BGSU Zoom News

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Former Peace Corps volunteer finds new path in food and nutrition | Musical Arts dean Showell to step down

Ariel Dodgson working with Zambian people as a Peace Corps volunteer before enrolling at BGSU in the food and nutrition program

Returned Peace Corps volunteer prepares for new path to service

Ariel Dodgson is finding another way to serve. She is pursuing a master’s degree in food and nutrition at BGSU following her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, through the Coverdell Fellows Program.

She completed her undergraduate degree in food science and human nutrition with a specialization in dietetics at the University of Florida and became interested in the Peace Corps as a break from formal education. One of the most appealing aspects for Dodgson was the cultural exchange. The Peace Corps created an opportunity for a greater understanding of a culture, language and people from an inside perspective. From 2013–15, she served as a health volunteer in Zambia, where she spent her days teaching local Zambians about prevention of malaria and HIV as well as maternal and child health care.

Dodgson began looking for graduate schools that offered a master’s degree program in nutrition about halfway through her service. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), she was eligible for the Coverdell program, which offers financial assistance to graduate students. BGSU is the only school in the country to offer a master’s degree in food and nutrition through the program.

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Showell to step down as dean of College of Musical Arts

Dr. Jeffrey Showell will step down from his role as dean of the College of Musical Arts July 1, Dr. Rodney Rogers, provost and senior vice president, announced April 5.

In thanking Showell for his service to the college and the University, Rogers noted Showell has led the college in notable accomplishments, including raising the academic profile of its student body and the renovation of facilities. He also facilitated an important new partnership with WGTE–FM, “New Music from Bowling Green,” which has provided a showcase for the college’s faculty and students on public broadcasting stations across the country.

Serving as interim dean will be Dr. William Mathis, professor of trombone and chair of the Department of Music Performance Studies. Mathis has been with BGSU since 2000 and has held a variety of leadership roles that have given him administrative and budget experience as well as an intimate understanding both of the college and the University as a whole, Rogers said.

Buchanan lecture addresses ‘Resurrecting Ancient Proteins’

Steven Benner

Events that shaped the world in the historical past have been inaccessible to experimental science, until now. Dr. Steven Benner, Distinguished Fellow for the Foundation of Applied Molecular Evolution, discusses his work in the 2016 Jean Pasakarnis–Buchanan Lecture on campus April 14.

Benner will present “Resurrecting Ancient Proteins from Extinct Life.” The event, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Bowen–Thompson Student Union Theater.

The advancement of genomics and genetic engineering has enabled scientists to bring parts of ancient organisms back to life, Benner said. During his public talk, he will describe how this is done, what it tells us, how living systems adapt to environmental change, where Homo sapiens came from, and what it means to be human.

OBITUARIES
Raymond Gonyer, 66, died March 26 in Toledo. A supervisor with Campus Operations, he began work with the University in 1979 and retired Dec. 31, 2005.

IN BRIEF

A group of art students have joined forces to create “More Than War and Wine: Anxiety and Relief in Antiquity,” a special exhibition of pieces on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art, in the lobby of the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery in the Fine Arts Center, and will present an object talk from 1:30 to 4 p.m. today (April 7).

Find out more In Brief.