The Vermont Women in Higher Education 2017 Spring Conference  will take place March 23-24, 2017, at Killington Grand Resort. The theme for this year’s conference is “Strong Women, Strong World!”

The Vermont Women in Higher Education 2017 Spring Conference  will take place March 23-24, 2017, at Killington Grand Resort. The theme for this year’s conference is “Strong Women, Strong World!”

The Board is currently seeking potential presenters for workshop sessions on Friday, March 24^th. Proposals are due no later than December 1, 2016, and acceptance notices will be sent on or around December 21, 2016.

There are many ways to interpret this theme, but submissions
that address the following will receive the highest consideration
1. Professional Development: the use of power in the workplace, advocating for oneself, forging career pathways
2. Leadership Development: finding/being a mentor, embracing power in a good way, conflict resolution
3. Personal Finance: financial literacy, planning for retirement, understanding earning power
4. Well-being, Inspiration & Aspiration: work/life balance, how powerful women have succeeded, personal/professional sustainability
5. Skillset Toolbox: a skill or technique useful in the workplace–e.g., Excel, InDesign, Outlook; social media tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or perhaps building a social media engagement plan); event planning (how to pull off an event/meeting/conference of any size).

Community Friends, now in its 56^th year, pairs Addison County kids ages 6-12 with Middlebury College students in one-to-one mentoring relationships. Pairs are matched based on factors like interests, age, and transportation availability. Then, they meet weekly during the academic year to spend time on campus, do arts and crafts, play sports, and more!

The student organization also sponsors monthly events that pairs can attend together, like a pool party and “Skate with the Panthers.” If you think your child might enjoy having a big brother or big sister, you can talk to their school guidance counselor about being referred, or complete the form yourself available at go/cf. Please note: it may take a month or two to find the right match.

Please contact Megan Brakeley, Center for Community Engagement Assistant Director for more information or with your completed referral form.

One hundred singers will soon take their places on stage in the Robison Concert Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts as the Middlebury College Community Chorus presents its annual Thanksgiving concerts. These free, hour-long programs take place in a special performance on Saturday evening, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. and an encore presentation on Sunday afternoon, November 20 at 3:00 p.m.  Please note this year’s change in location from Mead Chapel to the Center for the Arts. All are welcome!

College students and community members prepare for annual Thanksgiving concert. Photo: Anastasiya Prokhorenko, ’19

This season’s program includes historical works from the European choral tradition alongside breathtaking contemporary works written during the past decade. The songs feature celebratory psalm texts with a Thanksgiving theme, as well as music with words that reflect the changing seasons and a longing for justice and peace, important to so many people at this time.

The choir offers Chandos Anthem No. 9 by Baroque composer George Frederic Handel. Its four choruses – reminiscent of the spirited music found in his Messiah – contain dramatic shifts in textures and harmonies, scored for string orchestra and oboe. The program also includes Mozart’s expressive Ave verum corpus, a traditional text from the Roman Catholic tradition.

The chorus welcomes the change of seasons with music by Zachary J. Moore, one of a new generation of American choral composers. With beautiful melodies, he vividly paints the poem October Song, written by Wisconsin poet laureate Max Garland. In O Notte (O Night), composed earlier this year, distinguished conductor-composer Z. Randall Stroope dramatically scores selected phrases of a Michelangelo poem, “O night, in dreams you carry me,” for choir, piano, solo violin and cello.

Distinguished arranger, composer and conductor Craig Hella Johnson creates a lyrical musical setting the words of Mattie Stepanek’s Psalm of Life, written just before Thanksgiving 2003. Mattie, a published poet and peace advocate, died a month before his 14th birthday from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. From the Hebrew tradition, contemporary composer Allan Naplan sets the text of Al Shlosha D’varim: truth, justice and peace sustain the world. The inspirational words of Mother Teresa, “If we have not peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other,” provide the foundation for an award-winning 2010 work, All Works of Love, by Pacific Northwest composer Joan Szymko.

Conductor Jeff Rehbach notes that this program offers to listeners and performers alike vivid, dramatic, and expressive writing for chorus, piano, and chamber music ensemble. Local teachers who play with the Vermont Symphony, Champlain Philharmonic, and Burlington Civic Symphony orchestras join the chorus for this performance.

Members of the College Community chorus travel for weekly rehearsals from throughout the region, including

College faculty, staff, and community members prepare for Thanksgiving concert. Photo: Anastasiya Prokhorenko ’19

Cornwall, Weybridge, Middlebury, Ripton, Bristol, Monkton, New Haven, Waltham, Vergennes, North Ferrisburgh, Charlotte, East Middlebury, Salisbury, Leicester, Brandon, Orwell, Shoreham, Randolph, Port Henry, Westport and Moriah. College students hail from New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, Idaho, North Dakota, Florida, Costa Rica, China and Kenya.

Jeff Rehbach is in his seventeenth season as conductor of the College Community Chorus, and Timothy Guiles serves as the ensemble’s remarkable accompanist. The group welcomes without audition all singers who delight in participating in this 150-year-old community tradition, hosted by Middlebury College.