May 2018 Union in the Media Archive

Joanna Rudolph '98 is the executive producer of indie film, “Burning Annie,” which was released internationally on major HD platforms via the Sundance Creative Distribution Initiative on May 15. To read more about the movie and the story of its creation, check out this moviemaker.com.

At Union, Joanna was involved in Film Committee, participated in Steinmetz Symposium and studied abroad in France.

As part of the 27th annual Steinmetz Symposium, more than 80 performers took to the stage in the Nott Memorial for the Lothridge Festival of Dance.

Featured were works from the Winter Dance Concert, “Beyond Steps,” by dance minors Emily Alston ’19, Ayanah Dowdye ’18, Lily Herout ’17, Grace Kernohan ’17, J’Kela Smith ’17 and Maddison Stemple-Piatt ’17.

In addition, students from the Bhangra, Hip-Hop, Step and African Dance clubs, Terra Dance, the Dance Team and Just Queenin performed.

The College recently hosted a backwards pitch competition for students in the Innovation, Creativity and the Entrepreneurial Mindset course.

Students were asked to come up with the worst, most bizarre or most ridiculous idea. Pitches must be between 150 seconds and 180 seconds and delivered without notes.

Each year the College offers an interdisciplinary course open to all students that focuses on a single topic and is taught by a variety of professors. Known as the Minerva Course, the class also includes lectures by accomplished guests. Past topics have included presidential elections, income inequality, oil, food, technology and society, and globalization.

This year’s course, which enrolls 91 students across a broad range of majors, is unique and unconventional from past Minerva classes. Working with faculty since last spring, the College’s University Innovation Fellows helped design the curriculum.

Learn more about the course.

The 27th annual Steinmetz Symposium kicked off with a corporate breakfast featuring remarks by Victor (Vic) Abate, chief technology officer and senior vice president for General Electric.

Abate discussed accelerating breakthrough technologies for competitive advantage. Bianca Mielke ’18, an electrical engineering major with a minor in dance and mathematics, talked of her Union experience. Joining invited faculty, students and staff were a host of local business leaders representing GE, GlobalFoundries, Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Capital Region Chamber and others.

Click here to read more in the Daily Gazette (subscription may be required).

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a precursor to Alzheimer’s, showed significant improvement with certain complex thinking and memory skills after exergaming, according to a new study.

The results could encourage seniors, caregivers and health care providers to pursue or prescribe exergames (video games that also require physical exercise) in hopes of slowing the debilitating effects of those with MCI, sometimes a stage between normal brain aging and dementia.

The study was led by Cay Anderson-Hanley, associate professor of psychology.

It appears in the current issue of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

The Times Union featured the study on the front page.

At ReUnion this year, photographer Nancy Borowick ’07 will sign and discuss her new book, "The Family Imprint (The Cancer Family Book)." An intimate portrait of the author’s family as her parents underwent parallel treatments for stage-four cancer, it enriches the larger story Borowick has been telling for years in Cancer Family Ongoing. This photography project has been published nationally and internationally, receiving awards and recognition on both stages.

Shilpa Darivemula '13, a student at Albany Medical College who is also trained in Kuchipudi (a classical Indian dance form), is the founder of The Aseemkala Initiative.

The organization, which presents its first performance of the Mahavidyas in Medicine project at the Fertile Ground Showcase on May 14, uses traditional dances to narrate stories of women in medicine from cultures around the world.

At Union, Shipla participated in Shakti Club, Steinmetz Symposium and Messa House.