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July 5, 2025

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

7 Ed Notes Education WC

George Washington Prize Winner Maurizio Valsania to Speak at Washington College

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George Washington Prize Winner 2 Maurizio Valsania

The Starr Center for the American Experience will be hosting a conversation and Q&A with Maurizio Valsania, winner of the 2023 George Washington Prize and author of First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Monday, February 5 at 6:00 p.m.  at The Toll Science Center in Litrenta Hall at Washington College.  A reception will follow.

 The George Washington Prize is one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious literary awards and honors its namesake by recognizing the year’s best new books on the nation’s founding era, especially those that engage a broad public audience. Created in 2005 by George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Washington College, past winners of the $50,000 prize include Ron Chernow, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nathaniel Philbrick, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Rick Atkinson. Valsania was presented with the award in September 2023 at The Union Club in New York City.
Valsania’s First Among Men (Johns Hopkins University Press) examines the 19th century perspective of an 18thcentury man, dispelling the myth that George Washington was larger than life. Readers are shown a different side of Washington, a human universally susceptible to the whims and challenges of life as opposed to the hero without parallel portrayed in later decades.
“Maurizio Valsania has written a fresh, lively take on George Washington that places him squarely in the context of his time, stripping away centuries of accreted myth and mystique,” said Adam Goodheart, the Starr Center’s Hodson Trust-Griswold Director, who will moderate the event. “Of all the books that I’ve read about our nation’s founding leader, this is the one that most made me feel that I was in the presence of the man himself.”
Valsania is a professor of American History at the University of Turin in Italy. As a scholar of the Early American Republic, he examines the founders within their social, intellectual, and material context, especially through the lens of the 18th century body. He is the author of The Limits of Optimism: Thomas Jefferson’s Dualistic Enlightenment (University of Virginia Press, 2011); Nature’s Man: Thomas Jefferson’s Philosophical Anthropology (University of Virginia Press, 2013); and Jefferson’s Body: A Corporeal Biography (University of Virginia Press, 2017).
Valsania is the recipient of several fellowships from leading academic institutions, including the American Antiquarian Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Library Company, the John D. Rockefeller Library, the DAAD (Germany), the International Center for Jefferson Studies, and the George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He has written for the Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World, for the Oxford Bibliographies Online, and has collaborated with the BBC World Service. He has also written several op-eds and articles that have appeared in major media outlets, such as the Chicago Tribune, Salon, the Wisconsin State Journal, Government Executive, Defense One, and the Conversation. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

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Mt. Cuba Center Provides $1.5 million to WC for Land at Round Top Creek Lane

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Property Acquisition

Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, Delaware, recently provided $1.5 million in funding to Washington College for the purchase of two parcels of land at Round Top Creek Lane in Chestertown, Maryland, as a critical addition to its River & Field Campus (RAFC) in Queen Anne’s County. The purchase, which comprises 29 acres, was made possible by an additional $100,000 gift from a Washington College trustee. The purchase will conserve Chester River coastline, mature native trees, and freshwater wetland species. It also provides Washington College with access to an existing pier and boathouse for educational and research opportunities at RAFC.

The College’s RAFC encompasses nearly 5,000 acres of diverse ecological communities just minutes from its main campus in Chestertown, including 2.5 miles of Chester River shoreline, a 90-acre freshwater lake, multiple streams and seasonal wetlands, 1,200 acres of forest, 3,000 acres of agricultural fields, and 228 acres of restored native prairie with natural grasses that have allowed northern bobwhite quail to flourish. The property also features 50 acres of managed, successional habitat for one of the most active bird-banding stations on the East Coast, handling approximately 14,000 birds a year.

“This asset will greatly enhance the ability of Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society to undertake estuarine studies and water quality monitoring on the Upper Chester River,” said Washington College President Mike Sosulski. “As a part of a perpetual conservation easement, this land provides additional habitat to our Natural Lands Project.”

The Natural Lands Project is a partnership of Washington College with several regional conservation organizations and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources that works to make the rural landscape of the Eastern Shore more wildlife friendly. The initiative helps to improve water quality within local watersheds by creating a healthy balance of production farming and wildlife habitat throughout the agricultural landscape. This fall the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology began offering a field ethnobotany course, which will identify native plants of cultural relevance to the new property as well as other habitats of interest at RAFC.

Mt. Cuba Center, a nonprofit botanic garden, is committed to protecting habitats and ecosystems throughout the region. To that end, Mt. Cuba provides funding for open space conservation projects within 100 miles of the 1,094 acres of gardens and natural lands that it cultivates in Hockessin, Delaware.

“Ensuring that open space and the ecologically important habitats, native plants, and wildlife they contain is preserved for future generations is key to Mt. Cuba’s mission,” said Ann Rose, Mt. Cuba Center’s president.  “Washington College’s commitment to environmental science and ecological stewardship make it a valued partner in conservation.”

Mt. Cuba’s history with the RAFC property dates back to 2018, when it granted $1.9 million to Washington College to purchase 16 residential parcels, totaling just over 120 acres, on the Chino Farms. The parcels, also a part of a perpetual conservation easement, were merged into the larger land area now known as RAFC.

“The River and Field Campus wraps farming, wildlife preserves, natural and restored habitats, and research facilities into a single property,” said Valerie Imbruce, director of the Center for Environment & Society. “It propels Washington College into the front ranks of schools at the cutting edge of environmental studies, giving it a distinct educational advantage.”

“The River and Field Campus is a resource of national significance,” added Sosulski. “This acquisition will ensure that RAFC remains uncompromised by incompatible development and that it can attain its full capacity as a national model for large landscape conservation and environmental teaching and research.”

More information on RAFC is available at https://www.washcoll.edu/learn-by-doing/rafc/index.php.

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Washington College Appoints Kiho Kim as Provost and Dean of the College

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Kiho Kim

Following a national search, Washington College has named Kiho Kim, Ph.D., as the institution’s provost and dean of the college. Kim will succeed Interim Provost Michael Harvey, a professor of business at Washington.

Kim earned his bachelor’s in biology and environmental science from Brock University in Canada. He completed his master’s from Florida International University followed by his Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo, both in biology and finished his post-doctoral research at Cornell University.  

Kim joins the community after an accomplished career with American University. In addition to achieving the rank of professor of environmental science, he has held a number of administrative appointments at American, including serving as the inaugural chair of the AU Scholars Program, and as executive director of the Center for Teaching, Research & Learning.  

Kim played a central role making sustainability a cornerstone of American University. He spurred growth in sustainability research and collaboration, including by leading the creation of a new Department of Environmental Science, played an instrumental role in establishing the American University Center for Environment, Community, and Equity, and was the co-principal investigator supporting the largest external grant in AU’s history to study wasted food. Kim also helped strengthen the scholar-teacher ideal by transforming AU’s Center for Teaching, Research & Learning into an innovative and inclusive faculty development center and critical hub for diversity, equity & inclusion. 

“We had a an incredibly strong pool of applicants in this search and Kiho rose to the top among outstanding academic leaders,” said Washington College President Mike Sosulski. “His passion for innovative teaching and research, and the leadership experience he brings are impressive, as is his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is a very collaborative leader and I look forward to partnering with him to strengthen the Washington College liberal arts experience for today’s students.” 

“I am deeply grateful and excited for the opportunity to be part of Washington College, an institution with an inspiring and rich history and a thriving and vibrant community of students, staff, and faculty. I look forward to working with everyone to ensure that Washington College continues to fulfill its mission to challenge and inspire emerging citizen leaders to discover lives of purpose and passion, and to further strengthen Washington College’s reputation as an outstanding liberal arts institution.”  

Kim will begin his role at the College this summer.  

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Eylie Sasajima Wins Washington College’s Sophie Kerr Prize

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Eylie Sasajima ’23 earned the prestigious honor with a portfolio of poems, academic work and creative non-fiction.

The Prize caps a college career that included editing Collegian, Washington College’s student-run literary and art journal; serving as a poetry reader for the College’s national literary magazine, Cherry Tree; and conducting research as an English major on Frank Herbert’s Dune.

During the award ceremony Friday night, Sasajima, from Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, read several poems from her prize-winning portfolio, which she said she had curated with a conscious focus on assembling a manuscript, using the process of applying for the Sophie Kerr Prize as an opportunity to not only showcase her diverse writing, but also to strive to make the portfolio overall coalesce as a larger work.

“Poetry is the genre that I really speak best through. My goal for college was always to grow and mature as a poet,” Sasajima said. “I am right now looking at a career in editing and publishing. Something I’m thinking a lot about is putting together manuscripts.”

Sasajima began working as an editorial intern at Alan Squire Publishing of Bethesda during her last semester and will continue working there after graduation. Liz O’Connor, associate professor of English and acting chair of the department, said that is more of a continuation of Sasajima’s literary career than the beginning of it.

With her work for Collegian and Cherry Tree, as well as her scholarly work and writing, Sasajima has shown “substantial engagement in the literary community of Washington College,” according to O’Connor, and the broad approach to literary endeavors shows through in her poetry.

“In Eylie Sasajima’s poetry, the Sophie Kerr Committee recognized a young writer’s promising creative talents guided by critical acumen as an editor and intellectual engagement with the issues interrogated in the writing. In explorations of climate change, identity, gender, and power, Sasajima deftly translates between the ecologies of the self and the larger communities of our natural and social environments,” O’Connor said. “Eylie Sasajima is a poet and thinker worthy of our attention.”

Sasajima’s thoughtfulness is apparent when she discusses her work as well. Across the genres represented in her portfolio, Sasajima noted that the work deals with themes of gender, apocalypse, and home, including her homeplace of south-central Pennsylvania and her Japanese American heritage. Throughout the topics she addresses, Sasajima sees complexity, danger but also beauty, conflict but also pride.

James Hall, associate professor of English and director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, serves on the selection committee that reviews student submissions and awards the Sophie Kerr Prize. He saw that complexity, as well as a special rigor and drive in Sasajima’s work.

“Eylie Sasajima’s poems explore the self in our modern world, confronting topics like climate change and oppression that are far-ranging and deeply impressive. As impressive as her writerly vision is the craft of her work: the attention to well-deployed imagery, to meaningful and burnished sonic textures, to poetic form that highlights and develops the wise intellectual and emotional arguments—these are all characteristics of an Eylie Sasajima poem,” Hall said. “And while Sasajima questions what it means to have a self shaped by socio-political powers, she also believes that poetry can restore the world’s beauty: to take from the ruins and build something better.”

While Sasajima won the Sophie Kerr Prize, both Hall and O’Connor noted the overall excellence and versatility of this year’s entrants, especially the five finalists, who also included Queen Cornish of Wilmington, Delaware; A.J. Gerardi of Wayne, Pennsylvania; Sophia Rooks of Williamsburg, Virginia; and Amara Sorosiak of New Milford, Connecticut.

“It was very difficult to narrow down to five finalists,” Hall said. “Reading these finalists’ work is to recognize how good writers draw from every genre and manage to mix in their own imagination to make the world feel new.”

After President Mike Sosulski announced that Sasajima had won the Sophie Kerr Prize, the other finalists turned to her with smiles and encouragement as she covered her mouth then rose to speak. Her remarks accepting the prize were heartfelt expressions of gratitude that reflected the importance of community in the Sophie Kerr tradition.

“This is an honor I never really expected for myself. and I can’t really put my gratitude into words. But I will try. Thank you to the Sophie Kerr committee for the support and for considering my work. I’m just so indebted to the English faculty here and to the Lit House staff. So thank you to all of them for their guidance, for their mentorship and for their support,” Sasajima said. “Amara, A.J., Sophia, and Queen are such amazing writers who exemplify how strong our literary community here is. And I certainly wouldn’t be here without some other members of that community…who made me feel welcome here and who are pretty wonderful writers who I look up to.”

 

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Washington College Names Finalists for Nation’s Largest Undergraduate Writing Prize

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Queen Cornish, A.J. Gerardi, Sophia Rooks, Virginia, Eylie Sasajima, and Amara Sorosiak

Washington College has named the students on its short list for the Sophie Kerr Prize, the nation’s largest literary award for a college student, valued at nearly $80,000 this year. The winner will be announced at a ceremony this Friday, May 19 after the finalists all read from their work.

Four of this year’s five finalists submitted portfolios with several pieces for consideration, and the fifth submitted a 96-page play, an adaptation she wrote of John Gardner’s Grendel. While all of them are writers, the students have varied involvement across campus, including as a varsity athlete, a podcast host, editors of the College’s student-run journal, Collegian, and a student who has conducted several ethnographic research projects during their time at Washington.

Elizabeth O’Connor, associate professor of English and acting chair of the English department, announced the five graduating seniors who are finalists for this year’s prize: Queen Cornish of Wilmington, Delaware; A.J. Gerardi from Wayne, Pennsylvania; Sophia Rooks of Williamsburg, Virginia; Eylie Sasajima of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania; and Amara Sorosiak from New Milford, Connecticut.

“The finalists demonstrate Washington College’s longstanding strengths as a unique community for the literary and creative arts that also fosters critical thinking and writing across all disciplines. The writers represent areas of study that include English, creative writing, journalism, editing & publishing, theatre, anthropology, and environmental studies,” O’Connor said. “The committee was particularly impressed by the range of work submitted in the portfolios: poetry, short fiction, excerpts from novels, essays and creative nonfiction, an entire play, oral history and ethnography, and even a graphic novel. In reading through these portfolios, we all were struck by the expansive vision of literary production that emerges from the minds, hearts, and hands of these young writers.”

The Sophie Kerr Prize is named for an early 20th century writer from the Eastern Shore of Maryland who left a generous bequest to Washington College with the stipulation that half of its annual proceeds would fund a literary prize for a student. The other support made possible by Sophie Kerr’s gift funds visiting scholars and writers, scholarships for promising students, library books, internships, and research, all in the fields of literature, writing, and publishing.

The prize is awarded each year to the graduating senior who has the best ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor. In the past, the prize has been awarded for both creative and critical writing alike. Student winners are chosen for their literary excellence, regardless of genre. The portfolio students submit for consideration for the Sophie Kerr Prize typically includes the full range of writing that students pursue at Washington College, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenplays and drama, journalism, editing, scholarly criticism and research in all disciplines, and even song lyrics.

Watch Friday night’s ceremony live at youtube.com

Founded in 1782, Washington College is the nation’s first liberal arts institution and the tenth oldest college in the nation. Enrolling approximately 1,000 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations, Washington is known for outstanding academics with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning across more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study. The College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in history, writing and the environment. In addition to its main campus in Chestertown, Maryland, Washington also features a riverfront campus and a 5,000-acre river and field campus that provides unique research opportunities for students and faculty.

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Leveraging the Power of Allyship

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When the honor society for sociology majors inducts its newest members this month, it won’t just be an event for students. Alpha Kappa Delta is using the event to bring a speaker to Washington College’s campus with a message for anyone interested in a more diverse and inclusive society, whether they are students, faculty, staff or community members.

David Smith, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, will speak on “Leveraging the Power of Allyship” at 6:30 p.m. on April 27. Smith has co-written two books on gender in the workplace and inclusive mentoring, and his talk will address how men, and specifically white men, can be better allies for women and other marginalized populations, according to AKD advisor Erin Anderson, associate professor of sociology at Washington College.

“I thought that topic was particularly valuable right now as we’ve been undergoing the process to develop a diversity strategic plan,” Anderson said. “We’ve had a lot of attention especially with recruitment and diversifying our student body, faculty and staff. We haven’t had as much attention on the people who are already here. We can do a fantastic job of recruiting, but if we can’t create an environment that is supporting and affirming and that helps to promote the success of diverse populations, we’re not going to retain those people.”

David Smith, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy, Smith led diverse organizations of women and men, including command of a squadron in combat. He flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years as a Navy pilot and did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. After earning his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, Smith returned to the Naval Academy as a faculty member, going on to teach at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island before moving to Johns Hopkins in 2021.

Together with fellow Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins faculty member W. Brad Johnson, Smith wrote Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women. Under the brand Workplace Allies, the two speak and hold workshops for businesses and colleges and universities.

The talk at Washington College will be held in Hynson Lounge and is co-sponsored by Alpha Kappa Delta, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Business Management, the Gibson-Wagner Fund Psychology Department Fund, the William James Forum, the C.V. Starr Center for the American Experience, and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion.

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Washington College Receives Teagle Foundation Grant

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Washington College has received a grant of $126,000 from The Teagle Foundation to help fund its Visions of Freedom in America program for area high-school students. The three-year grant supports weeks-long seminars on campus, with a special focus on enrolling students from under-resourced communities and will enable participants to visit key historical and cultural sites throughout three states and the District of Columbia. With this grant support, the Visions of Freedom in America program at Washington College becomes part of The Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom network, which includes programs at Boston College, Columbia University, Dickinson College, Fordham University, Stony Brook University, Ursinus College, Villanova University, and Yale University.

Visions of Freedom in America: A Knowledge for Freedom Program is an educational and mentoring program for high-school students, primarily in Dorchester County, with historically limited opportunities to attend college. The program, co-directed by Joseph Prud’homme, director of the Institute for the Study of Religion, Politics, and Culture (IRPC) at Washington College, and Charles Lamont Pinkett, pupil personnel specialist at Dorchester County Public Schools—a leader in the county branch of the NAACP’s Maryland conference, and recipient of the Martin Luther King Image Award—explores the writings and personal leadership of seminal champions of human liberty while mentoring students for future collegiate success and opening doors to internships.

“We are grateful to The Teagle Foundation for this exciting opportunity,” said Washington College President Michael J. Sosulski. “The Visions of Freedom in America: A Knowledge for Freedom Program introduces students to great written works that have expanded freedoms and transformed our world. This experience can empower young people to assume positions of civic and community leadership.”

Anticipated to expand across the region, Visions of Freedom showcases the contributions of leading women and men in the building of a free and just society. Seizing on its notable location at the heart of the Underground Railroad on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, as well as its proximity to the cradle of American constitutionalism in Philadelphia, the seat of federal government in Washington, D.C., and the diverse communities of Baltimore, the program offers participants opportunities to connect with leaders in government, think tanks, museums, community organizations, and places of worship. They also learn from scholars at Washington College and from universities and colleges across the nation who come to campus to assist with instruction.

Last summer, Visions of Freedom students participated in a college-level seminar to discuss excerpts from Plato’s “Republic,” the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the collected speeches of Abraham Lincoln, and the writings of Martin Luther King Jr. Guest speakers included Jahkari Taylor, African American scholar and educational reform leader; Washington College Provost Michael Harvey, an expert on leadership studies; and the head of the Kent County Maryland NAACP, the Rev. Charles Tilghman. While on campus, the students also received extensive guidance and mentoring from officers of the College’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid.

Visions of Freedom participants continue to gather for enrichment activities after they complete the summer program. The group reassembled on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January for an instructional tour of the Maryland and Delaware segments of the Underground Railroad and other historic centers of African American culture on the Delmarva Peninsula, including the Harriett Tubman National Park and Museum and the birthplace of Frederick Douglass. They took a field trip to Washington, D.C., the following day.

“As each new group starts the program, were main in close contact with the students in previous groups as they enter the colleges of their choice,” said Prud’homme.“The overarching goal of our programming is to craft a deep and meaningful engagement with these young people, to forge a long-term mentoring relationship driven by a sincere desire to stay in touch with participants for the rest of their lives, which we strongly believe is critical to achieving the most impactful educational results.”

The IRPC at Washington College inspires young thinkers of all backgrounds to explore the first principles of a free society and the enduring value of core texts and concepts that have enriched the human experience. It is dedicated to the rigorous study of religion’s influence on American and world history and its contemporary importance for cultural and political life. The Institute also explores a range of pressing issues facing contemporary society and the enduring value of America’s founding principles.

Headquartered in New York City, The Teagle Foundation works to support and strengthen liberal arts education, which it sees as fundamental to meaningful work, effective citizenship, and a fulfilling life. The Foundation’s aim is to serve as a catalyst for the improvement of teaching and learning in the arts and sciences while addressing issues of financial sustainability and accountability in higher education.

Founded in 1782, Washington College is the nation’s first liberal arts institution and the tenth oldest college in the nation. Enrolling approximately 1,000 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations, Washington is known for outstanding academics with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning across more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study. The College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, writing and American history. In addition to its main campus in Chestertown, Maryland, Washington College also features a riverfront campus and a 5,000-acre river and field campus that provides unique research opportunities for students and faculty.

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Washington College to Host Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound

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Mensun Bound

Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound will speak at Washington College about his role as the director of exploration on the expedition that discovered Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, Endurance, near Antarctica in 2022. He will share his firsthand account of the historic discovery during the talk, his first appearance on the East Coast since the discovery and the release of his new book, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance.

Bound’s talk will occur April 12 at 7:00 p.m. in Decker Theatre at Washington College’s Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Guests are invited to a book signing and reception with the speaker following his talk. Copies of Bound’s new book will be available for purchase.

Known as the “Indiana Jones of the Deep,” Bound has conducted wreck surveys and excavations all over the world in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. Twelve museums around the globe hold permanent displays of artifacts raised by Bound. His work has been the focus of numerous documentaries including a four-part series by the Discovery Channel entitled Lost Ships.

In 2019, Bound stunned the world with his discovery of Admiral von Spee’s flagship, Scharnhorst, which was lost in battle during World War I. That same year, Bound was director of exploration for the first expedition to find Shackleton’s Endurance, which ended in disaster when a remote operated vehicle imploded from pressure, and the principal search vehicle, an autonomous underwater vehicle, disappeared without a trace. In 2022, the search for Shackleton’s lost ship resumed under the auspices of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust with Bound in the same role. On March 5, 2022, the Endurance was found, and as predicted by Bound, it was upright, largely intact, not embedded in the seafloor and in an excellent state of preservation.

This event is the last in the Center for Environment and Society’s winter speaker series, “A Polar Expedition with Washington College,” which spotlights experts who have made recent discoveries in the polar regions. It is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required, as seating is limited. Please visit washcoll.edu/mensun-bound for more information and to register.

This event is co-sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House, the Washington College Department of Anthropology and Archaeology and the Archaeology Club of Washington College with generous support from the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter of Washington College.

Free Screening of Related Special April 5

Before Bound’s visit, the public is invited to Washington College on April 5 for a free showing of The History Channel special, “Endurance: The Hunt for Shackleton’s Ice Ship” at 2:00 p.m. in the Norman James Theatre in William Smith Hall. The show features Boundand chronicles the extraordinary conditions and efforts required of the expedition team to find the Endurance shipwreck. Complimentary refreshments will be provided.

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Urban Grid Sponsors Local Earth Day Festival

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Urban Grid, a utility scale renewable energy project developer, recently presented a check to sponsor Chestertown’s 2023 Earth Day Festival, a partnership between Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society and the Town of Chestertown. The town-wide festival planned for Earth Day—Saturday, April 22nd—will feature live music along the waterfront, an electric boat race on the river, vendors throughout town, food trucks, children’s activities and more.

Urban Grid’s $12,500 sponsorship will fund the Electric Boat Race stage, a highlight of the festival organized by the College’s Center for Environment & Society, bringing free, live yacht rock music to the community as spectators experience Washington College’s inaugural Electric Boat Race on the Chester River. Additionally, a portion of the company’s sponsorship will fund local green initiatives planned through the Town of Chestertown’s Environmental Committee.

Hosting an electric boat race is a first for Washington College, but the school has been participating in such events since 2017. The College’s IDEAWORKS Innovation Center hosts the Electric Boat Race Team, which brought home a first-place trophy from the Promoting Electric Propulsion Race hosted by the American Society of Naval Engineers last May. Washington College’s team competed against Old Dominion University, Princeton University and University of Kentucky, among others.

Urban Grid Earth Day sponsorship presentation

“By bringing several teams together to exhibit and compete with their electric boats, we hope to demonstrate to the public that it’s possible to work and play on our waterways without contributing harmful emissions, chancing fuel spills, or pumping oily bilge water,” said Brian Palmer, Washington College electric boat team advisor. “Urban Grid’s dedication to supporting our Earth Day eRegatta greatly amplifies the impact of our efforts.”

The College’s student team is already hard at work redesigning their race boat, so they are in a good position to compete against other schools this April. Officially sanctioned by the American Society of Naval Engineers, Washington College’s race will feature a one-mile marked rectangular course on the Chester River, beginning in front of the Hodson Boathouse. Trophies will be awarded to teams in two different categories—the quarter-mile sprint and the five-mile endurance sprint.

“I think the community is going to have a blast at this event! It’s a real treat for our Center to be able to bring the popular Richmond-based yacht rock band, Three Sheets to the Wind, here to Chestertown,” Center for Environment & Society Event and Outreach Coordinator Carolyn Fuss Thompson commented.”It’s because of Urban Grid that we were able to make this happen, and we are grateful. We hope people will throw on their boat shoes and come out for a fun dance party, helping us kick off our inaugural electric boat race!”

Earth Day Coordinator and Chestertown Environmental Committee Member Andy Goddard explained how the Urban Grid funds will help the town as well.

“The funds will be directed towards two initiatives: mosquito prevention and household composting,” Goddard said. “Additionally, we will use funds to offset costs to recycle materials that are not currently accepted at county operated locations—primarily mercury bulbs, plastic caps, and household alkaline batteries.”

About Chestertown’s Earth Day Festival

Chestertown’s 2023 Earth Day Festival is a town-wide event in its 13thyear. The 2023 festival is organized through a partnership between Washington College and the Town of Chestertown. It will feature a town-wide community trash and recycle walk, electric vehicle and bike displays, free paper shredding, free recycling of household alkaline batteries and fluorescent bulbs, food trucks, children’s activities, exhibitors from solar energy contractors, energy auditors, and conservation organizations, and more. To learn more about the festival, including the electric boat race, and stay up to date with the latest event information, visit the Washington College Center for Environment and Society News and Events Page at www.washcoll.edu/ces.

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Washington College Launches First Eastern Shore Opinion Poll

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Washington College Assistant Professor of Political Science Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr. will launch the Eastern Shore Opinion Poll on Friday, October 28, 2022. This non-partisan poll, which is the only outreach to specifically gauge the opinions of Eastern Shore voters, will be sent via text message to a random selection of 1,000 registered voters in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District.

The survey, which takes approximately ten minutes to complete, will ask voters their opinions about candidates running for state and federal office, the cannabis decriminalization ballot initiative and attitudes on a range of topics including abortion, education and immigration. The survey will also ask questions regarding civic engagement within the 1st District. The questions are designed to assess which branches of and levels of government Eastern Shore residents trust and their openness to engaging in civic dialogue.

In addition to understanding political attitudes among Eastern Shore voters, the poll’s sponsors, Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, look to better understand how residents engage civically through volunteer work, voter engagement, activism or philanthropy. Poll organizers believe the effort will provide reliable information regarding a range of citizen preferences to elected representatives, community leaders and the general public.

Hickel, who was recently named a 2022-23 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) Public Fellow, joined Washington College Department of Political Science in 2020. He earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2016 and studies American political institutions, identity politics and public opinion. He recently presented his research on attitudes within the Latinx community at Washington College.

Founded in 1782, Washington College is the nation’s first liberal arts institution and the tenth oldest college in the nation. Enrolling approximately 1,100 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations, Washington is known for outstanding academics with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning across more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study. The College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, writing and the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. In addition to its main campus in Chestertown, Maryland, Washington also features a riverfront campus and a 4,700-acre river and field campus that provides unique research opportunities for students and faculty.

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