them create their own projects, she also is mindful of showing them how to pass their work on to the next generation of researchers — essential when students graduate each year and new batches of chemists must take their place in the lab.

“I invest myself largely in the training of students,” Kirk says. “If I were working on my own in a lab, I could probably accomplish far more, far faster. But as a professor, I can work with students and train them so that they go on and accomplish far more as a group than I ever could by myself. A lot of my job is about seeing potential in students and helping them recognize it.”

In Kirk’s Chemical Concepts and Applications class, known informally as chemistry for non-science majors, she relates chemistry to an array of current events, including changes in the ozone layer and global warming. “The whole idea is to show relevance and teach students how important chemistry is in their daily lives,” she says.

When she enters the lab, Kirk’s main research focus is modifying molecules to create more effective antibiotics. Kirk remembers one of her favorite childhood pastimes was tackling logic problems, and her love of problem-solving eventually drew her to organic chemistry. Although she respects the work of other researchers, she wanted to do more than spend years in a lab creating complicated molecules.

“I wanted to feel like what I was doing had a purpose, with some visible applications,” she says. When Kirk’s mother was 17, she lost her mother to cancer. When Kirk was a teenager, her grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. “I wanted to solve problems that meant something to me. I wanted to do something that was going to effect people in a positive way.”

Kirk started out by studying HIV-fighting drugs. But eventually she turned her attention to more general antibiotics, specifically Neomycin, the active ingredient in Neosporin.

Neomycin is a topical drug that binds to nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) in the body. Kirk is trying to modify molecules in order to strengthen that binding — creating a better drug. One of the goals is to create a form of Neomycin that could be taken orally to treat systemic illnesses. “Our research is very basic,” she says. “We’re not necessarily going to find the next drug.”

By bringing her students into the lab with her — and assisting them as they make their own discoveries — Kirk gives them a chance to take their chemistry skills to the next level, something many scientists don’t experience as undergraduates. “Once we send a student to a prestigious graduate program, they do well because of the experiences they have had here. Then the next time a student from Willamette applies to that program, they are looked at in a different way.

“Only so much learning can occur in the classroom,” she adds. “A lot of the real learning happens outside, in places like the lab where the students can discover practical applications.”

Claus, associate professor of global human resources at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, spends about 200 days of the year on the road. When your expertise lies in training human resources managers how to work within an international environment — and your personal goal is to help smaller countries develop in this area — it’s often necessary to hop on planes to places as far away as China, Israel or Nigeria. “Companies can no longer just be domestic. Everything is about globalization,” says Claus, who also is Atkinson’s interim associate dean.

Claus spent 15 years coordinating the development of learning materials for people seeking GPHR (Global Professional in Human Resources) certification. The certification, first available five years ago, is geared toward human resources professionals working in multiple countries. They might be recruiting employees from abroad or working for a company that has locations throughout the world. And each country has its own laws and customs regarding hiring practices. “You can’t expect someone in Salem to know the laws in Belgium for hiring,” Claus says.

Multinational companies also have unique challenges regarding performance management, an area that has been the focus of Claus’ research. When a company is headquartered in the United States, which has one acceptable set of performance review standards, but is working with employees in multiple countries, each with their own ideas about review practices, things can get a bit complicated.

“Some countries may not allow you to fire someone based on lousy performance, for example,” Claus says. “Multinational companies have problems in balancing whether they’ll have the same system everywhere. They don’t want to go against the laws or customs of other countries.”

Claus’ passion for international affairs started early in life. Born in Oostende, Belgium, she describes her family as “very international.” “I spoke Flemish to my father, I spoke French to my mother, I spoke German to my grandfather, and I spoke even another language to God, all before the age of 4.”

When Claus came to the U.S. to get her PhD at Saint Louis University, she barely knew English. “I learned English from The Beatles’ songs,” she says. “I knew all the words, but I didn’t know what they were really saying.” At first it was difficult studying in America, but she worked hard to improve her English while taking her graduate courses.

It’s her memory of these struggles that has drawn her to informally mentor international students at Atkinson. This year the business school has 30 international students from 12 countries. Claus often invites them to her home for dinner or just to talk. “They come here for a year, and sometimes they never even get to be in a person’s home. So what kind of view do they have of American society?”

Claus also acts as a “mentor” to countries that don’t yet have well-developed human resources programs, to help them join the international market. She helped develop professional HR organizations in Israel and Romania, and she often volunteers as a keynote speaker at events in those countries to further assist them in becoming established. “The world has changed so rapidly that people now realize this is something they need to do,” she says. “They are dealing with the fact that business is now global.”

It was almost nine months ago that biology major Ariel Grubb ’08 returned to Salem after a semester abroad in the Galápagos, but the memories are still as vivid as when she wrote this email to her friends back home. The young woman from Spokane, accustomed to the dark, chilly, rainy winters of her college days in Salem, felt as if she was on a different planet adjusting to humid days on volcanic islands at the equator.

But it was the perfect planet for this aspiring veterinarian, who spent her summers working at a small animal clinic, helped jump start a pre-vet club at Willamette and volunteers for a feral cat sterilization organization. The Galápagos are a virtual wonderland for those devoting their studies to animal life. Located about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, famous as the place where Charles Darwin developed his theories of evolution and natural selection, the Galápagos are home to a unique blend of flora and fauna that arrived mostly by air or water. No amphibians exist there naturally, but 14 species of finch have evolved from one common ancestor on the mainland. Hammerhead sharks, sea lions, tortoises, blue-footed boobies and tropical penguins are among the creatures to call the islands their home. Five different colors of sand grace the islands’ shores.

Grubb studied in the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation program at Galápagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences. Her two-story school in San Cristóbal was directly across from the area’s main beach, and the students would take dips in the ocean during class breaks. In her classes, Grubb climbed volcanoes to discover the ecosystems that thrived on them. She learned about the struggles between government parks officials trying to preserve the natural wildlife and local fisherman and tourism workers attempting to make a living.

While Grubb found the lessons invaluable, she also wanted to explore her interest in veterinary work directly. So she walked into the office for an organization called Comité Interinstitucional para el Manejo y Control de Especies Introducidas (CIMEI, or Inter-Institutional Committee for Introduced Species Management) and asked if she could volunteer. The organization works to control non-indigenous plants and animals on the islands and protect natural species. For instance, people are not allowed to bring new cats and dogs to the islands because they kill many of the smaller native animals. However, the dogs and cats already living on the islands continually repopulate. One of CIMEI’s projects is convincing dog owners to spay or neuter their pets to keep the population under control.

… Working [at CIMEI] has been quite the eye-opening experience. ... The veterinarian, for one, is only two years older than me, and he’s not actually a veterinarian yet. He’s in his last year of school, doing five months of clinical practice (completely unsupervised) here on the island before he goes back to Quito to do another five months at the veterinary school clinic there. The first thing I noticed is that the whole “sterile technique” thing was basically thrown out the door. …

For several years Grubb has volunteered with the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon, so she’s accustomed to observing spay and neuter operations. The FCCO works to reduce feral cat populations humanely through spaying and neutering and community education. Targeted toward feral cats that have caregivers feeding them, the program allows caregivers to capture the animals, bring them to a clinic where volunteer veterinarians perform surgery, then return the cats to where they’re being fed. The organization frequently brings its mobile clinic to Willamette, using labs in Olin Science Center for the animals to recuperate after surgery. Grubb is one of a group of Willamette students who regularly assist with these clinics.

Grubb’s work with FCCO and at a vet clinic in Spokane showed her the great lengths many Americans will go to when it comes to their pets — a feeling she’s shared since childhood. “I’ve always taken a lot of solace in animals, their peacefulness and sincerity,” she says. “You can be with animals and be calm, even when other things are going wrong.”

So it was tough at first when she observed Ecuadorian pet owners who let their animals constantly roam free, didn’t play with them and only fed them meat scraps. But she realized it wasn’t that the people didn’t care about the animals — it had more to do with a difference in their culture. “It’s a luxury to be able to keep an animal in your home and treat him like your own child,” Grubb says. “That’s not something everyone can do there.”

As part of a sterilization campaign, Grubb spent a week on a smaller, more secluded island with only about 100 people. She and her fellow workers went house to house to survey people on what animals they owned and ask if the dogs could be sterilized. The rural conditions often required them to conduct surgeries with weaker anesthesia and compromised sterile standards, but Grubb knew the veterinarian was doing the best he could under the circumstances.

“The work was important. With 100 people and 100 dogs on a small island, there’s not enough food for all of them, and problems can escalate. The experience really taught me about veterinary missionary work.”

… So, it’s been an adventurous month. I’ve gotten used to being on an island in the middle of the Pacific, but every once in awhile I look around and get shocked again by how far away I am and how different this place is from my home. It is evident that Ecuador is a developing country, and it is evident that the Galápagos is its “wild west,” where people seeking fortune with fish or tourists come, and where nature is in a life or death struggle with development.