Colleges lead the way.

Byline: Lisa D. Welsh

COLUMN: COLLEGE TOWN

Nursing the community

Worcester State College nursing students and faculty will shine a spotlight on homelessness and the lack of affordable housing by creating a cardboard village on the lawn of the Student Center beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Massachusetts is determined to eliminate homelessness within the next five years. with the help of registered nurses. By realizing that stable housing is part of a person's overall health, besides coordinating medical care, nurses can be involved in the assessment of the person and help determine which housing option is best suited for a referred individual.

To bring attention to the issue, WSC faculty and students will sleep in cardboard boxes for one night. Those participating in the cardboard village will be allowed only one blanket (no pillow), one canned food item for the evening and one item to assist them (such as a flashlight).

As part of the project, students will raise money and collect canned goods and coats that will be distributed to local homeless shelters and food banks. Proceeds will go toward a "Homeless Prevention Fund," set up by the Central Mass Housing Alliance to aid those who are on the verge of homelessness. Food collected will be donated to the Worcester County Food Bank for distribution. The Student Nurses' Association is also organizing a coat drive to distribute to area shelters.

To make a donation of food, money or a coat, watch for postings and collection boxes on campus, or drop by the Department of Nursing (Ghosh Center, Room 222). In addition, checks may be written to Abby's House, Jeremiah's Inn, or Central Mass Housing Alliance c/o Maryellen Brisbois (Ghosh Center, Room 222L), 486 Chandler St., Worcester, MA 01602.

Partners in science

Worcester Polytechnic Institute and UMass Medical School will team up on translational research for stroke and heart disease. The collaborative grant program brings together research teams from each campus to explore potential new therapies to speed the pace of translating scientific discoveries into new therapies. The two teams of researchers from WPI and the UMass Medical School will participate in a pilot program to support innovative projects that blend biomedical engineering and clinical research.

Now in its second year, the grant program is open to project teams with one or more researchers from each school.

"We created this program to encourage more collaboration between our institutions, so we can leverage the strengths of each to accelerate translational research," said Grant W. McGimpsey, Ph.D., associate provost for research and graduate studies, ad interim, at WPI, and codirector of the UMMS-WPI grant program. "I think the two projects funded this year are not only meritorious scientifically, but they are great examples of the synergies we can achieve by working together."

Green machines

It is their impact, not their color that makes them "green."

The new fleet of bicycles on the Assumption College campus are available to students at no charge through the new student-initiated Green Bikes program. In the program's first few weeks, additional bikes have been purchased in response to student demand.

The Green Bikes program was initiated by senior Katy Hartigan, student government association president, who was inspired when she saw a free bike-sharing program in Paris after her semester abroad in Spain. The SGA and the Plourde Recreation Center provided the resources needed to purchase the bikes, helmets and locks during the summer. Students show their IDs to sign them out.

"I was inspired by the practicality of the example I saw in Paris, where people could borrow a bike from a rack in one part of the city and drop it off at a rack in another part of the city," Ms. Hartigan said.

"The Green Bikes program is a significant part of the campus recycling program and another step further in going green. As citizens of the world, helping to care for the environment must not simply be a goal, but also a responsibility."

This week at ...

Anna Maria College will host WBZ's "Talk the Vote Series" with Dan Rea from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday in the Zecco Performing Arts Center on its Paxton campus.

Besides Dan Rea and his invited guests, the show will feature Paul A. Russell, professor of history at Anna Maria, and student Eric England, Anna Maria class of 2009. The show will discuss the economy, the war, oil prices, and other issues raised by the audience. The event is free and open to the public. To reserve a seat, log on to www.wbz1030.com and click on the TALK THE VOTE tile.

Assumption College will launch a new President's Lecture Series as a public forum in which important ethical, spiritual and human issues are examined within the Catholic intellectual tradition.

The series of talks is open to the public at no charge.

The inaugural lecture, "Embryo-destructive Research and Abortion: Are They Different Moral Issues?," will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday by Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D., in La Maison (Salon) on campus, 500 Salisbury St., Worcester. Professor Tollefsen directs the graduate program in philosophy at the University of South Carolina and is author (with Robert George) of "Embryo: A Defense of Human Life" (Doubleday 2008).

While the lectures are free, reservations are required, because seating is limited. Please call Sandy Bousquet at [phone] or send e-mail to [e-mail].

Clark University 

Science has been responsible for many important advances, from vaccines to increasing crop yields to the Internet, yet the quest for and discovery of new knowledge does not always translate into improvements in societal practices and public policies. Roger Kasperson, research professor at Clark University, will speak about "Closing the Gap between Science and Practice," in a free, public lecture, co-sponsored by the George Perkins Marsh Institute and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise, at 3 p.m. Tuesdayin the Grace Conference Room, Higgins University Center, Clark University, 950 Main St.

College of the Holy Cross 

Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, author of "The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium (Harper Perennial, 1994)," will speak at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Square, Worcester. The talk is free and open to the public. Copies of his book, which was the common summer reading for Holy Cross students entering their sophomore year, will be available at the campus bookstore and at the event.

Also this week, public events will be held to celebrate Jesuit Heritage Week: Rev. Matthew Malone, S.J., associate editor of America Magazine, will present "Follow Your Heart," a musical program about one man's vocation at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross; and Rev. Paul Campbell, S.J., vice president of Loyola Press, Chicago, and Joseph Durepos, executive editor of Loyola Press, will present "Jesuit Authors Through the Ages," at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Seelos Theater at Holy Cross. The multimedia presentation, which celebrates Jesuit Humanism at its best and worst, is a fond and irreverent homage to 500 years of Jesuit poetry and prose.

Mount Wachusett Community College will host the annual New England Association of College Admissions Counseling College Fair from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday in the Fitness & Wellness Center at the Gardner campus, 444 Green St. The NEACAC fair is the largest college fair held in Worcester County and allows attendees to meet representatives from more than 160 public and private colleges and universities and military institutions and gather information about applying and financing their college educations. More than 1,200 people attended the event last year. The fair is free and open to the public. For more information, call the MWCC Admissions Office at [phone], visit www.mwcc.mass.edu or the NEACAC Web site at www.neacac.org.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Northeast Veteran Training & Rehabilitation Center - the country's first residential treatment and educational facility for wounded veterans and their families - is set for 10 a.m. Friday at Mount Wachusett Community College, 444 Green St., Gardner, North Cafe and site of the NVTRC. Veteran Homestead Inc. will begin construction this fall on a live-in rehabilitation center on campus to help veterans cope with the effects of wartime related injuries.