Psychology Junior

by Sara Cunningham

Amanda Hatton’s honesty and passion shines as she talks about the challenges she’s faced and how those challenges have shaped her goals.

“Five years ago, I had a big setback in my life,” the psychology junior said.

On Aug. 9, 2003, Hatton and her boyfriend were in a serious car accident on their way out to her family’s farm in Woodford County. Hatton’s boyfriend was killed and Hatton was badly injured. She spent two months in a coma, Hatton said.

“I had a closed-head injury and when I did finally wake up, there was so much I didn’t remember and I had to relearn how to do a lot,” she said.

But Hatton said she found strength in her experience and in her family. She is the youngest of seven children.

"When my accident happened, I was a student at LCC and I had to take that fall

Jason Cummins’ employer gave him a three-year, full-tuition college scholarship, sent him to flight school, paid him to attend one of the most prestigious MBA programs in the country, and asked him to teach economics at West Point. In May, the UK Class of 1993 alum returned to take up the leadership of the UK Army ROTC program; the same program from which he himself graduated 16 years ago.

Cummins’ office walls in Barker Hall display a scrapbook of his Army career: the tail rotor blade from an Apache helicopter, the flag of the 101st Airborne, his MBA diploma from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a cavalry sabre, and unit pictures from Iraq

Katherine Osborne knew UK’s Department of English was the right graduate program for her the moment she met then-DGS Ellen Rosenman during a campus tour.

"She talked about her work, but she was more interested in me,” said Osborne, a Frankfort, Ky., native and graduate of Hanover College in Indiana. “I could tell she was interested in graduate students. That was evident from the get-go. She just completely turned me on to the program.”

Now in her fifth year at UK, Osborne’s interest in 19th-century British literature has flourished under Rosenman’s mentoring. Osborne credits two of Rosenman’s courses—one on George Eliot and the other on material objects in the Victorian age—as the impetus for

by Laura Sutton

photos by Lee Thomas and Brian Connors Manke

“It’s necessary for human beings to establish laws for themselves and live according to laws, or they differ in no way from the beasts that are the most savage in every way.”

(874e-875a, tr. Thomas Pangle).

In Plato’s “Laws,” the philosopher sketches the basic political structure and laws for a proposed colony in Crete. During the Workshop on Plato’s Laws participants will concern themselves with engagement in a similar political community. The anticipated event takes place at the University of Kentucky on March 26-28, 2009.

While conference-goers won’t be founding a city as happens in the “Laws,” the group will be undergoing some of the same processes by creating standards, norms and

by Laura Sutton

photos by Lee Thomas and Brian Connors Manke

“It’s necessary for human beings to establish laws for themselves and live according to laws, or they differ in no way from the beasts that are the most savage in every way.”

(874e-875a, tr. Thomas Pangle).

In Plato’s “Laws,” the philosopher sketches the basic political structure and laws for a proposed colony in Crete. During the Workshop on Plato’s Laws participants will concern themselves with engagement in a similar political community. The anticipated event takes place at the University of Kentucky on March 26-28, 2009.

While conference-goers won’t be founding a city as happens in the “Laws,” the group will be undergoing some of the same processes by creating standards, norms and

Was it destiny or some predisposition that led John Yozwiak to the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences? Or maybe it simply was a matter of finding a great opportunity.

Yozwiak, whose grandfather was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Youngstown State University, was born in Binghamton, N.Y., but found himself relocated with his family to Lexington, Ky., when he was six.

Upon graduating from Lexington Catholic High School in 1990, Yozwiak, who comes from a long line of college graduates, knew that college was certainly the next step. He used his experiences from visiting friends at UK as well as his desire to stay close to home in choosing his collegiate destination.

“My family has always valued education. Therefore, attending college was very important to me,” Yozwiak said. “In part, I decided to attend the University of

by Robin Roenker

Five years from now, the University of Kentucky will be regarded as one of the centers for cutting-edge research on children at risk.

That’s the hope of husband and wife psychology professors Robert and Elizabeth Lorch, who have spearheaded the effort to create a new Children at Risk Research Cluster at UK.

With funds awarded through the university’s College of Arts & Sciences, the Lorches have helped oversee the hiring of five new faculty members - three in psychology and two in sociology - whose expertise and broad-ranging scope of

Undergraduate Student

Like countless other youngsters, Dustin Zerrer wanted to be a baseball player when he grew up. He even earned a scholarship to play in college, but after injuries derailed his career, he found himself at Eastern Kentucky University as a turf management/sports management major. He eventually worked for minor league organizations like the Lexington Legends and Dayton Dragons as an assistant groundskeeper.

Then he called for a timeout, stepped out of the batter’s box and reassessed his life. He wanted to take a different direction.

He knew education was the key. His first go around in college he admitted to being a below-average student that had poor work habits. So, he enrolled at Bluegrass Community and Technical College (Lexington Community College at the time) to rededicate himself to academics.

Ph.D. Student

Whether it has been in the fields of Guatemala, the rural landscape of Kentucky, or as a government official in Japan, Kiyo Sakamoto’s interest in the social aspects of agriculture has been the one constant that has propelled his work over the past 15 years.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Chiba University in his homeland of Japan, Sakamoto then worked with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers – a group “which is similar to the U.S. Peace Corps,” he said.

That landed him in Guatemala where he worked on agricultural recommendations and management issues for fruit cultivation in the developing Central American economy.

When he returned home two and a half years later, he took a position in the Japanese government  as a technical officer in