URSINUS MAGAZINE
Our neuroscientists are answering the big questions about the brain and nervous system.
Thought School of
50 FUTURE
A Scholarship Initiativ e
URSINUS CHANGES LIVES. BY CONTRIBUTING TO SCHOLARSHIPS, YOU CAN, TOO.
In today’s complex and ever-changing world, financing a college education can be daunting. With the help of donors who are supporting Future50: A Scholarship Initiative, Ursinus students can worry less about how they will pay for their education and focus instead on the opportunities that await. Through this initiative, we aim to secure new funding for 50 no-loan scholarships of $5,000 for students before the start of the 2024-25 academic year.
You can help! Gifts of all amounts add up to make a difference. Snap the QR code or visit ursinus.edu/future50 to support our students today.
KACEY LA ’25
“Ursinus has provided me with many opportunities to become the best version of myself. To receive a scholarship means I can devote my time to doing the things I love and being engaged with the tight-knit community of the college.”
Kacey La, Class of 2025, is a computer science major, with minors in Japanese and mathematics. La has completed summer research investigating how a neural network can be used in remote healthcare monitoring and exploring the use of machine learning in the identification of bowhead whales. Additionally, he is an Andrews Family Fellow, a UCARE service fellow, a Digital Studies Fellow, a Goldwater Scholar, and a computer science tutor. He participates in the Japanese club, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the running club, and is a hobbyist game developer.
PRESIDENT
Robyn Hannigan
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS
Michelle Yurko
MANAGING EDITOR
Ed Moorhouse
DESIGN TEAM
Steve Thomas
Lexi Macht
CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ISSUE
Photography: Jack Hopey, David Morgan, and Margo Reed
Editorial: Jacqueline D’Ercole, David Eberle, and Ben Seal
ONLINE MAGAZINE
Erin Hovey ’96
Ursinus Magazine is published two times a year. Update your contact information at ursinus.edu/updatecontact.
Copyright © 2024 by Ursinus College.
Editorial correspondence and submissions: Ursinus Magazine
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Dear Readers,
At Ursinus, when we say anything is possible, we truly mean it. This issue of Ursinus Magazine showcases how our alumni and students are turning possibilities into realities.
Take Jules LaRosa Espenhorst ’19, whose passion for public health was ignited at Ursinus. Now a project manager at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Jules is pivotal to groundbreaking in vivo gene therapy work, recently featured in The New York Times. Her career trajectory exemplifies how Ursinus propels graduates towards significant, impactful work on behalf of the common good.
Our current students and faculty mirror this spirit. In this issue, you will learn about research in our neuroscience labs, where faculty and student teams explore fundamental questions about how the brain works—and find answers that could have far-reaching effects for researchers everywhere.
And within these pages, you will be introduced to inspiring individuals like a visionary young playwright, a steward of our environment, and exemplary business students honoring a mentor. This year, we also celebrate our national scholarship awardees, which include a Fulbright Fellow, a Watson Scholar, a St. Andrews Scholar, and two Goldwater Scholars.
These achievements are not just milestones, but steppingstones to greater future accomplishments. They exemplify what I mean when I say that Ursinus is a beacon of intellectual curiosity and academic excellence. We’re a place where students are encouraged to challenge the status quo and empowered to uncover new frontiers of knowledge. As we reflect on these stories of achievement and recognition, our excitement for the future grows.
Given these remarkable examples of our community’s achievements, I am thrilled about what lies ahead for Ursinus. We are on a trajectory of growth and discovery. Join us as we continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and creativity.
Go Bears!
Sincerely,
President Robyn Hannigan
14
THE WELL
School of Thought
Ursinus’s neuroscience program is replete with respected faculty researchers who cover the brain and nervous system from a range of perspectives. They work closely with undergraduates eager to develop their own research skills.
20 Wall Street Dreams
Ursinus’s new Bloomberg trading lab in the Myrin Library honors the legacy of the late Prof. Scott Deacle, who dreamed of bringing the technology to the classroom to enhance students’ undergraduate experience.
24 A Source of Hope
Jules LaRosa Espenhorst ’19, whose academic interests foregrounded Ursinus’s public health major, helps to lead gamechanging in vivo gene therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
LIFE IN PIXELS
28 During our most revered tradition, Ursinus celebrates the Class of 2024 on the lawn in front of the Berman Museum of Art.
THE BEARS’ DEN
30 Go behind the scenes of Captain Darling and flip head-over-heels at the Division III gymnastics nationals.
34 Class Notes
PHOTO: DAVID MORGAN
SETTING THE BAR Kylie Ruggiero ’26 (pictured) and Erin Roe ’27 represented Ursinus at the 2024 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Championships, held at the Floy Lewis Bakes Center.
ROCKETS’ RED GLARE
NEWS IN BRIEF: RESEARCH FRONTIERS
OUT OF THIS WORLD
Assistant Professor of Physics Kassie Martin-Wells was granted a Research Initiation Award (RIA) from NASA to support her work with students in creating a crater classification tool, a significant step forward in planetary science study. NASA’s RIA program supports and enhances science at smaller institutions, and it makes it possible for undergraduate students to perform cutting-edge research.
FREEDOM FELLOW
Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing Katie Schmid Henson was selected by Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation as a member of the inaugural Writing Freedom Fellowship cohort, an initiative that supports the literary work of authors whose lives have been touched by the criminal legal system.
Admittance into the fellowship grants Schmid Henson unique mentorship and development opportunities, along with the publishing of her poem, “The Boatman.”
TEACHERS MENTORING TEACHERS
Professor of Biology Rebecca Roberts is leading a multi-institutional effort to directly support the development of 24 faculty from minority-serving institutions and two-year community colleges. A National Science Foundation grant funded a workshop, led by Roberts, on building active learning communities in molecular life science. It was held in conjunction with the DiscoverBMB meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in March.
STANDOUT STUDENTS
This spring, Ursinus College students have been recognized with some of the nation’s most prestigious scholarships and fellowships. Joey Nolan ’24 was named to the 56th class of Thomas J. Watson Fellows and will study the intersection of theater and environmental crises. Cassie Denning ’26 was awarded the McFarland Scholarship by the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia and will attend the University of Edinburgh for a full year. Tia Alan ’24 was selected as a Fulbright Scholar and will be a standalone professor at a university in Morocco for 10 months. Grace DeCostanza ’25 and Kacey La ’25 have earned Barry Goldwater Scholarships, awarded to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
On Wednesday, April 17, Voices of Ursinus—under the direction of Nicole Snodgrass—sung “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Citizens Bank Park prior to the Philadelphia Phillies’ home game against the Colorado Rockies.
NEWS IN BRIEF: URSINUS IN THE COMMUNITY
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Ursinus President Robyn Hannigan was honored among the 50 most influential and thought-provoking women in Pennsylvania at City & State PA’s Above & Beyond Gala on March 26 in Philadelphia. Honorees included women who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in their fields and made significant contributions to society. Hannigan was selected from a field of more than 500 nominees.
TOP BEAR
Ursinus Director of Athletics Erin Stroble ’02 was named 2023-24 Division III Administrator of the Year by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA), and National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) East Region Administrator of the Year. A standout student-athlete and coach at Ursinus, Stroble led planning for the 2024 NCGA Championship meet hosted by Ursinus and has served as meet director for numerous Centennial Conference events, most recently the 2023 Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
WISMER’S NEW LOOK
REIMAGINING MAIN STREET
Ursinus was awarded $1 million in funding through the U.S. Congress’s Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) request program. It will support revitalization of the 400 block of the Main Street corridor, planned with the Borough of Collegeville. This is the first time in Ursinus history that the college has received federal CDS funding.
This summer, Lower Wismer is getting a major upgrade. With leveled flooring, brighter lighting, brand-new midcentury modern furniture, and à la carte menu options, it’s sure to become a favorite hangout among students. The food items will include several different concepts rotating through the space, along with mobile ordering and an Amazon walk-out store.
BEAR BITES
TALIA ARGONDEZZI is Ursinus College’s word-slinging scribe. An English professor and Center for Writing and Speaking director, her humor and satire work can often be found in McSweeney’s and The New Yorker, among other outlets. Her book, Lean the F— Out, prompts readers to find their happiness. Meet Talia.
Ursinus Magazine: What’s the last book you read (for fun, not for work)?
TALIA ARGONDEZZI: As an English professor, I don’t know if any books count as “not for work,” but I just read Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We’re Discussing in the Faculty Lounge by Shannon Reed, a collection of memoir essays and short satire pieces about being a teacher in both K-12 and college settings. I read it as research about how humor writers extend their satire to book length. It was excellent!
UM: You described your book as “a satirical push-back against runaway hustle culture.” Do people take themselves too seriously nowadays? What value do you see in “leaning out?”
TA: To be honest, taking yourself seriously is exactly what I encourage in my book. We (everyone, but especially women) spend so much time and energy making sure we’re fulfilling everyone else’s expectations that we forget to ask ourselves how we actually want to spend that time and energy. I’m guilty of it myself: Some weeks I’ll wake up in the morning, get everyone ready for school, spend all day at work; then go home, cook dinner, clean the house, check work email again, and grade papers or lesson plan, or respond to emails, until I fall asleep, only to do it all over again the next day. It’s no way to live. Leaning out doesn’t (necessarily) mean giving up or doing nothing; it means accepting imperfection in the aspects of your life that don’t give you meaning or fulfillment.
The idea of the self-help book Lean
In by Sheryl Sandberg comes from a good place: If we want a better society, we need more women in leadership positions, and if we want women in leadership positions, we need women to be brave and strong and assertive in the workplace. My book questions the idea that the burden should be on women to hustle this better society into existence, at the expense of their own joy. But really, this makes my book sound more serious than it actually is—a humorous book of advice. At its core, it’s a bunch of jokes about how it’s okay for your house to be messy.
UM: What makes an effective piece of satire?
TA: The best satire writers take a ridicule-worthy aspect of the human experience and turn up the volume on it, just a little bit, so that we can see how silly it is, or sometimes, in the case of satire about flawed institutions, how reprehensible it is. Satire has the ability to defamiliarize our own experience through exaggeration, then hand back its recognizable flaws in a funny package. When I see good satire in fiction, it’s usually small satirical moments embedded in a more dramatic or tragic narrative, and I love Lorrie Moore, Miranda July, Sam Lipsyte, and Elif Batuman for that satire-withinserious brilliance. I also love short satire of the sort you read in McSweeney’s and The New Yorker’s “Shouts.”
UM: What makes you laugh?
TA: The authors and websites mentioned above, of course. My kids and spouse are an endless source of hilarity.
I also love tv comedies, which have gotten so funny I hesitate to call them “sitcoms” because that label evokes that formulaic laugh-track comedy of yesteryear. Recently I’ve enjoyed Girls5Eva, Broad City, Only Murders in the Building, Killing It, Insecure, Fleabag, and Catastrophe. I probably laugh the most, on a daily basis, around the lunch table with my colleagues in the English and history departments on the third floor of Olin Hall.
UM: What do you find rewarding about working with students and colleagues at the Center for Writing and Speaking?
TA: My favorite moments are with students who claim they are “bad writers.” We find they’re not so bad after all. The so-called “badness” is rarely lack of skill, but it comes from lack of engagement with the material, lack of understanding of the conventions of the genre, or fear of criticism (from self or others). Students are often surprised to find out that people who are considered “good writers” almost always write terrible first drafts and then keep revising until it’s good.
UM: Do you have any advice for overcoming writer’s block? What do you like to do to find inspiration for what you write, whether it’s satire or not?
TA: Overcoming writer’s block requires faith that even if what you write down at first isn’t good, you can write your way to something better. People
CONTINUED ON PAGE 38
PHOTO: JACK HOPEY
CAPE
CRUSADER
Molly Serfass-Carr ’14 discovers Delaware parks’ true treasures.
What Will I Do?
By David Eberle
Ursinus did more than provide a foundation of knowledge. It gave Serfass-Carr the tools to cast her curiosity into the future.
If Molly Serfass-Carr ’14, youth program manager for Delaware State Parks, could take a group of students on just one experience throughout the state’s 17 parks and related natural preserves, they’d go seining.
“Seining the Bay” is a popular interactive educational program offered at Cape Henlopen State Park, where Serfass-Carr once worked as a park interpreter. A mesh seine net is stretched between two handheld wood poles, and volunteers lower the net into the water and drag it back toward the shore.
The students then roll up their sleeves and sift through the net’s contents to discover what they reveal about the bay.
“Seining is my favorite program because it provides a snapshot of the health of the Delaware Bay ecosystem, an important nursery ground for a wide variety of organisms,” Serfass-Carr said.
It’s home to blue crabs, horseshoe crabs, mud snails, hermit crabs, various species of bony fish, and even sharks and dolphins. Everything caught in the seine net is quite tiny, of course, and each plays an important ecological role in the habitat.
Serfass-Carr currently works in the Dover, Del., central office of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
Several times a week, she travels to parks around the state, including Cape Henlopen, to support educational programs and organizations like the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), which provides summer conservation jobs for students ages 14 to 21.
For Serfass-Carr, working with the YCC is particularly rewarding.
“Members in the program conduct meaningful environmental and parkfocused work as a means of achieving personal growth,” she said. “Through service, members gain skills, confidence, and see first-hand the benefit hard work makes in providing a lasting impact on public lands and communities.”
She has seen several YCC members go on to pursue further education in environmental studies. As an Ursinus alumna, Serfass-Carr is aware of the positive impact that real-world experience can have on a young person. Her own career path began while she was still a student, with experiential learning opportunities and a dedicated faculty mentor.
She came to Ursinus with a focused interest in marine biology, having loved sharks since childhood. In pursuing that passion in college, and with the help of a mentor, Serfass-Carr discovered a broader interest in conservation biology. Former professor Rich Wallace, who now works for the Ecological Society of America, helped connect her to two key internships: first with the Philadelphia Zoo observing polar bear behavior, and then in the summer following her graduation with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., where she worked with manatees.
With these two internships in her pocket, Serfass-Carr landed a position at the National Aquarium in Baltimore as an interpretive aide. In 2019, she started the job at Cape Henlopen State Park and then earned a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio (studying sharks!).
PHOTOS: JACK HOPEY
Serfass-Carr’s favorite experiences include leading the park’s “first day hikes,” which are guided hikes that take place on January 1 and typically draw a few dozen bundled-up adventurers for a trek around the tip of the cape.
For Serfass-Carr, Ursinus did more than provide a foundation of knowledge. Her experiences, in and out of the classroom, gave her the tools to cast her curiosity into the future, and, like those students in the bay, roll up her sleeves and discover the opportunities and possibilities life has to offer.
Student and faculty researchers from across academic disciplines advance our knowledge of the brain.
Thought School of
Erica Gorenberg’s fascination with the brain developed early.
At a young age, she watched a documentary that explored the potential of puzzles to improve memory and brain function in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The death of a family friend who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, pushed her curiosity about neurodegenerative disease further. When she studied neurons—the cells that transmit information throughout the nervous system— in a high school psychology class, she knew she wanted to find a college where she could study neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease in greater detail.
Gorenberg landed at Ursinus, where a neuroscience program was taking shape under Joel Bish, associate professor of psychology, who had joined the faculty in 2005 following a stint as a research fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Bish was the burgeoning program’s coordinator for the first decade of its existence, building it up from just a small handful of majors as he investigated his own questions about cognitive neuroscience and neurological development, including the impacts of concussion.
the interdisciplinary nature of studying the brain. Ursinus now has 63 neuroscience majors.
Gorenberg is an assistant professor of biology at Ursinus and part of a diverse and growing cohort of neuroscience faculty. As a student in the fall of 2013, she took a course called Protein Biogenesis with Dale Cameron, professor of biology, during which she learned how proteins in the brain can misfold under stress.
Now—just as she did in that class— Gorenberg uses yeast as her model to study how chaperone proteins, which keep other proteins from getting out of alignment, might help reduce the likelihood or severity of neurodegenerative disease.
“I’m not trying to cure the disease,” Gorenberg said. “I’m trying to understand what’s happening so when somebody goes to cure the disease, they have a better idea of how to fix it.”
Like her faculty colleagues, whose home departments are in psychology or biology, she’s contributing her narrow focus to a broad body of research that aims to better understand the brain and its many components that shape our reality.
By Ben Seal
By the time Gorenberg, who graduated in 2015, returned to her alma mater to teach, interest had surged among students drawn to
“I’m trying to write the instruction manual for the engine, not be the one who goes in and fixes it,” she said. “And not even the whole engine—I’m trying to fix one little piece of the engine so that one day somebody has enough information to actually fix the whole thing.”
A “PROSPEROUS REALM” OF RESEARCH
Ursinus isn’t an R1 research institution, but it has a neuroscience program with respected faculty researchers who cover the brain and nervous system from a range of perspectives. They work closely with undergraduates eager to develop their own research skills.
With four biology professors and three in psychology, the group considers the brain’s function at all levels, from the molecular to the cellular, expanding out to the entire organism and the way we function in society.
“Neuroscience is the basis of the human condition,” Bish said, and approaching it from a variety of angles allows faculty to search for answers about the development, breakdown, and repair of the brain’s fundamental structures
and how those processes influence our lives.
“As humans, it’s our brain that is responsible for how we move, how we breathe, how we think, and how we interact with the world, so trying to understand what’s happening at that level gives us a more complete picture for the questions we’re interested in,” said Jennifer Frymiare, associate professor of psychology, whose research focuses on measuring autistic traits and understanding autistic cognition.
In this “prosperous realm of research,” as Bish calls it, each Ursinus neuroscience professor occupies their own niche. For example:
■ Bish uses electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure electrical activity and oxygenation in the frontal lobes of college students, seeking to better understand the effects of traumatic
Macey Hoffman ’26 (seated) and Erin Dychdala ’26 use equipment in Prof. Joel Bish’s lab to monitor brain activity.
brain injuries. He’s found that evidence of a concussion lingers in the brain years after symptoms have faded away, offering support for more careful and cautious return-toplay approaches for injured athletes.
Frymiare contemplates development through another lens, focusing on autism—and disability more broadly— to develop a clearer sense of how differently developed brains process and store information. Her work carries implications for education by interrogating questions around verbal and visual-spatial processing. It has also influenced conversations about autism by exploring the potential harm of representing it with puzzle piece imagery, as well as the media’s tendency to focus primarily on autism in children.
Carlita Favero, professor of biology and the neuroscience program’s current coordinator, takes a more microscopic approach to questions about the brain’s development. Using mice, she studies how casual drinking during pregnancy affects different cell types and the interactions between them, seeking to understand how
fetal alcohol spectrum disorders alter a person’s behavior.
■ Like Gorenberg, Jennifer King, associate professor of biology, explores neurodegeneration. Her research centers on microglia, which she calls the “garbage collectors of the brain” because of their ability to clear cellular debris. Using mouse models, her work explores the role of microglia in the inflammatory process and their connection to neurodegenerative diseases.
■ Ellen Dawley, professor of biology, brings an evolutionary perspective to questions about the nervous system, studying neural stem cells in amphibians with regenerative capabilities. She marvels at the incredible neuroplasticity her subjects exhibit—operating at the other end of the spectrum from Bish’s research subjects, who may lack some of the plasticity they once had.
The methods and motivations of the researchers run the gamut, but their work is united by a curiosity about how development and experience affect the functions of the nervous system.
“You’re not going to find many small liberal arts schools that have all the different kinds of neuroscience research we have,” Bish said.
Prof. Carlita Favero (left) and Allia Proctor ’25 view a portion of the brain through a microscope.
The range of approaches is an integral part of capturing neuroscience in its totality, he said. The variety offers opportunities for Ursinus researchers to encounter new ideas that push their own work forward, even when a colleague’s work might seem distinct.
“If somebody put me into Carlita’s lab and said, ‘Can you pipette this fluid?’—I haven’t done that since I was in 11th grade,” Bish said. “The training is very different, but we’re all approaching the same fundamental question: How does the nervous system create this amazing function we have?”
Lauren Makuch, visiting assistant professor of neuroscience and psychology, said the balance of biology and psychology perspectives is necessary to answering the important questions that persist in neuroscience—not to mention using those answers to find ways to treat the brain.
“If you want to develop a new drug for Alzheimer’s, you need to understand Alzheimer’s at the cellular and molecular level, not just how it impacts an individual’s behavior or their social circle,” Makuch said. “But you also need the psych perspective to relate it to real life and how it impacts human behavior and the way we go about our everyday lives.”
based on one class that blew her away.
You’re not going to find many small liberal arts schools that have all the different kinds of neuroscience research we have.”
— Joel Bish
TURNING EDUCATION ON ITS HEAD
When Favero was a senior studying biology at the College of William & Mary, in Virginia, she took her first neuroscience class. At the time, it was the only one offered; now, the school offers an entire major, like Ursinus. Between biochemistry and neuroscience, she felt like she could explore the seamless ways the body and brain work together. She was hooked and went on to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Virginia, all
At Ursinus, Favero and her colleagues are trying to give that same experience to students in the classroom and in the lab. All of the research at Ursinus is student-focused, King said, in the sense that the school’s undergraduates have a hand in both conducting and shaping the direction of the work. As an example, she points to a question raised early in the pandemic by a student who wanted to know how microglial cells were affected by COVID-19. The ensuing research led to a paper demonstrating that the inflammatory response within the brain could begin within one hour of infection, offering answers to a basic science question in an urgent new area of research, she said. Neuroscience faculty say they’re often surprised and impressed by the perspective and knowledge students bring to the questions they have spent their careers seeking to answer.
“Because we’re at a liberal arts institution and we’re very balanced as scientists, we think about things with a lot of different viewpoints and we encourage our students to do the same,” Favero said.
Several members of the faculty have directed some of their research attention to better understanding how to teach neuroscience to undergraduates, publishing papers in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, among others. Time
Because we’re at a liberal arts institution and we’re very balanced as scientists, we think about things with a lot of different viewpoints and we encourage our students to do the same.”
— Carlita Favero
in the lab greatly enriches the process of learning about neuroscience, Bish said.
“When they get in there and start tinkering around and realize they can make mistakes and it’s not going to hurt anything, that turns the education on its head,” he said. “It makes them responsible for their own education.”
In some ways, the greatest contribution to research from Ursinus faculty, then, may be the students who get to participate in the act itself and carry what they learn forward in search of answers of their own.
“I find a lot of joy and accomplishment thinking about the students that I’ve sent out into the world and into their own careers,” Dawley said. “All of us are really united in the importance of being a mentor for young scientists.”
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Jennifer King wasn’t always sure that research was right for her. Like so many others, she had long sought to understand
how the brain works, focusing her attention on neuropharmacology. It wasn’t until she conducted her first study with an animal model that she knew she was in the right place. After administering a drug to the mice in her study, she could see the tangible improvements in their memory.
“It just amazed me that in the lab we could create something or make changes in an animal model that could be beneficial and possibly help people outside of the laboratory setting,” she said.
Now, as she pours her time and attention into microglia and the brain’s inflammatory processes, she’s working toward that goal. She wants her research to help build an understanding about neurodegenerative disease that can make therapeutic development possible.
Gorenberg, her counterpart in neurodegeneration research, acknowledges that it will require the work of scientists across the neuroscience spectrum, many of
Undergraduate research for students like Christie Cianciulli ’24 enriches the process of learning about neuroscience.
whom are at much larger institutions with far greater resources, to reach that point. But Ursinus’s researchers still have an important role to play, chipping away at the parts of the problem they can reach so their contributions might ripple forward in time.
“I’m doing this work now and in 100 years somebody’s going to cure Alzheimer’s disease and a paper they cite will have cited a paper that cited another paper that cited my work,” Gorenberg said.
For his part, Bish’s search for answers
is driven by a desire to lend clarity to the once-murky machinations of the brain, so all our accumulated knowledge might lead us toward better, healthier lives.
“From my perspective, the human condition is defined by all of our nervous systems and how we interact with them,” he said. “The better we understand how our nervous systems react in different environmental contexts, the better we can shape our world in a way that is actually beneficial.”
Wall Street DREAMS
The late Professor Scott Deacle wanted a real-time trading lab on campus. One year after his passing, his vision has become a reality.
By Ed Moorhouse
aela Frenchman ’24 drinks coffee every day. She thinks it’s one of the most boring, run-of-the-mill, nondescript facts about herself (someone who also happens to be a Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll student-athlete).
But to her business and economics professor, Frenchman’s java ritual was a way to break the ice.
“Every time I came to class, he would ask me about my coffee,” Frenchman said. “That’s how he got to know us. He asked us to tell him the most boring fact about us and it was his way of connecting to us. He was a listener, and I really valued that about him.”
Scott Deacle was anything but boring. The late Ursinus College professor—known to treasure his
own morning cup of coffee—brought an unbridled enthusiasm to work every day that was reflected in each of his students. He was the Hawaiian shirt-clad, meticulously organized, ice-cream loving, numberscrunching economics expert belovingly referred to by his last name.
And he had a dream.
Deacle unexpectedly passed away at age 47 on May 5, 2023. One year later, his legacy is being cemented at Ursinus through the establishment of a new “trading lab” on the second floor of the Myrin Library. The space is adorned with 12 Bloomberg terminals, which are interactive workstations that allow students to receive and analyze real-time financial data and earn Bloomberg finance certifications that give them an
unparalleled advantage in graduate school and in the workforce.
Wall Street on Main Street.
Deacle was instrumental in bringing a finance major to Ursinus. He helped establish the student-run Ursinus College Investment Management Company (UCIMCO) and the college’s women’s investment club. But he had long envisioned a trading lab on campus to complement and enhance his students’ undergraduate education.
“I think there was an aura around that old-school Wall Street for him,” said Evan Coffey ’24, the inaugural recipient of the Scott Deacle Memorial Endowed Scholarship. “Complete with the ticker tape. He was always in the weeds, crunching the numbers. And he wanted us to have a home base.”
While Ursinus joins more than 1,000 academic institutions across the globe outfitted with Bloomberg terminals, there are few liberal arts colleges among them.
“It gives our students a leg up, and when they graduate, they’ll have Ursinus credentials and Bloomberg credentials. It will only make their experience here more powerful,” said Jennifer VanGilder, professor and chair of business and economics.
The new trading lab isn’t just for finance majors. Capturing the spirit of an Ursinus education, it truly is a multidisciplinary venture, and students from any major can use the lab to gain one of three Bloomberg certifications. The e-learning courses expose students to
[Deacle] was always in the weeds, crunching the numbers. And he wanted us to have a home base.”
Evan Coffey ’24
Prof. Scott Deacle (far left) annually brought students to New York City. His dream was to bring Bloomberg terminals to Ursinus.
financial markets, related career paths, and principles of sustainable investing.
“It allows, for example, an English major who might one day write about the industry become more well-versed in the finance world,” VanGilder said. “We have the opportunity to integrate this into all academic disciplines so that any student who wants to be Bloomberg certified can gain this experience. Understanding the market is important no matter what you’re studying.”
It’s exactly what Deacle had envisioned.
Johnny Myers ’19, who worked with Deacle on building UCIMCO, said it wasn’t uncommon for Deacle to work “under the radar” on these passion projects.
“Everyone I spoke to knew how much Dr. Deacle worked on getting these terminals on campus,” Myers said. “He would speak to anyone he could about … how much they would impact the student experience.”
When it came to his students, Deacle was fully invested (no pun intended). Sure, he wanted to connect by learning a “boring” fact about each of his students on the first day of classes, but that merely scratched the surface on exemplifying his level of commitment to helping students realize their potential and become comfortable in a challenging field of study.
“He was thoughtful,” Frenchman said. “He really pushed me to become involved, first in UCIMCO and then also with the women’s fund, and he vouched for me as a leader because it is a male-dominated major and industry.
From l-r, Kieran MacDonough ’24, Evan Coffey ’24, and Kaela Frenchman ’24 don Hawaiian shirts to honor their late professor, Scott Deacle.
It was amazing to always have him in my corner.”
Like Frenchman and Coffey, Kieran MacDonough ’24 has already benefitted from the Bloomberg technology, completing certifications this spring. It was the culmination of semesters of hard work inspired by Deacle’s mentorship.
“He took the time to bring me into it and he challenged me,” MacDonough said. “And everything we did together just felt more special because he pushed you to that higher level.”
Coffey added, “He had this great way of guiding students to find their niche. He made us feel like we belonged in this space as much as anyone else.”
Ultimately, the Bloomberg terminals will move to another existing space on campus that will be reimagined as a trading floor, complete with a stock market ticker. And through partnerships and sponsorships, there is an opportunity to gain more terminals.
“I want it to be called the Deacle Trading Lab,” VanGilder said. “A collaborative learning space where students can work together and do research—a space where you can really feel the energy. I think that would speak to how passionate he was.”
A space to enjoy a cup of coffee, talk shop, and seek out mentorship opportunities for which Deacle was known.
“And we could frame a Hawaiian shirt and put it on the wall,” Coffey said. “Just like hanging a sports jersey in the rafters.”
A dream fulfilled. One that is anything but boring.
PHOTOS: MARGO REED
Source of
AHOPE
Jules LaRosa Espenhorst ’19 helped pave the way to a health and society major at Ursinus, and now she’s applying that experience to game-changing in vivo gene therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
By Ben Seal
Aissam Dam’s deafness could be traced to a single gene. His otoferlin mutation destroyed the protein used by the inner ear’s hair cells to transmit sound to the brain, and so he heard nothing.
He grew up in Morocco and moved to Spain, but it was in Philadelphia that everything changed. At age 11, he was the first person in the United States to receive in vivo gene therapy for congenital deafness, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). More importantly, for Aissam and his family, he was the first person on whom the therapy worked. One month after researchers administered a harmless adenoassociated virus to stealthily carry healthy otoferlin genes into his cochlea, Aissam could hear the children’s voices announcing each floor on the hospital’s elevator. He could hear the scissors snipping past his ear as he received a haircut. He could hear music—and everything else the world of sound has to offer—for the first time.
Learning that the procedure was successful was a powerful experience for an Ursinus alumna. Jules LaRosa Espenhorst ’19 is a project manager in CHOP’s clinical in vivo gene therapy group. There, she builds close relationships with the children and families participating in the team’s growing roster of trials.
“There’s nothing like it,” LaRosa said. “It gives you chills.”
As someone intimately involved in the screening and informed-consent process that brings patients into one of the 16 trials her group manages across seven hospital divisions, LaRosa gets to see the highs and the lows of clinical gene therapy research. She’s there with families when they’re accepted into a trial that might be their only hope to slow the effects of diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a gene mutation that causes muscular degeneration. And, perhaps more meaningfully, she’s there to offer comfort and support when a child and their family receive the devastating news that they won’t be part of a trial because of a failed test in the screening process.
Each positive result—whether a blackand-white measure like Aissam’s newfound hearing or a more modest improvement from a child with muscular dystrophy—keeps her going, pushing forward to help develop therapies that can someday give more children a brighter future.
“[Aissam’s] dad said he feels safer now that his kid can hear again, because if he calls his name when he’s riding his bike, he’ll be able to hear him. That really means everything,” LaRosa said. “That makes it all worth it on the hard days.”
LaRosa first learned about gene therapy in a bioethics course taught by Kelly Sorensen, associate dean of academic affairs and professor of philosophy and religious studies at Ursinus. With Sorensen, LaRosa and her classmates tangled with a wide range of ethical quandaries in medicine, covering everything from gestational surrogacy and medically assisted dying to human enhancement and medical experimentation.
In conversations about gene therapy, they contemplated the 1999 death of Jesse Gelsinger, a teenager participating in a trial at the University of Pennsylvania aimed at curing a rare metabolic disorder that let dangerous amounts of ammonia amass in his blood. Gene therapy is “high-risk, highreward,” LaRosa said, but questions swirled after Gelsinger’s death, particularly around failures in the informed-consent process.
Sorensen recalls seeing LaRosa gripped by conversations that cut to the heart of medical ethics, eager for medical advances that could change lives but determined not to sacrifice moral and ethical standards at the altar of progress. Even as an undergraduate, she was “fully empathic, fully ready to take seriously the gravity of everything she was hearing,” he said.
When The New York Times wrote about Aissam’s successful procedure, LaRosa shared the story with Sorensen, pointing out the questions it raised about whether deafness is actually a condition in need of a cure—just the type of ethical debate she might have engaged in during that bioethics class.
“Dr. Sorensen really instilled in us that there are two sides to every story and everyone’s opinion should be valued,” LaRosa said.
At Ursinus, LaRosa was drawn toward public health, searching for ways she could make a difference in as many lives as possible. The public health program hadn’t yet been established, so she took as many related courses as she could on the way toward a bachelor’s in health sciences. An education centered on public health “reprograms your brain to consider the economic or social conditions that may be negatively impacting a person’s health,” she said.
LaRosa dug deeper, learning to look at public health from different angles to better understand how shortcomings could be addressed.
“Jules was swinging for the fences,” Sorensen said. “She was really interested in the health system as a whole and helping people in even greater numbers by systemic change.”
During her junior year at Ursinus, LaRosa took a public health course with Catherine van de Ruit, an associate professor of sociology, then joined her research work group. She spent two years analyzing patient safety information from an expansive qualitative dataset van de Ruit had helped create while on a postdoctoral assignment at Johns Hopkins University.
Digging through mountains of information from interviews with healthcare workers at all levels of the medical system, LaRosa was struck by the flaws that persisted. She came face-to-face with the hierarchical structure of hospitals and the ways it can create obstacles to patient safety and care.
“We’re all about engaging students’ central set of values, not just their analytical minds,” van de Ruit said. “That’s what I feel this project does for students. It fires up their sense of what the social world is like.”
For LaRosa, it helped clarify the flaws of the medical system—and the need to change things for the better. After graduating from Ursinus, she went to Thomas Jefferson
University to earn a master’s in public health to learn how she could contribute to the cause.
“I had no idea I was going to end up in a rare disease field,” LaRosa said, “but I think Ursinus really fostered my interest in research.”
In turn, she helped foster the future of public health at Ursinus. She had considered creating her own major while in college, but not enough courses had yet been established to make it feasible. Encouraged by the interest shown by LaRosa and other students, the college added a health and society major in 2021.
Across the country, undergraduate interest in public health has exploded in recent years, with degree conferrals growing by more than 13 percent per year since 2001. LaRosa was “filled with pride” when she heard that Ursinus had added the major to its roster.
LaRosa saw the puzzle pieces of a public health major waiting to be put together so other students could find their own way into the rapidly growing field, Sorensen said. Ten students are now enrolled in the major. Sorensen calls LaRosa a “founding mother” of public health at Ursinus and the type of student the program aims to produce.
“She’s the kind of person we want to grapple with moral questions at the cutting edge of medical discovery,” Sorensen said.
At CHOP, LaRosa brings it all together— her moral and ethical conviction, her love of research, her drive to improve the health and well-being of as many people as possible.
The clinical in vivo gene therapy group was established in 2021, creating centralized support for divisions across the hospital to conduct gene therapy research safely and effectively. LaRosa was the first research coordinator hired to the team. Today, she trains and develops the group’s cohort of research coordinators and assistants, ensuring the group meets regulatory requirements and patients and their families always have the information and support they need. Given the circumstances in which families find themselves enrolling in a gene therapy trial,
Jules LaRosa Espenhorst ’19 sees the highs and lows of clinical gene therapy research.
the last part is especially important.
“For a lot of parents, this is their only hope,” LaRosa said.
The work is challenging but deeply rewarding. Outcome measures are rarely as concrete as Aissam’s hearing. More often, a trial is aimed at extending a child’s life, not curing them completely.
“One of the questions I always ask anyone we’re hiring is how they’ll feel
[Jules is] the kind of person we want to grapple with moral questions at the cutting edge of medical discovery.”
Kelly Sorensen
about working with sick kids,” LaRosa said. “It can definitely take a toll on you.”
That doesn’t stop her from building connections, though. On her desk she keeps an ornament given to her by a child who participated in a trial to treat GM1 gangliosidosis, a genetic disorder that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. She listened as the boy’s mother shared his entire life story and
the daily challenges of caring for a child with a rare disease. When the family visited in December for a follow-up visit, just a few days before Christmas, the boy gave her an ornament he had painted to show his appreciation.
“It’s the little things that make this job worth it,” LaRosa said. “I keep the ornament in my office to remind me to keep going even when times are tough.”
life in pixels
CONGRATS, CLASS OF ’24
Ursinus’s 151st commencement ceremony was held on the lawn in front of the Berman Museum on Saturday, May 11. Honorary degree recipient Rev. Dr. Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, delivered the keynote address. In speaking to the graduates, Ursinus President Robyn Hannigan said, “Today, I remind you that, to lead, you must listen. Remember, real change comes from understanding the nuances and the gray areas. And to understand, you must listen. A leader fights the allure of simple narratives and instead engages deeply with our world’s messy, complicated truths.”
arts. THE
digitizing GILOT
Françoise Gilot is one of the most prevailing artists from the post-WWII School of Paris, and the Berman Museum of Art is an international center for the study of Gilot’s works. Now, they’ll live in digital format.
Student archivist Mairead McDermott ’24 spent her senior year organizing, cataloging, and digitizing hundreds of pieces of personal correspondence, exhibition-related documents, newspaper clippings, and photographs. McDermott’s work guarantees the preservation of the Berman’s Gilot archive and allows the museum to support greater access to and research on the artist’s significant contributions to the development of modern art. Visit ursinus.edu/GilotDigital for the full story.
Captain Darling Annie Zulick ’25.
NEVERLAND reimagined
What if Peter Pan isn’t the hero and Captain Hook isn’t the villain? That’s the premise behind Captain Darling, a dark, feminist adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic story of Peter Pan written by Ursinus College graduate Kate Isabel Foley ’23.
It made its world premiere on the Lenfest Theater stage in April and was the first-ever student-authored play directed by Associate Professor and Chair of Theater Meghan Brodie ’00.
Foley, a novelist and playwright from Lebanon, Pa., who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in playwriting, wrote Captain Darling as a distinguished honors project in theater and English while she was an Ursinus student.
“I hope this story serves as a reminder to us all that, too often, heroes and villains are not the people we expect them to be, and that we should never stop asking questions,” Foley said.
For more about Captain Darling, scan the QR code to watch a video.
ON VIEW AT THE BERMAN
ENRIQUE BOSTELMANN: APERTURES AND
BORDERSCAPES takes boundaries— literal, figurative, and fluid—as the organizing principle for an exhibition of selected works by the genre-bending photographer. Over his 40year career, Bostelmann (b. Guadalajara, 1939, d. Mexico City, 2003) fused modernist formal elegance, social documentary, conceptualism, and humor with experimental vision.
FRANÇOISE GILOT: SHAPING FREEDOM THROUGH
ABSTRACTION features a selection of Gilot’s works alongside archival materials dated from the 1970s through 1990s from the Berman Museum’s permanent collection and Françoise Gilot Archival Collection. Gilot (1921-2023) established a life-long career as a painter and printmaker through a distinct, intuitive style inspired by her memories and the subconscious.
EXHIBITIONS
OPENING JUNE 18
PHOTO: JACK HOPEY
THE NATIONAL STAGE
In March, Ursinus College hosted the 2024 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Championships for the first time since 2006 at Helfferich Gymnasium in the Floy Lewis Bakes Center. Erin Roe ’27 and Kylie Ruggiero ’26 (pictured) represented the Bears during the competition.
Roe recorded a score of 9.675 on the vault to tie for 12th overall among a field of 52. She capped a breakout collegiate debut season that saw her record at least a 9.5 in all eight
meets she competed in on the vault. She set a school record of 9.825 at Temple University in February.
Ruggiero scored 9.575 on the bars in the championship, which tied for 23rd overall in a field of 48. Like Roe, she set an Ursinus record in 2024 with a 9.825 mark at the NCGA East Regionals.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh won their third-straight NCGA Championship behind a team score of 194.975.
athletics. UC
DAVID MORGAN
INTRODUCING THE ATHLETICS ADVISORY COUNCIL
Launched in fall 2023, the Athletics Advisory Council is composed of alumni and parent volunteers who are key contributors to the current and future vision for athletics at the college. The council is led by alumnus Frank Hennessey ’88 and currently has 11 members. They have been central to the promotion of ongoing athletics facilities improvements, the establishment of the Bears Athletics Club, and advancing a new initiative around team/alumni connections. For information on how you can become involved with the group, please contact John Bernat, associate vice president for advancement, at jbernat@ursinus.edu or 610-409-3070.
ROLLING OUT THE RED AND GOLD CARPET
On Sunday, April 28, Ursinus College student-athletes were honored for their prowess on and off the field during the annual URSPY Awards.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Women: Erin Roe ’27, Gymnastics
Men: Max Borton ’27, Wrestling
MOST OUTSTANDING ATHLETE
Women: Rainah Dunham ’25, Track & Field
Men: Ryan Bodolus ’24, Football
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Women: Maeve Montgomery ’25, Field Hockey
Men: Ryan Bodolus ’24, Football
SENIOR MVP
Women: Melissa Leonard ’24, Swimming
Men: Daniel Tabor ’23, Track & Field
LINDA MCINTYRE AWARD
Stephanie Donato ’26, Women’s Basketball
OLIVE SERGEANT HAMM AWARD
Brooke Adams ’24, Women’s Track & Field and Cross Country
BEST BEAR AWARD
Jill Fazzini P’26, Administrative Coordinator
TEAM COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Women’s Volleyball
PLAY OF THE YEAR
Joshua Coster ’25, men’s soccer, game-winning goal against Centennial Champion Johns Hopkins
MOST OUTSTANDING ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Aiden Tobin ’26, 2024 Centennial Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS AWARD
Madison Vinovrski ’24, Women’s Volleyball
Evan Coffey ’24, Men’s Golf
PHOTO:
Gary McAneney ’87 hosted a reunion of 50 football and Alpha Phi Epsilon alumni at the Trappe Tavern in February.
Ursinus alumni attend the fall presentation of the Ursinus College Investment Management Company.
Pictured: Becca Lewis ’22, Ben Sjosten ’23, Kevin Travis ’22, Kareem Elghawy ’22, Mike Fleming ’97, Eleisha Smith ’99, Johnny Myers ’19, Mike Magargee ’23, Mike Buck ’22, Clay Hall ’12, Keith Aleardi ’89, Tommy Reinhart ’22, and Erich Pingel ’11.
Ursinus alumni attended a holiday reception in conjunction with the Voices of Ursinus holiday concert. Pictured: Chuck Fryer ’68, Jeff Jowett ’77, Rosa Abrahams, Andy Davis, Rickie Lee Sands ’68, Jenn Kintner ’91, Lesley Katz ’87, Holly Hubbs, J. Lawrence Geist ’73, Susan Zeager ’68, Rebecca Stackhouse ’72, and Louis Angelo ’73.
CLASS
1950s
Ernest M. Tassoni ’50 reports that he’s “still brisk” and “enjoying life.”
1960s
Craig Zaehring ’63 published the first edition of his book, Living Well Together When We Don’t Agree About God (Or Much Else), in paperback. A kindle edition is expected this year.
Jerry Gorman ’65 has retired from practicing admiralty and maritime law in San Diego, Calif. He lives in Oceanside, Calif., with his wife, Mary.
Jack Addicks ’69 retired in 2020 as founder and president of Keystone Consulting Associates.
1970s
John Hadley ’74 partially retired after more than 40 years of battery R&D engineering management for Energizer/Rayovac. He now serves as chair of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee #35 on battery standards for Europe. He has three children and six grandchildren.
Jan Smith ’74 retired from Firstrust Bank in March after a 15-year career. She is still in touch with Jill Marsteller ’78, P’18, Dave Spitko ’75, and Drew Nagele ’76. “Ursinus friends are the best!”
1980s
Leo McCormick ’83, P’12, P’16 and Christine McCormick ’83, P’12, P’16 are the owners of three successful chiropractic clinics in Berwyn, Elverson, and Pottstown, Pa. They are joined in practice by son, Connor McCormick ’12, and daughter, Shannan McCormick. Skyler McCormick ’16 is associating with McCormick Chiropractic in Limerick, Pa., with his aunt and uncle.
Kathy Rocklein Sontag ’89 was nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction or Reality Series as executive producer for The Last of Us: Inside the Episode.
NOTES
1990s
Deborah Kriebel Haynes ’91 is the executive director of Food for Others, the largest food bank in Northern Virginia.
2000s
Jill Alspach ’08, managing partner for Spock Logistics, was awarded a 2023 Women of Influence Award by the Philadelphia Business Journal.
2010s
Joy Oakman ’15 is a podiatric surgeon currently practicing in northern New Jersey. She welcomed a son, Ares Dante Barra, on May 8, 2023.
2020s
William McCoy ’22 was elected as a second-district councilman for Norristown, Pa.
Marriages
Kara Raiguel ’94 and Juan Espadas were married on Sept. 9, 2023.
Cynthia K. Ritter ’06 and Scott M. Lussier were married June 19, 2022. They welcomed a daughter, Isabelle Anne Lussier, on August 4, 2023.
HONORING OUR ALUMNI
Each year, Ursinus celebrates the accomplishments of outstanding alumni and standout graduating students with the annual presentation of the Alumni Awards. Ursinus Magazine proudly salutes this year’s winners:
(Pictured, from l-r): Jeevan S. Sekhar ’99 (Alumni Humanitarian Award); Gail L. Heinemeyer ’72 (Alumni Service Award); Sophie K. Louis ’24 (Senior Alumni Award); Arlene A. McLean ’62 (Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award); Esther Akande ’24 (Senior Alumni Award); Judith A. Rippert ’86 (Alumni Professional Achievement Award). Not pictured: Caroline Yodice ’15 (Alumni Rising Star Award).
In Memoriam
Life and Emeritus Trustees
Robert L. Brant Jr. ’77, P’10 died October 23, 2023.
Paul L. Doughty ’52, H’90 died September 27, 2023.
Donald E. Parlee ’55 died March 21, 2024.
Former Faculty and Staff
Gayle K. Byerly, professor emeritus of English, died January 12, 2024.
Patricia Keebler died December 29, 2023.
Martha Mann died February 10, 2024.
Jane A. McLaughlin died January 31, 2024.
Robert Shoudt Sr. P’88 died October 26, 2023.
Cheryl L. Wager died September 5, 2023.
HOMECOMING 2024
1940s
Winifred “Winnie” C. (Kapp) Baldys ’41 died October 20, 2023.
Wallace S. Brey Jr., Ph.D. ’42 died July 13, 2023.
Frances (Tisdale) Dreisbach ’45 died September 19, 2023.
Evelyn V. (Ruth) Hartshorne ’47 died March 22, 2024.
Hilda “Andy” (Anderson) Daley ’48 died July 21, 2023.
Helen (Derewianka) Ross ’48 died December 4, 2023.
Randolph A. Warden ’48 died December 18, 2023.
1950s
Estelle “Honey” (Marcon) Boyer ’50 died September 26, 2023
Virginia C. (Smith) Buchanan ’50 died November 4, 2023.
Norman “Norm” Harberger ’50 died August 6, 2023.
Marie S. (Schauder) Kehs ’50 died August 9, 2023.
R. Karlton Smith ’50 died February 16, 2024.
Nancy (Mattson) Trinkle ’50 died October 4, 2023.
William C. Bookheimer ’51 died November 30, 2023.
Nancy W. (Carver) Zimmerman ’51 died March 9, 2024.
Martha “Marty” (Daniels) Scheirer ’52 died December 23, 2023.
William C. Faltermayer ’53 died September 24, 2023.
Genevieve (Tiedeken) Haines ’53 died May 28, 2023.
Janet E. (Haines) Dunn ’54 died September 24, 2023.
Priscilla A. (Shinehouse) Cook ’55 died March 16, 2024.
Mary (Faust) Heavner ’55 died November 19, 2023.
Elizabeth “Beth” M. (Dolde) Zimmerman ’55 died March 7, 2024.
David Hudnut ’56 died December 10, 2023.
George R. Briner ’57 died June 11, 2023.
William C. Fraser ’57 died March 14, 2024.
Barbara “Bobbe” (Hunt) Millward ’57 died November 9, 2023.
John H. Scofield ’57 died December 16, 2023.
Richard C. Winchester ’57 died January 25, 2024.
Charles W. Reid Jr. ’58 died March 10, 2024.
Warren A. Rybak ’58 died February 7, 2024.
Mildred “Millie” L. (Hartzell) Bankert ’59 died March 29, 2024.
V. Miller Preston Jr. ’59 died December 30, 2023.
Rosalie H. (Bellairs) Thompson ’59 died October 11, 2023.
1960s
Carol Ann (Gingery) Achilles ’60 died January 8, 2024.
Carolyn H. Dearnaley ’60 died August 20, 2023.
John N. Forrest Jr. ’60 died March 19, 2024.
Martha J. “Jane” (Gilinger) Schultz ’60 died February 2, 2024.
Judith (Drenguba) Foltz ’61 died November 22, 2023.
David B. Regar ’61 died November 23, 2023.
Suzanne (Knowles) Short ’62 died December 28, 2023.
Donald L. DuDeVoire ’63 died September 21, 2023.
W. Dennis “Denny” Krauss ’63 died January 8, 2024.
Susan “Sue” D. (Peiffer) Fernandez ’64 died March 12, 2024.
Mary Ann A. Rozsas ’64 died March 19, 2024.
Charles R. Shank ’65 died September 21, 2023.
Walter P. Smith ’66 died March 27, 2024.
Gwendolyn F. (Faust) Punchard ’67 died March 3, 2024.
Cheryl A. Stoneback ’67 died December 25, 2023.
Jim W. Twentyman ’67 died February 14, 2024.
Don G. Bartell ’69 died January 9, 2024.
Edward J. Cole ’69 (Evening) died March 13, 2023.
Pat (Nissley) Ellis ’69 died March 1, 2023.
Rocco Iachini Jr. ’69 died December 6, 2023.
Robert N. Reid ’69 died January 25, 2024.
1970s
Kathleen G. (Gliwa) Everett ’70 died September 3, 2023.
Edward J. Lyons Jr. ’71 (Evening) died January 25, 2024.
Barbara A. Marshall ’74 died January 7, 2024.
J. Arlen R. Nyce ’75 (Evening) died October 24, 2023.
John G. Berzins ’76 died March 3, 2024.
1980s
Edward J. Daly ’80 died November 17, 2023.
Patricia (Laloup) Guernsey ’80 (Evening) died November 26, 2023.
Robert J. Oscovitch ’81 died November 18, 2023.
Roselyn M. Kubasik ’82 (Evening) died December 6, 2023.
Roland B. Desilets Jr. ’83 died December 18, 2023.
John L. Sullivan ’85 died December 13, 2023.
Tobi L. Timko ’85 died October 16, 2023.
1990s
Heidi L. (Miller) Fagan ’96 died March 1, 2024.
2000s
Angela (Interrante) Filer ’05 died February 12, 2024.
Friends of the College
C. Hopeton Clennon H’15, P’15 died January 7, 2024.
Nancy (Irion) Leiser P’93, P’96 died January 5, 2024.
BE A PART OF TOMORROW… AND TOMORROWS STILL TO COME.
Find out how your legacy gift can help open the future for generations of Ursinus students. Visit plannedgiving.ursinus.edu
BEAR BITES | CONT. FROM PAGE 9
experience writer’s block because they don’t think their ideas are worth writing down. Try writing “I don’t have any ideas. The closest thing I have to an idea at this moment is…” and see where it takes you.
I’m a fan of freewriting—setting a timer and writing continuously until the timer goes off, with no concern about quality.
Writing satire has become a reflex for me, so I see and hear a hundred funny things a day. I fill my notes app with first lines and titles and topic ideas. What holds me back from writing is time: I need to make appointments with myself to write, or else I’ll let every other priority come first.
UM: Is writing a lost art? Why or why not?
TA: No, it’s not a lost art (yet). People are writing and consuming an incredibly high volume of words each day. Think about your group chats, your posts, your emails, your text messages, your scrolling—we’re a highly textual society.
All that writing and all that interpreting requires many of the same kinds of skills writing has always needed, of audience awareness, rhetoric, careful vocabulary, and style. What seems to be changing is our capacity to read and write long works on a sustained topic. That would be a sad art to lose, so let’s all put our phones on the charger and ignore our screens for an hour or two a day. I’m hereby resolving to do that myself, starting tonight!
UM: Do you have a favorite word, punctuation mark, or rule of grammar? How about something that people often misuse that drives you crazy?
TA: People often assume that as a writer and a writing professor, I must be a stickler for grammar, but I’m not—I know grammar rules really well, but it doesn’t grate my ear when they’re violated. I believe in language’s capacity to communicate meaning both with and without adherence to conventions. As for favorite punctuation, I tend to overuse parentheses (I probably did in this interview).
Talia Argondezzi describes her new book as “a humorous book of advice—at its core, a bunch of jokes about how it’s okay for your house to be messy.”
Shine a Light
Sadie Walker ’25 and Eric Bennett ’27 work behind the scenes on the Ursinus College Dance Company’s spring dance concert.
