Dickinson Magazine Fall 2013

fall 2013 volume 9 1

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dickinson magazine

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volume 91

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[ contents ] Dickinson Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Publisher and Vice President Stephanie Balmer Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara Editor Michelle Simmons Assistant Editor Lauren Davidson Staff Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Landesberg Design Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore Erin Owens ’15 Magazine Advisory Group Gail Birch Huganir ’80 Kathy Marcello ’80 Jim Gerencser ’93 Matt Fahnestock ’01 David Richeson Adrienne Su Paula Lima-Jones Web site www.dickinson.edu/magazine E-mail Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2013. Dickinson Magazine is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October, by Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA 17013-1773.

16 Twenty-eight: Dickinson’s first woman president, Nancy A. Roseman, approaches her new role with an eye for detail and a heart for students. 24 Handmade and Homegrown: From cutting their own timber to designing their own pottery tools, these alumni take the “art” in artisanal seriously. 32 Pause and Savor: The Dickinson in Málaga program continues to accrue international attention, as this summer’s poetry and lecture series illustrated. 34 Time Passages: What were some of the must-attend events at Alumni Week­ end this June? 36 Lending a Hand: Dickinsonians returned to campus in August to answer the question “Why volunteer?”

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up front

2 Dickinson matters

24

3

ask the archivist

4

our view

5

your view

6

college & west high

i n b a ck

38 fine print 39 kudos 40 beyond the limestone walls 42 our Dickinson 54 obituaries

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56 closing thoughts

34 on the cover

President Nancy A. Roseman (photographed by Carl Socolow ’77)

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[ Dickinson matters ]

Tools to engage the world Nancy A. Roseman, president

T

his June, I attended my first Dickinson Alumni Weekend. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet alumni from across the decades, all having experienced Dickinson at different points in its evolution. Among the many constants — from those celebrating their 50th reunion to those celebrating their fifth — was a deep affection for Dickinson, and for one another.

The first Dickinsonian I met in a long receiving line on a stellar afternoon outside the Stern Center for Global Education clearly had thought carefully about what he would share with me in the few minutes we had together. He warmly welcomed me and quickly told me how Dickinson had shaped his life.

The structure of this encounter was repeated as each person after him sought to give me a glimpse of why they loved Dickinson so much, how much it had affected their lives and created opportunities for them and why they were counting on me to be a good steward of their beloved college.

That very first conversation among hundreds has stayed with me. It was an intensely related account of how the skills he had developed at Dickinson while studying foreign languages and cultures had opened a career path that otherwise would not have been possible. He wanted me to fully appreciate how well Dickinson had prepared him for his future, personally and professionally. This theme, about the impact of language and

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cultural competency in our alumni’s lives, was repeated as the long line of well-wishers had their say.

Dickinson provides a rigorous intellectual environment, with our language requirement being one of many impressive examples. The foreign-language program, combined with our global-studies initiatives and study-abroad programs, is a great strength of the college. Students in our foreign-language program, whether they are majors or simply fulfilling our language requirement — and by the way, over 60 percent of our students go beyond our requirement and take additional coursework — are developing not only language skills but also an appreciation and deep understanding of the associated culture. In fact, cultural competency, being able to navigate outside one’s comfort zone, is one of the greatest skills we can instill in our Dickinsonians, particularly in a world increasingly without borders.

A query to our language faculty on my behalf resulted in a chorus of faculty members proudly describing their ­curriculum and students’ accomplishments. Many pointed to their collaborative work with colleagues from other disciplines at the college. A deep culture of collaboration among our ­faculty is a constant source of new ideas and opportunities for our students. In fact, we pride ourselves on teaching in a way that connects the dots between seemingly disparate fields. This kind of synthetic thinking and doing is part of the power of a liberal-arts education, but ours is a distinctively Dickinsonian approach. Where else would a student majoring in Russian studies be able to assist our earth scientists in monitoring and studying a recent volcanic eruption in Russia?

Our alumni constantly tell us of the remarkable career paths and life experiences that their study of foreign languages and cultures made possible. Our graduates’ language facility and their ability to navigate and thrive among cultural differences have opened doors to countless people and opportunities. Our language requirement, something that many liberal-arts colleges do not have, allows our graduates to live and work around the globe. Ultimately, they depart Carlisle fully equipped with the desire and the tools to engage the world.

[ ask the archivist ] Instead of discussing just one item, I’m going to mention a whole category. For me, the most interesting items are among the rarest — those things that show us the college experience from the perspective of the students them­ selves. What is in relatively short supply among our varied collections are letters, journals, scrapbooks, photographs and What is other memorabilia that show us what you r favor i t e students were thinking, how they were item in the spending their free time and how they archives? were growing as individuals during A l l i s o n Sc h e l l ’ 1 1 their years at Dickinson. It is relatively infrequent that the diaries kept by ­students, the letters they sent to family and friends or the snapshots they took find their way to our vault.

During his first year at Dickinson, 16-year-old Horatio Collins King, class of 1858, authored journal entries about flirting with local girls, staging musical performances downtown with his classmates and going out for ice cream. According to her diaries, Hazelle Allen Brooks ’34 enjoyed a lively social life that included dating, going to the movies, skipping French class and holding bull sessions with her friends. And in a letter to his brother, Cyrus Trimble, class of 1817, writes that he is a member of the Union Philosophical Society but that he cannot say much more because

the literary societies “are a little on the Freemason order in the way of secrets.”

Written accounts like these help to tell the story of student daily life with a great deal of color and character.

Scrapbooks also help tell the story, but they use more images, printed materials and mementos in doing so. In her bulging scrapbook, Marion Bell ’46 pasted a petition against the dean of women and other items reflecting student dissatisfaction with the college administration. In contrast, Clarence Shepherd, class of 1910, displayed in his book rivalries among the classes, with photos and clippings of scraps, smokers and class parades featured throughout.

Though these fascinating glimpses into student life are rare, alumni continue to make gifts that add to our collections. Craig Weeks ’77 recently donated a cache of letters he sent home while studying abroad in Medellín, Colombia, during the fall of 1976. Similarly, Elizabeth Bloss Breisch ’58 donated the first letter she wrote to her parents after entering the college in the fall of 1954. These latest gifts, for which I and my archives colleagues are very grateful, join my list of favorites for the way they help to enrich our understanding of student life at Dickinson through the ages.

—Jim Gerencser ’93

Send your questions for Ask the Archivist to dsonmag@dickinson.edu.

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[ our view ]

New class, new momentum Stephanie Balmer, vice president f o r e n r o l l m e n t , m a r k e t i n g a n d c o mm u n i c a t i o n s a n d d e a n o f a d m i s s i o n s

• There are 36 states, including Washington, D.C., and 18 countries, including the U.S., represented in the class.

• Public-school students (60 percent) outnumber privateschool students (40 percent).

• Domestic students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds constitute 15 percent of the class, international students represent 8 percent and alumni legacies 8.5 percent.

• Recruited athletes constitute 24 percent of the class.

Recruited squash players in the class of 2017 will likely play on our new varsity men’s and women’s squash teams in 2014–15, which will bring our varsity sport count to 25.

• Fifty-five percent of the first-year class has been awarded need-based financial aid, totaling more than $10 million dollars.

A

s we welcome our 28th president, Nancy A. Roseman, and new leadership this academic year, we also welcome a new class — the class of 2017.

This incoming class is notable for numerous reasons.

We received 5,827 applications—or nine applications for every place in the class. With an admit rate of 44.4 percent and a yield rate of 24.2 percent, we welcomed 626 first-years — including 12 students arriving following a gap year. In addition, 16 transfer students, including six students from two of our communitycollege partner institutions, arrived this academic year.

Moreover, the academic profile and diversity of this class are impressive: • For those submitting standardized test scores (approximately 69 percent of the class, as Dickinson has had a test-optional policy since 1996), the average SAT Critical Reading and Math score is 1288 (includes converted ACT scores).

Of those reporting class rank (27 percent of the class), 46 percent graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

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Not surprisingly, incoming students have strong backgrounds in community service and civic involvement and were attracted to Dickinson for our deep commitment to sustainability and global study, among other academic strengths.

Although other recent classes have used social media to research and select a college, the class of 2017 has used this platform — whether it was Facebook, Twitter or Instagram — with regularity and learned much more about the college (and one another) prior to their August arrival. And it is in large part due to the prowess of our prospective and current students, parents, faculty, alumni and donors that we are developing a brand refresh that will result in a new college Web site, an integrated admissions campaign and an expanded social-media presence. You can expect a new sitewide architecture, improved navigation and a social-media wall that more prominently displays and streamlines our social-media feeds.

The admissions campaign was launched this fall, and the new Web site will go live in early 2014. Work to date has involved the entire college community — including the Web Advisory Committee, composed of students, faculty and staff.

The committee has been researching and evaluating best practices and advising our agency of record, 160over90, a Philadelphia-based firm with extensive experience in highereducation and consumer client work. 160over90 has developed

[ your view ]

campaigns for Cornell University, the University of Southern California–Los Angeles, the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University–Maryland. The agency’s authentic and powerful representation of these institutions is smart and just what Dickinson deserves. It is vital that we leverage the college’s strengths through a refreshed narrative and design and convey the urgency of why a Dickinson education matters. The new Web site and admissions campaign will advance the changes we have made in the past 18 months with the introduction of a new graphic identity and a refreshed Dickinson Magazine.

The goals developed by our on-campus steering committee will be more than met in our work with 160over90. The agency’s poignant stories and contemporary design will not only refresh the Dickinson brand and narrative but also elevate the college’s status and stature among the most respected and selective liberal-arts colleges as well as firmly establish the tangible and intangible qualities of the Dickinson experience and the long-term value it provides. These are bold goals, and our college is most deserving. We look forward to hearing from you about these enhancements in the months to come.

Although other recent classes have used social media to research and select a college, the class of 2017 has used this platform — whether it was Facebook, Twitter or Instagram — with regularity and learned much more about the college (and one another) prior to their August arrival.

I was pleased in reading the summer 2013 issue of Dickinson Magazine to see how similar thinking guided both President Nancy Roseman and parent Hugh Howard in emphasizing the importance of experiential learning in preparing liberalarts graduates to respond to the challenges of living intelligently and creatively in our increasingly complex, information-saturated world. President Roseman wisely notes the importance of “intellectual flexibility and breadth across disciplines” as an essential part of a liberal-arts education, and Mr. Howard celebrates his daughter’s and her peers’ collaborative experience in curating the senior art show at The Trout Gallery. Any education that ignores the lessons that students may learn from taking on meaningful tasks that are important to them, as well as to sample areas of knowledge that broaden one’s outlook and ultimately participate in a capstone project that provides solid evidence of lessons learned, is an incomplete education. I am pleased to see that both our new college president and a parent of a new graduate of Dickinson share this perspective.

Peter Schmidt ’69 Co-Director, The Institute at Turbat’s Creek Kennebunkport, Maine

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[ college & west high ]

topdog T

he Idea Fund has empowered students to bring much to the Dickinson community — a mobile coffee cart, a bike-building and repair shop, an expansion of the biodiesel program, to name a few. And now, it’s bringing puppies. That’s right — puppies.

And those puppies need a house — to be more precise, the Dickinson Dog House.

The idea formed when Lauren Holtz ’15 met Sam Silvershein ’14, who had worked with North Star Foundation, a nonprofit organization that breeds golden retrievers to be trained and placed with kids with autism, emotional / social disorders or major medical conditions. With six years of dog training under her belt, Holtz was eager to bring this important service to Dickinson.

Student Handiwork for Organized Projects (SHOP) is another Idea Fund initiative that brings together students, faculty and staff to participate in a “skillshare” program.

This summer, SHOP worked with facilities-management staff to build a bamboo fence for the College Farm, make improvements to the Idea Fund office and renovate that North Street house to serve as the official Dog House space.

This multifaceted program is now a community-service initiative and is co-advised by Amanda Hanson, program coordinator for community service; Heather Champion ’97, regional development officer; and Ken Shultes ’89, associate vice president for campus operations.

“I think it’s a testament to how dynamic this project is that there are so many elements needed to make it work,” says

“Oftentimes people think sustainability means reusing a water bottle, but really sustainability means it’s something that can be continued, can last,

can grow and can foster new ideas and new ways of looking at things.”

Holtz. “They always say it takes a village, and it kind of does.”

And on Sept. 1, the work of that village paid off. Loki and Regis arrived on campus and were welcomed into their new home with their four new roommates: Holtz, Zarzeka, Eller Mallchok ’15 and Justin McCarty ’15. The dogs and the trainers will work, learn and grow together throughout the semester, after which the pups will be placed with two well-deserving families.

“We really want to focus on the social sustainability aspect of this,” says Holtz. “Oftentimes people think sustainability means reusing a water bottle, but really sustainability means it’s something that can be continued, can last, can grow and can foster new ideas and new ways of looking at things. When we say ‘social sustainability,’ we want this to become an integrated part of Dickinson and what it means to be here and part of this community.”— Lauren Davidson

Follow the progress of the Dog House, Regis and Loki.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dickinsondoghouse | Twitter: @DsonDogHouse View more photos and a video featuring the Dog House members working to train Loki and Regis at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Carl Socolow ’77

Along with Carley Zarzeka ’15, Holtz and Silvershein collaborated with Idea Fund project consultants to craft a vision and direction for the project. Last spring, they were approved for a pre-pilot program, which brought North Star golden retriever Dino to campus for one month to complete his training following guidelines provided by North Star.

The students exchanged e-mails with Christopher, a boy with high-functioning autism who was eagerly awaiting the first four-legged member of his support team.

“It was nice to know that this is the person who we’re helping,” Holtz says. “This is the person whose life we’re changing.

“We realized that to maximize the potential of this, we needed a physical space to raise the puppies,” she continues, explaining that Dino had thrived in an off-campus, collegeowned house on North Street, but the trainers had to come and go at all hours of the day and night. “So that’s when SHOP stepped in.”

[ college & west high ]

No day at the beach:

Student-faculty research roundup Fall

T

his summer, nearly two dozen studentfaculty research projects took flight on and off campus and around the world.

Professor of Mathematics Barry Tesman and Marc Besson ’15 conducted research in graph theory, while Assistant Professor of Biology Tiffany Frey brought in Katelyn Swade ’15 to study the mechanisms of CD14 (a human gene) expression and Assistant Professor of Psychology Sharon Kingston and Emily Knight ’14 studied how young people recover from substance use and abuse.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Rebecca Connor and Myungsun Shin ’14 continued their research exploring parthenolide — a chemical compound found in feverfew (daisies).

A proven anti-inflammatory, parthenolide also has been shown to affect leukemic stem cells. “If you can kill those cells, you can stop the recurrence and you can have a true cure,” Connor said.

Professor of English Wendy Moffat enlisted Colin Tripp ’14 to help conduct research for an upcoming work. “It’s a book about three Americans in the First World War and their experience — a cultural history disguised as a group biography,” Moffat said.

“This is my first time working with primary documents like these,” said Tripp, whose role had been processing and examining nearly 90 letters and postcards from the era, trying to tease out nuggets of the story.

Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Ben Edwards headed to Iceland with Ellen Was ’14, Aleksander Perpalaj ’14 and Elizabeth Plascencia ’16 to get up close and personal

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with pillow lava. The lava is formed when magma exudes under sheets of ice, and Iceland is one the few places on Earth where it can be found. Edwards and his research team climbed inside volcanoes, collecting and classifying hundreds of samples.

For an upcoming book, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Chauncey Maher and Molly Mullane ’15 researched “inten­tionality”— representing one’s world in thought. Between simply reacting to what happens around you and conveying thoughts through language lies a philosophical and scientific gray area. “Many nonhuman animals exhibit sophisticated cognitive skills,” said Maher. But knowing this leads to another question: Do these cognitive skills require intentionality—the ability to represent things in the way that, for example, words, pictures and maps do? — Tony Moore

Events theatre music readings dance lectures

Oct. 23 Clarke Forum Event Emancipation Proclamation: Myths and Realities James Oakes, City University of New York Oct. 29 Clarke Forum Event China-India Future Relations Mark Frazier, New School for Social Research Oct. 30-Nov. 2 Artists-in-Residence Roomful of Teeth Nov. 1–Feb. 28, 2014

The Trout Gallery Sue Coe: Ghosts of Our Meat

Nov. 5 Clarke Forum Event The Dark Matter: Race and Racism Howard Winant, University of California-Santa Barbara Nov. 7 Joseph Priestley Lecture White House Arrest and the Climate Crisis James Hansen, former director, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies Nov. 12-16 Artists-in-Residence Singer Pur Nov. 15–17 The Dance Show

Read full stories at dson.co/2013summerresearch.

Captured in Glass 3

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f you look at the stained-glass windows created by Dennis Akin, a certain axiom comes to mind: Both religion and tragedy breed meaningful art.

From the Renaissance to Picasso’s Guernica, the traditional and the modern have found inspiration in these themes, and Akin has found it there as well for some of his finer pieces.

Akin, who taught art and art history at Dickinson for more than 20 years, learned how to create architectural glassworks at the Pilchuck Glass School in Pilchuck, Wash., while on sabbatical. In 1981 Dickinson commissioned his first stained-glass piece when the college’s gymnasium was being transformed into the Weiss Center for the Arts. Over the years, he created 24 more windows, among them two that he cites as personally significant.

The first is a large three-piece window he created for the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life. “That’s one that I’m especially proud of,” he says. Found in the upstairs sanctuary, the triptych depicts the Biblical flood and the dove that appeared later to indicate that dry ground could be found. The whole work is centered on the Lion of Judah, one of the primary symbols of Judaism.

The other window is in Bosler Hall.

“I did a memorial window in Bosler for students who met with tragedy,” Akin says.

The particular students who inspired the window both died during winter break in 1985. John Buonocore III was killed in a terrorist attack in Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, and Christine Major, one of Akin’s students, died of cancer. “I was quite fond of her,” Akin says. “So I made the window in their honor and by extension all Dickinson students who had met with tragedy comparable to theirs.”

The Bosler window features rising hummingbirds, which Akin used as metaphors: “The whole window is about a metamorphosis, rejuvenation, resurrection.”

Another medium Akin works with, and more extensively, is paint, and a collection of his expressionistic paintings, “Time and Memory,” was recently featured at the opening of the Carlisle Arts & Learning Center’s new home. Discussion of his art led to discussion of his glasswork, and his pieces around campus were soon rediscovered.

Akin’s other windows can be found in East College, the Wellness Center addition at the Kline Center, the Stern Center and Montgomery House.—Tony Moore

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[ college & west high ]

facilities

update

{

Soccer complex 10/12

Dr. Inge P. Stafford Greenhouse for Teaching and Research 11/12 Rector Science Complex addition 9/13

Durden Athletic Training Center due spring 14 Kline Center expansion due summer 14

Learn more at dson.co/facilitiesenhancements.

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Intertwining Journeys

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wo years ago, Norwegian high-schooler Thera Iversen had no idea that her family played a distinguished role in the history of an American college. But when she came to Dickinson this fall as a member of the class of 2017, she opened a new chapter in a story that began nearly a century ago, when her great-grandmother, Esther Popel Shaw, class of 1919, descended the steps of Old West.

Shaw made history in 1919 as Dickinson’s first-known black woman graduate. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she earned the Senior Patton Memorial Prize at Commencement and went on to become a noted poet-activist whose close friends included poet Langston Hughes. In 1945 Shaw urged her daughter, Patricia, to apply to Dickinson. Although Patricia was admitted, the two were surprised to learn that she was not permitted to live in the all-white campus housing.

Patricia Shaw Iversen decided to attend Howard University instead and then moved to Norway, where she married and raised a family. But for her mother, the conversation had just begun.

Thera Iversen, who arrived in August for Orientation, with her father, Patrick Iversen, is just one of 626 students in the class of 2017, but her legacy reaches back to 1919, when great-grandmother Esther Popel Shaw became the college’s first black woman graduate.

“I am grateful … for your courtesy in keeping open for discussion [the question of] race relations at Dickinson College,” Shaw began in a letter to President Boyd Lee Spahr. She then advocated for inte­grated housing and equal-opportunity admissions, corrected Spahr’s assumption that few people of color had attended Dickinson and asserted that “thoughtful people do not refer to Negroes by the word spelled with a small ‘n,’ [because] such expressions are offensive, from the Negro’s point of view.”

“What’s amazing is that Esther struck up this correspondence because she wanted to educate him,” notes Joyce Bylander, vice president for student development. “She wanted to effect social change.”

Over the decades, Shaw’s legacy faded from institutional memory, but it came back to light several years ago, when Sharon O’Brien, professor of English and American Studies and James Hope Caldwell Professor of American Cultures, identified Shaw as Dickinson’s first-known black woman graduate. O’Brien contacted the family to learn more; the query turned into an oral-history project and many conversations. In April 2012, the college bestowed a posthumous honorary doctorate on Esther Popel Shaw in recognition of her extraordinary career and invited the family to campus for the ceremony.

It was during that ceremony that President William G. Durden ’71 made a public apology on behalf of the college for its treatment of Patricia Shaw Iversen.

“There was a real sense, among these descendants of Esther Popel Shaw, of belonging to this community — of coming home,” says O’Brien, who sat with the family during the ceremony. “There wasn’t a dry eye in our row.”

“It made a very big impact on my family and me and made the whole fascinating story of Esther Popel’s life even more meaningful,” Iversen adds.

Iversen will carve a path that is clearly her own, in a world that is vastly different from the one Shaw knew.

Iversen enjoys traveling, designing Web sites and publications, creating videos and going to the movies. She is socialmedia savvy — Bill Murray’s tweets make her laugh — and she names Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski as favorite authors. While Shaw rallied for social justice in 20th-century America, Iversen springs from another time and another nation’s collective memory. And while Shaw’s skin color identified her as African American, Iversen’s does not; the African American experience is part of Iversen’s family history, but not her daily life.

Still, there are glimmers of Shaw in view. Iversen plans to major in art history because she’s fascinated by the ways that culture, history and the arts intersect. She hopes to minor in Italian — a nod, perhaps, to the Italian relatives on her mother’s side of the family — with a second minor in writing, a choice Esther would surely have understood. — MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Watch an interview of Patricia Shaw Iversen conducted by Sharon O’Brien at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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[ college & west high ]

stars rising

I

n addition to the induction of 16 seniors to Phi Beta Kappa during Convocation this year, four students reaped honors for academic and leadership excellence. Sophomores Jahmel Martin and Jessica Klimoff received the George and Mary Louise D’Olier Shuman Prize, bestowed annually on the sophomore man and woman who demonstrate superior academic performance and outstanding contributions to the extracurricular life of the college. Kirsten Dedrickson and Rizwan Saffie earned junior and senior sophister honors, respectively, for holding the highest cumulative grade-point averages in their classes.

Rizwan Saffie on his favorite class: In spring 2011 I took

American Studies 101: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Power in the U.S. For the first time I got to talk and learn about things in class that one never would dare talk about in a classroom back home [in Guyana].

That introduction to the topic fueled my interest in social justice and politics.

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Kirsten Dedrickson on why

she chose Dickinson: It is the only school I know of where every person involved with the school — whether current students, alumni or faculty — absolutely loves it.

I toured many of the Ivy Leagues, and I didn’t meet a single person at any of them who showed the same excitement about their school as Dickinsonians showed for Dickinson. I came to Dickinson so I could have the same experience.

Jahmel Martin on his favorite

Jessica Klimoff’s most

my first paper for Professor [Jerry] Philogene’s Workshop for Cultural Analysis. I did it the night before it was due. I received an e-mail the next day: “Hey Jahmel, would you come to my office during my office hours?” I had a bad feeling about that e-mail, but instead of criticizing me, she told me that she had a vested interest in my success. For a whole hour, she helped me outline a new draft for a paper that was due to her the next day. She believed in my writing more than I did at the time, and I thank her for that from the bottom of my heart.

it might be the idea of decon­ structionism, which we covered in my English 220 class as well as in my Consumer Culture class. It’s the idea that every word is defined by its differences from other words.

To really understand a word, we have to break down its relation­ship to other words so that it can’t be defined only by its opposite. We multiply the meanings of the word.

What I took from that idea is that the closer we look into a problem, the more solutions we can find, just like the close examination of one word gives it more meanings.

It’s empowering to know that you don’t have to restrict yourself to searching for one answer. Instead, you can find the path to many more answers.

professor: I distinctly remember

­important lesson so far: I think

Ryan Steinbock ’14

R

yan Steinbock is a runner, and what that means to him comes down to this: “There’s just something about constantly pushing your body to its absolute limits to see just how far or fast you can make it go.”

Pushing his body in cross country earned him NCAA All-Mideast Region honors at the 2011 and 2012 regional champion­ships and second-team All-Centennial Conference (CC) honors in 2011 and 2012. The international business & management and German double-major also has landed on the U.S. Track & Field/ Cross Country Coaches Association CC Academic Honor Roll. And he’s glad he’s doing it all while wearing a Red Devils uniform.

“I talked with Coach [Don] Nichter and some of the guys who were already on the team when I first visited,” he says, “and everything just seemed to match what I wanted out of the team and college in general. I wasn’t even fully aware at the time how much talent the team has, or just how competitive it actually is.”

He knows now, and he’s finding that what’s just as important as having great teammates is forging lasting friendships.

“I usually eat, run and live with a bunch of my teammates every day,” he says, “and the guys on the team are easily some of my best friends. I have no doubt that most of these friendships will be lifelong friendships as well.” — Tony Moore

[ in the game ]

Dual vantage Jennifer Morrissey ’16

J

enn Morrissey grew up in a lacrosse family — both her parents played, and so did her four older siblings, including brother Chris ’05. So it made sense when she picked up a stick and took to the field at an early age. The surprise came along in high school, when she began playing volleyball as her fall sport. “Once I started volleyball, I quickly fell in love with it,” Morrissey says.

Jump ahead five years, and Morrissey is a dual-sport athlete at Dickinson, where she started all 21 volleyball matches her first year and all 16 lacrosse games.

And she did more than just start: She also dished out 582 assists on the volleyball court and broke the Red Devil lacrosse record for assists by a first-year student with 18.

“It was hard for me to decide if I wanted to play lacrosse or volleyball,” Morrissey says, noting that not having to make the decision was music to her ears.

“Both teams welcomed me with open arms, and the warmth of the faculty and coaching staff generates a sense of family. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to play both sports.”

“Both teams welcomed me with open arms, and the warmth of the faculty and coaching staff generates a sense of family.”

When not in a Red Devil uniform, Morrissey’s sense of place is just as mean­ingful, and she cites her relationships with faculty and the college’s strong academic foundation as features she’s embracing. “There are oppor­ tunities to explore whatever you are interested in,” she says. “There is no limit.”—Tony Moore

Need more Red Devil sports? Check out all the stats, scores, schedules and highlights at www.dickinsonathletics.com.

Information about live-streaming and radio broadcasts are available on a game-by-game basis, so check the Web site regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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[ cover ]

28 Dickinson’s first woman president takes the long view.

By Michelle Simmons

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2013

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Heather Shelley

Carl Socolow ’77

he first thing you notice about Nancy Roseman is that she looks right at you.

Since taking the helm in July as Dickinson’s 28th president, Roseman has been busy meeting with members of the faculty, student organizations and the Carlisle community. She’s been shaking hands with Dickinsonians up and down the East Coast (she heads west in November). And through­out all those conversations, her warm gaze never wavers. She doesn’t look over your shoulder; she doesn’t check her watch. Roseman is paying attention — always.

It’s a quality that those close to her repeatedly mention.

They also use words such as inclusive, empathetic, direct, decisive.

“She has great instincts,” says Mort Schapiro, former president of Williams College and current president of Northwestern University. “She’s really good at intuiting what students need, what motivates them.”

“Her office was just inside the front door of the main house, and her door was always open,” recalls Williams alumna Hilary Ledwell ’12 of her experience in the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford (WEPO). Roseman was the program director from 2010 to ’12. “I would come back from a class or lectures and sit down in her office — to check in, describe how a class was going, vent anxieties about post-senior-year plans, chat about the news.

Her advice was always frank and seemingly effortless.”

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If you build it …

Roseman counts among her top achievements at Williams College not her publications in prestigious journals (though she has those, such as in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), but, as dean of the college from 2000 to ’07, building a new student center. On a quin­tessentially sunny spring day in May, Roseman took two visitors on an informal tour of the Williams campus and nearby environs, culminating on the steps of the Paresky Center, a project that she shepherded from idea to bricks and mortar. A modern and elegant blend of New England charm and Adirondack rusticity (its grand hall is known as the campus living room) it sits atop the college’s geographic center.

“Nancy was the reason we built it,” says Schapiro.

“We had a very modest plan when I came in 2000. We tried to fix up the old building, but Nancy said the best thing was to start over. We designed it with lots of student input, and it’s become the centerpiece for life on campus.”

There are different dining areas spread throughout the building, expanded office space for student organizations and a new Academic Resource Center. Tucked into the corner

of the center’s second floor is a sumptuous study room.

The only designated “quiet space” in the building, it’s paneled in rich, dark wood and furnished with leather club chairs.

“The furniture is the highest quality,” says Roseman. “We did that purposefully. This is the intellectual space, and we’re showing you that we value it.”

Roseman also launched a new residential-life program, added support for the multicultural and interfaith offices and oversaw improvements to residence halls. She’s chaired and served on a wide variety of college committees, and it was that depth and breadth of experience that led to another signature accomplishment — fixing a well-intentioned but archaic financial-aid program that provided funds for textbooks.

“The amount wasn’t calibrated to meet actual cost and need,” recalls Bill Wagner, former dean of faculty and professor of history at Williams. “Nancy uncovered this, and in particular, that the student demographics were changing. Some of the students were using the grant money to defray family expenses.”

Further, students receiving the grants were corralled into a different section of the bookstore. “It was immediately obvious who was on financial aid and who wasn’t,” he says.

Carl Socolow ’77

“ ‘Is this as good as it can be?

I appreciate about as a normal course of doing

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2013

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Roseman’s team recognized not only the financial impact but also how the program affected campus dynamics and worked with several departments to change the policy. “When you change the demographics of the institution, you can be reactive and wonder why things aren’t working,” Roseman says.

“Or you can be proactive and acknowledge that these students will need support, and let’s figure out what they need.”

At the time, “we were just doing what we always did,” she adds. “There hadn’t been much self-examination: ‘Is this as good as it can be? Can we do better?’ That’s one thing I appre­ciate about Dickinson, that people ask that question every day as a normal course of doing business. It’s ingrained in Dickinson’s culture.”

Brainy beginnings

That questioning nature and an eye for details that others miss is part personality, part scientific training. The younger daughter of Leonard and Gwen Roseman, Nancy grew up in the classic middle-class suburb of Metuchen, N.J., self-dubbed “The Brainy Borough” for producing a disproportionately high concentration of writers, artists, inventors and other notables.

Leonard, who attended Harvard University on a scholarship, owned a commercial stationery store — “he was

went to various prep schools, and they were so exhausted they stopped working. I did the opposite.”

She earned an A.B. in biology at Smith and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Oregon State University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics for four years. In 1991, she joined the Williams ­faculty, teaching courses in ­immunology, ­biochemistry, ­molecular biology of HIV, cell biology and virology.

“When people find out you’re a biologist, they ask you all sorts of questions [about nature],” she says. “I always say, ‘If you can see it, I don’t know anything about it.’ It’s more about systems and how things fit together, how things are coordinated.”

Roseman sees her discipline in three dimensions: “When I’m teaching and talking about a cell, enzyme or process, I try to get the students to imagine a threedimensional object,” she explains. “It actually occupies space; it has architecture and moving parts. They’re these amazing machines, and it’s how these machines work and how they’re regulated that I always found interesting.”

“My work originally was very unpredictable,” she continues. “When you infect a cell, you never know what’s going to happen. Then I began to do more biochemistry,

Can we do better?’ That’s one thing Dickinson, that people ask that question every day business. It’s ingrained in Dickinson’s culture.”

Staples before there was a Staples,” quips Roseman. Now retired, he chairs the Metuchen Parking Authority and the Middlesex County Improvement Authority. Gwen, after raising her two girls — Nancy and older sister Lynda — became a real-estate agent and volunteers at the Metuchen Senior Citizens Center.

“They still live in the same house we grew up in,” says Roseman, recalling her childhood. “We’d go to New York, to a movie and then dinner. We loved film and food.”

Roseman readily admits that high school bored her, and when she arrived at Smith College in 1976, “it was like food,” she says. “I was so happy to learn. A lot of women in my class

and it became more predictable, and I realized I didn’t like that. I like having to interpret something that isn’t straightforward. The kind of biology I did is really messy.”

A balancing act

In 1998, Roseman received a National Science Foundation grant to support her research on the vaccinia virus, the original source for the smallpox vaccine. For three years, she ran the lab, continued to teach and, in 2000, agreed to take on the role of dean of the college.

“Being a lab scientist prepares you well for administrative work,” Roseman says. “As a scientist, you’re constantly making decisions and problem solving, and you get really used to things not working. You do experiments — sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. Even when they don’t work, you learn

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something from them. As a scientist, I was always asking, ‘What’s the question?’ I got really good at drilling down to the actual problem.”

“She’s strong-minded and direct,” says Peter Murphy, professor of English at Williams and current dean of faculty.

“That’s a great quality in a person. You have to work to resolve conflict. There are times when people need to be told things they don’t want to hear, but Nancy does it in a way that results in a positive outcome. You have to have strong values — personal and liberal-arts values.”

One of the courses Roseman was teaching at the time was Society, Culture and Disease, an interdisciplinary course she designed and team-taught with Schapiro and Murphy. They brought that same spirit of experimentation to the classroom.

Beginning with the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s as a

During the interview process, she posed as the aunt of a prospective student, surrep­titiously visited the campus and discovered a community — on and off campus — that gelled with her values. “What you’re instantly struck by when you come to Carlisle is this incredibly friendly community,” Roseman says. “I had a tour of the campus, of the farmer’s market, which was going on at the time, and of the historic church behind the market.”

She and her wife, Lori van Handel, are veteran hikers, and they’re eager to get out and about on the numerous trails surrounding Carlisle. In mid-September, they led a hike through King’s Gap State Park with students, faculty and staff — many of whom brought along family members.

In her new role, Roseman’s priorities include improving access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. “We

“People are starting to understand that this is an institution that means what it says.

It’s a fantastic success story, and I’m eager to tell that story.” case study, they examined biological, cultural and economic aspects of disease. They taught the class three times, and each experience was a revelation.

“It’s fun to find the intersection between disciplines,” she says. “That’s why the teaching I did with Morty and Peter was the most challenging teaching I ever did, and the most rewarding. We were teaching one year when SARS hit.

The cover of Time magazine was red with a masked woman with Asian eyes. Students looked at that and said, ‘Here we are, stereotyping yet another disease.’ They will never look at another magazine article or imagery the same way.”

Onward

In 2010, Roseman took a two-year appointment as director of WEPO, where she again used her keen eye for details and increased oppor­tunities for science students to study and research at Oxford.

Shortly after returning to the U.S., Roseman was preparing to return to the classroom when she heard about Dickinson’s presidential search.

have to talk in very blunt ways about economic stratification,” she says, noting the importance of growing the endowment to ­support more scholarships and grants.

She also points to Strategic Plan III, which emphasizes the residential experience, most notably housing. It’s not about luxury, she says, but about creating a physical environment that encourages serendipitous encounters and intellectual cross-pollination. “The bottom line is, if you look at our dorms, there’s no place for that to happen, literally,” she says. “When you talk to the students, the buildings they see as desirable are the ones that have social spaces. We really have to create opportunities for students to meet each other.”

As she meets more alumni, faculty and students, Roseman recognizes how far Dickinson has come in just over a decade — it’s what drew her to leave Williams, her professional home for more than 20 years — and she looks forward to continuing that momentum. “People are starting to understand that this is an institution that means what it says,” she says. “It’s a fantastic success story, and I’m eager to tell that story.”

For inauguration coverage, go to dson.co/28thinauguration.

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A. Pierce Bounds ‘71

[ profiles ]

handmade & homegrown

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liberal-arts education is crafted one class at a time, one encounter at a time. It is labor-intensive: Compare the 10:1 student-faculty ratio at Dickinson to that of the latest trend, a massive open online course (MOOC), which is thousands to one. It also requires practice, patience and persistence — not unlike the work of the five alums featured in the next several pages. Some took a circuitous path to their vocation; others leaned in from the beginning. All of them have a taste for the handmade and homegrown. —Michelle Simmons

Get some expert tips from our featured alumni at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Carl Socolow ’77

Shaun Ring

Carl Socolow ’77

Big-picture farming

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lex Smith ’10 stood knee deep in a row of broccoli cursing at flea ­beetles. His customers had been raving about his produce, but now this horde of tiny metallic-black insects was invading, gnawing holes in his crops and frustrating every attempt to remove them. Wiping the sweat from the back of his neck, Smith glared at the dark specks popping from plant to plant and decided he’d had enough.

“I was like an angry mama bear out there,” he recalls. “I shouted, ‘I don’t care about organic anymore. I’m gonna nuke you!’ ” But even as he said it, he knew he couldn’t do it. “Nuking” the insects with a pesticide would go against everything Smith stood for, everything that drove him to put in 80-hour weeks tending his crops, everything that made him want to become a farmer.

That seed was planted six years ago at Dickinson when Smith met College Farm Director Jenn Halpin. A conversation on why Halpin began farming led him to major in environmental science and decide to make a difference with his hands.

“When I was at Dickinson examining all the crises that plague our society, consistently at the center I saw food,” he explains.

“Organic farming struck me as a way to throw a wrench into all the vicious cycles generating problems in nutrition and sustainability. It was an opportunity to work with my hands and be connected to the earth.”

Today, after a two-year internship at the College Farm and a season on the crew at Spiral Path Farm helped prepare him to make the most of that connection, Smith has launched Purple Sol Farm. The growing community-supported agriculture (CSA) venture based in Perry County, Pa., serves two dozen families and two restaurants in Baltimore, Smith’s hometown. And it demands a sevenday work week of tending to his crops, ­delivering them to his customers and helping to care for the animals on JuJo Acres, the larger farm on which he rents land.

“When people find out how much I work, they usually ask me how I do it,” he says “But I look at it this way — when most people get out of work, that’s when they do

something they love. When I get done with my day’s work, I keep working because that is what I love.”

The ability to unite his passion with his day job is one way Smith says his education has paid off. The other brings us back to those flea beetles. “I see Dickinson as a direct investment in my farm,” he says. “I might not be using the Latin name for the meadow vole or an equation I picked up in Statistics 101 every day, but the process of chipping away at something until I understand it — that stays with me.”

So instead of going nuclear on the ­beetles, Smith chipped away. “I went inside, got on my computer, made a ton of phone calls and learned everything I could about flea beetles,” he explains.

The solution was a four-pronged ­remediation plan combining chemical (spraying the crops with a biodegradable flower extract), biological (planting a nearby flowerbed to attract insects that prey on flea ­beetles), cultural (removing nearby weeds where the bugs could hide) and physical (draping certain crops with a floating row cover) measures.

It may have meant more work, but as Smith sees it, more work isn’t always a bad thing.

“Taking an organic approach to farming means always keeping the big picture in mind and remembering that every tiny decision has to drive that big picture,” he says. “So it might take less time to use a pesticide, but there’s a price to be paid on a larger scale. And besides, I tend to think that the more energy I put into the food, the more my customers get out of it.” — Matt Getty

A body in motion

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day in Link Henderson ’97’s life would exhaust even the most ­motivated among us. A self-­ proclaimed “multitasking freak,” she’s an artist, a small-business owner, a teacher, a supplier, an inventor, a philanthropist, a farmer — what more is there?

As owner of Kentucky Mudworks, the only ceramics supplier in the state and a ­business focused on supporting the local

community, Henderson has a strong foothold in her niche industry.

“To stay afloat, we have to be diversified,” she says, which explains why her business offers everything from kiln repair and equipment sales to classes and Dirty Girls Tools, her own line of products.

“My interns and I had already been making our own tools for use in our classes, and we started reproducing them and testing them out,” she says. “I took our tools to an annual ceramics-education conference and met people who run businesses just like me and needed new things to sell. We got great responses to the tongue-in-cheek name, and now we’re in almost every state as well as online.”

Her tools may end up anywhere in the world, but all of the materials for these wood-and-wire implements come from area suppliers, and the tools are manufactured in-house.

But even before the storefront came the pottery. Henderson’s time as a Latin and ceramics major at Dickinson was the impetus for her future career, due in part to the open access to her professors, the 24-hour studio spaces and several independent study projects.

“Professor [of Art Barb] Diduk always encouraged me to experiment,” she recalls.

“I liked functional pottery, and she would take my pieces and turn them upside down or put two bowls together and a cup on top, and I said, ‘Oh my god, I never thought about doing it like that!’ ” She also credits the “true liberal-arts experience. Dickinson teaches you how to teach yourself.”

And teach herself she did when she moved to Kentucky with best friend Rachel Holsinger ’97 after graduation, took a few odd jobs and taught ceramics classes through the Lexington Art League’s adult-education program. When a retail space became available, she launched Kentucky Mudworks — a dream opportunity where she could teach her own classes, meet the supply needs of hobbyists and artisans alike, mentor young artists, offer job and internship opportunities and produce her own work to sell.

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“I have every clay at my fingertips, all the glazes I could want, so I get to be an experimental potter,” she says. “I have a cup fetish — I love making mugs. And I love having people interact with the pieces I make. If I give someone a gift of pottery and I come over and find it sitting unused on a shelf, I’m taking it back!”

Henderson also gives away a lot of pieces for charity, hosting multiple fundraisers every year, including Empty Bowls, an international initiative she was first exposed to at Dickinson, and a project selling pint glasses in collaboration with local breweries to raise money for area organizations.

“There’s something about that warm, fuzzy feeling, when everything you do every day is enriching your community,” she says.

With the store thriving, her reputation solid and her client base strong, Henderson has started exploring a new passion — farming.

She recently began raising 50 chickens and growing garlic. She’s also building her own soda kiln and plans to host farming and ­pottery workshops at her farm.

“It’s important to me that people have as much handmade stuff in their life as possible,” she says. “If you get a chance to make something that makes someone happy, that’s a valuable life.” — Lauren Davidson

Hands of time

W

alking into David Bowers ’71’s house is a little like walking into Jane Eyre’s Thornfield Hall.

Richly wooded furniture is everywhere, and the ticking of grandfather clocks is the only sound breaking the meditative quiet that fills the air.

This is what happens when you make your living restoring furniture and clocks, and when you’re really good at it. “I grew up with this,” Bowers says. “My father pretty much did this all his life. So I did it weekends and summers as I was growing up.”

Becoming a part of the family business wasn’t part of his plan, though, as Bowers started out at Dickinson in the late 1960s as a pre-med student and graduated with a philosophy degree. “I didn’t really consider what I wanted to do as a career,” he recalls.

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“It was the summer of love, the hippie generation, so I didn’t think in those terms.” After graduating from Dickinson, Bowers headed to Boston College to study for a Ph.D. in philosophy.

“I was headed toward a teaching career,” he says, noting that he taught introduction to philosophy courses as a teaching fellow for two years. “But I just decided that I didn’t like it that much.” Like all things that were meant to be, the restoration business was with Bowers all along, just waiting for him to be ready for it. “So I went back to work with my father, and I fell right back into it,” he says.

“That was 1975.”

Bowers, who is married to Brooke Wiley, a studio technician in Dickinson’s art & art history department, is still at it 38 years later, but now he knows his work as well as his own face in the mirror.

“Usually I’ll know the period right away when someone brings a piece in,” Bowers says. “But sometimes I have to make an ­educated guess and then do some digging.”

The digging process has led to some interesting discoveries over the years, such as the time a tall clock came into his shop for ­restoration and turned out to have a twin.

“I was just looking through a book for the clock, and there it was,” he says. “There were only two, and they were virtually identical.

So it was a matter of finding the mate to this clock,” which he knew must be out there somewhere. That somewhere was a museum at Yale University, 270 miles east. The museum sent Bowers digital images so he could correctly recreate the missing elements, and after Bowers restored the clock, it later found its way to the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Del. “I don’t think I would have stuck with it if I weren’t so darn good at it,” he says.

“There’s a certain satisfaction to it, and that’s a big part of it — the reward of doing a job well.”

He looks around the room, filled with his life’s work, and the discussion turns to defining his work and in turn how it defines him.

“What I do is an art, but I tend to think of it more as a craft,” he says. “So there’s that distinction of how much art there is and how much craft there is. I wouldn’t say I’m an artist.

I’m an artisan.” — Tony Moore

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Carl Socolow ’77

Heather Burkham

Building better

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ifty years ago, the average size for a new home was about 1,200 square feet. Fast-forward to the McMansion era, and today the average size is more than double that. Many of those behemoths now sit empty and abandoned, and more pros­ pective homeowners are signing on to a new philosophy of building better, not bigger.

For Dana Southworth ’93, that ethos was ingrained at an early age, when his father and uncle bought Garland Mill in Lancaster, N.H., northwest of the White Mountains and about an hour shy of Canada’s border. Built in 1856 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the mill is one of only a handful of water-powered sawmills still in operation in New England. When the elder Southworths bought the mill in 1974, they expanded its operations to include designing and building timber-frame (also known as post-and-beam) homes.

“I call it upstream green and downstream green,” says Southworth, “in the sense of using lots of energy-efficient practices and products — not the least of which is the waterpower-sawn timber.”

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That timber is locally harvested, and Southworth uses salvaged / recycled material, as well as nontoxic paints and sealants.

Garland Mill’s designs also aim to be universally accessible and incorporate passive-solar orientation.

Dana and his cousin Ben spent much of their childhood working at the mill and three years ago took over the business from their fathers. Dana is director of operations, while Ben h ­ andles design. The team of about 10 has worked on projects from Shakerinspired furniture and a Tudor-style timberframe (Elf University) to a high-modernist house complete with a concrete floor and outdoor shower. The company has garnered numerous accolades, including a LEED platinum certification for a renovation project.

Yet when Southworth, a history major, graduated from Dickinson, he had different plans. “There was no pressure to follow the family business,” he recalls. “In fact, my father wisely said, ‘It’s a very wide world, and you’re going to be a lot more of use to us if you come back with some miles and experience under your belt.’ ”

Southworth took his father at his word: He studied abroad at Dickinson’s ­program in Bologna, and then earned a ­master’s in international studies from the University of London. Soon after, he took a post in Eastern Europe for the Center for International Private Enterprise, a multi­national nongovernmental agency that ­supports security and economic development in newly democratic countries.

But when he was faced with the choice between continuing to work abroad — and leaving his family behind in the States — or settling into a Washington, D.C., lobbying position, he looked north. “I have always felt a real appreciation and a need to use my hands as well as my mind in whatever I’m trying to make work,” he says. “Even though the intellectual stimulation of the prior work was fulfilling, I did find the need to have the hands-on, tangible aspects that weren’t there.”

The move was the right fit. The company remains small — intentionally so — and much of the work comes its way by word of mouth.

“There’s a strong family continuity here,” he says. “My cousin and I grew up together — it definitely wouldn’t be the business it is without him as a partner.”

As for the next generation, “we each have a couple of kids — the older boys are 11, and they’re starting to work with us on tasks here and there,” he says. “I hope I have the foresight and character to tell them the same thing my father told me: Follow your ambitions and ideas. Get out there and live a little.” — Michelle Simmons

Both sides now

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licia Pokoik Deters ’98 has a superb palate. But when she visits a new restaurant, it’s not the food that captivates her. It’s everything else.

Deters is a restaurateur whose Colorado eatery has drawn rave national reviews.

While her chef romances taste buds, Deters romances hearts and minds, creating a space that places the meal into compelling context and, ultimately, brings visitors back for more.

Her success is built on a keen grasp of both the art and business of her industry — the fruits of a nontraditional career path that began during her junior year abroad.

Marc Piscotty

At the start of that year, Deters had no clear career plans. She harbored an interest in building development, born from summer jobs in her father’s real-estate office, and she enjoyed her accounting classes. “Beyond that, I had no idea what I wanted to do, except that I didn’t want to sit at a desk all day,” she recalls.

In Toulouse, when Deters signed up for a French cooking class on a lark, she discovered her passion. “We learned recipes, how to chop, how to select fresh ingredients — and I just loved it,” says Deters, who also learned about the hospitality industry through an internship at a Toulouse hotel.

Back at Dickinson for her senior year, Deters secured a part-time job at a fine-dining restaurant. And after graduation, she enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where she earned a culinary degree and a fellowship and completed internships in and out of the kitchen.

“I decided early on that if I was going to do this, I’d do it all the way,” says Deters, who went on to work for celebrity chef Rick Moonen for nearly three years. On realizing that her true calling lay in restaurant

management, she enrolled at the University of Denver and earned an M.B.A./M.A. in real-estate and construction management.

Meanwhile, back East, Deter’s friend and fellow CIA alum Lon Symensma was making his own mark as a high-profile Manhattan chef.

“We’d often said that it would be great to open a restaurant together, so after I had my degree, I flew out to New York to see if he was ready to make the move,” Deters recalls.

He was.

So Deters crafted a restaurant that would best showcase Symensma’s bold cuisine.

Every detail mattered: the building’s dimensions, the tabletops’ sizes and finishes, napkin colors, glassware designs, portion sizes, kitchen layout, the ways that customer were greeted, the logo, the music.

Adding to the workload, Deters — who had married fellow entrepreneur James in 2004 — had two small children and was pregnant with the third. She went into labor during the ­restaurant’s opening party. “That was a little crazy,” she admits with a laugh.

But the work paid off handsomely: Within six months of its 2010 launch, ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro was a James Beard

­ nalist for Best New Restaurant in America. fi Details m ­ agazine listed it among the Top 10 New Asian Restaurants in the country.

Today, ChoLon is well established, and Deters recently launched a Denver café. She enjoys spending time with her husband and children, ages 8, 6 and 3, and her volunteer work includes a construction-planning project for the local school.

Asked for career advice, Deters stresses the importance of education, exploration and openness to change. “For me, that started at Dickinson, because that’s where I was able to explore and find out what I loved,” she says. “I just built on that and kept going.”

— MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

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A

series of high-profile poetry readings shines a spotlight on the Dickinson in Málaga program by immersing Dickinson study-abroad students in an important aspect of Spanish life. Led by Program Director and Associate Professor of Spanish Jorge Sagastume with help from student interns, the events have garnered widespread media attention and ­support from the University of Málaga and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

The heart of the programming is an ongoing series of readings by poets that include Swedish Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer; José Manuel Caballero Bonald of Andalusia, recipient of Spain’s prestigious Cervantes Award; and Carol Ann Johnston, professor of English at Dickinson.

“We received a great response,” said Arden Baker ’14, an environmental-studies major who, along with fellow Málaga intern Rebecca Ray ’14, wrote artist biographies, helped translate poems as needed and encouraged fellow students at Dickinson’s partner university in Málaga to attend.

Study-abroad students Emma Rodwin ’14, Caroline O’Neill ’14 and Michele Hovy ’14 brought a famed Greek poet into the limelight during an April event presented collaboratively

by Dickinson and the University of Málaga’s classics and translations department. The students delivered public readings of “Days of 1903” by Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) in English, Spanish and Greek.

A three-day conference, organized by Sagastume, created much buzz in July. Scholars from around the world gathered to discuss the novels of Miguel de Cervantes, best known as the author of Don Quixote, whose pivotal work The Exemplary Novels and Other Texts marks its 400th anniversary this year.

In addition to Sagastume, Professor of Spanish Alberto Rodríguez was among the scholars who presented.

At the conference’s close, a subsidiary of the Spanish Ministry of Culture took the celebration on the road, presenting readings of Cervantes’ poems in neighboring towns. Student interns will work with Sagastume throughout the academic year as he edits the conference papers, which will be compiled into a book and published next spring.

Johnston notes that artistic explorations such as these can have sweeping effects, since poetry not only compels us to explore universal experiences but also changes the way we process those experiences. “Poetry causes you to slow down and take the time to think deeply and appreciate the unraveling of life as it comes, which is hard for [American] students to do, because we’re used to things going by so fast,” she says.

It’s also a natural aspect of the Spanish study-abroad experience, she adds, noting that pausing and savoring are actively encouraged in Spanish culture. “That’s why the arts are so important in Spanish culture,” Johnston says. “They’re woven into the fabric of Spanish life.” — MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

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Pause and Poetry programs immerse study-abroad students in the arts

Savor

Photo by Chiara Olivi ’11, taken in Barcelona while she was studying at the Dickinson in Målaga program.

Time passages: Alumni Weekend 2013

fri 9:30 a.m.

U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center tour. A short shuttle trip leads attendees to an outdoor trail and indoor exhibit featuring history from the Civil War through World War II.

fri 11 a.m.

fri 12:30 p.m.

McAndrews Fund 15th Annual Golf Tournament.

No matter what their handicap, Dickinsonians tee up for good at Mayapple Golf Club.

Bike ride to College Farm. The reward for this seven-mile ride is lunch at the farm, a cooking demonstration and a farm tour.

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sat 1:30 p.m.

So what’s new on campus? How about Nancy A. Roseman, Dickinson’s 28th president, celebrating her first Alumni Weekend?

sat 12:20 p.m.

Class Photo. Whether it’s at Bosler, Morgan Rocks or Old West, lining up for a reunion class photo is de rigueur at Dickinson.

sat 9 p.m.

All-College Concert. It’s time to make it All About Me — the dance band, that is, channeling great grooves from Aretha Franklin and the Four Tops to Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé.

Additional Alumni Weekend coverage is available at dson.co/AWeekend2013.

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Lending a hand:

Volunteer Leadership Summit Alumni Council Awards

The Walter E. Beach Distinguished Alumni Award for Service Lawrence E. Snyder ’65 & Anne W. Selden ’65 Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement Brian E. Kamoie ’93 Outstanding Young Alumni Award Ashley K. Damewood ’08 Volunteer Awards

Admissions Volunteer of the Year Bruce E. Thomson P’09 Colleen Superko ’84, P’14 Career Champion of the Year Christopher Cocores ’05 Class Correspondent of the Year Daniel B. Winters ’49 Limestone Award for Distinguished Service to the College Elizabeth Grazioli ’09 Outstanding Class Agent Award Kirsten Nixa Sabia ’92 Outstanding Reunion Volunteer Award Marjorie A. Speers ’78 Brian Bolwell ’08 Regional Club Program of the Year Washington D.C. Young Alumni Bow Tie Tour Weekend Regional Leadership Award Nicholas Carl Smith ’08 The 1783 Award Rachel Warzala ’11

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A

s more studies are showing, volunteering not only helps others but also can have positive, measurable effects on the volunteers themselves — such as improved mental health, lower rates of heart disease and, yes, a longer life. In August, nearly 100 very healthy alumni and parents returned to campus to participate in the college’s first Volunteer Leadership Summit. From wor­k­ shops such as Careers: Dickinsonians Helping Dickinsonians to The Power of Regional Engagement, volunteers shared best practices, brainstormed ideas for events, learned more about the college’s communications strategies and discussed building a culture of philanthropy at Dickinson. So if you want to improve your health — and Dickinson’s — mark your calendars now: Next year’s summit is Aug. 1-3.

1,800 More than 1,800 alumni and parents volunteer for Dickinson

1939 2013

}

Our volunteers’ class years range from 1939 to 2013

We have volunteers from 45 states and DC. Our 102 international volunteers hail from Argentina to Nepal, Australia to Kazakhstan — spanning six of the seven continents.

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It was wonderful to chat with Dickinsonians who are committed to the college and community. The admissions tour was super, and while I pass campus regularly, I hadn’t taken the time to go into many of the buildings; it was wonderful to do so with a current student and get his perspective. Even though the summit wasn’t a “traditional” networking event, I found it to be a great forum for wonderful conversation.

— Laura Legg ’95 I love giving back to Dickinson, but it takes a concerted and dedicated alumni effort to keep volunteer groups and the endowment strong for present and future needs. The Volunteer Leadership Summit was a great forum for sharing ideas, knowledge and enthusiasm among dedicated volunteers and finding new avenues to build engagement throughout all alumni groups.— Kristine Ritter Wilhelm ’99 I enjoyed meeting others who shared a passion for Dickinson and hearing about the latest developments at the college. In a world where the value of the liberal arts colleges is often questioned, having a large body of involved and committed alumni, parents and friends is a great answer to the skeptics.

— Bruce Thompson P’09 The whole day emphasized what makes me excited to have attended Dickinson.

It was great to meet new alumni leadership, staff in the Career Center and the Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement, see fellow classmates and hear from the new president. All in all it was a really productive and energizing day.— Caroline Clark ’08 The Volunteer Leadership Summit was a wonderful event that facilitated great conversation between the college and its volunteers. Not only was it a way to open up dialogue among volunteers and learn more about the college’s offerings and programs but it also turned out to be a fantastic networking day!—Anna Marks Crouch ’09

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[ fine print ]

Cries of the Lost

Quartet

By Chris Knopf ’73

By R.O. Palmer ’74

Cries of the Lost is the sequel to Dead Anyway, which made the 2012 Best Of lists of Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and the Boston Globe. In this new book, market researcher Arthur Cathcart emerges from a coma and sets out to track down whoever murdered his wife. Wounded and alone, grief-stricken and hiding off the grid, he thought the only mystery was who killed Florencia, and why. But the quest for justice uncovers a host of fresh mysteries, beginning with an elaborate fraud and embezzlement scheme, complete with dummy corporations and off-shore numbered accounts. Author Chris Knopf ’73 is one of five finalists for the Nero Award, one of the national mystery prizes. His previous 10 mysteries (five being the acclaimed Sam Acquillo series set in the Hamptons) brought him worldwide audiences.

Quartet is the story of four talented string players who meet at a music conservatory in Cooperstown, N.Y., where their lives are forever changed. More than a mere coming-of-age story, Quartet examines, in four distinct voices, the relationships between talent, ambition and friendship. This is R.O. Palmer ’74’s sixth novel.

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The Gamification of Learning and Instruction

By Karl Kapp ’89

Games create engagement — t he cornerstone of any positive learning experience. With the growing popularity of digital games and game-based interfaces, it is essential that gamification be part of every learning professional’s toolbox. In this comprehensive resource, international learning expert Karl Kapp ’89 reveals the value of gamebased mechanics to create meaningful learning experiences. Drawing together the most current information and relevant research in one resource, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction shows how to create and design games that are effective and meaningful for learners.

Nobody Thought I Could Do It, but I Showed Them and So Can You!

By Amy Rankin ’03

Amy Rankin ’03 suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after being hit by a drunk driver while walking home at the age of 23. At the time of her injury, Rankin was teaching special education and working on her master’s in education at Notre Dame College in Baltimore. She has had a trying and amazing road to recovery. While she was in rehab, her family was told she’d most likely never walk, talk or eat again, but she proved them all wrong. Nobody Thought I Could Do It traces that journey. Rankin now volunteers and works with special-needs preschool children and others suffering from a TBI. She has been a motivational speaker at both state and local TBI conventions. She continues to do her best to inspire and make others smile with her attitude of “it can always get better.

Kudos Publications

Beverley Eddy, professor emerita of German, published

“A Mutilated Fox Fur: Examining the Contexts of Herta Müller’s Imagery in Der Fuchs was damals schon der Jäger in Herta Müller,” edited by Brigid Haines and Lyn Marven and published by Oxford University Press.

Associate Professor of Education Sarah Bair’s “The Early Years of Negro History Week, 1926–1950” was included in the 2012 essay collection Histories of Social Studies and Race, 1865–2000, published

by Parker Macmillan.

Grants and Awards

Professor of History Marcelo Borges was awarded the EURIAS Senior Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Borges is in residence in Wassenaar, Netherlands, to continue work on his project “Epistolary Connections: Portuguese Migration through Family Correspondence.”

ALLARM (Alliance for

Aquatic Resource Monitoring) has been awarded $40,000 for the first installment of a three-year grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Matthew Pinsker, associate professor of history, Brian C. Pohanka ’77 Chair in American Civil War History and director of the House Divided project, received a 2014 fellowship from The Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program at the New America Foundation. The highly competitive program supports talented journalists, academics and other public-policy analysts who offer a fresh and often unpredictable perspective on the major challenges facing our society. Pinsker is currently a visiting research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.

Associate Professor of Spanish Mariana Past received $12,500 from the National Endowment for the ArtsLiterature Fellowships: Translation Projects. With the assistance of co-translator Benjamin Hebblethwaite, Past is translating into English for the first time a work by prominent Haitian scholar Michel-Rolph Trouillot.

The book, Ti difé boulé sou istoau Ayiti [Controversial Issues in Haitian History], was published in 1977 in Haitian Creole.

Ben Edwards, associate professor of earth sciences,

was awarded $9,700 from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration for his project, “Documentation of Lava Flows on Top of Glacier at Veniaminof Volcano, Aleutian Volcanic Arc, Alaska.”

Kamal Haque, assistant professor of German, garnered

a $7,800 grant from the DAAD Reinvitation Program to continue work on his book project, “Luis Trenker and the Persistence of Heimat.”

Provost and Dean Neil Weissman and Doug Stuart, professor of political science and international studies, received a three-year, $400,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a project to sustain and institutionalize academic cooperation between selected liberal-arts colleges and their nearby military institutions of higher education. This initiative builds upon the momentum generated by several successful meetings and projects that were funded by a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation awarded to Dickinson in March 2011. Dickinson will serve as the lead institution, continuing its role as convener and organizer over the three-year grant period. For more, visit www.dickinson.edu/news-and-events/ news/2012-13/Taking-the-Lead/.

ALLARM (Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring) has been awarded $40,000 for the first installment of a three-year grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to the Consortium of Scientific Assistance for Watersheds (C-SAW).

ALLARM, a founding C-SAW partner, will be able to continue its work with Pennsylvania communities and provide them with the scientific tools they need to investigate stream health concerns ranging from shale-gas extraction to water pollution. The grant also will support ALLARM’s statewide quality-assurance/ quality-control lab to verify that volunteer stream monitors are collecting credible data and using their equipment correctly. This grant significantly supports ALLARM staff to work with volunteer-based organi­ zations in the state and to work with other C-SAW partners to provide regional educational workshops.

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[ beyond the limestone walls ]

A great time

By Ty Saini ’93, Alumni Council President

A

few years ago, I was walking through my local gym and spotted an advertisement for a new fitness program.

The catch phrase was W.I.N.N. — When If Not Now? I must admit, this has resonated with me since that day with much of my daily routines and goals. More recently, I started thinking about how easily I have heard and used the excuse, “I would love to join or help, but I can’t because I am too busy.”

Perhaps we are quick to convince ourselves that “this is not the right time” and “maybe in the near future I will have more free time.” When it comes to volunteerism, I wonder how much truth these responses have behind them.

So I decided to look at my own life since I graduated from Dickinson 20 years ago. With my wife’s help, I wrote down key milestones and major events in our lives: the completion of

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graduate school and residency training, marriage, birth of children, expanding our practices, buying and selling homes, adjusting our work hours to watch our children grow and support their needs, responding to the effects of the recent recession, staying on top of our own professions through continuing education, being available to help our own parents as they age and become ill — well, you get the picture.

I then asked myself if I had been involved in any organization as a volunteer during these important moments.

Two themes emerged. First, when I was younger, with fewer responsibilities and more free time, my volunteerism was episodic. I did not really feel invested in what I was asked to help with. Second, during the recent past, as I became more consistently involved, I found myself making a difference, contributing to something bigger than myself and realizing I had the potential to strive for more.

For example, although my family and orthodontic practice were growing, I decided to start teaching post-graduate students on a volunteer basis, accepted leadership roles on three nonprofit boards and completed a number of multisport races, including Ironman triathlons. I became more efficient at work, purposeful at meetings and intentional with my workouts. Of course, all of this was never as important as being a good father and husband. But volunteerism helped me find that balance between family and professional commitments, and it became a great motivator for time management.

As I reflected more, I realized that there are many benefits to volunteering, and each one speaks to us at different times or stages in our lives. The chance to serve others can help you make new friends and contacts, improve your social skills, increase your self-confidence, provide career experience and improve your overall health and well-being.

So we are back to the original question: Is there ever a good time to serve? I believe now is a great time to help Dickinson with your time, treasure and talent. So many metrics

indicate the strength and direction of our wonderful institution: the vision, leadership and accomplishments of our immediate past president, William G. Durden ’71; the experience and success that our new president, Nancy Roseman, brings to Dickinson; the multitude of achievements our athletic teams have at the national level; the new buildings and enhanced facilities on campus; increasing applications of highly qualified students for admission; new academic programs and majors; and the overall increased awareness by others that Dickinson offers an outstanding education and opportunity for its students.

My hope is that you will take stock of your involvement with Dickinson and challenge yourself to do more this year.

I strongly believe that each of us benefited from our time in Carlisle — both in and out of the classroom. Now it is our turn and responsibility to show our gratitude and commitment by supporting Dickinson.

As I reflected more, I realized that there are many benefits to volunteering, and each one speaks to us at different times or stages in our lives.

Plug into a Dickinson regional club Stay connected to Dickinson no matter where you live in the U.S.

Atlanta Baltimore Boston Carlisle, Pa. Chicago Denver Los Angeles Northern New Jersey New York City Philadelphia Pittsburgh San Francisco Washington, D.C. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. This year, regional clubs also are hosting Dickinson Matters: A Conversation With President Nancy A. Roseman. Share your thoughts about Dickinson’s direction and learn more about her vision for the college.

Fall/winter 2013 locations

Spring 2014 locations

New York City: Oct. 23 Los Angeles: Nov. 10 San Francisco: Nov. 13 Seattle: Nov. 14 Philadelphia: Dec. 10

Atlanta Boston Chicago Southern Connecticut Northern New Jersey

To learn more contact the Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement at alumni@dickinson.edu.

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[ closing thoughts ]

The unrevised life

Or, a Dickinson professor gets a taste of his own medicine by ted merwin

M

y dad wasn’t physically violent, but give him a red pencil and a piece of someone else’s writing, and his bushy black brows would beetle, his eyes would narrow and his breathing would get heavier. His pencil would dance with shivery cross-out lines crowned with loops and swirls, bizarre abbreviations and biting sarcastic comments in the margin. I learned never to show him my high-school papers, lest the editing session end in tears. It was as if that red pencil had drawn blood.

Three decades later, I’m a college professor, and I find myself often having to give students the unwelcome news that their essays are not exactly stellar. When they read my comments, I recognize the look of shock and dismay on their faces, of pain and betrayal — perhaps even fear. They seem to be going through one of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ stages in coping with the death of a loved one — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

“Why do I have to keep rewriting this paper over and over?” one of them moaned to me recently. “You can’t teach me to write in the course of a single semester. Why can’t you just reward me for the work that I’m doing?”

That same afternoon, I received the peer reviewers’ reports on a manuscript that I had spent more than a decade revising and resubmitting to one agent, editor and publication house after another. And now, when I thought it was finally finished, here was bad news all over again — my thesis wasn’t well-supported, I was given to sweeping generalizations, I brought in too many anecdotes and I went off on too many tangents.

My work wasn’t worthy, one of the reviewers said, of publication by such a prestigious press. I blinked back tears. I had new empathy for the students who accused me of bursting their bubbles.

High-school or undergraduate papers are not on the same level as a book manuscript by a successful, published writer. But negative feedback on one’s writing is difficult for anyone to absorb. We have put our ­insecurities and vulnerabilities on display, and they have been torpedoed.

We feel demoralized, distressed — perhaps even devastated. We perceive

the yawning gap between the image that we have of ourselves and the ways in which others perceive us.

But no one gets it right on the first try.

The Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov once confessed that he had “rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils ­outlast their erasers.” Or, as the British poet Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously exhorted, “Murder your darlings.”

In fact, all of life is a massive, often painful rewriting project; we spend our lives constantly revising our own history, arriving at new understandings and perspectives on our past as we age. We learn things that we plaintively, intensely wish that we could tell our earlier selves about how things would work out. Most of us gain some wisdom and self-knowledge in the process; an unrevised life, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth living.

Students may not like to hear it, but the most important part of the writing process is the rewriting, the chasing down of those stray thoughts and elusive ideas, the forging of new connections, the focusing, clarifying, streamlining and shaping. It reminds me of planting seeds and then, when they germinate, giving them a structure to lean on, a framework that will keep them from expanding chaotically in all directions. (This is why we talk about “pruning” our prose, as if it were an unruly shrub or vine.) Or like making furniture by planing wood, cutting grooves and making dovetail joists — all so that the finished piece hangs together in a unified and elegant way.

When you revise, you see things that you missed the first time, things that teach you about the workings of your own mind and that amaze you with your own insight. You discover your ability to strike words together like flint and stone, creating silvery sparks and illuminating a topic in a way that no one has ever done before. And you understand why you subjected yourself to that bruising assault on your ego: It was for this ecstatic moment of finally getting your writing exactly, exquisitely and incontrovertibly right.

Ted Merwin is associate professor of religion and director of The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life.

His current research centers on Jewish-themed Broadway plays and on the history of the Jewish deli in America.

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