Meet the Victory Bell.

Most days, it lives a laid-back life, tucked comfortably in the shadow of the McLarty Staircase at the Miller-Ward Alumni House (MWAH). But one night a year, it emerges as the centerpiece of one of the largest celebrations of Emory's athletics teams.

The Victory Bell Celebration to honor senior student-athletes took place at MWAH, Monday night, March 29, and more than 100 athletes and coaches came out to congratulate student-athletes representing each of Emory's 16 varsity sports.

Following a welcome from Director of Athletics and Recreation Tim Downes, keynote speaker Jenn Hildreth Riehn 99C, a three-sport athlete as a student and now a commentator for Fox Sports South, delivered a brief, engaging speech, in which she, in part, credited her athletics experience at Emory for helping her get to where she is now.

"Being an athlete helped me in my career; it gave me credibility," said Hildreth Riehn, who experienced her greatest Emory success on the soccer field (a goalkeeper, she is tied for fourth all-time in wins).

Then came the ringing of the bell. Actually ... let me back up a bit.

The Victory Bell ceremony is a young tradition here at Emory, but the bell itself has an interesting history. During World War II, more than 3,500 alumni and former students served in the military, and 121 lost their lives. In 1945, to honor Emory's contributions to the war effort, a 10,700-ton cargo ship was christened the Emory Victory, and on that ship, was the Victory Bell.

During the Korean War in the early 1950s, the Emory Victory returned to service. Following that conflict, the bell was sent to Emory as a memento. The Emory Victory went on to serve as a supply ship in the Pacific for more than 20 years. In 2001, the bell moved to the Miller-Ward Alumni House, where it remains today.

Seniors and coaches from each team took turns ringing the Victory Bell, but the number of rings allotted to each team depended on a few things.

Each bell ring represents one of six accomplishments: academic excellence, representing Emory in intercollegiate competition, winning a UAA championship, representing Emory in post-season competition, earning a top 10 final ranking, and winning a team or individual national championship.

For the 2010 ceremony, the women's swimming and diving team (by virtue of its recent national championship) and women's tennis team (courtesy of junior Lorne McManigle's 2009 singles title) earned the maximum six rings. In all, the bell was rung a combined 54 times.

And the Victory Bell is a lot louder than it looks.

See the photos from the Victory Bell Ceremony on the EAA's Facebook fan page.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

Wednesday was the start of Dooley's Week's three-day-streak of famous people on campus. Last night, Kevin Nealon, a Saturday Night Live (SNL) vet and "Doug" on the TV show Weeds, graced the Emory population with his presence at Glenn Auditorium.

The Dooley's Week t-shirts were so popular that we couldn't even snag a picture of one. So here's a little video that the Student Programming Council (SPC) put together, featuring Dooley and his Entourage.

Next to free food, Emory students will do almost anything for t-shirts, especially during Dooley's Week. This year's shirts glow in the dark ... did you hear that? They glow in the dark! And simultaneously complement the space theme. (Remember to hold up your t-shirt to the light to "charge" it.)

A few hours ago, Dooley's Week Wonderful Wednesday was in full force with a moon bounce, Dippin' Dots ice cream, and a scavenger hunt with six iPod prizes. But the only question I kept getting was, "When are you going to give out the t-shirts?"

One senior came up to me with her sob story about never getting a Dooley's Week t-shirt, but she was determined to make her last year the year she would get one.

Twenty minutes later, the mob in front of the tables was getting anxious, and then, suddenly, emerging from a box and flying through the air came the first t-shirt of the day! SPC members present (including myself) threw those rolled bundles of joy to bright-eyed students until the three boxes of shirts were empty.

Don't fret, we had three more catapulting rounds of t-shirts. I kept hearing my name coming from friends, acquaintances, and strangers (yes, that's right) in the crowd, all hoping to get a t-shirt. I utilized the backwards lob throw to keep it fair. Still, I think I made both new friends (and enemies) today.

We also provided neon green, Ray Ban-ripoff sunglasses and drinking cups with the Dooley's Week design on them. The sunglasses went first, and sadly, the cups were like the last kid to the be chosen in PE class.

Many were leftover.

If you're still shirtless (that is, without a Dooley's Week t-shirt), come to Kevin Nealon's stand-up performance tonight at Glenn Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. for those with tickets. You can get a ticket at the DUC Information Desk (An inside source tells me, we just got 300 more). And remember, the earlier you get there tonight, the more likely you'll get a t-shirt.



Now, wear those t-shirts with some Dooley pride and come on out to the week's remaining events, and if you don't have one, I think you can still get a cup.

--Lindsey Bomnin 12C, EAA communications assistant

Meet Emory's 2010 Unsung Heroines (from left to right): Gretchen Schulz (faculty), Tiffany Worboy 10PhD (graduate student), Angie Duprey (staff), Meg Bringle 84PhD (alumna), Lisa Newbern (administrator), Alisha Lalani 10C (undergraduate student).

An Unsung Heroine is a woman who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to women’s issues at Emory, but has not been formally recognized. Here's hoping that no-formal-recognition part is over.

For more information about the Unsung Heroines, who were honored at the Miller-Ward Alumni House last month, meet them in Emory Report.

We’re back from a trip to the Dominican Republic that proved to be one of the most insightful and inspiring experiences in our education as nurses.

Throughout the next few weeks, please check back for updates. We're sorry about the recent delay in our posting--electricity was a "sometimes" thing.

We plan on writing more about our activities in the various communities and how they impacted us, as well as more personal reflections on the cultural experience we all shared with our friends in the DR.

Please visit the EAA's Facebook fan page to see a few pictures of us at the monastary in Santo Domingo where we assisted in the care of Haitian earthquake evacuees (along with a group pic with the food we were able to donate); a few from the Haitian migrant farm worker community we visited and conducted resident interviews--certainly one of the most powerful moments of the whole trip--as well as a few more group pictures … we’ll be updating very soon!

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-- Abby Weil 11N and Hunter Keys 11N, students, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Nobody's here! Seney Hall at Oxford College looks nice, though.

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On Monday morning we split into two groups in order to visit some of the communities served by the local public health clinics. One group went to Chirripos, one of the poorest barrios in San Francisco de Macoris, with a public health nurse named Ramona.

We got a chance to tour the clinic and see what services were offered and what resources were available to serve the community. The clinic was very small and simple, and when Ramona showed us where they keep the medicines, the cabinet was almost empty. She had a list of the services that were supposed to be available at all of the public health clinics around the country, but close to half of them were not available to the residents of Chirripos because they did not have the supplies to carry out the care.

For example, they are not able to vaccinate children at the clinic because they do not have a fridge to store the vaccines. In one room on the outside of the clinic there was the pharmacy, which was full of medicines and supplies but only for those who have insurance.

To many of us the difference in care between those who have insurance and those who do not was stark. The Dominican system of insurance is such that the very poorest are covered by a type of basic public health insurance, and those who can afford private insurance use a completely separate system of private clinics and hospitals. The working poor ( i.e., those who are very poor but do not qualify for the public insurance), are completely lost within the system. Many of the students were able to make comparisons to similar issues with the insurance industry and health care system in the U.S.

After the tour of the clinic we accompanied Ramona on her house visits in the community. We visited houses that were little more than clapboard with tin roofs on unpaved roads. Children were playing in the dirt as street dogs lounged in the sun and neighbors chatted in the street.

The sense of community in the barrio was so powerful and we found that family members as well as neighbors were always present to help care for each of the patients. We visited patients with TB, cancer, and other chronic illness who had difficulty getting to the clinic.

One woman in particular, who had breast cancer, really helped us to understand how the lack of resources affect patients. As we entered her tiny house we had to adjust our eyes to the dim light in order to focus on her face. She was sitting in a chair and slowly began telling us her story. She was poor enough to be on the public insurance, and when she was diagnosed with breast cancer she was able to have a very basic surgery to remove the tumor.

However, the public insurance only covers a small part of the treatment, which is the first surgery. She did not have the money to cover more treatment, and continuing care and chemotherapy or radiation is out of the question. While the surgery may slow the progression of cancer, she will die from the disease because of lack of access to care.

She kept telling us, “I don’t want to die. I have a son who is 17 years old and I don’t want to leave him. Please, I don’t want to die.”

It was very difficult for us to leave her knowing that there was nothing we could do for her.

Ramona vented her frustration at having to tell patients that she didn’t have the answers or access to resources to make them better, but she does her best to remain positive.

“While I don’t have resources, I do have my heart," she said. "I am able to offer emotional support and let the patients know that I care about them and that someone is listening to them.”

While in the United States we have access to so much technology and such a high level of care, we are so often missing that element of human connection.

Although we call it “nursing care” we are so often focused on our skills that we forget to be present for the patient so we can listen to their needs and truly connect, person to person.

Many of us went into nursing because we wanted to care for people, and on Monday we saw such a powerful example of how that can be done. It was such a good reminder of the impact that a nurse can have both on the individual and the community. While many of us came here with the thought that we were coming to help, we are actually learning so much more than we could ever give…

Hasta la proxima,

-- Abby Weil 11N and Hunter Keys 11N, students, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

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Where to begin ... We have not had electricity for most of the week, which makes posting a blog on the Internet very difficult! This blog entry is from Sunday:

Lots of things have been happening here la Republica Dominicana … from meeting our host families to going on a long walk in the countryside with a community health nurse. Above all else, we’re in good form and learning new things all the time!

We spent last night getting better acquainted with our host families. The generosity here is enormous. Each pair of students ate a delicious dinner last night and learned more about their families. Living with host families allows students to truly be immersed in the Dominican culture and also to practice their Spanish. Some of the students even got to go to a fund-raiser for the local high school with their host brother!

This morning we got a tour of the maternity ward of the local public hospital where our mentor, Dr. Foster, has been collaborating with Dominican nurses to research how to improve maternal and newborn death rates. We were struck by the simplicity of the hospital but also the knowledge of the nurses, who actually practice more like midwives.

They attend all normally progressing births and usually only call the physician for complications. They do the best they can with what they have within the public system and we were so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from them.

Later we took a long and bumpy ride down a dirt road into the countryside. The trip was to learn about how people live outside of the city as well as what health resources are available to them.

We went to visit the house of a woman named Aracelis who used to work as a nurse in the maternity ward at the public hospital but now works as a public health nurse in “the campo,” or countryside. Every day she travels by foot into the mountains to make house calls to her patients who may live several hours away. She took us on a walking tour of the area and we got to enjoy its beauty as well as appreciate the difficulty getting around and the lack of resources available for her to utilize. She is a true model of what it means to be a community nurse and to live and work among the people.

Tomorrow in the morning we will be accompanying nursing students from the local university on their rounds to visit patients in the community. We will get to see the local people in their homes and how they deal with sickness as well as how they work to navigate the health care system

In the afternoon we will be visiting the home of the Mirabal sisters, who are important martyrs in the struggle against the brutal dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic for decades.

It will be a very special celebration because it is International Women's Day, and they will also be recognizing the role of the sisters in the fight for justice for the country. We will write more tomorrow about the history of the Dominican Republic, our time in the community, and our visit to the museum.

Hasta la proxima,

-- Hunter Keys 11N and Abby Weil 11N, students, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Jacksonville, FL played host to the EAA's Faculty Destinations speaker series on Sunday, March 7. “The American Health Care System: Reform, Reimagine, or Retreat?” featured Nadine Kaslow, professor of psychiatry (above), and Merle Black, Asa G. Candler Professor of Politics and Government. Nearly 50 alumni and friends attended.

See more photos from Faculty Destinations: Jacksonville on the EAA's Facebook fan page.

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We arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Friday with no problems, except some lost luggage. We spent the evening getting accustomed to the warmer weather, the humidity, and the rapid pace of Dominican Spanish. Most of us headed to bed early because we knew that Saturday we were going to visit a monastery to help care for Haitian refugees.

This morning we met up with five Dominican medical students and three Dominican nursing students to travel to the Provisional Center for the Recuperation of Haitian Earthquake Victims. This center is a home that was donated by the former merengue singer, Rubby Perez, and run by the Capuchin Franciscan Monks.

Perez offered the use of the home when the Dominican government and local NGOs needed space to house severely injured refugees. We unloaded the medical supplies, donated by MedShare, the food, and medicines we bought with the money we raised and set out to help provide care.

Many of the refugees sustained severe injuries in the earthquake, from broken femurs to amputations. Many of the patients were operated on in Haiti and the Dominican Republic by international surgeons, but there is a huge need for ongoing care, including wound care, physical therapy, and mental health treatment.

Dealing with these health issues on top of the terrible tragedy of losing loved ones, homes, and jobs is almost unimaginable. The process of healing will be long and difficult, both mentally and physically. One of the take-home messages of the team was that while the great amount of aid pouring into Haiti directly after the earthquake is so useful and greatly needed, there will need to be a sustained effort to provide the services needed to facilitate this healing process.

While the outside perception of relations between Dominicans and Haitians is largely negative, we experienced a picture of Dominican health care students reaching across a divide to provide dedicated service to the Haitian refugees. Several of the students have been visiting the refugees every day to provide free care, and we were so fortunate to get to work alongside them.

While we were only able to be at the center for a day, it made a huge impact on each and every team member. The tragedy of the earthquake came to life as we dressed the wounds of the refugees, held their hands, and listened to their stories. The supplies we brought filled their supply closet and their kitchen and will help to sustain the efforts that have brought the Haitians this far in their recovery.

Pictures to come…

Hasta la proxima,

-- Hunter Keys 11N and Abby Weil 11N, students, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

On Friday, March 5, a group from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing will travel to the Dominican Republic armed with food, medicine, and clothing to work in partnership with Dominican nursing and medical students to serve one Haitian refugee community. During the trip, Emory nursing students will provide health screenings and share their knowledge about accessing the internet for health information. They will also accompany Dominican nursing students on home visits and elementary school visits.

Be sure and follow our nursing students' alternative spring break all week on EAAvesdropping.


And so months of anticipation draw to a close as we meet each other to board our flight to Santo Domingo…

We’re all very excited to be participating in this trip. As a team, we’re a pretty diverse group – a handful of junior-year students, some seniors and a graduate student, and not to mention our faculty! Our interests and career goals range from midwifery to adult and emergency care. It can be said that our Spanish levels are as varied as each one of us, from having lived and worked in Spanish-speaking countries to being native speakers … it can also be said that a few of us have spent the last few months frantically brushing up on verb conjugations…

It’s a very special moment to be participating in this trip as well. The earthquake that struck Haiti’s capital in January left behind an estimated death toll of more than 200,000, as well as leaving countless others struggling to find food, shelter, and access to health care in a country that has already been wracked by trouble. As can be imagined, the situation for the displaced following this disaster has touched the Dominican Republic as well.

Following the earthquake, many of us felt a strong desire to somehow include some degree of service to the survivors, either directly or indirectly, as part of our overall trip objectives. Jennifer Foster, associate professor of nursing, contacted her colleagues, and in time, a joint operativo was developed, in which we will work alongside local nursing and medical students in providing care to Haitian evacuees in a local clinic in Santo Domingo.

Thus, our first full day in-country will be spent in a clinic with local students from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, assisting in the care of evacuees … it’s hard to imagine at the moment; we’ve seen images and read accounts of the disaster, and it’s hard to think of how our seemingly small efforts may fit into such a larger picture.

Part of our planning process these last few months has been to collect medical supplies to contribute to the operativo, ranging from gauze pads and suturing kits to shampoo and baby clothes. Abby Weil 11N and Yvonne Hewitt 11N donated their time at MedShare, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that seeks to reclaim unused medical supplies for overseas donation. We spent this evening dividing up the supplies and packing them into our bags…

In addition to preparing for the operativo, we held a general fundraiser to raise money in the purchase of additional supplies…we received a generous donation on the part of Tony and Cathy Weil, and for those of you who helped support our efforts by purchasing a Caribbean lunch – THANK YOU! Dr. D’s friend Gail (a professional caterer) cooked almost 70 authentic Caribbean lunches for us to sell during a lunch-and-learn on campus, and boy…that was some good eatin’…

Overall, it’s very exciting to join in the longstanding relationship between Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and clinical staff at the public hospital in San Francisco de Macoris. The rest of our week will be focused on community health issues related to maternity and newborn health, as well as a final “capstone” of sorts, in which we’ll make a health presentation to our Dominican hosts … details to come, as it’s still vague to us too ;)

Hasta la proxima,

-- Abby Weil 11N and Hunter Keys 11N, students, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

On Tuesday, March 2, students, faculty, alumni, staff, and administrators gathered at the Miller-Ward Alumni House for this year’s Pride Awards. The awards, which serve as an annual celebration for members of Emory’s LGBT community, were a rousing success again this year despite less-than-ideal weather.

Highlights of the evening included remarks from a handful of 2010 graduates as well as the presentation of a number of awards and accolades, including The GALA Leadership Award, the Chesnut LGBT Person of the Year Award, and Studies in Sexualities Essay Contest Awards.

Other highlights included a photo slideshow featuring successes and challenges faced by Emory’s LGBT community last year, the ever-witty antics of Michael Shutt, director of the Office of LGBT Life and emcee for the evening, and two amazing performances by AHANA, Emory’s multicultural a cappella group.

As in the past, this year’s Pride Awards centered around recognition and success. One other theme also ran seamlessly throughout the night, perhaps more overtly than in years past: gratitude.

Student speakers conveyed their thanks to mentors and friends, award recipients expressed deep appreciation for the laurels they were receiving . . . everyone, it seemed, recognized not only the successes being celebrated at the awards, but also the many sources of support that allowed for these achievements to exist in the first place.

This message came through loud and clear in special remarks from Allison Dykes, vice president for alumni relations. She shared the exciting news that approximately $130,000 has been raised in gifts and pledges toward the GALA Leadership Scholarship, noting that this accomplishment would not have been possible had it not been for the generosity and leadership of Emory’s alumni and friends.

The talented voices of AHANA captured the message in its simplest form in their soulful, goosebump-inspiring performance of a Boyz II Men classic, Thank You.

The 2010 Pride Awards were sponsored by The Emory University Office of LGBT Life, Emory Gay and Lesbian Alumni (GALA), the Emory Alumni Association (EAA), and the President's Commission on Sexuality, Gender Diversity and Queer Equality.

-- Ben Corley 07C, assistant director, regional programs, EAA

Why are all these students so happy? Well, they are the 2010 Emory Community Building and Social Change Fellows.

A successful centerpiece of Emory's Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP), the fellowship provides students with a comprehensive year of training, research and experience culminating in an intensive summer-long practicum working on community initiatives in metro Atlanta.

You can read more about them here, see a video featuring former fellows here, and see exactly who our 2010 fellows are below.

Front row (left-to-right): Program Director Kate Grace, Sacha Munro 11C, Anand Saha 11C, Caitlin Keesee 09Ox 11C, Saundra Deltac 12PhD, and Courtney Coleman 09PH

Back row (left-to-right): Rachel Abraham 09Ox 11C, Liza Carter 11C, Michael Dale 09Ox 11C, Helen Cheung 11C, Ayanthi Gunawardana 11C, and Jennifer Sarpong 10C.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

Sunday night, it was off to Argentina for Emory alumnus Jordan Pious 09B on the third episode of CBS’ The Amazing Race, a reality game show where 11 two-person teams race around the world in hopes of winning the first-place prize of $1,000,000. Jordan (on the right) and his older brother Dan have teamed up to try their chances in the 16th season of The Race.

A native of Barrington, R.I., 22-year-old Pious has been working as a strategic consultant in Atlanta since graduating from the Goizueta Business School with high distinction in May 2009.
Now just weeks into the competition, the brothers are still in the running for the grand prize.

The Race, which started in Los Angeles, sends the competitors off with clues to lead them to their next destinations in locales around the world. The teams face challenges at every step of the way, including detours, roadblocks, and u-turns.

On leg three, the nine remaining teams trekked across the Andes from last week’s pit stop in Peurto Varas, Chile to Bariloche, Argentina. Once there, they had to drive a car to an old saloon, where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid once hid as outlaws.

But the Pious brothers ran into a problem—the car was a stick shift. And neither of them could drive a stick shift.

Next, the competitors must win a round of five-card stud against the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to get the next clue. The brothers easily won their poker hand, and dashed off to the roadblock challenge.

In the roadblock, teams had to rope a bale of hay with a fake steer's head attached from 18-feet away and then pull it to them for their next clue. Dan tackled this, quickly roping the steer, and they were off with directions to their next cue.

The brothers stopped at Puente Ñirihuau next, this week’s detour area. The teams got to choose their challenge—“Horse Sense” or “Horse Power.” The Pious men went for “Horse Power,” where they had to carry a wooden horse through a polo training field and hit a ball inside the goal in nine shots or less. They struggled a bit, getting panicky as other teams were catching up.
But the finished out the race strong, coming in sixth place at the end of the leg.

Stay tuned to EAAvesdropping as we follow Pious on his adventures across the globe.

-- Cory Lopez 10C, EAA communications intern