Featured Stories Archive – July, 2009
Discovering the secret gardens of Princeton
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted July 31, 2009; 05:16 p.m.
In summertime Princeton's campus thrives with fragrant, colorful flowers, verdant stretches of lawn and lush, leafy trees. Tucked away in lesser-traveled areas of the campus are some little-known gardens where the foliage is blossoming and the benches often are empty. All are open to the public.
Whether Sioux Falls or Sant'Angelo, love of science is bond
By Kitta MacPherson · Posted July 30, 2009; 05:14 p.m.
They come from two different parts of the world, more than 5,000 miles apart. Yet, working on a challenge to identify a gas through its basic characteristics, two groups of students from South Dakota and a central region of Italy joined forces on a rainy summer afternoon in Princeton's McDonnell Hall to ferret out the answer.
Summer academy energizes future scientists
By Chris Emery · Posted July 24, 2009; 03:36 p.m.
As she surveyed two arrays of solar panels on an upper deck of Princeton's Engineering Quadrangle one recent morning, 12-year-old Olivia honed her skills of skeptical inquiry by peppering her tour guide with questions. A seventh-grader at Grice Middle School in Hamilton, she was among 11 students from Princeton-area middle schools who toured the solar facility as part of a pilot outreach program of the Princeton University Materials Academy.
On trip to India, students explore religious pluralism
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted July 22, 2009; 03:44 p.m.
Princeton student Jahnabi Barooah has lived in India all her life, but a trip there this summer to explore interreligious understanding with 21 fellow students allowed her to see her country in a new way. Barooah and the other students are members of Princeton's Religious Life Council, a fellowship of undergraduates of various religions who are committed to fostering conversation among members of all religious faiths at Princeton and beyond.
Theater workshop fuels children's creativity
By Emily Aronson · Posted July 20, 2009; 11:01 a.m.
The imaginations of 11 children briefly transformed the lawn in front of Murray-Dodge Hall one recent Friday afternoon into a 1970s New York City disco. No props or costumes were necessary to convey the flashing lights, thumping music or crowds of dancers -- just the creative minds of the 7- to 12-year-olds attending the Princeton Summer Theater (PST) children's workshop on playwriting.
Cultural explorations aid learning process for aspiring policymakers
By Cass Cliatt · Posted July 15, 2009; 04:40 p.m.
For 10 minutes in a classroom earlier this month at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the only sound that could be heard was the light shuffle of playing cards and the slap of the cards hitting the table, flicked by aggressive fingers. The 35 rising college seniors from the United States and several other countries participating in a workshop titled "Intercultural Dimensions of Policymaking" were to learn how playing a card game in complete silence would teach them a lesson about cultural differences.
Prokofiev's 'Music for Athletes' premieres at Princeton
By Eric Quiñones · Posted July 10, 2009; 05:38 p.m.
A world premiere production of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev's "Music for Athletes," recently restored by Princeton music scholar Simon Morrison, will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 17, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
Summer learning extends to playing fields
By Eric Quiñones · Posted July 9, 2009; 02:32 p.m.
The University's summer educational outreach programs are not confined to classrooms and laboratories. Thousands of young athletes come to campus each summer to learn the finer points of 17 different sports, taught by Princeton's varsity coaches and student-athletes.
'Accidental Tourist' exhibition provides views of postwar Japan
By Eric Quiñones · Posted July 6, 2009; 03:21 p.m.
Photographs taken by Princeton alumnus Egbert Giles Leigh in post-World War II Japan are the focus of an exhibition on view through Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the first-floor lounge of McCormick Hall.
Homeward bound: Princeton engineers promote science in their native countries
By Chris Emery · Posted July 2, 2009; 12:31 p.m.
The stories that Edgar Choueiri and Winston Soboyejo tell of their native countries and of their own careers are strangely similar. These two Princeton engineering professors came from societies where science blossomed for a time and then atrophied. Both left their native countries to earn their scientific credentials. And now both men find themselves drawn home again to give something back to the societies where they were first inspired.