1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University
“At Transylvania, we always had this great history to fall back on, a solid academic foundation to stand on, yet we were encouraged to be innovative, to look at things differently and to take chances.”
Mike Finley ’90 doesn’t wait for the next big thing to happen. He’s too busy anticipating, inventing, marketing and selling it. Have you used an automated gas pump lately? That’s Finley. Wish you had sunglasses that offered polarized peripheral vision? His patent. These are two of what he calls the “less esoteric” of his 14 patents. These days, his primary focus is on artificial intelligence—the biggest technological shift he’s witnessed in his 30-year career. He operates with the knowledge that “in a commercially interesting timeframe, companies will be hiring software as if it were a knowledge worker.” Finley, who balances invention and viable enterprise in the full scale of his work, is able to recognize the need and opportunity, develop the tools to meet it, communicate and market the results and embrace the changes in what’s to come. He creates the vision and has the tools to carry it out. A scientist, innovator of technology, co-founder of companies, author and a volunteer who is committed to education, Finley easily traces the multiple facets of his success to Transylvania: learning to think, innovate, write and communicate, and having the freedom to follow his interests by taking a wide array of classes. The world of technology has changed profoundly since Finley graduated from Transylvania in 1990, yet, three decades later, he continues to thrive, ever on the cutting edge, finding his own tailwind, as he describes it, the difference between leading with
Read “How Transy prepared tech entrepreneur Mike Finley for “what might come””
As nearby turtle tanks burble, Geoff Roberts pulls a coiled corn snake from an aquarium. Even up close, it’s immediately evident the docile creature with beautiful orange markings is nothing to be afraid of. Roberts explains how encounters in controlled settings like this one in the Salato Wildlife Education Center can help people overcome their snake phobias. That isn’t the main reason Roberts, a conservation educator and 2007 Transylvania University grad, shows animals to visitors. It is, however, an example of how his psychology degree still comes in handy. People often are surprised to learn about his undergraduate major, seeing as how he works for the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife. Roberts even once pursued a master’s degree in mental health counseling at Eastern Kentucky University. But that’s not where his lifelong passion lies—he discovered a love for wildlife as a young boy during excursions with his grandfather in the countryside near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Thing is, during that time at EKU he felt like he’d already invested a lot of time into psychology, so it would have been a waste to not continue along that path. He changed course, though—maybe in part because of his liberal arts background at Transy, which encourages students not to get stuck in mental ruts, and in part because his mom encouraged him to follow his dream. The turning point was when he switched master’s programs to study recreation and park administration. “I knew
Read “Call of the wild: Transy alum’s passion is no flight of fancy”
A postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Jessica Marie Konen ’10 is researching immunotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer. We asked her to tell us about her research and how it relates to her time at Transy. Where did you grow up and why did you choose Transy? I grew up in northern Kentucky, a small town called Fort Thomas. When I began looking for colleges, I knew I wanted to go to a small liberal arts institution, mostly because the idea of a big state school was terrifying. And I knew the reputation of schools like Transy. Though I had my pick of a few schools, I ultimately chose Transy for several reasons. The biology program was highly esteemed; the campus was gorgeous and felt like home; and I knew I could see myself roaming it for four years. What kind of cancer research are you doing? I am working in the field of immunotherapy for treatment of lung cancer. Basically, we are trying to find ways to kick-start a patient’s own immune system to do the heavy lifting and combat the cancer for us. This field has revolutionized cancer therapy in many tumor types, and has even led to some cures of late-stage diseases which previously had little hope. However, like many cancer treatments, there are issues with resistance – the tumor smartly finds different ways to shut the immune response down. So I
Read “Q&A: How Jessica Marie Konen ’10 discovered her path to cancer research at Transy”
Janelle Johnson Roberts ’10 Any Transy student major in international affairs today, but when Janelle (Johnson) Roberts ’10 pieced it together as a self-designed major in 2007, she had in mind a more specialized version of the traditional political science major. International affairs had been on her mind since middle school, when she found herself frustrated by the divisive rhetoric about the Middle East after the September 11 attacks. Her best friend’s family was Iranian, and she was already developing an affinity for the culture and its people. As she explored the political science curriculum, she kept being drawn by other areas, including anthropology, sociology and religion. So she developed a curriculum with her professors and took Arabic language courses at the University of Kentucky, all to prepare herself for a career in Middle East policy. She studied abroad for a semester in Amman, Jordan, and did a seminar on the Arab-Israeli peace process in Washington D.C. “I was 100 percent certain I would have a career in foreign relations or foreign affairs,” she says. “I knew I needed experience abroad, I knew I needed language training. I was incredibly grateful that Transy encourages their students to broaden their horizons. Everyone was so helpful, from Jeff Fryman and Kathleen Jagger to the study abroad office to the financial aid office.” Roberts went on to the University of Chicago’s Harris School for Public Policy Studies, earning a master’s in public policy, and
