India Adventure II in Photos

Last December I flew from Nepal (the country where Buddha was born) to India (the country where Buddha attained enlightenment) to continue my Tibetan Buddhism studies for an additional five and a half months.

As Carol Winkelmann so beautifully wrote in "A Sakyadhita Pilgrimage: Frames, Images, and the Liminal Imagination":

Traditionally speaking, a pilgrimage ultimately concerns the journey, the way, and not even particularly the goal—typically “transcendent” activities such as encountering the exalted leaders, listening to learned expositions, or touching sacred temple stones.

The power of pilgrimages extends largely from the experience of liminality—the tenuous, transitory nature of travel, the fleetingness of time, the unfamiliarity or expansion of space, the unmooring of identity from its usual tethers. The travel itself becomes a metaphorical journey of self-realization. Despite the pictures, postcards, books, souvenirs, and other trinkets so pervasively available at sacred sites, the pilgrimage well-taken ultimately eschews the functions of framing. Its realizations happen in liminal spaces outside of frames anticipated by oneself or constructed by others.

Although challenging to convey, I attempted to share the pilgrimage experience through the written word and a handful of photos. This new post is a visual representation of those many stories. It is also a continuation of August 6, 2015 post Nepal in Photos. I hope you will enjoy.

Bangalore, Mundgod Tibetan refugee settlement, Chennai, Bombay/Mumbai, Pune,
Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Delhi, Dharamsala, and Bir Tibetan refugee settlement. This image
was made using Google Maps 2015 and Picmonkey.com.

Traveling India by Train, Bus, and shared taxi. Photo by Kavita.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama taught at Ganden Monastery in south India December 2014.
Photos by Bill Kane, Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Tenzin Zopa.

Day to day life during His Holiness' teachings at Ganden Monstery.
Photos by Laura, Dee and me.

Fun carpool back to Bangalore.
Photo by Ravi.

Spending time with Sowmya and friends from her NGO Prafull Oorja in Bangalore.
Photos by Maddie, Sowmya and me.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings in Bangalore.  Photos by Bill Kane and me.

Spending time with Kavita, her extended family, and friends from Nairobi, Emily and Audrey
in Bombay/Mumbai. Photos by Kavita and me.

Pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India where Buddha attained enlightenment.
Photos taken by a kind passerby and me.

12 day long Retreat on Bodhicitta: Cultivating Your Awakened Heart led by
Geshe Dorji Damdul at the Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by Root Institute friends and me.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by Venerable Sarah Thresher, Bill Kane, and me.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by Bill Kane, Lozang, and I.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Sujata Riverside near Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by me.

Pilgrimage to Hindu Goddess Durga Temple in a rural village outside of Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by Panket Raj, Pema, and me.

Pilgrimage to Vulture's Peak and Nalanda University outside of Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by Lozang, Maja, and me.

Pilgrimage to Mahakala Cave outside of Bodhgaya, India. Photos by Lozang and me.

Rose Apple Cafe in Bodhgaya. Photos by Oat and me.

Bhutanese Tibetan Buddhist temple I stumbled upon while lost in a village outside of Bodhgaya, India.
Photos by me.

NGO schools in Bodhgaya - Bowl of Compassion, Akshay Charitable Trust, Panchashil School,
Maitreya Universal Education School. Photos by Oat, Pachashil staff, and me.

Three months (one trimester) of Tibetan language studies at Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
in Dharamsala on campus 30 min walk from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's temple and house.
Photos by Sonam Tsering/LTWA, Ingrid, and me.

Life in Dharamsala, India where His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama lives.
Buddhist Philosophy classes with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo and Lobsang Choegyal Rinpoche.
Photos by me.

My studio apartment, neighbors and neighborhood in Gamru Village a 15 minute walk
from "school" at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Photos by me.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was the guest of honor on opening day of the
20th Shoton (Tibetan Opera) Festival held at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts
in Dharamsala, India. Photos by Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Marzia, and me.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's house and temple in Dharamsala, India
where he lives in exile from Chinese government occupied Tibet.

March 30, 2015 Public Audience with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at his temple
in Dharamsala. Photos by Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama teaching at Gyuto Tantric College and Monastery
in Sidhpur outside of Dharamsala, India.
Photos by Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama teaching Tibetan youth at Tibetan Children's Village
- upper campus in Dharamsala, India.
Photos by Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and me.

Geshe Dorji Damdul lead an 11 day retreat on Acharya Chandrakirti's Entry into the Middle Way
(or Madhyamikavatara in Sanskrit) at Deer Park Institute in Bir Tibetan refugee settlement
outside of Dharamsala, India. Photos by Deer Park Institute staff and me.

Deer Park Institute in Bir Tibetan refugee colony, a four hour bus ride from Dharamsala.
Teachings by Jetsuma Tenzin Palmo, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, and Kenpo Sonam Tsewang.
Photos by Deer Park Institute staff, a friend, and me.

Teachings on The Four Hundred Verses on the Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas (selected chapters)
by Acharya Arya Deva as well as teachings on the Harmony of Emptiness and Dependent Origination
given by Venerable Geshe Yeshe Thabkhey la and translated by his student Geshe Dorji Damdul
in Delhi, as well as the opening of Venerable Samten's film Surkhaab at an upscale mall in Delhi.
Photos by me.

Public Audience with His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (born in Tibet in 1980)
at his Gyuto Tantric College and monastery in Sidhpur outside of Dharamsala.
Photo of the Karmapa found online, others by a fellow guest and me.

Teachings at Tushita Meditation Center in Dharamsala, India given by
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jetsuma Tenzin Palmo, Tenzin Osel Hita, Venerable Yangten
Tulku Ripoche, and Gen Gyatso. Teachings by Venerable Yangten Tulku Rinpoche and
Gen Gyatso were translated from Tibetan into English by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo.
Photos by Tushita staff, a fellow student, found online, and by me.

Norbulingka Institute in Sidhpur outside of Dharamsala and
meals with friends in Dharamsala. Photos found online, taken by restaurant staff, and me.

The current reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, a young Tibetan boy disappeared in Tibet at age 6,
the day after he was officially recognized as the reincarnation by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
The Chinese government selected their own reincarnation. The Panchen Lama has not been heard from
since he disappeared in 1995. Over 130 Tibetans have self-immolated (set themselves on fire) within
Tibet as a means of peacefully protesting the oppression of Tibetans by the Chinese government.
Black and white photo found online, others by me.

Save Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist monk imprisoned in China. He died in
Chinese prison several months after this protest had taken place at Tibetan Children's
Village - Day School in Dharamsala, India. Photos by a news reporter and me.

Street Dogs of India, three well fed dogs in Mumbai/Bombay, a three legged black and white
pup named Tiger now belonging to a Gamru neighbor, and a long haired black dog belonging to
Deer Park Institute. Big thanks to Compassion Unlimited Plus Action in Bangalore,
Dharamsala Animal Rescue, and Tibet Charity Animal Hospital.
Photos by Dharamsala Animal Rescue, Nik, a Deer Park Institute fellow student, and me.

Working Animals of India. Thanks to Compassion Unlimited Plus Action's Large Animal Rescue Center
in Bangalore for their work. Photos by me.

Lehigh in Bangalore - Bangalore and Mumbai/Bombay Happy Hours, Lehigh
Professor Ken Kraft's book Dharma Rain on sale at His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's
bookstore inside of his temple, and the Lehigh alumni magazine on the magazine rack
at a Tibet Government in Exile building lobby in Dharamsala, plus the US Embassy in
Delhi where alum Rich Verma is the US Ambassador to India. Photos found online, by Kavita,
a restaurant patron, and me.

Tibet Soccer Tournament at Tibetan Children's Village - Upper Campus in
Dharamsala with Tibetan friend Jamyang on my last full day in India.
Photos found online, by Jamyang, and me.

Delhi > Abu Dhabi > JFK. Back in the US still wearing damp, smelly, dirty running shoes that
bore the brunt of the rain storm that temporarily stopped the Tibetan soccer match. Photo on left taken
by Anne after I had shipped 35 pounds of books to my mom's house. Others by me.

Thanks for joining me for this journey, India Adventure II. Look for forthcoming posts from India Adventure III.

East Africa Day 83 (Thurs Aug 4): Lehigh in Nairobi Happy Hour

This AM I went back to the Equity Bank HQ for a follow up meeting with Isaac from the Education Pillar Team. He sat with me for quite some time and we went over the details of the programs. It was so interesting, and I felt so lucky to be there! They are doing such amazing work. I decided that I am most interested in the Pre-University Advising Program and the Centers for Excellence. Isaac introduced me to Rosemary, another member of the Education Pillar Team, who manages the Centers for Excellence. I asked if I could help out at the upcoming 2nd Annual Equity Group Foundation Congress, and was welcomed to attend. So exciting!!

I then headed over to the Kilimani area, to meet up with Nila for lunch. We met up in a Nakumatt Plaza, and had very good Thai food for lunch in the food court. Nila is a former Kiva Fellow - first in Kampala, Uganda with BRAC Uganda, then in Nairobi, and is now in Nairobi working as a fellow for Samasource. So funny! I didn't know that she was working with Samasource! I attended two events in San Francisco that featured speakers who work for Samasource, and really like what they do.

Samasource - Leila from Peery Foundation on Vimeo.

It was awesome to get to hear more about how the organization works in Kenya, and how Nila got involved with their work. I also learned that there are a good number of Stanford alums in Nairobi. Makes me wonder if Stanford does alumni programming in Kenya, especially given that I was heading off to a Lehigh in Nairobi Happy Hour:)

I then had to run off to my follow-up appointment at the Centre for Tropical and Travel Medicine. I didn't see the doctor that I saw yesterday. Instead I met with the senior doctor in the practice, Dr. Charles Chunge.

I was relaxing in the waiting room chair with my eyes closed, prior to my appointment. A nurse came by and asked if I would like to lie down. She was so nice! When I was moved up to the chair outside of the doctor's office, she came by again to talk with me to see how I was feeling. I really appreciated her sincere concern! It made me feel better.

Before walking into the doctor's room, I thought that maybe he would tell me that my lab results showed that I had one, maybe two problems. Instead, when I sat down across the desk from him, he smiled and asked me how long I've been here. I told him less than three months. He smiled as if to say "well, it is quite remarkable how many diseases you have picked up in that limited amount of time." He then began with the good news - I do not have malaria. However, he then provided me with what seemed like a never-ending list of problems that my body is carrying - a total of seven! Fortunately none are contagious. He told me that once I've lived here for a year, then my body will not catch these things any more. But at the moment, I'm obviously still very susceptible to picking "things" up:) I walked away from the office with a list of prescriptions that I needed to go get filled at a pharmacy, and a follow up appointment scheduled for next week.

I went over to the Yaya Centre Pharmacy, which Dr. Chunge had recommended. Unfortunately at this point I was running quite late for the Lehigh in Nairobi Happy Hour that I'd helped organize with Uhuru, Lehigh '10. The venue that Uhuru had selected for the Happy Hour was Sierra Brasserie, a restaurant/bar located on the second floor of Yaya Centre.

From the website: Sierra is the first boutique brewery and restaurant in East and Central Africa and is inspired by the experiences of the founder in Thailand, California and Bavaria. After his first experience of drinking a microbrew in Bangkok, he embarked on a journey to build Kenya’s first boutique brewery which took him to California. Here he trained under Bavarian trained brewer masters at the Gordon Biersch brewing company in San Francisco after completing the master brewers program at the University of California. It is this experience that inspired the name Sierra. His journey then took him to Bavaria where he designed the brewery with the help of brewery engineering consultants, Nerb GMBH. Sierra reflects the influences of this journey through San Francisco style, Thai food and Bavarian beer.

I found this hilarious, because the Lehigh San Francisco Alumni Club holds regular Happy Hours at Gordon Biersch. So in some ways even in Nairobi, I am still back in San Francisco!

When I finally got to our meeting point at Sierra, Uhuru was the only Lehigh alum there. He and I hung out for a while near the bar, which was really nice. The beer is also really good - definitely the best I've had in East Africa. A little while later we were joined by another Lehigh alum, Karim, Lehigh '90 and his wife. We had such a nice time talking! It was really great to get to meet them. Lehigh is Lehigh, no matter where you go:)



Uhuru and I hung out for a while longer after Karim and his wife had to go, and then Uhuru helped me get a fair rate on a taxi ride home, where I immediately began taking my new medications!

East Africa Day 12 (Wed May 25): Intro to My Daraja Project!!

I successfully used my netbook and the internet this AM for a while – I got to start my research project!! Woohooo!! But then my netbook began to malfunction again, and I couldn’t use it anymore. Perfect timing - Wa was about to leave for town, so Andy sent my netbook along with Wa for further service. Wa let me use his laptop and modem for the rest of the day so that I could continue with my work.

Most people who know me know that I bleed Brown & White, Lehigh University’s school colors. I’m sure that love of and appreciation for our alma mater manifests in alums in different ways, but I find that many alums that I’ve met through the Young Alumni Council share my passion for ensuring that future and current students can access the same sort of education that we all had. For me, this means seeing high school students with maybe limited means but unlimited potential through the college search and application process. While I was at Lehigh I volunteered for STAR (Students That Are Ready). More recently I volunteered for the San Francisco-based Level Playing Field Institute as a Summer Math & Science Honors Academy mentor, focusing on the college scholarship search and application process. I thought THAT was hard – finding scholarships that matched my two mentees’ profiles - but my current project takes that one step further!

At some point I got interested in access to higher education for the women who are growing up in the developing world. I found out about Daraja through Caitie Ireland, got involved by collecting the running shoes (my official blog post has been published!), and then saw an opportunity to provide a service to an amazing community of young women. So I applied to volunteer on Daraja’s campus and submitted my proposal, for what I would like to contribute to Daraja. I created a project that fortunately for me closely mirrored something that the Board of Directors had been thinking about – how can Daraja ensure that the current students can achieve their dreams after they graduate and leave Daraja? Daraja’s first class of students are currently in Form 3 (high school juniors) so this project comes at a good time!

My project involves a lot of research – I’m researching a lot of nitty gritty things that fall within a few main categories: KCSE (think SAT) prep, types of higher education opportunities, how to finance your higher education, and other ways secondary (high) schools can prepare young women for life after graduation. I’m also looking at the local community labor force and what opportunities exist near campus. This all seems pretty straight forward, but not being Kenyan, it means that I need to learn everything about Kenya’s education system from scratch. So one day at a time!

I was walking back to my banda after dinner tonight, when I saw a very small mammal leap 2+ feet from the ground into some tree branches. Andy happened to walk by, and told me that it was a Bushbaby. He said that he was surprised to see one down so low (usually they are up higher in the hills) and out so early in the evening. It was my lucky night! I didn’t get a photo, but you can see a photo of one here.

Microfinance Rap endorsing the Grameen Foundation

Lehigh senior Fred Graves interned at the Grameen Foundation this past summer. Fred created this video soliciting votes for the Grameen Foundation in the American Express Members Project contest.



Grameen won the contest in August - the prize was a $200,000 grant.

For more details about this, check out Fred's post here, on The Huffington Post.

Aw, Welcome Class of 2014!

Details on all of the Lehigh Freshman Sendoff Parties, and how to register here. Parties are open to all members of the Lehigh family - incoming students, current students, parents, and alumni.

Additionally, the Lehigh San Francisco Alumni Club will be holding an event this fall to welcome the members of the Class of 2010 who have moved to San Francisco. Details will be announced on our Club's Facebook page.

Social Enterprise @ Lehigh University

Lisa Boyd, Lehigh University, '10, is founder of "Jamiiwater: Improving Access to Sustainable Water in Rural Tanzania." The mission of the non-profit organization is to improve and sustain clean water systems. She hopes to educate people on how community involvement can leave a positive impact on Africa.

From an interview with Lisa Boyd, published in Lehigh's newspaper Brown & White:

It all started from an International Relations class with Professor Bruce Moon, who teaches International Relations 322, on all aspects of poverty and development in Tanzania . In my class group, we focused on what we thought was the biggest problem and ways to solve it. Over the past two years, I have done extensive research on water access in rural central Tanzania, specifically focusing on the sustainability of water systems.

During my grant research at the end of my junior year semester abroad in Tanzania, I biked to 23 different rural villages around the central area, slept in the villages, ate what people fed me and really got a sense of the communities. Living there and meeting these people really inspired me to keep going. It wasn't until I was actually there that I knew I wanted to continue the project after graduation.

(Read more about Lisa's research here.)

Jamii means "community" in Kiswahili, which is the local language in Tanzania. I am in the process of starting a formal non-profit organization called JamiiWater, which will work to repair clean water systems and provide the intensive community with the development to make their systems sustainable in the long run. Community involvement, interest and commitment are the most important factors in sustainable development. In rural Tanzania, two years after a water system installation, which usually costs about $80,000, already a quarter of water points were no longer working due to lack of parts, money or organization.

In the fall of 2008, I proposed to the Lehigh Eureka! Social Venture Creation Competition a plan to do research on these issues following my semester abroad in Tanzania. I won grand prize in the competition and received $5,000 of funding for a month of research last summer, with help from Jason Kramer, '10. I also applied for the Davis Projects for Peace grant and earned $10,000. These grants total $15,000 and should enable me to repair four to five broken water systems, as well as hire a full-time staff member to work with me.

I was excited to learn that Lisa presented at the 2010 Unite for Sight, Global Health & Innovation conference, held at Yale University, which I previously blogged about here. Lisa presented during the 5 minute Social Enterprise Pitch session.

Lisa and her sister are competing in a contest to win an Olympus camera and $5,000 ... check out their video submission here, and then go here to vote for them. (You'll need to log into your free YouTube account to vote.)




More social enterprise at Lehigh ... I stumbled upon this news in a Lehigh Field Hockey press release, too:

After graduating from Lehigh in 2006, Long Island native Melissa Fricke, who double majored in International Relations and French, and played in 55+ games for Lehigh's field hockey team, spent four months in Gganda, a village outside Kampala, Uganda’s capital. She volunteered in a children’s home for 24 children, and taught at the local primary school.

“During my senior year I took a strong interest in development and poverty issues and the severity of it in Africa,” said Fricke. “It was an international relations course on Ethical Dilemmas in World Politics that brought it all to light for me. The class discussions on poverty issues had me captivated with the debates what could and should be done. That is how I ended up in Africa a few months after graduation. What I intended to be learning experience quickly evolved into what it is today.”

After returning to the USA, she founded BULA - Better Understanding of Life in Africa. Through community supports and various fundraising efforts nearly $45,000 was raised prior to Fricke’s return to Uganda in December 2007. Upon her return she met Andrea Procopio, who arrived in Uganda in September, taking on many of Melissa’s responsibilities, and would eventually become Vice-President of the organization. Several other key volunteers emerged, and Fricke also encountered Tom Harrison, an architect from London who managed the construction project. On January 14, 2008 ground was broken for the reconstruction of St. Kizito Primary School.

Among the features of the new school building were eight cheerful, brightly-painted classrooms, spanning Nursery School to grade Primary 7, two teacher offices and a staff room, a water tank, solar lighting, windows and doors, toilet facilities, quality roofing and flooring, desks and chalk boards. Architects utilized several innovative building tactics, including the use of a foundation pad, and the use of Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks, the bricks that were used to build the school walls, which also become one of eight examples used in a case study for the United Nations.

“The ISSBs are an innovative technology that creates each block through the use of a machine that compacts a mixture of soil, cement and water,” Fricke explained. “Making the bricks on site with this technology allowed us to put to use the soil excavated for the tank and the pit latrines. These bricks are not only aesthetically pleasing and structurally superior, but they have tremendous environmental appeal.”

Five months later, St. Kizito Primary School re-opened its doors to the children of Gganda. BULA’s work was far from complete however. Fricke and Procopio returned to Uganda in January 2009 to supervise additions to the school, which included a kitchen, water tanks, water filters, shutters and textbooks. In addition, late in 2008, BULA developed a youth art exchange, titled Connecting Classrooms through Creativity, where American students are creating artwork to be displayed in BULA Schools and artwork by African students has in turn been displayed in American schools.

Additionally, Fricke spearheaded BULA’s second project, the improvement of a poorly run children’s home in Gganda. More recently, a fellowship program was created, allowing a recent college graduate to live at the children’s home and teach at St. Kizito Primary School.

As for the future, Fricke and her organization will look to continue doing what they can to help the children in Africa. BULA has selected its next school project, and is focused on branches out to the villages that neighbor Gganda to try and enhance the educational experience of those children. “The vision is to continue to build schools for those that are struggling,” Fricke said.


Also stumbled upon this:

Colin Sloand '09 spoke at Lehigh University's Expanding Financial Access in Africa conference on April 19, 2010. The first president of Lehigh's microfinance club, he launched his career in South Africa working for Mecene Investments studying the burgeoning African microfinance sector.



When Colin was at Lehigh, the Microfinance Club started a Lehigh Microcredit Fund, giving the university community the opportunity to make charitable donations to help the people of western Kenya. Donors received periodic updates on what their loans were being used for, repayment rates, and financial snapshots of the recipients and their communities.

The fund was developed through a partnership with Reach the Children, Inc., a non-profit organization operating in over a dozen countries throughout Africa. The group is seeking to alleviate poverty across the continent by focusing on such things as AIDS prevention, education, microenterprise, orphan care, and water and agriculture.


Another partnership at Lehigh ... saw this in a Lehigh alumni e-newsletter:

Lehigh and Caring for Cambodia, a nonprofit headquartered in Siem Reap, Cambodia (the gateway to Angkor Wat) have announced a 3 year partnership.

Caring for Cambodia gives Siem Reap children an opportunity to learn in seven safe, well-equipped schools. Using UNICEF’s “Child Friendly” school concept, children not only earn a quality education, but life skills as well. They serve 66,500 Food for Thought lunches monthly, have handed out 15,000 toothbrushes to encourage personal hygiene, and have purchased more than 1,250 bicycles to help their students get to school.

The partnership with Lehigh will give the students of Lehigh's College of Education's Comparative and International Education program the opportunity to conduct ongoing field work in Siem Reap, where they will work with the NGO on teacher training, curriculum development, and community outreach initiatives.

And though the new three-year program is tied to the College of Education, there likely will be cross-disciplinary opportunities for Iveta Silova, the Frank Hook Assistant Professor, and her team to partner with other programs across Lehigh to assist with local economic assessments, job market surveys, micro-finance opportunities, and other initiatives.

Lehigh will hire a professor of practice to manage the relationship. The College of Education has already hired a new graduate assistant, Harry Morra, to help with the transition.

I bleed Brown & White.

BEST video I've seen in a LONG, long time:) My smile does not get any bigger than this!



Presenting Lehigh University's Lipdub! The Lipdub was taped April 10, 2010 and included over 200 students. They sang a medley of three songs: Don't Stop Believin', Don't Stop Me Now, and Ain't No Mountain High Enough.

Created by Fiona Lee (producer) and Zach Carter (director)

The Professor Who Changed My Life

I have not yet submitted my 300-word "report" to Lehigh yet (how do you pick just one professor?), but I really enjoyed the ones already listed on the Lehigh "The Professor Who Changed My Life" web page.



We asked our alumni to tell us about the professors they had at Lehigh who really made a difference in their lives. The response was great!

In the coming months, we’ll continue to post more of your stories, so be sure to check back.

If you haven’t shared your story yet, there’s still time: Please take a few minutes to write an essay (maximum: 300 words) about the professor who had the greatest influence on your life and e-mail your essay to: letters(@)lehigh.edu. Please attach your essay as a standard Word document or include it in the body of your e-mail.




This one is my favorite alumni story thus far:

George Kane, professor of industrial engineering
By Donna Pitonak Bigley '78

That is an easy answer for me: Professor George Kane.

I met him when I was transferring into the Industrial Engineering Department and he was the chairman. He later became my advisor so I had reason to interface with him frequently (in those days, you had to physically see your advisor when you scheduled your next semester as opposed to doing everything on-line).

When I transferred into his department, he told me to always make sure I was running to something instead of from something, which in retrospect was truly sage advice! I also was privileged to be a student in several classes he taught. No matter what the topic, he always made it interesting and I looked forward to his classes. He recognized the importance of his engineers being able to confidently speak in front of groups and many of his classes required oral presentations, which was truly invaluable. He critiqued every oral presentation complete with a written sheet of suggestions on how to improve.

He always had time to talk to you when you were scheduling courses for next semester. He treated his students like they were a part of his family and he always had a smile and a cigar close by when you entered his office. At the time I graduated, there weren't a lot of women engineers and when he asked me about upcoming job interviews he advised, "Make them visualize you as an engineer ... don't wear eye shadow!"

He also taught me a very meaningful lesson that I have never forgotten during my career: that people are naturally going to resist change. An engineer is an agent of change—streamlining processes, introducing tools, etc. So it is up to the engineer to find a way to make changes "palatable" in order to be successful.

I had the pleasure of seeing him at a Lehigh-Lafayette game several years after graduation and he walked over and shook my hand and asked how my job was going at GE. I was amazed he remembered my name and even more impressed he knew where I was working! It was just one more example of how much he valued his students and I was lucky to have been one of them.

Happy Holidays from Lehigh!

Received this today - made me smile and miss the snow:)


photo: statue outside of the Alumni Memorial Building of Asa Packer, who founded the University in 1865. (He was also a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from 1853-1857 and ran for President in 1868.)

Dear friends,

In the spirit of Lehigh's commitment to saving energy and resources, I wish you and yours a joyous holiday season with this electronic greeting. I am especially proud that this card was created by work-study students in my office.

I wish you all the joys of the season,

Alice Gast
President, Lehigh University

To view the card turn on your computer speakers and go here.

Don't Like Gay Marriage? Then Don't Get One.

On November 2nd the Marriage Equality Act failed to pass the New York State Senate, by a vote of 24-38.

At one point during the day there were more than 8,500 people watching the live stream of the NY State Senate floor debate.

Check out this video of Senator Diane Savino's floor speech in favor of same-sex marriage. A former labor activist, Senator Savino was elected in 2004 and serves Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.



Please send her an email to thank her for her great work!


photo: Senator Tom Duane is the gentleman wearing a tie

In her speech Senator Savino mentions fellow New York State Senator Tom Duane. First elected to the New York State Senate in 1998, he became the Senate's first openly-gay and first openly HIV-positive member. Prior to his election to the New York State Senate, he served for 7 years in the New York City Council. Senator Duane is a fellow Lehigh University alum! I did an Externship in his NYC Council Office during my winter break, senior year. He's awesome!

I Bleed Brown & White.