Ellen Percy Kraly: New Hand on the
Helm of Colgate’s Upstate Institute
Since January, Ellen Percy Kraly has spent
almost a month in Africa and a like amount of
time this summer in Australia.
Now, this Colgate geography professor is
focusing much of her time and attention on
issues closer to home … literally. As of a month
or so ago, Kraly has taken over the Upstate
Institute, Colgate’s innovative program to bring
its resources – especially the research
capabilities of its faculty and students – to bear
on issues facing counties in and around the
Mohawk Valley. It’s a position Kraly is pleased to
hold, and one she said fits with her philosophy
as an educator.
“In almost all that I teach I get students out into
the community,” said Kraly, whose time in Africa
was spent with the Nobel Prize winning
international health care organization Doctors
Without Borders. “If they are to retain what they
are learning, they have to get their hands dirty. It
puts theory into practice.”
For example, Kraly, whose husband Scott is a
professor of psychology at Colgate, teaches U.
S. immigration policy. To connect with the
community outside of Colgate, Kraly and her
students work with the Mohawk Valley Resource
Center for Refugees.
Beyond helping her Colgate students learn
practical lessons, Kraly believes having them
work in the surrounding communities could have
another long term benefit. She hopes that as the
students get to know more about this region, a
few may connect to it and decide to stay, to work
here after they graduate.
Kraly said she will be teaching two classes a
semester and spending the rest of her time
leading the Upstate Institute, “building on what
Jill (Tiefenthaler, the founding director of the
institute and economics professor) has done.”
The institute’s Summer Field School is a good
example of how Colgate students can work in
and with community organizations to the benefit
of all. Eighteen students are working on projects
with a variety of organizations through the
institute. These range from one student working
with two Madison County villages to assess their
sewer systems to another helping establish a
farmers’ market in a low-income area of Albany.
Kraly said one of the projects about to get under
way for the institute this fall is a speakers series
on the topic of the New York Regional
Interconnect, Inc.’s proposed 400,000-volt
electric transmission line that would run through
much of institute’s service area. The goal is to
bring in numerous speakers to help citizens
better understand the numerous issues
surrounding the controversial $1.62 billion
project.
In the works, according to Kraly, is a symposium
for filmmakers across New York State.
For Kraly, projects such as these and the work
she and her geography students do with
community organizations and institutions are
second nature to her as a Colgate professor.
This sort of regional research “is very much in
my bones, it makes me a better person.”
Posted 2006.8.9
Helm of Colgate’s Upstate Institute
Since January, Ellen Percy Kraly has spent
almost a month in Africa and a like amount of
time this summer in Australia.
Now, this Colgate geography professor is
focusing much of her time and attention on
issues closer to home … literally. As of a month
or so ago, Kraly has taken over the Upstate
Institute, Colgate’s innovative program to bring
its resources – especially the research
capabilities of its faculty and students – to bear
on issues facing counties in and around the
Mohawk Valley. It’s a position Kraly is pleased to
hold, and one she said fits with her philosophy
as an educator.
“In almost all that I teach I get students out into
the community,” said Kraly, whose time in Africa
was spent with the Nobel Prize winning
international health care organization Doctors
Without Borders. “If they are to retain what they
are learning, they have to get their hands dirty. It
puts theory into practice.”
For example, Kraly, whose husband Scott is a
professor of psychology at Colgate, teaches U.
S. immigration policy. To connect with the
community outside of Colgate, Kraly and her
students work with the Mohawk Valley Resource
Center for Refugees.
Beyond helping her Colgate students learn
practical lessons, Kraly believes having them
work in the surrounding communities could have
another long term benefit. She hopes that as the
students get to know more about this region, a
few may connect to it and decide to stay, to work
here after they graduate.
Kraly said she will be teaching two classes a
semester and spending the rest of her time
leading the Upstate Institute, “building on what
Jill (Tiefenthaler, the founding director of the
institute and economics professor) has done.”
The institute’s Summer Field School is a good
example of how Colgate students can work in
and with community organizations to the benefit
of all. Eighteen students are working on projects
with a variety of organizations through the
institute. These range from one student working
with two Madison County villages to assess their
sewer systems to another helping establish a
farmers’ market in a low-income area of Albany.
Kraly said one of the projects about to get under
way for the institute this fall is a speakers series
on the topic of the New York Regional
Interconnect, Inc.’s proposed 400,000-volt
electric transmission line that would run through
much of institute’s service area. The goal is to
bring in numerous speakers to help citizens
better understand the numerous issues
surrounding the controversial $1.62 billion
project.
In the works, according to Kraly, is a symposium
for filmmakers across New York State.
For Kraly, projects such as these and the work
she and her geography students do with
community organizations and institutions are
second nature to her as a Colgate professor.
This sort of regional research “is very much in
my bones, it makes me a better person.”
Posted 2006.8.9
Ellen Percy Kraly is the new
director of Colgate's Upstate
Institute.
Colgate photo
director of Colgate's Upstate
Institute.
Colgate photo