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GRANTS & AWARDS
GIVING MADE EASY At Harcum College, scholarship support is a top priority that promotes diversity and inclusion. In the Fall, Ellen B. Farber ’12 established the Ellen B. Farber Opportunity Fund.
The Fund benefits Fashion, Photography, Graphic Design, and Interior Design students who meet certain criteria, including financial need. Anyone can give to the Fund, and 100% of the contributions directly benefit students.
“As a Trustee and former student, it was important to set up an easy process for supporting students,” said Farber, President of Ellen Farber Strategic Design. After working as a Certified Public Accountant, Farber returned to school and obtained a degree in Interior Design.
“Harcum is a family that gave me and other students of different ages and backgrounds the opportunity to change directions. Through this fund, we can all work together to help create possibilities for current students. I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
For more information, contact
advancement@harcum.edu.
#Masks4DentEd Helps Prevent COVID-19 Spread
For three months from mid-March through June 2020, patient care in the Harcum Dental Hygiene Clinic stopped due to its unprecedented temporary closure in response to COVID-19.
In support of the Clinic’s reopening, a unique partnership stepped in to help prevent the transmission of the virus.
Known as the #Masks4DentEd initiative, the American Dental Education Association coordinated with Henry Shein, Inc., a distributor of healthcare products, to give masks donated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Harcum.
“The process was straightforward,” remarked EFDA Program Director Dossie Cavallucci ’80, ’93. “We submitted a request for an allotment and were charged for delivery, not the masks.” As a result, Harum received 10,000 3M-made KN95 masks to be used for patient care and the delivery of oral health education services.
About three million masks were distributed through the #Masks4DentEd initiative to dental schools and allied dental education programs in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are grateful to be the beneficiary of these masks, which protect our patients, students, and staff against COVID-19,” said Dental Hygiene Program Director Jean Byrnes-Ziegler.
SCHOLLER FOUNDATION FUNDS PEDI BLUE® During their clinical rotations at area hospitals, nursing students have limited opportunities to help bring new babies into the world. To bridge the gap, Harcum College replicates real life in the Nursing program’s Simulation Laboratory. The Scholler Foundation grant received in September will provide for a Gaumard® newborn patient simulator, “Pedi Blue®,” which accompanies “Noelle®,” a full-body birthing mother. Gaumard designs and manufactures simulators for healthcare education, including nursing students.
Nursing faculty members program the simulators, essential components of the Simulation Laboratory, for normal and complicated delivery situations such as breech birth, postpartum hemorrhage, and umbilical cord wrapped around the baby to instill the key skills nurses need to care for babies and mothers.
Nursing Program Director Fran Schuda said, “The Scholler Foundation’s gift makes it possible for our students to learn by doing as they are immersed in simulation exercises involving a mother giving birth and the baby’s first critical moments. Hands-on education and training are more important than ever, especially considering the heightened concerns of delivering a baby during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Last year, the Scholler Foundation funded equipment to help students master medication administration, part of the nursing profession’s complex life-saving skill set.
DENTAL HYGIENE PROGRAM SUPPORTED WITH TWO IBX GRANTS The Cohen Dental Center provides services rated among the highest risk activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus can spread from aerosols, sprays of saliva, or blood. Program Director Jean Byrnes Ziegler commented, “Because of the pandemic, we have minimized aerosols. Patients’ teeth are cleaned by hand scaling only.”
The unanticipated costs of modifying the Clinic to reintroduce aerosols following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations are significant, especially considering the added day-to-day expenses of personal protective equipment and other supplies.
From the start of the pandemic, the Independence Blue Cross Foundation (Foundation) and Independence Blue Cross (Independence) demonstrated to Harcum that “we’re in this together,” a theme of the “Beat COVID-19” series launched by Independence in March.
The Foundation’s grant funding increased the level of personal protective equipment and supplies. The Foundation also awarded targeted funding for service modifications and upgrades that allowed Harcum to continue caring for patients. In July, the Foundation awarded Harcum
Students in the DENTAL PROGRAMS are protected against COVID-19 with donated PPE.
– REBECCA RECALO
a Blue Safety Net grant for Clinic supplies. In September, Independence donated 500 personal protection masks as part of its initiative to donate 500,000 masks to regional physician practices and clinics in the region. In November, the Foundation gave to modify the Clinic’s HVAC system and add floor air purifiers and extra oral evacuation systems to reintroduce aerosols.
Foundation President Lorina Marshall-Blake noted, “The IBC Foundation is committed to community health and nonprofit sustainability. Blue Safety Net grants to the region’s federally-qualified health centers and free clinics mean access to affordable care for underserved communities.”
Harcum Dental Hygiene student Rebecca Recalo said, “I’m thankful to be attending a college that takes such extensive efforts to not only educate students, but provide them with the safe hands-on learning environment of a clinical setting during a global pandemic. The knowledge I gain from practicing during a pandemic will help me obtain a better understanding and appreciation of infection control that will follow me throughout the rest of my career.”
RESTORING THE MURALS AT HARCUM
Numerous colleges and universities have been recognized for their distinctive murals, notably the University of Notre Dame and
Carnegie Mellon University. One reason is that murals can be powerful installations, often deepening the culture of community connection, with the potential to endure decades with some restoration. Some college mural collections hearken back to Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal and were created through the Public Works of Art Program, such as the O’Hanlon fresco from 1934, revealing scenes reflecting the University of Kentucky’s and the state’s history.
Harcum College’s collection of murals created during the 1960s through the 1980s is distinctive in its own right. First, Harcum murals were not commissioned by renowned professional artists, as was the case at Notre Dame and Carnegie Mellon.
During President Philip Klein’s tenure (1953–63), the idea for the Murals at Harcum sprung from the very practical consideration that the walls of the Klein Dining Hall needed adornment. Harcum had a flourishing art program led by artist and art faculty chair Martin Zipin, who undertook the effort as a project in service to the College.
Imagine the volume of artistry and sheer life energy consumed in planning and creating just one outsized piece of artwork. At Wellesley College, the art professor responsible for creating their famous mural wall described his two-week process as “exhaustive.”
Now, consider the size and scale of Harcum’s undertaking, a mural
project continuing for more than two decades, involving every graduating art class from 1967 to 1987, collectively creating its own mural, each serving as a time capsule, connecting current Harcum students with the societal and cultural sensations resonating with Harcum students from generations past.
The Murals at Harcum were launched during the most divisive time in our nation’s last hundred years, so say some political analysts. Consider the state of national affairs during the late 60s: By 1969, the American public was deeply divided over the Vietnam War, school desegregation, law and order, to name a few issues. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy just two months later in June of 1968.
By the time the murals project was winding down at Harcum, the array of societal influences impacting the nation had moved on from the unsustainably tempestuous climate of the 60s. A shift in cultural trends and societal norms was also reflected in the murals. Post-Watergate was a watershed for the content depicted by the Harcum muralists. Their subject matter began reflecting less volatile topics such as the Philadelphia Flyers winning the Stanley Cup (1975), a celebration of the our nation’s bicentennial (1976), gymnast Nadia Comenici taking the Montreal Olympics by storm (1977), the death of Elvis Presley (1978), all the way to the Pac-Man craze (1983).
By the time the project concluded, the murals had run the gamut of preoccupations of past generations of Harcum students—both important and frivolous, evil and virtuous, serious and even occasionally humorous.
Restoring the Harcum Murals
The floor-to-ceiling murals have been a fixture in Klein Hall since before Dr. Jon Jay DeTemple was inaugurated as president of Harcum College in 2007. Some people told their new president the murals were unsightly and suggested they be taken down. At the very least, like often happens with art installations over time, they had become unappreciated, passé. But Dr. DeTemple didn’t want to remove them. Since his arrival, several alumni he had met mentioned to him that more murals than those mounted in Klein Hall had been painted and asked after the whereabouts of the rest. The President had Nikolay Karpalo, now Director of Facilities, search for them, to no avail.
Ten years later, the President’s son Jon Jay DeTemple II, Associate Athletic Director, was reorganizing a
Restorer DAVE WALSH is wrapping a mural representing 1984, when Flashdance and Dr. J were top-of-mind.
storage area in the basement of Klein Hall for the Athletics Department. Part of that closet is positioned under the stairwell leading to the upper floors of Klein. Tucked into a small corner of that overcrowded closet were the lost murals, at least a dozen more large panels complementing Harcum’s visual time capsule.
The President’s son carefully extracted every panel from its dark, damp hiding place, lining each along the walls of Klein for his father’s inspection. These panels were some of the last murals created, featuring outsized images, for example, from 1981: tributes to the newly married Royal couple and the Space Shuttle Columbia; from 1984: a nod to the Reagan-Mondale election and the restoration of the Statue of Liberty; from 1987: an Oliver North portrait, a “Safe Sex” reference owing to the AIDS epidemic, and a tribute to the retirement of Philly’s own “Dr. J”;
from 1988: a depiction of George H. W. Bush debating Michael Dukakis and the track and field events of the Seoul Olympics, to name a few.
Shortly after their discovery, President DeTemple decided the College should move forward with restoring them. “These murals are a major part of our history,” he said. “Alumni come back and look for the murals they created. They are a history lesson and often a civics lesson, year by year, created by Harcum students.”
The College secured funding for the restoration from the Rittenhouse Foundation, the Provincial Foundation, the Daniel B. and Florence E. Green Fund of Vanguard Charitable, and several individuals. The Vice President of the Rittenhouse Foundation, who is also the Chair of the College Board of Trustees, said the restoration of the murals at Harcum is a project deeply aligned with the purpose of the Rittenhouse Foundation, which his grandfather founded in 1947.
“Besides the obvious relationship between the Rittenhouse Foundation and Harcum through the Klein family,” Klein said, “the foundation has always been committed to supporting higher education and cultural initiatives that aim to increase interest and understanding of the world around us. We are proud to be supporting the decision to restore and showcase them.”
With funding in hand, College officials approached visual artist and educator Dave Walsh in 2019. Harcum wanted his advice about completing the project and whether he knew anyone capable of doing the restoration. By the summer of 2020, Walsh’s schedule freed up enough for him to take on the project himself. By that time, he had grown very excited about bringing the murals back to life.
Walsh backed a moving van into a driveway leading to the basement of Klein Hall on August 17, 2020. He and a colleague wrapped all the portable or panel murals in protective paper and transported the first
batch to his van, then headed back to his studio to begin the restoration by drying and cleaning them.
“The primary issue with the panels is the damage moisture has inflicted,” Walsh explained. “In order to remedy this and prevent any future damage, the painted surface and the back of the surface all need to be sealed after repairs.”
Thus far, Walsh has rebuilt the backing frames, sealed the plywood, and restored damage to the painted surfaces. He is currently sealing and varnishing the painted surfaces.
“A big challenge has been matching color,” Walsh said. “Often, student-grade paints are made of pigments different from high quality paints and recreating those colors can be difficult.” As a result, he is spending hours mixing colors to repair sections.
As far as the restoration process, he said it relies on a deep material knowledge that comes from years of schooling and practice, comparing it to a puzzle of fine layers.
“To make well-crafted paintings, you have to understand how paint works, how it adheres to the surfaces and what can damage it,” adding, “paying attention to the surfaces and understanding the logic behind the initial object is important in not creating more damage.”
Another challenge he described is the need to respect the original artists when restoring damaged pieces. “I am not there to improve to alter,” he said. “My job will be best done if you can’t tell I’ve ever been there.”
His plan is to complete the panel murals by this summer. After Commencement, he heads to campus to restore the murals displayed in Klein Hall. All the restored Harcum murals will be unveiled in a gallery show in Klein Hall, premiering during Homecoming 2021.
As a young artist, Walsh painted murals with social themes. This restoration has him thinking a lot about his own development. In many ways, the project has rejuvenated his relationship to art outside the museum and gallery.
“Spending time with art that was made decades ago is a unique experience. Especially work that reflects the political and social time that it was made in,” he concluded. FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Edith Harcum by Leaugeay Phillips Weber ’41, student artwork, and a Zipin painting.
FINE ART
ACROSS CAMPUS
While Professor Martin Zipin’s visual arts program is best known for producing the historic murals, during his nearly 40-year tenure heading up the art department (1953-1991), his legacy of art is even greater than the historic panels currently being restored.
No matter where you go on campus, original art created by Zipin and Harcum students abounds. Portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, and even abstract art line the halls of the Academic Center to the library rotunda to individual offices.
A hidden gem hangs in 301-A in Melville Hall–a portrait of Edith Harcum standing beside a grand piano painted by Harcum alumna Leaugeay Phillips Weber '41 who studied opera, piano, and art. She had an in-home art studio in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and was still active in the art community before her passing in 2017, even participating in 100 Years of Art, Harcum’s juried gallery show mounted for the 2015 Centennial.
Moving Toward Equity & Inclusion
Diversity
The ways in which people differ, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, gender, and more.
Equity
Fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all. Some groups need assistance to realize the same opportunities as others.
Inclusion
Sharing power, building in equal access to resources, and making all feel welcome.
Against the backdrop of the pandemic,
the economic downturn, and nationwide protests against systemic racism, the events of 2020 brought into stark relief the need for every organization, every community, and every responsible citizen to consider their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Thought leader Verna Myers simplified the difference between two related terms: “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”
News outlets from The New York Times to Forbes Magazine have documented racial disparities in employment, education, health care, the criminal justice system and policing, and income inclusion.
Disparities in health care
There are disparities in health care delivery for racial minorities. They are less likely to receive preventive health care, have poorer health outcomes, and experience more difficulty in obtaining health services. Writing for Forbes, Dr. Utibe Essien documented that people of color are more likely to be treated by resident physicians than whites and are more likely to have hospital security called on them.
Regarding the pandemic, specifically, COVID19 hospitalization rates among African-American, Hispanic, and Latino peoples have been about 4.7 times the rate of non-Hispanic whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Philadelphia, city data show that the death rate from COVID-19 among African Americans is 30% higher than for whites.
These disparities place a tremendous burden on inter-city hospitals such as Temple University and Jefferson Hospitals to serve more persons severely stricken with COVID-19 while having fewer resources.
Disparities in educational attainment
There remain contrasts in educational attainment based on ethnicity. Recent data from the American Council on Education (ACE) reported more than four in ten U.S. adults ages 25 and older had attained an associate degree or higher (44.4 percent) in 2017.
However, large gaps in education levels for different racial and ethnic groups still exist. Not all groups are advancing at the same rates, causing individual and economic implications. Higher education attainment for all non-whites except Asians trails at every level—from associate’s to doctoral levels. Research proves Americans with a postsecondary education are more likely to be employed, earn higher salaries, own homes, vote, live healthier lifestyles, and volunteer in their communities, so disparities matter.
Disparities in business ownership versus representative populations
While there has been marked growth in minority- and women-owned businesses in the last 20 years, minorities make up 32 percent of our population, but minority business ownership represents only 18 percent. Recently the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) reported that while the number of minority-owned firms has grown by 35 percent, the average gross receipts for those firms dropped by 16 percent.
Diverse small-business ownership is essential to continued economic success. For both minority- and women-owned businesses, accessing funding and contracts, cultivating support networks, and earning respect remain a challenge.
For years, Harcum has contracted the blackowned, veteran-owned photography studio K.S.N. Images founded by Kevin Nash to document many of the college’s signature events such as the President’s Dinner and the Kevin D. Marlo Golf and Tennis Classic. Nash received a bear pin (usually reserved for employees only) from President Jon Jay DeTemple for his service to the college.
“Arthur Ashe famously said that prejudice was the biggest waste of time in his life,” Nash relayed in a recent interview.
As a six-foot tall man of color, Nash doesn’t easily fade into any background. He spends a disproportionate amount of his professional life “making white people feel comfortable” around him.
Every morning upon waking he says, “What am I going to have to deal with today? That’s why I always wear my vest...it identifies me and explains (without words) why I’m there.”
Instituting Change
President DeTemple spearheaded several changes this year to address inequities in pay. First, when the disruption caused by pandemic required implementing a salary reset, no Harcum employee earning less $30,000 was impacted. Then DeTemple instituted a minimum hiring wage of $15 an hour for new employees while elevating all current employees to that new rate.
He also approved and helped install a new BIPOC roundtable of faculty and staff and a BIPOC focus group of current students. These groups review and weigh in on the communications and advertising messages and collateral Harcum is producing.
Numerous other areas of the College are also searching for and implementing solutions to address diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Advances In Allied Health Fields
Since her arrival at Harcum in 2014, Fran Schuda, Nursing Program Director, has generated stellar outcomes for her students. Since 2016, all graduating classes had 100% pass rates on their national nurse licensing exams. Wholly committed to student success, Shuda and her faculty accomplished this through their careful shepherding and mentoring activities infused into the curriculum.
Since 75% of Harcum nursing grads are AfricanAmerican, that means with each graduating class, Harcum is adding to the diversity of the medical workforce, which research has shown can improve medical outcomes for people of color.
Schuda felt that lacking African-American instructors at Harcum, she would find another avenue for mentoring and professional development, deciding to join the Black Nurses Association.
On a recent Zoom call with Schuda, Monica Harmon, president of the Southeast Pennsylvania Black Nurses Association, discussed the mission of the BNA and why she assumed a leadership role. “While the country is diverse, nursing is still white and female,” which Harmon fervently believes has to change.
The Southeast Pennsylvania BNA chapter offers opportunities at all levels for nursing students of color, from formalized mentorship programs to informal memberships to speed networking kinds of events, which they continue to hold via Zoom.
As an educator and one who also works in the field, Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Director James Foster observed that the pandemic closed all in-person day programs helping adults with autism. At the same time, Harcum OTA students were no longer permitted in clinical settings as allied health providers sought to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Like other disparities exacerbated by the pandemic, the families with the fewest resources were left with no occupation-based care options for autistic family members while those families with financial resources found help.
Foster devised a remarkable solution. He created a telehealth day program to serve autistic adults, which was approved as an accepted setting for fieldwork. To date, they have offered five eight-week sessions, which helps Harcum OTA majors progress in their studies, too.
Right now he has 10 consumers receiving services and five students running the day program. One mother of a consumer told Foster recently that the telehealth program gave her son a reason to get up in the morning.
Because OTA is not considered a diverse profession, Foster also mentioned their membership in COTAD, the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity. “This organization helps ensure everyone is being supported and will improve our discipline. Providers from diverse backgrounds help diverse patients feel like their needs are being met,” he concluded.
Paths Toward Educational Attainment
The Upward Bound Program at Harcum College offers potential first-generation college students who attend certain high schools and may need financial help to attend college the opportunity to participate in year-round activities. These are designed to overcome the educational, cultural, and social barriers and build and enhance the skills and motivation needed to enter and complete post-secondary education.
For more than 15 years, Harcum and I-LEAD have worked together to promote equity and inclusion through the Partnership Sites program. Through selected Harcum degree programs offered at 15 locations, more than 1,000 non-traditional learners have achieved their dream of graduating from college. These educational partnerships occur in small faith congregations to large community service agencies located in underserved areas in Eastern Pennsylvania.
“Most of our students have been low-income working parents and first generation college-goers from families of color still underrepresented in the population of college graduates,” said David Castro, President and CEO of I-LEAD. “Our approach has helped clients overcome significant barriers to success including poverty and structural racism. There is widespread and indisputable econometric data showing that earning a college degree is a life-transforming experience.”
Harcum Trustee Kevin Dow agrees. “The program gives adult students an opportunity to build their confidence in a college setting.”
As the Vice President of Operations for the Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, Dow believes that education is a vehicle to create equity among different communities. “[Whether] someone is coming from a well-to-do or lesser-served community,” Dow explained.
He believes Harcum gives many people various routes to success, such as earning a two-year degree or furthering their education at many four-year institutions.
Fostering Entrepreneurship
For several years, the College’s strategic plan included a goal to cultivate a reputation for Women in Business and Leadership through a symposium and advisory board development. Events for students included a coffee chat with Ariell Johnson, the first African-American businesswoman to own a comic store on the East Coast and Dayna Murphy, a district manager for Starbucks.
The following year, Emily Bittenbender and Lynn Everhart, two women who work in construction, a non-traditional management field for women, shared their experiences with students in a program called, “We Shape the Skyline.” Barbara Bosha, the founder and owner of Bosha Design & Communications in Drexel Hill, joined Harcum’s Business
KEVIN NASH
Barb Bosha with Harcum Program Director Ed Zawora, both panelists in “Succeeding in the Digital Age” lecture event (2019).
Advisory Board as did Merle Holman ‘56, founder of Group Dynamics in Bala Cynwyd.
Bosha Design is a certified women-owned business named one of the most successful Women-Owned-Businesses in Delaware County in 2020. Back in 2001, she pursued her certification from the Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).
Her WBENC membership resulted in numerous scholarships ranging from $10-$15K for specialized schooling on marketing, branding, and growing her business. She also does a lot of volunteerism as a member. “Every time I volunteer, I get back my investment three-fold.”
In 2018, she was named a WBE star and honored in a national forum. “This award put me in a position to grow my network.” Now she’s serving on the envoy committee, mentoring other principals from women-owned businesses.”
For his part, Kevin Nash believes in the power of opportunities, having built his black-owned business on the premise that he only wants to be judged by his work, not on his appearance. “If you can give a person of color a job interview, then give them that opportunity,” he said, emphasizing one tangible way to increase equitable treatment of diverse persons. As Executive Director of the Partnership Sites Program, Evelyn Santana often shares her story with new adult students. She is a first-generation American, the youngest of ten children, and the only one not to have been born in the Dominican Republic.
By the time she was 11, she was cooking for the whole household. Her parents worked long hours and the children who were home had to care for the household. She graduated from high school with a six-month-old on her lap. She had to find a way to make ends meet without working multiple jobs.
Education was her chosen path to success. She earned a degree from Cedar Crest College in psychology and elementary education. She earned an MBA from Daniel Webster College and is completing an Ed.D. from Wilmington University.
“I want them to know it is possible to achieve higher education all while facing consuming life events and other obstacles. I am living proof that a college education can open up new roads,” Santana said.
Evelyn Santana Leading By Example
