Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #10001 Leonardtown, MD
“What we call the highest and the lowest in nature are both equally perfect. A willow bush is as beautiful as the human form divine.” The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881-1897
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE of Maryland
SPRING 2017
HOW DO YOU PRESERVE A SPOKEN LANGUAGE & ITS CULTURE?
Jingqi Fu in Yunnan Province.
PHOTO BY KEELY HOUK ’17
[ PA G E 1 4 ]
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE
of Maryland
SP RING 2 0 1 7, VOL. X X X V III, NO . 2
Calendar of Events Celebration of Joanne Klein April 28 @ 6:00 p.m. Bruce Davis Theater
Commencement May 13 @ 10:00 a.m. Townhouse Green
St. Mary’s Project Presentations May 1 – 2 Campus-wide
MAT Commencement June 2 @ 5:00 p.m. Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary’s Hall
Young at Art Opening Reception May 8 @ 5:00 p.m. Exhibition runs through May 31 Special Gallery hours: Thurs – Sat noon to 5:00 p.m. Boyden Gallery in Montgomery Hall
Alumni Weekend June 8 – 11 www.smcm.edu/alumni
River Concert Series Fridays: June 23 – July 21 @ 7:00 p.m. PLUS Saturday, July 22 @ 7:00 p.m. Townhouse Green Chesapeake Writers’ Conference June 18 - 24 www.smcm.edu/events/ chesapeake-writers-conference
45th Annual Governor’s Cup Yacht Race & Zero Year Reunion for Class of 2017 August 4-6 Waterfront Hawktoberfest October 20-22 Giving Tuesday November 28
www.smcm.edu/mulberrytree Editor Lee Capristo Alumni Editor Kathy Cummings Design Jensen Design Studio Photographer Bill Wood Editorial Board Karen Anderson, Michael Bruckler, Lee Capristo, Kathy Cummings, Missy Beck Lemke ’92, Nairem Moran ’99, Karen Raley ’94, Grace Davis ’15 Publisher Office of Institutional Advancement St. Mary’s College of Maryland 47645 College Drive St. Mary’s City, Maryland 20686
The Mulberry Tree is published by St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Maryland’s public honors college for the liberal arts and sciences. It is produced for alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, the local community, and friends of the College. The magazine is named for the famous mulberry tree under which the Calvert colonists signed a treaty of friendship with the Yaocomico people and on the trunk of which public notices were posted in the mid-1600s. The tree endured long into the 19th century and was once a popular meeting spot for St. Mary’s College students. The illustration of the mulberry tree on the cover was drawn in 1972 by Earl Hofmann, artist-in-residence when St. Mary’s College President Renwick Jackson launched the magazine. Copyright 2017 The opinions expressed in The Mulberry Tree are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the College. The editor reserves the right to select and edit all material. Manuscripts and letters to the editor are encouraged and may be addressed to Editor, The Mulberry Tree, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 47645 College Drive, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686.
PHOTO BY HOWARD KORN
Photographs and illustrations may not be reproduced without the express written consent of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
CONTENTS SPRING 2017
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARYLAND July 2016 — June 2017
F E AT U R E S
ALUMNI COUNCIL
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PA G E 8
Executive Board Allan Wagaman ’06, President Alice Arcieri Bonner ’03, Exec. Vice President Ryan McQuighan ’05, Vice Pres. of Operations Angie Harvey ’83, Secretary Thomas Brewer ’05, Parliamentarian Jim Wood ’61, Treasurer Danielle Troyan ’92, Past President
Chair The Honorable Sven Holmes
Student Member Kate Cumberpatch ’17 Chapter Presidents Annapolis: Erin O’Connell ’91 Baltimore: Dallas Hayden ’06 Black Alumni: Nick Abrams ’99 Boston Alumni: Kyle McGrath ’11 D.C. Metro: Matt Schafle ’10 Denver: Alisa Ambrose ’85 New York: Christelle Niamke ’05 Philadelphia: Vacant San Francisco: Micah Morgan ’09 Southern Maryland: Cathy Hernandez Ray ’77 Western Maryland: Kristi Jacobs Woods ’97 Staff Dave Sushinsky ’02 Alumni Director Lauren Taylor ’14 Assistant Alumni Director
Vice Chair Ann L. McDaniel
Secretary Rear Admiral Tim Heely, usn Retired
MARIBETH GANZELL
Treasurer Mr. John Chambers Wobensmith ’93
Sixteen first-year students had an unforgettable experience traveling to Senegal, West Africa, with Professor Bill Roberts. [ PA G E 8 ]
PA G E 1 4
A Race Against Time
Trustees Carlos Alcazar Arthur “Lex” Birney, Jr. Cynthia Broyles ’76 Peter Bruns Donny Bryan ’73 Peg Duchesne ’77 Elizabeth Graves ’95 Gail Harmon The Honorable Steny Hoyer Captain Glen Ives, usn Retired Gary Jobson Lawrence E. Leak ’76 Molly Mahoney Matthews Michael P. O’Brien ’68 Katharine Russell Danielle Troyan ’92
Professor Jingqi Fu and her research team are on a mission to preserve the language and culture of the Lemo people in a remote village in China. PA G E 1 8
The Art of Being Alive [ PA G E 1 4 ]
Allan Wagaman ’06, Alumni Council President Vera Damanka ’17, Student Trustee Laura Cripps, hsmc
Graduating senior Keely Houk ’17 reflects on being an artist in Italy and how she experienced the liberal arts in the world during her study-abroad semester.
DEPAR T MEN T S
2
President’s Letter
3
College News
20 Alumni Connection
KEELY HOUK
Elected Voting Members John Ahearn ’76 Jack Blum ’07 Thomas Brewer ’05 David Cribbs ’74 Geoffrey Cuneo ’10 Donna Denny ’81 Kate Fritz ’04 Chris Holt ’86 Missy Beck Lemke ’92 Molly McKee ’10 Jeremy Pevner ’09 Amir Reda ’11 Bobby Rudd ’13 Paul Schultheis ’98 Amanda Kellaher Walker ’01
Global Scholars Program
28 From the Archives [ PA G E 1 8 ]
C OV E R :
A registered heritage artist of the Jinman Village in the Yunnan Province. His ceremonial clothing and seashell-adorned head piece are all hand sewn. Photograph courtesy Jingqi Fu. OPPOSITE:
Waiting for wind. Photo from the College collection
St. Mary’s College | THE MULB ER RY TR EE | spring 2017 | 1
A
L ET T E R
F ROM
T HE
PR E SIDE N T
COLLEGE
NEWS
EMBODYING THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH WE WERE FOUNDED
T
his academic year at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, I’ve worked hard to provide opportunities for continuous learning and acknowledgment that all voices must be heard. We started with student-led community conversations aimed at addressing the question of “How do we maintain community and preserve the principles of our democracy in the midst of the many divisive issues that exist for us as a nation and as global citizens?” In September, through the comedic satire of W. Kamau Bell, we heard about “The Bell Curve: How to End Racism in about an Hour.” Our Inclusion, Diversity and Equity workgroup on campus civility conducted the “Thrive” survey feedback with all employees and students and began focus groups on identified issues. This was in response to our strategic plan goal to promote a community and academic environment that embodies the principles of diversity and tolerance on which we were founded. In November, Kortet Mensah joined our community as the College’s first associate vice president of inclusive diversity/chief diversity officer. With career experience in implementing programs that facilitate successful inclusion and adjustment of students and employees, Kortet is helping us move forward. I was invited to give a keynote address to the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Lexington Park, Md., in January. In that address, titled “A Dream Reimagined,” I made this statement: “A truly diverse environment requires continuous learning and the acknowledgment that one does not know everything about various cultures, lifestyles, and backgrounds. It requires asking questions about the unknown and realizing that even with explanations, there are some concepts from other cultures that you may not be able to fathom or empathize with completely. Nevertheless, it remains important to respect the differing viewpoints and allow all voices to be heard.” In March, we held the second annual event to honor the legacy of Lucille Clifton. This year’s focus was on nurturing the compassionate community. We honored poets Toi Derricotte and Yona Harvey for their fearless poetry and our own Ray Raley and Sybol Anderson, who as staff and faculty, make a difference in the lives of our students as Lucille Clifton did. We also welcomed Walter Mosley to campus in March. A prolific novelist and social commentator, Mosley spoke on “The Only True Race is the Human Race” for the inaugural presidential lecture series. This fall, several faculty will roll out classes that continue these conversations. In doing so, they’ll reinforce the importance and power of a compassionate community in which all voices are heard. Providing opportunities for the voices of all to be heard ensures that our democracy remains strong. Exercise your voice.
Tuajuanda C. Jordan, President, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Editor’s Note
T
“
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY NEWS
Cokie Roberts Gives the Bradlee Lecture in Journalism
he Star Spangled Banner” plays each day at 0800 hours from Webster Naval Field, six miles south of the College. The sound of the recording carries up the St. Mary’s River so I hear it as I walk to my office in Calvert Hall.
Broadcast journalist and threetime Emmy winner Cokie Roberts delivered the Benjamin Bradlee Lecture in Journalism to a packed arena on March 8. The title of her talk was “Resilience and Resistance: Coping in Hard Times.” The evening was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy.
The song anchors me to the ground where I stand, listening through to the finish, thinking about the 20th-century reason Webster Naval Field exists. As I gaze upon the river and neighboring Trinity Church, my mind scrolls back through history and the people who’ve walked where I stand. I’m reminded of history and purpose. Kelbey Egerland ’20, who traveled to Senegal, West Africa, as part of the Global Scholars Program this past January, said of the experience, “I learned the significance of an American passport. The passport is something that allows me to go almost wherever I want across the world.” Travels with her mother to the rural Yunnan Province in southwestern China sparked an interest for Professor of Chinese Jingqi Fu to learn more about the language and culture of the Lemo people there. Funded by a major documentation project grant from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Fu is leading a team effort to document, and hopefully preserve, a spoken language and culture in jeopardy, its people under pressure to assimilate to modern China. Keely Houk ’17, spent the fall of 2015 in a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. On the surface, it was the classic liberal arts educational experience in Europe. Its impact deepened when terrorists attacked Paris. Keely’s account reminds me of a passage in “This Place Where We Are” by Jeffrey Hammond, professor of English and George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor in the Liberal Arts: “We will always need people who are aware of their position in history and in the contemporary world, who can see beyond their immediate situation and grasp the bigger picture. …. We will always need people who can appreciate artistic beauty, both for its own sake and for the simple reason that fellow human beings created it.” This issue of Mulberry Tree illustrates that St. Mary’s College students and faculty are doing just that.
Neil Irwin ’00 to Deliver Commencement Address
KIPLINGER’S NAMES SMCM A BEST VALUE St. Mary’s College is ranked among the top 100 list of best value in public colleges for both in-state and out-of-state value by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance in its 2017 edition. Kiplinger’s assesses value by measurable standards of academic quality and affordability.
Cobb House Renewal The Alumni Relations team will have a new home, starting this summer! The Cobb House, overlooking the water between the Admissions Office and Queen Anne Residence Hall will be renovated to provide office space for the Alumni Relations staff, and reception areas to welcome alumni back to campus. The space will also be used by current students throughout the school year to further engage them in alumni programming. Those attending Alumni Weekend in June will be invited to tour the new building!
Neil Irwin ’00, senior economic correspondent for The New York Times, will deliver the Commencement address on May 13. Irwin is the author of “The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire” (Penguin Press, 2013). The book was a New York Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Goldman Sachs-Financial Times Business Book of the Year.
Neil Irwin ’00, senior economic correspondent for The New York Times.
Lee Capristo, editor 2 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 3
A
L ET T E R
F ROM
T HE
PR E SIDE N T
COLLEGE
NEWS
EMBODYING THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH WE WERE FOUNDED
T
his academic year at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, I’ve worked hard to provide opportunities for continuous learning and acknowledgment that all voices must be heard. We started with student-led community conversations aimed at addressing the question of “How do we maintain community and preserve the principles of our democracy in the midst of the many divisive issues that exist for us as a nation and as global citizens?” In September, through the comedic satire of W. Kamau Bell, we heard about “The Bell Curve: How to End Racism in about an Hour.” Our Inclusion, Diversity and Equity workgroup on campus civility conducted the “Thrive” survey feedback with all employees and students and began focus groups on identified issues. This was in response to our strategic plan goal to promote a community and academic environment that embodies the principles of diversity and tolerance on which we were founded. In November, Kortet Mensah joined our community as the College’s first associate vice president of inclusive diversity/chief diversity officer. With career experience in implementing programs that facilitate successful inclusion and adjustment of students and employees, Kortet is helping us move forward. I was invited to give a keynote address to the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Lexington Park, Md., in January. In that address, titled “A Dream Reimagined,” I made this statement: “A truly diverse environment requires continuous learning and the acknowledgment that one does not know everything about various cultures, lifestyles, and backgrounds. It requires asking questions about the unknown and realizing that even with explanations, there are some concepts from other cultures that you may not be able to fathom or empathize with completely. Nevertheless, it remains important to respect the differing viewpoints and allow all voices to be heard.” In March, we held the second annual event to honor the legacy of Lucille Clifton. This year’s focus was on nurturing the compassionate community. We honored poets Toi Derricotte and Yona Harvey for their fearless poetry and our own Ray Raley and Sybol Anderson, who as staff and faculty, make a difference in the lives of our students as Lucille Clifton did. We also welcomed Walter Mosley to campus in March. A prolific novelist and social commentator, Mosley spoke on “The Only True Race is the Human Race” for the inaugural presidential lecture series. This fall, several faculty will roll out classes that continue these conversations. In doing so, they’ll reinforce the importance and power of a compassionate community in which all voices are heard. Providing opportunities for the voices of all to be heard ensures that our democracy remains strong. Exercise your voice.
Tuajuanda C. Jordan, President, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Editor’s Note
T
“
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY NEWS
Cokie Roberts Gives the Bradlee Lecture in Journalism
he Star Spangled Banner” plays each day at 0800 hours from Webster Naval Field, six miles south of the College. The sound of the recording carries up the St. Mary’s River so I hear it as I walk to my office in Calvert Hall.
Broadcast journalist and threetime Emmy winner Cokie Roberts delivered the Benjamin Bradlee Lecture in Journalism to a packed arena on March 8. The title of her talk was “Resilience and Resistance: Coping in Hard Times.” The evening was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy.
The song anchors me to the ground where I stand, listening through to the finish, thinking about the 20th-century reason Webster Naval Field exists. As I gaze upon the river and neighboring Trinity Church, my mind scrolls back through history and the people who’ve walked where I stand. I’m reminded of history and purpose. Kelbey Egerland ’20, who traveled to Senegal, West Africa, as part of the Global Scholars Program this past January, said of the experience, “I learned the significance of an American passport. The passport is something that allows me to go almost wherever I want across the world.” Travels with her mother to the rural Yunnan Province in southwestern China sparked an interest for Professor of Chinese Jingqi Fu to learn more about the language and culture of the Lemo people there. Funded by a major documentation project grant from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Fu is leading a team effort to document, and hopefully preserve, a spoken language and culture in jeopardy, its people under pressure to assimilate to modern China. Keely Houk ’17, spent the fall of 2015 in a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. On the surface, it was the classic liberal arts educational experience in Europe. Its impact deepened when terrorists attacked Paris. Keely’s account reminds me of a passage in “This Place Where We Are” by Jeffrey Hammond, professor of English and George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor in the Liberal Arts: “We will always need people who are aware of their position in history and in the contemporary world, who can see beyond their immediate situation and grasp the bigger picture. …. We will always need people who can appreciate artistic beauty, both for its own sake and for the simple reason that fellow human beings created it.” This issue of Mulberry Tree illustrates that St. Mary’s College students and faculty are doing just that.
Neil Irwin ’00 to Deliver Commencement Address
KIPLINGER’S NAMES SMCM A BEST VALUE St. Mary’s College is ranked among the top 100 list of best value in public colleges for both in-state and out-of-state value by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance in its 2017 edition. Kiplinger’s assesses value by measurable standards of academic quality and affordability.
Cobb House Renewal The Alumni Relations team will have a new home, starting this summer! The Cobb House, overlooking the water between the Admissions Office and Queen Anne Residence Hall will be renovated to provide office space for the Alumni Relations staff, and reception areas to welcome alumni back to campus. The space will also be used by current students throughout the school year to further engage them in alumni programming. Those attending Alumni Weekend in June will be invited to tour the new building!
Neil Irwin ’00, senior economic correspondent for The New York Times, will deliver the Commencement address on May 13. Irwin is the author of “The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire” (Penguin Press, 2013). The book was a New York Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Goldman Sachs-Financial Times Business Book of the Year.
Neil Irwin ’00, senior economic correspondent for The New York Times.
Lee Capristo, editor 2 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 3
Critical Language Scholarship for Halcyon Ruskin ’18
Angueira Named to Lead Planning & Facilities
Halcyon Ruskin ’18 will study in Baku, Azerbaijan, this summer as a Critical Languages Scholarship recipient for the Azerbaijani program. Ruskin is the fourth student at St. Mary’s College to receive the fully funded summer overseas language and cultural immersion program scholarship from the U.S. Department of State. The previous recipients are Mayumy Rivera ‘16, Rachel Avrick ’08 and Becca (Tuttle) Chapman ’09. Rivera and Avrick studied Chinese through the scholarship and Chapman studied Arabic.
The former “White House” on campus is now the Lucille Clifton House, the College annpounced at the second annual Lucille Clifton Legacy Awards.
The Legacy of Lucille Clifton Honors Poets and Actions On March 1, poet Yona Harvey received the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award during the second annual event honoring the legacy of Lucille Clifton, former distinguished professor of the humanities, National Book Award winner and Maryland Poet Laureate. Harvey was introduced by poet Toi Derricotte, who nominated her. President Tuajuanda C. Jordan presented the award, and also recognized two St. Mary’s College employees – Ray Raley (operations manager at the Campus Store) and Sybol Anderson (associate professor of philosophy) – chosen by a student panel for best embodying the spirit of caring, compassion and nurturing that Clifton was known for. The same
4 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Annette “Annie” Angueira has been named to the position of assistant vice president of planning and facilities. She reports to Charles “Chip” Jackson, vice president for business and finance. Angueira oversees planning, construction, maintenance and operations for all College facilities. She has a degree in civil engineering and more than 20 years of experience, working in construction and as an engineer, project manager and designer.
Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 is Neuroscience Seminar Series Guest
College Video Garners CASE Gold
Lucille Clifton Legacy Award winner poet Yona Harvey with President Tuajuanda C. Jordan, and Toi Derricotte.
day, the College announced that the former “White House” on campus would be renamed the Lucille Clifton House. Once the caretaker’s cottage, the building is now the home of campus rights and responsibilities. The name change was approved by the Board of Trustees and the Maryland Board of Public Works.
A 30-second promotional video about the College earned a Gold Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Accolades and Awards program as well as a Silver Award from the national Collegiate Advertising Awards. Carolyn Curry, vice president of Institutional Advancement and Lee Capristo, director of publications, led the College’s effort in partnership with Creative Communications Associates, who shot and produced the video. The firm’s president is Ed Sirianno ’82. Watch the video at https://youtu.be/jPN_hDX3YzE.
SMCM ALUMS & PEACE CORPS: A TOP PICK In its 2017 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list, the Peace Corps ranked SMCM #4 among small schools. There are currently 12 alumni serving abroad in the Peace Corps.
On April 3, neuroscientist and award-winning science writer Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 presented “To Sleep – Perchance, to Breathe: Untangling the Pathophysiology of Obstructive Sleep Apnea” as guest lecturer for the Neuroscience Seminar Series. Lewis has a PhD in neuroscience from the Penn State College of Medicine, where she is a sleep disorders researcher. This summer, she will work on public
Neuroscientist and award-winning science writer Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 was the guest lecturer for the Neuroscience Seminar Series April 3.
health policy as an inaugural William Penn Fellow for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lewis is also a science writer and blogger. She blogs about neuroscience on www.gainesonbrains.com and is a science columnist for The Conversation and Psychology Today magazine. Her writing has been featured in Scientific American, Popular Science, and Slate, among others.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 5
Critical Language Scholarship for Halcyon Ruskin ’18
Angueira Named to Lead Planning & Facilities
Halcyon Ruskin ’18 will study in Baku, Azerbaijan, this summer as a Critical Languages Scholarship recipient for the Azerbaijani program. Ruskin is the fourth student at St. Mary’s College to receive the fully funded summer overseas language and cultural immersion program scholarship from the U.S. Department of State. The previous recipients are Mayumy Rivera ‘16, Rachel Avrick ’08 and Becca (Tuttle) Chapman ’09. Rivera and Avrick studied Chinese through the scholarship and Chapman studied Arabic.
The former “White House” on campus is now the Lucille Clifton House, the College annpounced at the second annual Lucille Clifton Legacy Awards.
The Legacy of Lucille Clifton Honors Poets and Actions On March 1, poet Yona Harvey received the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award during the second annual event honoring the legacy of Lucille Clifton, former distinguished professor of the humanities, National Book Award winner and Maryland Poet Laureate. Harvey was introduced by poet Toi Derricotte, who nominated her. President Tuajuanda C. Jordan presented the award, and also recognized two St. Mary’s College employees – Ray Raley (operations manager at the Campus Store) and Sybol Anderson (associate professor of philosophy) – chosen by a student panel for best embodying the spirit of caring, compassion and nurturing that Clifton was known for. The same
4 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Annette “Annie” Angueira has been named to the position of assistant vice president of planning and facilities. She reports to Charles “Chip” Jackson, vice president for business and finance. Angueira oversees planning, construction, maintenance and operations for all College facilities. She has a degree in civil engineering and more than 20 years of experience, working in construction and as an engineer, project manager and designer.
Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 is Neuroscience Seminar Series Guest
College Video Garners CASE Gold
Lucille Clifton Legacy Award winner poet Yona Harvey with President Tuajuanda C. Jordan, and Toi Derricotte.
day, the College announced that the former “White House” on campus would be renamed the Lucille Clifton House. Once the caretaker’s cottage, the building is now the home of campus rights and responsibilities. The name change was approved by the Board of Trustees and the Maryland Board of Public Works.
A 30-second promotional video about the College earned a Gold Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Accolades and Awards program as well as a Silver Award from the national Collegiate Advertising Awards. Carolyn Curry, vice president of Institutional Advancement and Lee Capristo, director of publications, led the College’s effort in partnership with Creative Communications Associates, who shot and produced the video. The firm’s president is Ed Sirianno ’82. Watch the video at https://youtu.be/jPN_hDX3YzE.
SMCM ALUMS & PEACE CORPS: A TOP PICK In its 2017 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list, the Peace Corps ranked SMCM #4 among small schools. There are currently 12 alumni serving abroad in the Peace Corps.
On April 3, neuroscientist and award-winning science writer Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 presented “To Sleep – Perchance, to Breathe: Untangling the Pathophysiology of Obstructive Sleep Apnea” as guest lecturer for the Neuroscience Seminar Series. Lewis has a PhD in neuroscience from the Penn State College of Medicine, where she is a sleep disorders researcher. This summer, she will work on public
Neuroscientist and award-winning science writer Jordan Gaines Lewis ’11 was the guest lecturer for the Neuroscience Seminar Series April 3.
health policy as an inaugural William Penn Fellow for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lewis is also a science writer and blogger. She blogs about neuroscience on www.gainesonbrains.com and is a science columnist for The Conversation and Psychology Today magazine. Her writing has been featured in Scientific American, Popular Science, and Slate, among others.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 5
THE ST. MARY’S WAY
PRESIDENT’S NEWS
FACULTY & STAFF NEWS
Mosley on the Human Race
Christine Adams, professor of history, had an OpEd published in the Baltimore Sun on January 11, opening with “For me, the lesson of this election is clear: Too many people hate older women.” Adams specializes in gender history and French history.
T
he Inaugural Presidential Lecture Series welcomed author and social commentator Walter Mosley on March 7. He is one of the most prolific writers working in any genre today. He is the author
Karen Leona Anderson, associate professor of English, continues to garner praise for her “Receipt: Poems” (Milkweed Editions, 2016), with Harvard Review Online being a recent example. Add to that, reviews in The Washington Post, Washington Independent Review of Books, Shelf Awareness, Literary Mama, and Food52’s “Weekend Reads.”
of more than 40 books, ranging from crime novels to literary fiction, nonfiction, political essays, young adult and science fiction. With over a dozen entries, his Easy Rawlins detective series began with “Devil in a Blue Dress,” which was made into a feature film starring Denzel Washington. His latest Rawlins mystery, “Charcoal Joe,” was released in June 2016. President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was an invited speaker at the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN) Annual Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 21. Her topic: “Leadership – The Journey Is More Important than the Destination.” Read the transcript at www.smcm.edu/ president. “A Dream Reimagined” was the title of the keynote address by President Tuajuanda C. Jordan on January 12 to NAVAIR in Lexington Park, Md. Read the keynote at www. smcm.edu/president.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was the featured speaker at the College’s Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony on April 7.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan delivered her State of the College address on January 17, titled “A bonis ad meliora.” Read the address at www.smcm.edu/president.
On February 2, President Tuajuanda C. Jordan and the St. Mary’s College community welcomed Maryland’s elected officials for the annual Legislative Reception in Annapolis, hosted by Senator Steve Waugh of Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties. Shown here, left to right: Justin Hoobler ’19, President Jordan, Alli Graf ’17, and Senator Steve Waugh.
6 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
The Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has named President Tuajuanda C. Jordan among six new directors. The AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was featured on the cover of the March edition of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The magazine celebrated Women’s History Month by recognizing the top 25 women in higher education and beyond.
Katy Arnett ’00, professor of educational studies, coauthored an article published in the journal Exceptionality Education International. The article’s topic: “Core or Immersion? Canadian French-Second-Language Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions and Experiences of the Best and Worst Program Options for Students with Learning Difficulties and for English Language Learners.” Kyle Bishop ’04, executive director of the Wellness Center, received a $16,000 grant from Behavioral Health System, Baltimore, to develop and implement Maryland’s screening, brief intervention, and referral to
treatment project, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Bishop and the Wellness Center staff will work with the health information technology vendor(s) to incorporate screening tools, documentation, and reporting capacity into the Wellness Center’s electronic health record system. Geoffrey Bowers, assistant professor of chemistry, is one of four visiting faculty program fellows selected by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Sciences to work for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) this summer. Bowers will further his research to develop general principles for understanding the role natural solid surfaces play in our energy infrastructure. He also hopes to form a stronger bridge for our faculty and students to collaborate with PNNL researchers, place summer interns, and get access to cutting edge instruments not found elsewhere. Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of English, taught a three-day writing workshop for The Iowa Writers’ House in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 10-12. Her workshop was titled “Edible Essays: Adventures in Food Writing.” Sandro Del Rosario, visiting assistant professor of digital media/ animation, earned “Best of the Festival” for his film “Lo Sguardo Italiano – The Italian Gaze” at the Richmond International Film Festival in
Richmond, Va. More than 7,000 hand-colored, oil-painted photographs comprise his film. Garrey Dennie, associate professor of history, attended the historic opening of the first international airport in his home country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in February. For the occasion, Dennie wrote an article, “An Apex Moment: From Diamond Airstrip to Argyle International, an Illustrated History of the Airports of SVG, 1932-2017,” published in the commemorative magazine of the same name. Erin De Pree, associate professor of physics, was recently elected to the chair-line of the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Physical Society, the primary national organization of the physics field. The Mid-Atlantic Section of the APS is the regional unit covering Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia. David Froom, professor of music, had a premiere of his composition, “Nightsongs” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., in March. The piece, for clarinet and piano, was performed by the 21st Century Consort in conjunction with SAAM’s exhibition: “Gene Davis, Hot Beat.” One of Froom’s most frequently performed compositions, “Circling,” was featured in January at the International Saxophone Symposium in Fairfax, Va.
Joe Lucchesi, associate professor of art history, was an invited lecturer on March 8 at the Art League of Kalamazoo, Mich. His lecture topic: “Romaine Brooks in London & Paris: A Legacy of LGBTQ Visibility in Portraiture.” J. Jordan Price, professor of biology and Steven Muller Distinguished Professor of the Sciences, coauthored with Simon C. Griffith from Macquarie University, Sydney, a paper that was published in the February issue of the Royal Society Journal Proceedings B. The paper’s title: “Open Cup Nests Evolved from Roofed Nests in the Early Passerines.” Troy Townsend ’07, assistant professor of chemistry, was awarded a $100,000 technology product development grant through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program. Townsend will be working closely with Solar Tech Inc., a Maryland-based startup company that specializes in solar electric and solar thermal systems for residential, business and municipal applications. Together they will develop a proof-of-concept process for low-cost, lightweight, printable solar modules. The MIPS program promotes the development and commercialization of products and processes through industry/ university research partnerships. Townsend was quoted in Electro Optics magazine about new ways to integrate solar technology into urban environments.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 7
THE ST. MARY’S WAY
PRESIDENT’S NEWS
FACULTY & STAFF NEWS
Mosley on the Human Race
Christine Adams, professor of history, had an OpEd published in the Baltimore Sun on January 11, opening with “For me, the lesson of this election is clear: Too many people hate older women.” Adams specializes in gender history and French history.
T
he Inaugural Presidential Lecture Series welcomed author and social commentator Walter Mosley on March 7. He is one of the most prolific writers working in any genre today. He is the author
Karen Leona Anderson, associate professor of English, continues to garner praise for her “Receipt: Poems” (Milkweed Editions, 2016), with Harvard Review Online being a recent example. Add to that, reviews in The Washington Post, Washington Independent Review of Books, Shelf Awareness, Literary Mama, and Food52’s “Weekend Reads.”
of more than 40 books, ranging from crime novels to literary fiction, nonfiction, political essays, young adult and science fiction. With over a dozen entries, his Easy Rawlins detective series began with “Devil in a Blue Dress,” which was made into a feature film starring Denzel Washington. His latest Rawlins mystery, “Charcoal Joe,” was released in June 2016. President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was an invited speaker at the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN) Annual Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 21. Her topic: “Leadership – The Journey Is More Important than the Destination.” Read the transcript at www.smcm.edu/ president. “A Dream Reimagined” was the title of the keynote address by President Tuajuanda C. Jordan on January 12 to NAVAIR in Lexington Park, Md. Read the keynote at www. smcm.edu/president.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was the featured speaker at the College’s Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony on April 7.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan delivered her State of the College address on January 17, titled “A bonis ad meliora.” Read the address at www.smcm.edu/president.
On February 2, President Tuajuanda C. Jordan and the St. Mary’s College community welcomed Maryland’s elected officials for the annual Legislative Reception in Annapolis, hosted by Senator Steve Waugh of Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties. Shown here, left to right: Justin Hoobler ’19, President Jordan, Alli Graf ’17, and Senator Steve Waugh.
6 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
The Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has named President Tuajuanda C. Jordan among six new directors. The AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education.
President Tuajuanda C. Jordan was featured on the cover of the March edition of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The magazine celebrated Women’s History Month by recognizing the top 25 women in higher education and beyond.
Katy Arnett ’00, professor of educational studies, coauthored an article published in the journal Exceptionality Education International. The article’s topic: “Core or Immersion? Canadian French-Second-Language Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions and Experiences of the Best and Worst Program Options for Students with Learning Difficulties and for English Language Learners.” Kyle Bishop ’04, executive director of the Wellness Center, received a $16,000 grant from Behavioral Health System, Baltimore, to develop and implement Maryland’s screening, brief intervention, and referral to
treatment project, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Bishop and the Wellness Center staff will work with the health information technology vendor(s) to incorporate screening tools, documentation, and reporting capacity into the Wellness Center’s electronic health record system. Geoffrey Bowers, assistant professor of chemistry, is one of four visiting faculty program fellows selected by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Sciences to work for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) this summer. Bowers will further his research to develop general principles for understanding the role natural solid surfaces play in our energy infrastructure. He also hopes to form a stronger bridge for our faculty and students to collaborate with PNNL researchers, place summer interns, and get access to cutting edge instruments not found elsewhere. Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of English, taught a three-day writing workshop for The Iowa Writers’ House in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 10-12. Her workshop was titled “Edible Essays: Adventures in Food Writing.” Sandro Del Rosario, visiting assistant professor of digital media/ animation, earned “Best of the Festival” for his film “Lo Sguardo Italiano – The Italian Gaze” at the Richmond International Film Festival in
Richmond, Va. More than 7,000 hand-colored, oil-painted photographs comprise his film. Garrey Dennie, associate professor of history, attended the historic opening of the first international airport in his home country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in February. For the occasion, Dennie wrote an article, “An Apex Moment: From Diamond Airstrip to Argyle International, an Illustrated History of the Airports of SVG, 1932-2017,” published in the commemorative magazine of the same name. Erin De Pree, associate professor of physics, was recently elected to the chair-line of the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Physical Society, the primary national organization of the physics field. The Mid-Atlantic Section of the APS is the regional unit covering Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia. David Froom, professor of music, had a premiere of his composition, “Nightsongs” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., in March. The piece, for clarinet and piano, was performed by the 21st Century Consort in conjunction with SAAM’s exhibition: “Gene Davis, Hot Beat.” One of Froom’s most frequently performed compositions, “Circling,” was featured in January at the International Saxophone Symposium in Fairfax, Va.
Joe Lucchesi, associate professor of art history, was an invited lecturer on March 8 at the Art League of Kalamazoo, Mich. His lecture topic: “Romaine Brooks in London & Paris: A Legacy of LGBTQ Visibility in Portraiture.” J. Jordan Price, professor of biology and Steven Muller Distinguished Professor of the Sciences, coauthored with Simon C. Griffith from Macquarie University, Sydney, a paper that was published in the February issue of the Royal Society Journal Proceedings B. The paper’s title: “Open Cup Nests Evolved from Roofed Nests in the Early Passerines.” Troy Townsend ’07, assistant professor of chemistry, was awarded a $100,000 technology product development grant through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program. Townsend will be working closely with Solar Tech Inc., a Maryland-based startup company that specializes in solar electric and solar thermal systems for residential, business and municipal applications. Together they will develop a proof-of-concept process for low-cost, lightweight, printable solar modules. The MIPS program promotes the development and commercialization of products and processes through industry/ university research partnerships. Townsend was quoted in Electro Optics magazine about new ways to integrate solar technology into urban environments.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 7
The SMCM Global Scholars Program in Senegal
Lauren Smith ’20 smiles with students in Thiès as Professor Bill Roberts looks on.
F
or 18 year-old Angelina Wilson, the thought of going on an all-expenses-paid study tour of Senegal, West Africa, as part of her acceptance package to St. Mary’s College, was magical. “To me,” she says, “this was my Hogwarts acceptance letter. I spent the summer before my first semester at St. Mary’s College reading books written by Senegalese authors and Googling long into the night to prepare for the class and accompanying trip.”
MARIBETH GANZELL
BY LEE CAPRISTO, EDITOR
8 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
The SMCM Global Scholars Program in Senegal
Lauren Smith ’20 smiles with students in Thiès as Professor Bill Roberts looks on.
F
or 18 year-old Angelina Wilson, the thought of going on an all-expenses-paid study tour of Senegal, West Africa, as part of her acceptance package to St. Mary’s College, was magical. “To me,” she says, “this was my Hogwarts acceptance letter. I spent the summer before my first semester at St. Mary’s College reading books written by Senegalese authors and Googling long into the night to prepare for the class and accompanying trip.”
MARIBETH GANZELL
BY LEE CAPRISTO, EDITOR
8 | St. Mary’s College | T H E M U LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
“The term teranga and everything it means is something I brought back to the U.S. I began to smile or say “Hi” to people I didn’t know. I wanted them to feel just as welcome as I had felt in Senegal.”
THE GLOBAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
Ava Chrisler ’20
10 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
top: Spencer Kessinger ’20 makes a friend in Thiès. bottom: Maddie Gibson ’20 meets with Senegalese students in Thiès.
The course and the study tour provided a common intellectual experience focused on global studies and global citizenship. It also created a learning community of Global Scholars. It included a writing intensive seminar course; collaborative assignments; undergraduate research; and communitybased learning in Senegalese high schools. Part of their reflection was on what it means to be a global citizen in the 21st century and to be a global citizen educated with the ethos of civility and respect as articulated in the St. Mary’s Way.
Caitlyn Sarudy ’20
Students were exposed to a wide spectrum of social positions in Senegal: academics, cultural promoters, community entrepreneurs, community and environmental development specialists and religious leaders. In addition to meeting with Senegalese high school students and touring an agricultural school, they visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gorée Island, the Bandia wildlife reserve, and Bambey (the oldest agricultural research station in West Africa). They also visited two religious centers for the Muslim faith (at least 90% of Senegal’s population is Muslim): Touba (Senegal’s second largest and holy city of the Muridiyya brotherhood), and Kaolack (Medina Mbaye, home of the Niassene community of the Tijaniyya brotherhood). Professor Bill Roberts (anthropology) taught the Global Scholars course and led the trip to Senegal. He’s an expert in West African culture, having served there as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s, and having established the PEACE program in Senegal and the Gambia that ran for nearly 20 years. In 2008, he led a Senegal tour for the Nitze Scholars. On the Global Scholars trip, he was assisted by Maribeth Ganzell, club athletic trainer for SMCM, who has traveled and lived in West Africa. “My hope is that these students will stay connected as Global Scholars,” Roberts said. “Some want to form a club; others are planning a book drive for Senegal high school students.” Of the impact on making the trip a first-year experience, Roberts is pleased. MICHAEL FORD
Just because I don’t agree with something or share someone’s belief doesn’t mean they are wrong or I’m wrong. We’re just different, and there is nothing wrong with that... I think this idea is sometimes overlooked in American society...”
MARIBETH GANZELL
For the first-year college students who were selected to participate in the fall seminar and the associated study tour during the winter break this past January, the benefits are two-fold. These Global Scholars completed, in their first semester of college, all of their ELAW (experiencing the liberal arts in the world) curricular requirements. That’s a tangible benefit on their scorecards toward graduation requirements; the intangible benefit is sparking a desire to experience more of the world and other cultures. Based on the experience, the College is investigating ways to offer similar opportunities in the future.
MICHAEL FORD
The Global Scholars Program was a pilot of the “high impact education practice” described by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The program also aligned to the College’s strategic plan to “attract intellectually ambitious students who thrive in and respect a diverse, collaborative learning community” and to “graduate prepared, responsible, and thoughtful global citizens” by developing and promoting global literacy and leadership initiatives.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 11
“The term teranga and everything it means is something I brought back to the U.S. I began to smile or say “Hi” to people I didn’t know. I wanted them to feel just as welcome as I had felt in Senegal.”
THE GLOBAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
Ava Chrisler ’20
10 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
top: Spencer Kessinger ’20 makes a friend in Thiès. bottom: Maddie Gibson ’20 meets with Senegalese students in Thiès.
The course and the study tour provided a common intellectual experience focused on global studies and global citizenship. It also created a learning community of Global Scholars. It included a writing intensive seminar course; collaborative assignments; undergraduate research; and communitybased learning in Senegalese high schools. Part of their reflection was on what it means to be a global citizen in the 21st century and to be a global citizen educated with the ethos of civility and respect as articulated in the St. Mary’s Way.
Caitlyn Sarudy ’20
Students were exposed to a wide spectrum of social positions in Senegal: academics, cultural promoters, community entrepreneurs, community and environmental development specialists and religious leaders. In addition to meeting with Senegalese high school students and touring an agricultural school, they visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gorée Island, the Bandia wildlife reserve, and Bambey (the oldest agricultural research station in West Africa). They also visited two religious centers for the Muslim faith (at least 90% of Senegal’s population is Muslim): Touba (Senegal’s second largest and holy city of the Muridiyya brotherhood), and Kaolack (Medina Mbaye, home of the Niassene community of the Tijaniyya brotherhood). Professor Bill Roberts (anthropology) taught the Global Scholars course and led the trip to Senegal. He’s an expert in West African culture, having served there as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s, and having established the PEACE program in Senegal and the Gambia that ran for nearly 20 years. In 2008, he led a Senegal tour for the Nitze Scholars. On the Global Scholars trip, he was assisted by Maribeth Ganzell, club athletic trainer for SMCM, who has traveled and lived in West Africa. “My hope is that these students will stay connected as Global Scholars,” Roberts said. “Some want to form a club; others are planning a book drive for Senegal high school students.” Of the impact on making the trip a first-year experience, Roberts is pleased. MICHAEL FORD
Just because I don’t agree with something or share someone’s belief doesn’t mean they are wrong or I’m wrong. We’re just different, and there is nothing wrong with that... I think this idea is sometimes overlooked in American society...”
MARIBETH GANZELL
For the first-year college students who were selected to participate in the fall seminar and the associated study tour during the winter break this past January, the benefits are two-fold. These Global Scholars completed, in their first semester of college, all of their ELAW (experiencing the liberal arts in the world) curricular requirements. That’s a tangible benefit on their scorecards toward graduation requirements; the intangible benefit is sparking a desire to experience more of the world and other cultures. Based on the experience, the College is investigating ways to offer similar opportunities in the future.
MICHAEL FORD
The Global Scholars Program was a pilot of the “high impact education practice” described by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The program also aligned to the College’s strategic plan to “attract intellectually ambitious students who thrive in and respect a diverse, collaborative learning community” and to “graduate prepared, responsible, and thoughtful global citizens” by developing and promoting global literacy and leadership initiatives.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 11
THE GLOBAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
“I’d never traveled to a Muslim country before so I did not have any personal experiences involving speaking with Muslim women about wearing head coverings, or about Islam in general.” Angelina Wilson ’20
One of their writing intensive and collaborative assignments was to write about their experience in an article for the Point News, published February 18, 2017. In that piece, the 16 students who made the trip conveyed their experience using three Senegalese values they encountered in the Senegalese lingua franca of Wolof: teranga (hospitality), jom (honor), and sag (tolerance). “There is an expectation of friendliness in Senegal,” the students reported. “It was amazing how welcoming they were,” Will Bury ’20 remarked. “It’s their society.” So how has the trip influenced their experience at SMCM? “In my French class, we were discussing the Middle Ages and polygamy and it reminded me of a conversation we had in Thiès with a teacher who explained that polygamy is part of their culture,” said Ava Chrisler ’20. “I was like, ‘Hey, I know about that because I saw it in Senegal and talked to a woman who would be okay with her husband having multiple wives.’” A taste of the world begets another taste. Erin Purnell ’20 plans to return to Senegal for a summer internship as well as a family trip to Kenya. Liz Mulvey ’20 will study abroad in Grenada, Spain. Abri Segal ’20 spent spring break on a service trip to Georgia with Habitat for Humanity. This summer, she’ll go to Nicaragua, also for service. Will Bury ’20 is headed on a research trip to the Bahamas, and Katie Gill ’20 will study archaeology in St. Croix.
“ Exchange programs like this let us connect personally with our counterparts in different cultures, allow us to dispel stereotypes and misconceptions, and contribute to the diversity St. Mary’s is famous for.”
“I learned that clean water is not something that is easily accessed for everyone. I learned the significance of an American passport. The passport is something that allows me to go almost wherever I want across the world.” Kelbey Egerland ’20 Meghan Lang ’17 (anthropology), peer mentor to the first-year students, filled an advisory role to the students during the fall semester to prepare them for the trip. She assisted Professor Roberts in reviewing their weekly writing assignments and for the trip, she made the rooming assignments. Though it was her first trip to Africa also, her senior role provided a unique perspective. “I was the big sister on the trip,” she admits. “It was amazing to be a step back from the students and observe them having an awesome experience as first-years,” she says upon reflection. “They learned so much and were so excited by it.” For Meghan, the trip reassured her that the liberal arts are important and that study abroad is “so worth it.” top: Maribeth Ganzell takes a selfie with Senegalese women in Kaolak. middle: Bill Roberts at the Khalif’s house in Kaolak, with Katie Gill ’20 to his left. bottom: SMCM students meet with an imam in Kaolak.
Photos from the Global Scholars Study Tour are on display in the Upper Commons of Montgomery Hall through the summer.
MARIBETH GANZELL
Will Bury ’20
12 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 13
THE GLOBAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
“I’d never traveled to a Muslim country before so I did not have any personal experiences involving speaking with Muslim women about wearing head coverings, or about Islam in general.” Angelina Wilson ’20
One of their writing intensive and collaborative assignments was to write about their experience in an article for the Point News, published February 18, 2017. In that piece, the 16 students who made the trip conveyed their experience using three Senegalese values they encountered in the Senegalese lingua franca of Wolof: teranga (hospitality), jom (honor), and sag (tolerance). “There is an expectation of friendliness in Senegal,” the students reported. “It was amazing how welcoming they were,” Will Bury ’20 remarked. “It’s their society.” So how has the trip influenced their experience at SMCM? “In my French class, we were discussing the Middle Ages and polygamy and it reminded me of a conversation we had in Thiès with a teacher who explained that polygamy is part of their culture,” said Ava Chrisler ’20. “I was like, ‘Hey, I know about that because I saw it in Senegal and talked to a woman who would be okay with her husband having multiple wives.’” A taste of the world begets another taste. Erin Purnell ’20 plans to return to Senegal for a summer internship as well as a family trip to Kenya. Liz Mulvey ’20 will study abroad in Grenada, Spain. Abri Segal ’20 spent spring break on a service trip to Georgia with Habitat for Humanity. This summer, she’ll go to Nicaragua, also for service. Will Bury ’20 is headed on a research trip to the Bahamas, and Katie Gill ’20 will study archaeology in St. Croix.
“ Exchange programs like this let us connect personally with our counterparts in different cultures, allow us to dispel stereotypes and misconceptions, and contribute to the diversity St. Mary’s is famous for.”
“I learned that clean water is not something that is easily accessed for everyone. I learned the significance of an American passport. The passport is something that allows me to go almost wherever I want across the world.” Kelbey Egerland ’20 Meghan Lang ’17 (anthropology), peer mentor to the first-year students, filled an advisory role to the students during the fall semester to prepare them for the trip. She assisted Professor Roberts in reviewing their weekly writing assignments and for the trip, she made the rooming assignments. Though it was her first trip to Africa also, her senior role provided a unique perspective. “I was the big sister on the trip,” she admits. “It was amazing to be a step back from the students and observe them having an awesome experience as first-years,” she says upon reflection. “They learned so much and were so excited by it.” For Meghan, the trip reassured her that the liberal arts are important and that study abroad is “so worth it.” top: Maribeth Ganzell takes a selfie with Senegalese women in Kaolak. middle: Bill Roberts at the Khalif’s house in Kaolak, with Katie Gill ’20 to his left. bottom: SMCM students meet with an imam in Kaolak.
Photos from the Global Scholars Study Tour are on display in the Upper Commons of Montgomery Hall through the summer.
MARIBETH GANZELL
Will Bury ’20
12 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 13
S
t. mary’s college’s professor of chinese JINGQI FU grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese, the daughter of two linguists. She became a linguist herself, completing her undergraduate education at the Beijing Institute of Languages and her PhD at the University of Massachusetts. Fu was in her 40s when her mother’s childhood language became important to her work: the ethnic minority language of Bai. Her mother had stopped speaking it when she married and hadn’t raised her children to be familiar with Bai. Ironically, it was through Bai that mid-career Professor Fu and her mother (Lin Xu) connected in a professional capacity. By that time, Lin Xu was regarded as a pioneer of Bai language studies in China, on account of her extensive work to decipher a rare collection of 1930’s folksongs written in Old Bai.
Here’s the back story. In 1954, the government Tse-tung’s rule, was something. Xu spent the of the People’s Republic of China undertook rest of her life deciphering the script. the “Ethnic Classification Project” (ECP). In the 1990s, Fu accompaIn an effort to reduce the nied her mother on several vast numbers of ethnicities, trips to the Yunnan Provthe government deployed ince to meet with speakers language-survey teams to deof Bai. Over the next decade, termine how to group ethnicthey worked together on ities together based on geogdocumenting the folksongs. raphy, language or culture. While Xu died in 2005 at Fu’s mother was a member the age of 83, their work reof the language-survey team sulted in a joint paper on and was in the Yunnan ProvBai’s postpositions (Fu & ince in 1958 doing field work Xu, 2008), and in 2012, Fu’s on the Bai language for the paper on the pronomial The Lemo are an ethnic ECP when she came upon minority that, as a systems of the Bai dialects. the booklet of 200 folksongs, result of the Ethnic The work begun by Xu and handwritten on rice paper, Classification Project, helped by Fu in collaborausing unfamiliar Chinese got lumped in with the tion with other Bai linguists, characters. The characters northern branch of the culminated in the publicaturned out to be written in Bai language speakers. tion of an annotated Bai Old Bai, a script unique to Yunlong folksong collection, that region and known only “Chinese Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions: A to the religious elite as far back as the Tang Recovered Text of Bai Folk Songs in a SinoxDynasty (618-907 A.D.). That this collection enic Script” (Cambria Press, 2015). of folksongs, mostly about love, survived Mao BY LEE CAPRISTO, EDITOR
Jingqi Fu in Lushui, Yunnan Province, Summer 2016. 14 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 15
S
t. mary’s college’s professor of chinese JINGQI FU grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese, the daughter of two linguists. She became a linguist herself, completing her undergraduate education at the Beijing Institute of Languages and her PhD at the University of Massachusetts. Fu was in her 40s when her mother’s childhood language became important to her work: the ethnic minority language of Bai. Her mother had stopped speaking it when she married and hadn’t raised her children to be familiar with Bai. Ironically, it was through Bai that mid-career Professor Fu and her mother (Lin Xu) connected in a professional capacity. By that time, Lin Xu was regarded as a pioneer of Bai language studies in China, on account of her extensive work to decipher a rare collection of 1930’s folksongs written in Old Bai.
Here’s the back story. In 1954, the government Tse-tung’s rule, was something. Xu spent the of the People’s Republic of China undertook rest of her life deciphering the script. the “Ethnic Classification Project” (ECP). In the 1990s, Fu accompaIn an effort to reduce the nied her mother on several vast numbers of ethnicities, trips to the Yunnan Provthe government deployed ince to meet with speakers language-survey teams to deof Bai. Over the next decade, termine how to group ethnicthey worked together on ities together based on geogdocumenting the folksongs. raphy, language or culture. While Xu died in 2005 at Fu’s mother was a member the age of 83, their work reof the language-survey team sulted in a joint paper on and was in the Yunnan ProvBai’s postpositions (Fu & ince in 1958 doing field work Xu, 2008), and in 2012, Fu’s on the Bai language for the paper on the pronomial The Lemo are an ethnic ECP when she came upon minority that, as a systems of the Bai dialects. the booklet of 200 folksongs, result of the Ethnic The work begun by Xu and handwritten on rice paper, Classification Project, helped by Fu in collaborausing unfamiliar Chinese got lumped in with the tion with other Bai linguists, characters. The characters northern branch of the culminated in the publicaturned out to be written in Bai language speakers. tion of an annotated Bai Old Bai, a script unique to Yunlong folksong collection, that region and known only “Chinese Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions: A to the religious elite as far back as the Tang Recovered Text of Bai Folk Songs in a SinoxDynasty (618-907 A.D.). That this collection enic Script” (Cambria Press, 2015). of folksongs, mostly about love, survived Mao BY LEE CAPRISTO, EDITOR
Jingqi Fu in Lushui, Yunnan Province, Summer 2016. 14 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 15
Given that the Lemo dialect has no written script, its preservation is precarious. Finding a way to write Lemo will be an aim of Fu’s project. And now you know the reason Fu became interested in the language and culture of the Lemospeaking people of the Nujiang Valley in the Yunnan Province of China. And with a major documentation project grant to St. Mary’s College from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (www.eldp.net) housed at SOAS University of London, Fu will document the Lemo language that, to date, has no written script. Her linguistic knowledge of the Bai dialect and structure, learned alongside her mother with the folksong project, provides a framework for the documentation effort she will lead as principal investigator on the three-year grant. The Lemo are an ethnic minority that, as a result of the Ethnic Classification Project of which Fu’s mother was part, got lumped in with the northern branch of the Bai language speakers. “Lemo is the oldest dialect of Bai and is known to have separated from the Bai some 300-400 years ago,” explains Fu. “Its study will give clues as to the evolution of the Bai language as a whole.” Fu goes on to note that in studies of other Bai dialects, the major focus has been on how Chinese influenced the dialect and not how dialects may have influenced one another. “Culturally, the Lemo people do not consider themselves as Bai,” says Fu. “And economically, they are not helped by being classified as Bai.” The government considers the Bai people as generally well-off compared to other ethnic minorities in the Yunnan Province. “Well-off” does not describe the Lemo people at all: those residing in the Nujiang Valley live on arid mountain slopes with few roads. The average income of a Lemo person is $187/year – well under the pov16 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
The journey is definitely a long one: 1. Drive from St. Mary’s to Dulles Int’l 2 hours 2. Fly from Dulles to Beijing 14 hours 3. Fly from Beijing to Kunming 3.5 hours 4. Bus from Kunming to Dali 5 hours 5. Bus from Dali to Nujiang Prefecture (Lushui) 5 hours 6. Truck from Lushui to the Jinman Village 3 hours TOTAL: 32.5 hours
erty level set by the government of $353/year (2010 data). “Besides poor living conditions,” explains Fu, “the Lemo way of life is, by government standards, ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’ and therefore in need of change.” Hence, the current interest by the government to modernize the Lemo people by mainstreaming their language to Mandarin Chinese. All schoolchildren in China participate in nine years’ compulsory education in Mandarin Chinese. Given that the Lemo dialect has no written script, its preservation is precarious. Finding a way to write Lemo will be an aim of Fu’s project, to help preserve and revitalize Lemo cultural heritage. The research goal is both a linguistic study of the Lemo dialect and an enhancement of the status of Lemo language and culture. According to Fu, the Chinese government wants to document the culture by way of costumes in a museum but is not trying to keep the culture (and language) alive. The Endangered Languages Documentation, the grant agency funding her work, “supports keeping endangered languages alive and emphasizes that their documentation should be done in natural, everyday settings and situations, to best characterize the language and its cultural role,” Fu remarks. All her recordings will be archived in the Endangered Languages Archive (https://elar.soas.ac.uk/) at SOAS and thereby preserved for posterity. The archive makes this invaluable resource available to the community, the public and to the scientific community. Fu spent three weeks in the area last summer to prepare for the project. The work begins in earnest this summer, during the rainy season, when the chance of being flooded out of the villages is high. A second summer in 2018, followed by a five-month stretch during spring 2019, will bring the project to completion. Fu is principal investigator but will enlist a team to help with the research and data gathering. Xia Zhang (Yunnan Nationality Affair Commission) and Xiaoxia Yang (Dali Bai Research Institute), plus a technician and speaker-consultants recruited from the Lemo Community in Nujiang. The first two weeks in Nujiang will be spent making contacts with relevant people and conducting
Words are entered into multiple fields in ELAN and exported to Toolbox for cross-referencing with the text and dictionary generator. In the end, words will form the base of a digital dictionary. In addition to the dictionary, the team will also build a grammar sketch. Both the dictionary and grammar sketch use data generated from the recorded audio/video. A working orthography (the way a language is expressed in written form, with symbols, punctuation, spelling) will be developed together with the Lemo community and a short language manual will be made based on the orthography. The manual, intended for firstgrade children, will include cultural material relevant to their living environment.
Professor Fu has taken SMCM students on study tours to study and interact with Yunnan minority groups including Bai, as recently as 2015.
Fu is grateful for the support she’s gotten to get the project funded, particularly for the help of Sabine Dillingham, director of research and sponsored programs. “Sabine went out of her way to help me prepare a solid proposal on Bai Grammar to submit to NSF in 2014,” says Fu. “Although it did not pan out in the end, it created the basis for the current project. Frankly without Sabine, I would not have continued nor would
I have succeeded.” A stipend from the College enabled her to travel to China this past summer in preparation for the work she’ll do under the grant. Fu has taken SMCM students on study tours to study and interact with Yunnan minority groups including Bai, as recently as 2015 (Nitze Scholars with Professor Charles Musgrove). In 2014, her students Craig Baker ’05, MengFei Chen ’16, Megan Dower ’14 and Naomi Garcia ’15 helped with the research on the folksong translations. Follow the project: http://www.eldp.net/en/ our+projects/map
What will it look like? Here’s an example of interlinearizing from the collection of Bai folksongs that Fu’s mother started and that Fu and her colleagues brought to publication:
a week-long workshop on language documentation for speaker-consultants to learn to document their own language and culture. Afterwards, team members, equipped with recorders and cameras will gather data in different Lemo-speaking villages. Members will film and record in a variety of settings and contexts: story-telling, interviews, folksongs and dances, speeches, everyday situations, and, if permitted, religious ceremonies. Once audio/video is captured, researchers and speaker-consultants will work to transcribe the data using ELAN and Toolbox. ELAN is an open source software developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, to annotate video and audio media while Toolbox is an open source software that linguists use to annotate text and generate the lexicon/dictionary of the language. The two software tools complement each other with audio/visualtext alignment in ELAN and interlinearizing and lexicon-building in Toolbox. St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 17
Given that the Lemo dialect has no written script, its preservation is precarious. Finding a way to write Lemo will be an aim of Fu’s project. And now you know the reason Fu became interested in the language and culture of the Lemospeaking people of the Nujiang Valley in the Yunnan Province of China. And with a major documentation project grant to St. Mary’s College from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (www.eldp.net) housed at SOAS University of London, Fu will document the Lemo language that, to date, has no written script. Her linguistic knowledge of the Bai dialect and structure, learned alongside her mother with the folksong project, provides a framework for the documentation effort she will lead as principal investigator on the three-year grant. The Lemo are an ethnic minority that, as a result of the Ethnic Classification Project of which Fu’s mother was part, got lumped in with the northern branch of the Bai language speakers. “Lemo is the oldest dialect of Bai and is known to have separated from the Bai some 300-400 years ago,” explains Fu. “Its study will give clues as to the evolution of the Bai language as a whole.” Fu goes on to note that in studies of other Bai dialects, the major focus has been on how Chinese influenced the dialect and not how dialects may have influenced one another. “Culturally, the Lemo people do not consider themselves as Bai,” says Fu. “And economically, they are not helped by being classified as Bai.” The government considers the Bai people as generally well-off compared to other ethnic minorities in the Yunnan Province. “Well-off” does not describe the Lemo people at all: those residing in the Nujiang Valley live on arid mountain slopes with few roads. The average income of a Lemo person is $187/year – well under the pov16 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
The journey is definitely a long one: 1. Drive from St. Mary’s to Dulles Int’l 2 hours 2. Fly from Dulles to Beijing 14 hours 3. Fly from Beijing to Kunming 3.5 hours 4. Bus from Kunming to Dali 5 hours 5. Bus from Dali to Nujiang Prefecture (Lushui) 5 hours 6. Truck from Lushui to the Jinman Village 3 hours TOTAL: 32.5 hours
erty level set by the government of $353/year (2010 data). “Besides poor living conditions,” explains Fu, “the Lemo way of life is, by government standards, ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’ and therefore in need of change.” Hence, the current interest by the government to modernize the Lemo people by mainstreaming their language to Mandarin Chinese. All schoolchildren in China participate in nine years’ compulsory education in Mandarin Chinese. Given that the Lemo dialect has no written script, its preservation is precarious. Finding a way to write Lemo will be an aim of Fu’s project, to help preserve and revitalize Lemo cultural heritage. The research goal is both a linguistic study of the Lemo dialect and an enhancement of the status of Lemo language and culture. According to Fu, the Chinese government wants to document the culture by way of costumes in a museum but is not trying to keep the culture (and language) alive. The Endangered Languages Documentation, the grant agency funding her work, “supports keeping endangered languages alive and emphasizes that their documentation should be done in natural, everyday settings and situations, to best characterize the language and its cultural role,” Fu remarks. All her recordings will be archived in the Endangered Languages Archive (https://elar.soas.ac.uk/) at SOAS and thereby preserved for posterity. The archive makes this invaluable resource available to the community, the public and to the scientific community. Fu spent three weeks in the area last summer to prepare for the project. The work begins in earnest this summer, during the rainy season, when the chance of being flooded out of the villages is high. A second summer in 2018, followed by a five-month stretch during spring 2019, will bring the project to completion. Fu is principal investigator but will enlist a team to help with the research and data gathering. Xia Zhang (Yunnan Nationality Affair Commission) and Xiaoxia Yang (Dali Bai Research Institute), plus a technician and speaker-consultants recruited from the Lemo Community in Nujiang. The first two weeks in Nujiang will be spent making contacts with relevant people and conducting
Words are entered into multiple fields in ELAN and exported to Toolbox for cross-referencing with the text and dictionary generator. In the end, words will form the base of a digital dictionary. In addition to the dictionary, the team will also build a grammar sketch. Both the dictionary and grammar sketch use data generated from the recorded audio/video. A working orthography (the way a language is expressed in written form, with symbols, punctuation, spelling) will be developed together with the Lemo community and a short language manual will be made based on the orthography. The manual, intended for firstgrade children, will include cultural material relevant to their living environment.
Professor Fu has taken SMCM students on study tours to study and interact with Yunnan minority groups including Bai, as recently as 2015.
Fu is grateful for the support she’s gotten to get the project funded, particularly for the help of Sabine Dillingham, director of research and sponsored programs. “Sabine went out of her way to help me prepare a solid proposal on Bai Grammar to submit to NSF in 2014,” says Fu. “Although it did not pan out in the end, it created the basis for the current project. Frankly without Sabine, I would not have continued nor would
I have succeeded.” A stipend from the College enabled her to travel to China this past summer in preparation for the work she’ll do under the grant. Fu has taken SMCM students on study tours to study and interact with Yunnan minority groups including Bai, as recently as 2015 (Nitze Scholars with Professor Charles Musgrove). In 2014, her students Craig Baker ’05, MengFei Chen ’16, Megan Dower ’14 and Naomi Garcia ’15 helped with the research on the folksong translations. Follow the project: http://www.eldp.net/en/ our+projects/map
What will it look like? Here’s an example of interlinearizing from the collection of Bai folksongs that Fu’s mother started and that Fu and her colleagues brought to publication:
a week-long workshop on language documentation for speaker-consultants to learn to document their own language and culture. Afterwards, team members, equipped with recorders and cameras will gather data in different Lemo-speaking villages. Members will film and record in a variety of settings and contexts: story-telling, interviews, folksongs and dances, speeches, everyday situations, and, if permitted, religious ceremonies. Once audio/video is captured, researchers and speaker-consultants will work to transcribe the data using ELAN and Toolbox. ELAN is an open source software developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, to annotate video and audio media while Toolbox is an open source software that linguists use to annotate text and generate the lexicon/dictionary of the language. The two software tools complement each other with audio/visualtext alignment in ELAN and interlinearizing and lexicon-building in Toolbox. St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 17
The Art of Being Alive Imparare l’arte di vivere
A Reflection of Being an Artist in Italy / Study Abroad Fall 2015 BY KEELY HOUK ’17 (English, art & art history)
W
hen I tell people at home that I am an art major, I get the immediate follow up remark of, “Oh. Cool.” [short pause] “What are you going to do with it?” Even after I tell them I’m also an English major, an art history major, and a music minor I inevitably perceive the same air of condescendence that seems to say, “Of course you’re an artist.” This made me apprehensive in coming to Italy, as if I had something to prove to myself and to others that I am an artist. I knew that Italy was a cultural beacon for the Renaissance, which was why I choose to study in Florence. I had honestly expected to be on a three-month holiday, looking at art history from the various golden ages of Italy, from Roman architecture to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and while I certainly did all of those things, I also learned about what it means to be an artist, and truly what art is – something that staying at home would have never have taught me. Italy has been known for its revolutionary Renaissance principal of “humanism,” which MerriamWebster defines as, “a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially: a philosophy that rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason.” Yet I think the quest for understanding humanism was what I went to Italy to find, and once I found it, humanism went far beyond the dictionary definition. It was revolutionary, but it honestly took me awhile to get there.
18 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
I have found inspiration in Italy, in the people, in creative ideals, in rationality, and emotion. Keely Houk’17 I’ll start with the most basic part of my Italian experiences – my classes. My two favorite classes in Florence at Accademia Italiana, were my corporate design course and my animation class, yet to say that they were my favorite classes initially is far from the truth. The SMCM grapevine had told me that courses abroad would be anything but challenging. In fact, I had been assured that most of my time would be spent traveling and lounging, and that education was secondary to the experience of “being there.” So walking into my corporate design class only to be surrounded by sixth semester design students at an academy that specializes in graphic design was a completely jarring experience.
The first day, my professor assigned us a 60-page, half-semester project that would involve redesigning the professional look, logo, gear, venue, and business model of either an existing sports team, or an Olympic-like event. He also told us that we would be using all three of the Adobe programs: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop – intimidating to someone who had only taken two digital art classes before. For once in my life, I was challenged by a professor to use everything I had learned – my working knowledge of various professional graphic design programs, my ability to write, my ability to sell, my ability to research – to create a product that would not only be professional, but would stand against the other 20 design students that had attended the school for three years for the sole purpose of becoming graphic designers. Inevitably, panic set in. That feeling was exacerbated when I stepped into my animation I class. One would think that I would be calmer after having created three animations for SMCM already, and having won a Boyden Gallery prize for one of them. I had expected us to be creating hand drawn animation, or maybe basic digital animation techniques. However, when my professor showed us a “demo” of what we’d be creating, my panic did not subside. We were going to be creating full-on 3D modeled animations with Cinema 4D, a program that has been used in such blockbusters as “Iron Man,” “Inception,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” and again, the expected result was the same – to create an interesting, creative, and professional piece of work that utilized working knowledge of programs as well as creativity, innovation, and all-around experimentation. Finishing the projects for these classes – a corporate book, a 3D animation, a line of Converse shoes – I felt empowered because I learned skills that are required to be a successful commercial artist, and without this experience – without this initial push – I would’ve never been introduced to any of these skills. To say that my time in Italy was all about my classes would be far from the truth. The entirety of Italy is devoted to their long dead masters, and consequently, their works are everywhere – from the small street carts with mini David statues, to the massive bronze replica of David guarding
Firenze from Piazza Michelangelo. The city is still obsessed with his style, as well as the immense history of Rome and the Italian Renaissance. To me, Italy’s obsession with history shows the enduring power of art. The art created their contemporary culture, as much as their historical culture created their art. In terms of skills that I learned throughout my time in Florence, I could list off many easily palpable skills: I learned how to speak (some) Italian, I learned how to get by in a place that wasn’t originally a language I could speak, I saw the great pieces of art, learned how to live by myself, and how to travel by myself, but these things are far from the honest and visceral truth. I learned how to live and thrive on my own. I understood how life somewhere else works. I learned how to be alive. While I keep talking about how harmonious Italy is – with its art, people, culture, and the perfect sensibility of it all – I think the moment that Italy’s power of combining art, humanity, and history, was truly apparent was the day after the attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015. I was visiting Rome at the time, and seeing the massive trucks of Italian soldiers being stationed around the city, and watching the news in Italian and French, as well as participating in hundreds of circular conversations about the safety of Europe and the fear the extremists were creating, the predominant emotion was sadness. The group I was with was visiting the Coliseum that day – something that would ordinarily be very exciting – but the day was tainted because of the fear and the uncertainty surrounding the attacks. As my group rounded the corner, we saw the Coliseum loom into view, and in front of it, hanging from a bridge, was a sign that said, “Roma piange i fratelli di Parigi.” To see this centuries-old monument framed with the phrase, “Rome cries with our brothers of Paris” was the most powerful thing I think I have ever or will ever see. It really gives you a perspective on life – how even though there is so much fear and hate in the world, people still have the capability to be strong and supportive. In the end, there is a great feeling of peace and love that the world seems to want for each other during times of adversity, and seeing that manifested in the sign, and understanding that, despite the language barrier, despite the cultural barrier,
To see this centuriesold monument framed with the phrase, “Rome cries with our brothers of Paris” was the most powerful thing I think I have ever or will ever see.
we are humans, and we care about one another, even if we don’t seem to on a surface level. I cried with Paris that day. I cried with America, with Rome, with Mali, with London, and I think understanding that that grief is universal makes life seem more human, more real. Art is Humanity. Art is Life. Art is Michelangelo. Art is Me. Art is everyone. Art is a sign of grief over a bridge. Art is caring about life lost. Art is coming home. Art is simply being alive. If anything, studying in Italy has taught me that the pursuit of art as a vocation and a passion is so much more than “Oh. Cool. Well, what are you going to do with it?” Italy, its history, its people, its feel, has taught me that I can be an artist, but it has also taught me that humility, skill, hard work, and genuine emotion need to go into it. Did I finally discover what humanism is? I’d like to think so. But to me it goes so much more beyond the dictionary definition. I have found inspiration in Italy, in the people, in creative ideals, in rationality, and emotion. I think my experience in Italy best equates to “revolutionizing thought” more than simply experiencing liberal arts in the known world. And honestly, I would have had it no other way.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 19
The Art of Being Alive Imparare l’arte di vivere
A Reflection of Being an Artist in Italy / Study Abroad Fall 2015 BY KEELY HOUK ’17 (English, art & art history)
W
hen I tell people at home that I am an art major, I get the immediate follow up remark of, “Oh. Cool.” [short pause] “What are you going to do with it?” Even after I tell them I’m also an English major, an art history major, and a music minor I inevitably perceive the same air of condescendence that seems to say, “Of course you’re an artist.” This made me apprehensive in coming to Italy, as if I had something to prove to myself and to others that I am an artist. I knew that Italy was a cultural beacon for the Renaissance, which was why I choose to study in Florence. I had honestly expected to be on a three-month holiday, looking at art history from the various golden ages of Italy, from Roman architecture to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and while I certainly did all of those things, I also learned about what it means to be an artist, and truly what art is – something that staying at home would have never have taught me. Italy has been known for its revolutionary Renaissance principal of “humanism,” which MerriamWebster defines as, “a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially: a philosophy that rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason.” Yet I think the quest for understanding humanism was what I went to Italy to find, and once I found it, humanism went far beyond the dictionary definition. It was revolutionary, but it honestly took me awhile to get there.
18 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
I have found inspiration in Italy, in the people, in creative ideals, in rationality, and emotion. Keely Houk’17 I’ll start with the most basic part of my Italian experiences – my classes. My two favorite classes in Florence at Accademia Italiana, were my corporate design course and my animation class, yet to say that they were my favorite classes initially is far from the truth. The SMCM grapevine had told me that courses abroad would be anything but challenging. In fact, I had been assured that most of my time would be spent traveling and lounging, and that education was secondary to the experience of “being there.” So walking into my corporate design class only to be surrounded by sixth semester design students at an academy that specializes in graphic design was a completely jarring experience.
The first day, my professor assigned us a 60-page, half-semester project that would involve redesigning the professional look, logo, gear, venue, and business model of either an existing sports team, or an Olympic-like event. He also told us that we would be using all three of the Adobe programs: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop – intimidating to someone who had only taken two digital art classes before. For once in my life, I was challenged by a professor to use everything I had learned – my working knowledge of various professional graphic design programs, my ability to write, my ability to sell, my ability to research – to create a product that would not only be professional, but would stand against the other 20 design students that had attended the school for three years for the sole purpose of becoming graphic designers. Inevitably, panic set in. That feeling was exacerbated when I stepped into my animation I class. One would think that I would be calmer after having created three animations for SMCM already, and having won a Boyden Gallery prize for one of them. I had expected us to be creating hand drawn animation, or maybe basic digital animation techniques. However, when my professor showed us a “demo” of what we’d be creating, my panic did not subside. We were going to be creating full-on 3D modeled animations with Cinema 4D, a program that has been used in such blockbusters as “Iron Man,” “Inception,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” and again, the expected result was the same – to create an interesting, creative, and professional piece of work that utilized working knowledge of programs as well as creativity, innovation, and all-around experimentation. Finishing the projects for these classes – a corporate book, a 3D animation, a line of Converse shoes – I felt empowered because I learned skills that are required to be a successful commercial artist, and without this experience – without this initial push – I would’ve never been introduced to any of these skills. To say that my time in Italy was all about my classes would be far from the truth. The entirety of Italy is devoted to their long dead masters, and consequently, their works are everywhere – from the small street carts with mini David statues, to the massive bronze replica of David guarding
Firenze from Piazza Michelangelo. The city is still obsessed with his style, as well as the immense history of Rome and the Italian Renaissance. To me, Italy’s obsession with history shows the enduring power of art. The art created their contemporary culture, as much as their historical culture created their art. In terms of skills that I learned throughout my time in Florence, I could list off many easily palpable skills: I learned how to speak (some) Italian, I learned how to get by in a place that wasn’t originally a language I could speak, I saw the great pieces of art, learned how to live by myself, and how to travel by myself, but these things are far from the honest and visceral truth. I learned how to live and thrive on my own. I understood how life somewhere else works. I learned how to be alive. While I keep talking about how harmonious Italy is – with its art, people, culture, and the perfect sensibility of it all – I think the moment that Italy’s power of combining art, humanity, and history, was truly apparent was the day after the attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015. I was visiting Rome at the time, and seeing the massive trucks of Italian soldiers being stationed around the city, and watching the news in Italian and French, as well as participating in hundreds of circular conversations about the safety of Europe and the fear the extremists were creating, the predominant emotion was sadness. The group I was with was visiting the Coliseum that day – something that would ordinarily be very exciting – but the day was tainted because of the fear and the uncertainty surrounding the attacks. As my group rounded the corner, we saw the Coliseum loom into view, and in front of it, hanging from a bridge, was a sign that said, “Roma piange i fratelli di Parigi.” To see this centuries-old monument framed with the phrase, “Rome cries with our brothers of Paris” was the most powerful thing I think I have ever or will ever see. It really gives you a perspective on life – how even though there is so much fear and hate in the world, people still have the capability to be strong and supportive. In the end, there is a great feeling of peace and love that the world seems to want for each other during times of adversity, and seeing that manifested in the sign, and understanding that, despite the language barrier, despite the cultural barrier,
To see this centuriesold monument framed with the phrase, “Rome cries with our brothers of Paris” was the most powerful thing I think I have ever or will ever see.
we are humans, and we care about one another, even if we don’t seem to on a surface level. I cried with Paris that day. I cried with America, with Rome, with Mali, with London, and I think understanding that that grief is universal makes life seem more human, more real. Art is Humanity. Art is Life. Art is Michelangelo. Art is Me. Art is everyone. Art is a sign of grief over a bridge. Art is caring about life lost. Art is coming home. Art is simply being alive. If anything, studying in Italy has taught me that the pursuit of art as a vocation and a passion is so much more than “Oh. Cool. Well, what are you going to do with it?” Italy, its history, its people, its feel, has taught me that I can be an artist, but it has also taught me that humility, skill, hard work, and genuine emotion need to go into it. Did I finally discover what humanism is? I’d like to think so. But to me it goes so much more beyond the dictionary definition. I have found inspiration in Italy, in the people, in creative ideals, in rationality, and emotion. I think my experience in Italy best equates to “revolutionizing thought” more than simply experiencing liberal arts in the known world. And honestly, I would have had it no other way.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 19
ALUMNI
CONNECTION CLASS NOTES 1950s Karen Peterson Yochim ’58JC has published a new Cajun mystery, “Menace.” She’d like to hear from her classmates at karennorwegian@icloud.com.
1970s Gloria Tom Lawrence ’73, of Greensboro, N.C., retired last year after 25 years with the Guilford County school system in Greensboro, N.C., working as an exceptional needs teacher. She received national board certification in 2000 and it was renewed in 2010. She was awarded the Governor’s “Order of the Long Leaf Pine,” the highest honor presented to a civilian who has made significant contribution to the state and their community through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishment. In retirement, Gloria is active in the N.C. Government and Teachers Retirees’ Association and has been busy traveling in the U.S. and outside the country. Garner Morgan ’76, of Clements, Md., was awarded the 2016 Dr. Arthur J. Fridley Humanitarian Award from the Maryland State Dental Association. An active member of his local and dental communities, he helped organize “The Southern MD Mission of Mercy,” which is a free dental clinic that started in 2012 and is held every other year. Dr. Morgan opened his dental practice in Mechanicsville, Md. in 1980 after graduating from the College of Dental Surgery at the
University of Maryland Baltimore campus. He continues to work in the practice now owned by his son Dr. Luke Morgan. Donna Smawley West ’76 [1] moved to the Delaware Shore after retiring from federal government service. She is the chair of development for the Clear Space Theater which counts Shannon Parks ’88 as one of its actresses. Donna also is a world traveler. In 2015, she spent nine days in Antarctica, her seventh continent, where she got up close with an Adele penguin in addition to seeing seals and whales. In 2016, she toured Cuba, North Carolina and Florida. This year she’s going to Florida, Mexico, Italy, Barbados and the Arctic. When not getting her passport stamped, Donna and her husband Roger live in Harbeson, Del. Paul Manning ’78 graduated in Dec. 2016 from Iowa State University with a master of science degree in information assurance. He works as an information assurance manager for the Department of the Army in Europe. Lee Langston-Harrison ’79 is the new executive director of the Fishermen’s Museum in Reedville, Va. She previously ran the Museum of Culpeper (Va.) History where she revitalized the organization now thriving at Culpeper’s train depot. With 40 years spent working for museums and historic attractions, Lee says she was looking for a new life challenge and found it last 4th of July while picking crabs at her sister and brother-in-law’s house on the outskirts of Reedville. Looking across the creek at the Fishermen’s Museum she made a mental note to apply for the director’s job when it next
20 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
came available. Her goal for the museum is to make it the best small museum of its kind in the region and continue to celebrate the rich history and culture of the fishermen of Virginia’s Northern Neck.
1980s Kathleen Callan ’83, of Berlin, Md., says she’s done nothing exciting in the last 34 years, except she and her husband Mike Krautner did leave the mountains of Allegany County, Md. for Maryland’s eastern shore. They are excited about living closer to the ocean. What’s even more exciting is her daughter Maura Callan Krautner ’17 [2] fell in love with St. Mary’s College at an early age and has promised to go to alumni weekends with Kathleen when she’s in her 90s! For 20 years Lynda Ballard Skeen ’83 lived in Hollywood, Calif., and worked in the entertainment industry, most recently as a senior human resources coordinator for Paramount Pictures. She and husband Philip yearned for a quieter environment, trees, and seasons, which they got when they moved to Ashland, Ore. Lynda says it’s been a huge culture shock and they’re loving the transition. A shamanic practitioner since 1994, she is continuing her shamanic healing and energy work practice (www. lyndaskeen.com) in Oregon. Gregg Smith ’84, of Columbia, Md., is the new chief executive officer for Silent Circle, a pioneer in enterprise-class mobile security, privacy and compliance solutions. With 25 years of global experience in mobile and cybersecurity, Gregg has
1
technical, communication and prioritization skills. At Qualtrics her projects have included a new voice-of-the-customer platform and text analysis tools making free text comments analyzable and actionable. Jamie is passionate about encouraging and mentoring women interested in the tech field. She founded Qualtrics Women Leadership Development and leads its mentor group initiative which has produced 31 mentor groups with 167 participants. Ryan Raley ’01, of Edgewater, Md., is serving as president of the board of directors for Calvert Hospice for 2017 He is in his fifth year of service on the board whose role is to help guide the hospice leadership team in its support of Calvert County, Md. citizens at their end of life.
2
led multiple companies through startup and expansion stages including, most recently, at Optio Labs where under his leadership as chief executive officer, the company expanded its solutions portfolio and added market-leading customers and partners.
1990s Christopher Sheppard ’93 is the chief executive officer of DecisionDesk, a Lakewood, Ohio company founded in 2008 by musicians from Case Western Reserve University. With over 20 years of education technology experience, he joined DecisionDesk as it was rolling out its latest version of “Concert,” an application management tool
3
used by admissions teams at more than 120 colleges, fine arts programs and non-profits.
2000s Jamie Morningstar ’01 [3], of Orem Utah, has been honored by Utah Business Magazine as one of their 2017 “Forty under 40.” Jamie, a staff product manager at research software company Qualtrics, always knew she had a knack for math and problem-solving, so deciding to go into software engineering was an easy decision. But what has made her shine professionally has been her ability to blend
Meghan Efland ’03, of Chestertown, Md., is director of supply chain for Paul Reed Smith Guitars in Stevensville, Md. Since starting with the company in May 2004 as loss control coordinator, she has held a number of positions, most recently as purchasing and inventory control manager. Newell Quinton ’03, of Baltimore, Md., is a military services coordinator for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Working onboard Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., he meets with 60-90 people a week, assisting and counseling service members, veterans, survivors and their families in applying for VA benefits including compensation and healthcare. Through engagement with community stakeholders, senior military leadership and various community agencies, he works to ensure
Virginia, he is a cryptological technician maintenance second class petty officer (CTM2) and has done two deployments to Somalia and the Middle East. He is responsible for installation, configuration, diagnosis, and repair of state-of-the-art electronic, computer, and network hardware and software systems.
2000s 4
that veterans and their families receive appropriate support and resources. Jonathan Robins ’04 [4], of Houghton, Mich., had his first book, “Cotton and Race across the Atlantic: Britain, Africa, and America, 1900-1920,” published by the University of Rochester Press in Nov. 2016. His book describes how African farmers, African American scientists, and British businessmen struggled to turn colonial Africa into a major cotton exporter to meet the worldwide demand for raw cotton as African Americans were migrating away from U.S. cotton fields. Jonathan is an assistant professor of global history at Michigan Technological University. Bethany Scherbarth ’05, of Parkville, Md., is a special education teacher for Parkville Middle School. She previously was a special education teacher for Esperanza Charter School in New Orleans, La. Ryan Alexander ’06, of Chesapeake, Va., joined the U.S. Navy five years ago to travel and save money for a master’s degree in history or archaeology. Stationed in Tidewater
Kimmie Konka ’10, who received her master of science in psychology from Drexel University in 2016, works as a clinical research coordinator in the radiology department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is a member of the magnetoencephalography (MEG) lab in the Center for Autism Research where she coordinates the Teen Concussion Study. Kimmie lives in Philadelphia, Pa. Dan Schell ’10, of Dennis, Mass., is the program coordinator for the environmentallyfocused AmeriCorps Program serving Cape Cod, Mass. He first worked for another AmeriCorps program, National Civilian Community Corps, right after graduation as a team leader supervising 10 young adults. After a year, he moved to AmeriCorps Cape Cod where he started as a member and progressed to program supervisor before leaving in the summer of 2013 for St. Mary’s College. For three years, Dan oversaw the daily operations of five residence halls, supervised 35 student staff and was the deputy Title IX coordinator. Now back on Cape Cod, he supervises five staff and 32 members. He hosted a St. Mary’s College Bay-to-Bay service project in April.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Emily Burns ’13 Emily Burns ’13, of Baltimore, Md., is pursuing a legal career in the budding cannabis industry. A public policy major at St. Mary’s, she was awarded the Schaefer Legislative Internship during her junior year, which solidified her interest in pursuing a legal career. At Vanderbilt Law School, she took a marijuana law and policy course, and began assisting her professor with writing a forthcoming, first-of-its-kind, marijuana law and policy casebook. This experience gave her in-depth knowledge of state regulations governing cannabis consumers, producers, and other third-parties, such as physicians and attorneys. Emily realized that she had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape a new field of law, which would allow her to use her background and experience in public policy. The complexity, nuance, and endless legal “grey areas,” of laws governing the cannabis industry allow her to explore a diverse range of legal issues. Her law practice, “Legally Burns,” provides a wide range of business-related legal services to Maryland canna businesses. She is also part of an invitation-only federal marijuana policy workgroup, where she meets regularly with other legal and policy experts to discuss federal legislation and reform strategies. Finally, Emily is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland Legal Resource Center, where her work focuses on marijuana legal issues in the context of public health policy.
2016 RED HILL AWARD RECIPIENT: Glen Wilson ’90 Glen Wilson ’90, of Severna Park, Md., has received the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s 2016 Red Hill Award for his significant contributions to collegiate football officiating. In 1995, he began officiating junior college and Division III games. In 2004 he advanced to Division II where, in his first year, he officiated the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) conference championship, a Division II first-round playoff game and the Division II national championship game. Two years later, he advanced to Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and worked in the Atlantic 10 Conference, Ivy League, Patriot League and Colonial Athletic Conference. He was elected director of the southern chapter of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials (EAIFO) in 2009. In 2012, he was selected to work the national semifinal. In 2013, he was hired as a supplemental official in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) followed by the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in 2014. In 2015, while serving as an AAC varsity staff member and president of the EAIFO, Glen was assigned to the Raycom Camellia Bowl game in Montgomery, Ala. between Appalachian State and Ohio University.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 21
ALUMNI
CONNECTION CLASS NOTES 1950s Karen Peterson Yochim ’58JC has published a new Cajun mystery, “Menace.” She’d like to hear from her classmates at karennorwegian@icloud.com.
1970s Gloria Tom Lawrence ’73, of Greensboro, N.C., retired last year after 25 years with the Guilford County school system in Greensboro, N.C., working as an exceptional needs teacher. She received national board certification in 2000 and it was renewed in 2010. She was awarded the Governor’s “Order of the Long Leaf Pine,” the highest honor presented to a civilian who has made significant contribution to the state and their community through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishment. In retirement, Gloria is active in the N.C. Government and Teachers Retirees’ Association and has been busy traveling in the U.S. and outside the country. Garner Morgan ’76, of Clements, Md., was awarded the 2016 Dr. Arthur J. Fridley Humanitarian Award from the Maryland State Dental Association. An active member of his local and dental communities, he helped organize “The Southern MD Mission of Mercy,” which is a free dental clinic that started in 2012 and is held every other year. Dr. Morgan opened his dental practice in Mechanicsville, Md. in 1980 after graduating from the College of Dental Surgery at the
University of Maryland Baltimore campus. He continues to work in the practice now owned by his son Dr. Luke Morgan. Donna Smawley West ’76 [1] moved to the Delaware Shore after retiring from federal government service. She is the chair of development for the Clear Space Theater which counts Shannon Parks ’88 as one of its actresses. Donna also is a world traveler. In 2015, she spent nine days in Antarctica, her seventh continent, where she got up close with an Adele penguin in addition to seeing seals and whales. In 2016, she toured Cuba, North Carolina and Florida. This year she’s going to Florida, Mexico, Italy, Barbados and the Arctic. When not getting her passport stamped, Donna and her husband Roger live in Harbeson, Del. Paul Manning ’78 graduated in Dec. 2016 from Iowa State University with a master of science degree in information assurance. He works as an information assurance manager for the Department of the Army in Europe. Lee Langston-Harrison ’79 is the new executive director of the Fishermen’s Museum in Reedville, Va. She previously ran the Museum of Culpeper (Va.) History where she revitalized the organization now thriving at Culpeper’s train depot. With 40 years spent working for museums and historic attractions, Lee says she was looking for a new life challenge and found it last 4th of July while picking crabs at her sister and brother-in-law’s house on the outskirts of Reedville. Looking across the creek at the Fishermen’s Museum she made a mental note to apply for the director’s job when it next
20 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
came available. Her goal for the museum is to make it the best small museum of its kind in the region and continue to celebrate the rich history and culture of the fishermen of Virginia’s Northern Neck.
1980s Kathleen Callan ’83, of Berlin, Md., says she’s done nothing exciting in the last 34 years, except she and her husband Mike Krautner did leave the mountains of Allegany County, Md. for Maryland’s eastern shore. They are excited about living closer to the ocean. What’s even more exciting is her daughter Maura Callan Krautner ’17 [2] fell in love with St. Mary’s College at an early age and has promised to go to alumni weekends with Kathleen when she’s in her 90s! For 20 years Lynda Ballard Skeen ’83 lived in Hollywood, Calif., and worked in the entertainment industry, most recently as a senior human resources coordinator for Paramount Pictures. She and husband Philip yearned for a quieter environment, trees, and seasons, which they got when they moved to Ashland, Ore. Lynda says it’s been a huge culture shock and they’re loving the transition. A shamanic practitioner since 1994, she is continuing her shamanic healing and energy work practice (www. lyndaskeen.com) in Oregon. Gregg Smith ’84, of Columbia, Md., is the new chief executive officer for Silent Circle, a pioneer in enterprise-class mobile security, privacy and compliance solutions. With 25 years of global experience in mobile and cybersecurity, Gregg has
1
technical, communication and prioritization skills. At Qualtrics her projects have included a new voice-of-the-customer platform and text analysis tools making free text comments analyzable and actionable. Jamie is passionate about encouraging and mentoring women interested in the tech field. She founded Qualtrics Women Leadership Development and leads its mentor group initiative which has produced 31 mentor groups with 167 participants. Ryan Raley ’01, of Edgewater, Md., is serving as president of the board of directors for Calvert Hospice for 2017 He is in his fifth year of service on the board whose role is to help guide the hospice leadership team in its support of Calvert County, Md. citizens at their end of life.
2
led multiple companies through startup and expansion stages including, most recently, at Optio Labs where under his leadership as chief executive officer, the company expanded its solutions portfolio and added market-leading customers and partners.
1990s Christopher Sheppard ’93 is the chief executive officer of DecisionDesk, a Lakewood, Ohio company founded in 2008 by musicians from Case Western Reserve University. With over 20 years of education technology experience, he joined DecisionDesk as it was rolling out its latest version of “Concert,” an application management tool
3
used by admissions teams at more than 120 colleges, fine arts programs and non-profits.
2000s Jamie Morningstar ’01 [3], of Orem Utah, has been honored by Utah Business Magazine as one of their 2017 “Forty under 40.” Jamie, a staff product manager at research software company Qualtrics, always knew she had a knack for math and problem-solving, so deciding to go into software engineering was an easy decision. But what has made her shine professionally has been her ability to blend
Meghan Efland ’03, of Chestertown, Md., is director of supply chain for Paul Reed Smith Guitars in Stevensville, Md. Since starting with the company in May 2004 as loss control coordinator, she has held a number of positions, most recently as purchasing and inventory control manager. Newell Quinton ’03, of Baltimore, Md., is a military services coordinator for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Working onboard Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., he meets with 60-90 people a week, assisting and counseling service members, veterans, survivors and their families in applying for VA benefits including compensation and healthcare. Through engagement with community stakeholders, senior military leadership and various community agencies, he works to ensure
Virginia, he is a cryptological technician maintenance second class petty officer (CTM2) and has done two deployments to Somalia and the Middle East. He is responsible for installation, configuration, diagnosis, and repair of state-of-the-art electronic, computer, and network hardware and software systems.
2000s 4
that veterans and their families receive appropriate support and resources. Jonathan Robins ’04 [4], of Houghton, Mich., had his first book, “Cotton and Race across the Atlantic: Britain, Africa, and America, 1900-1920,” published by the University of Rochester Press in Nov. 2016. His book describes how African farmers, African American scientists, and British businessmen struggled to turn colonial Africa into a major cotton exporter to meet the worldwide demand for raw cotton as African Americans were migrating away from U.S. cotton fields. Jonathan is an assistant professor of global history at Michigan Technological University. Bethany Scherbarth ’05, of Parkville, Md., is a special education teacher for Parkville Middle School. She previously was a special education teacher for Esperanza Charter School in New Orleans, La. Ryan Alexander ’06, of Chesapeake, Va., joined the U.S. Navy five years ago to travel and save money for a master’s degree in history or archaeology. Stationed in Tidewater
Kimmie Konka ’10, who received her master of science in psychology from Drexel University in 2016, works as a clinical research coordinator in the radiology department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is a member of the magnetoencephalography (MEG) lab in the Center for Autism Research where she coordinates the Teen Concussion Study. Kimmie lives in Philadelphia, Pa. Dan Schell ’10, of Dennis, Mass., is the program coordinator for the environmentallyfocused AmeriCorps Program serving Cape Cod, Mass. He first worked for another AmeriCorps program, National Civilian Community Corps, right after graduation as a team leader supervising 10 young adults. After a year, he moved to AmeriCorps Cape Cod where he started as a member and progressed to program supervisor before leaving in the summer of 2013 for St. Mary’s College. For three years, Dan oversaw the daily operations of five residence halls, supervised 35 student staff and was the deputy Title IX coordinator. Now back on Cape Cod, he supervises five staff and 32 members. He hosted a St. Mary’s College Bay-to-Bay service project in April.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Emily Burns ’13 Emily Burns ’13, of Baltimore, Md., is pursuing a legal career in the budding cannabis industry. A public policy major at St. Mary’s, she was awarded the Schaefer Legislative Internship during her junior year, which solidified her interest in pursuing a legal career. At Vanderbilt Law School, she took a marijuana law and policy course, and began assisting her professor with writing a forthcoming, first-of-its-kind, marijuana law and policy casebook. This experience gave her in-depth knowledge of state regulations governing cannabis consumers, producers, and other third-parties, such as physicians and attorneys. Emily realized that she had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape a new field of law, which would allow her to use her background and experience in public policy. The complexity, nuance, and endless legal “grey areas,” of laws governing the cannabis industry allow her to explore a diverse range of legal issues. Her law practice, “Legally Burns,” provides a wide range of business-related legal services to Maryland canna businesses. She is also part of an invitation-only federal marijuana policy workgroup, where she meets regularly with other legal and policy experts to discuss federal legislation and reform strategies. Finally, Emily is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland Legal Resource Center, where her work focuses on marijuana legal issues in the context of public health policy.
2016 RED HILL AWARD RECIPIENT: Glen Wilson ’90 Glen Wilson ’90, of Severna Park, Md., has received the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s 2016 Red Hill Award for his significant contributions to collegiate football officiating. In 1995, he began officiating junior college and Division III games. In 2004 he advanced to Division II where, in his first year, he officiated the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) conference championship, a Division II first-round playoff game and the Division II national championship game. Two years later, he advanced to Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and worked in the Atlantic 10 Conference, Ivy League, Patriot League and Colonial Athletic Conference. He was elected director of the southern chapter of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials (EAIFO) in 2009. In 2012, he was selected to work the national semifinal. In 2013, he was hired as a supplemental official in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) followed by the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in 2014. In 2015, while serving as an AAC varsity staff member and president of the EAIFO, Glen was assigned to the Raycom Camellia Bowl game in Montgomery, Ala. between Appalachian State and Ohio University.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 21
ALUM NI
C ONNECT ION
GLOBAL CITIZENS: Ashleigh Dueker ’10,
Hannah Cann ’10 & Kate Swiggett ’11 Ashleigh Dueker ’10 first traveled outside the U.S. in 2008 as part of Professor Bill Robert’s summer study tour to The Gambia. She found herself living in a developing country helping to implement a culturally modified version of the Yale University Social and Health Assessment survey to study Gambian high school youth. This ignited her passion to advance social justice and human rights and fight for the betterment of the poorest communities. She served in the Peace Corps from 2010-2012 as a health volunteer in Mali, West Africa, working on dozens of projects in a remote village until 2012 when the Arab Spring that had rippled through North Africa finally reached Mali. Ashleigh was caught at the start of a famine and a drought and also in between two wars, one in the north and one in Mali’s capital which led to her evacuation. Back home she realized she lacked the skill set to effectively promote local businesses. So she got her MBA from Lancaster University in the U.K. Today Ashleigh works as a management consultant at Grant Thornton UK in London, advising international organizations on change and transformation and topics such as Brexit. She also is a board member for African Sky, a small West African charity and advises on them on business development. Using her international education and business skills helps her make a difference in the world. Hannah Cann ’10 and Kate Swiggett ’11 work for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Baltimore, Md. The agency is one of nine national agencies that partner with the U.S. government to resettle refugees. Kate, who discovered refugee work while interning at Freedom from Torture, a London-based organization, coordinates with local offices across the nation to prepare for new refugee arrivals who have been screened, cleared, and are ready for travel. Hannah works on the post-arrival side, with federal programs covering housing, medical, and legal needs for new arrivals. Her interest in migrant and refugee work began during her semester abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand, when she became aware of the migrant crisis on the Thai-Burma border. After graduation, Hannah moved back to Chiang Mai where, for three years, she worked at a free school and university preparatory program for Burmese migrant workers. Outside of work, Kate volunteers with a helpline for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, while Hannah teaches English and citizenship classes, and spearheads a youth mentoring program for immigrant girls in her hometown of Bel Air, Md.
22 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Sara Morgan Watters ’10, of Oxford, Md., moved to Barcelona, Spain, after graduation to teach English for over two years. She also started a small exchange program for youth sailors between Barcelona and Annapolis, Md. called the Youth Sailing Exchange which ran for three summers. She then moved to Wellington, New Zealand to complete a master’s degree in cross-cultural psychology from Victoria University. Moving back to Annapolis in July 2016, she landed a program advisor position at Global Experiences, a company in Annapolis that places students in internships abroad as well as professional and career development. She also is doing a part-time remote internship with Language and Culture Worldwide, a Chicago intercultural training and consulting firm that works with large diverse and multinational companies. Kyle Wichtendahl ’10, of Catonsville, Md., delivered a presentation in March to the Scottsdale, Ariz. Civil War Round Table entitled “To Care He Who Has Borne The Battle: Medicine in the American Civil War.” A lifelong Marylander and the great, great, great grandson of a Civil War soldier who served for three years in the 59th Indiana including the Vicksburg Campaign and Sherman’s March to the Sea, Kyle is an avid Civil War reenactor and living historian. Pursuing his doctorate in 19th century U.S. history at the University of Maryland, he previously served as educational programming coordinator for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., and its two satellite sites: the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam National Battlefield and the Clara Barton Missing
MEET YOUR ALUMNI COUNCIL: Amir Reda ’11 Amir Reda ’11, of Bethesda, Md., is one of the newest council members. While at St. Mary’s College, he served as the council’s student representative. He also was a Seahawk soccer player, an admissions student ambassador and a member of the local chapter of the Maryland Student Legislature. A community organizer for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Amir now works as an internal sales consultant for Calvert Investments.
5
Soldiers Office in Washington, D.C. He currently serves the president of the Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table. Ashley Butler ’11, after five years in New York City leading social media strategy for Greek Yogurt brand Chobani, is now the director of digital and social media for Abel Communications located in Baltimore, Md. Lillian McCowan ’11 [5], who is pursuing her master’s degree in the global field program from Miami University, spent the summer of 2016 in Namibia participating in the university’s Earth Expeditions global field course. She studied ongoing research projects such as radio tracking, cheetah conservation and ecosystem management as well as the design of school and community programs in Namibia. Andrew Reighart ’13, of Arlington, Va., is an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), following a year as a biochemical pesticide risk manager. He also serves as communications director for Equality EPA, the agency’s LGBT employee resource
group. Prior to joining EPA, Andrew was a policy fellow for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and earned a master’s degree in environmental policy and international security and economic policy from the University of Maryland. More recently, Andrew volunteered for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Alexandria, Va. and completed his fourth season as an outside hitter with the DC Pride Volleyball League. Gabriel Young ’13, of Brooklyn, N.Y., will receive his master’s degree this spring from the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU) and has been accepted into NYU’s joint doctoral program in history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. After graduating from St. Mary’s College he taught AP World History and Middle East Studies for two years at St. Anselm’s Abbey School in Washington, D.C., while continuing to hone his Arabic skills. As a Ph.D. student, he wants to learn a new research language such as Persian and further research topics related to critical political economy, development, and mi-
6
gration in the modern Middle East. His goal is to teach at the university level and he’s grateful for the guidance and support he received from St. Mary’s College faculty. Jemarc Axinto ’14 of Newark, Del., has started a youtube channel (www.youtube.com/ gamersguidebook) that combines his love of performance, education, writing and gaming called “Gamer’s Guide.” On the show he analyzes themes, plots, subplots, stories, characters and more from a variety of old and new video games and applies them to life and topical events. He also uses his channel to invoke positive change in the world through his charity live streams. Jemarc is a moderator for “The Artifice,” (www.the-artifice.com), an online arts magazine and still works with students teaching hip hop workshops and choreographing musicals for St. Mary’s County, Md., summerstock productions. Mariah Perry ’14, of Rockville, Md., graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Shady Grove Campus in
Dec. 2016. As a student, she was on the board of directors and a member of the Maryland Association of Nursing Students. She also worked at the University of Maryland Medical Center in the transplant unit. Mariah now works at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital as a pediatric transplant nurse in the Transplant Center for Children, which is the nation’s third largest pediatric transplant program. Maddie Roth ’14 [6], of Shelburne, Vt., is a graduate student in the maritime studies program at East Carolina University. She has been awarded the Cecilia Connelly Memorial Graduate Scholarship in underwater archaeology from the Women Divers Hall of Fame. She is currently working on her thesis, a nineteenth century shipwreck off of the Florida coast which she excavated with the National Park Service last summer. When diving on the site, researchers discovered tar was still present in the hold and was laden with preserved microbotanicals. Funds from the scholarship will be used to conduct species analysis on the tar and wood samples.
He is excited to have the opportunity as a council member to give back to his alma mater. “St. Mary’s has been incredibly influential on my life. I came to St. Mary’s as a small fish living in a big pond and that can be overwhelming. St. Mary’s afforded me the opportunity to grow as an individual by allowing me opportunities in leadership positions I may not have had at a larger school.” Amir loves returning to campus for annual events like Alumni Weekend and Hawktoberfest and welcomes the opportunity to reconnect with fellow Seahawks. When asked what advice he would give alumni who want to become more involved, he answered, “There’s a nostalgia about being involved with St. Mary’s activities and events that brings you back to a simpler time and makes you more relaxed. In those moments you forget whatever it is that is stressing you out. It sounds cliché, but don’t just take my word for it. Join your local chapter and plan a visit to an Escape Room or a winery.” Attend the annual legislative reception in Annapolis or an Orioles baseball game preceded by happy hour at Pickles. “You’ll have fun, I promise you.”
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY! Eleanor Quirk Abbey ’34 HS Eleanor Quirk Abbey ’34 HS celebrated a milestone birthday this spring when she turned 100 in April. Growing up in Washington, D.C. and summering at Tall Timbers in St. Mary’s County, Eleanor forged early ties with St. Mary’s Female Seminary, today St. Mary’s College of Maryland. After graduating from St. Mary’s Female Seminary, she joined her two older sisters at the University of Maryland and earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics. In 1940 she married Lt. Richard S. Abbey, a newly commissioned Army Air Corps field artillery officer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As an army wife, Eleanor followed Dick, when she could, to duty stations all over the U.S. and the Netherlands while raising three sons, George, Steven, and William and a daughter, Mary Ann Abbey Howell, mother of John Howell ’07. General Richard Abbey died in 2001 and Eleanor moved to her current residence in Galesville, Md., to be close to Mary Ann and her family. Eleanor is a founding member of the Washington Map Society. Today, she still leads an active and dynamic life, pursuing her interests in history, archaeology, and museum studies. She remains a voracious reader, is actively involved in civic organizations in the Galesville community, and pursues her life-long hobby of collecting, furnishing, and constructing miniature dollhouses and dollhouse accessories. Through all the years away from the D.C.-Maryland area, Eleanor’s love for St. Mary’s County and her thirst for a life of learning have never wavered. In the last decade, Eleanor has visited campus frequently and has contributed substantially to the Boathouse fund as well as establishing the Eleanor Quirk Abbey Scholarship for students studying history, anthropology, archaeology, or museum studies at the College. In Oct. 2016, at the dedication of the new Anne Arundel Hall, Eleanor presented the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission with a primitive mortar and pestle, which her father George Quirk had excavated from the banks of the St. Mary’s River at Rosecroft, the estate her parents had purchased in 1955. St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 23
ALUM NI
C ONNECT ION
GLOBAL CITIZENS: Ashleigh Dueker ’10,
Hannah Cann ’10 & Kate Swiggett ’11 Ashleigh Dueker ’10 first traveled outside the U.S. in 2008 as part of Professor Bill Robert’s summer study tour to The Gambia. She found herself living in a developing country helping to implement a culturally modified version of the Yale University Social and Health Assessment survey to study Gambian high school youth. This ignited her passion to advance social justice and human rights and fight for the betterment of the poorest communities. She served in the Peace Corps from 2010-2012 as a health volunteer in Mali, West Africa, working on dozens of projects in a remote village until 2012 when the Arab Spring that had rippled through North Africa finally reached Mali. Ashleigh was caught at the start of a famine and a drought and also in between two wars, one in the north and one in Mali’s capital which led to her evacuation. Back home she realized she lacked the skill set to effectively promote local businesses. So she got her MBA from Lancaster University in the U.K. Today Ashleigh works as a management consultant at Grant Thornton UK in London, advising international organizations on change and transformation and topics such as Brexit. She also is a board member for African Sky, a small West African charity and advises on them on business development. Using her international education and business skills helps her make a difference in the world. Hannah Cann ’10 and Kate Swiggett ’11 work for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Baltimore, Md. The agency is one of nine national agencies that partner with the U.S. government to resettle refugees. Kate, who discovered refugee work while interning at Freedom from Torture, a London-based organization, coordinates with local offices across the nation to prepare for new refugee arrivals who have been screened, cleared, and are ready for travel. Hannah works on the post-arrival side, with federal programs covering housing, medical, and legal needs for new arrivals. Her interest in migrant and refugee work began during her semester abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand, when she became aware of the migrant crisis on the Thai-Burma border. After graduation, Hannah moved back to Chiang Mai where, for three years, she worked at a free school and university preparatory program for Burmese migrant workers. Outside of work, Kate volunteers with a helpline for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, while Hannah teaches English and citizenship classes, and spearheads a youth mentoring program for immigrant girls in her hometown of Bel Air, Md.
22 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Sara Morgan Watters ’10, of Oxford, Md., moved to Barcelona, Spain, after graduation to teach English for over two years. She also started a small exchange program for youth sailors between Barcelona and Annapolis, Md. called the Youth Sailing Exchange which ran for three summers. She then moved to Wellington, New Zealand to complete a master’s degree in cross-cultural psychology from Victoria University. Moving back to Annapolis in July 2016, she landed a program advisor position at Global Experiences, a company in Annapolis that places students in internships abroad as well as professional and career development. She also is doing a part-time remote internship with Language and Culture Worldwide, a Chicago intercultural training and consulting firm that works with large diverse and multinational companies. Kyle Wichtendahl ’10, of Catonsville, Md., delivered a presentation in March to the Scottsdale, Ariz. Civil War Round Table entitled “To Care He Who Has Borne The Battle: Medicine in the American Civil War.” A lifelong Marylander and the great, great, great grandson of a Civil War soldier who served for three years in the 59th Indiana including the Vicksburg Campaign and Sherman’s March to the Sea, Kyle is an avid Civil War reenactor and living historian. Pursuing his doctorate in 19th century U.S. history at the University of Maryland, he previously served as educational programming coordinator for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., and its two satellite sites: the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam National Battlefield and the Clara Barton Missing
MEET YOUR ALUMNI COUNCIL: Amir Reda ’11 Amir Reda ’11, of Bethesda, Md., is one of the newest council members. While at St. Mary’s College, he served as the council’s student representative. He also was a Seahawk soccer player, an admissions student ambassador and a member of the local chapter of the Maryland Student Legislature. A community organizer for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Amir now works as an internal sales consultant for Calvert Investments.
5
Soldiers Office in Washington, D.C. He currently serves the president of the Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table. Ashley Butler ’11, after five years in New York City leading social media strategy for Greek Yogurt brand Chobani, is now the director of digital and social media for Abel Communications located in Baltimore, Md. Lillian McCowan ’11 [5], who is pursuing her master’s degree in the global field program from Miami University, spent the summer of 2016 in Namibia participating in the university’s Earth Expeditions global field course. She studied ongoing research projects such as radio tracking, cheetah conservation and ecosystem management as well as the design of school and community programs in Namibia. Andrew Reighart ’13, of Arlington, Va., is an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), following a year as a biochemical pesticide risk manager. He also serves as communications director for Equality EPA, the agency’s LGBT employee resource
group. Prior to joining EPA, Andrew was a policy fellow for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and earned a master’s degree in environmental policy and international security and economic policy from the University of Maryland. More recently, Andrew volunteered for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Alexandria, Va. and completed his fourth season as an outside hitter with the DC Pride Volleyball League. Gabriel Young ’13, of Brooklyn, N.Y., will receive his master’s degree this spring from the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU) and has been accepted into NYU’s joint doctoral program in history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. After graduating from St. Mary’s College he taught AP World History and Middle East Studies for two years at St. Anselm’s Abbey School in Washington, D.C., while continuing to hone his Arabic skills. As a Ph.D. student, he wants to learn a new research language such as Persian and further research topics related to critical political economy, development, and mi-
6
gration in the modern Middle East. His goal is to teach at the university level and he’s grateful for the guidance and support he received from St. Mary’s College faculty. Jemarc Axinto ’14 of Newark, Del., has started a youtube channel (www.youtube.com/ gamersguidebook) that combines his love of performance, education, writing and gaming called “Gamer’s Guide.” On the show he analyzes themes, plots, subplots, stories, characters and more from a variety of old and new video games and applies them to life and topical events. He also uses his channel to invoke positive change in the world through his charity live streams. Jemarc is a moderator for “The Artifice,” (www.the-artifice.com), an online arts magazine and still works with students teaching hip hop workshops and choreographing musicals for St. Mary’s County, Md., summerstock productions. Mariah Perry ’14, of Rockville, Md., graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Shady Grove Campus in
Dec. 2016. As a student, she was on the board of directors and a member of the Maryland Association of Nursing Students. She also worked at the University of Maryland Medical Center in the transplant unit. Mariah now works at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital as a pediatric transplant nurse in the Transplant Center for Children, which is the nation’s third largest pediatric transplant program. Maddie Roth ’14 [6], of Shelburne, Vt., is a graduate student in the maritime studies program at East Carolina University. She has been awarded the Cecilia Connelly Memorial Graduate Scholarship in underwater archaeology from the Women Divers Hall of Fame. She is currently working on her thesis, a nineteenth century shipwreck off of the Florida coast which she excavated with the National Park Service last summer. When diving on the site, researchers discovered tar was still present in the hold and was laden with preserved microbotanicals. Funds from the scholarship will be used to conduct species analysis on the tar and wood samples.
He is excited to have the opportunity as a council member to give back to his alma mater. “St. Mary’s has been incredibly influential on my life. I came to St. Mary’s as a small fish living in a big pond and that can be overwhelming. St. Mary’s afforded me the opportunity to grow as an individual by allowing me opportunities in leadership positions I may not have had at a larger school.” Amir loves returning to campus for annual events like Alumni Weekend and Hawktoberfest and welcomes the opportunity to reconnect with fellow Seahawks. When asked what advice he would give alumni who want to become more involved, he answered, “There’s a nostalgia about being involved with St. Mary’s activities and events that brings you back to a simpler time and makes you more relaxed. In those moments you forget whatever it is that is stressing you out. It sounds cliché, but don’t just take my word for it. Join your local chapter and plan a visit to an Escape Room or a winery.” Attend the annual legislative reception in Annapolis or an Orioles baseball game preceded by happy hour at Pickles. “You’ll have fun, I promise you.”
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY! Eleanor Quirk Abbey ’34 HS Eleanor Quirk Abbey ’34 HS celebrated a milestone birthday this spring when she turned 100 in April. Growing up in Washington, D.C. and summering at Tall Timbers in St. Mary’s County, Eleanor forged early ties with St. Mary’s Female Seminary, today St. Mary’s College of Maryland. After graduating from St. Mary’s Female Seminary, she joined her two older sisters at the University of Maryland and earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics. In 1940 she married Lt. Richard S. Abbey, a newly commissioned Army Air Corps field artillery officer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As an army wife, Eleanor followed Dick, when she could, to duty stations all over the U.S. and the Netherlands while raising three sons, George, Steven, and William and a daughter, Mary Ann Abbey Howell, mother of John Howell ’07. General Richard Abbey died in 2001 and Eleanor moved to her current residence in Galesville, Md., to be close to Mary Ann and her family. Eleanor is a founding member of the Washington Map Society. Today, she still leads an active and dynamic life, pursuing her interests in history, archaeology, and museum studies. She remains a voracious reader, is actively involved in civic organizations in the Galesville community, and pursues her life-long hobby of collecting, furnishing, and constructing miniature dollhouses and dollhouse accessories. Through all the years away from the D.C.-Maryland area, Eleanor’s love for St. Mary’s County and her thirst for a life of learning have never wavered. In the last decade, Eleanor has visited campus frequently and has contributed substantially to the Boathouse fund as well as establishing the Eleanor Quirk Abbey Scholarship for students studying history, anthropology, archaeology, or museum studies at the College. In Oct. 2016, at the dedication of the new Anne Arundel Hall, Eleanor presented the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission with a primitive mortar and pestle, which her father George Quirk had excavated from the banks of the St. Mary’s River at Rosecroft, the estate her parents had purchased in 1955. St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 23
24 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Steven Turner ’09 and Chelsea Weisel [9] were married Sept. 25, 2016 at Cheesman Park in Denver, Colo. Ryan McGreevy ’09 was best man; the groom’s sister Katelyn Turner Scrittore ’05 was a bridesmaid. The couple honeymooned on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Steven is a senior engineer at Chesapeake Technology International; Chelsea owns her own business Honey Bee Well creating custom artwork. The
Caitlin Nichols ’10 and William Dammin [10] were married Sept. 10, 2016 in St. Michaels, Md. Karisa Carroll ’10, Brianne Carroll ’10 and Meghan Anderson ’10 were bridesmaids. The couple honeymooned in Europe visiting Venice, Italy, Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany. Caitlin served for three years in the U.S. Navy as a physician assistant and now works as an OB-GYN physician assistant for Cape Carteret OB-GYN Associates. William, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, is a 1/10 artillery battery commander based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The couple lives in Emerald Isle, N.C. Olivia Williams ’10 and Jeffrey Black [11] were married March 12, 2016 at Charles Town Landing in Charleston, S.C. The wedding party included 2010 alums Emily King, Amanda Reynolds, and Molly McKee-Seabrook. The couple honeymooned in San Francisco, Calif. Olivia is a park ranger and volunteer coordinator at
RICHARD AND TARA PHOTOGRAPHY
DANIEL HIRSH, WEST END PHOTOGRAPH
8
9
11
12
14
RICHARD BARLOW
DESIREE STOVER
6
7
10
SILVER ORCHID PHOTOGRAPHY
Allison Scheller ’08, MAT ’09 and Brian Michael Witow [7] were married Aug. 31, 2014 at Marshy Point Nursery in Middle River, Md. Catherine Koch ’08 and Tiffany Hauck Johns ’09 were in the wedding party. The couple honeymooned on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. Sarah teaches kindergarten for Baltimore City public schools; Brian is a transportation engineer technician for Maryland State Highway. They live in Edgemere, Md.
couple is living in a craft-made wooden trailer traveling around the country. You can follow their journey at www.rootlesstraveled.com.
5
13
15
JAMES SEIP
Robin Ricks ’07 and Ramont Howard [5] were married May 30, 2015 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The wedding party included Michelle Ewii ’07
Sarah Beth Marks ’08 and Michael Yaeger [6] were married May 30, 2015 in Phoenix, Md. Rebecca Eder Petruccy ’07 was a bridesmaid; Larry Petruccy ’07 was a wedding guest. The couple honeymooned in Edinburgh, Scotland. Allison is an adjunct English teacher at Community College of Baltimore County; Michael is a service technician for Stanley Access Technologies. They live in Abingdon, Md.
Abby Locke ’09 and Eric Abrams [8] were married Oct. 21, 2016 at Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, Md., the same location where the groom’s parents were married 30 years earlier. Abby wore her mom’s wedding dress and her sister, Samantha Locke ’12, was the maid of honor. Wedding guests included 2009 alums Caitlin Plitt, Emily Smithson Moore, John Moore and Kerri Smith; and Allie Skiest ’11. The couple plans to honeymoon in Costa Rica this summer. Abby is a special education teacher in the Montgomery County, Md., public schools; Eric is a project manager for Sandy Spring Builders in Bethesda, Md. They live in Kensington, Md.
3 JESSICA SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY
Rick Besore ’07 and Alex Wenger ’10 [4] were married June 11, 2016 at Fells Point in Baltimore, Md. The wedding party included groomsmen Michael Rohrs ’08 and Alex Pyzik ’07; and bridesmaids Kiely Murphy ’09, Jackie Reid Killebrew ’09 and Allie Scott ’09. Wedding guests included 2007 alums Allen Abrams, Lizzie Crockett Chidester, David Reumont and John Greely; Lisa Daciek ’08; 2009 alums Katie Klotz, Marie Oben, Megan Graydon and Victoria Whitlow; 2010 alums Abby Rowlands, Jacen Killebrew and Jon Gill; and 2011 alums Claire Kodan and Michael Bowden. The couple honeymooned in Key West, Fla. Rick and Alex met for the first time at the Green Door during an April 2014 alumni event. They live in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, Md.
and Eboni Cooper (attended 2005-07). Melanie Barner ’08 was a wedding guest. Robin is a school counselor; Ramont owns and operates Howard Trucking Company. They live in Atlanta, Ga.
4
JAMES SEIP
Andrea Kordonski ’06 and Noah Stayton [3] were married Oct. 22, 2016 at Tabrizi’s in Baltimore, Md. The wedding party included bridesmaid Andrea Selkirk ’05 and bridesmaid and wedding officiant Mary Ichniowski Dowd ’06. Gregory Horvitz ’06 and Allison Billock Riendeau ’06 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned in Phoenix, Ariz. Andrea teaches English as a second language in Baltimore
City public schools. Noah is the director of data quality solutions for Bridgeforce LLC. They live in Baltimore, Md.
2
EVAN LATTNER
Eileen Barnes ’06 and Jim Mitchell ’06 [2] were married Aug. 7, 2015 at the Elkridge Furnace Inn in Elkridge, Md. The wedding party included the bride’s sister, maid of honor Kelly Barnes Combs ’02; officiant Jamison Combs ’01; and groomsman Mike Alcamo ’07. The couple honeymooned in Thailand. Eileen is a project support specialist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Jim is assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Rutgers University. They live in Somerville, N.J.
1
JACK O’LAUGHLIN
Ben Church ’04 and Maggie Low ’05 [1] were married July 13, 2013 in Chestertown, Md. The wedding party included 2004 alums Andrew Coonan, Kyle Gahan, Mikey Church, and Eli ParkYankovitch; 2005 alums Christina Hailman Gardner, Steve Gardner, and Kathryn Bogel; and Ali Sharpe Church ’03. Ben is an account executive with Randstad USA; Maggie is the marketing manager for Baltimore Magazine. The couple lives in Glen Arm, Md.
RACHEL LARSEN WEAVER ’04, BRACKISH PHOTOGRAPHY
& UNIONS
LAURA MATNEY, LAURA’S FOCUS PHOTOGRAPHY
BREANNA SHAW
MARRIAGES
CHRIS DORSEY
C O NNECT ION
JAMES SEIP
ALU M NI
16
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 25
24 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
Steven Turner ’09 and Chelsea Weisel [9] were married Sept. 25, 2016 at Cheesman Park in Denver, Colo. Ryan McGreevy ’09 was best man; the groom’s sister Katelyn Turner Scrittore ’05 was a bridesmaid. The couple honeymooned on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Steven is a senior engineer at Chesapeake Technology International; Chelsea owns her own business Honey Bee Well creating custom artwork. The
Caitlin Nichols ’10 and William Dammin [10] were married Sept. 10, 2016 in St. Michaels, Md. Karisa Carroll ’10, Brianne Carroll ’10 and Meghan Anderson ’10 were bridesmaids. The couple honeymooned in Europe visiting Venice, Italy, Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany. Caitlin served for three years in the U.S. Navy as a physician assistant and now works as an OB-GYN physician assistant for Cape Carteret OB-GYN Associates. William, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, is a 1/10 artillery battery commander based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The couple lives in Emerald Isle, N.C. Olivia Williams ’10 and Jeffrey Black [11] were married March 12, 2016 at Charles Town Landing in Charleston, S.C. The wedding party included 2010 alums Emily King, Amanda Reynolds, and Molly McKee-Seabrook. The couple honeymooned in San Francisco, Calif. Olivia is a park ranger and volunteer coordinator at
RICHARD AND TARA PHOTOGRAPHY
DANIEL HIRSH, WEST END PHOTOGRAPH
8
9
11
12
14
RICHARD BARLOW
DESIREE STOVER
6
7
10
SILVER ORCHID PHOTOGRAPHY
Allison Scheller ’08, MAT ’09 and Brian Michael Witow [7] were married Aug. 31, 2014 at Marshy Point Nursery in Middle River, Md. Catherine Koch ’08 and Tiffany Hauck Johns ’09 were in the wedding party. The couple honeymooned on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. Sarah teaches kindergarten for Baltimore City public schools; Brian is a transportation engineer technician for Maryland State Highway. They live in Edgemere, Md.
couple is living in a craft-made wooden trailer traveling around the country. You can follow their journey at www.rootlesstraveled.com.
5
13
15
JAMES SEIP
Robin Ricks ’07 and Ramont Howard [5] were married May 30, 2015 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The wedding party included Michelle Ewii ’07
Sarah Beth Marks ’08 and Michael Yaeger [6] were married May 30, 2015 in Phoenix, Md. Rebecca Eder Petruccy ’07 was a bridesmaid; Larry Petruccy ’07 was a wedding guest. The couple honeymooned in Edinburgh, Scotland. Allison is an adjunct English teacher at Community College of Baltimore County; Michael is a service technician for Stanley Access Technologies. They live in Abingdon, Md.
Abby Locke ’09 and Eric Abrams [8] were married Oct. 21, 2016 at Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, Md., the same location where the groom’s parents were married 30 years earlier. Abby wore her mom’s wedding dress and her sister, Samantha Locke ’12, was the maid of honor. Wedding guests included 2009 alums Caitlin Plitt, Emily Smithson Moore, John Moore and Kerri Smith; and Allie Skiest ’11. The couple plans to honeymoon in Costa Rica this summer. Abby is a special education teacher in the Montgomery County, Md., public schools; Eric is a project manager for Sandy Spring Builders in Bethesda, Md. They live in Kensington, Md.
3 JESSICA SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY
Rick Besore ’07 and Alex Wenger ’10 [4] were married June 11, 2016 at Fells Point in Baltimore, Md. The wedding party included groomsmen Michael Rohrs ’08 and Alex Pyzik ’07; and bridesmaids Kiely Murphy ’09, Jackie Reid Killebrew ’09 and Allie Scott ’09. Wedding guests included 2007 alums Allen Abrams, Lizzie Crockett Chidester, David Reumont and John Greely; Lisa Daciek ’08; 2009 alums Katie Klotz, Marie Oben, Megan Graydon and Victoria Whitlow; 2010 alums Abby Rowlands, Jacen Killebrew and Jon Gill; and 2011 alums Claire Kodan and Michael Bowden. The couple honeymooned in Key West, Fla. Rick and Alex met for the first time at the Green Door during an April 2014 alumni event. They live in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, Md.
and Eboni Cooper (attended 2005-07). Melanie Barner ’08 was a wedding guest. Robin is a school counselor; Ramont owns and operates Howard Trucking Company. They live in Atlanta, Ga.
4
JAMES SEIP
Andrea Kordonski ’06 and Noah Stayton [3] were married Oct. 22, 2016 at Tabrizi’s in Baltimore, Md. The wedding party included bridesmaid Andrea Selkirk ’05 and bridesmaid and wedding officiant Mary Ichniowski Dowd ’06. Gregory Horvitz ’06 and Allison Billock Riendeau ’06 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned in Phoenix, Ariz. Andrea teaches English as a second language in Baltimore
City public schools. Noah is the director of data quality solutions for Bridgeforce LLC. They live in Baltimore, Md.
2
EVAN LATTNER
Eileen Barnes ’06 and Jim Mitchell ’06 [2] were married Aug. 7, 2015 at the Elkridge Furnace Inn in Elkridge, Md. The wedding party included the bride’s sister, maid of honor Kelly Barnes Combs ’02; officiant Jamison Combs ’01; and groomsman Mike Alcamo ’07. The couple honeymooned in Thailand. Eileen is a project support specialist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Jim is assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Rutgers University. They live in Somerville, N.J.
1
JACK O’LAUGHLIN
Ben Church ’04 and Maggie Low ’05 [1] were married July 13, 2013 in Chestertown, Md. The wedding party included 2004 alums Andrew Coonan, Kyle Gahan, Mikey Church, and Eli ParkYankovitch; 2005 alums Christina Hailman Gardner, Steve Gardner, and Kathryn Bogel; and Ali Sharpe Church ’03. Ben is an account executive with Randstad USA; Maggie is the marketing manager for Baltimore Magazine. The couple lives in Glen Arm, Md.
RACHEL LARSEN WEAVER ’04, BRACKISH PHOTOGRAPHY
& UNIONS
LAURA MATNEY, LAURA’S FOCUS PHOTOGRAPHY
BREANNA SHAW
MARRIAGES
CHRIS DORSEY
C O NNECT ION
JAMES SEIP
ALU M NI
16
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 25
C O NNECT ION
Antietam National Battlefield; Jeff is a substitute teacher in Washington and Frederick Counties in Maryland. They live in Hagerstown, Md.
environmental consultant with RT Environmental Services, Inc.; Zach is a woodworker for H. Mininger & Sons, Inc. They live in Souderton, Pa.
Sam Horrocks ’11 and Teri Koster ’13 were married Sept. 12, 2015 in Pulaski, N.Y. The wedding party included officiant Nathan Beall ’11 and best man Ryan Klavans ’11. Rachel Beebe ’13 and Nicole Zimmerman ’13 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned in Edisto Island, S.C. Sam and Teri both work at West Virginia University; Sam as an English instructor and Teri as a shepherd. They also run a market garden called “Maryland Line Farm.” They live in Bruceton Mills, W.Va.
Francis Moran ’13 and Mary Claire McCarthy ’14 [14] were married Oct. 15, 2016 in Kensington, Md. They honeymooned in the Caribbean. Francis is a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley; Mary Claire is a client support engineer for Oracle. The couple lives in Silver Spring, Md.
To Doug Shipley ’96 and Melissa Shipley [1], a daughter, Claire Addison, born March 12, 2017. She joins big brother, Ryan, age four and a half. Doug is the director of operations for STAX Charlotte; Melissa is a pediatric ophthalmologist with Metrolina Eye Associates. The family lives in Marvin, N.C.
Katie Dreyer ’14 and Christopher Marquette ’14 [15] were married at the historic Black Horse Inn in Warrenton, Va., on Oct. 29, 2016. The wedding party included 2014 alums Kaylie Jasinski, Michael Woollen, and Patrick Meade; and Nick Huber ’13. The couple honeymooned in San Francisco, Calif., and on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Katie, who is taking courses in real estate, wants to convert an investment property into a local bookshop and bed & breakfast. Chris is an account manager and plant technician for Foliage Interiors, an interior landscaping company. They live in Baltimore, Md.
To Hilary Woodward ’00 and Robert Kohlmeyer, a son, Miles Gary Woodward Kohlmeyer [2], born April 14, 2015. He joins big brother, Henry who is four years old. Hilary is the director of digital strategies at the National Women’s Law Center; Robert is a stay-at-home dad. The family lives in Silver Spring, Md.
Blair Lusby ’11 and Jeremiah Skiba [12] were married Oct. 8, 2016 in Pocomoke, Md. The wedding party included matron of honor Lydia Garcia Mark ’11 and bridesmaids Hollin Roberts ’11 and Holly Callan ’12. The couple went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. Blair teaches at the Glenelg Country School in Howard County, Md.; Jeremiah is in the U.S. Coast Guard. The couple lives in Annapolis, Md. Tori Jones ’13 and Zach Long [13] were married Sep. 24, 2016 in Harleysville, Pa. Wedding guests included 2013 alums Tiko Mason, Andrew Reighart, Josh Santangelo, Joseph Santangelo, Jasmine Jones, Sam Schwartz, Maureen Hager, Rina Dudley and Dave Gainey. The wedding reception ended in true St. Mary’s College fashion, belting out “Wagon Wheel.” The couple honeymooned in Vancouver, Canada. Tori is an
Allison Herrington ’14 and Ben Trebach ’14 [16] were married Aug. 27, 2016 in Point Pleasant, N.J. Patrick Meade ’14 and Michael Woollen ’14 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned on the island of Bermuda. Alli is pursuing her master’s in occupational therapy from Stockton University; Ben is a software engineer with Specialty Systems Inc. They live in Point Pleasant, N.J.
26 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
of Undergraduate Admissions. Theresa is a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Justice. The family lives in Hyattsville, Md.
BIRTHS& ADOPTIONS
3
4
To Richard Romer ’04 and Laura McKeever, a son, Duncan William [3], born Dec. 19, 2016. He joins big sisters, Audra, age 3 and Isela, age 9, and big brother, Broderick, age 5. Rich works for the national office of AAA as the manager of state relations; Laura is a senior manager with Connections Education. The family lives in Silver Spring, Md.
2
To Donald Dyott Jr. ’06 and and Allison Muehl Dyott ’07, a son, Donald Keith III [4], born May 9, 2016. Donnie joins big sister Fiona, age 3. Donald and Allison both work for Anne Arundel County Government. The family lives in Annapolis, Md. To Ben Toll ’07 and Theresa Tenaglia Toll ’08, a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth [5], born Jan. 31, 2017. Ben is director of recruitment and outreach at George Washington University’s Office
To Sarah Marks Witow ’08 and Brian Witow, a son, Cooper Marks Witow [6], born Oct. 24, 2016. Sarah is a kindergarten teacher for Baltimore City public schools; Brian is a transportation engineer technician for Maryland State Highway. The family lives in Edgemere, Md. To Sonja Kubik Charpentier ’09 and Brent Charpentier, a son, Barrett Kubik Charpentier [7], born March 3, 2017. Sonja is a math teacher at Lyme-Old Lyme High School in Old Lyme, Conn.; Brent is a social studies teacher at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School in Guilford, Conn. The family lives in Haddam, Conn.
1
LITTLE BEAR PHOTOGRAPHY
A LU M NI
5
6
7
8
9
To S. Jae Lim ’09 and Jessica Cunningham Lim, a daughter, Kennedy Jade [8], born Jan. 26, 2017. Jae works for the Tennessee Attorney General’s office and Jessica is still working for her Washington, D.C. law firm. The family lives in Nashville, Tenn. To Jill Clemmer Seyum ’09 and Esrael Seyum ’09, a son, Jonah Tesfaye [9] born Jan. 12, 2017. Jill works as a bookkeeper for Cornerstone Presbyterian Church; Esrael serves with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as an associate area director for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The family lives in Lexington Park, Md.
IN MEMORIAM Carolyn Ann Zimmerman Edris ’47HS, of Vail, Ariz., died May 23, 2015, at age 85. Carolyn is survived by her children, Bill Edris and Anne Edris. Alden Cheek Jackson ’47HS, of Westminster, Md., died Feb. 5, 2016, at age 85. Alden is survived by her five children; Leslie Jackson Simpson, Mary Jackson, Susan Jackson Getty, David Jackson and Scott Jackson; thirteen grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; her brother, Donald Cheek; and her former spouse, Donald Jackson. Elizabeth “Betty” Miles ’47JC, of Upper Fairmount, Md. and Bradenton, Fla., died Dec. 3, 2016, at age 89. Nancy Ruth Long Stouffer ’55JC, of Bristol, R.I., died Jan. 9, 2016, at age 79. Nancy is survived by her husband, Jack; her children, John Stouffer and Suzanne Stouffer Piacentini; five grandchildren; and her siblings, Donald Long and Dorothy Long. Frances “Tiny Lou” Davis Owens ’61JC, of St. Inigoes, Md., died Dec. 14, 2016, at age 78. She earned a bachelor’s degree in information technology from University of Maryland University College and worked for the U.S. Navy for over 27 years. For 41 years she was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 255 in Ridge, Md. and served as its president in 19811982. A member of St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in St. Mary’s City, Md., she also was a Ladies of Charity volunteer. Frances is survived by her husband of over 41 years, Jack E. Owens ’66JC; her daughter, Deborah Querry Siebenmark; two granddaughters; and her siblings, Betty Davis Aldridge and Charles Davis.
Ellen Powell Havens ’66JC, of Dameron, Md., died Jan. 16, 2017, at age 83. Born in Missouri, she worked as a copy girl for the Evening Star newspaper in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, George, a photojournalist. Ellen accompanied George on his assignments with the U.S. State Department Information Agency, visiting the Philippines, Laos, South Vietnam, Liberia, Tanzania, and Pakistan. Returning to the U.S., she taught school in Waldorf, Md., was an administrative assistant in the College’s financial aid office and worked at Historic St. Mary’s City’s visitor center. She also belonged to P.E.O., a philanthropic organization that celebrates and promotes the advancement of women. Ellen is survived by her children, George “Pat” Havens, Bibiana Havens Cohey ’03, Gregory Havens, Elizabeth Havens Dickson, Betty Ann Havens ’88, and Julie Havens; 11 grandchildren; and six greatgrandchildren. Emily Parrott Cator ’76, of Normandy Park, Wash., died Jan. 17, 2017, at age 62. Raised in Dickeyville, Md., she joined VISTA after college and volunteered in several Seattle, Wash., hospitals. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington in 1978. Emily worked for the Ryther Child Center and the Children’s Home Society of Washington prior to her 25-year career with Casey Family Programs. She directed Casey’s Missoula, Mont. office, returning to Seattle in 1996. She retired from Casey in 2015. A board member of Seattle’s Art with Heart Foundation, she also was accomplished photographer and loved the outdoors and her animals. Emily is survived by her husband, Douglas Cator; step-children Tami Cator Malloy and Christopher Cator; three grandchildren; and her brother, Thomas Parrott.
Michael Frederic Morton ’86, of Leonardtown, Md., died Oct. 8, 2016, at age 55. A Navy youngster, he lived all over the U. S. before settling in St. Mary’s County, Md. He earned honors in all his academic degrees including a master’s degree in zoology and a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland. As part of his doctoral studies, he spent a semester in Thailand researching Thai methods of processing “green pharmaceuticals.” Mike is survived by his wife, Deborah Spalding; his parents, Fred and Shirley Morton; and his sisters, Allison Morton McGhee and Julie Morton. Evan “e-dubble” Wallace ’05, of Philadelphia, Pa., died Feb. 13, 2017, at age 34. A political science major, he found his true passion for music while at St. Mary’s College. In 2009, he founded Black Paisley Records, an independent hip-hop record label, and gained prominence himself as hip hop artist “e-dubble” or “e-dub.” His debut album was “Hip Hop is Good.” He also was known for his “Freestyle Friday” tracks and his single “Changed My Mind.” Evan is survived by his parents, William and Patricia Wallace; and his siblings, Suzanne, Patricia and Sewell Wallace. Patrick Kyle Mahlon ’11, of of Baltimore, Md., died Dec. 29, 2016, at age 27. He spent his undergraduate summers interning at the National Institutes of Health and was deeply influenced by the late Paul Blanchette, longtime professor of chemistry at the College. He worked for two years as a quality control analyst for Restek Corporation before joining Pixelligent Technologies, LLC, a developer and manufacturer of next-generation optical materials for high-technology applications. As a research chemist, he most recently worked on materials development for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). He was a member of the American Chemical Society and
St. Mary’s College of Maryland Alumni Association. Patrick is survived by his parents, James and Linda Mahlon; his sister, Casey Mahlon; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Memorial gifts may be made to the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Foundation for the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Benjamin Ray Gramling ’15, of Columbia, Md., died Feb. 19, 2017, at age 24. He worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Ben is survived by his parents, Jeffrey and Cheryl Gramling; his siblings, Hannah and Daniel Gramling; and his grandparents, George Gramling and Rona Engel.
FACULTY & STAFF KATE CHANDLER Professor of English Katherine “Kate” Chandler died April 1, 2017, at age 67, after a two-year battle with cancer. She joined the faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1996. She taught courses in writing and composition, literature, studies in authors, landscape and nature writing, and environmental perspectives. She also mentored more than 25 St. Mary’s Projects. In 2011, she was honored with St. Mary’s College’s Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching. That same year, she was awarded the Andy Kozak Faculty Contribution to Student Life Award. Kate co-edited a book, “Surveying the Literary Landscapes of Terry Tempest Williams: New Critical Essays” (Univ. of Utah Press, 2003). She wrote 85 articles as the “Nature Notes” columnist for the College’s River Gazette between 2001-2011. Kate was coordinator of the Environmental Studies Program from 2007-2012. She had been, since 2010, the faculty adviser to the Campus Community Farm.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 27
C O NNECT ION
Antietam National Battlefield; Jeff is a substitute teacher in Washington and Frederick Counties in Maryland. They live in Hagerstown, Md.
environmental consultant with RT Environmental Services, Inc.; Zach is a woodworker for H. Mininger & Sons, Inc. They live in Souderton, Pa.
Sam Horrocks ’11 and Teri Koster ’13 were married Sept. 12, 2015 in Pulaski, N.Y. The wedding party included officiant Nathan Beall ’11 and best man Ryan Klavans ’11. Rachel Beebe ’13 and Nicole Zimmerman ’13 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned in Edisto Island, S.C. Sam and Teri both work at West Virginia University; Sam as an English instructor and Teri as a shepherd. They also run a market garden called “Maryland Line Farm.” They live in Bruceton Mills, W.Va.
Francis Moran ’13 and Mary Claire McCarthy ’14 [14] were married Oct. 15, 2016 in Kensington, Md. They honeymooned in the Caribbean. Francis is a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley; Mary Claire is a client support engineer for Oracle. The couple lives in Silver Spring, Md.
To Doug Shipley ’96 and Melissa Shipley [1], a daughter, Claire Addison, born March 12, 2017. She joins big brother, Ryan, age four and a half. Doug is the director of operations for STAX Charlotte; Melissa is a pediatric ophthalmologist with Metrolina Eye Associates. The family lives in Marvin, N.C.
Katie Dreyer ’14 and Christopher Marquette ’14 [15] were married at the historic Black Horse Inn in Warrenton, Va., on Oct. 29, 2016. The wedding party included 2014 alums Kaylie Jasinski, Michael Woollen, and Patrick Meade; and Nick Huber ’13. The couple honeymooned in San Francisco, Calif., and on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Katie, who is taking courses in real estate, wants to convert an investment property into a local bookshop and bed & breakfast. Chris is an account manager and plant technician for Foliage Interiors, an interior landscaping company. They live in Baltimore, Md.
To Hilary Woodward ’00 and Robert Kohlmeyer, a son, Miles Gary Woodward Kohlmeyer [2], born April 14, 2015. He joins big brother, Henry who is four years old. Hilary is the director of digital strategies at the National Women’s Law Center; Robert is a stay-at-home dad. The family lives in Silver Spring, Md.
Blair Lusby ’11 and Jeremiah Skiba [12] were married Oct. 8, 2016 in Pocomoke, Md. The wedding party included matron of honor Lydia Garcia Mark ’11 and bridesmaids Hollin Roberts ’11 and Holly Callan ’12. The couple went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. Blair teaches at the Glenelg Country School in Howard County, Md.; Jeremiah is in the U.S. Coast Guard. The couple lives in Annapolis, Md. Tori Jones ’13 and Zach Long [13] were married Sep. 24, 2016 in Harleysville, Pa. Wedding guests included 2013 alums Tiko Mason, Andrew Reighart, Josh Santangelo, Joseph Santangelo, Jasmine Jones, Sam Schwartz, Maureen Hager, Rina Dudley and Dave Gainey. The wedding reception ended in true St. Mary’s College fashion, belting out “Wagon Wheel.” The couple honeymooned in Vancouver, Canada. Tori is an
Allison Herrington ’14 and Ben Trebach ’14 [16] were married Aug. 27, 2016 in Point Pleasant, N.J. Patrick Meade ’14 and Michael Woollen ’14 were wedding guests. The couple honeymooned on the island of Bermuda. Alli is pursuing her master’s in occupational therapy from Stockton University; Ben is a software engineer with Specialty Systems Inc. They live in Point Pleasant, N.J.
26 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
of Undergraduate Admissions. Theresa is a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Justice. The family lives in Hyattsville, Md.
BIRTHS& ADOPTIONS
3
4
To Richard Romer ’04 and Laura McKeever, a son, Duncan William [3], born Dec. 19, 2016. He joins big sisters, Audra, age 3 and Isela, age 9, and big brother, Broderick, age 5. Rich works for the national office of AAA as the manager of state relations; Laura is a senior manager with Connections Education. The family lives in Silver Spring, Md.
2
To Donald Dyott Jr. ’06 and and Allison Muehl Dyott ’07, a son, Donald Keith III [4], born May 9, 2016. Donnie joins big sister Fiona, age 3. Donald and Allison both work for Anne Arundel County Government. The family lives in Annapolis, Md. To Ben Toll ’07 and Theresa Tenaglia Toll ’08, a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth [5], born Jan. 31, 2017. Ben is director of recruitment and outreach at George Washington University’s Office
To Sarah Marks Witow ’08 and Brian Witow, a son, Cooper Marks Witow [6], born Oct. 24, 2016. Sarah is a kindergarten teacher for Baltimore City public schools; Brian is a transportation engineer technician for Maryland State Highway. The family lives in Edgemere, Md. To Sonja Kubik Charpentier ’09 and Brent Charpentier, a son, Barrett Kubik Charpentier [7], born March 3, 2017. Sonja is a math teacher at Lyme-Old Lyme High School in Old Lyme, Conn.; Brent is a social studies teacher at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School in Guilford, Conn. The family lives in Haddam, Conn.
1
LITTLE BEAR PHOTOGRAPHY
A LU M NI
5
6
7
8
9
To S. Jae Lim ’09 and Jessica Cunningham Lim, a daughter, Kennedy Jade [8], born Jan. 26, 2017. Jae works for the Tennessee Attorney General’s office and Jessica is still working for her Washington, D.C. law firm. The family lives in Nashville, Tenn. To Jill Clemmer Seyum ’09 and Esrael Seyum ’09, a son, Jonah Tesfaye [9] born Jan. 12, 2017. Jill works as a bookkeeper for Cornerstone Presbyterian Church; Esrael serves with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as an associate area director for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The family lives in Lexington Park, Md.
IN MEMORIAM Carolyn Ann Zimmerman Edris ’47HS, of Vail, Ariz., died May 23, 2015, at age 85. Carolyn is survived by her children, Bill Edris and Anne Edris. Alden Cheek Jackson ’47HS, of Westminster, Md., died Feb. 5, 2016, at age 85. Alden is survived by her five children; Leslie Jackson Simpson, Mary Jackson, Susan Jackson Getty, David Jackson and Scott Jackson; thirteen grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; her brother, Donald Cheek; and her former spouse, Donald Jackson. Elizabeth “Betty” Miles ’47JC, of Upper Fairmount, Md. and Bradenton, Fla., died Dec. 3, 2016, at age 89. Nancy Ruth Long Stouffer ’55JC, of Bristol, R.I., died Jan. 9, 2016, at age 79. Nancy is survived by her husband, Jack; her children, John Stouffer and Suzanne Stouffer Piacentini; five grandchildren; and her siblings, Donald Long and Dorothy Long. Frances “Tiny Lou” Davis Owens ’61JC, of St. Inigoes, Md., died Dec. 14, 2016, at age 78. She earned a bachelor’s degree in information technology from University of Maryland University College and worked for the U.S. Navy for over 27 years. For 41 years she was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 255 in Ridge, Md. and served as its president in 19811982. A member of St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in St. Mary’s City, Md., she also was a Ladies of Charity volunteer. Frances is survived by her husband of over 41 years, Jack E. Owens ’66JC; her daughter, Deborah Querry Siebenmark; two granddaughters; and her siblings, Betty Davis Aldridge and Charles Davis.
Ellen Powell Havens ’66JC, of Dameron, Md., died Jan. 16, 2017, at age 83. Born in Missouri, she worked as a copy girl for the Evening Star newspaper in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, George, a photojournalist. Ellen accompanied George on his assignments with the U.S. State Department Information Agency, visiting the Philippines, Laos, South Vietnam, Liberia, Tanzania, and Pakistan. Returning to the U.S., she taught school in Waldorf, Md., was an administrative assistant in the College’s financial aid office and worked at Historic St. Mary’s City’s visitor center. She also belonged to P.E.O., a philanthropic organization that celebrates and promotes the advancement of women. Ellen is survived by her children, George “Pat” Havens, Bibiana Havens Cohey ’03, Gregory Havens, Elizabeth Havens Dickson, Betty Ann Havens ’88, and Julie Havens; 11 grandchildren; and six greatgrandchildren. Emily Parrott Cator ’76, of Normandy Park, Wash., died Jan. 17, 2017, at age 62. Raised in Dickeyville, Md., she joined VISTA after college and volunteered in several Seattle, Wash., hospitals. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington in 1978. Emily worked for the Ryther Child Center and the Children’s Home Society of Washington prior to her 25-year career with Casey Family Programs. She directed Casey’s Missoula, Mont. office, returning to Seattle in 1996. She retired from Casey in 2015. A board member of Seattle’s Art with Heart Foundation, she also was accomplished photographer and loved the outdoors and her animals. Emily is survived by her husband, Douglas Cator; step-children Tami Cator Malloy and Christopher Cator; three grandchildren; and her brother, Thomas Parrott.
Michael Frederic Morton ’86, of Leonardtown, Md., died Oct. 8, 2016, at age 55. A Navy youngster, he lived all over the U. S. before settling in St. Mary’s County, Md. He earned honors in all his academic degrees including a master’s degree in zoology and a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland. As part of his doctoral studies, he spent a semester in Thailand researching Thai methods of processing “green pharmaceuticals.” Mike is survived by his wife, Deborah Spalding; his parents, Fred and Shirley Morton; and his sisters, Allison Morton McGhee and Julie Morton. Evan “e-dubble” Wallace ’05, of Philadelphia, Pa., died Feb. 13, 2017, at age 34. A political science major, he found his true passion for music while at St. Mary’s College. In 2009, he founded Black Paisley Records, an independent hip-hop record label, and gained prominence himself as hip hop artist “e-dubble” or “e-dub.” His debut album was “Hip Hop is Good.” He also was known for his “Freestyle Friday” tracks and his single “Changed My Mind.” Evan is survived by his parents, William and Patricia Wallace; and his siblings, Suzanne, Patricia and Sewell Wallace. Patrick Kyle Mahlon ’11, of of Baltimore, Md., died Dec. 29, 2016, at age 27. He spent his undergraduate summers interning at the National Institutes of Health and was deeply influenced by the late Paul Blanchette, longtime professor of chemistry at the College. He worked for two years as a quality control analyst for Restek Corporation before joining Pixelligent Technologies, LLC, a developer and manufacturer of next-generation optical materials for high-technology applications. As a research chemist, he most recently worked on materials development for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). He was a member of the American Chemical Society and
St. Mary’s College of Maryland Alumni Association. Patrick is survived by his parents, James and Linda Mahlon; his sister, Casey Mahlon; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Memorial gifts may be made to the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Foundation for the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Benjamin Ray Gramling ’15, of Columbia, Md., died Feb. 19, 2017, at age 24. He worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Ben is survived by his parents, Jeffrey and Cheryl Gramling; his siblings, Hannah and Daniel Gramling; and his grandparents, George Gramling and Rona Engel.
FACULTY & STAFF KATE CHANDLER Professor of English Katherine “Kate” Chandler died April 1, 2017, at age 67, after a two-year battle with cancer. She joined the faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1996. She taught courses in writing and composition, literature, studies in authors, landscape and nature writing, and environmental perspectives. She also mentored more than 25 St. Mary’s Projects. In 2011, she was honored with St. Mary’s College’s Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching. That same year, she was awarded the Andy Kozak Faculty Contribution to Student Life Award. Kate co-edited a book, “Surveying the Literary Landscapes of Terry Tempest Williams: New Critical Essays” (Univ. of Utah Press, 2003). She wrote 85 articles as the “Nature Notes” columnist for the College’s River Gazette between 2001-2011. Kate was coordinator of the Environmental Studies Program from 2007-2012. She had been, since 2010, the faculty adviser to the Campus Community Farm.
St. Mary’s College | T H E M U L B E R RY T R E E | spring 2017 | 27
F RO M
T H E
ARC H I V E S
PRIMARY SOURCES TRAIN FUTURE HISTORIANS By Kent Randell, College archivist and assistant librarian
The St. Mary’s College of Maryland archives arranges, describes, preserves, and also provides access to materials that are related to the history of the school and its predecessor institutions, as well as the current records of the College. The archives also actively collects materials related to the history of St. Mary’s County. Some manuscript collections include the J. Frank Raley papers, which contain materials covering the Maryland Constitutional Convention of 1967-68, the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas Commission of the 1980s, the County’s Navy Alliance, the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission, and Sotterley Plantation. Another key collection is the papers of local lawyer and former Delegate Paul Bailey, who led the successful fight to halt the construction of an oil refinery at Piney Point
right: A three-dimensional object from the Jane Yowaiski papers (MSS 026). As president of the St. Mary’s County Democrats, she sported this donkey purse at the polls on election day.
in the 1970s. The papers document the point of view of both sides of the issue and have been used by history students in the 200-level methods class. Collections such as these are important in providing training in using and synthesizing primary sources for the future historians. Some other modern collections are the papers of local historian and author Regina Combs Hammett, including her well-organized research about the county’s many one-room schoolhouses. Perhaps, some day, some author will park themselves in the archives and finish her research and turn it into the book she left unfinished at her untimely passing. Other current political collections include former delegate John Bohanan, as well as Jane Yowaiski, former president of the St. Mary’s County Democrats. Collections from local organizations include the Potomac River Association of St. Mary’s County, the Historic St. Mary’s City Rescue Coalition, and the
Task Force to Study Commercial Gaming Activities in Maryland. Although we currently have the papers of Democrat politicians, papers related to Republican politicians would also be welcome. If you have any materials related to St. Mary’s County, or the history of the College / St. Mary’s Female Seminary, please contact the archives at 240-8954196. The collections not only assist the end users that are doing research, but also aid in the educational experience of students at the College, whether they are the student workers who are assisting in providing arrangement and description, or students that are using primary sources during their coursework. The finding aids to these, and other collections, can be found at: www.smcm. edu/library/archives/finding-aids
above: This picture, taken in 1940 and from the Regina Combs Hammett papers (MSS 015), is of students at the Little Flower School in Great Mills, Md. Regina Combs, later Hammett, is second from left, top row. left: From the Paul Bailey papers (MSS 018) Box 3 Folder 12. Raw vote tally, by district, of the 1974 oil refinery referendum.
28 | St. Mary’s College | T H E MU LBERRY TREE | spring 2017
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE
of Maryland
SP RING 2 0 1 7, VOL. X X X V III, NO . 2
Calendar of Events Celebration of Joanne Klein April 28 @ 6:00 p.m. Bruce Davis Theater
Commencement May 13 @ 10:00 a.m. Townhouse Green
St. Mary’s Project Presentations May 1 – 2 Campus-wide
MAT Commencement June 2 @ 5:00 p.m. Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary’s Hall
Young at Art Opening Reception May 8 @ 5:00 p.m. Exhibition runs through May 31 Special Gallery hours: Thurs – Sat noon to 5:00 p.m. Boyden Gallery in Montgomery Hall
Alumni Weekend June 8 – 11 www.smcm.edu/alumni
River Concert Series Fridays: June 23 – July 21 @ 7:00 p.m. PLUS Saturday, July 22 @ 7:00 p.m. Townhouse Green Chesapeake Writers’ Conference June 18 - 24 www.smcm.edu/events/ chesapeake-writers-conference
45th Annual Governor’s Cup Yacht Race & Zero Year Reunion for Class of 2017 August 4-6 Waterfront Hawktoberfest October 20-22 Giving Tuesday November 28
www.smcm.edu/mulberrytree Editor Lee Capristo Alumni Editor Kathy Cummings Design Jensen Design Studio Photographer Bill Wood Editorial Board Karen Anderson, Michael Bruckler, Lee Capristo, Kathy Cummings, Missy Beck Lemke ’92, Nairem Moran ’99, Karen Raley ’94, Grace Davis ’15 Publisher Office of Institutional Advancement St. Mary’s College of Maryland 47645 College Drive St. Mary’s City, Maryland 20686
The Mulberry Tree is published by St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Maryland’s public honors college for the liberal arts and sciences. It is produced for alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, the local community, and friends of the College. The magazine is named for the famous mulberry tree under which the Calvert colonists signed a treaty of friendship with the Yaocomico people and on the trunk of which public notices were posted in the mid-1600s. The tree endured long into the 19th century and was once a popular meeting spot for St. Mary’s College students. The illustration of the mulberry tree on the cover was drawn in 1972 by Earl Hofmann, artist-in-residence when St. Mary’s College President Renwick Jackson launched the magazine. Copyright 2017 The opinions expressed in The Mulberry Tree are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the College. The editor reserves the right to select and edit all material. Manuscripts and letters to the editor are encouraged and may be addressed to Editor, The Mulberry Tree, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 47645 College Drive, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686.
PHOTO BY HOWARD KORN
Photographs and illustrations may not be reproduced without the express written consent of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #10001 Leonardtown, MD
“What we call the highest and the lowest in nature are both equally perfect. A willow bush is as beautiful as the human form divine.” The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881-1897
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE of Maryland
SPRING 2017
HOW DO YOU PRESERVE A SPOKEN LANGUAGE & ITS CULTURE?
Jingqi Fu in Yunnan Province.
PHOTO BY KEELY HOUK ’17
[ PA G E 1 4 ]