Alumna Informs Keuka Students, Community of Crisis in Sudan

By TANYA CORNELL-KESTLER

The life of a refugee uprooted by war or violence is difficult for most Americans to imagine.

However, 1997 graduate Kellie Lamoreau painted that portrait during her recent Keuka College lecture on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

The subject is one that Lamoreau knows firsthand. She spent six months in Shagil Tobaya (northern Darfur region) working as a field nurse with Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières until March 2006.

An estimated 33 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes because of war or violence and seek refuge, according to the United Nations.

“Sudan alone has more than 5 million internally displaced persons,” said Lamoreau. “Internally displaced persons are relocated within the boundaries of their country, unlike refugees who flee to bordering countries. These people find themselves in fend-for-yourself type situations. Families are often separated. Land mines are a threat. There are an estimated 45 million land mines buried in the world today, changing the nature of war from soldier-to-solder to soldier-to-civilian.”

Lamoreau’s team served two internally displaced person camps with a combined population of 20,000.

“We were the only medical facility serving the people in these camps,” said Lamoreau. “Listening for mortar explosions, gunfire, and/or air traffic was part of everyday life.”

The people in the camps “lived in 8-by-8-foot makeshift huts, often with five or 10 people per room,” said Lamoreau. “They had to walk up to a mile or more to get clean water every day.”

Each person was allotted 5 gallons of water per day, and children as young as 8 or 9 would carry the 40 to 45- pound containers back to the camp, according to Lamoreau. In an emergency, each was only given 1 or 2 gallons of water per day for all of their needs—washing, cooking, and cleaning. Lamoreau noted that Americans use an average of 100 gallons of water per person per day.

As head of a nutritional program, Lamoreau “supervised more than 20 staff [in charge of] treating

400 moderately malnourished and 50 severely malnourished children in one month. During my six months there, we treated more than 500 moderately malnourished and between 200 and 300 severely malnourished children.

“I remember treating a 10-month old baby who weighed just six pounds,” recalled Lamoreau, who cited measles as a killer of more than half a million children every year because they don’t have access to vaccines.

Despite their hardships, the people of Darfur were “very gracious.

“What little food they had they always offered to share with us,” said Lamoreau, who deems the experience “the toughest but most rewarding six months of my life.”

It was so rewarding that she signed up for a 2007 mission.

“Kellie is an inspiration; the kind of Keuka student who does good in the world,” said Professor of Political Science and Economics Jeff Krans, who provided context for the region prior to Lamoreau’s talk. “She is an example of what human beings can do when they work together outside of government.”

Research Reports

Students, Alumna Deliver Poster Presentations
At Rochester Academy of Science

Four Keuka College students and one recent graduate delivered poster presentations based on their independent research at the fall meeting of the Rochester Academy of Science Nov. 4.

Two posters highlighted research conducted during BIO 305: Animal Diversity last spring semester. Three focused on research conducted during or after the summer immunohistochemistry Field Period supervised by Cynthia Shannon-Weickert, a 1987 and 1988 graduate of the College, and Professor of Biology Joan Magnusen.

The following is a list of participants and the titles of their research:

Chelsea Yaskow, a senior biology major from Williamson: “Territorial Behavior in Fiddler Crabs, Defense and Interaction.”
Emily Wright, a senior biology major from Medina: “The Effect of Dietary Calcium on Growth & Calcium Carbonate Shell Composition in Aquatic Snails.”

Kelly Bolton, a senior biology major from Shortsville: “Distribution of Glucocorticoid Receptor Differs in Dysbindin Mutant, Heterozygote, and Wild Type Mouse Brains.”
Arber Uka, a senior biochemistry major from Syracuse: “The Effects of Estrogen Depletion on Somal Size of Neurons in the CA3 Region of the Hippocampus in Primates.”
Camile Fontaine, a 2006 Keuka College graduate and resident director: “Mutations in Dysbindin-1 (DTNBP1) May Initiate Decreased Levels of Glial Fibraillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) in the Hippocampus of SDY Mutant Mice.”

The annual fall Scientific Paper Session of the Rochester Academy of Science provides a forum for Academy members, the collegiate community and others engaged in scientific research to present the

results of their investigations in an atmosphere that promotes discussion and interaction. Undergraduate students attending local colleges and universities are particularly encouraged to attend and present papers. Faculty and graduate students are also asked to participate and share their research results and ideas on a diversity of subjects.

"There were many other undergraduates there from many other schools," said Wright. "It was more or less a social forum to see what other people are doing and to keep up-to-date on current research. I had never attended a poster session before, and it was a very good experience because these things seem to be second nature to graduate students. I am very grateful I could participate."

Liquid Lecture

Sellers will Disscuss Center for Aquatic Research
At Community Luncheon

Keuka College’s Community Luncheon Series will continue Thursday, Dec. 7 with a talk by Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Tim Sellers.

Sellers, who also directs the College’s Center for Aquatic Research, will discuss “Keeping up Keuka Lake: Keuka College’s Center for Aquatic Research” at noon in the Gannett Room of the Lightner Library.

In addition to aquatic research on Keuka Lake, Sellers has studied the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, reservoirs, oceans and other lakes. A contributor to such international scientific journals as Limnology, Oceanography

and Ecosystems, Sellers created the Center as a way of “involving students in research not associated with class work.

“My research interests lie in how the Keuka Lake ecosystem functions, what drives the plankton systems and determining the lake’s susceptibility to change, given certain watershed and lake disturbances, such as nutrient loading and exotic species invasions,” said Sellers.

Sellers holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Louisville, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ecosystems Modeling Group in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University.

Tickets are $10.50 in advance ($11 at the door), $2.50 of which goes to the Penn Yan Keuka Club Scholarship Fund. The fund provides an annual scholarship to a local student attending Keuka College. Seating is limited, so reservations are advised. Make checks payable to Keuka College and mail to: Cass Crovetti, Office of Alumni and Family Relations, Keuka College, Keuka Park, N.Y. 14478. The reservation deadline is Friday, Dec. 1.

For more information call (315) 279-5212.

Personnel Moves

Hoyle Promoted to Associate Dean; Bekisz New Webmaster

There have been some personnel changes in the Division of College Advancement, Enrollment Management, and Marketing

Fred Hoyle, who served as webmaster for the past year, was promoted to associate dean of admissions and marketing, according to

Executive Vice President Carolanne Marquis.

Peter Bekisz, former webmaster for Messenger Post Newspapers, is the College’s new webmaster.

He also served as director of web applications

development and web applications developer at Ignite Worldwide Inc. in Greece, N.Y.

Phil Mann, former director of marketing, is now director of broadcast media and advertising and is part of the Office of Communications team.