Video Gamers and History

The current issue of Perspectives on History, the news magazine of the AHA, has a story on video gaming and history.  In Backward Compatible:  Gamers as Public History Audience Robert Whitaker discusses the prevalence of historical themes in video games and bridging the gap between gamers and historians with let's play videos in a project he calls History Respawned.   Pretty cool.

Plassmann Writing Center

Making Better Writers!

Plassmann Hall, Room 6A

Monday 11:00am-4:00pm

Tuesday 11:00am-1:00pm and 2:00pm-5:00pm

Wednesday 4:00pm-7:00pm

Thursday 2:00pm-4:00pm

PWC @ Friedsam Memorial Library

Tuesday 7:30pm-9:30pm 

Wednesday 7:00pm-10:00pm

Thursday 8:00pm-9:00pm

Staffed by friendly graduate students in English, the Writing Center aims to help you develop skills and strategies for every stage of

the writing process that will enable you to write effectively

in a variety of situations and courses.

To make an appointment for a thirty-minute face-to-face session with one of our tutors, sign up on the bulletin board next to

our door in the basement of Plassmann Hall. For appointments at Friedsam Memorial Library, sign up at the reference desk!

#Bonnies4Bonnies networking event

Learn about the powerful SBU alumni connection firsthand
at #Bonnies4Bonnies networking event

At St. Bonaventure, we root for each other’s success and happiness. So it shouldn’t surprise current students that faithful Bona alumni have jumped at the opportunity to share career advice and experiences with them.

Bonnies4Bonnies is a new career networking event aimed at connecting students and alumni and is planned for 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, in Doyle Dining and Board of Trustees Rooms. The event is hosted by St. Bonaventure’s Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC).

Registration for the networking event is now open at www.sbu.edu/Bonnies4Bonnies. The deadline to register is Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Following a keynote talk on “The Power of the Bonaventure Alumni Connection,” students will have the chance to meet and mingle with alumni representing a broad spectrum of professional roles, from freelance writer to corporate executive.

“Our alumni are passionate about supporting our students after they leave the university, whether it be through opportunities or professional recommendations and connections,” said Pamela Ferman, assistant director and employer relations coordinator at the CPRC. “Our alumni have gone on to excel in the job market, and having the ability to bring them back to talk to students is invaluable to their career success.”

Alumni participating in Bonnies4Bonnies represent many major urban cities and an impressive mix of companies.
The CPRC will have representation from New York City, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Rochester and companies like SiriusXM, New York Life, Toyota, Nissan North America, Scholastic, Constellation Brands, Rohrbach Brewing Company, Fisher-Price and M&T Bank, said Ferman.

For students undecided about a career path, Bonnies4Bonnies is an opportunity to find out more about a particular profession from someone in the field who is willing to speak candidly about its pros and cons.

Addressing students and alumni in the keynote address will be alumnus Kevin Cleary, marketing manager of sponsorships and promotions for Nestlé Waters North America, the global leader in the bottled water industry.

Cleary has worked at Nestlé Waters for 11 years in various sales, communications and marketing roles. Based in Stamford, Conn., he manages day-to-day responsibilities related to Nestlé Waters North America partnerships, including the New York and Boston marathons, Universal Studios, and select Major League Baseball teams, including the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

Managing a multimillion-dollar budget, Cleary oversees partnership opportunity reviews, provides leadership for integrated marketing plans, and manages multiple outside agency teams.

Cleary, a marketing major at St. Bonaventure, earned his undergraduate Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 2002. He is a member of the university’s National Alumni Association Board, serves as president of St. Bonaventure’s New York City Alumni Chapter, and is a member of the Bonaventure Athletic Fund Advisory Board. In addition, he was recently named to the board at Mt. Irenaeus.

For more information about Bonnies4Bonnies, visit www.sbu.edu/Bonnies4Bonnies or contact Ferman at pferman@sbu.edu. 

History Club Meeting

Have a passion for history? Join the History Club! We put on events like trivia nights, field trips to historical sites, and other ways to promote historical interest in the community. Join us Monday, February 1st at 7 p.m. in the first floor Plassmann lounge. 

21st century careers for humanities majors

Students enrolled in our public history and digital history courses will recognize some of the themes from "Feeding English Majors in the 21st Century" except substitute history major for English major.

From the article:
"Students also recognized the need to develop digital skills in order to succeed in the 21st century. A class visit from a digital humanist caused more than a few students to admit their own technophobia, derived in part from their fear that the digital world will replace the printed words that they hold dear. In the discussion that ensued, one student said she had come to realize that — just as film adaptations can complement rather than supersede their literary predecessors — digital skills can coexist with other forms of literacy.

An assigned article from Forbes, "That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket," drove home the point that if students have learned to connect diverse texts and traditions, they very likely have developed the skills needed to be liaisons between software creators and end users. In short, the course bridged a particular form of the digital divide for some English majors."

Public History Class calls it a wrap

Thursday was the last Public History class.  Since we have stressed iterative design all semester, it seemed appropriate for the students to give us feedback on the class and the new assignment.  We got some good insights for future tweaks.  All in all, the class was a learning experience for students and instructors alike... and it will be better next time.

Pictured are the brave students who stuck the class out along with their games.  I am genuinely impressed with the work and creativity they put into the class and the games.  They created a variety of games exploring different aspects of the war.  They recreated the Battle of Gettysburg, home life, railroads, the march through Georgia.

Eddie Keen

Overview of Eddie's game

Overview of Jeremiah's game

Overview of Ben's game

Overview of Mike's game

Alicia Henning

Ben Barnhart

Dan Leopold

Jeremiah Horrigan

Mike Wesolowski

Political Zingers

On December 8 Larry Raymond spoke with the Public History class about his game, Political Zingers.  Political Zingers fits into the theme of game design, because, according to the game's web page, "With Zingers!, talking politics with your friends is fun and you won’t ruin the evening.    You put words into the mouths of politicians and pundits, telling the truth as you see it through a cartoon vocabulary.  You  can speak your mind, get a laugh and not offend anyone."  The games ability to get people (translation students) to discuss potentially difficult topics has real educational applications.  Students in the class have a variety of political opinions and levels of engagement, but they all enjoyed the game.  The game moved quickly, provoking both discussion and laughs.  Larry also discussed how the game related to his long and varied career including his fascinating work with metaphor mapping in the corporate world and the United Nations.