Hiram College Named “A Best in the Midwest” College by the Princeton Review on its Website Feature: “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region”

Hiram College is one of the best colleges in the Midwest according to the nationally known education services company, The Princeton Review. It is one of 152 institutions The Princeton Review recommends in its “Best in the Midwest” section of its website feature, “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region,” that posted August 2, 2010 on PrincetonReview.com. In the profile on Hiram College on its site, The Princeton Review describes the college as “a diverse, close-knit, residential learning environment.”

Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publishing, “We’re pleased to recommend Hiram College to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn their undergrad degree. We chose it and the other terrific institutions we name as ‘regional best’ colleges mainly for their excellent academic programs. From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what students at the schools reported to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey for this project. Only schools that permit us to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for our regional ‘best’ lists.”

“It is heartening to receive these kind of third-party endorsements of the good work we do with students here at Hiram,” said Hiram College President Thomas V. Chema. “However, what speaks even louder about the value of a Hiram education is the extraordinary experiences our students have after they graduate. Hiram graduates leave ready for life and work in our complex and rapidly changing world.”

The 152 colleges that The Princeton Review chose for its “Best in the Midwest” list are located in twelve states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The Princeton Review also designated 218 colleges in the Northeast, 120 in the West and 133 in the Southeast as best in their locales on the company’s “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region” lists. Collectively, the 623 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25% of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

For this project, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues — from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food — and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life. Comments from surveyed students are quoted in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site. Student comments in the profile on Hiram are that the College is “a gentle mix of athletes, artists and scientists, and…Everyone gets along and respects what the others are capable of doing,” and that Hiram provides “not only a feeling of immediate comfort but also the appeal of being in close relationship with my professors.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the 623 colleges in its “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region” list hierarchically or by region or in various categories. (However, some schools in this list that also appear in The Princeton Review book, “The Best 373 Colleges: 2011 Edition” may appear on some of the Princeton Review ranking lists of “top 20 colleges” in 62 categories that are unique to that book. They are based entirely on the Company’s surveys of students at the 373 schools in the book.)

The Princeton Review, headquartered in Framingham, MA with editorial offices in New York City and test preparation locations across the country and abroad, is not affiliated with Princeton University and it is not a magazine.

Hiram College Named One of America’s Best Colleges by Forbes Magazine

Hiram College has once again been recognized as one of the nation’s best institutions of higher learning in the recently released edition of “America’s Best Colleges 2010” produced by Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. The third-annual ranking guide selects colleges and universities based on a variety of factors including four-year graduation rate, student satisfaction, post-graduation success of graduates and freshman-to-sophomore retention rates.

Hiram rose to number 166 in the rankings this year compared to a ranking of 204 last year. There are 610 total schools on the list. Hiram is also ranked 38 among the 150 colleges (of the 610 total) that are in the Midwest and 42 among the 386 colleges (of the 610 total) that have average SAT scores between 1100 and 1299.

The two areas that Hiram received the strongest rankings in were student satisfaction and alumni achievement.

“We know what we do at Hiram is special and that it is the best preparation for life in today’s rapidly changing world,” said Hiram President Thomas V. Chema. “It is especially positive when those outside of our community endorse the value of a Hiram education.”

Five Hiram Students Win Entrepreneurship Education Consortium Contest

Five Hiram students have won the opportunity to turn their business idea into reality. The students are the winners of the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium’s “Entrepreneurship Immersion Week.”

Dan Fakhoury ’13, Adam Miller ’13, Sydney Vore ’11, Nicole Spencer ’11 and Kara Vantaggi ’12 traveled to Baldwin-Wallace College for the week, which took place Sunday, August 8 through Friday, August 13. They spent the week attending academic sessions and networking during the day and perfecting a business concept at night. All of this was in preparation for a team presentation of their business concept to a panel of judges at the end of the week.

The Hiram team developed a plan to create “Stir-Ups,” straws filled with chocolate syrup. They spent long hours doing their homework for the idea including: researching the proposed market for the product, discovering the costs and developing a five year focus plan.

As the winners, the team received a package of cash and gifts along with access to resources to make their idea a reality. The judges praised the team for their enjoyable idea, saying that the level of fun in the product showed during their presentation.

The group was one of eight teams from area universities to present their idea. The other teams included students from: Baldwin-Wallace, Kent State University, John Carroll University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Akron, Ashland University and Lake Erie College.

Kay Molkentin, director of the Center for Integrated Entrepreneurship, traveled with the students and advised them throughout the week. She was thrilled about the win.

“The Hiram students did a fantastic job,” she said. “They didn’t really know each other that well before the competition and came together perfectly as a team. The whole thing is very exciting.”

Molkentin said that the students were grateful for everything they learned during the week and the opportunities that winning the competition gives them. She said that they are planning out the next steps for their business concept.

“The week was great,” she added. “Everyone from all the schools did a great job of coming together. After the week I am sure that there is quite a bit of talent in northeast Ohio.”

To read more about the competition, check out the Plain Dealer’s coverage.

To learn more about the Center for Integrated Entrepreneurship, please visit the Center’s website.

Hiram College to Present “Point of Departure: Five Contemporary Realists,” A Group Art Exhibition

Hiram College will present a group art exhibition,“Point of Departure: Five Contemporary Realists” in the Art Gallery of the Gelbke Fine Arts Center, 12000 Winrock Road, from August 30 through October 1, 2010.

A reception will take place on Friday, September 10, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and will include an artist talk in the gallery at 6 p.m. The reception, talk and exhibition are free and open to the public.

The exhibition features the work of Philip Jackson from Mississippi, Jason Lewis from Pennsylvania, Paul LaJeunesse from Oregon, Christopher Ryan from Northeast Ohio and Dennis Wojtkiewicz from Northwest Ohio. Curated by Wojtkiewicz, a professor at Bowling Green State University, the show presents five artists working within the tradition of realist painting, four of whom, at various times, studied in the graduate art program at Bowling Green State University.

From this point of departure, each artist developed his own particular technical approach and pictorial style, while also going on to explore diverse subject matter and individual content inspired by interaction with, and observation of, various unique environments. The subject matter in the show ranges from monumental close-ups of natural forms to intimate, playful scenes of everyday objects; from the undulating mountains of western Pennsylvania and the somber yet majestic landforms of Iceland, to iconic and enigmatic imagery found in Italy.

In the introduction to the catalog that was produced for the show, Bowling Green State University Professor of Art History Allie Terry-Fritsch points out that beyond displays of painting virtuoso, these works display a kind of illusionism that is “countered by a self-conscious reference to the materiality or construction of the image.” She notes that “the resulting tension between realism and artifice produces wonder in the viewer precisely because the image acknowledges itself as a constructed reality.” While working in the realist tradition, Terry-Fritsch also asserts that these artists address issues relevant to the present day, as they reflect “the contemporary aim of realist painting to challenge viewers to probe beneath surface realities and to discover the layers of signification that inform the making process.”

Before arriving at Hiram College, the exhibition premiered in the McAlear Gallery at the Schedel Gardens in Elmore, Ohio, where the show ran from June 5 to July 30, 2010.

Directions to Hiram College can be found at on the Hiram College website.

The Art Gallery is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, but will be closed on Monday, September 6, 2010.

Hiram College Featured in The Princeton Review Book “The Best 373 Colleges” 2011 Edition

The Princeton Review recently renewed its endorsement of Hiram College in the new 2011 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 373 Colleges.”

Only about 15% of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of students attending the colleges.

Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP/Publishing and author of “The Best 373 Colleges,” “We commend Hiram College for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our selection of schools for the book. Our choices are based on institutional data we collect about schools, our visits to schools over the years, feedback we gather from students attending the schools, and the opinions of our staff and our 28-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”

“We know well the value of a Hiram education, but it is especially positive when those outside of our community endorse what we do here,” said Hiram President Thomas V. Chema. “Students and families read these guide books and it’s important that respected voices in the higher education marketplace point to you as an example of best practices.”

In its profile on Hiram The Princeton Review praises the school for its “big-school opportunities in a small-school environment” and quotes extensively from Hiram students the Company surveyed for the book. Among their comments about their campus experiences are: “small classes of no more than 30 students and the intimate nature of the learning [environment] keep us from feeling lost in a sea of students.”

In a “Survey Says” sidebar in the book’s profile on Hiram, The Princeton Review lists topics that Hiram students surveyed for the book were in most agreement about in their answers to survey questions. The list includes: “athletic facilities are great,” “diverse student types on campus,” and “low cost of living.”

The Princeton Review has posted the school profiles and ranking lists in “The Best 373 Colleges” at PrincetonReview.com. There users can find further information about the book, the student survey, the rankings, the ratings and other features in the book including its “Honor Roll” lists saluting schools with ratings of 99 in various categories, and “Best Value Colleges for 2010″ list. The schools in “The Best 373 Colleges” are also part of a group of 623 colleges that The Princeton Review commends (but does not rank) in its website feature, “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region – Northeast/Midwest/Southeast/West.”

“The Best 373 Colleges” is the 19^th edition of The Princeton Review’s annual “best colleges” book. It is one of about 165 Princeton Review books published by Random House in a line that also includes the annual guides, “The Complete Book of Colleges” and “The Best Northeastern Colleges.” The Princeton Review, headquartered in Framingham, Mass., with editorial offices in New York City and test preparation locations across the country and abroad, is not affiliated with Princeton University and it is not a magazine.

Van Wormer Attends Inaugural Summit on the Advancement of Senior Women Scientists at Liberal Arts Colleges

Fifty-one senior women professors in chemistry and physics from forty-six liberal arts colleges gathered in June in Washington, D.C. to participate in the first ever summit meeting focused on the Advancement of Senior Women Scientists at Liberal Arts Colleges. Hiram College Professor of Physics Laura Van Wormer was one of only two faculty members from Ohio to attend the summit.

“Attending this summit was an honor for me and for Hiram College,” Van Wormer said. “We were among the smallest liberal arts colleges represented, and I was one of about 15 physicists who were invited. The ideas generated at this meeting will not only benefit my research, but have opened up opportunities for me to network on a national scale and make a difference locally and especially regionally for senior women scientists.”

The two-day working meeting focused on the distinctive environments of undergraduate liberal arts institutions and the challenges faced by senior women science faculty on these campuses to attain leadership roles and professional recognition. Also present at the summit were representatives from professional organizations who advocate for faculty development and for women’s leadership and gender equity on a daily basis. Summit participants considered the practices, infrastructure, and campus climate needed to support and enhance the professional careers, visibility, and leadership of women science faculty on liberal arts campuses.

The meeting was organized by the co-principal investigators of a project funded by the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination (PAID) program. Leading the project are four full professors of chemistry: Professor Kerry Karukstis, Harvey Mudd College; Professor Laura Wright, Furman University; Professor Miriam Rossi, Vassar College; and Professor Bridget Gourley, DePauw University.

Emergency Communications Systems Test

We are conducting a test of our emergency communications systems. These are the ways by which Hiram College may communicate a disruption of services:

1.      Information Line at 330.569.5959
2.      A campus-wide voice mail (Hiram extensions only)
3.      A campus-wide email (Hiram email only)
4.      A campus-wide text message
5.      A special notice on www.hiram.edu
6.      Faculty and staff phone tree

Please use this time to be sure that you are able to retrieve messages from these sources. Hiram College employees who expect to receive a text message and fail to do so during this test should contact Director of Human Resources Lynn Kostrab.

In some cases, one or more method may be unavailable for communications, so it is important to verify your access to all of them.

As you know, we developed a phone tree for all departments. We will use this phone tree to contact employees individually in the event of a services disruption. Again, please use this time to verify your department’s phone tree and calling procedure.

Thank you for your attention.

Fiske Guide to Colleges 2011 Includes Hiram College

In the life of high school seniors and their parents, finding colleges that match all their needs, including personality, location, size, and tuition, can be a daunting task with more than 2,200 four-year colleges in the United States.

For more than 25 years, students and their families have looked to The Fiske Guide to Colleges to help make the most intelligent educational investment they can. The revised and updated 2011 edition of The Fiske Guide to Colleges by Edward B. Fiske features over 300 of the country’s best and most interesting colleges and universities.

Hiram College is featured in this year’s updated edition.

The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2011 is fiercely independent. The Fiske Guide accepts no consulting, advertising, or other fees from colleges and has no outside relationship with colleges working on its behalf. The Fiske Guide’s only goal is to help future students select the best colleges to reach their own goals.

The Fiske Guide among several national publications to recognize the exemplary residential liberal arts college experience Hiram offers. Hiram College is featured in the Princeton Review’s Best Colleges, Forbes Magazine’s America’s Best Colleges, and Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives.

About the Author:

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as Education Editor of the New York Times, during which time he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He wrote The Fiske Guide to Colleges to help them. He co-wrote, along with Bruce G. Hammond, The Fiske Guide to Nailing the SAT, as well as Fiske What to do When for College and The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College.

Commencement to be Held on Campus Green

Hiram College’s 160th commencement exercises will be held on the Campus Green, between State Route 700 and Dean Street, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 15. The ceremony will be outdoors rain or shine. Please plan accordingly in the event of inclement weather.

Hiram College Looks to Solar Energy for its Coleman Sports Center

The Ohio Department of Development awarded Hiram College and its partner, Carbon Vision LLC, a grant for $165,728 for the installation of 234 solar panels on the Coleman Sports Center. The solar panels are expected to produce 57 megawatt-hours of energy annually. By comparison, the average American home uses approximately 11 megawatt-hours per year.

Two years ago, Hiram College President Thomas V. Chema signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, affirming Hiram’s commitment to go climate neutral. Colleges and universities part of the Climate Commitment agree to model ways to curb global warming emissions and educate students about climate neutrality. The solar panel installation at the Coleman Sports Center is the latest step Hiram College is taking to become more energy-efficient.

“Using renewable energy is an important component to our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Chema. “It’s a win-win situation since we will lessen Hiram’s environmental impact and decrease our expenses on electrical consumption.”

The photovoltaic (PV) system will fully cover the flat-roof portion of the Coleman Sports Center. Two American-made PV powered inverters will convert the DC energy into AC energy that will be used by the sports center. Solaris Blackstone Energy, a NABCEP Certified PV Installer, will oversee the system’s design and installation.

Carbon Vision, a full service renewable energy and carbon credit project development firm, is the project developer working in partnership with Hiram College. Carbon Vision specializes in project development that helps organizations create value and improve the environment.

“Carbon Vision is delighted to have partnered with Hiram College on this exciting solar project that fully utilizes the available solar incentives to achieve favorable financial and environmental results and promote hands on learning opportunities for Hiram students,” said Carbon Vision CEO Michael Shaut.

Work to install the PV system is expected to begin in May.

About Carbon Vision:

Carbon Vision is a full service renewable energy/carbon credit project development firm, greenhouse gas emission consultancy, and environmental brokerage. We work with companies to assess and address the impact of emerging greenhouse gas regulation on their business models. Carbon Vision specializes in risk assessment, strategic planning, and project development which helps companies create value and improve the environment.

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