NEWS RELEASE 

Release Date: March 20, 2008
Contact: (706) 379-3111

Upcoming Events at Young Harris College

Cathy Cox, president of Young Harris College, is pleased to announce upcoming events on the YHC campus that are open to the public.

The Annual Reece Lecture, featuring North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer, will be held on Tuesday, April 1 in the Susan B. Harris Chapel at 7:00 p.m.  Ms. Byer received the Hanes Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers in March 2007.  She was appointed North Carolina’s poet laureate on February 24, 2005, by Governor Michael F. Easley.  As poet laureate, she serves as an ambassador of North Carolina literature, past and present.  This lecture is open to the public.

An A Cappella choral concert will be held Tuesday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. in the Hilda D. Clegg Auditorium.  The performance will feature the YHC men’s group, Compulsive Lyres, the YHC lady’s group, Southern Harmony, and the male singing group from Shorter College, Something Else.  Please join us for an evening of lighter fare, vocal jazz and pop arrangements sung by these fine a cappella groups.

Phi Theta Kappa Inductions will be held April 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Susan B. Harris Chapel.  To be eligible for inclusion in this elite fraternity, a student must demonstrate good character, have earned a minimum of 15 semester hours of academic credit, have completed at least one semester of full-time enrollment at Young Harris College, and have attained a minimum grade point average of 3.5.  The purpose of Phi Theta Kappa is to recognize and encourage scholarship among two-year college students.  To achieve this purpose, Phi Theta Kappa seeks the development of leadership and service, an intellectual climate for exchange of ideas and ideals, lively fellowship for scholars, and the stimulation of interest in continuing academic excellence.

The Hoag Concert Series will present the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra April 3 at 8:00 p.m. in the Hilda D. Glenn Auditorium.  Under the direction of Fyodor Cherniavsky, the performance is sure to delight music lovers of all ages.  Featured soloist will be pianist David Watkins.  The performance is free of admission and open to the public.

Watkins is a member of the piano faculty of Kennesaw State University, just outside of Atlanta. He has also served on the summer artist faculty of the Eastern Music Festival. He earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He has studied and coached with many renowned artists including Lucille Monaghan, Veronica Jochum, Miklos Schwalb, Robert Helps, Seymour Bernstein, Gary Wolf, Ivan Davis and Lorin Hollander. Mr. Watkins is certified as a master teacher by the Music Teachers National Association. He was President of the American Matthay Association 1994-1998, and was president of Georgia Music Teachers Association from 1994-1996.

Director Fyodor Cherniavsky has directed the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra, the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Georgia Senior High All-State Orchestra in Savannah, to name but a few. He has held positions as Music Director and Conductor of Capitol City Opera, the Atlanta Community Orchestra, the Atlanta Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Atlanta Meistersingers and the Sandy Springs Chorale.  Born into a musical family, Mr. Cherniavsky is the great-grandson of Avrum Cherniavsky, a conductor of youth orchestras in the Ukraine during the end of the nineteenth century. 

The DeKalb Symphony is brought to Young Harris College through the Fay Harmon Clegg Hoag ’33 Concert Series.  This endowed fund was established in 1975 by alumni of Young Harris College to honor Fay Harmon Clegg Hoag, an alumna of the College, wife of a College president, and secretary of the Alumni Association.  The endowment funds an annual concert each year. The concert is also partially funded by a grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.  GCA is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

April 10 brings “A Celebration of Appalachia” to campus.  “A Celebration of Appalachia” is an IDEAS Symposium event presented by the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division.  Presentations begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Wilson Lecture Hall and culminate with a keynote speaker address by Chad Pegracke at 8:00 p.m. in the Hilda D. Glenn Auditorium.  Topics range from themes such as the Appalachian Trail, Through the Eyes of the Cherokee, and The Poetry of Mountain Song, to Helping to Clean America’s Rivers.  Pegracke founded Living Lands & Waters, the not-for-profit environmental organization based in East Moline, Illinois.  Today there are 10 employees and a fleet of barges, and workboats. Tens of thousands of volunteers have been involved with the Community-based River Cleanups, Riverbottom Restoration Projects, Adopt-a-River Mile Program, and Big River Educational Workshops. 

Chad continues to be deserving of the more than 40 awards bestowed him, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service presented to him in June of 2002 in the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC.  Chad accepted that award along with Rudolph Giuliani, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Lilly Tartikoff.  In August of 2002, Chad was invited by the Coca-Cola Company to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Environments in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he met and shared information about his river cleanup projects with people from all over the world. Since then, Chad’s projects have been filmed by many of the major networks such as CNN, Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning Show, NBC Nightly News, MTV, PBS, and the list goes on and on.  Time, People Magazine, Readers’ Digest, Life, Outside, Smithsonian, and National Geographic are among the numerous publications in which Chad has been featured. 

Released in April of 2007, From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers (National Geographic Books), chronicles Chad’s incredible journey cleaning up America’s rivers one tire at a time.  The book shares Chad’s personal story and the beginning of his grassroots organization, Living Lands & Waters, which has captured America’s imagination and motivated thousands of people across the country to clean up our country’s rivers and waterways.  What started as one man’s crusade has become an ever-evolving worldwide movement to educate people and connect them with their environment. 

Most events of the symposium are open to the general public and all are free of charge.  Please consult the symposium schedule on this website for more information. 

Founded in 1886, Young Harris College is a private, core liberal arts college focused on university preparation.  Historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church, a primary goal of Young Harris College is to provide a quality education for the whole person: intellectually, socially, culturally, and spiritually.  To learn more about Young Harris College, visit us at www.yhc.edu.

###