Saint Mary's Newsroom
Campus ConnectionAn update from the president to alumni and parents
Student Senate election results and meeting minutes
Congratulations to the newly elected Student Senate Executive Board for 2020-21:
- Senate President: Kendall Archer
- Vice President for Academic Affairs: Mary Furlong
- Vice President for Financial Affairs: Nicole Noreen
- Vice President for Public Affairs: Megan Kowalis
- Vice President for Campus Affairs: Angel Sacta Espinoza
- Vice President for Student Life: Elijah Williams
- Vice President of Media & Communications: Marcos Pedroza
- Vice President for Multicultural Affairs: Destiny Walker
The executive assistant position, class officers, and other representatives elections will be conducted in the fall.
Student Senate continues to meet via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays. Below you’ll find Student Senate meeting minutes from the April 21 meeting:
![Hardy provides distance learning insight in student vlog [video]](https://newsroom.smumn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SHardy_Vlog.jpg)
Hardy provides distance learning insight in student vlog [video]
Saint Mary’s student Sarah Hardy, a junior psychology major from Hastings, Minn., shows us a day in the life of distance learning at home.
Although she misses the interaction with professors and friends in the traditional classroom setting on campus, she is utilizing technology to stay connected and on top of her coursework.
Watch for the next student story tomorrow on social media channels as the Advancement and Communication Department continues this series throughout the remainder of the school year.
Help us acknowledge 2020 graduates on Facebook
Add a specially designed Facebook profile pic to signify you are one of our 2020 graduates or in support of 2020 graduates (all degrees and locations). This time of year, we know our graduates are missing out on so much because of this pandemic. The Office of Advancement and Communication created a way for us to both applaud and spotlight this year’s graduates, and it’s easy to do.
Log into Facebook and go to your profile. Hover on your round profile photo, and click “Update.” On the next screen, click on “Add Frame.” Search for:
- smumn20grad for Proud Graduate without mascot
- smumn20gradbr for Proud Graduate with mascot
- smumn20supporter for Proud Supporter without mascot
- smumn20supportbr for Proud Supporter with mascot
Drag to reposition, choose the duration you’d like this frame to remain, or change your picture from this screen. Once satisfied, click on “Use as Profile Picture.”
Join us in showing our pride for our graduates and their many accomplishments!
Spiritual offering
Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry continues to share spiritual offerings to provide much-needed perspective and a focus on faith in this time of uncertainty.
“And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart, it is I; have no fear.’ … And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” – Matthew 14:27, 32
Visit Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry on Facebook.
MCA offers online private music lessons
WINONA, Minn. — Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) announces that private music lesson instruction has been shifted online. New students are now being accepted for most instruments, including piano, voice, saxophone, clarinet, and more.
As with in-person lessons, online lessons can be purchased in a four-, eight-, or 12-lesson package (ranging from $17-$19 per 30-minute lesson). MCA will also be happy to shift lessons to in-person lessons once this can be done safely.
Here’s what’s needed to have a successful online lesson:
- Your instrument.
- A device with a camera and microphone (internal microphone should be fine unless you need to be far away from your device to be at your instrument. Headphones and an external speaker are optional.
- A wired connection (most reliable) or a strong wireless signal (around 1.5 Mbps for upload speed). A 4G connection traditionally works as well.
To learn more about MCA private lessons and instructors, visit smumn.edu/privatelessons.
Page Series offers virtual residency with groundbreaking kathak and tap dancers
WINONA, Minn. — The Page Series at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is now offering a virtual residency with the Leela Dance Collective and world-renowned tap dancers Dormeshia and Michelle Dorrance April 21 through May 1.
Residency activities and a virtual performance of their original dance and music production SPEAK will replace an in-person residency originally scheduled for March 23-28.
Bridging tradition and innovation and history and progress, Indian kathak and American tap dance, continents and ages apart, share parallel stories of struggle and perseverance. In SPEAK, kathak dancers Rachna Nivas and Rina Mehta (torch bearers of the late master Pandit Chitresh Das’ famed lineage), as well as jazz tap dancers Michelle Dorrance (a MacArthur Award winner) and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (of the Tony Award-winning Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk) bring to the forefront the voices of a new generation of powerful female artists.
SPEAK breaks creative barriers, celebrates two contrasting forms of expression through cross-cultural performances, and highlights the vacuum of female artists in two male-dominated dance genres. The production serves as an example for intercultural collaboration and global citizenship, a dialogue of rhythm, poetry, storytelling, music, and dance.
“It is heartwarming that we will still be able to make these experiences available to our community, thanks to the dedication and creativity of these thoughtful and talented artists, as well as the flexibility and understanding of our funders,” said Theresa Remick, managing director of the Performance Center at Saint Mary’s. “I truly hope that these activities will bring some joy and inspiration to Winonans during this difficult time.”
Residency activities
Beginning Tuesday, April 21, members of the SPEAK cast will offer online workshops, artist talks, and events designed to share the history and background of their work. All are invited to participate in free events throughout the week, including:
The Music of SPEAK
Friday, April 24, 1 p.m.
Virtual Happy Hour and Tap Jam
Friday, April 24, 5:30 p.m.
Artist Talk: The Guru-Shishya Parampara and Oral Traditions
Monday, April 27, 3 p.m.
Tap Master Classes
Tuesday, April 28, 5 p.m. with Dormeshia for intermediate/advanced dancers
Documentary Watch Party: Upaj: Improvise
Tuesday, April 28, 7:30 p.m.
Women in Dance Panel Discussion
Wednesday, April 29, 2 p.m., moderated by Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts alumna and Ananya Dance Theatre dancer Renée Copeland
Introduction to Kathak workshops
Thursday, April 29, 5 p.m. for dancers
SPEAK Virtual Performance
Friday, May 1, 7:30 p.m.
In addition, the artists will offer an adaptive dance class for Home and Community Options programs. Area school groups and families are also invited to participate in two youth-oriented modules that will be available to stream beginning April 27:
- Rhythm and Movement workshop for families
- SPEAK student matinee
Full program descriptions and registration links are available at the Page Theatre’s Facebook and at pagetheatre.org.
All activities are offered free of charge to the Winona community, but some require advance registration. Freewill donations are appreciated and can be provided at registration or by visiting pagetheatre.org.
Kathak comes from the word “katha” which means story. The kathakas were storytellers that travelled from village to village in ancient India telling the stories of the great Hindu gods and goddesses. While the depiction of Hindu iconography remains visible in modern day kathak, the tradition of telling epic tales through kathak has been left behind by most contemporary practitioners of the art form in favor of more contemporary, abstract, or accessible explorations.
Tap is an indigenous American dance genre that evolved over a period of some 300 years. Initially developing out of West African musical and step-dance traditions — along with influences from other rhythmic forms such as Irish step dance — tap emerged in the southern United States in the 1700s.
About the artists
Rachna Nivas is a charismatic performer, mentor, and powerful leader amongst today’s generation of Indian classical artists, bringing a contemporary voice to kathak. She has an extensive performance career to great acclaim across the U.S. and India. She is a senior disciple of the late legendary master, Pandit Chitresh Das, and the former director of the Chhandam School of Kathak, one of the largest classical Indian dance institutions in the world. Find more at rachnanivas.com.
Rina Mehta, founder and artistic director of The Leela Institute, is one of the most powerful Kathak artists of her generation. She is a senior disciple of the late Pandit Chitresh Das and has performed to great acclaim across the U.S. and India, both as a soloist and principal dancer with the Chitresh Das Dance Company. She received a Fulbright Award for Dance and is a pioneer and strong leader amongst her generation, taking Kathak forward and carving a place for the ancient art form in modern times. Find more at rinamehta.dance.
Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards has been a part of almost every major tap movie or show that has appeared in the history of tap dance since the 80s, including the Tony-winning Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk. Accolades include an Astaire Award for Best Performance, the Bessie Award, and the Hoofer Award. She is founder of Harlem Tap Studio and performs extensively at shows and festivals around the world. Sumbry-Edwards was also Michael Jackson’s private tap instructor for 11 years. Find more at divinerhythmproductions.com/DormeshiaSumbryEdwards.html.
Michelle Dorrance is a New York City–based artist who has appeared in STOMP, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap!, Jason Samuels Smith’s Charlie’s Angels/Chasing the Bird, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, and Mable Lee’s Dancing Ladies. Company work includes: Savion Glover’s Ti Dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy and Co., JazzTap Ensemble, and Rumba Tap. Solo work ranges from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to commissions for the Martha Graham Dance Company and American Ballet Theatre. A 2018 Doris Duke Artist, 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Dorrance has received honors and support from United States Artists, the Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Alpert Awards, Jacob’s Pillow, Princess Grace Foundation, The Field, American Tap Dance Foundation, and the Bessie Awards. Find more at dorrancedance.com.
The Leela Dance Collective was founded in 2016 by Rina Mehta, Rachna Nivas and Seibi Lee, senior disciples of legendary kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das, along with leading kathak performers Sarah Morelli and Shefali Jain. It is the only one of its kind Indian-American dance company that brings together leading kathak artists from around the world representing a multitude of voices to articulate a clairvoyant vision for kathak. The collective is distinguished by an artistic practice that centers around collaboration and collective creativity and a body of work that is at once grounded in tradition and boldly innovative. In its two-year history, the collective has already begun to make an indelible mark on the field of kathak and world dance with its rigorous technique, dynamic choreography, fashion-forward costuming, and sophisticated musical scores.
The collective has garnered critical acclaim across the United States and internationally for its groundbreaking productions from SPEAK, a collaboration that brings together leading female artists in kathak and tap, to Son of the Wind, a traditional dance ballad based on India’s epic, the Ramayana. With home season performances in San Francisco and Los Angeles along with national and international touring, the collective performs for more than 10,000 people annually. Past highlights include appearances at The Broad Stage, the Green Music Center, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The collective’s productions and performances have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Esper Petersen Foundation and New Music USA. Find more at theleelainstitute.org.
About the Page Series
Now in its 33rd season, the Page Series connects professional performing artists from around the globe with thousands of Winonans each year. With events at the Joseph Page Theatre on the Winona Campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as at locations across the Winona community, the Page Series offers dance, music, and theatre performances, workshops, classes, and more that inspire, uplift, educate, and invite community members to discover the relevance of the arts in their daily lives. Find more at pagetheatre.org.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Page Series community programs are made possible in part by a grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation.
DBA students awarded scholarships for Doctoral Institute workshop
Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) students Rene PierreCharles, Berhanu Belete, Aniekan Mike Udoh, and Bayogar McCritty all received scholarships for the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) 2020 Doctoral Institute (DI) workshop. This workshop, to be held at Purdue University—Fort Wayne, focuses on teaching philosophies, negotiating academic jobs, effective teaching and learning, and a variety of other topics critical to building the solid foundation needed for post-doctoral positions.
These competitive scholarships include the pre-conference workshop registration fee, general conference registration, a $200 travel stipend, on-campus room and board, an evening reception with the Board of Directors, a collaborative Saturday morning presentation which will be listed in the conference proceedings, a one-year membership to MOBTS.org, and a one-year subscription to the Journal of Management Education and Management Teaching Review. The total value of this competitive scholarship is more than $1,000.
Communication Department holds virtual reunion
With more time being spent indoors, the Saint Mary’s Department of Communication decided to hold a virtual alumni reunion over Zoom to discuss how their companies are communicating during the COVID-19 pandemic. The alumni also offered advice for current students and shared memories of their time at Saint Mary’s.
A total of 22 alumni from 2004-2019 and three current faculty members took part in the two-hour reunions held over two nights, April 8 and April 14. The participants represented companies such as Walt Disney, 3M, Macy’s, Gogo, Anytime Fitness, Northwestern Mutual, Space Foundation, Xcel Energy, Mayo Clinic, Children’s Minnesota, American Public Media, and more!
Above photo caption: Those who took part in the recent virtual alumni reunion for the Department of Communication included, from left: top row, Emily Winter Bonfe ’17, Dean Beckman, Dr. Lori Charron, Dr. Steve Schild; second row, Nadia Effendi ’09, Lauren Rothering ’11, Emily Loof ’18, Nikki Jung ’07; third row, Susan Birkenheier Trankle ’07, Caroline Blackwood ’16, Julie (Bartosz) Olivo ’13, Sarah (McDonough) Howard ’11; bottom row, Melissa Powers Walker ’07, and Kaeli Todd ’15.
Others who took part in the recent virtual alumni reunion for the Department of Communication included, from left: top row, Emily Vlahos ’18, Dean Beckman, Heidi Ledermann ’19, Steve Recker ’04; second row, Jessica Vitale ’16, Rosie Lacy ’16, Dr. Steve Schild, Pam Trainor ’05; third row, Elsa Chase ’17, Cale Pieczynski ’16, Lindsay Dickson Henning ’08, Jase Pater ’16; bottom row, Caroline Blackwood ’16, Kaeli Todd ’15, and Tera Bollig ’07.
Keeping the peace: Doctoral counseling psychology student to build training modules for trauma management on international scale
Karen Spencer M’19 has always been interested in international affairs, having done several study abroad trips during her undergraduate studies. A trip to a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana in 2004 after finishing a degree from St. Olaf College in 2003, though, helped galvanize her professional passions and her future studies.
While spending time with camp members, she took notice of how locally trained teachers had started to set up makeshift schools for newly orphaned children at the camps. She was inspired by the resilience they showed, leading to her interest in studying peace-building and peacekeeping strategies.
“They were very active in creating social institutions in this refugee camp and were empowered to do that themselves without waiting for somebody else to take the lead,” said Spencer, who earned her M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services in 2019 before continuing onto the Doctor of Psychology in Counseling Psychology program.
“I’ve been very focused on trauma treatment, but this gives me an opportunity to look at it from a prevention lens.”
—Karen Spencer
At the 16th annual Doctoral Research Symposium, Spencer presented a poster that entailed the inner workings of her doctoral dissertation, in which she is developing video-based training modules built specifically for unarmed civilian protection workers to manage and mitigate traumatic situations. These workers are using nonviolent peacekeeping strategies to provide protection to local civilians in various parts of the world that have historically been torn apart by violence. Their other duties include facilitating safe conflict resolutions; escorting and securing safe spaces for civilians; and negotiating cases of abductions.
Spencer is working directly with Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), a global non-profit organization that has set up operations in South Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, and the Philippines. According to the organization’s website, NP has trained 3,786 unarmed civilian protection workers to date.
When looking for a platform to conduct her research, Spencer learned of NP through her dissertation chair, Kenneth Solberg, Ph.D., a core professor of the Psy.D. program who had been involved with NP in various capacities since its founding nearly 20 years ago.
Karen Spencer explains her research during the poster session at the 16th annual Doctoral Research Symposium held on March 7 on the Twin Cities Campus.
“They had expressed the need for trauma preparedness training, given the work that they do. And I’ve been very intentional about my clinical training, to understand trauma responses and treatments,” Spencer said. “I’ve been very focused on trauma treatment, but this gives me an opportunity to look at it from a prevention lens.”
Spencer is producing five modules in which a composite character experiences a variety of traumatic and intense situations, each of which unveils how to administer psychological first aid.
Spencer said her initial research unveiled a need in the nonviolent peace-building space to create more trauma-based training “both about the actual individual who’s engaged in the work, but also understanding the impact trauma can have on communities that have experienced violence for generations.”
The training will be video-based, a need that has become more imperative with the new physical distancing guidelines that have been implemented because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finding a fit
Spencer started in the Saint Mary’s M.A. program in 2014 after being drawn to the social justice focus of the university as whole.
“It aligns very well with who I am and who I want to continue to be,” she said.
Although she lives in the middle of Wisconsin near Marshfield, she had been able to make the two-and-a-half-hour drive to the Twin Cities Campus work for her and her family, which includes three young boys, knowing that she would only have classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“It was a dream every semester. The classes might look different, but the schedule was relatively the same.”
—Karen Spencer
“It was a dream every semester. The classes might look different, but the schedule was relatively the same,” Spencer said.
She plans on finishing her doctorate in fall 2021, but before she does she will be interning for a year at a Wisconsin Department of Corrections juvenile institution in Irma, Wis., beginning in fall 2020.
During her year-long internship, she hopes to gain more insight on ways to build a bridge between psychology and peace building that can be universally adopted.
“There are populations that have mostly known consistent fear. One of my professional aspirations is addressing the issue of violence prevention, which is why I’m focused on nonviolent strategies,” Spencer said. “While my internship will be in a different world, as far as working within corrections, I think a lot of those fundamental violence-related issues will overlap.”
Featured image: Karen Spencer M’19 is teaming up with an international non-profit peace-building organization to create training modules for unarmed civilian protection workers as part of her doctoral dissertation.
The Rev. James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D.
President
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
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