Marietta College News

Forensics Team finishes third at Transylvania competition

Marietta College's Top 10 stories of 2008
December 22, 2008

Marietta basked in the regional and national spotlight throughout 2008, giving most of the College's top 10 stories of the year that common thread.

At number 10, Harrison Potter '08 made the list of one of Marietta College's top stories with his ranking as one of this country's top undergraduate math students. The Rochester, N.Y., native scored a 24 on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Exam in March, placing him among the top 500 in the United States for the 68th annual competition. Potter, the McCoy and Rickey Scholar, graduated in May with degrees in mathematics and physics and is currently a graduate student at Duke University.

The success of the men's soccer team reached the ninth spot on the top stories list this year. For the third time in the College's history, the Pioneers competed in the Ohio Athletic Conference title game. Ending their season on Nov. 8 with a loss 3-0 to third-seeded Ohio Northern University, the fourth-seeded Marietta men rounded out the year 11-7-3 under Coach Patrick Holguin.

The Office of College and Alumni Relations gained recognition in 2008 by earning top awards through the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the eighth spot on the top stories of the year list. National recognition came to Marietta, The Magazine of Marietta College in June when it received the Gold Award in CASE's 2008 Circle of Excellence Awards and in October when the Alumni Relations team earned a Gold Award for Best New Alumni Program in the Pride of CASE V Awards Program for efforts in the Golden Reunion Weekend.

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McDonough Dean to be contributing expert for BBC Brasil report

Forensics Team finishes third at Transylvania competition
December 18, 2008

Marietta College's Ryan Ellis '11 (Parkersburg, W.Va.) placed in six events leading to a third-place finish by the Forensics Team at the Transylvania (Ky.) University Tournament earlier this month.

Ellis claimed the first-place award in Informative Speaking. He also placed third in Pentathlon (best five events) and Dramatic Interpretation. Ellis' other prizes came in Impromptu Speaking (fourth), Impromptu Storytelling (fifth) and Radio Broadcasting (fifth).

"I would give Transy a rank of 1 with a rate of 100. This tournament was amazing," Ellis said. "I had so much help from my teammates and had so much fun competing with them against the other teams. It was great to see us reach our potential; everyone did so well."

Scott Burnham '11 (Conneatville, Pa.) placed in four events, including a first-place award in Dramatic Duo Interpretation with Julie Rutter '12 (The Plains, Ohio). Burnham’s other prizes came in Informative Speaking (second), Impromptu Speaking (second) and Pentathlon (fifth). Rutter also nabbed a sixth-place showing in Program Oral Interpretation.

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McDonough Dean to be contributing expert for BBC Brasil report
December 15, 2008

Marietta College's Dean of the McDonough Center for Leadership and Business is among a panel of experts contributing to a special BBC Brasil report addressing global security issues of the coming year.

Dr. Gama Perruci has been a contributing analyst for the radio news broadcast since 2006 and was asked recently to discuss his views on the challenges that the international community must face in the new year. The program, which will be broadcast in Portuguese on BBC Brasil Radio, is expected to air at the end of December.

"My discussion deals with global terrorism, which is a major concern for the U.S.," Perruci said. "The vulnerability of cities to attacks, like what we saw in Mumbai (India). Large coastal cities—New York, for instance—are vulnerable to this type of attack."

Perruci's report also includes nuclear proliferation—"The issue of North Korea is still not resolved"—and modern-day piracy. "It has always been a threat in the waters off Africa but what we're seeing now that's concerning is how far out into the sea they're going and that they're a lot more daring."

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