Education

Maureen Waltz adopted her daughter Sarah from Russia in 2003 when Sarah was just 16 months old. Weighing in at 13 pounds, Maureen, had a feeling that her daughter would face developmental issues from the start. An MRI at two years of age confirmed this hunch diagnosing Sarah with Cerebral Palsy.

Time for toddlers is an interactive play time for your toddler in a nurturing and stimulating safe environment for learning. Your child will be exposed to developmentally appropriate activities including:

• Language enrichment
• Arts and craft activities
• Sensory table and water play
• Indoor/outdoor motor activities

Groups meet from 2 – 2 ½ hours one time a week in an interactive setting. Please call for more information regarding fee and to register. There are a limited number of slots and scholarships available. For information, call (508) 996-3391.

WESTPORT — With a $2,000 grant to work with, all seventh and eighth grade students in the Westport Middle School will be taking part in a Diamondback Terrapin Science Program, through the Lloyd Center for the Environment, in the upcoming year.

DARTMOUTH — When the name of William M. Pinney, Jr. was announced by board president Mary Ellen Hawes Lees last Thursday night as the winner of this year’s George G. Haydock Award at the Lloyd Center for the Environment’s Annual Meeting, held at the Dartmouth Grange Hall, the audience erupted with an enthusiastic roar of approval and applause. 

Dartmouth, MA – The Alces Foundation, Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation, The Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust, and the Rodgers Family Foundation have awarded the Lloyd Center for the Environment $28,000 in grants to support its Science Curriculum Reform and Development Initiative in the Fall River public schools. 

North Dartmouth, MA - Ray Suarez, the senior correspondent for The NewsHour, who has spent more than a quarter century in journalism covering local, national, and international stories, will address UMass Dartmouth's 2008 undergraduate commencement exercises.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - The public is invited to attend a civic meeting regarding the status of work and sampling at New Bedford High School and the ongoing monitoring at the Keith Middle School.  The meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the Keith Middle School, located at 225 Hathaway Boulevard in New Bedford. 

North Dartmouth, MA- UMass Dartmouth has launched myAlert, a new emergency notification system that will instantly transmit a text or voice message to the cell phones of students, faculty and staff in the event of a major emergency.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth commemorated 25 years of excellence in education and service of its Medical Laboratory Science Department, highlighting partnerships with area hospitals and bio-tech companies,  including Abbott Laboratories, which donated a $150,000 laboratory device to the department last fall.

With summer just around the corner many local youth are gearing up for warm months filled with outdoor activities and time with family and friends.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for thousands of other children who lack the financial means necessary to access quality summer programs.

The  Center for Marketing Research was activated in 1999 and initially named the Center for Business Research, later adopting its present name, Center for Marketing Research. The appointing authorities asked Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes to create a Center that served the needs of the University, its students, the business community, and residents of southeastern Massachusetts.

New Bedford, MA — Who is the best mentor you ever knew? Who has taught you the most about leadership? Years ago, Michelle Yozzo Drake asked herself those very questions. As she searched for the best examples of leadership, she discovered the answer right in front of her: it was Mom! 

NEW BEDFORD, MA – The UMass Dartmouth Ceramics Club welcomes Penn State University Professor Chris Staley to the UMass Dartmouth Star Store on Wednesday, April 16, 2008, for a lecture and presentation of his work.

North Dartmouth, MA -  Senator Joan Menard (D-Fall River) and Representative Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) are pleased to announce that the UMass Dartmouth Advanced Technology & Manufacturing Center (ATMC) located on Martine Streetin Fall River has received a $250,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable Energy Trust Fund. The grant has been awarded as a result of the ATMC's proposal to establish a Marine Renewable Energy Center (MREC) in a collaborative effort with officials in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  The Center's goal is to accelerate the use and commercialization of marine renewable energy technologies.

New Bedford, Massachusetts- During the month of February, the Greater New Bedford Area Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee and the City of New Bedford Human Relations Commission sponsored a “Black History Month” essay contest for New Bedford Public Schools students.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - On March 31, 2008, the New Bedford School Committee unanimously voted to support a motion submitted by Mayor Scott W. Lang to institute a school recycling program throughout the New Bedford Public Schools System.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Southcoast RAPPP Youth Council will be hosting a community briefing on the dangers of under-age drinking on Thursday, April 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Keith Middle School, Hathaway Boulevard in New Bedford.

North Dartmouth, MA - The passion for learning demonstrated by her late mother and her mother's closest friend has inspired UMass Dartmouth Professor Robin Robinson to create a scholarship to assist women intent on pursuing higher education.

North Dartmouth, MA - UMass Dartmouth's Pavement Research Institute of Southeastern Massachusetts (PRISM) has entered into a $399,000 research agreement with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Public Works to design and evaluate specialized hot mix asphalt mixtures for roadway applications in Massachusetts.

North Dartmouth, MA- A fish culture research team at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth under the direction of Drs. Kenneth Oliveira and Whitney Hable recently accomplished for the first time the artificial spawning of the American eel.  Larvae of the American eel lived for 4 days after hatching and this is the first time the fertilized eggs or larvae of this species have been seen by human eyes.  This is a major accomplishment in the area of fish culture.  The UMASS Dartmouth Team built on the techniques that have been developed for the Japanese eel in Japan and the European eel in Europe to accomplish the successful culturing process.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - The New Bedford School Committee concluded its nationwide search for a new Superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools at an early morning meeting today at the Keith Middle School.  All seven members of the New Bedford School Committee unanimously voted to offer Dr. Portia Selene Bonner, the position of Superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools.  Dr. Bonner is currently serving as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction at Hamden Public Schools in Hamden, Connecticut.

North Dartmouth, MA - The University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET) has awarded $400,000 to UMass Dartmouth Professor Erin Bromage and the biologist's collaborators from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VMS) to develop an early warning system for oil spills..

North Dartmouth, MA - The School for Marine Science and Technology of UMass Dartmouth is hosting a consortium of 20 universities and organizations this week to plan the initial stages of a system to monitor the changing conditions and health of coastal waters from Massachusetts to North Carolina.  The consortium is developing a sophisticated network of weather stations, satellites, coastal radars and robotic underwater vehicles to produce a three-dimensional view of conditions in the coastal Mid-Atlantic.  The current, three-year phase of the project is funded with an $8.7-million grant from the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

A full-scale emergency operations exercise involving state, local, and regional public safety agencies will take place Thursday, March 20 at UMass Dartmouth, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The exercise will attract numerous police, fire and EMS professionals and vehicles, possibly including a helicopter, to the campus during the morning hours.

North Dartmouth, MA - The Claire T. Carney Library Associates are hosting an Heirloom Discovery Day at UMass Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, Dartmouth, MA. The event will be Sunday, March 30 at 2-4:30 p.m. in the Claire T. Carney library browsing area.

Mayor Scott W. Lang delivered his third State of the City Address on March 6th to a packed house at Cafe Funchal. The address was broadcast live on WBSM AM 1420 and is now presented here in audio MP3 format (5MB). This recording of the event is approximately 45 minutes long. Hosted by the New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce.

Children in the Day School classroom # 7 have been very busy. Jean Arbec, teacher in that classroom, states that “for the past two weeks the children have been busy preparing and baking for this big day.”

The Schwartz Center for Children hosted the Kiwanis Club of New Bedford’s recent weekly meeting on Tuesday, February 12. The Kiwanians presented the Center with snack goodies for the Center’s children and a Spinoza Bear for the Speech Therapy Department through it’s “Buddy Bear Project.”

Each Monday morning Mara Evans and Christine Reilly, teachers from the Perkins school for the Blind, arrive at the Schwartz Center for Children to host an innovative integrated educational partnership program with the Schwartz Center for Children.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - The New Bedford School Committee today released the public interview schedule for the three candidates selected as finalists for the position of Superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools.  The interview schedule is as follows: