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Virginia NATS Celebrates Successful Conference at Shenandoah Conservatory

On March 1 and March 2, Shenandoah Conservatory hosted the annual spring conference of the Virginia chapter of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Over the course of the two-day event, the conference welcomed 486 singers and 79 NATS member teachers. The event ran smoothly thanks to the help of student volunteers and voice faculty involvement.

The conservatory has had a long relationship with VANATS: many conservatory faculty members have served the organization in various capacities over the years. Currently, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice (Soprano) Kathleen Bell ’19, M.M., serves as vice-president, and at this year’s conference, Chair of the Vocal/Choral Division and Associate Professor of Voice (Tenor) Byron Jones ’04, D.M.A., was elected president.

Nicholas Pallesen, a transformational coach, discussed mental wellness, mental performance and performance anxiety. Singers and teachers gathered in Goodson Chapel – Recital Hall to speak about challenges and how to confront them with confidence and understanding.

Sopranos Sarah Wofford ’17, ’20, Maryann Hayden ’22, and tenor Christos Kokkinis ’19 all won their respective categories and performed in the honors recital. Twenty-four more singers from Shenandoah either placed second or third, or scored high enough to advance to the regional round of competition.

Wofford received a Master of Music in Performance (Voice) and is a Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance (Voice) candidate who studies with Opera Producing Director and Adjunct Artist-in-Residence of Voice (Soprano) Nancy Gustafson, M.M. Hayden and Kokkinis are each currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Performance and study with Gustafson and Jones, respectively.

Shenandoah University’s campus was abuzz with activity the week of July 24, through July 30, as more than 50 high-ability, high-potential middle school girls selected from across the Commonwealth attended the Virginia Science Technology Engineering and Applied Mathematics (STEAM) Academy’s signature summer program, Summer STEAM and first girls-only session.

Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Dean Miles Davis, Ph.D., played a key role in bringing Summer STEAM to the university’s campus. Dr. Davis welcomed the more than 100 students and parents at the opening ceremony and during the week, led an evening seminar with the young scholars on micro financing and entrepreneurship.

Group photo of the Women in STEAM panelAssistant Professor of Information Systems and Technology Michael Magro, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor of Management Seth Chatfield, Ph.D., team taught “Health Care and Computer Database Analysis,” while Adjunct Associate Professor of Management Alesia Slocum, D.B.A., served as a panelist on the Virginia STEAM Academy’s Women in STEAM Leadership Panel.

Dr. Slocum and fellow panelists from Virginia STEAM Academy, Hollins University, NASA Langley and Sera Brynn (a cyber risk management firm) addressed the Summer STEAM young scholars and 50 girls from the broader community, who joined in an afternoon community day of design-build activity and discussion.

Photo of STEAM Community Day activityVirginia STEAM Academy, a 501c3 charitable organization, has expanded its summer program from serving 56 rising 6th through 8th grade students at Old Dominion University in 2013 to serving 186 students at three university sites in 2016: Shenandoah University, Old Dominion University and Washington & Lee University (in collaboration with Virginia Military Institute).

In addition, this year’s program included three 9th-grade Summer STEAM ambassadors and citizen leaders, two 11th-grade ambassadors and student teaching assistants (a position typically reserved for practicing teachers or teachers in training), and one 11th-grade ambassador and session co-designer.

Student and family demand have driven program expansion. Since 2013, more than 1,500 students have applied to Summer STEAM. Nearly 500 have been accepted and have successfully completed the program.

Summer STEAM ambassadors from across Virginia participate in week-long, intensive, immersive, residential programming. Daily five-hour courses, evening leadership seminars, and recreation and wellness activities are all structured to inspire and expose students to STEAM content, applied learning and leadership development. In addition, each weekly Summer STEAM session offers unique elements such as clubs, community service outreach, structured hackathon, math modeling seminar, micro financing and entrepreneurship symposium, and a Women in STEAM Leadership Panel discussion.

For many students, Summer STEAM is their only opportunity to experience the rigor and relationships that evolve out of an intensive, immersive, living-learning laboratory with like-minded, like-motivated peers, exceptional faculty and staff. Grant funding from the Virginia General Assembly, businesses, foundations, and private donors allows Virginia STEAM Academy to offer Summer STEAM at no cost to parents.

Since its inception in 2013, Virginia STEAM Academy has partnered with outstanding middle, high school, and university instructors, as well as exceptional industry and business leaders to deliver Summer STEAM. This year’s courses were water conservation; health careers; water and art; rockets, ships and material science; light and lasers; math in sports; data science and statistics + python programming and robotics; health care and computer database analysis; games, puzzles, and logic; and engineering, innovation and invention.

Over the years, Virginia STEAM Academy has offered additional courses in math reasoning, encryption, math modeling, mathematical patterns in nature, physics, computer engineering, agricultural life sciences, cyber security, nanoscience, and forensic, anthropology, and bioarchaelogy.

In 2016, the Virginia Mathematics and Science Consortium recognized Virginia STEAM with a “Programs that Work” award.

Maurice Jones, secretary of commerce and trade for the State of Virginia, will speak at Shenandoah University’s Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Halpin-Harrison Hall, Stimpson Auditorium on the campus of Shenandoah University. The event is free and open to the public. Jones’ presentation is part of the business school’s Entrepreneurship Week, which runs from Monday, Nov. 17, through Sunday, Nov. 23.

“As the person who oversees economic development across the Commonwealth of Virginia, it was a no brainer for us to extend an invitation to Maurice Jones to headline our Entrepreneurship Week and serve as part of our Distinguished Lecture Series,” said Dean of the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Miles Davis, Ph.D. “Entrepreneurial behavior is the economic engine of our economy, and the entrepreneurship program at the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business is honored to sponsor this discussion about economic development and growth.”

According to his biography on the State of Virginia website, Maurice Jones was appointed secretary of commerce and trade by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe in January 2014. Previously, Jones served as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from April 2012 through January 2014. As the second most senior official at HUD, Jones managed the department’s day-to-day operations, the annual operating budget, and the agency’s 8,900 employees.

Prior to HUD, Jones was president of Pilot Media, the largest print and digital organization in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Jones joined Landmark Media Enterprises, owner of Pilot Media, in 2005, serving as vice president of the Landmark Publishing Group, consisting of multiple newspapers, including the News & Record in Greensboro, North Carolina; The Roanoke Times; The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland; and Landmark Community Newspapers, Inc., based in Shelbyville, Kentucky. In 2006, Jones became the vice president and general manager of Pilot Media, and in 2008 he became president and publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, the locally owned and managed newspaper founded in 1865.

A Kenbridge, Virginia, native, Jones also served as commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services and deputy chief of staff to then-Virginia Governor Mark Warner. At the U.S. Treasury Department, Jones was special assistant to the General Counsel and he also served as legal counsel to the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and as director of the fund during the Clinton Administration. Jones also worked for the law firm of Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia, and he was a partner at Venture Philanthropy Partners, a firm that invests millions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to assist low-income children.

Jones received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, Virginia, and attended Oxford University in England on a Rhodes scholarship, where he received a Master of Philosophy in International Relations. He later received a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A 5 p.m. reception precedes the 5:30 p.m. presentation. The event is hosted by The Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Distinguished Lecture Series. For more information, contact Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Administrative Assistant Donna Fazio at 540/665-4572 or dfazio@su.edu.