Ooh! My Soul Commencement festivities kicked off May 11 with a spirited performance by Little Richard.The wild man of rock ’n’ roll headlined “The Party,” an annual event for members of <strong>the</strong> Vanderbilt community, held on <strong>the</strong> Peabody campus. DANIEL DUBOIS
You Say “Vanderbilt,” I Say “Virtuous Palace of Fan” What’s in a name? Until recently, it depended on whom you asked if you were talking about Vanderbilt University in a Chinese-speaking country. The University discovered <strong>the</strong>re were at least a dozen variants of “Vanderbilt” in use across mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, so it set out to standardize its name. The process of settling on a single name was initiated by Shih-Ping (Nancy) Wang, a second-year student at <strong>the</strong> Owen Graduate School of Management. The native of Taiwan alerted University administrators to <strong>the</strong> many versions of <strong>the</strong> Vanderbilt name in Mandarin Chinese. “When I applied to Vanderbilt University, I could not find a Chinese name for <strong>the</strong> school to tell friends where I’d be studying,” Wang explains. “After arriving in Nashville, I noticed Vanderbilt’s Chinese-speaking faculty and students use more than a dozen translations for ‘Vanderbilt University.’” To help end this confusion, Wang spearheaded <strong>the</strong> effort to standardize <strong>the</strong> name, presenting all <strong>the</strong> versions and <strong>the</strong>ir meanings to a group of University administrators, faculty and students. “Fandebao” prevailed. Mandarin is spoken by a billion people worldwide and is <strong>the</strong> main language of government, media and education in China. Finding a translation that’s a phonetic match, has a positive meaning, and isn’t already in use in <strong>the</strong> language to represent something else can be quite a challenge. There is no “v” sound in Mandarin Chinese, so Harvard uses two characters, Ha-fo, which translates to “laughing Buddha.” “Fandebao” translates to “<strong>the</strong> virtuous palace of Fan,” “<strong>the</strong> academic center of virtue,” or “place of academic excellence.” Strictly speaking, “Fan” is a common surname like Van; “de” is virtue, excellence or quality; and “bao” means castle, fort or bastion. The University actively recruits students from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan and has about 265 students currently enrolled from those areas. “We are very interested in improving Vanderbilt’s scholarly visibility in East Asia, particularly in China,” explains Joel Harrington, assistant provost for international affairs. “That means building on numerous individual faculty collaborations with Chinese colleagues, expanding our study-abroad opportunities for undergraduates, profiting from our strong alumni base <strong>the</strong>re—particularly in Hong Kong, and leveraging it for <strong>the</strong> recruitment of top Chinese students and scholars, and forming strong institutional partnerships with a few select universities.” KATS BARRY Really Gross Anatomy Vanderbilt University School of Nursing students from a community health class have used <strong>the</strong>ir knowledge to help shape a new “BodyQuest” exhibit at <strong>the</strong> Adventure Science Center in Nashville. About 20 students wrote scripts for a program to guide visitors in each section of a new attraction that takes visitors on a journey through <strong>the</strong> human body and its functions. The exhibit displays six body systems in an interactive learning environment. The nursing students researched and wrote presentations to explain each system, including <strong>the</strong> immune, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, musculo-skeletal and nervous systems. Children can check on “Pat,” <strong>the</strong> patient in <strong>the</strong> exhibit, learn how to take his blood pressure, give an injection and read his temperature while wearing a real hospital mask and shoe covers. The lifelike, oversized beating heart experiences a heart attack every hour, <strong>the</strong> floors of <strong>the</strong> exhibit light up with neon nerve pathways connecting each body system, and <strong>the</strong> digestive system even shows First-year nursing students Lora Davis, left, and Erica Taylor check out <strong>the</strong> new interactive “BodyQuest” exhibit at Nashville’s Adventure Science Center. kids how food travels through <strong>the</strong> body and beyond. Some of <strong>the</strong> students said <strong>the</strong>y call it “really gross anatomy.” The exhibit also includes a locker room with tips on staying safe, a giant brain in which kids can explore and learn about how <strong>the</strong> different parts of <strong>the</strong> brain control different body functions, and even an ambulance for kids to crawl inside. VUSN student Mary Sanford Hay said working on <strong>the</strong> project wasn’t as easy as it sounds. “The hardest part was making <strong>the</strong> information understandable to children.” Kelly Alsup, an educator at <strong>the</strong> Adventure Science Center, says <strong>the</strong> VUSN students “bring a different viewpoint. We also wanted to inspire kids to go into a medical career, and our hands-on mini Medical Center will hopefully inspire <strong>the</strong>m.” Making <strong>the</strong> World Cybersafe It’s <strong>the</strong> kind of scenario that keeps cybersecurity experts awake at night: A concerted attack by terrorists on <strong>the</strong> nation’s computer infrastructure could wreak havoc nationwide. Vanderbilt researchers >> V a n d e r b i l t M a g a z i n e 13
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