October 2022 Guilford College Magazine

Class Acts

SEEKING THE GOOD IN GUILFORD

Friends,

AS A COLLEGE COMMUNITY, WE ARE DEEPLY engaged in a reflective process of thinking about who we are as an institution and who we ultimately want to be. Our strategic plan, Envisioning Guilford College 2027, will help us answer some questions around the strategies for aligning much of what we do with our historic mission:

To provide a transformative, practical, and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker testimonies of community, equality, integrity, peace and simplicity and emphasizing the creative problem solving skills, experience, enthusiasm, and international perspectives necessary to promote positive change in the world.

Last year, as I was preparing to interview for the Guilford presidency, I read The Soul of a University, a book by Chris Brink, the former vice-chancellor of a public research university in England. In it, Chris challenges all of us working in colleges and universities to think differently about the work we do and the purposes of higher education. Many of us, he argues, are so focused on the competitive questions of what we

are good at, that we lose an important focus on what we are good for, particularly in relation to the broader societal benefit.

Exploring what Guilford is good at and good for is of critical importance in our current planning process. One is not perceived as being greater than the other; indeed, both play an important role in our success at providing the education students need in the 21st century.

From a good-at perspective, we can reflect on our strong foundations as a liberal arts institution, where arts, humanities and sciences are at our core and students are taught to think deeply about the challenges of our broader society. How do we accomplish this? With faculty who are committed to mentoring and helping students develop their full potential in order to make a positive impact in the world. This has been true of Guilford for many years.

The good-for questions we will ask in the planning process are what I am most excited about. How does Guilford harness its potential to change the lives of everyone connected with the institution? How do we have a lasting effect not only on students but on members of the wider community? We are, after all,

as New York Times education editor Loren Pope wrote for the first time in the 1990s, one of the Colleges That Change Lives.

The cover story for this issue of Guilford College Magazine illustrates how faculty members are core components of our good-for equation. They are leading through their teaching, research, scholarship and service, and, most importantly, mentoring and forging life-long relationships with students.

Over the next several months, we will continue to develop our plan and focus on the good-for along with the good-at questions. I’m looking forward to charting our future together and continuing to build strategies for Guilfordians to have a broad impact on their communities.

Best regards, Kyle Farmbry President

“Exploring what Guilford is good at and good for is of critical importance in our current planning process. One is not perceived as being greater than the other.”

Robert

’11

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Chris Ferguson

PHOTOGRAPHY

Robert Bell ’11

Michael Crouch ’10 & ’12

Woody Marshall

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING TEAM

Ty Buckner, Interim Vice President of Communications & Marketing Abby Langston , Senior Director of Marketing

Robert Bell ’11, Assistant Director of Communications & Marketing

Michael Crouch ’10 & ’12, Associate Director of Communications & Marketing

LaToya Marsh , Bryan Series Director

FUNDRAISING TEAM

LaDaniel Gatling II, Vice President for Advancement

Stephanie Davis, Director of Annual Giving & Donor Relations

Elizabeth Freeze, Director of Development for Major Gifts

CONTACT

Office of Communications & Marketing

Garden Hall

Guilford College

West Friendly Avenue

NC

The Impact of Teaching

Of the many things I remember fondly about Jeff Jeske, Guilford’s late, great English professor, what I remember most is how easily distracted he was in class. Throw open a Duke Hall window, let a spring breeze blow through the classroom and Jeff was quickly carried away by a student’s slightly off-point remark. That’s not me complaining. I was frequently that student.

One of my fondest memories of Jeff was sitting in his Melville capstone class analyzing an early chapter of Moby Dick. Ishmael has entered the dark and gloomy Spouter-Inn with its low-slung ceiling and an oil painting of the sea so old and dirty it only made the dark hues on the canvas all the more unnerving to Ishmael. That was enough for Jeff. Within seconds Jeff transported the class from Nantucket to his childhood home of Cleveland.

He started describing the narrow, poorly lit streets of his youth, the front porch that moaned like a ghost, the neighborhood bar around the corner, dimly lit with booming laughter that might have beckoned adults, but scared off a child like Jeff.

Mind you there are no whales in Cleveland, but here’s the point: All of us in class started thinking about our own space where, like Ishmael, we felt a little out of place, a little uncomfortable. Jeff had a gift of helping you make those personal connections in whatever piece of literature you read.

It was impossible for me to put together this issue of Guilford College Magazine, which celebrates just a few of Guilford’s professors who have impacted so many students’ lives, and not think of Jeff — how he instilled a sense of wonder and confidence in so many students that they still possess today.

Could you ask any more from a professor? A friend? A mentor? A champion? I hope you enjoy the stories within these pages from other Guilfordians about professors who forever impacted them.

Guilford College Magazine

not necessarily reflect

College does not discriminate on the basis of sex/gender, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, genetic information, military status,

applicable local, state or federal law, ordinance

status or any other protected category

Robert Lopez

— Robert

IN THIS ISSUE

4 An enduring gift

A generous gift will help start the College’s Ethical Leadership Fellows Scholarship Program.

6 Back for an encore

Guilford Dialogues returns in the spring, this time to discuss education and inclusion.

8 A special bond

News anchors Charlie Gaddy ‘53 and Gerald Owens share more than a profession. They’re good friends.

10 A blending of two disciplines

Guilford’s growing XD program marries the best of art with technology.

12 Class acts

Guilfordians share stories of the professors who helped shape them, and their professors respond.

18 No leaf left behind

Guilford’s campus is gorgeous in the fall. But what becomes of all those leaves?

22 The peddlers’ plight

A new book by Professor María Amado examines the lives of an endangered workforce.

24 Born to serve others

Guilford never gave up on Michael Working ’98. The Memphis lawyer pays that forward every day.

26 New digs for the home team

The new softball facility is getting rave reviews from those who matter most — student-athletes.

28 Reaching for the stars — and beyond Karen Richon ’84 played a key role in helping launch NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into orbit.

October 2022

On the Cover

Josie Williams ’16, left, executive director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, and Guilford Professor Sherry Giles sit outside one of the apartment complexes that Josie and the coalition support.

A GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Dan and Beth Mosca’s gift to start an Ethical Leadership Fellows Scholarship Program will help fund 32 annual scholarships.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO , then-Guilford President Kent Chabotar and others came up with an idea of creating a home on campus that would blend the College’s liberal arts tradition with the world of work in a focused, intentional program.

The Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching would match students’ passions for contemporary and cultural issues with the College’s liberal arts focus and core values.

The idea resonated with more than just students. From the start, Beth and Dan Mosca, parents and grandparents of Guilford graduates, embraced the Center’s mission and made a $2.5 million challenge gift to establish an endowment for the new Center.

The couple offered to match, dollar for dollar, contributions from the College’s alumni and friends toward a $5 million endowment the school established for the Center.

This summer, the Center received another gift from the Moscas, one that will help carry the Center’s mission beyond Guilford.

The Moscas pledged $2.65 million to the College to launch an Ethical Leadership Fellows Scholarship program within the Center, one of the largest single-donor gifts in the College’s history. The Moscas’ support will eventually help fund 32 annual scholarships.

The Center is a central hub for

principled problem solving both on campus and in the community through scholarships, fellowships, grants, seminars and internships available to Guilford students, faculty, staff and alumni. Students can also earn the Principled Problem Solving Experience Minor.

Dan described the couple’s gift as the latest in “the evolution of the center's purpose.”

“We want to attract students dedicated to the concepts and purposes of the Center, and we want to equip them with the tools and knowledge to go out and change the world around them,” he says. “Not necessarily the

larger world but the world around them, which is more important.”

Guilford President Kyle Farmbry says the Moscas’ funding for the Fellowships speaks to their shared passion with the College to solve realworld problems through the lens of Guilford’s core values.

“Their gift will ensure new opportunities for faculty and future students committed to improving our communities and our world. We’re grateful for their support and belief in the Center and the difference it can make in people’s lives,” he says.

Dan joined the College’s Board of Trustees in 2002. •

DAN MOSCA AND HIS WIFE, BETH, HAVE BEEN GENEROUS SUPPORTERS OF GUILFORD COLLEGE FOR YEARS. THE MOSCAS ’ MOST RECENT GIFT WILL HELP FUND 32 ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIPS.

Class of ’70 is pursuing a $100,000 endowment fund

The inspiration came about when a group of Guilfordians from the Class of ’70 — David Feagins, Lloyd Spruill, Emily Hedrick, John Atkinson, Woody Gibson and Dan Hulburt — gathered for lunch one day late last year at Lloyd’s home in Raleigh, N.C. Nobody quite remembers who initially floated the idea, but that’s not important.

What is important is that by the end of the day everyone agreed Guilford’s Class of ’70 wants to make a meaningful donation to the College to help ensure future students got to have the same enriching, life-changing experiences they had at Guilford.

“Nothing against concrete benches or pavers but we want to really impact people,” remembers David. “We want there to be a scholarship in place for students who need help during their time at Guilford so they can have what we had — the Guilford experience.”

That was two years and a global pandemic ago. Today David and his classmates have raised about $85,750 for the Class of 1970 Endowment Fund. Impressive, but as Emily says, “We’re

JOHN ATKINSON

close but we're just not quite there yet.”

Emily says the class is using the momentum from the campaign to remind classmates there are all sorts of ways to give back to Guilford. Financial gifts, sure — but also through estate planning, which is what Emily has done. Indeed, one of the gifts to the College earmarked for the fund is a $10,000 planned gift.

“I think all of us have our own story to tell about why Guilford is so special to us,” she says. “Well, there are just as many ways to help ensure the College is there for others, too.”

John Atkinson ’70 of Greensboro made a gift as soon as he learned of the idea. “It’s just a great way to help out future students at Guilford,” he says. “The College means so much to so many people who want to make that experience available to others.”

If you’re interested in contributing to the Class of 70’s endowment fund, contact Elizabeth Freeze, the College’s Director of Development for Major Gifts at efreeze@guilford.edu •

A SECOND ACT

Guilford Dialogues

JUST A FEW MONTHS REMOVED from the successful inaugural Guilford Dialogues, President Kyle Farmbry announced that a second Dialogues is scheduled for March 16 and 17, 2023, just nine months after the conference on economic inclusion.

This time around the 2023 Guilford Dialogues will focus on education and inclusion, a theme Kyle has championed through his years as an educator himself.

“It’s an issue that people can rally around and it’s an issue that impacts a lot of the work we do at Guilford,” says Kyle. “All you have to do is look at the start of the school year and the shortage of teachers across the country. There's a big discussion about whether our school systems are prepared for some of the new realities in education so, selfishly, next year the Dialogues can have a great impact on Guilford as well as our cities and communities.”

Kyle says that shortage and the factors that have created it will have a direct impact on Guilford and its Education Studies Department. “Every year we're attracting students who want to become teachers,” he says. “We want to do what we can do so that all the students who come to Guilford are well prepared. And we want to make sure that the doors to Guilford are open to as many students as possible. That's a responsibility that we and every other college and university has to work on with educational equity and inclusion.” It could be difficult to replicate the success of the first Guilford Dialogues.

a

of education and inclusion.

In June, the College hosted more than 180 participants and panelists to discuss ways for creating economic inclusion in their communities.

Tiffany Grant, an entrepreneur in Greensboro, says the connections made during the four-day event convinced her she needed to return in 2023.

Tiffany’s biggest takeaway from Dialogues was just how prevalent the economic gap is locally and internationally – not just in the economy but with housing and education, too. “I didn't realize it at first because I'm only focused on financial (matters), I didn't realize all of the other impacts,” she says. “So sitting in on the

panels, it really opened my eyes to how all of these pieces kind of fit together.”

The 2022 Guilford Dialogues was about making connections with people and organizations dedicated to creating economic inclusion. Tiffany and other participants will be invited to attend the 2024 Dialogues, which will circle back to enact strategies.

Kyle says the first Guilford Dialogues helped raise the College’s visibility in Greensboro. He’s hoping that new-found visibility leads to partnerships between the College and Greensboro businesses and organizations moving forward.

“I think that people are now looking at Guilford as a potential partner,” says Kyle. “People who didn't know of Guilford now would like to find some ways to work with us. We wouldn't even be having those conversations had we not had Dialogues.”

Read a final report of the 2022 Dialogues at www.guilford.edu/ guilforddialogues

PHOTO BY WOODY MARSHALL

WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST EUGENE ROBINSON WAS ONE OF MANY PANELISTS WHO PRESENTED IN GUILFORD COLLEGE’S INAUGURAL GUILFORD DIALOGUES IN JUNE.

“From the first day I knew Guilford Dialogues was something I needed to be a part of.”

— Tiffany Grant

Guilford adds two new master’s programs to its roster

When it came time for Bryce Vestal ’22 to choose a graduate business school, he had a choice to make. Either UNC Greensboro, which has provided a nationally recognized advanced business education for more than 40 years, or Guilford College, which announced the inaugural year of its MBA program last spring.

For Bryce, upstart Guilford was the obvious choice. After spending the last four years at the College earning a degree in Accounting, he saw the benefits of a small college that offered a more personalized education. “I really benefited from the one-on-one education I got as an undergrad," says Bryce. "Why mess with something that worked the last four years?"

After several years of offering a Master of Criminal Justice as its only graduate program, Guilford tripled its foray in graduate studies, adding the MBA program and a Master of International Sport Management. Thirty-nine students are enrolled across the three programs. In addition to the 19 MBA students, there are 15 graduate students in the Criminal Justice program and five in International Sport Management.

“We’re beyond pleased with the (MBA) numbers,” said Michael Dutch, Seth and Hazel Macon Professor of Business Management and Director of Guilford’s MBA program. “I think we’re only going to grow as word gets out into the community about what Guilford is able to provide.”

Guilford set out to differentiate its MBA program from others in the Triad by compressing the program into one year — August to August — as opposed to 18 months other schools traditionally offer. The College also offers its program in a so-called HyFlex format, which allows students to choose whether to attend classes in person or online.

Michael says the College is putting an added emphasis on the ethics of business into its program. “This isn’t going to be just a separate class we include on ethics,” he says. “(The ethics to business) started with the first class and will be touched on every week with every new topic.”

Ready… set… RISE!

At Guilford College, we’ve created a pre-college experience called Guilford Rise. It’s a three-week residential summer experience that lets rising high school seniors try college on for size.

Because the Sport Management program received its accreditation so late in the summer, the school had little time to properly advertise. Still, it attracted five students, differentiating itself from other Sport Management programs by adding international-focused elements to its curriculum.

“All things considered with the timing, I think we did amazingly well,” says Ann Proudfit, Guilford’s Project Director for Academic Strategies. She says many North Carolina schools already offer Sport Management as a bachelor’s degree, making those students natural applicants for Guilford’s master’s program in the coming years.

“I think that program will do a lot better as we continue working and partnering with those schools or with employers in the field of sports that could benefit from their employees having a master’s degree to help them progress in the field,” says Ann.

Ann says the College is exploring other graduate programs for the future, including a Master of Arts in Teaching program to complement Guilford’s Education Studies undergraduate program. •

Not just any college – Guilford College. And not just College. GC Rise gives students a head start on figuring out what they are interested in pursuing. It’s three weeks studying International Affairs and Entrepreneurship. Three weeks growing not only academically but socially and professionally working with peers and faculty at Guilford. All the while earning six – count ’em six! –college credits on a gorgeous campus.

If you know a student who might be interested, send them to https://www.guilford.edu/rise or contact us at gcrise@guilford.edu

MICHAEL DUTCH, LEFT, TEACHES GUILFORD ’ S FIRST MBA PROGRAM.

A SPECIAL BOND

On the surface, Charlie Gaddy '53 and Gerald Owens might seem like an odd couple. In fact, the two Guilfordians are BFFs.

BY ROBERT BELL ’ 11

There are bonds you are born with, like your family and siblings, and bonds you choose, like friends and lovers. Then, there are the bonds that come along by accident, that somehow choose you.

When Gerald Owens was hired as a reporter at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., in 2002, the station officials asked him to meet with Charlie Gaddy, their longtime legendary anchorman who retired in 1994.

On the surface, nothing suggested the meeting would grow into anything more than a couple of journalists from different generations exchanging pleasantries and swapping war stories. Beyond journalism, the two didn’t seem to share much in common. Gerald is Black and was an up-and-coming reporter. Charlie is white and was the station’s esteemed 6 p.m. news anchor for 20 years.

But the two did share one bond: Guilford College. Charlie graduated from the College in 1953 and Gerald attended Guilford for two years and played basketball before transferring to the University of Maryland

Two different lives. One shared love of Guilford.

“The College gave us something to talk about,” says Gerald, who attended Guilford from 1978 to 1980 and earlier this year became the 6 p.m. co-anchor for WRAL — just like Charlie was. “I mean, I thought I was an old-school Guilford guy, but Charlie had me beat

and I loved hearing his stories.”

Hearing this, Charlie, who is 91, looks up and smiles. “Old school?” he cries in mock disbelief. “He must be talking about someone else because I’m not old.”

And the two of them start laughing the way old friends do, sharing old stories.

was wearing. A few weeks later a box showed up at WRAL for Gerald.

You guessed it. Gerald still wears the tie, a reminder of a friendship whose knot only grows tighter.

Different routes into journalism

Often those stories circle back to Guilford. Charlie remembers May Day, the precursor to Serendipity at the College. He remembers the maypole dances, various skits commemorating spring and the Queen of May.

Gerald, 61, remembers the road trips in vans with his basketball teammates and the home games that generated so much excitement. “Guilford was a tough place to play,” says Gerald. “Everyone came out to watch basketball.”

That love and respect of Guilford has grown into a love and respect for each other. Charlie still watches WRAL’s newscasts and Gerald still asks Charlie for advice. One time maybe 10 years ago, Charlie came through the newsroom and Gerald told him how much he liked the tie Charlie

Both men had a spark in them early for journalism. Charlie grew up in Biscoe, N.C., listening to Edward R. Murrow radio broadcasts in the family living room thinking he might one day want to be a news reporter himself. Gerald delivered The Washington Post every morning throughout his Kensington, Md., neighborhood — but first reading all the stories on Watergate before dropping the papers off on his neighbors doorsteps. “There was something awesome about knowing everything in the news before you delivered it to your neighbors,” he says.

It wasn’t until after Guilford that Charlie and Gerald gave serious thought to broadcast journalism.

After graduating from Guilford, Charlie became a page at the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. A page did a little bit of everything in 1958. He gave tours, waited hand and foot on the broadcast stars and delivered the interoffice mail every day. When most of the station’s on-air talent went on vacation one summer, they needed someone to make on-air announcements. Charlie applied.

He got the gig and later a full-time job at WRAL before taking over as the station's lead anchor in 1974.

“[Guilford] brings together people to give them a good education and maybe go out and make the world better. Those friendships stay with you forever.”

— Charlie Gaddy '53

CHARLIE GADDY ’53 (LEFT) AND GERALD OWENS BOTH ATTENDED GUILFORD COLLEGE.

CHARLIE WAS ANCHOR OF THE 6 P.M. NEWSCAST ON WRAL-TV FOR 20 YEARS BEFORE RETIRING IN 1994. GERALD WAS NAMED ONE OF THE STATION’S 6 P.M. ANCHORS EARLIER THIS YEAR.

To say Charlie was a natural in front of a camera is accurate but woefully inadequate. At one point in the late 1970s, the station had a 54 share, meaning for one glorious month, 54 percent of all the TV sets that were on in the RaleighDurham market at dinnertime were watching Charlie dispense the day’s news on what was then called "Action News 5."

“Those were good times,” says Charlie. “There wasn’t a story out there we were afraid to go after.”

Gerald’s foray into broadcasting was a little more circuitous. After Guilford, he was working in the lamination industry taking a few radio and television classes at the University of Maryland when he decided to apply for an internship at ABC News’ "Nightline."

It was an unpaid internship but as Gerald likes to say, “you couldn’t put a price on working next to and receiving

counsel from people like Ted Koppel, Barbara Walters and Sam Donaldson.”

Looking back, Gerald and Charlie say their time at Guilford and the social justice the College instills in its students fueled their desire to work in journalism. “I mean, how could it not have that effect on you?” says Charlie.

“This is a business where there’s a higher calling, to tell the stories of others and maybe change things in the world for the better. That’s what Guilford asks of its students.”

Gerald agrees. In the time Gerald spent at Guilford, the nation endured the hostage crisis in Iran and, closer to home, a deadly confrontation downtown in which five people were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.

“There was a lot going on nationally and just down the street, but I remember

Guilford as a place we felt safe talking openly about the incidents and what we could do as a community to change the world,” he says.

“That’s the beauty of Guilford,” says Charlie. “It brings together people to give them a good education and maybe go out and make the world better. Those friendships stay with you forever.”

Gerald hears this, rubs Charlie’s shoulder and smiles. Sometimes those Guilford friendships come later in life when you least expect them. That’s the power of Guilford.

“You made my job a lot easier,” he tells Charlie. “You made my world a lot better, too. In a way, you’ve been like a father to me.”

Charlie hears this and pats Gerald’s hand. “That’s nice of you to say,” he says. “I’m proud of you, too.” •

A NEW MAJOR BY DESIGN

BY ROBERT LOPEZ

Let’s say you want to spend the holidays in the Caribbean. Everyone has their own favorite island but the process of getting there is the same. You get on your phone and shop for a plane ticket. Maybe you purchase the ticket through an app. When you get to the airport you check your bags at a kiosk.

It’s an experience that exists in both the virtual and real space, and one in which much can and often goes wrong —

or leaves a lot to be desired.

An experience designer’s job, as Mark Dixon ’96 describes it, is to make sure all the processes involved connect smoothly for the person booking a flight (or visiting a museum, or checking their bank statement online or engaging in a number of other tasks).

“An experience designer is interested in all of the different ways that experience touches the user, the customer, the human being and connects to some pretty sophisticated

back-of-house systems,” says Mark, who oversees Guilford’s growing Experience Design program. “In fact, good experience design would generally result in somebody getting the goods or the experience, without even really being all that aware that there is a complicated, connected, multifaceted system that they’re interacting with.”

Guilford’s Experience Design, or XD, program was started in 2016 after three Guilford graduates, Michael Kopcsak ’94, Wendy Lam-Rash ’02

MICHAEL

“XD can be a differentiator for a small liberal arts school like Guilford that wants to be more relevant in a modern world.”

Michael Kopcsak ’94

and Mary Luong ’08, successfully transitioned from Art majors to user experience researchers. They proposed the idea of the new major and advised on its development. Many of Guilford’s XD classes — Art, Computer Science, and Psychology — were sourced from existing Guilford classes.

Michael is Senior UX Design & Research Executive for WalMart’s international division. He says the College’s humanities-based education is a natural fit for students to pursue a career in experience design. “It’s a natural blend of taking the best humanities courses and blending them or pulling them together for a more relevant modern world,” he says.

Michael, who lives in California, relies heavily on what he learned in Guilford’s art studios for his job. “When I think about the ceramics work I did at Guilford, all that ties into what I’m doing, how I’m thinking and designing today,” he says. “The coffee mug — is the handle comfortable? Will the plate fit in the dishwasher? There’s a connection there as an Art major that can be very helpful working with software.”

There’s a bonus for Guilford, says Michael. “XD can be a differentiator for a small liberal arts school like Guilford that wants to be more relevant in a modern world,” he says.

Mark, who is also co-chair of the Art Department, says an experience designer is like a liaison “between all the things that it takes to design an experience or product, and the end user.”

XD programs are still relatively new to colleges and universities. Guilford’s program came about after Michael, Wendy and Mary came together and brought some ideas to the administration on how to connect the various skill sets involved.

“The alums told us Guilford is already

committee that developed the College’s XD curricula. Those in the field, she says, enter the workforce with a variety of career options waiting for them.

“Many people with degrees in experience design go into digital design, and are part of digital design teams, whether that’s for banks or for transportation or for travel or for the automotive industry or for entertainment,” she says.

Michael Fernald ’19, one of the first students to take classes in the XD program, works as an engineer in identity and access management at Boston University. Having an experience design background, he says, provided him a good foundation for a career in information technology.

— Michael Fernald ’19

training experience designers,” Mark says. “You’ve just got to package that up and let people know that’s the case.”

Students in the program take a range of classes involving business, art and technology, along with some core courses and seminars on experience design principles.

Mark says the breadth of courses a liberal arts school like Guilford offers its students empowers great experience designers. “To design around people requires understanding human difference in all its forms,” he says. “A liberal arts education turns out students who can handle the complexities and ambiguities at the intersection of people and systems. It's what Guilford has always done. XD is just one more way to put that power to work.”

Instructor Margery Kiehn, who’s worked as an experience designer for more than 20 years, was on the

“We deal with the stuff that lets us know who’s who when students are applying,” he says. “We build systems, enhance systems. And, experience design, it has helped me think not just of ‘here are the requirements and we’ll build it.’ But, I’m also thinking about how the user is going to interact with this, how they are going to feel. Is this going to be easy? It helps you to empathize.”

About 20 students are majoring in Experience Design at Guilford. In a few years, Mark says that number could triple. Such is the demand for XD.

“People are still learning what the field is, but we’re working on making it more fun, attractive and accessible,” he says. “This puts to use that literature class, it puts to use that psychology class. And, there’s just a real proliferation of need for people who can play a role in making sure that a certain experience works for the person that it should work for.”

Robert Lopez is a freelance writer in High Point, N.C.

“I'm thinking about how the user is going to interact…how they are going to feel. [Experience design] helps you to empathize.”

T he Professor Who Changed My Life

Guilfordians share their stories of faculty who transformed them.

BY ROBERT BELL ’ 11

They start as professors, strangers in a classroom passing out a syllabus and maybe a smile. But over the course of a semester, four years at Guilford, or even a lifetime, Guilfordians say those professors become oh-so-much more.

They become mentors and coaches, cheerleaders and champions. They drop you a text when you’ve missed their last two lectures or find a frontrow seat at Ragan-Brown for your big game. And while you may not have seen it at the time, they were cheering you on in the classroom, too, helping you discover hidden passions, offering you views of the world through a kaleidoscope of lenses and instilling in you the audacity to actually believe you can change your corner of that world.

Josie Williams ’16 remembers walking into Guilford Professor Sherry Giles’ Community Problem Solving class as an adult student back in 2014. “The day I was introduced to Sherry," says Josie, Executive Director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition since the spring of 2020, "was the day I was introduced to the world. It was like that class and Sherry teaching it were made for me.”

Every Guilford graduate knows a Sherry, a professor who rose above and beyond their job description to help you change for the better. So it was no surprise when we asked Guilfordians about professors who have made a profound impact on their lives, we heard from so many of you.

It is often said that Guilford College changes lives. Here are some of the students and professors behind those those life-changing stories.

JOSIE

“Creating a space of trust and openness allows students to bring powerful, first-hand knowledge of oppressive systems in dialogue with theories about these systems. The readings, discussions and community-based learning give students a new lens through which to make meaning of their own life experiences. I want students to find meaning in every class. This new understanding inspires and motivates students and alums to advocate and organize in their communities to make these systems more liberating and healing.”

One of my first classes at Guilford was Sherry Giles’ Community Problem Solving. I will never forget just how engaging and genuinely real she was as a professor. Sherry didn't mind talking about real issues and paralleling those issues to our studies. We did the book work, sure, but Sherry allowed us to talk about real-life issues so we could align our thoughts with the reality of our experiences. And I think that that's the key to learning: Sherry lets you discover or learn more about a subject or yourself and apply it in real life.

Because of the classwork and the way she created trust and space to discuss real issues, I was able for the first time to look at things from a different perspective and within the context of restorative justice. Sherry didn't know at the time (and many still don't) that I have a brother incarcerated. Because of her, I was able to process my thoughts on him and open up to a new perspective. This helped my growth and development and increased my understanding. After experiencing homelessness, I needed education, not to validate my experience, but to actually understand how I got there in the first place. To do that you need the space for that growth to happen. Sherry created that space.”

y sophomore year at Guilford I took Adrienne Israel’s African cultures class and it opened my eyes. Adrienne made every class so welcoming to a student who had absolutely no knowledge of Africa. Her passion and her humor resonated with me. Adrienne made me a better teacher. If you’re a faculty member without a true passion for your discipline for your subject, you can't connect with students. If it’s not a lot of interest to you, you’re not going to pass on that interest to others. Adrienne connected with me from the first day. Isn’t that what teaching is about? To connect and inspire others to learn?”

M

Sherry lets you discover more about a subject or yourself in class and apply what you learn in real life.

— JOSIE WILLIAMS ’16, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE GREENSBORO HOUSING COALITION

I want students to find meaning in every class.

— SHERRY GILES, JEFFERSON PILOT PROFESSOR OF JUSTICE AND POLICY STUDIES

Adrienne Israel made me a better teacher.

— BC CHARLES-LISCOMBE ’ 94, DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH UNIVERSITY IN CINCINNATI

Iremember the first day of a Heather Hayton course I took.

She had five of us come up to the front of the room and asked us to think of an embarrassing moment in our lives, one that we felt incredibly ashamed of. Then she had the rest of the class observe us and comment on how our physical features changed. A lot of us turned red just thinking about our moment. Heather talked about how shame is one of the strongest emotions that everybody in the world feels. In that one lesson Heather showed we all have similar emotions and similar experiences, no matter where we come from but that we can use those things we have in common to come together rather than stay apart. As a teacher I have to form relationships with all of my students and their families in order to have a successful year together. And so that first day in class she taught me a lesson I still use today. There are many things we share with other people. Heather showed me the importance of connecting with others. I try to do that every day in my classroom.”

“Real learning is always difficult. I try to do activities that help us bond as a community, to get beyond the texts we are studying. Sharing those moments is the beginning step to trusting one another (and ourselves) as we study difficult theories and texts. I love that Guilford students commit to the messy, sometimes chaotic, energy that transformative learning needs.”

Guilford students commit to the messy.

— HEATHER HAYTON, ROBERT K. MARSHALL PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

“My passion for teaching was ignited in my childhood but remained unfulfilled until I learned how to teach at Guilford. I learned to listen to students and I tried to see what I was teaching through their eyes. Instead of lecturing and sharing information, I tried to involve them in the subject, no matter what it was. Originally I wanted to be a writer, but fiction did not supply enough material to satisfy me. History being an infinite subject supplies the substance for both teaching and writing and sharing. It produces a love for other people that grew as I learned from my students at Guilford. I owe them thanks and I owe Guilford for providing an atmosphere in which I could shut out the rest of the world when I stepped into the classroom.”

Heather showed me the importance of connecting with others.

— CHELSEA RIVAS ’11, FIRST-GRADE TEACHER AT TWO RIVERS PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

I tried to see what I was teaching through their eyes.

— ADRIENNE ISRAEL IS PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES EMERITA AND A FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AND ACADEMIC DEAN

Sometimes I think David Hildreth has had more of an influence on me after my time at Guilford than while I was a student. I’m always emailing him to get his thoughts on what my next steps should be as an educator, because he always challenged me and other students at Guilford to be reflective and lifelong learners. David always encourages us to list two or three strengths and only one next step or weakness. I’ve been sending him my strengths and next steps every few months for six years now. I usually write this in a long paragraph. It’s more like a novel than an email. He always responds within an hour. A lot of what he says just reaffirms what I might already be thinking, but sometimes he comes up with a solution to my problem I never thought of. It’s nice to know our professors at Guilford are still there for us even after we’ve graduated. That’s David Hildreth — he’s only an email away.”

Growing up I always felt this need to be perfect, to get it right the first time. Then I took a German class with Dave Limburg and he showed me how ridiculous that was. Not just in a classroom but in life. David always tells students, “you're learning this, you don't know it. It’s okay to make mistakes. That’s how you learn.” He taught me that making those mistakes are what propel you forward. I didn’t realize it at the time, but David has this gift of helping you build self-confidence. And that confidence you gain in the classroom spills out into your personal life and you realize that life doesn’t play out the way you expect it to. You deal with the mistakes you make and learn from them. Dave said messing up is part of the fun of learning in college. That’s kind of what most people need to learn about life, too.”

“Allowing yourself to make mistakes and developing confidence to deal with them is a key to learning; that means you're constantly doing, practicing. And that habit of practice leads to another key to life learning: self-motivation. I tell my students they need to learn how to teach themselves. Languages are the perfect discipline for practicing that. You're gonna make mistakes. Try not to worry, keep learning.”

David Hildreth—he’s only an email away.

— LEVI BRUFF ’17, SCIENCE TEACHER AT SOUTH DAVIDSON (N.C.) HIGH SCHOOL

I tell my students they need to learn how to teach themselves.

— DAVE LIMBURG, PROFESSOR OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

RICHARD ALLEN SHARPE, LEFT, WITH DAVE LIMBURGH AND HIS WIFE, LAURA

Dave Limburg said messing up is part of the fun of learning.

— RICHARD ALLEN SHARPE ‘09, STUDYING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IN MUNICH

Having students ... deeply reflect is an optimal way to improve.

— DAVID HILDRETH, LINCOLN FINANCIAL PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION STUDIES

“We encourage students to reflect on who they are as educators — their strengths and their next steps. Having students look within themselves and deeply reflect is an optimal way to improve — not only as an educator, but as an individual. As professors of education, we love to stay in contact with our students, to not only continue to help them find success in their own classrooms, but to also learn from them and their experiences as teachers.”

Now It’s Your Turn

Do you have a Guilford professor who changed your life? We want to hear from you.

Drop me a note at bellrw@guilford.edu and share your story.

What I like most about Kami is how flexible and easy-going she was with me in her classes. I was pretty specific about what I wanted to learn and play as a student. Kami was so open to me learning at my pace and my way. Most classical teachers are very rigid in their ways but Kami was never that way. She has a natural inclination of creating this very fluid, relaxed space for learning. Kami has a gift of shining a light on you and showing you things you can do that you never thought you could do. I teach music, too, and that’s what I try to do with my students. If they don’t want to practice when I see them, I’m not going to make them. I want my students to practice when they feel inspired. And they’ll want to practice when they feel like they’re connecting with their teacher, which is what Kami did with me at Guilford.”

— LAURA BOSWELL ’12, A MUSICIAN AND TEACHER LIVING IN ASHEVILLE, N.C.

“My students teach me every day. I am honored to be a part of their journey and work with them to increase their wellness and sense of self. Music is a beautiful way to collaborate with others, and teaching is an extension of that. I want to guide students to find their inner voice and express who they are through music. Each one is so unique and different and that's a gift. I have to be able to know them and meet them where they are.”

Kami has a gift of shining a light on you.

Music is a beautiful way to collaborate… teaching is an extension of that.

— KAMI ROWAN, CHARLES A. DANA PROFESSOR OF MUSIC

NO LEAF LEFT BEHIND

BY ROBERT BELL ’ 11

THESE DAYS, STUDENTS AND professors drift ethereally among the lush green trees of Guilford’s campus, a sight that will only grow more glorious in the coming weeks when those leaves turn into vibrant hues of crimson and butterscotch before swirling soulfully to the ground.

David Petree’s job is to make that postcard scene go away. And while Guilford’s Assistant Director of Facilities occasionally gets an earful from students for doing just that, he takes solace in knowing that even while he’s sucking and shredding, he’s

honoring the College’s commitment to responsible stewardship.

“There’s a greater good going on,” says David. “You may not see it, but behind the scenes we’re doing a lot of good things in terms of all the composting and recycling we’re doing — not just for the College, but also the community around Guilford and Greensboro.”

And so every day from November through December, Guilford’s three groundskeepers tow an aging custommade vacuum, about the size of a small Dumpster, behind a 1999 Chevrolet truck for as many as 50 hours a week. They hoover and blow millions of leaves from Guilford’s grassy quad, red-brick

pavers and parking lots — every nook and cranny of an otherwise quiet campus — before taking their haul into the woods where those leaves begin a new journey as food for the Guilford Farm.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. There’s an art to gathering nearly 18 tons of fallen oak, hickory, elm, and maple leaves. David's crew spends the first two weeks of “leaf-dropping season” (as David prefers to call autumn) mulching Guilford’s initial thin carpet of leaves, mowing much-needed nutrients back into the campus’ soil. Eventually the leaf falling intensifies to the point where mulching the thick layer of leaves would smother Guilford’s grass. That’s

when the crew switches to vaccuuming.

At the end of every day, workers haul their bounty to the Guilford Woods. Mother Nature plays the lead role in decomposing the leaves, but David takes a backhoe to the piles, to let in much-needed oxygen and moisture that speeds up the leaves’ decomposition.

All the while, Guilford students, faculty and staff show up to the cafeteria playing unwitting roles in the college’s commitment to sustainability. The cafeteria produces nearly 10 tons of food waste each year that would otherwise be headed for a landfill.

As much food waste, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, as Guilford

GROUNDSKEEPERS RAY KNIRS ’ 16 AND EDEN HOGGE (ABOVE) VACUUM LEAVES LAST FALL THAT GUILFORD FARM MANAGER NICK MANGILI (LEFT) AND OTHERS TURN INTO COMPOST.

collects every year, Guilford Farm Manager Nick Mangili says the farm could accommodate even more if it had the equipment in place to handle it. Nick and David would love to see the College invest in a larger collection system so Guilford could work with surrounding communities like Friends Homes and nearby restaurants to collect their food waste.

The food is processed through a pulper in the cafeteria kitchen and stored in cans waiting to be delivered to the farm. The mix is layered in with sawdust and decomposing leaves gathered from previous seasons — food waste lasagna, Nick lovingly calls it — in large bins the size of hot tubs.

That food waste — mostly rice and pasta — is mixed with other compostable materials to provide a boost to the soil at the College’s 20acre farm of which about 2.5 acres are dedicated to the garden.

The blend bakes for three days at a temperature of 131 degrees, an ideal temperature for jump starting the decomposition process. After three days, augers churn the compost to lower the temperature to 121 degrees for the next two weeks.

SUSTAINABILITY BY THE NUMBERS 18

tons of fallen oak, hickory, elm, and maple leaves are gathered each fall 10

tons of food waste are produced each year by Guilford College's cafeteria

121˚–131˚

Range of temperature at which food waste is baked for composting

Nick says the benefit of composting is obvious: Nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur and some micronutrients are cycled and applied to plants to grow more food, rather than decomposing in a landfill.

There’s an added benefit: The mulch helps out financially given the cost of fertilizer, like everything else, has spiked over the past year.

The roots of this year’s vegetables that will soon be gracing dishes at Founders Hall are being enriched from compost created from Guilford leaves collected in the fall of 2019.

Nick says the College can and should think bigger. “It brings into question how we often think of sustainability in a narrow context. We could go deeper and consider the entire life cycle of a product or resource and celebrate its value at each stage,” he says. “There’s so much potential to reuse, recycle in North Carolina. Guilford can be a big agent of change in leading the way.”

AN ENDURING APPRECIATION

Guilford’s Art Appreciation Club wants to celebrate turning 100 by growing its membership.

GUILFORD COLLEGE ART

Appreciation Club President Nancy Walker remembers growing up during the 1950s and '60s in a house filled with music and art: her mom played the upright piano in the family’s playroom. When she was old enough to learn, Nancy joined her.

Those early experiences sparked a lifelong love of the arts and help explain why Nancy is so enthusiastic today about sharing her passion for music and other art forms through the Art Appreciation Club. That enthusiasm is even more heightened this year with members celebrating the club's 100th anniversary.

“There’s going to be something for everyone to enjoy (this year),” says Nancy, who wants to see the club grow beyond the campus and into the community.

Nancy is Professor of Voice Emerita at UNCG where she taught for over 30 years. She’s married to Tim Lindeman, Professor of Music Emeritus at Guilford College, where he served as Department Chair for more than 20 years. Clarajo Pleasants ’67 is the club’s historian. She says left alone for time and dust to settle, art appreciation clubs can start to show their age. Many can become privileged places, too beholden to various orthodoxies. Clarajo, Nancy and other members want the Art Appreciation Club to grow into the times while honoring its roots. They’re hoping to expand beyond the current membership of 33, mostly Guilford graduates. The idea, members say, is to make the club more of a town-and-gown monthly affair.

CLARAJO PLEASANTS ’67 (BELOW) AND CLUB PRESIDENT NANCY WALKER WANT TO EXPAND THE GUILFORD COLLEGE ART APPRECIATION CLUB BEYOND THE CAMPUS AND INTO THE COMMUNITY. BOTTOM RIGHT, A CLUB PROGRAM FROM 1962.

“There’s no reason why we can’t reach a different, maybe more diverse audience to grow membership,” says Clarajo.

Nancy agrees. “Art comes to us in so many forms,” she says. “Paintings and drawings sure, but also through music, through dance, the printed word. There’s so many ways we can connect with the community.”

The club has approved the Guilford College Art Gallery Endowment as its project for its centenary year. Members are encouraged to designate that memorials, honorariums and discretionary funds during the anniversary year be earmarked for the endowment.

The club also awards merit and

cultural awards annually. Last year’s merit scholarship winner, Noah Dabney ’23, a guitarist and cellist, received a $500 scholarship. The $500 Cultural Award was given to the Hirsch Wellness Center in honor of Terry Hammond ’81, who has served faithfully as a liaison between the club and the various art programs at Guilford.

•

Interested in learning more about the Guilford College Art Appreciation Club or want to join?

Contact Nancy at nlwalker@uncg.edu.

We are honored to provide investment expertise to help you educate tomorrow’s leaders.

CHRONICLING THE PLIGHT OF PEDDLERS

María Amado has always relied on street vendors when she visits family in her native Panama. Now the Guilford professor is writing a book about them.

BY ROBERT BELL ’ 11

STREET VENDORS HAVE ALWAYS

played an integral role in the lives of Panama’s citizens, which means they’ve always played a vital role in Guilford Professor María Luisa Amado’s life, too. Now she’s writing a book about the country’s buhoneros, as they are called, and the foundation they offer to the country’s economy.

María, Lincoln Financial Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, was born and raised in the isthmus of Panama, which connects North and South America, before coming to the United States as a graduate student in 1995. Her family — her father, five siblings and countless cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews — still relies on vendors, as part of an informal economy on the cramped streets of Panama’s big cities much like New York City’s vendors do in Times Square. On any given morning, the vendors set up shop on street corners offering vegetables, mangoes, plantains and fish. Others regularly ride through the streets with bullhorns announcing their presence.

"Informal market workers are not unique to Panama,” says María. “There are countries in which over 50 percent of the workforce is found in the informal economy. In Panama, almost

half of the workforce is made up of people in informal employment, among them, street vendors,” and it shows.

Maria has been a regular customer of the peddlers for years whenever she visits her family. When she went back in 2002 after a two-year absence, she was amazed at just how many more displaced workers from Panama's formal economy were now relying on informal employment, which peddlers

fall under. While she has sustained an interest in peddlers' livelihoods and trials since her student years, she began to formally investigate this topic more recently as a faculty member at Guilford College, given the prominence of this phenomenon in her classes about Latin American societies.

María likes to incorporate her travels into her Guilford classes. When she found little information — especially

PHOTO

A STREET PEDDLER IN PANAMA SERVES UP SHAVED ICE TO A CUSTOMER. GUILFORD PROFESSOR MAR Í A AMADO LIKES TO INCORPORATE HER TRAVELS INTO HER TEACHINGS WHICH IS ONE REASON WHY HER NEW BOOK FOCUSES ON THE COUNTRY’S PEDDLERS.

photos and video — on peddlers, she decided to document their lives and stories with the help of her partner, Joe Jowers, a filmmaker by training. The documentary, ‘Bien Cuidao:’ The Informal Economics of Survival in Panama , contains a trove of interviews with peddlers themselves, and has been shown in many of María’s classes at Guilford as well as N.C. State University.

Making the documentary required so many interviews of peddlers — many of whose stories were left on the cutting room floor — that María decided a book might be in order. Her book, titled Neoliberalism and Labor Displacement in Panama: Contested Public Space and the Disenfranchisement of Street Vendors, is scheduled to be released next year.

Panama’s informal market workers have a significant, albeit unmeasured, impact on the country’s economy. So significant that the state does not press vendors for permits or attempt to formalize them because Panama and neighboring countries are

not equipped to provide employment to everyone.

María says thousands in the workforce depend on these informal markets but increasingly those livelihoods are in peril as the number of people in informal employment grows and competition for customers continues. This is heightened by the shrinkage of the space that street vendors occupy. María’s book focuses on the displacement of street vendors from four commercially strategic areas of Panama City. These areas have been vital venues for peddlers’ activities but have recently become the target of gentrifying processes

that cater to a higher-status clientele.

“My main argument in the book is that the Panamanian working class is subject to a double squeeze under current free-market economics,” says Maria. “On one hand, deregulation of labor relations reduces access to stable jobs in the formal sector; on the other, the implementation of exclusionary development projects confines informal employment workers to marginal city spaces."

These days María is telling the peddlers’ stories through words and images. Her camera is more than a tool for storytelling. “It’s very therapeutic for me,” she says. She posts photos of street vendors and other subjects on her blog (https://tinyurl.com/4r84map3) along with the stories behind them. Stories she shares with Guilford students.

“It’s a world I’m sure many of our students are unaware exists and I think that’s one of Guilford’s missions,” María says, “to share the stories and learn from them.”

MAR Í A AMADO SHOWS OFF HER PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS TO PANAMANIAN CHILDREN.

“In Panama, almost half of the workforce is made up of people in informal employment, among them, street vendors.”

— María Amado

BORN TO BOOGIE (AND DEFEND OTHERS)

Guilford gave him a chance when no one else would. These days, criminal defense lawyer

Michael Working ’98 is just paying it forward.

BY ROBERT BELL ’ 11

SOMETIMES SIMPLE QUESTIONS bring the most complicated answers. For example, snag Memphis lawyer Michael Working on one of those rare workdays when he has a few minutes to come up for air, and ask him why.

As in, why does one of Memphis’ better-known criminal defense lawyers invest so many hours — sometimes 70 a week — helping clients with a criminal case they have a paper-thin chance at winning? Why does he assist so many people already in prison appeal their convictions with even less of a chance at reversing those convictions?

See how Michael smiles through a side-eyed glance. His answer comes from a line composed by blues singer John Lee Hooker in his seminal “Boogie Chillun,” a favorite Michael used to play back when he spun records at WQFS, Guilford’s radio station.

As Michael tells the story there’s a line in the song when the blues singer’s father tells his wife their son was born to sing and dance. “The boy’s got the boogie-woogie in him and it gots to come out!”

“That’s me,” says Michael. “I was born to be a lawyer. It gots to come out.”

That’s the answer Michael offers up at dinner and cocktail parties. But for more context, pry a little deeper and

go back to when he was a senior at his Baltimore prep school fielding offers to play football in college. That’s when he broke up a hazing incident a few months before graduation.

“I just pushed some bigger kids off of a freshman they were beating up,” he recalls. As Michael tells the story, he never threw a punch. Nevertheless, he

never forgotten what the College did for me. I try to do that for others.”

And so every morning Michael shows up to work — at an old Quaker Meeting House in Memphis that he bought and converted into a law office — to help others who he believes have been wronged by a justice system that frequently treats the disenfranchised and moneyed differently.

More often than not, his cases fly under the radar though sometimes they make national headlines. Like the time he helped exonerate Noura Jackson, who spent nine years in prison for being wrongly convicted by overzealous prosecutors who later were shown to have withheld evidence.

was charged with assault.

The charges were later dropped but the damage was done. Most colleges showed little interest in Michael after the incident except one. “Guilford believed in me,” says Michael. "They saw who I was as a person. That’s always meant a lot to me.”

Even now, all these years later, a small Quaker college in the South supporting a Jewish teenager from Baltimore had a profound impact on Michael.

“Quakers have a long history of standing up for what they think is right even if it's unpopular, and even if they're in the minority,” he says. “I’ve

It’s a stressful job. “Think about it this way,” says Michael. “Best-case scenario is you’re dealing with a guilty sociopath. You go through all the steps of trial. And this guy gets a fair trial and gets sent away. You couldn't get him a more perfect trial. Those are actually the cases that are easy to sleep on afterwards. The really hard ones are when you have a client who's innocent and the system won't stop and it won't listen, and it won't help. Their whole life is riding on you. That's terrifying. And it happens all the time here. That's when I can’t sleep.”

The Noura Jacksons of the world keep him going. So every morning Michael

PHOTO BY JAMIE HARMON

“Guilford believed in me. They saw who I was as a person. That’s always meant a lot to me. ”

— Michael Working

gets up and goes to work again, hoping to rescue one of those lives.

Michael wasn’t a standout football player at Guilford, though he did rush for 101 yards and a touchdown in the 1997 Soup Bowl against Greensboro College. Tina Beahan ‘97 remembers her classmate as the guy who always thought popularity was overrated. She remembers Michael as the football player who preferred a solitary game of chess in a corner of Founders Hall with a cafeteria worker over hanging out with other student athletes on a Friday night.

“He has never been interested in popularity or following the crowd,” says Tina. “He saw and acknowledged that everyone has value. That's why he fights for those who have been marginalized by our society. For him, it's about treating people with the dignity they deserve and doing what is right.”

Michael and his wife Carole moved to Memphis shortly after she graduated from UNCG. The reason was easy: The cost of living was a little less and the Memphis music scene is legendary.

Michael, a huge blues fan, went to law school at the University of Memphis and has been helping those around him ever since.

It’s not just the wrongfully convicted he helps. Brandon Rothfuss ’15 connected with Michael shortly after landing a sales job last year with the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team. But first he needed a place to stay. An acquaintance at Guilford told him to give Michael a call.

Michael met Brandon for dinner that night. That one month stay in Michael’s spare bedroom turned into six months while Brandon learned his way around the city. “That’s just Michael being Michael,” says Brandon. “He cares about everyone and it shows in whatever he does.”•

MEMPHIS ATTORNEY MICHAEL

’ 98 IS OFTEN DRAWN TO DEFENDING THE DISENFRANCHISED. IT’S WHAT GUILFORD TAUGHT HIM.

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

WITH THE GUILFORD QUAKERS ’ new $424,000 Softball Hitting Annex up and running, Dennis Shores is blunt about the building’s future impact.

“It’s going to make a huge difference,” says Dennis (right), the Quakers’ longtime coach since 2007. “When you’ve got everything under one roof, that’s going to make it a lot easier for everyone to come together to study for school or practice. When that happens you have to believe that will translate into more wins.”

The softball annex opened in April to rave reviews from players. And why not? An air-conditioned indoor facility with two netted batting cages,

a locker room, shower and bathroom, and a study room. “This is a place that’s more conducive to a higher-level program than Division III Guilford,” says Dennis. “This is a place our team can be proud of.”

Dennis says it’s easy to do the math. “When you think about all the practices we used to lose because of rain, now we’ll just practice indoors,” he says. “That right there is going to make us a better team.”

“I wish we had a place like this when I was a freshman,” says Morgan Kinney '24. “But it’s going to be nice getting to use the space the rest of my time here and future recruits are going to love it.”

The building, which is located near the softball field, was once a storage facility for old furniture and equipment before the College gutted and renovated the interior. Funding for the annex came from the nearly $6.7 million raised through the Guilford Forward Fund.

Dennis says the annex is already paying off with recruiting. Softball student-athletes usually don’t commit to a college until the spring, but he says Guilford has five athletes who have verbally committed to attend Guilford in 2023.

“Obviously the quality of education Guilford offers had something to do with their decision, but I know this (building) impressed a lot of them,” he says.

New facility allows Quakers’ softball student-athletes to practice rain or shine — study, too.

GUILFORD

MORALES

PRACTICES IN THE QUAKERS

NEW SOFTBALL HITTING ANNEX, WHICH OPENED IN APRIL.

New lacrosse coach returns to the scene of her prime

JORDAN BOWERS ’08 WAS CONTENT with her life. Really she was. Who wouldn’t be? After putting in the long hours as a collegiate lacrosse coach, she was a stay-at-home mom with her 3-year-old daughter McKinley coaching a high school lacrosse team in Vermont.

“Every morning,” she says, “I thought to myself, ‘this is perfect. I’m in such a good place right now.’ ”

At least until one of those mornings when Jordan heard her alma mater was looking for a new women’s lacrosse coach. Maybe that perfect life, she thought, could be even better.

“The more I thought about it, the more it made complete sense to me,” says Jordan.

That’s the truncated story behind Jordan’s return to Guilford as the Quakers’ new coach. She moved to Greensboro this summer and has spent the fall meeting with players and recruiting new ones back in New England – a lacrosse hotbed.

Jordan has a number of goals she’s

set for herself. Some, like growing the Quakers’ roster, are easily measurable. Others will be more difficult.

The pandemic took its toll on players. The team did not compete in 2020 and last year the Quakers finished 5-12.

“I want the team to feel good about themselves and their teammates,” says Jordan. “Between COVID and everything else, it’s been a rough period for these players. We’re going to try and

change the environment.”

Over eight seasons, Jordan was the head coach at Catawba College, leading the Indians to a 62-65 record. She guided Catawba to two South Atlantic Conference tournaments including a semifinal appearance in 2018.

She has a knack for recruiting, having coached three South Atlantic Freshman of the Year honorees and 42 All-Conference athletes.

Prior to Catawba, Jordan was an assistant coach at Pfeiffer University for two years and an assistant for Guilford from 2009-10. She was a starter her four years at Guilford and was named All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference every season.

Jordan is 10th in career points at Guilford, 11th in goals and is tied for seventh in assists. “We were relatively successful,” she says. “I want that same feeling for the players that I had when I was here — winning games and having fun doing it at the same time. It’s not one or the other. We can do both.” •

Ben Strong ’08 leads Guilford’s latest Hall of Fame class

GUILFORD COLLEGE PLANNED TO ENSHRINE FIVE NEW MEMBERS INTO ITS athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 8 during Homecoming & Family Weekend. The class included four student-athletes: Ben Strong ’08, Arden Miller Klapy ’01, the late Kevin Pendergrast ’96 and Eric Webster-Rashad ’85. They were joined by Dave Walters, the College’s longtime sports information director.

Ben might be the most familiar name among the inductees. He was twice named Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) player of the year and a first team All-American. He was co-National Player of the Year in 2007. His 59 points in a postseason tournament game against Lincoln University (Pa.) in 2007 remains an NCAA Division III Tournament record.

Arden was a two-sport athlete, competing in women’s basketball and soccer. In 2000, she was named the ODAC Player of the Year in basketball and

was an honorable mention All-American.

Kevin was Guilford’s most successful men’s tennis player, leading the Quakers in career singles wins (69), doubles wins (47) and overall wins (116). He was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s Division III All-American in 1996.

Dave worked from 1996 until 2020 as Sports Information Director, overseeing media and public relations for the 22 varsity sports programs. He was a leader in national and state sports information organizations. And also served as the College’s Assistant Athletic Director for 20 years.

A former Guilford basketball player, Eric was the National Olympic Team Head Coach for Guyana and Bahrain. He was also a coach with the Tampa Thunderdawgs in the American Basketball Association and a scout for the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers.

COMMUNITY NOTES

Karen Richon ’84 helped launch Webb Telescope into space

When the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope were shown to the world in July, Karen Vance Richon ’84 was among engineers and scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland watching the big reveal.

“I was blown away,” says Karen, an engineer leading the flight-dynamics team that designed the orbit for the spacecraft and keeps it there so the telescope can “do the science.” She’s worked in various positions in flight dynamics at NASA Goddard since 1985.

The Webb Space Telescope is the largest telescope ever launched into space, succeeding the 1990 Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics. Scientists hope the telescope can unlock mysteries from as far back as 100 million years after the Big Bang.

Karen says the quality of the teaching at Guilford and the interest and influence of faculty, particularly Physics professors Sheridan Simon and Rex Adelberger, had a lasting impact. She remembers enrolling in an Astronomy class at Guilford that set her on her career track. Sheridan took her aside one day to encourage her.

“Sheridan and Guilford put me on this path,” says Karen, who majored in Physics.

For six months after graduating from Guilford in 1984,

Ezequiel Minaya ’96, a native New Yorker, is back home as an assis tant editor on The New York Times’ Metro desk. Ezequiel, a former deputy business editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer, is leading the Times’ econom ics, transit and real estate reporters.

Nate Harris, a former Guilford running backs coach, now has the same position at Elon (N.C.) University. Nate was most recently the running backs coach and on-campus recruiting coordinator at the University of West Alabama.

Karen sent out resumes with no success. That’s when her Guilford connections paid off. “I went to an Alumni Association meeting and Winslow Womack ’50 was there,” she says. Winslow was in the midst of a long, successful career in the space industry. He recommended Karen to Sandra Parham, a colleague at Goddard Space Flight Center. Two months after their meeting, Karen was a NASA employee. Karen says the impact of her Guilford education was evident early in her career. “When I got to Goddard I was one of the few that did not go to Maryland or Virginia Tech. My manager, in the first couple months, said, ‘You have an advantage because you don’t think you know everything. You know how to learn and adapt.’”

By the time she had been at NASA Goddard several years, Karen was the lead flight dynamics engineer of several missions. Her career has been focused on mission analysis and trajectory design for spacecraft. She took a detour as a supervisor for four years, but came back to analysis in 2004.

“I take what I learned at Guilford and apply it to different disciplines at Goddard,” she says. “I was taught by Sheridan and Rex and others to think and not to memorize. I really value that. It’s why I have this job.” •

Mike Viruso ’96, is the new Vice President of Sales at SilverSky, a Raleigh, N.C.-based company offering an array of cybersecurity detection and response services to businesses. Mike arrived at SilverSky after serving as Enterprise Sales Director at Arctic Wolf, another cyberdefense company.

Leonard McNair ’19, a former standout for the Guilford men’s basketball team, is back on the court. this time as the head coach at Woods Charter in Chapel Hill, N.C., his high school alma mater. Leonard was an assistant coach for Catawba Valley (N.C.) Community College.

“I take what I learned at Guilford and apply it to different disciplines at Goddard.”

— Karen Richon ’84

Evan Welkin ’07, a graduate of the Guil ford College Quaker Leadership Scholars Program, is the new Communication & Programme Officer for the Friends World Committee for Consultation for Europe and Middle East Section, the collective body for Quaker meetings in Europe and the Middle East.

Eddie Praley ’15, the former coordinator of Video and Recruiting Operations at Iowa State University, is the new Director of Video for the University of Maryland’s women’s basketball team. Eddie earned a Business Administration degree at Guilford and a masters in Edu cational Leadership from the University of Indiana in 2018.

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Marcia Brown ’78 (above right), Professor and Chair of LaGrange (Ga.) College’s Fine Arts Department, received the 2022 Vulcan Materials Company Teaching Excellence Award from the college. Established in 1991, the award honors an outstanding professor selected by member campuses of the Georgia Independent College Association.

REMEMBERING GUILFORDIANS

The following Guilfordians died between January and September 2022, and we offer condolences to their families and friends. A list of obituaries is available on the Community Notes page at www.giving.guilford.edu.

Guilford loses two pillars in the deaths of Bill Rogers and James McMillan

Guilford College lost two beloved members of its community this summer with the deaths of President Emeritus William R. Rogers and Art Professor Emeritus James C. McMillan.

Bill, who served as Guilford’s sixth president from 1980 to 1996, died July 15 at the age of 90 in Greensboro, leaving behind a legacy of growth at the College as well as friendships forged.

During Bill’s presidency, Friends Center, the Office of Campus Ministry and Quaker Leadership Scholars Program were established, interdisciplinary studies were expanded and a capital campaign raised $13 million.

But what students, staff and faculty say they’ll remember most about Bill were his countless displays of humility and fellowship — and lessons imparted through both.

Beth Voltz ’91 remembers Bill walking up and introducing himself to her the morning of her first-year orientation, the start of a friendship that continued well beyond graduation. “He knew when parents sent their kids to Guilford they were doing more than just sending them off for an education. They were entrusting their care to the school. Bill took that trust very personally and very seriously. He

Jace Ralls ’50, an honored alumni leader, died on July 4.

Jace was Pres ident of Men’s Student Government as a senior and a letter winner in basketball and baseball. He gave back to his alma mater with participation on the Alumni Board (he was granted life membership) and was honored with the Charles C. Hendricks ’40 Distinguished Service Award in 1994 and induction to the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1972.

Dianne Harrison ’82 , the College’s former

Director of Financial Aid, died June 30.

For more than three decades, Dianne worked to ensure that students had access to a Guilford education. It was a personal mission for Dianne, a resident of Greensboro, who earned her diploma in Guilford’s adult-degree program and was the mother and grandmother of Guilford graduates.

M c MILLAN

didn’t just know our first names, he knew our lives.”

James died Sept. 1 in Greensboro at the age of 96. In 1969, he became the first African-American, full-time professor and department head at the College. Like Bill, his impact was felt across the city. James’ art conveyed a global vision that included the Depression, war and the Civil Rights Movement. In the early 1960s he went to jail three times for acts of civil disobedience in the name of equal treatment.

A native of Sanford, N.C., James attended Howard University before being drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War II. He worked on a naval battleship a few days before it was destroyed by Japanese kamikaze pilots.

He graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor of arts degree in 1947 and taught at Bennett College in Greensboro while serving in the Navy, earning his MFA in Sculpture at Catholic University and studying art at the Academie Julien in Paris.

The James C. McMillan Scholarship for Art students was established in his honor. After retiring from Guilford he helped found the African American Atelier, which promoted the arts in Guilford County including to schoolchildren.

Jim Newlin ’60, a strong advocate and benefactor of Guilford College for almost seven decades, died May 10. Jim graduated from Guilford with a degree in Chemistry and briefly worked as a chemist. Jim left his posi tion as a chemist to return to the College in 1965 to work as business manager, then Vice President of Business Affairs and eventually as the College’s Chief Financial Officer.

W. Groome Fulton Jr. ’60, an emeriti member of the Guilford College Board of Trustees and College benefactor, died April 21.

Groome served on the College's board of Trustees for eight years. He was a Quaker Club member but held a special fondness for supporting the golf team. In 1991 Groome was instrumental in the formation of the Bank of North Carolina and served many years as the chairman of the board until retiring in 2009.

ROGERS

Cathy West , the College’s longtime Registar, died March 6. After earning her master’s de gree in counseling, Cathy began working at Guilford College as an Assistant Director of Admissions in 1970. Cathy worked in various positions before eventually becoming Registrar of Guilford College. After 37 years at Guilford, Cathy retired and later joined the staff of the Moses Cone Con gregational Nursing Program.

Marion Charles “Chuck” Scott ’66 , a standout basketball player during

his four years at Guilford who was inducted into the College’s Athletics Hall of Fame, died Jan. 22. Chuck graduated from Guilford with an Economics degree and spent his career in the textile indus try before retiring.

Marjorie Ferguson Freeman ’85, an accom plished educator and certi

fied public accountant, died May 28. Marjorie earned two degrees, first from Vanderbilt University in Education. She was a public school teacher for many years before heading back to school, this time at Guilford. She pursued a career in accounting shortly after graduating.

Stewart Batchelor

Hartley ’82 , who started as a beat cop and worked his way up to High Point (N.C.) Police Depart ment’s Assistant Chief of Police, died May 17. Stewart served in World War II and the Korean War. He continued serving the community when he joined High Point’s police department in 1957. As he rose through its ranks, Stewart twice served as acting police chief.

Ahmad Brewington , a sophomore on the Quakers' football team, died April 25. Ahmad earned all-conference honors

and was named first-team all-area offense at Grimsley High School in Greensboro. He played in nine games his fresh man year at Guilford. He left the College in 2020, but returned in 2022. "He was a bright light in everyone's life," said his mother, Lynette Brewington.

Virginia Faye Tilley Ono ’49, who had a distinguished medical and health career, died June 27.

Virginia was in the last class of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps at the Watts Hospital School of Nursing in Durham. She held medical positions at Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and most recently the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

As part of

exciting expansion,

completely reimagined

wellness

opening a

state-of-the-art wellness center.

updated and added new

“

Bill Rogers just throwing a Frisbee

ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVED ABOUT BILL ROGERS was how accessible he was. Not just to faculty and staff, but also to students. This is kind of the iconic photo so many of us remember of Bill. Can you imagine a president of any other college taking the time to throw a Frisbee with students? That was Bill. He never forgot the power of connecting with students. Sometimes that connection came over lunch, sometimes sitting in a classroom – sometimes just throwing a Frisbee.˝

YOU MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Friends,

FROM THE MOMENT I STEPPED BACK ON GUILFORD

College's campus and began meeting with faculty, staff and students, I was reminded of the words spoken by George Fox, who encouraged us to “Be patterns, be examples... let your lives preach…” This College is built on wonderful individuals like you who are doing amazing things to positively affect so many people. Your generosity, warmth, humor and appropriate skepticism demonstrate your commitment and devotion to this special place.

You are the keystone of the College’s success. The Guilford Forward Fund campaign was an amazing boost that reflected the faith and hope of more than 3,800 supporters. The funds raised helped stabilize our current operations, provide much-needed scholarships and financial aid to deserving students, reduced debt and allowed us to begin improving our physical and technological infrastructure so we can operate more efficiently. We would not be where we are today without the support generated by dedicated alumni and friends. For that, we say, “Thank You!”

Guilford is devoted to developing tomorrow’s leaders by preparing them to excel in a rapidly evolving and complex world. Let us continue to forge ahead with a strong sense of urgency to fulfill the College’s mission.

As your commitment sets a strong example for what alumni and community support should be, my goal is to make you proud to make the investment. While I have already met many alumni and friends, I look forward to meeting more of you at campus activities, alumni events and when travel takes me to a town or city near you. Thank you, again, for your unwavering commitment to Guilford, which helps in no small way to assure our success.

LaDaniel “Danny” Gatling Vice President for Advancement

NC

2022–23 GUILFORD HOME BASKETBALL

Men

Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7 vs. Methodist Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 vs. North Carolina Wesleyan Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 vs. Randolph Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3 vs. Greensboro Thursday, Dec. 29 at 3 vs. Bridgewater State Saturday, Dec. 31 at 3 vs. Centre Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 7 vs. Washington and Lee Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 7 vs. Lynchburg Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4:30 vs. Averett Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7 vs. Roanoke Saturday, Jan. 28 at 4:30 vs. Eastern Mennonite Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7 vs. Ferrum Saturday, Feb. 18 at 4:30 vs. Randolph-Macon

Women

Monday, Nov. 14 at 6 vs.William Peace

Saturday, Nov. 19 at 4 vs. Washington and Lee Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 2 vs. Berry Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 5 vs. Averett Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7 vs. Ferrum Saturday, Dec. 17 at 1 vs. Pfeiffer Thursday, Dec. 29 at 12:30 vs. Salem Friday, Dec. 30 at 12:30 vs. Methodist Saturday, Jan. 7 at 2 vs. Shenandoah Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2 vs. Eastern Mennonite

Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 7 vs. Hollins Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2 vs. Randolph Saturday, Feb. 4 at 2 vs. Virginia Wesleyan Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2 vs. Randolph-Macon

All games at Ragan-Brown Fieldhouse. Visit www.guilfordquakers.com for more information.