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Madeline Caudle '10 (Denver, Colo.), Savannah Knell '10 (Mount Kisco, N.Y.), and Jackie Marra '10 (Simsbury, Conn.) are working with Jean Burr, assistant professor of psychology, on the Social-Psychological and Academic Readiness for Kindergarten (SPARK) Project. The project aims to predict readiness for kindergarten by looking at friendship quality, or a measure of the positive and negative aspects of the relationship in preschool children.

Geoffrey Hicks '09 (Newton, Mass.) believes in the power of stories. As a creative writing major, he says he was inspired by the playwright August Wilson, whose works about the African-American experience in the 20th century twice won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Hicks has spent the summer researching the importance that stories can have, studying folklore to explore the pride and culture of American slaves, a project that he hopes will provide the foundation for his own future creative work.

If the housing market is all about location, the stock market is all about diversification. Any financial adviser worth his salt will tell you that a diversified portfolio is an essential part of a responsible investment strategy. So with the recession and the credit crunch, how can a good investor find a hedge against risk? For some, the solution is to place money in international securities. That way, if the Brazilian economy collapses, you can still rely on your Bolivian securities.

Adirondack Adventure, Hamilton's eight-day outdoor program for incoming students, and its sister program USE, welcome 228 members of the class of 2012 – nearly half the class – on Aug. 15. The popular pre-orientation program features 27 trips that focus on hiking, canoeing, rock climbing or kayaking at beginning, intermediate or advanced ability levels. All trips are conducted in various locations in the Adirondacks.

Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz. The Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature, will be associated with a grant received by The American Philological Association and Peter Meineck, of Aquila Theatre. The project, Page and Stage: Theater, Tradition and Culture in America, is an in-depth partnership between the library and the theater. It will place live theatrical events, reading groups and lectures in public libraries to inspire people to read, see and think about classical literature and how it continues to influence and invigorate American cultural life. Rabinowitz will be one of the scholars in women's studies who will be discussing performance of tragedy in New York libraries. 

As a speech therapist's assistant at the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC) Middle/High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Katherine De Jesus says her work has been an "eye-opening experience." De Jesus plans to head to a master's program as soon as she graduates, to study for a career in speech pathology. This is her first internship, and it has given her a much greater understanding about autism, as well as about her own abilities to work with and help children with special needs.

The neighborhoods of Shaw and Anacostia in Washington, D.C., each have a complicated heritage of rich tradition and of adversity. In the midst of desegregation and economic prosperity after World War II, the two neighborhoods watched the disappearance of their previous communities, made up of prosperous black elites in Shaw and predominately white members of the middle class in Anacostia. Each area entered a period of real estate devaluation and poverty. In the later part of the 20th century, the government of the District of Columbia initiated an effort to renew Shaw, and steps are now being taken to revitalize Anacostia, as well.

Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman will give a poetry reading at Old Forge Public Library on Monday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. with poet and memoirist Paul Pines. The reading is part of the Adirondack Center for Writing's Summer Reading Series.

Each year, students from Utica's Thomas R. Proctor High School visit Hamilton for a hands-on science experience. The students are part the Young Scholars Liberty Partnerships Program, a collaborative project between Utica College and the Utica City School District. They spend their time at Hamilton visiting labs, seeing demonstrations (and sometimes doing their own), and listening to talks by some of the faculty. The Hamilton experience is only one part of the Young Scholars program, which provides academic, social and cultural enrichment to students who are identified as possessing the potential for success in academics, but who may not achieve their potential due to social and economic risk factors.

Shelley Hoy '10 and Chandra Thompson '10 are spending the summer interning at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the theatre portion of the largest arts festival in the world. They spent two weeks in Cardiff, Wales, at the end of July at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama working with students and lecturers at the College. Now, and for the rest of August Hoy and Thompson are living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland, as interns with the Royal Welsh College to run Venue 13, one of more than 140 venues at the festival. They are helping to put on six different shows at the venue.