Arts administration professor Neville Vakharia has teamed up with Partners for Sacred Places to conduct a multi-city study addressing the needs of arts organizations for a space they can call home. A report of his findings from Baltimore was released in February, advocating that collaboration between artists, performance groups and churches can help to integrate more creativity into communities. The creation of this program was the result of a previous version of the study in 2010-2011. Now, Vakharia and PSP have expanded the study to find out if this program is replicable nationwide.

Arts organizations, such as Philadelphia’s  , which sits on 16th and Sansom Streets, often struggle to find a place of their own to perform and rehearse. This lack of a location makes it difficult for these companies to serve and be a part of their communities.

Philadelphia’s PSP , a national organization that works to promote stewardship and active community use of historic sacred spaces, is the middleman in this situation. Their “Arts in Sacred Places” program helps to match arts organizations like Azuka with “sacred places” like churches that have some extra room.

According to Vakharia, this problem does not exist because of an overall lack of space. Rather, performing artists and organizations often have tight financial limitations and cannot always find an ideal space with their budgets.

“Artists are often the first ones to be part of neighborhood revitalization and then get priced out of their spaces as the neighborhood improves,” Vakharia wrote in an email. “The collaboration between artists and sacred spaces provides artists with a home space that meets their needs at a cost that is within their limited budgets. The historic sacred spaces receive much-needed income to support their own programs and care for their aging buildings.”

Photo Credit: Kristin Schrier

The benefit to this arrangement is financially mutual and creatively ideal for performing artists. Even though they are using spaces owned by religious institutions, the sacred spaces showed no intention of limiting the content that is performed in their space.

The benefit to this arrangement is financially mutual, but can pose some creative issues for performing artist. These spaces are often used by religious institutions, which can sometimes limit these groups’ creative vision.

“The issue of artistic freedom was a major concern from the artists we surveyed and interviewed,” Vakhara explained. “Artists would only seek to use a historic sacred space if their work would not be censored.”

The sacred spaces surveyed in Baltimore generally showed no intention of censoring artists’ work according to Vakharia, but the issue has come up in Philadelphia.

“We strive to find the right match not just any match between artist and sacred place,” Karen DiLossi, director of Arts in Sacred Places, continued. “If the sacred place wants to censor the artist’s work then maybe that sacred place isn’t the right one for the artist. There are plenty of sacred places in our region and far beyond that are welcoming of an artist’s vision and the expression of that mission.”

“The issue of artistic freedom was a major concern from the artists we surveyed and interviewed,” Vakhara explained. “Artists would only seek to use a historic sacred space if their work would not be censored. Interestingly, the sacred spaces we studied did not have any issues about limiting or controlling what the artists did in their space.”

Not all cities throughout the U.S. are fortunate enough to have programs like this, a situation which in part motivated Vakharia to conduct this research.

“Philadelphia served as a sort of pilot for this larger study,” according to Vakharia. “My research sponsor, PSP, has created several successful collaborations in Philadelphia between artists who need space and sacred spaces that have space to spare. This research seeks to see if an innovative and scalable program can be developed that can be launched nationally for maximum impact,” he continued.

Corey Fedorowich , a junior in biological sciences, is an active member of Drexel Players and has both performed in and viewed shows that made use of extra space in churches. He agrees that this arrangement between church and artist is mutually beneficial.

“Churches don’t make use of their spaces all of the time,” he wrote in an email. “Making it a place of community is beneficial to both in the end.”

The study was primarily funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation via a grant to PSP. Research will finish up throughout the summer, which will lead to two national meetings, one at Drexel, which will feature discussions about how these findings can lead to an innovative solution to the problem. Vakhara is currently continuing his research in Austin, Texas and Detroit.

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Photo Courtesy: Disney World

A team of four Drexel University students will soon have the opportunity to pitch a project to a panel of Walt Disney Imagineering employees, otherwise known prestigiously as Imagineers, for a chance to win $3,000 and potential internships with WDI. As finalists in the 2015 Disney Imaginations competition, senior mechanical engineering student Justin Petronglo, senior architectural engineering student Bader Al Moulah, senior architectural engineering student Ahmad Jamal and senior mechanical engineering student John VanZelst will be flown to California by Disney at the end of January to present their Disney-style take on urban transportation, along with five other finalist groups from schools across the United States.

This year’s prompt for the competition challenged students to create a “uniquely Disney transportation experience.” The group’s project focuses on what Disney does best, injecting storytelling into everyday life, using Sydney, Australia as a setting for their redesigned train system.

“The idea is called Woollahra,” Petronglo explained. “The basic backbone of it is the idea of the campfire, and the campfire as this ultimate symbol of storytelling through time; people have always gathered around the campfire to tell stories. … We have three trains that sort of gather around a central location, and through the experience you create a story about your life and then you share it at this campfire with other people.”

This idea originally stemmed from a look at what the members didn’t like about transportation in its current state. Through cultural research and a coincidental visit to Australia by Al Moulah, the pieces came together to form Woollahra, in an attempt to eliminate the less favorable aspects of public transportation.

“The mythology [of the Aborigines] is also very connected with the land, and sort of traveling through the land,” Petronglo added. “A lot of the stories are about traveling and these kinds of concepts that we thought reflected into the campfire concept of people coming together.”

All four students are involved in Drexel’s Theme Park Engineering and Design Group, co-founded by Petronglo and VanZelst, so they are not strangers to this sort of creative challenge.

“We always practice this kind of thing in our group,” Al Moulah said. “We actually create prompts, and we have our members attempt to do the same kind of thing on a smaller scale.”

“We use the club to do different hands-on activities and whatnot,” VanZelst added. “And so this is just a test of those skills.”

In addition to cash prizes awarded for first, second and third place, all finalists have the opportunity to be considered for internships with WDI.

Photo Courtesy: Disney World

“Being an engineer, you kind of find yourself yearning for creative outlets; it’s a lot of numbers and equations,” VanZelst explained. “This has been a great opportunity to kind of look towards a career aspect that allows you to be creative and still apply what you learned.”

“For us, it’s a dream come true,” Al Moulah added. “It was an honor in the first place when we made semifinals last year. It was an honor for Imagineers to even look at our work and then give us feedback, so it’s a huge opportunity.”

Petronglo, Al Moulah and VanZelst entered the competition for the first time in 2014 with a much riskier idea, in their eyes. They placed seventh – just one spot shy of becoming finalists.  This year, they’ve worked even harder to try and go further.

“It’s a lot of work,” Petronglo said of the competition as a whole. “We definitely put in a lot of sleepless nights and countless hours, but it’s definitely a cool thing it people want to put in the time.”

The Disney Imaginations competition runs yearly, and accepts applications in the fall. For more information and eligibility requirements, visit http://www.disneyinaginations.com.

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Photo Courtesy: Alison Liu

The Sexual Assault Victim Empowerment System, developed in part by Drexel adjunct professor Candace Wannamaker in the School of Education, has been live since mid-May and allows victims of sexual assault to feel more confident and less alone when reporting their cases to authorities.

According to Steven Webb, creator of the program, SAVES is an “allegation escrow that holds information for a specific person until a specific condition has been met.” This means that, when filing a report, victims can identify a minimum number of allegations against the same person that, when met, would make them feel comfortable moving forward with the case.

SAVES was founded on the basis of discomforting statistics that surround sexual assaults on college campuses.

“The entire program was brought about because statistics show that sexual assaults that happen on a college campus most of the time are repeat offenders, and so we have the same offenders who are out there who sexually assault women,” Wannamaker, who joined the team in January, explained. “For some reason … [the victim] won’t come forward.”

The anonymous data collected by SAVES undergoes a rigorous algorithmic process to ensure validity and is subsequently stored offline so that it is not accessible by an unintended audience. The SAVES team does not report claims to authorities; it is stored for the victim’s benefit and for comparison against institutional reports to see how many incidents are actually reported.

Title IX Wise is another service offered by SAVES and focuses on the process that occurs after victims decide to move forward with their allegation, specifically in a university setting.

“Sexual assault reporting is fragmented,” Wannamaker said, citing five different departments to which the victim may need to report their case in a university setting. “What we’ve created is a database that’s not fragmented, so that each of those offices can connect.”

“For a victim, not knowing the progress of their report of a sexual assault can be traumatic,” Webb wrote in an email. “We think that the more transparent the process, the more the victim may feel supported to know that progress is being made with their case.”

The SAVES team has met resistance, however, when presenting their program to institutions such as Drexel and the U.S. Army.

Lori Doyle, senior vice president of university communications, wrote in an email, “Mr. Webb approached several people at Drexel last year about his product, and we told him we were confident in the systems we currently have in place to track and respond to sexual assaults and not interested in purchasing his program.

Doyle continued, “We explained to him that Drexel takes sexual assault very seriously and already has significant resources in place to respond to reports of sexual assault or other forms of sexual misconduct.”

Although Drexel chooses not to notify students about SAVES, Sarah Julius, a sophomore biomedical engineering student, thinks it could have a positive impact on those dealing with the aftermath of an assault.

“Sexual assault is both physically and mentally debilitating,” Julius said. “Victims of assault should be given any help possible. This sounds like a step in the right direction.”

Kevin Garvey, a sophomore engineering major, agrees, “Students need a way to easily and confidentially report sexual abuse on campus, and the University should welcome new technology that makes it more victim-friendly.”

Webb was also recently informed of legal limitations mandating that the Army use a reporting system developed by the Department of Defense, which restricts the official implementation of SAVES and Title IX Wise at a military level; however, reports can still be filed by military personnel.

“The Department of Defense has identified the need for increased confidence in the system to facilitate a higher number of cases being reported,” Webb wrote. “This is exactly what SAVES does, so we feel it is important to spread the word about SavesReporting.org to any individual in the United States military to assist that organization in accomplishing these goals.”

Visit www.savesreporting.org to learn more or to file a report. Students who have been victims of sexual assault should also contact Drexel Public Safety at 215-895-2222 and review the resources offered by the Office of Student Affairs.

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Two medical research “dream teams” were announced July 30 as a result of the partnership formed Nov. 13, 2013, between Drexel, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The teams will be comprised of members of the three institutions, and each team will receive a $250,000 grant to research congenital heart disease, a birth defect that refers to structural abnormalities in the heart. CHD affects approximately 1 percent of all newborns and is the most prevalent major birth defect.

Photo Credit: Office of Communication

One of the teams, led by CHOP cardiologist Robert Levy, will explore artificial heart valves, which are currently used to treat certain cases of CHD. This research is titled “Pediatric Transcatheter Valve Replacements: Preventing Device Failure due to Structural Degeneration.”

“The artificial heart valves are not perfected at this time and have unique disorders that affect the patients who received them,” Levy wrote in an email. “My research tries to identify the mechanisms of the specific problems with artificial heart valves and is also concerned with how to improve these devices with new drug therapies.”

The current best treatment option for patients with tetralogy of Fallot, one form of CHD, is known as transcatheter pulmonary valve therapy. TPV therapy is about 10 years old, and the team is looking to improve the process.

“These devices are very new and will play a big role in the future. TPV, if successful, will reduce the hospital stays for children and enable a more rapid recovery in general,” Levy explained.

The research for Levy’s project will be split evenly among the three institutions, but Levy emphasized that the resources that the Hebrew University can provide will be critical in accomplishing the team’s goals, explaining, “Neither CHOP nor Drexel has a research unit comparable to Hebrew University’s Institute for Drug Research. … The IDR’s expertise, especially [Gershon Golomb’s] contributions, are key to our plans.”

Joining Levy will be Kenneth Barbee and Kara Spiller from Drexel; Dr. Matthew Gillespie from CHOP; Dr. Joseph H. Gorman and Dr. Robert C. Gorman of the University of Pennsylvania; and Gershon Golomb from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Amy Throckmorton, a professor in Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, will be the principle investigator of the second team, whose project is titled “Giving Kids a Chance.” This team will also be investigating CHD, but they aim to uncover less-invasive treatment options for single valve anomalies, another form of the birth defect.

Throckmorton will be joined by fellow Drexel faculty members J. Yasha Kresh and Dr. Randy Stevens; Dr. David J. Goldberg, Dr. Matthew Gillespie, Dr. Kevin K. Whitehead and Dr. Joseph Rossano from CHOP; Amnon Hoffman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Amiram Nir of Hadassah Medical Center.

The partnership between Drexel, CHOP and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was signed into effect in Tel Aviv Nov. 11, 2013, as a part of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s trade mission to Israel; the goal of the partnership being the advancement of pediatric medicine. The two teams were selected out of 20 proposals submitted at a symposium held at CHOP in January 2014, following the partnership agreement.

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The Innovation Center @3401 opened its doors July 28 as an initiative to create a vibrant, entrepreneurial environment for start-ups, freelancers, researchers and students. The center was made possible through a partnership between Drexel and the University City Science Center.

The center will function similarly to other shared workspaces that are becoming increasingly popular for start-up companies; however, Drexel and the science center have taken a more integrative approach.

Photo Credit: University City Science Center

“Instead of just catering to start-ups or individuals looking for flexible office options, the ic@3401 includes more established companies, investors and, of course, academic faculty and students,” Chris Laing, vice president of science and technology at the Science Center, wrote in an email. “We believe in ‘collaboration,’ not just ‘co-work.’ In addition to the programs and resources offered directly through ic@3401, residents will have access to the programs, resources and expertise at the Science Center and Drexel.”

The ic@3401’s association with Drexel means increased opportunities for students with their own businesses and those who are interested in working for a start-up. Interested students are welcome to stop by the space to learn more.

“There are opportunities for Drexel students to work as co-ops with residents of ic@3401, and Drexel (and other) students with an entrepreneurial idea might consider locating their start-up there,” Laing continued.

The ic@3401 is working with both the Close School of Entrepreneurship and the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship to offer additional resources to the entrepreneurs working in the center.

Point.io, a company that works with app development and technology integration, has already moved into the space from its previous location near King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and their team is eager to take advantage of the opportunities the space provides.

“The company is looking to leverage the access both ways,” Glenn Goldberg, chief marketing officer of Point.io, said. “In other words, students that are studying technology and computer science and programming will have better access to the company in the form of internships and potential jobs when they graduate, and Point.io has access to that labor pool. … And secondly, being in that technology hub is advantageous to Point.io because it also helps with access to clients that are based out of Center City.”

Point.io is already experiencing the benefits of the new, shared location and of having the opportunity to work with other start-ups to develop mutually beneficial relationships.

“We’ve already met people just in the hallways, on the way in, on the way out. It’s really been a terrific space for us,” Goldberg said. “We think it’s a great idea, integrating entrepreneurialism in the midst of an educational environment, and we think it’s a win on both sides.”

This venture has been in the works for over a year as an initiative by both Drexel and the Science Center to strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset that is already present in University City. The 17,000-square-foot space took about six months to complete and can accommodate 50 residents.

Membership starts at $300 per month, a fee that includes rent, Internet, office amenities and programming by Drexel’s Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies Center and the Science Center’s Quorum. Interested entrepreneurs can fill out an application by visiting the ExCITe Center website.

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Photo Credit: Drexel Robotics Team

Youngmoo Kim, associate professor and director of the Drexel University Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies Center and assistant dean of engineering for media technologies, will be taking a one-year sabbatical from Drexel to collaborate with Opera Philadelphia and explore the relationship that emerging technology can have with all stages of an operatic production.

No stranger to Opera Philadelphia, Kim is a member of the organization’s American Repertoire Council, an initiative to incorporate new, American-composed operas into Opera Philadelphia’s programming. He has also helped design an app for Opera on the Mall, an annual event on Independence Mall that showcases a free broadcast of an Opera Philadelphia performance.

Having had extensive experience with the integration of technology and the performing arts, Kim will in part be using his leave time to hopefully build bridges between opera, typically viewed as a historical form of entertainment, and younger, less-interested audiences. He plans on using cutting-edge technology to do so.

“Why do we still read ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’? It’s because there are certain parts of the human condition that are relevant no matter if you’re in the 17th century or the 21st century,” Kim said of how opera has the potential to grow its viewership. “I think when you see a staging that was essentially established in the 19th century, then you sort of lose touch with that. … So, I’m very interested in finding ways to reestablish that connection.”

Opera Philadelphia has already begun to experiment with the encouraged use of mobile devices during performances, a practice that is usually frowned upon by theatergoers, in an effort to enhance audience engagement. This season, during the opening night performance of “Ainadamar,” there was a designated social media section at the back of the balcony so that a select group of media members, bloggers and Twitter enthusiasts could live-tweet their opera experience.

“We would love to explore ways of making that even easier, more engaging so people can share their ideas and opinions,” Kim said. “The challenge there is that there are some people who want to do that, and there are some people who don’t. There are some people who really want to focus on what’s on stage, and that’s great, and you don’t want to distract those people.”

Kim emphasizes that it is important to explore the possibilities for innovation outside of the opera house as well, likening the potential interest in an opera production to that of a Hollywood blockbuster.

“When a big movie is in production, like ‘Star Wars,’ there are all sorts of people following it, all sorts of things that leak out about it. People want to know who’s going to be in it, that sort of thing,” Kim said. “On a much, much, much smaller scale, things like that happen in opera as well. … I think there can be more in terms of telling people more about what to expect, but not giving away the surprises.”

Experimenting with audience engagement will be only one aspect of his involvement with the organization, however. Kim will also work with various departments within Opera Philadelphia to find creative ways to bring new technologies to the organization.

“In general, during his sabbatical he’s going to rotate around our various departments, and we’ll all look for ways in which we can benefit the organization as a whole,” David Levy, Opera Philadelphia’s senior vice president of artistic operations, said. “We see his involvement in a number of our departments, including our production and technical departments for works on the stage, to see what kind of ideas and innovation we might be able to bring to our onstage practices.”

Although Opera Philadelphia’s upcoming season includes five productions of both traditional and unconventional operas, Kim doesn’t anticipate his ideas will immediately affect the organization.

“Sabbatical really is an extended time period for exploration, and that’s what I’m really looking forward to,” Kim said. “We have ideas. We think they’re good ideas, but they might turn out to be really, really dumb ideas.

Kim said, “My expectation is not that we’re going to have a dramatic impact on works produced this season. It’s really about the works that are in the production pipeline that will be staged in seasons to come.”

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Drexel criminal justice professor Lallen T. Johnson and Temple University criminal justice department chair Jerry H. Ratcliffe published a study June 30 that concluded that the SugarHouse Casino, built amid controversy in 2010 in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, has had negligible effect on crime in the area.

The research was titled, “A Partial Test of the Impact of a Casino on Neighborhood Crime,” and published online in the Security Journal.

The study, which examined 96 months of crime data, looked at changes in violent street felonies, vehicle crime, drug crime and residential burglary. The researchers determined that despite the fears of anti-casino activists, there were no significant increases in any of those categories.

“We gathered crime data from the Philadelphia Police Department from 2004 to 2011,” Johnson explained in an email. “A time series analysis was used to determine if there was a significant increase in crime trends after September 2010 (the opening month of the casino).”

While the casino has had no significant negative impact on crime rates in the area, the findings suggest mixed results with respect to the various crime categories that were examined. There was evidence that vehicle crime was displaced into the immediate community and that violent street felonies increased in the surrounding area, but these changes were proven to be statistically insignificant.

Photo Credit: Drexel Office of University Communications

“We conducted an analysis to determine if any of the crime types were merely displaced to the surrounding community,” Johnson wrote. “Results indicated no statistically significant effect of the casino’s operation on any of the above four crime categories in the immediate community.”

This research supports a long-held belief by many in the casino industry, such as Drexel hospitality and tourism instructor Robert Ambrose, who was involved in the design and construction of an Indiana casino in 2007.

“The casino environment is 24/7. That means customer activity, positioning of security technology and security personnel. And like all other local casino property’s [sic], a very strong working relationship with the local and state police that patrol the area near the casino,” Ambrose wrote in an email. “Local casino operators are community partners. They provide jobs, purchase goods and services and want to be a good neighbor.”

Johnson emphasizes that it is important to examine the effects of casinos on neighborhood crime, as well as on a broader spectrum. Findings such as these can provide a new perspective from which to view the debate surrounding the issue of further casino licenses within the city of Philadelphia.

“In spite of relatively positive findings, it would be premature to generalize the findings of this study to other neighborhoods with casinos,” Johnson cautioned. “Instead this study shows that it is important to study potential linkages between casinos and crime at multiple levels of analysis (neighborhood, city, county, state).”

As criminologists, Johnson and Ratcliffe thought it was important to design empirical research that would either refute or substantiate the claims made by anti-casino activists that the construction of a casino would lead to increased crime rates.  Now, nearly four years after the opening of SugarHouse, their research is relevant in the debate over where to issue Philadelphia’s next casino license.

“As far as issuing the last casino license in Philadelphia, I would assume we are getting close to the end of that process,” Ambrose wrote. “The [Pennsylvania] Gaming Commission is reviewing a broad criteria to select a casino operation that they feel will be not only the best choice for the city but also for the local community.”

The casino industry is poised for growth in Philadelphia; SugarHouse recently broke ground for a $164 million expansion and proposals have been submitted to open casinos in various locations around the city, including one above Market East Station.

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A record seven Drexel students and alumni have been offered grants through the 2014-15 Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The recipients will travel to countries around the world — including Finland, Barbados and Australia, among others — to complete self-directed research in their field of study.

Many of the students will conduct research in STEM-related fields. However, the program is open to recent graduates, master’s candidates, doctoral candidates and young professionals from all fields of study.

Amanda Decker, a senior in the chemical engineering bachelor’s-master’s program, received a grant to work with professors at Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany, to study sonoporation, the use of sound to create pores in a cell membrane, as a drug delivery system.

“I started on this project here at Drexel and was then put on another for my master’s thesis research, and the research on sonoporation was put off,” Decker explained in an email. “I didn’t want to see this project die, so I’m using this as an opportunity to keep it going.”

Kerry Hamilton, an environmental engineering doctoral candidate, had been considering applying for the Fulbright program since she was an undergraduate student. In addition to her research on roof-harvested rainwater in Brisbane, Australia, she plans to make the most of her experience abroad in part through her experience as the president of Drexel Women in Science and Engineering.

“Fulbright scholars serve as ambassadors of mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries, so it is really important to engage the community outside of the lab,” Hamilton wrote in an email. “I hope to bring some of my Drexel leadership experience to Brisbane and expand the chapter [of WISE] there.”

Decker and Hamilton are joined by senior mechanical engineering student Matt D’Arcy, architectural engineering doctoral candidate Adams Rackes, nursing education graduate student Bradley Boehringer, educational leadership and management doctoral candidate Lauren Pitts, film and video studies alum Hunter Snyder, and alternate BS/MS in materials science and engineering Emily Buck, whose proposed projects range from implementing a mobile nursing app in Finland to the study of female sexual decision making in Barbados.

D’Arcy will contribute to the development of a spacecraft in South Korea as a continuation of an interest that started in 2009 when he became involved in the Drexel Space Systems Lab.

D’Arcy wrote in an email that he anticipates this experience will help him grow as a person and give him some direction with regard to future academic and professional pursuits.

“I will be working in a lab with other Ph.D. and master’s students, and so this will be a crash course to see if a graduate program is something I want to head into right away or if I should go and get out into the workforce for now,” D’Arcy explained. “Whether I choose to join the workforce after the Fulbright or head back to school, I am hopeful for a really good experience next year, and it should be a great [segue] into wherever I head next.”

The Fulbright program is different from typical undergraduate or graduate study-abroad programs; recipients are not required to enroll in any classes while abroad, so they are able to focus on research and make the most of their travels.

Decker noted, “It’s much different than a study-abroad where I would have to be so busy with schoolwork and research for a limited period of time that [I] felt that I wouldn’t get the full international experience.”

“Going there as a non-student allows me to have more time to focus on my work in the lab,” D’Arcy added, having studied in Denmark during his undergraduate career at Drexel.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a highly competitive and prestigious grant program that facilitates research, creative projects or participation in English Teaching Assistant Programs for one academic year in a foreign country. Close to 30 Drexel students have received Fulbright awards over the past 10 years.

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Junior biology student Kirsten Vannix was found deceased in her off-campus apartment May 22. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

Photo Credit: Drexel Mock Trial

“University officials have reached out to Kirsten’s family and expressed the sincere condolences of the Drexel community,” Donna Murasko, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, wrote to the CoAS community in an email. “We will provide whatever comfort and service we can to them during this difficult period.”

While there has been no official announcement to students and faculty from the University or from President John A. Fry, it is clear that Vannix’s absence is being felt throughout the community.

Vannix, known by her friends as Kiki, was a member of many campus activities including the Honors Student Advisory Committee, the American Red Cross Club of Drexel University, and Lemon League at DU, to name just a few. She also volunteered at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. She came to Drexel from Redlands, Calif., and was preparing to apply to medical school.

Vannix invested much of her time into the Drexel University Undergraduate Mock Trial Association, although she had no intention of attending law school. She was the fundraising chair of the club and had just been elected vice president.

“If you thought you were working hard, she was always working harder,” Sarah Margulis, a sophomore philosophy major and mock trial team member, said. “We really want to try harder, as hard as she would have this year.”

An avid “SpongeBob SquarePants” fan, the mock trial team is considering hosting a SpongeBob-themed competition at Drexel in Vannix’s honor.

“She had this huge SpongeBob pillow that she took to mock trial competitions everywhere,” Margulis added.

Vannix was also actively involved in the club softball team, of which she was both the founder and president.

“I can tell you that Kirsten was an extremely motivated, kind, understanding, welcoming, empathetic, intelligent, talented, hardworking and hilarious young woman,” Alyssa Mikulski, a psychology student and softball teammate of Vannix, wrote in an email. “She accomplished so much in the short time she was here — much more than people three times her age have accomplished.”

Those adjectives aren’t only Mikulski’s opinion; they can be heard from students and faculty throughout campus who praise her personality and work ethic.

“She just had all of the good qualities,” Margulis said, noting that Vannix made an impression on everyone who knew her. “She made me want to try harder like no other person.”

Senior communication major Renee Daggett, also a member of the club softball team, wrote in an email, “Kirsten was the kind of person you were lucky to know. You knew she cared about you. Kirsten started the club softball team so that we all got to play. As a graduating senior, she allowed me to fall in love with the game again and introduced me to an amazing team of women I would have never met otherwise. Kirsten created a strong team, and I just hope we will continue as a team that becomes even stronger, a team that would have made her proud. She will always be a part of Drexel Club Softball.”

Not only was Vannix involved in a myriad of student organizations, but she was also genuinely curious and enthusiastic about her schoolwork and learning. As a biology student, she spent time volunteering in Drexel’s paleontology lab for Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor of paleontology and geology. Her work will contribute to the publication of the finding of a new dinosaur species in the coming months.

“She was the kind of person that always went the extra mile,” Lacovara said of Vannix, who took two of his classes. “She didn’t have to [volunteer in my lab], and it wasn’t in her field of study. … She was just interested, and she wanted to learn about lots of different things.”

Connor Hackert, a second-year law student and close friend of Vannix, emphasized her compassion, warmth, and overall ability to make a difference in the lives of those around her. Hackert was a previous president of mock trial and a resident assistant in Vannix’s residence hall her freshman year. They formed a strong friendship that lasted even as Hackert went on to law school.

“You were the SpongeBob to my Patrick,” Hackert wrote in a Facebook post. “Your love, compassion and hard work would have carried you so far to accomplishing your dreams.”

There will be a memorial service for Vannix June 3, at 3:30 p.m. in the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building.

Drexel’s Counseling Center services are available to all students, including those seeking support after this tragedy. The center’s counseling professionals can be reached at 215-895-1415 during business hours or 215-416-3337 any other time.

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The Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship recently announced that students will now have the option of earning a Bachelor of Arts in Entrepreneurship and Innovation beginning in the 2014-15 academic year.

Aside from business schools, the Close School will be the first and only freestanding school in the nation to offer its own degree in entrepreneurship. The school will also offer three minors: social entrepreneurship, health innovations and energy innovations.

Photo Credit: Craig Sherod

The new academic programs within the Close School are entirely separate from the entrepreneurship coursework currently offered by the LeBow College of Business. For the upcoming year, the Close School’s programs will coexist with those of LeBow. Any students currently pursuing a degree in entrepreneurship, including those in the incoming class of freshmen, will retain the option of completing their degree within LeBow. However, beginning with the incoming class of 2015, any student who would like to pursue a degree in entrepreneurship will have to do so through the Close School; the major will no longer be offered through LeBow.

“The current students that are in that major can certainly stay at LeBow,” Close School Dean Donna DeCarolis explained. “If they like, they could transfer and get a B.A. in entrepreneurship here, so it’s nothing but good news for them.”

The degree requirements go beyond a business-centered coursework and are intended to foster the growth of both the entrepreneur as a person as well as teach students about the more technical entrepreneurial processes that go into starting a business.

“Entrepreneurship is not something that is all about business, nor is it all about businesspeople. We can find entrepreneurs all over campus that are writers, that are nurses, that are engineers, that are artists,” DeCarolis said.

Claudia McManus is a sophomore business administration major and student employee of the Close School. McManus recently completed her first co-op in the education sector and said she hopes to use what she learns to help improve our school system through minors in education and entrepreneurship.

“I’m hoping to put the two together to attempt to remedy some of the school district problems from an entrepreneurial mindset,” McManus said, providing one example of the interdisciplinary goals DeCarolis had in mind when designing the curriculum.

It is for this reason that the required coursework is interdisciplinary and incorporates classes from a variety of other colleges within the University. In addition to the 38 new entrepreneurship classes that were launched to act as the backbone of the entrepreneurship and innovation degree, students have a list of electives to choose from, comprised of entrepreneurship-related courses from across the University.

“We looked all around campus and found courses that spoke to innovation and entrepreneurship that we tried to plug in,” DeCarolis explained. Such classes include those in the entertainment and arts management, sociology, and engineering fields, to name a few.

The new entrepreneurship classes are not only offered to students enrolled in the degree program, however. Students from any major are welcomed and encouraged to enroll.

“We created these courses with the idea that we wanted students from all over campus to be able to come to the Close School and take a class,” DeCarolis said. “We designed this school to be that way because we want students to have as many paths to entrepreneurship as possible.”

A popular example of one such course is titled “Launch It,” where teams of students, who must apply to be accepted into the course, are granted $2,000 to, as the title suggests, launch their business and de-risk their idea. A second version of the class, “Launch It: Early Stage,” does not require students to have a business already in the works.

As intended, the class is made up of students from various majors, which adds a unique dynamic to the course.

“There’s engineers, someone’s in interior design, someone’s an English major,” McManus said, currently enrolled in the latter version of the class. “It’s sort of like having a panel of your peers ready to discuss your business with you.”

Students who would like to learn about entrepreneurship but wish to pursue a different degree may also now declare an entrepreneurship minor within the Close School. The three available minors, which also serve as concentrations within the entrepreneurship and innovations degree, were designed to give students proficiency in entrepreneurship as it relates to specific industries.

“I looked at what Drexel is about, I looked at the University’s strategic plan, and we have a couple of core-competency research areas, and they are in health, and they are in energy,” DeCarolis explained. “Health and energy are two huge industries, so it was sort of a perfect fit.”

In addition to the degrees and coursework, the Close School also offers several other entrepreneurial-centered opportunities to students, one of which is the Entrepreneurship Living-Learning Community, a group of freshmen across various majors who live together in Myers Hall.

The ELLC ran for the first time in the 2013-14 academic year, and the experience culminated in a fully funded trip to Silicon Valley during which students visited headquarters of Fortune 500 companies such as Apple and eBay.

“We learned more from those five days than from any textbook,” Allison Murphy, a freshman entrepreneurship and marketing major and president of the ELLC, wrote in an email. “That was an invaluable addition to my freshman year and future Drexel experiences.”

Close also provides students the opportunity to complete a co-op by working for their own company and awards $15,000 to students who qualify to self-employ.

“I can’t think of a better way for a student who qualifies to get that entrepreneurial experience,” DeCarolis said. “I can’t think of a better way for Drexel University to say, ‘We believe in you.’”

Collin Cavote, a senior custom-designed major, participated in the entrepreneurship co-op program, using the opportunity to build his company Biome to help fight climate change.

“The co-op was an opportunity to take my vision and transform it into something more tangible. Co-working space in the Baiada Institute and $15,000 of support from the Close School created a powerful catalyst for Biome,” Cavote wrote in an email.

The academic programs and extracurricular opportunities offered to students create a complete package that is perfectly aligned with the mindset of the college and its dean to make entrepreneurship education accessible to all students in a way that will prepare them for the 21st-century workplace.

The Close School of Entrepreneurship was established in 2013 after a $12.5 million gift from the Charles and Barbara Close Foundation. The school was named after Charles D. Close, a Drexel alumnus and successful entrepreneur.

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