THE KEENE STATE COLLEGE MAGAZINE FALL 2009
KST Cover
FEATURES   
Time and Again
100 Great Things
Reunion 2009
DEPARTMENTS
Contents
From the Desk of
By the Way
Owl Notebook
Class Notes
New Class Notes
Spotlight
Alumni Notebook
Magazine Staff
Magazine Search
Back Issues
KSC LINKS
KEENE STATE HOME
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CENTENNIAL
NEWSLINE
PHOTO GALLERY
KEEP IN TOUCH
GIVING TO KSC
CAMPUS NEWS
100 Great Things About Keene State College
Previous page Your fondest mememories, funniest stories, biggest heroes, and more
Our Favorite Brickyard Pond Story
(A Cautionary Tale)
Brickyard Pond photo by Peter Finger

It was a dark and stormy night. (OK, it was night.) Campus Safety, Keene Police, and a police dog were near Pondside I, looking for a person suspected of selling illegal substances.

The suspect emerged from behind Pondside, saw the constabulary, and decided the smartest thing to do would be to jump into Brickyard Pond for a water escape.

Thanks to the superior buoyancy of the pond, and the fact that the swimmer's pockets were filled with tiny flotation devices in the form of sealed bags of herb-like materials, the swimmer did not drown.

As the baggies began popping to the surface, the swimmer was apprehended, the evidence floated to shore, and the wheels of justice cranked forward.

Science Center:
High-Tech, Hands-On Learning

Molly Croteau '10 learns how to measure trace amounts of elements using a new atomic absorbance spectrometer from visiting lecturer Richard Gunawardane. This instrument measures heavy metal contaminants in groundwater, copper in drinking water, or arsenic in soup. Photo by Mark Corliss
Human hands meet high tech in 33 labs: 16 teaching labs, 11 research project labs, six special-purpose/instrument labs. Keene State has enough high-tech gear to make an Ivy League school weep real tears (or send their students here, which happens). Your average KSC student in the sciences can learn to use:

  • a DNA sequencer (KSC has two)
  • a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (it can tell whether your maple syrup is from Vermont or New Hampshire, or test your fingernail clippings to see how high on the food chain you've been eating)
  • a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, with its super-cooled magnet (liquid helium kept cold by liquid nitrogen)
  • an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

Professors
Therese Seibert photo
“Professors who want to teach.”
– Forrest Seymour '90,
KSC Counseling Center
Our Best Ambassadors
(A Story You'll Remember)

Our committed, energetic admissions tour guides do a great job of presenting a positive, accurate impression of what life on campus is like.

One gold-star example was the student tour guide a couple of years ago who looked a little different – Admissions staff never knew what color his hair would be when he showed up, and they could expect flip-flops and shorts in February.

But he had a transcendent passion for Keene State. He consistently got glowing evaluations from parents and prospective students who were lucky enough to land on his tours.

One such family was a father-son pair. The tour was a success: The son did apply and was admitted to Keene State, and the father, president and CEO of the William T. Morris Foundation, contacted the College after that tour to arrange an initial grant of $100,000 to support the new Honors program.

Johnny Jump-up
Johnny jump-up photo
“Five or six years ago I was walking past the President's house and noticed that the grass had been newly cut. What caught my eye, however, was a single Johnny jump-up in the middle of the lawn. The person using the mower took the time, very deliberately, to mow around that small flower. I remember at the time I actually said to myself, 'That's what's great about Keene State.'”
–Cheryl Perry,
Redfern Arts Center
Theory Meets Practice:
KSC Teacher Training
Teacher Training photo

Keene Normal School pennant photoWhen Keene Normal School was founded in 1909, it was one of about 260 normal schools in the United States.

The teacher education curriculum was energized by the Progressive ideals of John Dewey and others, and soon KNS practice teachers could be found in nearly every schoolroom in the 1,300-pupil Keene School District.

One of the first elementary schools served by KNS was the Elliot Street School, which became Wheelock School in 1915. Over the decades, thousands of KNS, KTC, and KSC students practice-taught in Keene and surrounding school districts, and for many years Wheelock was a neighborhood laboratory school for the College.

Although Wheelock no longer has a special affiliation with KSC, the teacher training model in SAU 29 and SAU 38 (which includes most of the Monadnock region) has evolved into a holistic program of coordinated supervision, a true partnership between the College, the surrounding communities, and experienced local teachers who pass on their wisdom to aspiring educators.

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