Students awarded $20,000 for international relations projects
The Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations selected five teams of students as the winners of its annual “Shark Tank” competition.
At the Aug. 1 competition, 14 teams of students pitched their project ideas to a panel of faculty judges who were experts in different aspects of international relations. The students had been working on their proposals for eight weeks, and each team delivered a five-minute pitch explaining the logistics and impact of their ideas.
” ‘Shark Tank’ provides students with a structured process to refine their own ideas, learn how to write a proposal, learn how to construct a budget and, ultimately, to write a compelling proposal and pitch it to a critical audience,” said Michael Tierney, director of ITPIR.
The panel awarded $20,000 in funding to the top five projects. Each project tackled weighty issues: One team looked for patterns in where refugees flee when forced from their homes. Another team will predict trends in foreign aid by doing textual analysis on an open-source database that includes the congressional record.
Government and Public Policy Professor Dan Maliniak said this year’s “Shark Tank” participants sought answers to a particularly diverse range of questions.
“It was a real reminder of how important it is to have people take a look at a familiar problem with fresh eyes,” he said. “And, as a William and Mary professor, I was reminded that I get a new crop of very smart people starting at the task every August.”
Adventurers to take to the streets Sunday
If you see groups of people running through the streets of Williamsburg on Sunday, do not be surprised. The city’s second Great Williamsburg Adventure Race will be taking place from 3 to 6 p.m.
The city of Williamsburg is hosting the event to welcome William and Mary students back to town. Registration is already full for residents, but William and Mary students can still register.
The event is similar to the reality television show “The Amazing Race” where teams with 2 to 10 members compete in both physical and mental challenges, running from station to station. Last year’s event included a lip-syncing competition, an interpretive dance challenge and a laser tag duel.
Adam Stackhouse is a William and Mary graduate and the co-owner of AVAdventure, the company producing the event. Stackhouse said he anticipates 80 to 100 teams competing in the event, which could mean up to 600 participants.
Last year a team of mothers dubbed the “Red Hot Mamas” won the event, a multi-generational family came in second and a team of William and Mary freshmen came in third.
The event begins at the Kimball Theater at 424 W. Gloucester St.
Although registration is closed for non-students, Stackhouse said anyone interested in volunteering should contact AVAdventure at team@vavadventure.com.
Convocation to be held Wednesday evening
Today is the first day of classes for undergraduate students, and tonight’s convocation will mark the official beginning of the 2016-17 academic year.
William and Mary’s annual Convocation will be held at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday in the Wren Yard. This year’s speaker is Nicco Mele, the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“We are in for a rare treat when Nicco returns to campus to help celebrate one of the special occasions in William and Mary’s annual life,” William and Mary President Taylor Reveley III said.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Reveley will lead all new students in a procession through the portico to the other side of the Wren Building, where they will be welcomed by all returning faculty, staff and students.
