Seminar #1 Science in K-12 schools, Ioannis Miaoulis, E83, AG86, EG87

Seminar #2 Changing Minds, if Not Hearts, James Glaser, Tufts Dean of Undergraduate Education for Arts Sciences and Engineering

Seminar #3 The Good Teen, Richard Lerner, Tufts Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development

Seminar #4 Boston, Baseball and The Rise of the Red Sox, Tony Massarotti, A89

Seminar #5 Debunking the Myths of LNG, Marcia MacClary, J63

Seminar #6 New Horizons for Music at Tufts, Joe Auner, Tufts Music Dept Chair

Seminar #7 Animal Care, Animal Welfare, Animal Rights, Dr. John de Jong, A'78, V'85

Seminar #8 Let's Talk about Reinvention: Changing your Career, Changing your Life, sponsored by Tufts Class of 1988

Seminar #1
Science in K-12 schools: Oh My… do we have it WRONG!
Friday, May 16
10:30-11:45 am
Ioannis Miaoulis, E83, AG86, EG87, Director, Museum of Science

Although humans make the majority of the objects we interact with and use during our day-to-day lives, the current school curriculum focuses very little on how our human-made, or designed world, is made. Pens, cars, pills, buildings are all technologies and the results of the engineering design process. Most educators claim that science is the discipline that teaches children about the world around them. However science curricula focus only on the natural world which constitutes only a minor part of our day to day life. Children spend enormous amounts of time learning things that are totally irrelevant to their lives and become adults who are technologically illiterate. Ioannis (Yannis) Miaoulis, "triple jumbo," former Dean of the School of Engineering and Associate Provost at Tufts and now President and Director of the Museum of Science in Boston will discuss how our educational system has missed the point and talk about a major initiative to introduce the human made world and engineering in schools nationwide. Dr. Miaoulis is a member of the Board of Trustees at Tufts University and Wellesley College, a Presidential appointee to the National Museum and Library Services Board and a member of the NASA Advisory Council. He has authored/co-authored more than 100 research papers and science education books, and holds two patents. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, research, and community service.

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Seminar #2
Changing Minds, if Not Hearts: Creative Political Solutions to Issues of Race
Friday, May 16
1:15-2:15 pm
James Glaser, Tufts Dean of Undergraduate Education for Arts Sciences and Engineering

Dean Glaser will share his expertise in issues of Political Science when he explores with the audience some work he did in Mississippi on school bond elections and how Mississippi officials won funding from white voters for overwhelmingly African American schools. Might there be an application to the upcoming U.S. Presidential election in this lesson? Professor Glaser is a student of electoral politics and political behavior. His new book, The Hand of the Past in Contemporary Southern Politics, published in spring 2005 by Yale University Press, was named by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2005. His first book, Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South, also published by Yale, received the Southern Political Science Association’s V.O Key Prize awarded to the best book on Southern politics. At the present time, Professor Glaser is at work on a project looking at group conflict theory and its application to thorny electoral issues. He received the 2000 Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Advising, awarded to one member of the faculty judged by graduating seniors as having had a profound effect on them intellectually.

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Seminar #3
The Good Teen: Current Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth
Friday, May 16
2:15 – 3:30 pm
Richard Lerner, Tufts Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development

Across the last 15 years, a new, strength-based conception of adolescent development has emerged to counter the traditional deficit conception of adolescence as a period of universal and biologically inevitable storm and stress. The Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective emphasizes that the lives of all adolescents can be enhanced by aligning the strengths of youth with the resources for positive change present in families, schools, and communities. Using data from a large, longitudinal investigation of adolescence, the 4-H Study of PYD, the characteristics of positive development have been discovered (Competence, Confidence, Character, Connection, Caring, and Contribution) and found to be linked to the presence in the lives of youth of three key resources: Positive and sustained adult-youth relations (e.g., mentoring), life skills building activities, and opportunities for youth participation in and leadership of valued community activities. Findings from the 4-H Study have important implications for the actions that parents, teachers, and youth-serving practitioners can take to promote positive development among diverse youth.

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Seminar #4
Boston, Baseball and The Rise of the Red Sox
Friday, May 16
3:30 – 4:30 pm
Tony Massarotti, A89, Boston Herald

Boston Herald columnist and longtime baseball writer Tony Massarotti joins us to discuss all thing baseball, focusing on the Red Sox' dynasty in the making. Massarotti has been covering baseball in Boston for the last 15 years and has authored three books, including the memoirs of Sox slugger David Ortiz (titled "Big Papi") and this spring's release, "Dynasty: The Inside Story Of How The Red Sox Became A Baseball Powerhouse." He is a cum laude graduate of Tufts University (1989) and lives in the Boston area with his wife, Natalie, and their sons, Alexander and Xavier.

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Seminar #5
Debunking the Myths of LNG
Friday, May 16
4:30 – 5:30 pm
Marcia MacClary, J63, Director of Public Affairs for Hess LNG

Liquefied natural gas, LNG, is a fuel most of us never use, never come into contact with, and most of what we know about it is incorrect. For example, the propane we cook our hamburgers with is potentially more dangerous than LNG. Marcia MacClary, J63, Director of Public Affairs for Hess LNG, will debunk some of the myths surrounding this emotion-laden fuel and explain the critical role it plays in meeting our growing energy demands.

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Seminar #6
New Horizons for Music at Tufts
Saturday, May 17
9:30 – 10:30 am, Location Note: Varis Lecture Hall Rm 155 The Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center
Joe Auner, Tufts Music Dept Chair

Join Professor Joseph Auner, Chair of the Department of Music, and members of the music faculty in a presentation about the remarkable blossoming of music life at Tufts with the opening of the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center. After only two semesters, the transformative impact of this extraordinary facility is palpable in the energy and enthusiasm of the thousands of majors and non-majors who take our classes; the effectiveness, excitement, and vision of our faculty in their teaching and research; the burgeoning level of performance in solo recitals and ensembles; a near-doubling of the audience for music events to 25,000; and a 200% increase in the number of admitted students with a strong interest in music. With this new facility, an outstanding faculty, and wonderful students, Tufts is an excellent position to create a music program in tune with the profound transformations in all aspects of our lives. Please join us in a discussion of our ambitious plans for the coming years as we work to make Tufts the school of choice on the East Coast for students interested in making music an important part of their lives.

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Seminar #7
Animal Care, Animal Welfare, Animal Rights - A Potpourri of Veterinary Medicine in Today's World
Saturday, May 17
10:30 – 11:45 am
Dr. John de Jong, A'78, V'85

Dr. John de Jong will cover some of the challenges facing the veterinary profession today as regards to the care of animals, their welfare, and their changing rights as seen in the legal system. He will also cover some of the questions facing emerging diseases, zoonoses, and where veterinary medicine is taking on an increasing role in public health. There are gender issues, diversity, and shortages of veterinarians in the near future. In addition, John will answer any questions that he can regarding the care of your animals or address your concerns regarding veterinary medicine today. Dr. de Jong primarily works as owner of the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic, as Chief of Staff and Partner of Neponset Animal Hospital, a six doctor practice in Boston that works exclusively with small animals, and also established and runs a low cost spay/neuter program at the Merwin Clinic. He is a monthly guest with Howie Carr on WRKO talk radio and is often sought as a media source on veterinary issues in the Boston area.

John has been involved for years in organized veterinary medicine at the local, regional, and national levels in various leadership positions including serving as President of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association and currently as President of the New England Veterinary Medical Association. He serves simultaneously in the leadership of the American Veterinary Medical Association having been the "speaker" of the House of Delegates from 2005-2006. He has served on numerous committees and currently is on the Political Action Committee Policy Board.

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Seminar #8
Let's Talk about Reinvention: Changing your Career, Changing your Life - sponsored by Tufts Class of 1988
Saturday, May 17
2:00 – 3:15 pm

As we travel along life’s waystations, we frequently encounter forks in the road. Have you ever considered shifting gears midstream to return to the road less (or more) traveled? Have you thought about reinventing yourself? Come join us as our panel of brave alumni shares its experiences in making career – and life – changes, and taking the leap into the unknown in search of professional fulfillment. We invite you to come hear their stories and reveal your own as we discuss the rewards, the challenges, the risks, the surprises and the ultimate gratification involved in taking stock and making a change. We look forward to learning from this lively, inspirational group of alumni…and from you! Sponsored by the Class of 1988.

Panelists:
Elaine Barlas, '73
Graduate Student in College & Adult ESL (reinventing herself from international general counsel)

Liz Jones, '88
Registered Nurse, Visiting Nurse Service of New York (reinvented herself from labor union researcher and organizer)

Bill Stone, '88
Co-Founder and Principal, Outside GC LLC (reinvented himself from law firm practitioner)

Franz Wisner, '88
Travel writer and world traveler; Author of "Honeymoon with my Brother: A Memoir", St. Martin's Press, 2005 (reinvented himself from political lobbyist)

Moderator:
Nancy Pinn, '88
Director, Administration and Student Affairs, Harvard Law School Graduate Program

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