"We're the only ones who gave ourselves a chance."

During a recent conversation with RMU men's basketball coach Andy Toole, I learned that the RMU Gameday Exclusive videos, available at our YouTube channel, have been a hit on the recruiting trail. One of Andy's most recently landed recuits and the recruit's father were particularly impressed by the emotionally raw videos that documented the Colonials' up-and-down 2010-11 season. The season ended with an overtime loss in the NEC championship game, which was chronicled in the final Gameday Exclusive installment:



According to Andy, coaches of rival teams have praised the videos, and few offer anything similar. Kudos go to the talent behind Gameday Exclusive, 2010 RMU graduate Nazari Dorosh and senior RMU student Justin Downs.

-- Jonathan Potts

No more sloppy joes

First Lady Michelle Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, and RMU alumna JoAnn Bohonik has picked it up.

Dubbed the “Chefs Move to Schools Campaign,” the First Lady has called on chefs nationwide to partner with local schools to promote healthy eating to children. Chefs are asked to work with school dieticians, teachers, and cafeteria staff to teach students the benefits of eating healthy foods by presenting fruits and vegetables in fun and appealing ways to student appetites.

Bohonik, who attended the Pittsburgh Culinary Institute before enrolling at Robert Morris University, has been working as a personal chef preparing meals in individual client homes. She is a member of the United States Personal Chef Association and the American Culinary Federation (ACF). Her involvement in these organizations and her experience as a personal chef garnered an invitation to take part in “Chefs Move to Schools”, which kicked off in Washington, D.C.

At the kickoff for the campaign, 500 chefs from 37 different states were in attendance. This included celebrity chefs such as Rachael Ray, Tom Colicchio, and Cat Cora. The chefs-in-schools program comes on the heels of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, which called on local students in Washington to help grow and harvest vegetables in the White House kitchen garden.

Bohonik lives in West Middlesex, Pa., and has not yet been assigned a local school to adopt, but is looking forward to finding out in the coming weeks. She earned her bachelor’s degree in hospitality and tourism Management in December 2009, and is currently enrolled in Youngstown State University’s Dietician Program, which she will conclude in the spring.

“RMU taught me to have patience and confidence in myself and in time everything will work out,” said Bohonik.

"We were pretty much waiting to die"

I just learned that RMU alumnus Luther Lockhart will be on Oprah Tuesday for a reunion with his fellow passengers of U.S. Airways Flight 1549, which had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River on Jan. 15. Everyone on board survived.

Luther shared this harrowing experience with RMU's Foundations magazine. You can read the article here. We're grateful that Luther and everyone else on board is here to tell the tale.

-- Jonathan Potts

4th Annual Susan K. Hofacre 5K Run/Walk

Just today, I got an e-mail announcing the 4th annual Susan K. Hofacre 5k Run/Walk, which will take place at RMU’s Moon Township Campus on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m.

This e-mail came at an interesting time, since I’ve recently been considering getting back into running again. Considering. I have a two-year-old daughter, you see. Ever since she was born, instead of running, I’ve been working on my long-distance loafing on the couch, which is a lot easier on the knees.

Susan K. Hofacre, Ph.D., was RMU’s first female athletic director. Hofacre, who earned an MBA from RMU in 1999, joined the university’s athletic department in 1989 as its senior women’s administrator, assisting with compliance issues, academic advising, events scheduling and policy development. She also served as department head and professor of sport management.

As athletic director from 2000-2005, Hofacre helped the Colonials add seven new NCAA Division I athletic programs, including the first men’s and women’s hockey teams in Pittsburgh. She also oversaw the development of the new track and field at the RMU Island Sports Center, as well as the construction of Joe Walton Stadium and athletic administration building.

In 2002, Hofacre was awarded the Robert Morris University Alumni Philanthropist Award by the Alumni Association for her establishment of endowed scholarships and her raising of funds for the University. She passed away on Jan. 8, 2005, at the age of 54, after a courageous battle with cancer.

The Susan K. Hofacre 5k Run/Walk benefits the Susan Hofacre Memorial Scholarship Fund. If you’re an avid runner or considering getting back into running like me (considering), be sure to mark November 7 on your calendar and support this important cause. (Registration starts at 8 a.m. at Joe Walton Stadium. The race begins at 9 a.m.)

-- Valentine J. Brkich

A good landing is one you walk away from

U.S. Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger got a rock star's treatment during his testimony today before the National Transportation Safety Board, according to the Wall Street Journal. It turns out there is an RMU connection to Flight 1549, which Sullenberger successfully guided to an emergency landing in the Hudson River after geese were sucked into the plane's engines. Luther Lockhart, a 1999 RMU graduate, was a passenger on board that brief but harrowing flight. He gave an account of the flight and its sudden landing to Foundations magazine, which is available online here.

Thanks, Sully, for keeping our folks safe.

-- Jonathan Potts

The good fight

Back in 2003, as war was just breaking out in Iraq, RMU graduate Tammy Alvarez ’61 contacted renowned director Terry Sanders of Sanders & Mock Productions with the idea for a film that would document the lives of students in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU).

Five years later, Alvarez’ vision became a reality as “Fighting for Life” premiered on Oct. 5, 2008, in New York City. Since then, this drama documentary on military medicine practices has appeared on PBS TV affiliates and in theaters across the country. On May 24, “Fighting for Life” will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. on Pittsburgh’s WQED.

Filmed over a three-year period in a combat hospital in Iraq, on military aircraft, and in various military hospitals, “Fighting for Life” follows military doctors, nurses and medics, as they work to provide care to wounded soldiers. It also documents USU students as they study to become career military physicians, and shows the struggles of wounded soldiers fighting to survive and heal.

Alvarez, who served as executive producer, raised over $1.5 million to produce the movie. “‘Fighting for Life’ is a story about health, hope and humanism,” she said. “The film is about the tireless, selfless service of our military medical personnel. Their dedication and care for others is an example for all.” Alvarez’ husband is a 20-year member of the USU Board of Regents, and their son Bryan is a USU medical student graduate and second-year resident in general surgery at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego.

“Fighting for Life” was directed by Terry Sanders, a two-time Academy Award winner and one-time Emmy award winner and head of the Santa Monica-based American Film Foundation. Since its completion, the film has received positive reviews from U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, and ABC News.

Alvarez holds a bachelor’s degree in secretarial science -- a degree program that has not been available at the university for quite some time. She also attended the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, and completed four years of art studies under Eric Butters at the Yellow Barn Art Gallery in Glen Echo, Md. “My experience at RMU was most influential in broadening my organizational, interpersonal and technical skills,” she said.

A native Pittsburgher now living in the D.C. area, Alvarez is founder and president of the Friends of the Uniformed Services University Inc. – an all-volunteer, not-for-profit membership organization, based in Maryland, which seeks to support USU. Previously, she served as director of special services for United Airlines. In addition to producing, she dedicates much of her time to volunteerism and has created and implemented various mentoring and social-awareness programs for young people.

We'll put this one on the refrigerator

Kudos to City Charter High School for receiving an Effective Practice Incentive Community Award. This makes us particularly proud given the number of RMU alums who work there, which can you read about in this recent Foundations magazine article.

I've got a feeling, Colonials going to the Super Bowl

Jim Duzyk, our director of sports information, runs down RMU's connections to the Super Bowl, here. One more is worth noting: Pat Rooney, wife of Steelers owner Dan Rooney, is a member of the RMU Board of Trustees and one of our most loyal and generous supporters.

Once a Colonial, always a Colonial

First of all, we hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. It is good to be back.

Second, for those of you who are RMU alumni, we wanted to let you know that starting this semester, the RMU Libraries will begin offering alumni online access to the ProQuest database service. Previously available only to students, ProQuest includes the full text of more than 6,000 magazines, journals and newspapers. Users can browse or search The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, PC Magazine, Consumer Reports and many specialized journals in nursing, education, and many other fields.

"We’re very happy to offer our most popular database to alumni," said librarian Jackie Corinth.

For more information, call the reference desk at (412) 397-3272.

God and Man in Cincinnati

Here's an interesting article about an RMU alum who leads a megachurch in Ohio. Crossroads Community Church is the 36th largest church in the nation, so I'm guessing that Pastor Brian Tome is well-served by his RMU business degree:

Crossroads Community Church, which is in a converted HQ superstore at 3500 Madison Road, Oakley, draws about 10,000 people each weekend to its four services.

It is the 25th fastest-growing and 36th-largest church in the country, the only church in the region to crack the Top 50 in either category.

Crossroads is a non-denominational community church with a staff of 94 and an annual budget of $13 million that covers everything from providing the 300-plus gallons of coffee and 16 cases of cream served every weekend to the funding of an AIDS hospice in South Africa.

In matters more temporal, Pennsylvania and New York are increasing the amount of credit hours required for CPA candidates, and Inside Higher Ed talks to RMU's Frank Flanegin about how we are responding:

Robert Morris University, in suburban Pittsburgh, is also prepping for the change, encouraging accounting undergraduates to enroll in a program that awards an M.B.A. for an additional year of study. Frank Flanegin, head of the department of accounting and finance, said the university introduced the program as a way to help students meet the upcoming requirement change.

“There’s no mandate with this change to get another degree – an M.S. in accounting or an MBA,” Flanegin said, noting that about half of the university’s accounting majors go onto seek a C.P.A. “But why would you want to have students take additional credits without earning an additional degree? This provides our accounting majors who know what they want to do with an opportunity to fulfill the requirement.” (link)

Get 'em while they're young

RMU alumnus Howard Shapiro will appear on Stan Savran's "Savran on SportsBeat" this Friday on FSN Pittsburgh to talk about his latest children's book "Hockey Player for Life." The show airs at 6:30 p.m.

You can learn more about Shapiro's book here and here.

Doing us proud

The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" will feature LoBello’s Spaghetti House in Coraopolis in an episode airing at 10 tonight. LoBello's is managed by 1973 RMU graduate Benny Joe LoBello.

A longtime commercial banker, LoBello decided a few years ago to go back to work at his family’s restaurant, which LoBello’s grandparents opened in 1944. Nearly everything on the menu is still made from scratch, much of it by Benny Joe’s mama -- and the restaurant's owner -- Rose, a regular there at 809 Fifth Ave.

Guests are invited to carve their names into the wooden booths, if they can find a space in between the hundreds who have already done so over the years. And anyone showing an RMU ID will get a 25 percent discount, LoBello promised.

In other alumni news, Ricky Frazier, new v.p. of customer care for Comcast, received the Minority Achievement Award from Minority Opinion Magazine. The Tribune-Review featured Frazier as a Newsmaker in Sunday's paper.

"A filmmaker with great promise"

Alumnus Thomas Dixon gets a great review from the Post-Gazette for his film "The Korean."

Coming soon...

Watch the trailer to "The Korean,", the debut film by RMU alumnus Thomas Dixon:

RMU goes to the movies

RMU alum Thomas Dixon's debut feature film "The Korean" will be screened at the Three Rivers Film Festival Nov. 7-22. (Hat tip to the Post-Gazette.) Dixon graduated in 2005 with a degree in communications. We hope to share more with you about "The Korean" in the days to come. Things are a little hectic here today...

Maybe she'll bring us back a T-shirt

RMU business education student Sandy Niggel is heading to Beijing to attend the Mondialogo International Symposium, a prestigious honor for teachers that Niggel is enjoying for the second time, according to today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Trib notes that Niggel earned her teaching certification at RMU.

We'd be remiss if we failed to take this opportunity to mention that over the summer, RMU's School of Education and Social Sciences become the first education school in Pennsylvania, and one of only about 60 nationwide, to earn accreditation by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), one of two national education school accreditation agencies. You can read more about this here.