Brazilian Summerfest 2010

Indiana Partners of the Americas and the Brazilian Mothers of Indiana have joined forces to draw Elizabeth and her Ipanema band out of their sabbatical and back onto the stage at the Rathskeller, 401 East Michigan Street, Indianapolis, for a summer party in the beer garden on 22 August.

Ipanema performs from 5-3:30 p.m. From 7-9 p.m., music will be by the Tides.

Special Brazilian snacks and other food items are available for purchase along with chopp, caipirinha, and other drinks. Tickets at the door are $5.

Note: due to alcohol sales, those under 21 will not be allowed in the beer garden.

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Drum Corps International World Championships

The 2010 Drum Corps International World Championships will take place in Indiana from 10-24 August. The competitive action will kick off on 10 August in Michigan City before making its way to downtown Indianapolis.

The Drum Corps International World Championships is the pinnacle of the annual DCI Tour, a series of more than 100 live competitive events that take place across the United States from June through August. The DCI World Championships mark a week-long celebration of the “very best” in the world of marching music. In 2010, more than 40 drum and bugle corps will compete in two classes for the Open and World Class World Championship titles. Participating units will represent more than 20 states and Canada.

Tickets for the Open Class Quarterfinals in Michigan City are available through the Drum Corps International Box Office. Tickets for all events taking place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis are available through Ticketmaster.

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Indy Among Top Cities For Exports

A new study shows Indianapolis is among the nation's leading metro areas for exports, reports Inside INdiana Business. Research from the The Brookings Institution shows the Indianapolis-Carmel area ranks ninth in share of exports and 20th in the value of exports.

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Indy's International Neighborhood

Jolene Ketzenberger, writing in today's Indianapolis Star has a terrific exploration of the myriad ethnic dining options in the Lafayette Square neighborhood of Indianapolis. This northwestside area offers up cuisines as varied as Salvadorian, Vietnamese and Ethiopian.

Read it here (until it disappears behind the newspaper's pay wall). You can find ethnic restaurants in Indy anytime at Indy Ethnic Food, a resource that Ms. Ketzenberger used when penning her piece.

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Eiteljorg to Receive Museums For America Funding

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is the recipient of a $150,000 Museums for America grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, reports Inside INdiana Business. The institution is one of three museums in Indiana to receive the award. The funding will support Project New Moon, a major initiative to develop the Eiteljorg into an active, sensory and engaging experience.

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Rolls-Royce Lands Deal For Canadian Air Force

Lockheed Martin Corp. has selected Indy-based Rolls-Royce to provide engines for military aircraft flown by the Canadian Air Force, reports Inside INdiana Business. The six-year deal is worth more than $70 million and has the potential to exceed $260 million over the life expectancy of the fleet. Rolls-Royce will partner with StandardAero of Winnipeg, Manitoba, to provide engine repair services to the Canadian Air Force.

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USA International Harp Competition

After 10 days of fierce competition amongst 39 harpists representing 15 nations, a gold-medal winner was chosen in the 2010 USA International Harp Competition 17 July at the Musical Arts Center (MAC) of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, reports the IU news bureau.

Agnès Clément (pictured, left) of Lyon, France, won the gold over two other finalists in front of a crowd of more than 1,400 people. The 20-year-old Clément led a field that included Rino Kageyama of Japan, 20, who won the silver medal, and Russian harpist Vasilisa Lushchevskaya, 21, who took the bronze. Susann McDonald, competition founder and artistic director, is pictured, at right.

The eighth triennial contest, which opened 7 July, featured an all-female field. After traveling thousands of miles and memorizing over two hours of required repertoire, competitors vied for more than $100,000 in cash and career assistance.

The fourth- through eighth-prize recipients were:

* 4th Prize: Coline-Marie Orliac, France
* 5th Prize: Jimin Lee, United Kingdom/South Korea
* 6th Prize: Ruriko Yamamiya, Japan
* 7th Prize: Gwenllian Llyr, United Kingdom (Wales)
* 8th Prize: Marta Marinelli, Italy

Special Prizes went to:

* Jan Jennings Prize for Best Performance of "Awakening Stillnesses" by Michael Maganuco: Coline-Marie Orliac, France
* Mario Falcao Prize for Best Performance of Concerto for Harp and Orchestra by Reinhold Glière: Rino Kageyama, Japan

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Dr. Mercy Obeime Profiled in The Indianapolis Star

Health reporter Shari Rudavsky has penned an update on Mercy Obeime in today's Indianapolis Star. Dr. Obeime, a native of Uromi, Nigeria, works at the St. Francis Neighborhood Health Center in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Indianapolis as a family practitioner.

She also makes trips to Nigeria to help the ill there. Her charitable organization, the Mercy Foundation, merged with Indianapolis-based Timmy Foundation recently.

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Global Policy Research Institute

Purdue University's Global Policy Research Institute has hired a new managing director, reports Inside INdiana Business. Angela Phillips Diaz most recently worked with the California Council on Science and Technology on various projects. She has held executive leadership positions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

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Indy International Film Festival Opens Today

The Indianapolis International Film Festival opens today with a packed schedule all the way through 25 July. Most of the showings are at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road, Indianapolis.

The complete schedule is here. And, yes, there are films from every corner of the globe!

Featuring the best in independent and innovative film from both award-winning professionals and emerging filmmakers, IIIF has screened films from nearly every state in the country, as well as from more than 50 countries around the world.

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Indy International Wine Competition Moves to West Lafayette

Winemakers from around the world will send their best wines to Purdue University for the annual Indy International Wine Competition on 4-6 August, reports Inside INdiana Business. This competition, the largest in the United States run by a university will be in West Lafayette for the first time after 17 years in Indianapolis.

The competition, which is free and open to the public, will be at the Purdue Memorial Union. Judging will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 4 and 5 August, and 10 a.m. to noon on 6 August. Expected are more than 3,000 commercial entries from 39 states and 12 countries. More than 50 judges will come from the United States, Europe and Canada to taste, analyze and score the wines. Deadline to enter is 15 July.

A jury of wine industry peers serves as judges: winemakers and chefs, marketing executives and wholesalers, writers and journalists, enologists and winegrowers. They're listed here.

The Indy International Wine Competition is the largest scientifically organized and independent wine competition in the U.S., the world's largest wine market. More than 3,000 commercial entries from 12 countries and 39 US states will be evaluated by 80 judges.

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Ball State Assists Tikrit University in Iraq

Ball State University will receive $1 million from the U.S. Department of State to help transform an Iraqi university's curriculum and its faculty members' teaching style, reports the BSU news bureau. The three-year grant is part of the U.S. Department of State's Iraqi university linkage program, which provides technical and curriculum assistance to Iraqi institutions — in this case, Tikrit University.

Ball State faculty members will work closely with Tikrit University to review its current curriculum and teaching style, which is more of a traditional lecture method, and help it develop a more student-centered, interactive pedagogy.

Ball State professors will also teach courses in English, accounting and computer science via the Web and videoconferencing to 25 of Tikrit's top sophomore students from each of the three academic areas.

Additionally, the grant will afford some Tikrit University faculty members the opportunity to visit Ball State and receive professional development.

BSU Group Returns From Turkey

A delegation from Ball State University has returned from a two-week educational, business relations and economic development trip to Turkey, reports Inside INdiana Business.

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Dr. Giles Hoyt Receives Bundesverdienstkreuz

Giles Hoyt (pictured), Professor Emeritus of German and Philanthropic Studies and past Director of the Max Kade German-American Center in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis is the recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Federal Cross of Honor, which is the Federal Republic of Germany’s highest tribute for services to the nation.

An internationally recognized scholar, Dr. Hoyt's service to the university, as well as to the German-American community, particularly in Indiana and the Midwest, spans more than three decades. He has served on the board of numerous organizations, both locally and nationally, dealing with German-American relations. Professor Hoyt was instrumental in the establishment and development of the IUPUI Max Kade German-American Research and Resource Center, a national model for interdisciplinary German and German-American Studies.

The Bundesverdienstkreuz was instituted in 1951 by German President Theodor Heuss. It is the only honor that may be awarded in all fields of endeavor. It may be awarded to Germans as well as foreigners for achievements in the political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for a myriad of outstanding services to the nation in the fields of social, charitable and philanthropic work.

Hoyt received the Cross 23 June from Consul General of Germany Onno Hueckmann, who traveled from Chicago to make the presentation. The ceremony took place at the Indianapolis Athenaeum and was hosted by the Max Kade German-American Center. Indiana’s Honorary Consul to Germany, Sven Schumacher, served as the event emcee.

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Purdue Honors World Food Prize Winner

The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday approved renaming the Food Science Building in honor of Philip E. Nelson, who developed the program into one of the strongest in the nation and became an international laureate for his work in improving the world's food supply, reports the Purdue News Bureau.

Nelson, who retired in May at age 75, ended a 50-year career at Purdue, most recently as the Scholle Chair Professor in Food Processing. He was the food science department's first chairman when it was created in 1983 and served in that position for 20 years.

The building, dedicated in 1998 after a campaign that Nelson led for its construction, will be called the Philip E. Nelson Hall of Food Science. Largely designed by Nelson, it has been a model for other food science buildings in the United States.

It was his work in food science that brought Nelson international acclaim as recipient of the World Food Prize in 2007. Created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman E. Borlaug and often called the "Nobel Prize for Agriculture," the award honored Nelson for his aseptic processing innovation. The system revolutionized food trade by reducing post-harvest waste and making seasonal fruits and vegetables available year-round and easier to transport worldwide. The technology was used to bring potable water and emergency food to survivors of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and to victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It continues to be employed for safe and economical food processing, shipping and storage globally.

Nelson was the first Purdue faculty member to receive the World Food Prize since it was established in 1986. In 2008 Gov. Mitch Daniels created the Philip E. Nelson Innovation Prize to recognize scientists annually for their discoveries, research and inventions.

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Brebeuf, Guerin Have Ties to Kenya

The Indianapolis Star reports that students from Brébeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis and Guerin Catholic High School in Noblesville (and their families) are in Kenya this week to deliver books to stock a library at the New Life Home's orphanage in Ruiru, near Nairobi.

You can read about it here until it expires from The Star's free online archive!

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Nominations Open for 2012 Indianapolis Prize

Nominations for the 2012 Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation, will be accepted from now until 21 January 2011. The $100,000 biennial award is given to an individual animal conservationist who has made significant achievements in advancing sustainability of an animal species or group of species. It represents the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world and is given as an unrestricted gift to the chosen recipient.

Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton (pictured) is the 2010 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize. Dr. Douglas-Hamilton will receive $100,000 and the Lilly Medal at a gala ceremony presented by Cummins Inc. on 25 September 2010 at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.

Anyone can nominate a candidate for the Indianapolis Prize. To be accepted as nominees, individuals must have accomplished a personal achievement or series of achievements that have resulted in a demonstrable positive impact on a species or group of species that is likely to improve the species’ likelihood of long-term survival.

For complete guidelines and to learn more about the nominating process, send an e-mail to nomination@indianapolisprize.org. Once your request has been received, a nomination form with instructions may be sent by return e-mail if applicable.

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National Hispanic Institute Program at DePauw

DePauw University in Greencastle served as the host of the Great Lakes Great Debate, a program for high school freshmen presented by the National Hispanic Institute 20-25 June, reports the DePauw news bureau. The Great Debate allows high school freshmen the opportunity to test and improve their written and verbal communication skills through organized discussions and debates about issues that impact today's Latino community.

The program is coordinated by the National Hispanic Institute, which aims to cultivate leadership for the 21st century U.S. Latino community.

The event is presented through a grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education. The Lumina Foundation for Education is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school.

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IU's HPER Students Off to Dominican Republic

The Indiana University (Bloomington) School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation's (HPER) Office of Underwater Science is partnering with fifth-grade teachers from Edgewood Intermediate School in Ellettsville to develop a curriculum based on actual IU research taking place in the Dominican Republic and involving some of the West's earliest explorers, reports the IU News Bureau.

The 11 teachers and IU researchers will travel on 4 July to the Dominican Republic, where they will walk on the streets and follow the paths of explorers such as Christopher Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Hernando Cortes, and others. In preparation for the trip, the teachers have been attending lectures at the IU Underwater Science lab, which is under the direction of archeologist Charles Beeker, and have been learning to snorkel so they can view ruins of sunken ships and other underwater discoveries.

The purpose of the curriculum is to expand the view and understanding of the age of exploration and the first contacts between the indigenous groups and European explorers, ultimately encouraging students to broaden their world view and increase tolerance and acceptance.

As a result, this unit intends to develop a practical curriculum that they hope will be available to all fifth-grade teachers in Indiana and contain a variety of artifacts for students to be able to manipulate.

With the proposed curriculum, students will:

* Travel through history by simulation from 1492-1783
* Experience life as a captain of a fleet
* Plan for voyage (food, supplies, placement in ship, etc.)
* Log daily journal entries by keeping a captain's log
* Encounter explorers traveling to the New World

Currently, the plan is for eight classrooms at Edgewood Intermediate School to pilot the model curriculum in the fall of 2010.

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Liberian Restaurant Opens in Indy

The Indianapolis Star reports that a new restaurant featuring the cuisine of Liberia has opened on the northwest side of Indy. Dekontee Spot is located at 3037 Lafayette Road, Indianapolis. Hours are noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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