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Six prizes were awarded across three categories in the annual Public Speaking Competition on Saturday, March 3, in the Chapel. The 18 finalists were chosen after an open preliminary round held in February. Speakers’ presentations were either persuasive or informative in nature, and in one category, students were asked to address an assigned topic.

Members of the Hamilton community again supported the annual America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk, held this year on March 4 in Utica. Donations are still being counted for this year's event,according to Colleen Pellman, a team captain. Last year Team Hamilton had 162 participants and raised $6395 for the American Heart Association. 

Hamilton’s 2012 Public Speaking Competition will take place on Saturday, March 3, from 1-4 p.m. in the Chapel. In this annual event students will compete for three different prizes: The McKinney Prize, The Clark Prize and The Warren E. Wright Prize.

Actor and screenwriter Nat Faxon ’97 won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants during the Feb. 26 Academy Awards. The award, which he received with co-writers Alexander Payne and Jim Rash, is given to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel, play, short story, or TV show but also sometimes another film). Faxon, who majored in theatre at Hamilton, started comedy troupe Bobby Peru. He was profiled in the Spring 2007 Alumni Review article “Roll Credits.”

For the eighth year, students from Boston’s Citizen Schools are visiting Hamilton as members of 8th Grade Academy. Citizen Schools is a growing national network of after-school education programs for middle school students.

Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era, a 2010 book by Associate Professor of History Chad Williams, has received a CHOICE designation from the American Library Association.

Dr. Noliwe Rooks, associate director of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, will join Hamilton students in a panel discussion on hair and self-expression on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ. The panel will be moderated by Professor of Classics and Africana Studies Shelley Haley and is free and open to the public.  

Hamilton’s annual FebFest concluded on Feb. 18 with the always popular Chili Cookoff in the Little Pub. For the second consecutive year Nile Berry ’14, Michael Kendall ’14 and Carolina Geiger ’14 won the cook-off, with their “We're not cold, we're chili” entry.

Ann Owen, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics, was interviewed for a story on NPR on Feb. 17 after Congress approved legislation to continue a payroll tax holiday and extend benefits for the long-term unemployed.

FebFest, Hamilton’s annual winter carnival, celebrated Valentine’s Day with a chocolate tasting in Sadove Student Center living room on Feb. 14. Students piled their plates with chocolate mousse, chocolate cheesecake and other decadent desserts. They also had the opportunity to decorate Valentine’s Day cards for their sweethearts.