Upper Hudson

  

 

Upper Hudson Programs 2009-2010

2009-2010 Speakers and Schedule of Dinner Meetings

 

Spring Meeting Luncheon

Saturday, May 1st, 2010 

1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

 Topic-

“The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Power Project”

 

Speaker:

Dr. Claire Puccia Parham,History Instructor, Siena College

 

"In her slide show and talkDr. Puccia Parham reveals the human side of the largest waterway and dam project ever build by two nations.  In an oral history drawing from first-hand accounts, she portrays the lives of laborers and their wives.”

 

Dakota Steak House       579 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham NY

 

 

The cost for the luncheon is $23.00. This includes  includes bread, salad bar, starch, beverage, choice of five entrees, and dessert. Reservations are required.  For more information about directions to restaurant, menu choices, reservations, or the slide/talk, call UHPBK Secretary Therese Broderick at 518-482-2639.  Dr. Parham’s website is http://www.clairepucciaparham.com.

 

May Invitation and Registration

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday January 23, 2010 –5:30 PM

 

 Speaker – Michele Angrist-

Associate Professor of Political Science

at Union College   

 

Topic-
“Women and Politics in the Muslim World”
 

Best Western Sovereign Hotel

Western Avenue Albany

 

5:30 - Dinner    6:30 PM - Talk

Dinner Reservations Required.

Call 518-482-2639 before January 16

 

               January Meeting Letter           Reservation form               Map

     

 

Saturday October 24, 2009 --6:00 PM

 

 Speaker – Ron Kermani

Investigative Reporter with the Times Union

 

 

 

Topic—
 “Covering and Uncovering Mayor Corning and the State Capital:  How to Skewer Politicians and Have fun Doing It.”
 
 

Albany Hilton Garden Inn near Albany Airport

 

 

Fall Meeting Letter                    Map and Reservation Form

 

 

 

   

 

How to Join the Upper Hudson ΦBK Association

Once you are initiated into Phi Beta Kappa—usually in your senior year of college—you become a lifetime member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Society sends out annual solicitations for donations to provide advocacy for liberal education and to provide services to its Chapters and Associations. Their website www.pbk.org is an excellent source of information about the National Office’s services and activities. They publish The Key Reporter and The American Scholar for members.

Membership in the national Phi Beta Kappa does not automatically enroll a person in a local Association.

About 60 local Associations across the nation offer friendship and programs to members of Phi Beta Kappa and work to support the aims of the society. Membership in the Upper Hudson Association of Phi Beta Kappa is open to any person who was ever initiated into PBK. Susan Plank (518-439-4028, plankdse@earthlink.net), Secretary of the Upper Hudson Association would be pleased to welcome your membership. Annual dues of $35 support costs at our 3 dinner meetings, provide a modest stipend for our speakers and cover office and mailing expenses.

 

ASSOCIATION OFFICERS

UPPER HUDSON ASSOCIATION OF PHI BETA KAPPA, 2010-2011

OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

President: Bob Schalit email

Vice President: Gloria Karin email  

Secretary:  Therese Broderick Email

Treasurer: Loretta Parsons email

Past President:  DeWitt Ellinwood email

 

AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

 

 

Susan Plank email

Carolyn Darkangelo email

 Malcolm Sherman email

 

Advisor to the Board

 

Frances Allee email

 

 

 

The Upper Hudson ΦBK Scholarship Program: Process and Guidelines

In January of 2010, local high school principals will receive a letter similar to the following:

For over two hundred years, Phi Beta Kappa has championed outstanding academic achievement and a liberal education. The Upper Hudson Association of PBK will be awarding our 17th annual.  Two $750 stipends  will be presented to 2010 high school graduates from the region who is planning to enter college next fall. We will be grateful for your assistance in helping us do so.

We will accept applications only from seniors whom you and other principals in our geographic area will nominate. I am enclosing two copies of our Scholarship Application Guidelines, which should be given to the students nominated by the school. Application guidelines can also be found on our web site at http://uhpbk.org/. If you wish to nominate more than two students, please duplicate these guidelines for their use.

We know that a $750 award will not go far in meeting current tuition and living expenses. However, it is our hope that this modest stipend will help defray some college costs, recognize outstanding academic achievement in high school, and encourage future promise.

Of course, your school’s nominee(s) are not obligated to apply for the award, but we would appreciate it if you and the members of your faculty would encourage worthy seniors to do so. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at plankdse@earthlink.net or via phone at (518) 439-4028. The two winners in 2005 were from Voorheesville and Shenendahowa High Schools; The 2006 winners were from Lake George and Niskayuna high schools.   The 2007 winners were from Shenendahowa and Guilderland.  The 2008 winners were from Queensbury and Troy. The 2009 winners were from Shenendahowa and Saratoga Springs.

Phi Beta Kappa has been dedicated to nurturing scholarship and encouraging and recognizing high academic achievement since its inception in 1776. Thank you for joining us in this important endeavor.

Click here to get a copy of the letter to high school principals and the scholarship guidelines.

Completed applications must be received by Upper Hudson ΦBK no later than March 6 2010.

 

 

Upper Hudson ΦBK Scholarship Winners for 2010

 

       

     The Upper Hudson Association of Phi Beta Kappa is pleased to announce the 2010 winners of its annual scholarships for senior high school students.  They are Adair Kleinpeter-Ross, a senior at the Emma Willard School in Troy and Cicily Vachaparambil,  a senior at Colonie Central High School.    These two students were chosen from among nearly ninety applicants from one hundred schools throughout the Greater Capital District region.  Selection was based on a written essay, as well as academic achievements and extra-curricular activities.  The students were presented their scholarship award stipends at the dinner meeting of the Upper Hudson Association of Phi Beta Kappa, Dakota Steak House on Saturday evening, May 1, 2010

 Cicily Vachaparambil is a senior at Colonie Central High School in Colonie, whose passion for science has led to her focus on becoming a physician in future years.  Her interest in this field was sparked in the eighth grade by a regional contest in science and technology.  She and a friend designed a new kind of car incorporating green sources of power and won the contest! Among the top members of her class, she has taken college level courses since her first year in high school.  Outside of classes, she has been a committed member of the Science Club, serving as its secretary. She is active in Masterminds, Mock Trial and the Human Relations Club, where she is the treasurer.  She also manages to find time for volunteering at her church, with the Regional Food Bank, her town’s library, the York State Museum, as a member of the dance troupe “Mayuram” and at Albany Medical Center.  And last, but not least, she is training as a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Adair Kleinpeter-Ross is a senior at the Emma Willard School in Troy; her interests range from cellular biology to law to the Chinese language and its people to art history.  Her academic course-load at Emma Willard reflects these diverse passions.  Adair’s extracurricular activities range from Mock Trial, with her team winning the county championship and placing second in the regional competition.  She is on the Conduct Review Board at her school and is the leader and founder of both the Environmental Protection Group and the Chess Club.  She was captain of the school’s junior varsity field hockey team.  Adair was also an organizer of a student volunteer group that mentors local children weekly.  She has held internship at RPI’s Biotechnology Center, doing deep tissue research on the protein basis for Osteoporosis, as well as with the NYS legislature and the Legal Center.  Additionally

she has worked for the Columbia Land Conservancy and been employed at “Lick”, an ice cream shop.

 

Phi Beta Kappa is considered the oldest honorary academic society in the United States.  It was founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1776.  Its purpose is to promote excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.  Its distinctive emblem, a gold key, is recognized as a symbol of academic achievement as no more than ten percent of a college’s graduating class can be elected to a chapter.  Union College’s chapter, founded in 1817, is the fourth oldest in the country.  Regional associations, such as the Upper Hudson Association, are composed of Phi Beta Kappa members who have graduated and who meet socially to encourage scholarship and a lifelong love of learning in their local communities, while providing support for the goals of the national organization.

 

 

Scholarship Winner 2010

Gloria Karin President           Cicily Vachaparambil                  

 

Contributing to the Upper Hudson ΦBK Scholarship Fund

Donations to the Upper Hudson Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship are most welcome from any source and are fully tax deductible. Looking for unique birthday, or holiday gift? Looking for a donation to honor the memory of a special educator? Donations may be sent to the Upper Hudson PBK Treasurer (Loretta Parsons, 18 Majorca Lane, Clifton Park, NY 12065). A letter will be sent to acknowledge the gift and your support for a liberal education and outstanding scholarship.

History of the Upper Hudson Association of ΦBK

Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest Greek letter organization in the United States was founded at William and Mary College in 1776. After the War of Independence, chapters were started at other institutions, and in 1817 the Alpha of New York Chapter was chartered at Union College. As time passed, many Phi Beta Kappa alumni (and soon alumnae) sought ways of maintaining in their post-collegiate lives the personal connections and intellectual stimulus that their membership in the society had given them. Such was the impetus for the forming of regional non-campus-based Associations.

At the initiative of the Alpha of New York Chapter at Union College, the founding meeting of the Upper Hudson Association of Phi Beta Kappa was held at the Ten Eyck Hotel on February 28, 1914. Sixty-five Phi Beta Kappa men were in attendance, and another twenty-five expressed interest but were unable to attend the founding meeting. These ninety were declared the founding members. The pattern of three dinner meetings per year was adopted from the start and was interrupted only in November 1918 owing to the influenza epidemic that year.

As early as 1920 the Upper Hudson Association had undertaken a scholarship program aimed at encouraging high academic achievement in local schools, and by 1922 had spearheaded a New York State Association of Phi Beta Kappa that tried to reach all the secondary schools of the state. Indeed, the success of this activity provided incentive and model for the National Phi Beta Kappa Society to promote similar programs nationwide. The original scholarship program was an unfortunate casualty of the Great Depression. Our present scholarship program was undertaken in the 1991-1992 academic year by a new generation of members. Although modeled on the successful strategies of other Associations, the scholarship program represents a full-circle return to a commitment whose original inspiration came from the Upper Hudson Association.

By 1934, when Upper Hudson celebrated its 20th anniversary, membership numbered about 150, including Phi Beta Kappa women, who had been declared eligible to join. Meetings at that time were festive black-tie, long-dress occasions that offered intellectual stimulation and defied depression gloom.

The social and economic changes that followed World War II led to the more casual atmosphere common at our dinner-program meetings today. Nevertheless the impetus for and the character of our meetings have remained unchanged since the Association’s inception in 1914.

 

Web Page Updated 05/02/10

Questions? Contact Webmaster

Carolyn Darkangelo, email