BELLEVILLE - Thunder can be heard from miles away, an early warning that a storm is about to arrive. So, perhaps, it's only fitting that the name of Belleville Mennonite School's sports teams didn't sneak up on anyone.

Three months after the school's plan to change its nickname first surfaced, BMS officials announced Friday afternoon that the school's athletic teams formerly known as the Trojans would compete as the Thunder starting in the fall.

"The students have been curious about what the new athletic name is," said Valerie Reed, who serves as the development director at BMS. "The excitement leading up to this (unveiling) has been very positive."

Sentinel photo by BRADLEY KREITZER Third grade teacher Jared Byler, right, and student Kyle Derstein unveil Belleville Mennonite Schools new athletics nickname and logo during a special assembly Friday afternoon at the school in Belleville. The school had a kiss-the-cow contest, sumo wrestling, karaoke and a pie-eating contest leading up to the unveiling as well as several other special activities afterward.

Friday's announcement came with great fanfare as the school held "Mascot Mania." Events included duct taping third-grade teacher Jared Byler to the wall; throwing pies at Superintendent Kevin Dellape and fund-raising efforts that led to a BMS senior kissing a cow. The events were organized by the high school student senate, led by Brittany Yoder, a guidance counselor and senate adviser at BMS.

All proceeds from the events benefit Hershey Medical Center's Pediatric Cancer Center. The school will also host a mini-THON in May, modeled after the annual event held at Penn State.

Murals painted by art teacher Tami Peachey also were unveiled in the school gym and cafeteria. The cafeteria is now called "Thunder Cafe." BMS students also received T-shirts sporting the Thunder logo.

Selecting a new mascot is the first step in what Reed called a new athletic branding for the Belleville school. Now that the school's sports teams have a new mascot and logo, work will begin on revamping the school's logo and website.

"We are here to provide an excellent, Christ-centered education to children in our community," Reed said. "Education and faith in Christ are first and foremost. As the school continues to grow and thrive, it's important to continually be evaluating all areas of how we present ourselves.

"We are hoping that this new mascot and logo will enhance our overall brand and image, but this only a small piece of what the public sees of Belleville Mennonite School," she added. "The main image that we want to portray is a growing, thriving community of students and faculty working together to develop minds and build faith."

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Belleville Mennonite School teams to be known as 'Thunder'

What can an elite music conservatory gain by offering access to its courses to the masses?

Rebecca J. Rosen

The most selective college in the country -- the hardest school to get into -- isn't in the Ivy League or West Point, NY. It's not an engineering college or a medical school. It's the Curtis Institute of Music, a tiny conservatory of classical music in Philadelphia which can boast, according to US News and World Report, an admission rate of 3.2 percent.

And which, starting soon, will offer courses on Coursera.

That's kind of a big deal. Curtis counts among its alumni some of the most famous musicians of the last century (Leonard Bernstein went there) and some of the most successful musicians of the current one (like Alan Gilbert, current music director of the New York Philharmonic). The school only enrolls enough students to fill an orchestra and an opera company (that's 166, at the moment), and all students attend for free.

So the low admission rate makes sense.

Curtis has long been known as an elite place, but it will offer two courses through Coursera next year. What will they be like, and what does that mean?

"So much of Curtis's work is one-on-one," David Ludwig, the school's chair of Performance Studies, told me Thursday. As a conservatory, the work of the school mostly happens in private lessons and small seminars. "One of our unofficial mottos here is 'Learn by Doing,'" said Ludwig.

Now, neither of the two courses Curtis will offer soon (the start date for both is TBA) will teach students how to play an instrument or write music. They're both music appreciation classes. The first, taught by Ludwig and another Curtis professor, Jonathan Coopersmith, is "A History of Western Music through Performance." The second, taught by Curtis faculty member and pianist Jonathan Biss, will examine Beethoven through his piano sonatas.

Both focus on performance -- the doing of music -- but no one quite knows yet how much students will "do." Ludwig said he and all the MOOC instructors hoped that Curtis's classes would involve some "interaction," though he said, "What will that look like specifically? We're not sure yet. But abig part of Coursera is that it's not just a do-it yourself video service." The Curtis faculty knows, he said, that the intimate, intense Curtis curriculum won't and can't scale, so it hopes to work with Coursera to find something that will.

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You Can Now Take Classes From the Most Selective College in the Country on Coursera

Public release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Amy Pullan a.l.pullan@sheffield.ac.uk 01-142-229-859 University of Sheffield

The walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy, despite having the shape of a fully functioning heart, according to a pioneering study.

Experts from the University of Sheffield's Medical School collaborated on research to create the first comprehensive model of human heart development using observations of living foetal hearts. The results showed surprising differences from existing animal models.

Although scientists saw four clearly defined chambers in the foetal heart from the eighth week of pregnancy, they did not find organised muscle tissue until the 20th week -much later than expected.

Developing an accurate, computerised simulation of the foetal heart is critical to understanding normal heart development in the womb and, eventually, to opening new ways of detecting and dealing with some functional abnormalities early in pregnancy.

Studies of early heart development have previously been largely based on other mammals such as mice or pigs, adult hearts and dead human samples. The research team, led by scientists at the University of Leeds is using scans of healthy foetuses in the womb, including one mother who volunteered to have detailed weekly ECG (electrocardiography) scans from 18 weeks until just before delivery.

This functional data is incorporated into a 3D computerised model built up using information about the structure, shape and size of the different components of the heart from two types of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans of foetuses' hearts.

Martyn Paley, Professor of BioMedical Imaging at the University of Sheffield's Department of Cardiovascular Science, said: "We used our extensive expertise in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) physics and engineering to optimise the acquisition of very high spatial resolution isotropic 3D images of the foetal heart at later gestational ages using rapid FLASH sequences.

"This allowed the morphology of the foetal heart to be studied with unprecedented detail in collaboration with the University of Leeds and the other centres."

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Human heart development slower than other mammals

PSG & Sons Charities, in association with the alumni of the PSG Institutions, will host a series of events to commemorate the birth centenary of Founder-Principal of PSG College of Technology G.R. Damodaran (GRD).

The year-long activities will begin on Wednesday, the birth anniversary of GRD, said L. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Trustee of PSG & Sons Charities, here on Tuesday.

Laying foundation for a GRD Science and Technology Museum at Neelambur, launching of GRD Alumni Health Service Scheme, and an exhibition for students to exhibit their talents will form the major part of celebrations.

The museum costing Rs. 5 crore would focus on science and technology and space with live models, and interactive screens. Alumni working in IT-related fields would contribute to the setting up of the museum. It would be developed in five years, he said. Governor K. Rosaiah would lay its foundation at the inaugural of the centenary celebrations.

The Health Service Scheme would be beneficial for all former staff of the PSG Institutions and its alumni. Under the scheme, those above 60 years would be eligible to avail themselves of concessions for diagnosis and treatment at PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research. They would be given preference during seeking appointments with doctors. Those unable to travel to the hospital could seek house-visit facilities.

The exhibition, I Innovation, Invention and Ideas, for students and young entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu, would be held at Codissia Trade Fair Complex from August 3 to 5. They could display their best models and projects. Selected projects / models would get prizes.

A joint programme by professional organisations in Coimbatore most of which founded by GRD would also be held during the year. The GRD Talent Test conducted by the Alumni Association for school students of Coimbatore for the last several years, would be extended to all schools in Tamil Nadu. A meeting would be organised to felicitate those who were associated with GRD during his tenure as principal of the college, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.

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Year-long fete to mark birth centenary of G.R. Damodaran

Stanford University has set a new record for college fundraising, becoming the first school to collect more than $1 billion in a single year, according to a report released Wednesday.

For the eighth straight year, Stanford ranked first in the Council for Aid to Education's annual college fundraising survey, which shows that elite institutions continue to grab a disproportionate share of donor dollars.

In the 2012 fiscal year, roughly 3,500 U.S. colleges and universities raised $31 billion, 2.3 percent more than the previous year. The record was set in 2008 when schools took in $31.6 billion before fundraising dropped during the height of the financial crisis.

"We're climbing out of the doldrums," said survey director Ann Kaplan. "We haven't returned to the high point of 2008, but we're approaching it. I think you can say that about a lot of industries."

Topping the list was Stanford at $1.035 billion, followed by Harvard University at $650 million, Yale University at $544 million, the University of Southern California at $492 million and Columbia University at $490 million.

The top 10 fundraising colleges collected $5.3 billion, or 17 percent, of the $31 billion, even though they represent only 0.3 percent of the 3,500 accredited, nonprofit schools included in the survey.

Stanford benefited from a surge in donations at the end of its multi-year Stanford Challenge fundraising campaign, which netted $6.2 billion. It also benefited from the successful launch of a $1 billion campaign for its medical school and hospitals.

The 10-campus University of California system raised $1.56 billion, which doesn't include money collected by its individual campuses. UC Berkeley was the leading fundraiser among all public universities, taking in $405 million.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford's alumni list includes the founders of major tech companies like Yahoo Inc. who have given to the school in recent years.

Stanford raised 46 percent more in its 2012 fiscal year than the $709 million it collected in 2011 and surpassed its previous record of $911 million set in 2006. The $1.035 billion haul is equal to nearly $56,000 for each of its roughly 18,500 undergraduate and graduate students, though much of the money will be used for research and construction.

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Stanford University is first college to raise $1B in a year

Following a flurry of media attention concerning a possible military training center at the Yale School of Medicine, the University issued a statement Tuesday afternoon maintaining that the potential program would meet appropriate academic standards but also denying that it has yet been formally proposed.

School of Medicine psychiatry professor Charles Morgan told the News in January that he hopes to propose the creation of a center at the Medical School in cooperation with the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces called the U.S. Special Operations Command Center of Excellence for Operational Neuroscience, which would teach soldiers interview techniques. Yales statement said the School of Medicine has not formally proposed opening the center, and denied media reports that the training facility will teach interrogation tactics and that the research will take advantage of minority populations in New Haven.

Michael Siegel MED 90, a donor for the Medical School, criticized the center in an open letter to Medical School Dean Robert Alpern on Monday morning, arguing that the center will violate the mission of the School of Medicine by fulfilling military objectives, and the letter grabbed the attention of the national media.

In short, the center, if established, would be designed in the best traditions of Yale research and scholarship, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications said in the release. Public reports stating otherwise are premature and based on speculation and incomplete information.

Morgan would direct the proposed center, using a $1.8-million grant from the Department of Defense. The center would ultimately function to teach Army soldiers interviewing techniques Morgan developed, he said in January.

Morgan also told the News in January that the Yale Office of Grant and Contract Administration is working with the Psychiatry Department to finish paperwork securing the grant funding, which was delayed due to both congressional budget issues and the need for more time to work out funding for administrative expenses. Morgan declined to comment for this article.

No matter what I say, it doesnt seem to quell rumors, Morgan added.

Alpern told the News that the public would normally not know about ideas at the phase of development before a formal proposal but exposure from a Jan. 7 New Yorker Magazine article profiling a possible instructor for the center, theatrical pickpocket Apollo Robbins, exposed the plan to national attention.

Siegel said he sent the open letter to Alpern after learning about the proposed center on Monday, and he followed up with a second letter after speaking with Morgan Tuesday morning. He will stop donating to the Medical School, he said, because the proposed centers goal of furthering military objectives contradicts the Medical Schools mission to improve health and further medical research. In addition, Siegel described the center as unethical because it will allow soldiers to practice interview techniques on New Haven immigrants information that Siegel said he found in the Yale Herald.

But the statement declares that the interviewing techniques envisioned for the center are both central to the psychiatry discipline and part of medical student and resident education. According to the University, interviewees will be volunteers from diverse ethnic groups and will be protected by oversight from Yales Human Research Protection Program.

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Proposed DOD center stirs controversy

FOR the second year, the St. Scholastica Bacolod Alumnae Foundation Inc. launched its Run/Walk for a Cause 2 with an overwhelming participation.

The Foundation is alumni-based inspired by the Benedictine Spirit of Ora et Labora, committed to the upliftment of the poor and marginalized sectors of Negros Occidental through socio-economic programs.

Among its socio-economic programs are: Free Measles and DPT Immunization; Sponsor medical needs of indigent pediatric patients in a government hospital. On Educational Projects: they provide full or partial scholarships for deserving underprivileged children at St. Scholastica's Academy Bacolod or Holy Family Vocational High School.

They also provide preferred scholarships of the donor and financial assistance to the Holy Family Vocational High School, a school for indigent children.

In training and development projects, the foundation subsidizes and conducts skills training (livelihood, sports, and youth development) and values education for indigents.

Among the latest of the projects accomplished by the Foundation are: a Successful open-heart surgery of 1st beneficiary with Medical City partnership; SSBAFI MOA signing with The Medical City for open-heart surgeries; Negros Occidental receiving 178 wheelchairs; Provincial Hospital receiving medical equipment; 5,183 surgeries and consultations for Aloha Medical Missions 1, 2, and 3.

Save A Life beneficiaries now total 445 patients and Give A Life medical missions, which has benefited 9,000 patients.

The heart and life blood of foundations are generally donations from well meaning philanthropists who have been most generous with their sharing. Donations are received through their office in The St. Scholastica's Bacolod Alumnae Foundation, Inc. 2nd Floor, MC Metroplex Building, B.S. Aquino Drive, 6100 Bacolod City, Philippines 6100 or you can write them at: ssabfincom@ssabfoundation.org.

The Kolasa are a very innovative lot and to relieve benefactors of donation fatigue, last year they organized the Run/Walk for Life to raise funds. Because of its resounding success, another charity Run/Walk Part 2 with 1k, 3k, 5k and 10k was held again last Sunday with a humongous participation from the many invited groups milling around the Capitol Building at dawn.

To make the Run/Walk most interesting 3 celebrities from the small screen and big screen came to add glitz, excitement and fun to the event. These hunks are Derek Ramsay, Rovilson Fernandez and Fabio Ibe. It goes without saying that there were endless photo ops with these delicious, gorgeous hunks!

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Run/walk, save a life 2