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5questions

5 questions with…rising senior, international traveler Michael Scarpaci
Rising senior Michael Scarpaci spent his first semester abroad as an infant. He celebrated his first birthday in the middle of the Indian Ocean, as he traveled by ship from India to Kenya on the Semester at Sea program. His father, then a faculty member at Virginia Tech, taught business courses to u...
5 questions with…new VP of Student Affairs Louis Stark
A far cry from the big city lifestyle of his hometown of Long Island, N.Y., Louis Stark attended college at Davis & Elkins College—a small-liberal arts school with an enrollment of less than 800 students in the mountains of Elkins, W.Va. It was there that Stark became involved in student activities...
5 questions with…senior pre-med student and globetrotter Karen Kruzer
Rising senior Karen Kruzer is trying something different this summer: staying in Cleveland. The pre-med, medical anthropology major is interning at MetroHealth Medical Center on a research study related to kidney failure in premature babies. Staying in the city might not seem abnormal for most. But...
5 questions with…adjunct professor of law and rock star, Mark Avsec
Cleveland native Mark Avsec’s big break in the music industry came in 1975, when he was asked to play keyboard on a new song by the Steubenville band Wild Cherry. That famous song, “Play That Funky Music (White Boy)” served as the jumping off point for Avsec’s long, successful career in the arena o...
Five questions with… archaeology and art history buff Jenifer Neils
Jenifer Neils knew she wanted to be an archaeologist in the third grade after she read about field archaeology pioneer Heinrich Schliemann—a man whose work advocated the idea that Homer’s Iliad reflected actual historical events. She hasn’t looked back since. After graduating from Bryn Mawr, Neils w...
5 questions with… new mom and recent CWRU graduate Brittany Rohner
On Sunday, Brittany Rohner was supposed to be on campus with her fellow graduate students as they celebrated the successful completion of their degrees. Instead, she was in Akron City Hospital, celebrating her graduation with the hospital’s nursing staff, her husband, family and most importantly, he...
5 questions with…engineering and economics major, Hole Patch co-founder Mayank Saksena
Last year, a group of Case Western Reserve University students made headlines with Hole Patch, their innovative approach to fixing potholes using a bag filled with a secret recipe of non-Newtonian fluid. As a co-founder of the award-winning startup, junior Mayank Saksena played a major role in the c...
5 questions with…associate professor of English, author Mary Grimm
For Mary Grimm, writing is all about creativity. An associate professor of English, she teaches courses that demand imagination: fiction writing, urban fantasy, graphic novel, science fiction, and contemporary American literature. But her favorite to teach is the aptly named creative writing course,...
5 questions with…one of CWRU’s first MOOC instructors Michael Scharf
Thirty years ago, just a few miles down the road, Michael Scharf served as captain of the Shaker Heights High School debate team. The topic was American foreign policy. Immediately, his interest was piqued. That interest has remained ever since. Scharf went on to Duke University, where he was the s...
5 questions with…one of CWRU’s first MOOC instructors Richard Boyatzis
Last fall, Distinguished University Professor Richard Boyatzis was named one of the top 10 influential thinkers around the globe. This spring, he will share his insight with the world when his massive open online course, or MOOC, launches May 1. More than 50,000 people—and counting—have signed up f...