Academy member Ray Kulla was appointed acting director of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College by Eckerd College Dean of Special Programs, Jim Deegan yesterday. As Director Ray will be focusing on the continued development of the Academy and building stronger ties to and cooperative programming with the Eckerd College community. Ray and his wife Kathleen have been valued members of the ''ASPEC'' lifelong learning organization since 2008.

Prior to joining the Academy, Ray had a very successful career as chief legal counsel for public and private, national and multinational corporations.  His many accomplishments included his election as chairman of the board of the American Corporate Counsel Association, the pre-eminent organization for the advancement of corporate attorneys that has over 20,000 members.

Ray is an active member of the Academy and currently serves as vice president of the societies management board as well as chairperson of it's Programming Committee. Ray has made numerous presentations in interest groups and coordinates lectures of Eckerd faculty at the Academy. He also serves as a discussant colleague in two residential college courses.

Academy members are pleased to have a person of Ray's caliber leading the development of this unique life long learning organization.

There is an impressive little known program gathering momentum in three St. Petersburg schools.

"Journeys in Journalism" is a partnership of the Pinellas county school system, the St. Petersburg Times newspaper and is supported and funded by Eckerd College, (CALA). It aims to develop writing and multimedia skills in students and to use journalism to develop informed, engaged, young people.

The Academy was introduced to this program by Norm Smith, who is the Director of CALA, the department that is responsible for community outreach. The Academy invited the program developer Ms Jaye Ann Terry, from the Pinellas school board and students to the Academy, to talk about their program.

The program is developing seriously talented students at Melrose Elementary, John Hopkins Middle School and Lakewood High Schools.

At Melrose, the journalism program involves every student. Kindergarten students come every other week to class, and first through fifth graders have weekly classes. Every class participates in a project for the school newspaper, which is published three times a year on their website. The school's principal, Oscar Robinson believes the Journalism program provides Melrose's students "hands-on'' literacy training. "It provides an authentic purpose to listen, photograph, read, and write".

Lakewood High School, principal Vicari Robert is excited about the opportunities the school will provide as the program develops. Already, 150+ students are involved in daily journalism classes. The student newspaper is published quarterly, and students maintain their own website.

At Lakewood, the students publish eight newspapers annually, and update their website daily.

"These students are gaining a phenomenal set of skills, including the ability to communicate and critically assess their world," said Gretchen Letterman, an editor at the St. Petersburg Times and chair of the Journeys in Journalism Advisory Committee. "It makes me so proud to see kindergartners who are confident enough to look people in the eye as they converse, middle school students who know the importance of accuracy and high school journalists intent on telling the stories of their community."

Over 12 days this summer, 44 student journalists created an awesome magazine, "Midtown through our Eyes", which was printed by the St. Petersburg Times, which also prints the three schools newspapers. The students conducted print and video interviews with neighbors, movers, and shakers, businesses and agencies in the community.

They wrote an impressive array of stories about their neighborhood and took an amazing collection of photographs.

The Academy also hosted an exhibition of more than 100 photographs, in its center on the Eckerd campus, and invited the program Coordinator Cynda Mort and students to talk with its members about their photographs and the stories behind them. Like the schools principals, the Academy members were impressed by the maturity and technical skills the students, as young as kindergarten displayed in their photographs.

For more information about this program, contact Cynda Mort, Coordinator, at mortc@pcsb.org

See photos here

Paintings by Ann Bregman (Rascoe) to be included in '9/11 National Museum'.

Ann Bregman (Rascoe) leads a diverse and active group in ASPEC: the Visual Arts Council. Ann has been passionate about art since early childhood. When not planning the Arts Council events Ann loves to paint and actively shows her work.

Stunned by the tragedy that unfolded on September 11, 2001, Ann turned her horror at the events of that day to painting, to capture the sense of destruction, and grief she felt. Ann created three paintings. All have been accepted into the National 9/11Museum.

'I organized a one year memorial event in 2002,' said Ann, 'and I have wanted to do something to commemorate the 10th anniversary in 2011. The opportunity to contribute to a national memorial is a great honor'.

Ann is pictured with the first of the three paintings.

The paintings reflect her particular talent for combining painting and collage. Ann described the paintings: 'they all have a surface texture I created using watercolor, cutup photos, pictures of people, objects, and the deadly, imprisoning gridwork of the destroyed buildings. In two of the three paintings, there is imbedded a glowing candle, a symbol of hope for the future."

The museum will not be completed until 2012. Ann added, 'When the museum opens I am hoping to donate the originals'.

Ann's paintings are presently featured on its website: www.national911memorial.org.

Ann has been a member Eckerd's life long learning academy (ASPEC) for thirteen years.

Ann has two children. After being widowed, she met and married Eric Rascoe in 1998. They now have a combined family of ten children and eleven grandchildren.

To view Ann's paintings in close-up. Access www.national911memorial.org. Select 'artist registry'. Ann is listed under the name Bregman.

To learn more about our Arts Council, visit our Arts Council.