WDCSA NEWSLETTER April 2018
Rivalry Trivia Night
Thursday, April 12 7:30 pm
Ventnor Sports Cafe,
2411 18th St NW,
Washington, DC
DC Cardinal Young Alumni is hosting a Trivia Night! Come join alumni from Stanford and Cal for a night of trivia.
If you have any questions, contact Patricia Arty ’10, patriciaarty@alumni.stanford.edu.
The War on Kids: How American Juvenile Justice Lost Its Way
Thursday, April 19 6:30 – 8 pm
Stanford in Washington,
2661 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC
Stanford Law School is excited to present a discussion with Professor Cara Drinan, JD ’02, a law professor at Catholic University, about her new book addressing the American juvenile justice system. Registration is free, and includes light refreshments generously provided by SLS and Stanford in Washington. More details and the registration link are at https://pgnet.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details/?event_id=26628.
In 2003, when Terrence Graham was sixteen, he and three other teens attempted to rob a barbecue restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. Though they left with no money, and no one was seriously injured, Terrence was sentenced to die in prison for his involvement in that crime.
As shocking as Terrence’s sentence sounds, it is merely a symptom of contemporary American juvenile justice practices. In the United States, adolescents are routinely transferred out of juvenile court and into adult criminal court without any judicial oversight. Once in adult court, children can be sentenced without regard for their youth. Juveniles are housed in adult correctional facilities, where they may be held in solitary confinement, and they experience the highest rates of sexual and physical assault among inmates. Until 2005, children convicted in America’s courts were subject to the death penalty; today, they still may be sentenced to die in prison-no matter what efforts they make to rehabilitate themselves. America has waged a war on kids.
Professor Cara Drinan will explain how this war emerged as a subplot of mass incarceration and how we can correct course going forward.
Beyond the Farm: Alumni Day of Service
Saturday, May 5
Join WDCSA in a local community service project as more than 200,000 alumni around the globe participate in an annual day of service. One day can make a world of difference. See below for your local options:
NY Avenue Men’s Shelter Clean Up
Saturday, May 5 10 am – 1 pm
1355 New York Avenue Northeast, Washington DC 20002
NY Avenue Men’s Shelter provides emergency shelter every single night of the year. The shelter offers a hot meal, shower, place to stay off the
streets, and access to a case manager. Beds are available on a first come, first served basis to some of our most vulnerable neighbors.
Join us to help clean and maintain the inside of the shelter, while also cleaning up the perimeter of the property.
Sign up / additional info:
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=26737
Serve Lunch to Homeless with SOME
Saturday, May 5 10 am – 1:15 pm
71 O Street NW, Washington DC 20001
Volunteers are needed to help prepare meals and serve them to hungry guests at SOME’s Dining Rooms for the Homeless. With the help of volunteers, SOME provides a nourishing, hot breakfast and lunch every day of the year.
Sign up / additional info: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=26686
Parents Connection Spring Social
Sunday, May 6 2-4 pm
McLean, VA (address provided upon RSVP)
Join the Stanford Parents Connection for our spring social to welcome the new Stanford Class of 2022 parents. Come to fellowship, ask questions, and share your experiences and insights. Please bring a snack to share.
Questions/RSVP: Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net
WDCSA Faculty Speaker Series
An Evening with Stanford Professor Michael McFaul
Saturday, May 12 5-7 pm
WDCSA is hosting Michael McFaul for the next installment in WDCSA’s Faculty Speaker Series. Professor McFaul is a leading expert on Russia, American foreign policy, and democratic development around the world. A former U.S. ambassador to Russia, McFaul is currently a professor of political science at Stanford University, the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Stay tuned for WDCSA updates with the final details for this event.
Free Minds Outreach Event
Sunday, May 20 1:30-3:30 pm
Stanford In Washington,
2661 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
The award-winning Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, which works with young men in the DC Jail and the federal prison system, invites you to connect with DC inmates through their poetry. Join fellow Stanford alumni and students at Stanford In Washington to read moving, insightful poems written by young men in jail about their lives, and offer brief written feedback that will later be returned to the poets. Hear about the work of Free Minds from its founders and from "poet ambassadors" – who took part in the life-changing program and are now back in the community. For more information, visit: http:freemindsbookclub.org.
RSVP and questions: Lois Herrmann, MA ’68.herrmannlois@gmail.com.
WDCSA Faculty Speaker Series
Professor Bruce Macintosh: Emerging Pictures of Distant Worlds
Tuesday, June 5 6:30-8 pm,
St. Albans School
(Activities Building, Manger Trophy Room)
3101 Wisconsin Avenue NW,
Washington, DC
In less than two decades, more than two thousand planets have been discovered orbiting other stars. Professor Macintosh will discuss these discoveries and the vast diversity of systems they have revealed, with a particular focus on imaging – using advanced telescopes and instruments to see the light from the planet directly, allowing us to measure their composition and nature. He will also look toward the future where space-based telescopes with similartechnology or giant light-blocking star shades may someday measure the atmosphere of an Earth twin.
Bruce Macintosh is a professor of physics at Stanford’s Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. As principal investigator of the Gemini Planet Imager, he uses an advanced adaptive optics planet-finder for the Gemini South telescope to image extrasolar planets orbiting nearby stars. Professor Macintosh co-led the team that made the first-ever images of an extrasolar planetary system, discovering four giant planets orbiting the young star HR8799. Additionally, he employs adaptive optics technology to control light and explores other approaches to studying extrasolar planets.
Registration for the event is available at https://alumni.stanford.edu/goto/event26893. Please contact Kevin Coyne at kevin.coyne@stanfordalumni.org with any questions.
DC Book Club Discussion
Sunday, May 13 5pm
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
For more information, please contact Jennifer Presley, MA ’78, Ph.D. ’81
at Jenniferbpresley@gmail.com.
Baltimore Book Club Discussion
Monday, May 14 7:30 pm
Mother’s Federal Hill Grille
1113 S. Charles St.,
Baltimore, Md
The May selection is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. This book won the 2017 goodreads Choice Award in the Historical Fiction category. It is rated a 4.7 out of 5 stars by over 5,500 Amazon readers. The story is based on the tragedies perpetrated at an orphanage in Tennessee by Georgia Tann, where over the span of almost 30 years (1920’s to 1950), children who had living parents were farmed out for adoption. This is the fictional life story of a group of siblings who were kidnapped for such deed.
The July selection is The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone.
Questions/RSVP: Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net.
Stanford In the News
Odette Harris M.D. ’96 has made history by becoming America’s second African-American female professor of neurosurgery. Stanford’s department of neurosurgery announced her promotion last month. Harris joins Lu Chen as the second female professor in the department of neurosurgery at the School of Medicine. Harris, who specializes in traumatic brain injury, has served as the director of brain injury in the department of neurosurgery and the associate chief of staff of polytrauma and rehabilitation at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Health Care System since 2009. Harris is also a Clayman Institute Faculty Research Fellow and was
awarded the William P. Van Wagenen Fellowship Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Get Involved
- WDCSA Elections
The nomination period for WDCSA’s elections has closed. Voting instructions will be emailed to WDCSA members in mid-April. Thank you for your interest and support for WDCSA! - WDCSA Intramural Softball Team
The WDCSA softball season starts on April 10. Join your fellow alumni for fun weeknight games played on the National Mall (all skill levels welcome). Contact Brian Burke at brianrburke@gmail.com if interested in joining the team. - CAN Soccer Team
UW DC alumni are soliciting Pac-12 alumni to join their Capital Alumni Network intramural soccer team (they are particularly interested in female players). If interested, contact Elle Carne (ellecarne@gmail.com). - Stanford OVAL Updates
Thank you to our wonderful OVAL volunteers who worked tirelessly to interview many students from the DC, Virginia, Maryland area. We have completed our Interview cycle for the 2017-2018 year. Also, many thanks to Sari Bourne ’07, Margaux Hall ’03, Patrice Hayden ’95, Allen Hicks ’93 and Peter Spivak ’84 for hosting a welcoming and fun reception to the students who were admitted during the Restrictive Early Admission cycle.If you would like to volunteer for next year’s interview cycle, please contact one of the chairs:
DeLise Bernard delise@beyondexcell.com
Meghvi Maheta Roig meghvi@stanfordalumni.org
Cecil "Chip" Talbott cecil.talbott@stanfordalumni.org
This month’s newsletter is available for download in PDF format.