<\/a><\/p>\nPENNEY\u2019S PROGRESS <\/strong>Five years ago, Shirl Penney \u201999 was completing a rags-to-riches climb from a hardscrabble childhood Down East to a thriving career on Wall Street (\u201cA Penney Earned,\u201d Summer 2005<\/a>). In December, Penney created major Wall Street buzz<\/a> with the launch of Dynasty Financial Partners, of which he is president and CEO. The Wall Street Journal and others say the firm could challenge the existing wealth-management model, as Dynasty seeks to serve independent financial advisers who are trending away from traditional wire houses.<\/p>\n VOLUMES OF VOLUMES<\/strong> Afghanistan native Mustafa Basij-Rasikh \u201912, an advocate of education\u2019s power to relieve that nation\u2019s burdens (\u201cFolks Back Home,\u201d Spring 2010<\/a>), led a book drive last summer<\/a> that amassed some 2,000 volumes for Polytechnic University of Kabul. Bowdoin and Colby students pitched in, and Chris Robinson \u201907 and others paid for shipping. Basij-Rasikh has also established a charity to help land-mine victims and, with a friend, founded the Afghan Youth Initiative.<\/p>\n RECITING SITES<\/strong> After last year\u2019s earthquake in Haiti, Myron Beasley reflected on his experiences curating the inaugural Ghetto Biennale exhibit in Port-au-Prince (\u201cAsk Me Another,\u201d Spring 2010)<\/a>. Beasley, an assistant professor in the African American and American cultural studies programs, has won a Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant<\/a> to support his book project Reciting Sites<\/em>. The book takes an intensely subjective view of ways in which artists in the African Diaspora incorporate ritual death practices into their work.<\/p>\n