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<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/lusk_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />Over the past year, Daniel Lusk has cultivated a new favorite way to spend a bit of spare time: "I go down to ECHO and stare at the big fish." Gazing in the tanks at the lake aquarium on Burlington's waterfront, the poet and senior lecturer in English ponders species such as the long-nosed gar and the sturgeon, ungainly creatures suggestive of another epoch.

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/maryready_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />It began to rain in the early evening of July 13, 2008, and the crowd of hundreds of people who'd been gathering on the green at Bandstand Park in Lyndonville, Vt., moved to a local school auditorium instead. They'd come from throughout the Northeast Kingdom and from points across the map of Vermont and New Hampshire to gather for a service to honor the memory of a man whose loss had touched everyone in the community.

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/vivanco_430x300.jpg" height="300" width="430" />Preparing for life in a world of interwoven and ever-shifting divides between countries and cultures requires an education built upon many perspectives, a passport to cross academic borders freely. That spirit drives the structure and name of the "new" Global and Regional Studies Program, which debuted with the fall semester. <span id="caption">"Though it sounds trite, I don't think there's any job in this century that <em>won't</em> require a global perspective," says Global Studies major Julia Michel, seen here with program director Luis Vivanco.</span>

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/johnburke_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />Every four years, John Burke, professor of political science, is a hot commodity as conferences and members of the media seek the opinion of the national expert on presidential transitions and other issues related to incoming and outgoing presidents. In between these cycles, he's managed to crank out eight books, including his latest offering,<em>Honest Broker: The National Security Advisor and Presidential Decision Making.</em>