The Fitchburg State University Center for Professional Studies' Advanced Placement Summer Institutes (APSI) first week is in full swing. The APSI are designed to support all aspects of AP courses, including AP methodology, curriculum, class assignments and examinations as well as providing strategies for teaching AP courses. Art & Design Educators spent the week long program in a combination of lecture, projects, and discussion to improve their teaching skills. 

Two of our Music Department faculty, Jane Fiske (piano) and Amy McGlothlin (saxophone), rehearsed in our Kent Recital Hall this afternoon for an upcoming concert. The concert is part of the Old Deerfield Village Summer Concert Series and will take place on July 31  at 3 p.m. Learn more about the concert series, and how to attend, here.

Our Office of Student Development Student Orientation Leaders, who are on campus preparing for orientation sessions for our newest Falcons, The Class of 2026, were given a presentation by Jonathan Harvey, Hildur Schilling, and Amy McGlothlin of our Music Department as part of the days training sessions and activities. The presentation stressed the importance of music in student's lives and what Fitchburg State University has to offer. Dr. Harvey noted that a recent study showed that over 70,000,000 Americans participate in a music ensemble - roughly the same number involved on some athletic endeavor.

The reception was the last meeting of Professor Kisha Tracy's Writing II class this semester, in which attendees celebrated the Heritages of Change exhibition, and heard from current students about their new mini-exhibitions that will be exhibited next spring. This is also a reception to thank you for those who helped with the exhibit in any way - from the students in my Spring 2021 Writing II class who contributed their work to the Deans' Anti-Racism fund to the coordinators at each of the sites who helped make them all happen, to other Writing II instructors who asked for tours, and, if our Adult Learning in the Fitchburg Area (ALFA) mentors who felt comfortable visiting in person.

Phi Sigma Sigma held their Scoop and Jump for Jimmy fundraiser on the quad today. There was ice cream, and lemonade, and an obstacle course available for a small donation with all proceeds going to The Jimmy Fund. Thanks to a generous donation by Dr. Catherine Buell, Director of the Honors Program, students from the Francis Drake School in Leomisnter MA got to enjoy the obstacle course. Those students, and students from the Longjo School in Fitchburg, MA, were on campus for a collaborative project called Students and Social Justice. FSU honors students and Dr. Danette Day worked on the project along with  The Friends of the Abolitionist Park, and The Forge Theatre Lab. The students got to work off some energy before boarding a bus back to their school, and our students had a great experience, a win, win!

Theater lovers experienced a series of original pieces in an original location as Fitchburg State University presented “Between the Stacks,” a sequence of original scenes that were performed at locations in and around the campus library.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) sponsored today's Co-Talks in the Park with Dr. Danette Day, Associate Professor of Education at Fitchburg State University and Mr. David Thibault Munoz of Mount Wachusett Community College who talked about Education as a Means to Freedom in the Abolitionist Park, where you will find open air, open minds and open hearts. The CTL is sponsoring two more of these talks, April 20, 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. and April 25, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Yesterday afternoon, the university's Economics, History and Political Science Department; the Office of Student Development, and the Student Government Association sponsored this forum on Russia’s war in Ukraine and its impact on Euro-Atlantic security. Professor Joshua Spero, of the university’s Economics, History and Political Science Department, and student Oscar Burgos Pimentel traveled to Poland last month and saw the impact of the invasion. The trip was part of a faculty-student research project on Transatlantic Relations and Euro-Atlantic security.

Our Women's HERstory Month celebration continued with yesterday afternoon's Women in the Arts at the Kent Recital Hall. It was celebration of women-identified artists and performers, featuring visual artists, musicians, poets, and more. Learn more about our Humanities Programs here.

ARTeries 2022, our juried student art exhibition of drawing, painting, sculpture & mixed-media art, held an opening reception yesterday afternoon in the Hammond Gallery. ARTeries is Fitchburg State University Art Department’s annual juried exhibition that showcases the strongest original student work in drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed-media art. ARTeries provides an opportunity for the university community to celebrate the artistic talents of Fitchburg State students.