MCDS Summer Programs Ad Campaign in Miami Shores Egret

Series of full-page advertisements that ran in the Village of Miami Shores' community magazine, the Egret, from January through June.

 

Magazine features student trips - 1.29.09

Sarah Kay '10 considers herself an adventurous traveler, but even she couldn't have imagined the experiences she would have in Prague, which included getting to know local artists and meeting a man who made wooden marionettes.

And now Kay will have the chance to share the stories she picked up while studying abroad last fall, thanks to National Geographic's Glimpse Magazine.

Started by Nick Fitzhugh '02 in 2000, the print and online magazine offers firsthand accounts of young people living abroad.

In the spring of 2007, Glimpse moved from its original Pawtucket office to its current Washington, D.C. location in National Geographic's headquarters, said Glimpse Editor-in-Chief Kerala Taylor '02. Though Taylor and Fitzhugh first presented their idea to National Geographic in 2002, it took almost five years to make the original magazine and Web site part of National Geographic, Taylor said.

"The first four years were spent bartending," she added, and trying to further establish the magazine.

In the fall of 2008, Fitzhugh and Taylor launched the National Geographic Correspondents Program, Taylor said. Kay was one of eight correspondents chosen to participate in the pilot program.

In order to receive the $600 stipend and the chance to be published in the print magazine, correspondents must complete two stories in video, photo or written form, as well as a written feature on a resident of the region and 20 tips for future travelers to the area, Taylor said.

"The purpose behind the program was so that Glimpse would have an elite group of writers that would produce high-quality content for the print magazine," Taylor said.

Though the program may have given Glimpse ready-to-publish writers, Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine said the magazine was professional from its start as an independent study project he oversaw in 2000.

"Glimpse started off with high-class content provided by students not just from Brown, but from other nearby colleges," Hazeltine said. "I'm proud Nick was able to merge Glimpse with National Geographic as early as he did."

That National Geographic seal of approval was key to Kay's insider look into a foreign land.

"Being a National Geographic correspondent was like having an all-access pass (to the Czech Republic)," Kay said.

While in Prague, Kay realized how nice and helpful Czech people could be. That is, after "they decided they liked and could trust you," she said.

"The best thing about the program was that the National Geographic name gave you legitimacy, but by not being a big-time journalist, people didn't freak out around me," Kay said. "I probably just seemed like a naive and impressionable American girl to them."

This accessibility to people abroad is what she liked best about the program and what led her to her wildest adventure - the pursuit of a rock that some claim is Superman's Kryptonite.

"My mom is kind of a rock enthusiast and told me about a certain rock that can only be found in the Czech Republic," Kay said.

Bits of a meteorite that hit Germany years ago merged with the Earth to form the green-colored rock, moldavite, Kay said. It eventually traveled by river to the Czech Republic, now the only place it can be found.

When Kay set out to look for the rock, which some believe holds metaphysical powers, she met an entire village and found herself asking its inhabitants whether people made the connection between maldovite and Superman.

"No, that's a made-up story," was the only reply she received, but that made-up story will reach a world of readers through Glimpse's pages.


© Copyright 2009 Brown Daily Herald

Mailroom to be back on track soon – 09.23.08

Providence, Rhode Island—While many students have received late packages and had to wait in long lines to trade in their blue slips recently, the mail room expects to be caught up on orders by Wednesday.

"Currently, the mail services staff is processing the packages delivered on Saturday and this morning, and expects to be completely back on track by Wednesday of this week," said Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president of financial and administrative services, which oversees mailservices.

Regular mail continues to be sorted and placed in mailboxes as it arrives, but the processing of packages - including the recording and writing of mailbox notifications - has been delayed because of the move across the street, Gentry said.

"The complications of the move so close to the start of the semester and the ongoing construction added a dimension of complexity that was not well understood initially," Gentry wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "This made establishing a smooth processing system in a new physical environment that much more complicated."

Five temporary mail clerks and a student worker have been hired, while a staffer from Gentry's office was relocated temporarily to aid the usual 16-person mail room staff, which has logged overtime to address the problem, Gentry said.

There are about 5,800 student mailboxes and another 500 faculty and administration boxes currently in use.

Maribel Oliveras, office assistant to the literary arts pProgram, is in charge of picking up and dropping off all mail items for the program's mailbox.

"We usually just get letters, but we've had no trouble with package deliveries so far," Oliveras said.

But Meleha Ahmad '11, who ordered four posters online three weeks ago, did not receive her package until Monday morning.

"Oh, my God. This is the fourth time I've come here to get this," Ahmad said. "They kept telling me they couldn't find it."

Like Ahmad, the girl behind her in line was also told to come back later in the day to pick up a package that apparently had not yet been sorted. But others have had better luck.

Alejandra Ceja '12 said she only had to wait about five to 10 minutes in line to pick up her package - books she ordered online about two weeks ago.

"This line usually takes longer than the yellow slip line for some reason," she said, referring to the window that provides deliveries from shipping companies like United Parcel Service and Federal Express.

Scotty Carroll '11 started at the back of the line Monday at noon and also only had to wait 10 minutes for his package delivery.

Carroll said he didn't mind the wait because it gave him time to take in his surroundings.

"Having everything in one building like this is convenient, but it reminds me a lot of a state university," Carroll said. "One of the reasons I came to Brown was because of its old-school feel, which is something the old mailboxes really captured."

© Copyright 2008 Brown Daily Herald