It’s tough keeping up with anyone in Wake Forest’s prestigious semester-in-D.C. program — particularly Aubrey Vaughan and her fast-paced footsteps. This spring, the junior political science major is in the midst of the juggling act otherwise known as WAKE Washington. Vaughan, from rural Versailles, Ky., spends most of her days working at a full-time internship where she creates civics education materials and does media outreach for nonprofit Rock the Vote.
The Scholar sits down to write, and all his years of meditation do not furnish him with one good thought or happy expression; but it is necessary to write a letter to a friend, — and, forthwith, troops of gentle thoughts invest themselves, on every hand, with chosen words.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was probably not exaggerating when he described those “troops of gentle thoughts” that came to him when he sat down to write a friend. Indeed, letter writing inspired him so much that it took more than 30 years for editors Rusk and Tilton to publish the hundreds of pages found in 10 volumes of Emerson’s letters.
When the Lost Boys of Sudan fled for their lives, away from torched huts and murdered parents, dodging government militia from Khartoum, swimming deep underwater to avoid the unblinking gaze of crocodiles, inching past lions in thorn-tree scrublands and suffering such thirst that at times urine sufficed for water, Phillips Bragg (’93) knew nothing of their plight. He finds it astonishing that in 1991 he was busy choosing his English major at Wake Forest while Lost Boy James Lubo Mijak was struggling to survive in a southern Sudan camp for displaced persons called Pochalla.
Earlier this year, the Z. Smith Reynolds Library received the 2011 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, given annually by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Maria Henson (’82) of Wake Forest Magazine talked with the library’s dean, Lynn Sutton, about how the library garnered the award and why ZSR is the place to be on campus. Its special collections include N.C. Baptist history and manuscripts of such luminaries as former Esquire editor Harold T.P. Hayes (’48) and Wilbur J. Cash (’22), author of “The Mind of the South.” Following are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Shane Harris (’98) has been writing about intelligence and national security for 10 years. He is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine and was a staff correspondent for National Journal. His book, “The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State” (Penguin Books, 2011), highlights a dangerous paradox: the government’s strategy has made it harder to catch terrorists and easier to spy on the general public. It was named one of the best books of 2010 by The Economist.
Wake Forest, long proud of its liberal arts tradition, is strengthening its commitment to the heart of the University experience. Autumn brought the establishment of the Wake Forest Humanities Institute to support humanities scholarship and collaboration. In December, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a five-year, $500,000 grant to challenge University donors to match the grant threefold, for a total of nearly $2 million to endow the institute.
FORTY YEARS after the movie “Brian’s Song” put Wake Forest in the national spotlight, a film that opened this spring also combines football and adversity, and it presents the close-knit community of Demon Deacons. “The 5th Quarter” features the 2006 Wake Forest football season — when the Deacs were predicted to be in last place but ended up ACC Champions — as a backdrop for a more personal story. Defensive player Jon Abbate (’10) lost his younger brother Luke in an auto accident at home in Marietta, Ga., before the season began.
“Wake Forest. It really brings out the best in people,” says departing Provost Jill Tiefenthaler.
Shane Harris (’98) has written about spies and national security for a decade. He discusses the congressional decision to renew the Patriot Act on NPR’s “On the Media” this week.
Calling all alumni/ae who make or have made their livelihood by the pen, typewriter, computer keyboard or phone text pad.
Coming soon: ‘The Gift,’ ‘Lubo’s Dream,’ ‘A Voice for Victor’ and more in the Summer 2011 issue!
An alumnus pays tribute to an influential professor and mentor.
See photos, webcast and the Deacon Blog.
The scene on the Quad at Commencement provided a reminder of Wake Forest’s global reach.
Follow Commencement 2011 activities on the Wake Forest Magazine Facebook page.
Senior Kathryn Rohrer might not be playing Coldplay on Sunday, but she will be ringing those bells for Baccalaureate.
In 1957 an alumni speaker outlined for seniors “the world of tomorrow” — a “world that desperately needs you.”
Seems pertinent….
Commencement 2011: the tent is up, and all eyes are on the skies.