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(03/20/13 4:30pm)
Brigadier General Loretta E. Reynolds is the first female Marine Corps general in charge of the Marine’s basic training site on Parris Island, S.C. In recent years, Reynolds has graced headlines not only as a result of her title, but also due to her support for the recent overturning of a Pentagon ruling that has historically barred female Marines from combat.
Reynolds grew up in Baltimore, Md. as the youngest of five girls. Realizing her commitment to serve at an early age, Reynolds chose to attend the United States Naval Academy. Graduating in 1986, Reynolds became one of only eight female Marine generals and the first to have graduated from the Naval Academy. Shortly thereafter, Reynolds completed basic training and assumed her first duty assignment at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Most of Reynolds’ experience lays in Marine Corps Communications — a non-combative division of the Marines in which female officers are able to advance. After her assignment at Camp Pendleton, Reynolds was assigned to the Marine Wing Communications Squadron in Okinawa, Japan.
As Reynolds shuffled through different assignments that took her to a variety of national and international bases, she pursued further education within the Marine Corps. These educational opportunities included courses at the Marine Corps University, Naval War College and the U.S. Army War College. In 2004-2005, Reynolds was deployed in Fallujah, Iraq and in March 2010-2011, was located at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan making her the first woman to command a Marine base in a combat zone. In her current role at Parris Island, Reynolds trains all of the Marines’ women and almost half of the men on the base.
Reynolds’ experience in the Marines is exemplary of the increasing instance of female leadership in the army. Recently, women have played a significant role in encouraging the review of legislation that deals with the boundaries of female military involvement.
Since 1918, women have served in the Marine Corps. Initially restricted to clerical duty, women were eventually able to serve in greater capacities and by 1975, were approved to serve in all occupational fields with the exception of infantry, artillery, armor and pilot/air crew.
In January, a 1994 Pentagon ruling that declared that women are restricted from artillery, armor, infantry and other military roles involving combat was overturned by then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. This change had numerous implications for female Corps members. Because serving in combat positions is often crucial to career advancement, women in service had been unfairly restricted from demonstrating the qualities and dedication that combative service requires. With the recent change however, an abundance of additional front-line positions will open to female women in combat, granting them greater military equality.
In commenting upon the most recent case regarding the instatement of women in combat roles, Reynolds explained that she believes that the change will allow women to use the talent that they have always had.
(03/13/13 4:34pm)
On Monday, March 4, the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) hosted a post-graduation immigration workshop led by immigration lawyer Dyann DelVecchio ’78 of Seyfarth Shaw Attorneys in Boston. The workshop, “Where do I go from here?: US Immigration Options for Graduating Seniors” was one of several ISSS meetings for international students hoping to pursue job opportunities in the United States.
The March 4 workshop focused on questions that arise when applying for jobs, such as whether the applicant is authorized to work in the United States or if the applicant requires employer sponsorship. Arthur Serratelli of Vandeventer Black LLP led a second workshop session held on March 11 and 12, focusing on post-graduate options for student work visas. He held one-on-one meetings with students to allow for further personalized assistance.
Associate Dean and Director of ISSS Kathy Foley explained the role that ISSS plays in the lives of international students.
“ISSS is a place where [international students] can discuss their plans, and other situations and experiences they encounter here, so that we can best support them and advocate for international student needs on campus,” she said.
The employment preparation required for international students exceeds the capacity of the Education In Action (EIA) office, which helps students, regardless of citizenship, to discover job opportunities and compose resumes and cover letters. Though ISSS works with EIA to ensure that necessary immigration authorization and paperwork is completed for international students applying for jobs and internships, the large international student population demands a separate resource to work through government-required procedures for work authorization and delineate a timeline for paperwork submission.
“We help [international students] think of strategies so they can answer those questions [about work sponsorship] and not cut themselves off from moving forward in the process, but we also help them to recognize that just because a company is asking that question doesn’t mean they won’t sponsor them — it just means they have to know up front,” said International Student and Scholar Advisor Ben Bruno ’06.
The March 11 post-graduation immigration workshop was preceded by a discussion on February 21 about Optional Practical Training (OPT), which is the first step toward acquiring authorization to work in the US. Students with F1 immigration status, which is required for all international students studying at the College, are eligible for OPT. OPT permits international students to work off-campus for up to 12 months while gaining practical experience. Though the student is allowed to work for any employer in the United States, the job must be applicable to the academic experience or major with which the student is familiar.
Mugo Mutothori ’12.5 of Kenya utilized ISSS during his time at the College and appreciated the personalized support he received.
“The ISSS has been like family to me. The people in that office help international students in every step after their graduation and that is why it is great, as an international student, to attend a small school like Middlebury,” said Mutothori, who is currently completing a fellowship with Save the Children in Washington, D.C. “[The] transition to my fellowship was easy, as I had already done all my paperwork prior to starting my job.”
Not all international students plan to work in the United States, however. Even those who choose to pursue practical experience during or after their college experience have plans to return home. “I will be going back to Kenya shortly after [receiving a master’s degree in public policy and development] to pursue a career in politics,” Mutothori said.
International students who choose to pursue employment opportunities beyond the 12-month OPT must typically secure employee sponsorship to continue working in the United States and change their visa status from an F1 student visa to H1B, or a work permit.
“The issue with the H1Bs is that they’re limited in number,” said Bruno. 65,000 H1B visas are available every fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 available to people who have a Masters degree from an American educational institution.
The recent job market instability is a “double edged sword” for international students, according to Bruno. More people apply for H1Bs when the economy is doing well, making the visas more difficult to obtain. In contrast, when the economy is doing poorly, there is less of a demand for H1Bs, but jobs are more difficult to find.
“For international students, finding a job after Middlebury tends to take on greater importance than it may for a U.S. student because their future ability to remain in the U.S. depends on it,” said Foley.
(03/13/13 4:24pm)
In today’s age of rapid innovation and discovery, there is no shortage of female doctors and scientists gracing the headlines and receiving recognition for their successes. One such woman, Dr. Deborah Persaud, is at the forefront of pediatric HIV/AIDS research and is known most recently for her role in the announcement of a cured, Mississippi baby born with HIV.
Persaud’s preeminence in the field of HIV/AIDS research is a result of a long road of hard work and perseverance. Currently an associate professor at the John’s Hopkins Children’s Center, where she began research on pediatric HIV in 1997, Persaud doubles as the director of the center’s infectious disease fellowship program.
In February 2005, Persaud won the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award. Each year, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation presents this prestigious award to several HIV/AIDS researchers. In 2005, Persaud was the award’s only recipient. The grant money she received allowed her research to develop further, particularly in regard to HIV/AIDS therapy methods in the U.S. and Ethiopia.
A 2012 grant awarded to Persaud and her colleague Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts Medical School made the Mississippi baby’s cure possible. The grant, awarded by the Foundation for AIDS Research, allowed Persaud and Luzuriaga to focus more specifically on HIV infection in infants.
Persaud’s role in this cure lies in the investigation and publication of the study that resulted in the baby’s cure. The New York Times and the Huffington Post offer further information on the story, in which Persaud is identified as the lead author of the report on the baby.
Two and a half years ago, a pregnant woman who had not being receiving any prenatal care, and who was unaware of her HIV positive status, arrived at a rural Mississippi hospital to give birth to her premature child. Upon running tests on the new mother, doctors discovered that she was indeed HIV positive and therefore her baby was at a very high risk of also having the infection that causes the AIDS virus.
After being transferred to the University of Mississippi hospital, the baby was given proper medical attention. Instead of waiting to run tests to confirm whether or not the baby was HIV positive, doctors decided to give the baby the full, standard component of treatment. By the time the baby was a month old virus levels were imperceptible.
The mother continued bringing her baby in for treatment but suddenly stopped coming to the hospital after 18 months of drugs had been administered. Five months later, the mother and baby reappeared. Doctors expected viral levels in the baby to have surged with five months of no medication but all tests were negative. The baby has now been off of medication for a year now with no signs of infection.
The science behind the success story suggests that timing was a significant factor in the baby’s cure. Being treated so quickly eradicated the infection from the baby’s blood stream before it could form reservoirs in the body. When reservoirs manifest, the infection can lay dormant and unaffected by drugs, capable of reentering the blood stream at any time.
Though it is unusual for babies in the US to be born with HIV, due to prenatal treatment that prevents transmission from mother to child, the same cannot be said for most parts of the world where infection rates are highest. The Huffington Post reports that 300,000 to 400,000 babies are born each year with HIV — sub-Saharan Africa being the most significantly infected region of the world. Further investigation of this Mississippi baby’s success story could offer significant implications for curbing incidences of HIV transmission via pregnancy.
In early March, Persaud and several researchers presented the study’s findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Ga. Persaud and her colleagues were able to confirm that both the baby and the mother were HIV positive at the time of the baby’s birth and that today, there are no signs of infection in the child.