American Magazine April 2014

32 1 POV
AMERICAN
American University magazine
Vol. 64, No.3
SENIOR EDITOR
Adrienne Frank, SPA/MS ’08
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Suzanne Bechamps
Mariel Davis
Ali Kahn
WRITERS
Mariel Davis
Adrienne Frank
Ali Kahn
Kerry O’Leary
Mike Unger
ART DIRECTOR
Maria Jackson
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeffrey Watts
CLASS NOTES
Traci Crockett
WORK STUDY
Tiffany Wong, SOC/BA ’14
VICE PRESIDENT,
COMMUNICATIONS
Teresa Flannery
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT,
CREATIVE SERVICES
Kevin Grasty
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
CONTENT STRATEGY
Laura Garner
American is published three
times a year by American
University. With a circulation
of 118,000, American is sent
to alumni and other members
of the university community.
Copyright©2014.
An equal opportunity,
affirmative action university.
UP14-003
For information regarding the
accreditation and state licensing
of American University, please
visit american.edu/academic.
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
I’m wearing a pirate hat as I pen this letter, making
animated truck sounds (zoom, beep, vroom!) between
clicks of the keys, and reminding my 20-month old—for
no less than the 20th time—to be gentle with the kitty.
It’s a Monday morning and I should be at work, but the
aptly named Winter Storm Titan has shut down the
entire Mid-Atlantic. Outside, the snow continues to pile
up: four inches, six, then eight.
For his part, Owen, clad in monkey pajamas and
a straw fedora (I’m not the only one hankering for
sunshine), is pulling all his books off the shelf. We both
bop our accessorized heads to the Muppets’ rendition
of Smells Like Teen Spirit, a nod to my own childhood.
Turns out, snow days with a toddler are anything
but nirvana.
It’s been a long, hard winter in Washington—one of
the coldest on record. We enjoyed (ahem, some of us
more than others) more snow days this season than the
last few years combined, and I’m still shivering—nay,
shuddering—at the memory of a string of single-digit
days in January.
The weather made everything, including producing
the magazine, more challenging. Photo shoots, such as
one with pilot Cliff Taylor (left), had to be juggled to
accommodate finicky Mother Nature. (Read about the
making of this issue at americanmag.blogs.american.edu.)
In spite of the gloomy weather, or perhaps because of
it, you’ll find this issue of American to be one of the most
colorful yet. From the coffee mugs we used to illustrate
CAS professor Laura Juliano’s new caffeine research, to
the rainbow of colors in kindergarten teacher Brieanna
Samples-Wright’s bag, to our cover story on the biggest
paintball game in the world, these pages are awash in
bright, bold hues.
By the time you read this magazine, winter will be
gone, though perhaps not yet forgotten. Spring will have
sprung in Washington, with cherry blossoms and tulips
(talk about beautiful colors) as far as the eye can see.
We’ll have peeled off our layers, and—like Owen—we’ll
have traded our wool beanies for straw fedoras.
Zoom, zoom, here comes the sun.
How Don Myers, AU’s
financial architect,
transformed campus
4 4400 Mass Ave
Ideas, people, perspectives
14 Metrocentered
34 Your American
Connect, engage, reminisce
Adrienne Frank
Senior editor
Send story ideas to afrank@american.edu.