2009 September: Community News

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Inside • U.S. News ranking • Western novelist • Tea research • Diplomacy center

Justin Edmonds

• Dog day care

Miracles on ice

Jose Sanchez, 10, celebrates after scoring a goal on the fifth and final day of the Miracles on Ice hockey camp sponsored by the Gary and Leslie Howard (MBA ’03) Family Foundation. Sanchez was one of 33 Bridge Project students who took to the Magness Arena ice for a hockey game Aug. 7 following a week of skating lessons, classroom instruction in math and reading and listening

Back to school: More than 1,200 new firstyear, first-time undergrads are expected to arrive at DU this fall, with nearly half ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

to motivational speakers. The camp teaches students the importance of

The proportion of domestic

maintaining a strong mind and healthy body while encouraging discipline,

entering class will reach a new

minority students among the

commitment and team play. The Graduate School of Social Work Bridge

high of 18 percent, and more

Project opens up educational opportunities for kids in Denver public housing

countries other than the U.S.

developments.

than 5 percent will be from

DU ranked among nation’s top 100

Writing exercise

The University of Denver is keeping its place among the top national universities in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report college rankings. The magazine’s annual rankings for undergraduate education, released August 20, again places DU among the nation’s top-100 universities. DU ranks 84th — up five positions from last year — tied with American University, Marquette University and the Stevens Institute of Technology. DU ranked high for its freshman retention rate (88 percent); its acceptance rate (64 percent) and percentage of full-time faculty (74 percent). Additionally, the rankings recognize DU for having small class sizes — more than 65 percent of DU classes have fewer than 20 students — and for a first-year class that includes 43 percent who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class. The Daniels College of Business ranked 83 on a list of 183 undergraduate business programs nationwide. Daniels was tied with 17 other schools, including Texas Christian University, Loyola University Chicago, Brandeis University, Marquette University and George Mason University. Daniels ranked 83rd in the 2009 rankings as well. In addition, DU ranks No. 8 — tied with the University of Southern California and the University of Vermont — in the “Up and Coming National Universities” category. The category spotlights universities regarded by top college officials as “making promising and innovative changes.” DU’s U.S. News ranking is based on its Carnegie Foundation category as a doctoral/research university with high research activity. U.S. News & World Report collects data on as many as 15 indicators of academic quality within each category. >>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges

In his book The 4 a.m. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction (Writer’s Digest Books, 2008), writing Professor Brian Kiteley offers readers 200 writing exercises, giving instructions — and motivation — for each exercise. Try your hand at one: Write five paragraphs of narrative about one individual who has decided to stop spending so much time with a gang of friends. Each paragraph should be about an isolated problem of this larger issue. All five paragraphs should have overlapping characters, but you do not have to follow one character all the way through the five paragraphs. Think of the paragraphs as tiny stories in and of themselves. Separate each paragraph by a space. 1,000 words.

—Chase Squires

DU introduces nanotech graduate program

—Laura Hathaway

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The study of nanotechnology does not just affect the production of the latest mini iPod. Nano-scale science and engineering are the foundation for the next generation of technological breakthroughs, says Rahmat Shoureshi, dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS), and DU will begin playing a role in these breakthroughs. SECS and the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics (NSM) have added a new master’s and PhD graduate program in nanoscale science and engineering — the first university in the Rocky Mountain region to offer such graduate degrees. “We owe it to DU students to offer them a comparable opportunity,” says Alayne Parson, dean of NSM. “And, I expect we will be able to draw even more students to DU from local industries because of this degree.” SECS has identified four areas within nanotechnology as possible areas of study: nanoenergy, nano-aerospace structures, nano-medicine and nano-security. “These degrees will enable us to attract quality faculty and students with strong interest in these strategic nanotechnology areas that will have a profound impact on the economic development of Colorado and the nation,” Shoureshi says. >> http://secs.du.edu or http://www.nsm.du.edu.

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Volume 33, Number 1 Vice Chancellor for University Communications

Carol Farnsworth

Editorial Director

Chelsey Baker-Hauck (BA ’96) Managing Editor

Kathryn Mayer (BA ’07) Art Director

Craig Korn, VeggieGraphics Community News is published monthly by the University of Denver, University Communications, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208. The University of Denver is an EEO/AA institution.

Contact Community News at 303-871-4312 or [email protected] To receive an e-mail notice upon the publication of Community News, contact us with your name and e-mail address.

Denver’s Dallas

Author uses West as primary setting in novels

— Greg Glasgow

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Courtesy of Sandra Dallas

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here are plot twists in the books of Denverbased author Sandra Dallas that surprise even her. “The thing I’m writing now, I have various characters, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this couple dies. And they have this daughter,” says Dallas, who earned a BA in journalism from DU in 1960. “I thought, ‘OK, we have to do something with the daughter’ … then I realized she’s not really their daughter. She has her own story. And she’s become to me the most interesting character. She was this throwaway character that I didn’t even conceive of before I started writing her into it, and now she’s become very important in this book.” Dallas, 70, is the author of eight historical novels, most of them set in the American West. Her latest book, Prayers for Sale (St. Martin’s Press), which came out in April, was her first to reach the New York Times bestseller list. She celebrated the feat with her friend Arnie Grossman, a fellow author and DU alum (BA ’59). “I thought it was spectacular, but I wasn’t surprised,” Grossman says. “I knew it was one day coming because I have a great deal of faith in her writing skills and she has a growing audience. Each book seems to do a little bit better than the previous one. I’m very proud of what she’s done.” Set in 1936 in a fictionalized version of Breckenridge, Colo., called Middle Swan, Prayers for Sale takes place in the world of gold-dredging, an early 20th-century industry in which giant barges scooped rocks and gravel from the bottom of mountain streams in an effort to find gold. The book’s protagonist, 86-year-old Hennie Comfort, is a quilter whose daughter has left the harshness of Middle Swan for a better life in the lowlands. When a young bride and her gold-dredging husband move to Middle Swan, Hennie and the young woman strike up a friendship. Hennie shares stories about her life inspired by the squares on her quilt. Dallas has many stories of her own to share. She’s lived in Denver most of her life, residing for the past 40 years in a stately home near Eighth Avenue and Downing Street. A year after she graduated from DU she was hired on at the Denver bureau of BusinessWeek, eventually becoming the magazine’s first female bureau chief. While at BusinessWeek she wrote several short books on local history, and when she turned to fiction writing in her late 40s, she continued to use the West as her primary setting. She says she strives for an authenticity her fellow Western authors don’t always achieve. “I try to make my characters true to the time,” says Dallas, whose other novels include Tallgrass and New Mercies. “We have what I call the ‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman’ syndrome today, where you have 21st-century women in long skirts, and they love Indians and they protect the environment and they stand up to men and they’re doctors and lawyers. They’re great role models, but they’re not very accurate.”

Gary Reed

Student center now features Fielder artwork Works from famed Colorado photographer John Fielder grace the walls of the Driscoll University Center as part of a new art installation. Nine large photographs of Colorado scenery have been purchased and installed in the Fireside Room, the hallway outside of the meeting rooms, Jazzman’s Café and the Campus Activities office. Larger banners with rotating images reflecting the season will hang over the entryway to Driscoll North. The prints were purchased as part of an effort to give the center a more regional look. “If you blindfolded someone and dropped them into campus, would they know that they are at DU?” says John Nichols, Driscoll Center director. “We wanted to put together a look that reflected our surroundings in Denver and in Colorado.” Fielder — the father of a DU alumna, Kathryn Fielder (BSBA management ’09) — has spent the past 30 years hiking and skiing into Colorado’s backcountry to photograph remote areas many have never seen. He is the author of 38 books, including Colorado 1870–2000, a coffee table book of his repeat photographs of images first captured by 19th century photographer William Henry Jackson.  The nine prints at DU were the first phase of Fielder’s initial $91,000 proposal. Nichols has committed to purchasing additional artwork for the 1880 Suite, 1864 Room and Commerce room. The prints in each room will have autumn, water and wildflower themes, respectively. Nichols says the University will purchase additional prints as funds become available. “We’re going to chip away at it and buy single prints over time,” Nichols says. The University recently received a $5,000 donation from Rick and Gina Patterson, parents of senior communications major Anna Patterson, to add to the Fielder installation. —Jordan Ames

Student researcher puts green tea to the test

— Leslie Petrovski

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In the popular press, green tea has become a magic elixir with the power to prevent Alzheimer’s, smooth wrinkles and ward off cancer. In Dan Linseman’s lab at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, a team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers has started investigating natural products such as green tea to see if they are as potent as the claims. Natalie Kelsey (BS ’08) started working in Linseman’s lab as a senior Honors student studying whether EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate), a major antioxidant component of green tea, can protect brain cells from oxidative stress. In healthy cells, the energy-producing mitochondria are busy producing energy, which in turn creates oxidative stress. Healthy cells make their own antioxidants to neutralize the oxidation process. Aging and disease upset this delicate balance, and this causes cell damage. Using in vitro cultures of cerebellum cells from rats, Kelsey exposed these cells to various forms of stress along with the EGCG compound. The EGCG, she found, protected cells from oxidative stress but not other insults. This makes EGCG a potential candidate for treating oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases. Her study was published in the March 2009 issue of the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling. Now a first-year graduate student, Kelsey is looking at broccoli, garlic, grapes and rosemary for their antioxidant potential. Her early conclusions: Rather than directly acting as free radical scavengers like EGCG, they seem to boost cells’ own antioxidant defenses. After finishing her master’s degree, Kelsey plans to attend medical school. “I’ve gotten some really great experience in the lab,” she says. “I had no idea how scientific research works. Now I see how much work goes into something before it ever becomes a pharmaceutical.” Incidentally, before beginning her research, she hated green tea. Now she is a regular imbiber.

University of Denver law students don’t back down when they head into court, even if their target is the United States government. Students and faculty at DU’s Sturm College of Law Environmental Law Clinic have been battling for years with the Department of the Interior on behalf of an Arizona-based environmental group seeking endangered species protection for two plants found only on the U.S. Virgin Islands. On Aug. 18, the clinic reached a settlement with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior that will see the government revisit an earlier decision to deny endangered species protections for the two plants. The dispute dates back to 1996, when the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources sought to have the rare plants listed. In 2004, the Tucson, Ariz., based Center for Biological Diversity started pressing the federal government to rule on the request, which languished for years in bureaucracy. The Center also challenged the government’s ultimate 2006 decision not to protect the plants. DU law students have been representing the center. Law students at the clinic do real-world legal work under the guidance of DU professors, who are licensed attorneys. In some cases, students actually appear in federal courts under a government student lawyer provision. Professor Michael Harris has been overseeing the endangered plant case. Under the most recent development — the Aug. 18 settlement in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia — the government agrees to revisit its 2006 rejection. In addition, the government agrees to pay more than $50,000 in legal fees to the center. Harris says the settlement is a good sign for the center and its bid to see the plants protected. “I am confident that in its reconsideration the government will finally reach the conclusion, based on sound science, that both species are imperiled,” Harris says. The plants at issue are the agave eggersiana and the solanum conocarpum. The agave is a robust, perennial herb that can grow from 16 to 23 feet tall with large flowers. The herb is native only to the island of St. Croix and is extremely rare. The solanum conocarpum is a thornless flowering shrub that grows more than nine feet tall. Native only to the island of St. John, the shrub is one of the most endangered plants in the Virgin Islands. —Chase Squires

Wayne Armstrong

Environmental law clinic reaches endangered plant settlement

John and Anna Sie enlist their grandchildren to formally open the center Aug. 7 as Korbel Dean Tom Farer looks on.

New diplomacy and security center opens at DU Anna and John Sie were on hand to dedicate SIÉ CHÉOU-KANG Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies Aug. 7. Joined by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and a host of University leaders and supporters, Chancellor Robert Coombe said the Sie family’s commitment to the program and to the development of the new 5,500-square-foot annex that will house it guarantees DU’s place as a leader in international studies. The center bears the name of John Sie’s father, Sié Chéou-Kang, a diplomat, educator, author and playwright who spent much of his adult life in Europe forging relationships on behalf of China. Both the center and the annex constructed for it were developed through a $5 million commitment from the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation. In addition, the foundation has endowed a chair for a scholar to lead the program. John Sie delivered an emotional address, recalling the important lessons he learned from his father and mother and his hope for the future of global relations. “Today marks the opening of a building and a new commitment at the University to international security and diplomacy,” he said. “I’m simply overwhelmed.” Sie spoke candidly about his father’s work as both a respected diplomat and as a passionate father and person. He said he learned integrity, the pursuit of excellence and selfless commitment to others from his father, and also his appreciation for art and cooking. And through his mother, Sie said he developed a moral compass that guides him today. The SIÉ Center will provide leadership training for SIÉ Fellows, a program consisting of 10 international security specialists and diplomats that will begin in fall 2010. The center also will provide students at DU’s Korbel School a new resource for studying global security, policy and diplomacy issues. The addition to Cherrington Hall has many Asian design elements, including a roof of blue-glazed tiles and a Japanese-style courtyard garden of rock forms focused on a magnolia tree. It was constructed using the Green Building Rating System, which focuses on the highest standards in energy conservation as developed by LEEDS — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. —Chase Squires

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Deborah Howard

MBA students help spread the word about cancer foundation Raymond Wentz was only 17 when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Without family support, Raymond and his sister Michelle lived on their own in a small apartment, worked at the grocery store and rode their bikes everywhere. Raymond even rode his bike to chemotherapy treatments — more than 20 miles from his home. While Raymond was ill, his oncologist, Dr. David Schrier, asked Michelle if they could manage on their own during Raymond’s last days. She answered, “Yes. The only thing we have to worry about is food.” “She said it with such sincerity, it was so heartfelt,” Schrier says. “They never played the role of victim.” Schrier was so moved by Raymond and Michelle’s brave response to their situation, he founded the Raymond Wentz Foundation in 2002 to ensure that no cancer patient in Denver would go without food, heat or shelter. Six years later, Schrier shared Raymond’s story with Cory Foreman, a student in the Daniels College of Business executive MBA program. At the time, Foreman and some of his fellow MBA students — Chris Deel, Kim Hoeksema, Daniel Maes, Harish Rajagopal and Kristine Strain — were working as a group on their Social Capital Project, a five-quarter team project designed to benefit an organization or the community as a whole. After talking with Schrier, the executive MBA group decided to work with the foundation to provide marketing and operational assistance. Since its inception, the foundation has given nearly 2,000 grants to patients to cover basic needs such as food, shelter, transportation and utilities, but Schrier says requests for help have doubled over the past few months. “The requests far outweigh our resources,” he says. “We needed some help to raise our visibility and increase our fundraising efforts.” Starting in January 2009, the DU group began to meet with Schrier, the foundation’s executive director and board members to discuss operations and areas of need. The group established an advisory board made up of DU faculty, alumni and community members with nonprofit expertise, and has become involved with the organization’s fundraising events. Additionally, the students completed a comprehensive marketing feasibility study, redeveloped the Foundation’s Web site and worked to increase the organization’s visibility via social media. The Daniels group will continue to work with the foundation through March 2010, at which point they hope to turn the work over to a new group of executive MBA students.

Four portraits drawn by Deborah Howard, associate professor of art and art history, were accepted into the permanent collection at the New Holocaust Art Museum in Jerusalem. The museum is part of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. It houses some 10,000 works and according to the museum is the largest and most wide-ranging Holocaust collection in the world. Howard began drawing portraits of Holocaust survivors several years ago after she gave her students an assignment to draw a series of three portraits. One of her students, who was Japanese, drew a series of portraits of Asian people because she felt artists depicted them all the same. Howard asked the student who she felt looked the same; her answer was old people. Howard disagreed and in that moment realized she should do portraits of Holocaust survivors. Howard started with one person and through word of mouth has drawn 25 child survivors over a five-year period. The entire work is titled “Portraits of Child Holocaust Survivors.” Howard traveled to Israel to visit Yad Vashem and meet museum members. The curator selected four of her portraits to go into the permanent collection.

—Jordan Ames

—Kristal Griffith

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Professor’s artwork accepted into Holocaust Art Museum

Puppy love

Alumna’s love for dogs breeds million-dollar business

Courtesy of Heidi Ganahl

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tudies have shown that pet ownership has numerous health benefits, from relieving stress to lowering cholesterol. But for Heidi Ganahl (MHS ’99), dogged affection from her furry friends not only helped the 42-year-old survive a personal tragedy but also inspired a milliondollar idea. Ganahl and her husband, Bion Flammang, started developing a business plan for Camp Bow Wow — a dog day care and boarding franchise — in 1994. But before the couple could enact their plan, Flammang died in a plane crash. “My dogs helped remind me that I still had a life to live,” Ganahl says. Ganahl’s unhappiness was palpable to those around her. Conscious of her suffering, her brother, Patrick Haight, offered to help turn the dream she and Flammang had shared into a reality. In 2000, using money from a life-insurance settlement following her husband’s death, Ganahl and Haight opened the first Camp Bow Wow location in Denver. With clean facilities reminiscent of a mountain lodge, plenty of room for dogs to play, and live Web-cams for owners to check on their “campers,” Camp Bow Wow has been a hit among animal lovers. It’s grown into the largest dog day care in the nation. To date, Ganahl has sold more than 200 franchises, doing $30 million in system sales last year alone. Ganahl’s corporation, D.O.G. Development LLC, also launched a new brand, Home Buddies, an in-home pet care service. “Starting Camp Bow Wow helped her move on with her life. She’s so much happier now than she was 10 years ago,” Haight says. Ganahl’s business savvy also has earned her a position on the advisory board for the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business. “Marketing and branding are clearly strengths that Heidi brings to her business,” says Dennis Ahlburg, dean of the Leeds School. “She is also passionate about entrepreneurship and one’s ability to change the world through best business practices.” Not surprisingly, changing the world for Ganahl means helping the canine population through the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation. Every year, the foundation gives $50,000 to the Colorado State University veterinary school to fund canine cancer research and donates money to organizations that spay and neuter pets. Camp Bow Wow facilities also take in foster dogs and have helped 2,500 pooches find permanent homes. “I chose this business because I love dogs and I wanted to grow a brand around something I loved,” says Ganahl. “But what I find most rewarding is the
fact that I have contributed to creating better care for our pets in this country.” —Samantha Stewart

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[Events] September

Arts

11 Colorado Ballet’s All Pointes West.

7:30 p.m. Additional performances Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. Gates Concert Hall. $19–$129.

18 Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Ensemble’s Rivers of Hope. 7:30 p.m. Additional performances Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. Gates Concert Hall. $19–$38.

25 Flo’s Underground, jazz combos. 5 p.m. Williams Recital Salon. Free.

26 Keigwin + Company Bolero

Colorado. 7:30 p.m. Gates Concert Hall. $28–$48.

27 Organ Duets, Four Hands and Four

Feet. 3 p.m. Hamilton Recital Hall. $18 adults; $16 seniors; free for students and Pioneer card holders with ID.

Exhibits 1 Zimbabwe AIDS Treatment

Assistance Project Art Exhibit. Through Oct. 31. Hirschfeld Gallery, Chambers Center. Visit www. zataproject.org.

24 “The Family Stage: Photographs

by Janet Delaney, Todd Hido and Cecil McDonald Jr.” Through Oct. 31. Myhren Gallery.

19 Volleyball vs. Oregon. 11 a.m. Hamilton Gym.

Volleyball vs. Minnesota. 7:30 p.m.

Hamilton Gym.

20 Men’s soccer vs. Washington. 7 p.m. Pioneer Field.

22 Volleyball vs. Northern Colorado. 7 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

25 Women’s soccer vs. LouisianaMonroe. Pioneer Field.

26 Volleyball vs. North Texas. 7 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

27 Women’s soccer vs. LouisianaLafayette. Noon. Pioneer Field.

Soccer admission: $5 adult; $2 children 2 and under; students free with ID. Volleyball: $8 adults; children 3 and under and students with ID free.

Around campus 1 Taste of Languages. 6 p.m. Lindsay

Auditorium, Sturm Hall. RSVP at 303– 871–2291 or www.universitycollege. du.edu

7 Labor Day. Campus closed. Discoveries student orientation

begins. Through Sept. 11.

Dorm move-in begins for new

students.

Sports

8 Music and Meditation. Noon. Evans

4 Volleyball vs. Air Force. 1 p.m.

9 Dorm move-in begins for returning

Volleyball vs. Southern Utah.

14 Fall classes begin. 17 Jackson/Ho China Forum:

Hamilton Gym.

7:30 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

5 Volleyball vs. Eastern Illinois. 1 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

11 Volleyball vs. Colorado. 11 a.m. Hamilton Gym.

Volleyball vs. Cal Polytechnic State.

7 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

Men’s soccer vs. Dayton. 7 p.m.

Pioneer Field.

12 Volleyball vs. San Diego. 7 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

13 Men’s soccer vs. Belmont. 2 p.m. Pioneer Field.

18 Volleyball vs. Georgia Tech. 7:30 p.m. Hamilton Gym.

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Chapel. Free.

students.

Understanding a Diversified China. 4:30 p.m. Cherrington Hall Annex, Room 150. Free. RSVP to ccusc@ du.edu or 303–871–4474.

21 Bridges to the Future: China’s Way Forward. Keynote speaker James Fallows. 7 p.m. Gates Concert Hall. Free and open to the public. RSVP at www.du/edu/bridges

22 Book discussion with Chaplain

Gary Brower. Talking about To Kill a Mockingbird. Noon. Driscoll South, Suite 29. Free.

For ticketing and other information, including a full listing of campus events, visit www.du.edu/ calendar.

Retired surgeon leads new health care program Allan Kortz (MHS ’99) isn’t good at retirement. The general and chest surgeon stopped practicing clinical medicine in 1994 after more than 35 years but he says not working made him “almost feel guilty.” “I thought, ‘there’s so much I can contribute. I don’t want to waste it,’” Kortz says. A year into retirement, he took a course at DU’s University College called Vertically Integrated Healthcare Systems and liked it so much he decided to go for his master’s in the now defunct health care organization and systems program. “I learned a lot about the business side of health care [that] a lot of physicians [like myself] didn’t know much about.” And the self-described “lifetime learner” is now encouraging others. He has helped develop the University College master’s program in health care leadership which starts this fall. “This [new degree plan] is going to have more to do with current health care,” Kortz says. The program is marketed to nurses, physicians, other health care professions and those outside the industry,” he explains. There are three concentrations within the program: health care policy, law and ethics; medical and health care information technologies; and strategic management of health care systems. Because of his efforts, Kortz, has been named the program’s director. “It’s a great program and very timely,” he says. “With the economy the way it is, the health care field is quite attractive. Health care itself is dynamic; however, a career in health care is stable.” >>http://universitycollege.du.edu/ grad/hc/index.cfm. —Kathryn Mayer