History will be made at this year’s Scholarship and Creative Arts Days (SCAD) as Elizabethtown College celebrates 10 years of research by bringing the first alumni panel to campus for the keynote event.
SCAD takes place Monday, April 24, and Tuesday, April 25, 2017. The keynote event is at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 25, in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center.
SCAD is an annual conference that celebrates the difference Elizabethtown College students make with their ideas and creativity. Each spring, select students are chosen to present academic research in their respective disciplines, while others showcase their talents through art, dance and music. Because the day is such a big part of E-town’s academic calendar, the College cancels classes Tuesday, so students from every major and minor can participate.
In addition to presenting research, students can participate in SCAD by joining other campus activities throughout the day, such as the Keynote Alumni Panel or the Engineering Department’s solar car race that takes place on the track behind Leffler Chapel and Performance Center.
Each year, the SCAD committee invites and hosts a guest speaker for the keynote event. Speakers from the past include Bill Nye the Science Guy, Peter Buffet and Donald B. Kraybill. This year, for the first time in College history, the SCAD committee has chosen five alumni to come back to share their experiences and success stories with E-town students.
The alumni make up a panel that represents this year’s theme, the Values of Research.
“Research pays, and engaging in research creates new knowledge,” saids current SCAD chair, Emma Neuhauser. The panelists were nominated by faculty and staff members and SCAD committee members based on their significant accomplishments in the areas of entrepreneurship, graduate studies, interdisciplinary service and private-sector institutions.
The Keynote panel is centered on the experience of engaging in supervised undergraduate research and creative work, which allowed the E-town alumni to grow professionally for future scholarly engagement, a professional career or graduate education.
The alumni panel includes: Lydia Dearie ’16 who earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and completed a minor in history. Dearie now works through AmeriCorps as a Literacy Lab Pre-K tutor at Curtis Bay Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mila Henry ’06 who earned her bachelor’s degree in music as well as her master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2008. Henry is now a New York-based pianist and music director who specializes in music theater projects.
Sarah Lanphier ’09, founder and CEO of Nuts About Granola, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a concentration in entrepreneurship. Nuts About Granola-branded products have been featured on the Rachel Ray Show and in Emmy Awards gift bags. Her most recent accomplishment is her partnership with the Martha Stewart Café to produce an exclusive line for their stores.
Amita Mehta ’95, became vice president of administration at Prudential Financial. She also serves in a dual capacity as a senior program manager and executive adviser to the U.S. Service Council.
Jennifer Stanford ’99 who majored in biology and earned her doctorate at Harvard University. Jennifer is an assistant biology professor and co-director of the Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
The panel will describe and explain what it takes to succeed in their specific disciplines or what is involved in research for their field. The keynote panel will be open to a Q&A after the presentation.