Wilson College Magazine Spring 2014

Seeds of Potential Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living is growing into a brighter future.

Leading On and Off the Court | Hankey Center tells Wilson’s stories Finding Beauty in Business | Students Empowered by Monologues' Return volume 87 | SPRING 2014 | number 1

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volume 87 | SPRING 2014 | number 1

FEATURES 08 Seeds of Potential

By Cathy Mentzer Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living is growing into a brighter future.

16

16 Telling Stories

By Brian Speer The Hankey Center makes connections between past and present through the history of the College.

22 Beauty in Business

By Gina Gallucci White Alisa Marie Fogelman Beyer ’89 creates companies.

AROUND THE GREEN 26 Nurturing Roots For Derrick Group ’14, his interest in the environment runs deep.

28 Monologues Return to Wilson Performers empowered by production.

30 Families Away From Home Expected influx of international students prompts call for volunteers.

32 Hitting the Books Vanessa Whitfield ’14 leads on and off the basketball court.

ALUMNAE/I 36 Alumnae Association An update from the AAWC president and alumnae/i director, slate of AAWC candidates.

42 Class Notes 61 In Memoriam

DEPARTMENTS 02 Letter from the Editor 08

03 Wilson News Wilson alumna makes $2.3 million gift to library project, Wilson and Vermont Law School reach agreement, Wilson and Newcombe Foundation host mini-conference, new vice president for student development selected and student housing plans adopted for fall.

34 Viewpoint

By Jill Abraham Hummer, associate professor of political science Feminists are wrong to say that first lady Michelle Obama has not been active in policy.

35 From the Archives

By Leigh Rupinski Saving content on decaying film reels preserves part of Wilson’s past.

65 Last Word: A Night as the Phoenix Editor Ben Ford shares his experience as the mascot.

22

ON THE COVER Crops for Fulton Farm’s community-supported agriculture program are ready for pickup. Photo by Ryan Smith.

STAFF Ben Ford Managing Editor Brian Speer Executive Editor Kendra Tidd Design Cathy Mentzer College Editor Courtney D. Wolfe ’12 Class Notes Coordinator Contributing Writers Samantha Burmeister, Marissa Feldberg ’14, Ben Ford, Dianna C. Heim, Cathy Mentzer, Leigh Rupinski, Brian Speer, Gina Gallucci White Contributing Photographers James Butts, Matthew Lester, Cathy Mentzer, Ryan Smith, Brian Speer, Bob Stoler, Kendra Tidd

ADMINISTRATION Barbara K. Mistick, President Camilla Rawleigh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Brian Speer, Vice President for Marketing and Communications

WILSON MAGAZINE COMMITTEE Mary Cramer ’91, Alumnae Association President Amy Ensley, Director of the Hankey Center Marybeth Famulare, Director of Alumnae/i Relations Cathy Mentzer, Manager of Media Relations and College Editor

Camilla Rawleigh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Brian Speer, Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Carol A. Tschop ’72, Alumnae Association Courtney D. Wolfe ’12, Class Notes Coordinator Wilson Magazine is published quarterly by the Office of Marketing and Communications and the Alumnae Association of Wilson College.

Send address changes to: Wilson College Alumnae/i Relations, 1015 Philadelphia Ave., Chambersburg, Pa. 17201-1285, 717-262-2010 or mag@wilson.edu.

Opinions expressed are those of the contributors or the editor and do not represent the official positions of Wilson College or the Alumnae Association of Wilson College.

— letter from the —

editor W

ilson’s blooming flowers on campus are an especially welcome sight after a long, snowy winter.

But Wilson is blooming in other ways as well. The College is marking a milestone with the 20th anniversary of the Richard Alsina Fulton Center for Sustainable Living.

Wilson was an early promoter of community-supported agriculture and sustainable farming. The ideas grew from the vision of professors and Wilson supporters. While the College achieved many of the early goals, work continues to help the Fulton Center grow to a brighter future for students and the community.

In addition, this edition of Wilson Magazine features a story on the Hankey Center for the Education and Advancement of Women and the C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives. The Hankey Center helps draw connections between the past and present, which can play an important role in liberal arts education.

As poet Robert Penn Warren said, “History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of common humanity, so that we can better face the future.” Wilson’s women have gone forth and played important roles in making the future brighter for others, from their service in World War II to the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

While a student at Wilson College, Alisa Marie Fogelman Beyer ’89 recalled listening to alumnae speaking of their success in the corporate world and she decided to pursue a career in business as well and has founded successful businesses of her own.

As you read this edition of Wilson Magazine, you’ll find stories of an alumna’s $2.3 million gift to library project, the slate of candidates seeking to serve on the AAWC, an effort to save a part of Wilson’s history found in the archives and students working for their own brighter futures.

All over the campus on this sunny day, Wilson is growing, from the seedlings at Fulton farm to the work on the John Stewart Memorial Library. I hope this edition of Wilson Magazine captures the growth and potential of the brighter days that lie ahead.

CONTACT US: Wilson Magazine mag@wilson.edu 717-262-2607 www.wilson.edu/magazine Alumnae Association aawc@wilson.edu 717-262-2010 www.wilson.edu/aawc The Wilson Fund advancement@wilson.edu 717-262-2010 www.wilson.edu/give

FPO

Ben Ford Managing Editor

WILSON NEWS WILSON ALUMNA MAKES $2.3 MILLION GIFT TO LIBRARY PROJECT

I

n January and February, Wilson alumna Sue Davison Cooley ’44 made two gifts totaling $2.3 million for Wilson’s Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library fundraising effort. Her donations completed the $3.6 million matching gift from Marguerite Brooks Lenfest ’55 and placed the College in a position to break ground on the library project this summer, pending Board of Trustees approval of the final project cost, according to Brian Ecker, Wilson vice president for finance and administration.

Although she left Wilson after her sophomore year, “my heart has always been at Wilson,” said Cooley, a Portland, Ore., area philanthropist. Concerned that the Stewart library building has remained closed since fall 2011 because of a heating system failure, Cooley made a $1.2 million gift for the library in January, followed by a $1.1 million gift in February.

“The gift is in recognition of the fact that I love Wilson very much,” Cooley said. “I am a very, very big fan of Wilson. I think it has much to give for women, and men too. It’s a great place.”

Cooley, who later received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Swarthmore College, is a longtime supporter of Wilson. She donated $1 million in 2005 to establish a scholarship for participants in the Women with Children program in honor of her old friends and Wilson alumnae Sylvia Scalera Davison and Mary Meinecke Dee, both with the Class of 1944. She is also a regular contributor to the Wilson Fund.

Cooley’s gift will net the college a total of $4.6 million under the terms of the Lenfest matching gift provided last year, and brings the total raised for the $12 million library project to $9.7 million in cash and pledges. “Mrs. Cooley’s extraordinarily generous gift is exciting for many reasons,” said Wilson College President Barbara K. Mistick. “Perhaps most critical is that it brings us to our goal of having 80 percent of total costs in hand before we break ground on the Stewart library project. I want to express

gratitude on behalf of everyone at Wilson to Mrs. Cooley for investing in the future of the College and helping make our plans for a comprehensive, state-of-the-art library a reality.”

Since the library closed, its functions have resided in the former Sarah’s Coffeehouse. The Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project includes repairing and restoring the original 1924 Stewart library building, while razing a 1961 addition and replacing it with a contemporary learning commons equipped to meet the changing needs of today’s learning communities. The learning commons will house academic support and information technology services, writing labs, two “smart” classrooms, a commuter lounge, bookstore and outdoor plaza. The learning commons will also be home to the “Sue Davison Cooley Gallery” in honor of Cooley’s transformational gift.

Murray Associates Architects of Harrisburg, Pa., completed the design phase of the library project. The Wilson College Board of Trustees voted on Feb. 21 to authorize the preparation of construction documents and the demolition of the library annex. Construction, which is expected to take about 14 to 15 months, could begin as early as July or August pending final approval of project costs at the May board meeting, Ecker said. “Our goal is to have the library re-opened for fall 2015,” he said.

It took Wilson just one year to match the $3.6 million Lenfest gift, which had been broken into three, $1.2 million matching elements. In addition to the Lenfest gift, Wilson had raised $2.5 million for the project.

“The deep commitment of our alumnae and alumni to their alma mater and to this project is gratifying,” Mistick said. “As we move forward with our Wilson Today plan to revitalize the College, we have continued to experience wonderful support from those closest to the College.” —Cathy Mentzer

Renderings demonstrate the continuity of the John Stewart Memorial Library renovations with the existing campus design. Murray Associates Architects has been working with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to ensure the integrity of the campus' historic designation.

winter 2014 03

WILSON NEWS JENSEN, A 'PRESENCE' AT WILSON, DIES AT 85 Gordon M. Jensen, husband of former Wilson President Gwendolyn Jensen and a fixture on campus during her tenure, died March 25 from complications after recent open heart surgery. He was 85.

“My husband was very much a presence on campus when I was at Wilson,” said Gwendolyn Jensen, who served as president from 1991 until she retired in 2001. “He ate in the dining hall every day and visited with faculty and staff. Alumnae came to know him well.”

Jensen Dining Hall is named after both Jensens, according to the inscription plaque on the wall, for the “character, perseverance, determination, enthusiasm and love of Wilson they demonstrated.”

Trustee Emerita Beatrice “Betty” Fenner Blackadar ’42 recalled when she would visit the campus seeing Gordon Jensen walk into the dining hall with The New York Times in hand. “He was a very quiet, almost private man, as husband of the president,” Blackadar said.

Born in New York City in 1928 to Norwegian immigrants, Gordon Jensen was described as proud of his Norwegian heritage. Known throughout his life for his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and his interest in classical music and musicology, he received his bachelor’s degree in history from Yale in 1950 with election to Phi Beta Kappa, and did his graduate work in history at Princeton, where he

received his doctorate in 1956. He taught history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later the University of Hartford in Connecticut, where he was chair of the history department.

The Jensens married in 1966 and raised three children: Elizabeth, Donald and Alicia. After Gwendolyn Jensen took an administrative post in Colorado, he followed her and took graduate courses in mathematics and computer science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He later switched to teaching computer science. After she became president of Wilson College, he followed her again. The two lived in the building that is now the Hankey Center.

After retirement led them back to Cambridge, Mass., he studied music theory and composition at MIT, took voice lessons and sang in the Cambridge Community Chorus. He established the Gordon M. Jensen Fund in Music at MIT and he also endowed a scholarship in his parents’ names for Wilson’s Women with Children program.

In addition to his wife, survivors include son Donald Evans Jensen, daughter Alicia Alma Cyrino, sister Joyce Jensen Griffiths and two grandsons, Evan Andrew Jensen and Noah Alexander Jensen.

Gifts to Wilson College in Jensen’s memory will be directed to the Esther Lydia Saanum and Julian Emil Jensen Memorial Scholarship, an endowed scholarship named for his parents, which supports the Women with Children program. For information, contact the Office for Institutional Advancement at 717-262-2010, ext. 3181, or checks can be mailed to the Office of Institutional Advancement, 1015 Philadelphia Ave., Chambersburg, PA 17201. —Ben Ford

WILSON, VERMONT LAW SCHOOL REACH 3+1 AGREEMENT Wilson College recently signed an agreement with Vermont Law School, one of the nation’s premier environmental law schools, that allows students to earn a bachelor’s degree from Wilson and a master’s degree from VLS in four years.

Through an articulation agreement between the two colleges, Wilson students who qualify can pursue a bachelor’s degree in environmental sustainability at Wilson and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law. Students would take two online courses from VLS while attending Wilson. After their junior year, they would enter Vermont Law’s summer program. Some credits would be shared among the two institutions and both degrees would be completed at the same time.

“This agreement with Vermont Law School offers our students an incredible opportunity to earn a degree from Wilson, as well as a second degree from one of the top environmental law schools in the country, in just four years,” Wilson President

04 wilson magazine

Barbara K. Mistick said. “This is Wilson’s third 3+1 program.

These programs allow students to earn both degrees at a lower cost than the traditional bachelor’s/master’s route and dovetail with our efforts to make a quality education more affordable for students and families.”

A master’s degree in environmental law and policy can lead to a variety of career options, according to Edward Wells, director of Wilson’s Environmental Studies Program, who facilitated the agreement. “It prepares graduates for jobs ranging from public service or working at a federal agency like the EPA to running a nonprofit environmental organization,” said Wells, who also teaches environmental studies. “Graduates could work as an energy consultant or an environmental educator, or they could continue their studies and obtain a law degree.”

Vermont Law School is a private, independent institution in South Royalton, Vt. —CM

WILSON, NEWCOMBE FOUNDATION HOST MINI-CONFERENCE Wilson College and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation co-sponsored a conference March 7 at the College for higher education professionals—staff and faculty—who work with student-parents. The conference, Student-Parents on Campus— Creating Intentional/Supportive Environments to Foster their Success, included a keynote address and morning and afternoon workshops. The conference also included a panel of Wilson’s Women with Children participants discussing their experiences with the program.

President Barbara K. Mistick and Newcombe Foundation Executive Director Thomas N. Wilfrid welcomed approximately 55 registrants from 12 institutions to the day-long conference.

Autumn R. Green, a sociologist and advocate for low-income families, delivered the keynote address, Balancing School, Work and Family in a Constant State of Crisis: The Experiences of Low-Income Mothers, which was based on her research on the topic. Student-parents are the fastest-growing subpopulation of post-secondary students and they represent 23 percent of undergraduate students in the United States, according to Green.

She said 57 percent of student-parents are low-income and 68 percent are single parents.

WILLIAMS SELECTED AS NEW VICE PRESIDENT

FOR STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

“The bachelor’s degree completion rate for these students is 4 percent, which is just absolutely, in my mind, unacceptable,” said Green, who discussed the detrimental effects of policy decisions on student-parents, such as requiring them to take a minimum number of credits or requiring them to work a minimum number of hours to receive financial assistance. “If you don’t have housing and food and safety, education becomes difficult.”

Workshops focused on such topics as: balancing work, family and school; keeping education-related debt in check; supporting student-parents in career success; and increasing retention through counseling.

The Newcombe Foundation has supported scholarships for mature women since 1981, according to Wilfrid. Wilson is one 32 institutional partners in the organization’s mature women’s program and the foundation has provided Wilson adult degree and WWC students with more than $300,000 in scholarships since 1986, he said.

The College is grateful for the Newcombe partnership over the past 28 years, Mistick said. “They’ve really changed the lives of 300 students over that time period,” she said. —CM

MISTICK MEETS

ALUMNAE IN FLORIDA

Wilson has named Mary Beth Williams as the College’s next vice president for student development/dean of students, replacing Carolyn Perkins, who will retire at the end of June. Williams will arrive at the end of April and will work alongside Perkins during a transition period.

Perkins has served Wilson since 2007.

Over a 16-year career in student development, Williams has served in a number of posts, including most recently as associate dean of students at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., since 2007. Previously, she was assistant director for student activities, and student activities coordinator, both at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Prior to that, she was director of student activities at William Carey College, Hattiesburg, and during her graduate assistantship, she spent two years as assistant director of residential life at Rhodes College in Memphis.

Williams has a doctorate in philosophy in higher education administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from the University of Memphis College of Education and a bachelor’s degree in English from Rhodes College. —CM

From left, Patricia Vail ’63, Judy Kreutz Young ’63, Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick, Martha Wikoff Waddell ’72, Suzette Gallagher Kneedler ’67, Margaret E. Ward ’65, Christine Heroy Muddell ’63, Beverly Farber Wernette ’66, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Camilla B. Rawleigh and Evlyn Haardt Bickford ’66 gather at a wine and cheese social hosted by Wernette and her husband, John D. Wernette on Jan. 7 in Naples, Fla.

spring 2014 05

NEWS

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

IN BRIEF

STUDENT HOUSING

PL ANS ADOPTED FOR FALL Students will have a variety of housing options in the fall, including mixedor single-gender corridors and themed corridors in the residence halls, under a 2014-15 plan adopted by the Wilson College Residence Council, which is made up of student representatives from each hall.

Students were surveyed in spring 2013 about what options they would prefer when male students are permitted to live on campus in fall 2014.

Feedback was taken into account during the decision-making process, according to residence council officials.

“We worked really hard on trying to figure out how to make everyone comfortable and how we can make it fair for everyone who is trying to move onto campus,” said Jessica Masilotti ’14, Residence Council chair and vice president of the Wilson College Government Association. “I hope everyone from freshmen to seniors is excited about how room selection is going to take place this year.”

Although some halls will include both men and women, there will be no mixed-gender rooms or suites, according to Sherri Sadowski, director of residence life and residence council adviser. “You could have a room of men living next to a room of women,” she said. “That is possible.”

But men and women in mixed-gender halls will not share bathrooms.

One bathroom per hall will be reserved for women and the other will be reserved for men. “That was something that came up and we found it was going to be very important,” Masilotti said.

The planned hall configuration, which is dependent on the total number of residential students in fall, includes an all-female corridor in McElwain, an all-male corridor in Davison and possible mixed-gender options in McElwain, Davison, South, Riddle and Disert. The first floor of Disert and Prentis Hall continue to be reserved for the Women with Children program, which is limited to female students and their children.

Themed corridors, being offered for the first time at Wilson, will allow students with similar interests or values to live together. “It allows them to surround themselves with people they want to live with,” Sadowski said. Themes could revolve around an interest in such things as a foreign language or environmental sustainability, or could involve a desire for a substance-free living environment. Groups of eight to 14 students propose a theme and apply for corridors. Residence council will review the applications and approve or deny them. —CM

06 wilson magazine

‘REAL-LIFE LORAX’ TO SPEAK AT COMMENCEMENT Meg Lowman, a pioneer of the science of tree canopy ecology, will speak at the 144th annual Wilson College Commencement Ceremony May 18. Nicknamed the “real-life Lorax” by National Geographic, Lowman is the inaugural chief of science and sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences, where she leads the academy’s Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability. Known as “the mother of canopy research” and “Canopy Meg,” Lowman champions forest conservation around the world and maps the canopy for biodiversity.

Lowman’s academic training includes a bachelor’s degree from Williams College in Massachusetts, a master’s degree in ecology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and a doctorate in botany from the University of Sydney in Australia. She is the author of the book, Life in the Treetops, as well as more than 125 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

A Fulbright Senior Specialist Scholar to India and Ethiopia, Lowman receives funding from National Geographic for her conservation work on Ethiopian “church forests.”

COLLEGE CELEBRATES WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH The College hosted a variety of events to mark national Women’s History Month in March, including a lecture March 11 by educator, journalist, broadcaster and author Pat LaMarche of Carlisle, Pa. LaMarche, 2004 Green Party candidate for U.S. vice president, spoke to about 35 people in Laird Hall’s Patterson Lounge about the persistent inequality faced by women in a presentation entitled Poverty, Politics and Paradigms: The Changing Role of Women in Government and the Economy. LaMarche is the author of Left Out in America: The State of Homelessness in the United States.

Several other events celebrated Women’s History Month, including a chapel service about human trafficking and a student presentation of The Vagina Monologues (see story on page 28). A new exhibit in the Hankey Center for the Education and Advancement of Women entitled Wilson’s Foreign Missionaries: Around the World in Their Own Words opened March 25 and runs through July. The opening coincided with a reception for the winners of Wilson’s annual Women’s History Month High School Essay Contest, also held at the Hankey Center.

WILSON NEWS TIDBALL, NOTED RESEARCHER WITH WILSON TIES, MOURNED M. Elizabeth “Lee” Tidball, a leading academic researcher on women’s education, died of pancreatic cancer on Feb. 3 at an Adamstown, Md., retirement community. She was 84.

In the late 1960s, Tidball examined national data from the Who’s Who in American Women registry and the Doctorate Record Files as indicators of success for graduates of women’s colleges compared with their coeducation counterparts. She published her findings in the Education Record in 1973. While critics argue that controlling for socioeconomic background—which the study did not do— would have altered the results, the article continued to be cited for many years.

A professor emerita of George Washington University, Tidball was the first witness to take the stand in the case against the closure of Wilson College in 1979 and played a role in the development of the Hankey Center. The wife of Dr. Charles S. Tidball, a Wilson trustee emeritus, she is also the founder of the Task Force on Women for the American Physiological Society and the Summer Seminars for Women in Michigan.

“She was a very important figure in women’s higher education,” said former Wilson College president Gwendolyn Jensen. “She was an institution and honored many times around the country by women’s colleges.”

Tidball helped Jensen and Joan Hankey ’59 in the early stages of the planning of the Hankey Center for the Education and Advancement of Women, Jensen said. “The statements we came up with were

very much influenced by her,” Jensen said. “She was very cordial and smart. She had all the right qualities.”

Tidball, who received one of her 17 honorary degrees from Wilson College in 1973, joined George Washington University in 1960 and served as a researcher and professor there until she retired in 1994. Tidball was the first woman appointed professor of physiology at GWU. Born Oct. 15, 1929, in Anderson, Ind., Tidball attended Mount Holyoke College, where she received her bachelor’s degree in physiology and chemistry in 1951. She received her master’s degree in physiology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1955 and her doctorate in physiology and pharmacology from the same university in 1959. In addition to her science degrees, Tidball earned a master’s degree in theological studies from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., in 1990.

Tidball is survived by her husband, a professor emeritus at George Washington University, where he taught computer medicine and neurosurgery, and a brother.

“A champion for educational opportunities for women, Dr. Tidball and her work towards establishing a more equitable and humane society will be remembered by those at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and outside our school, for many years to come,” said Jeffrey S. Akman, dean of the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences. —BF

ONLINE RN-TO-BSN PROGRAM TO OPEN IN FALL Wilson will offer a new degree program allowing registered nurses who have a diploma or associate degree in nursing to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing online in as little as 18 months. The new RN-to-BSN program, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in February, will begin in fall 2014.

For the first year, the program will admit only part-time students, according to Carolyn Hart, program director for Wilson’s Department of Nursing. In the first semester, students will take one liberal studies and one nursing course.

RN-to-BSN students will enter the program with 34 credits for a valid nursing license and 27 to 48 credits for coursework completed as part of pre-licensure studies. They will need to complete 39 to 50 course credit hours through Wilson.

The program was designed so it could be taken entirely online, where students can complete assignments according to their own schedules, Hart said. “We’re talking about working adults who are trying to balance work, family and now school,” she said. “What will be different about Wilson is the fact that it’s completely personalized. There’s an instructor on the other end that they can call and talk to.” Discussion boards will be used in courses so that students can communicate not only with their instructor, but also with peers in the class.

Completing a bachelor’s degree is not a requirement for RNs, but it is becoming increasingly important for some employers and could one day be the norm, Hart said. “If nurses want to advance their careers, advanced education becomes imperative,” she said. —CM

spring 2014 07

seeds of

A

fter arriving at Wilson in 1987 as a young biology professor, Brad Engle was disappointed when the College sold a stand of old-growth forest to a logger. The woods were part of the Lehman Farm, an 18thcentury farmstead the College purchased in 1974.

Pot

Like his colleague in the biology department, Tom Cheetham, Engle had an interest in a field then known as ecology, which examined the interrelationships between the environment and living things. After Gwendolyn Jensen became president of Wilson College in 1991, “she came to Tom and I and said, ‘I’d really like you to think about possible ways we might use this land and this farm to benefit the College,’” said Engle, now an associate professor of biology and chair of the Physical and Life Sciences Division.

Jensen was interested in how the 100-acre farm could benefit the College financially and academically, Engle said. “She pretty much painted it as a blank slate,” he said.

Steve Moore plows with draft horses during his time as Wilson farmer and center for sustainable living director.

tential Fulton Center Growing Into A Brighter Future

BY CATHY MENTZER

spring 2014 09

PHOTO BY MATTHEW LESTER

Photos, from left. Sunflowers grow alongside greens at Fulton Farm. Former FCSL Director Steve Moore is known as the “Gandhi of Greenhouses.” The Fulton Farm’s Owens Barn is shown during its restoration. Former FCSL Program Manager Matt Steiman, right, harvests end-of-season tomatoes.

10 wilson magazine

Marking its 20th anniversary this year, Wilson’s Richard Alsina Fulton Center for Sustainable Living sprouted from both practical and idealistic visions. College officials wanted to make use of the farmstead it had owned for nearly 20 years. Engle, Cheetham and others had a vision of caring for the land, preserving history and natural resources, and pursuing a new movement of environmental sustainability. The visions blended and evolved in 1994 into what was then known as Wilson’s Center for Environmental Education and Sustainable Living.

The center—which promotes earth-friendly practices such as sustainable food and energy production, land and watershed stewardship, conservation and preservation—provides oversight of the College’s Fulton Farm and Robyn Van En Center, an information resource for community-supported agriculture with a national CSA database. But while the Fulton Center has achieved many of its initial goals, work continues for the Fulton Center to reach its full potential.

“You’ve got something special going on there … very forward-thinking, very well-supported,” said Steve Moore, a farmer and one of the first directors of the Fulton Center. “It may be the time for a full bloom.”

An idea takes root

After being approached by Jensen about ways to use the Lehman farmstead, Engle and Cheetham brainstormed, engaging other faculty in the process. “The collective idea was it would be nice to use this land as a model of sustainability,” Engle said. “At that

time, sustainability was not a mainstream term. There were very few colleges that had a program in sustainability.” They envisioned three main ideas: using the farm for small-scale organic food production for the College; creating a curriculum in environmental studies; and involving the campus community with the land, “but with no specifics,” he said with a laugh.

They developed a white paper, followed by a grant proposal for seed money to create a sustainable living and education center.

Jensen and former trustee Carol Schaaf Heppner ’64 took the proposal to the Eden Hall Foundation, which in 1994 provided a $235,000 grant—the full amount requested—to start the center, hire a director and pay operational costs for three years.

Later that same year, the Klein Foundation provided a $50,000 grant to build a greenhouse. That September, the College hired its first director, Rima Nickell.

In a 1994 newspaper article, Nickell—who had a background in organic farming, land use planning and natural resource management—said the center would demonstrate how to live sustainably by “establishing an organic farm and eventually constructing an energy-efficient director’s residence and a conference facility with reference materials ….” While the organic farm is well-established, the residence and conference center were never realized and are no longer part of the Fulton Center’s plan.

The College hired Moore, a progressive local farmer who was becoming widely

known for his innovations in sustainable agriculture, to consult on the construction of the center’s first solar greenhouse and production techniques, and later hired him to run the College farm. Nickell departed in 1996 and Moore took over the additional responsibility of Fulton Center director, ushering in an era of growth, experimentation and innovation.

A time of growth

Moore moved into Wilson’s farmhouse with his wife and daughters, ran the farm, led workshops and demonstrations, taught classes and became the go-to source for news reporters writing stories about the latest developments in sustainable agriculture and energy. “He was the guru,” said Edward Wells, who was hired in 1997 as Wilson’s first environmental studies professor. “Everyone came to him. He used to run workshops for Amish and Mennonite farmers on draft horse farming. He was one of the smartest people I’ve known in my life.”

Famously dubbed “the Gandhi of Greenhouses” in an article by a nonprofit organic farming research organization called the Rodale Institute, for his mastery of using solar greenhouses and building healthy soil to produce vegetables almost year-round, Moore launched a community-supported agriculture program at Wilson in 1996 to encourage local farmers to adopt the model—a then-novel approach to save small, family farms and connect people to the source of their food. In a CSA, subscribers provide farmers with needed revenue at the beginning of the planting season and then

share in the harvest, as well as the risk, of the farm operation.

and abroad. The center also manages a national database of CSAs.

Moore can still see in his mind’s eye the farm’s CSA subscribers striding across the lawn to the farmhouse porch to pick up their weekly shares of produce. Some members paid full price for a share of the harvest, some worked on the farm to get a discount and some paid more than their share just to support the idea. Others couldn’t afford it, but their church paid so they could have access to healthy food each week.

Now a consultant and instructor in the environmental studies department at North Carolina’s Elon University, Moore left Wilson in 1999 after, in his words, becoming “burned out.” The College recognized the need to divide the work he performed into two positions—center director and farm manager—and for a year, Wells and Shord served as CSL co-directors. During that time, Wilson student Tonami Jones ’01 organized a community meeting that led to the creation of Chambersburg’s South Gate Farmers Market—now the North Square Farmers Market—of which Wilson is still an anchor member. Shord, working in her capacity at Wilson, helped found the market and the South Central Pennsylvania Farmers Association.

“When they hit the front porch, everybody was the same,” Moore said. “You still got 10 tomatoes and five peppers. It made food an egalitarian issue and everybody had the same right to the same healthy food, regardless.” He paused. “I really liked that, as you can tell, and I, as a farmer, and we, as Wilson, played a part in bringing that about.”

Moore also founded Wilson’s Robyn Van En Center in 1998 with a $48,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for CSA development in the Northeast. “We had the number one grant in the nation out of 600 applicants,” Moore said. “The CSA movement was just barely getting started in the United States and really, Wilson College was at the forefront of making things happen in the Northeast.”

Originally staffed by an intern, Jayne Shord, and subsequently by volunteers and part-time employees, the Van En Center provides information about CSAs and the CSA movement to farmers, news media and other interested groups around the nation

In 1997, with initial funding for the Fulton Center evaporating, Wilson alumna Lucille Tooke ’40 gave $100,000 to endow it, followed in late 1999 by $1 million from Susan Breakefield Fulton ’61 for an endowment to honor her late husband, Richard, a former Trustee, lawyer, farmer and conservationist for whom the center was renamed.

Susan Fulton later made gifts to the Fulton Center to rehabilitate the Owens Barn and part of the Tooke Farmhouse. She also provided funding to underwrite energy conferences hosted by the center.

After Moore’s departure, the College hired Matt Steiman in 2000 as farm manager and Inno Onwueme became the next center

spring 2014 11

Photos, from left. A low-head dam on the Conococheague is removed. Farmhands gather spring onions. Workers prepare solar panels to be installed at Fulton Farm.

director. Since Steiman, three others have served as farm manager—Mary Cottone, Eric Benner and Sarah Bay, the current manager, who arrived in 2012. Steiman was promoted to Fulton Center program manager in 2005 and when he left, he was replaced in 2007 by Chris Mayer ’07. After seven years, she is the longest-serving head of the center for sustainable living.

However, Wilson has found it difficult to achieve the initial goal of integrating the academic curriculum with the Fulton Center and connecting it the campus community.

“We need a bridge between the farm and the curriculum and the culture of the College,” said Wells, now director of the Environmental Studies program. “Some of our students don’t know we have a farm.”

Positive changes on the horizon

Mayer shares Wells’ frustration. “One of the tenets of sustainability is continual improvement,” she said. “What we’re doing is a process and there’ll always be room for improvement.”

Among the Fulton Center’s successes, community members, school children, farmers and renewable energy and sustainable agriculture advocates have visited the center and its organic farm, seven acres of which are used to grow produce. Wilson made a formal commitment to sustainability by incorporating it into its mission statement and signing the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment to pursue climate neutrality. In recent years, the College has experimented with biodiesel production, wind power and solar electric arrays. The farm grows organic food for the dining hall and a farm stand, as well as the community-supported agriculture program. The Fulton Center has preserved historic buildings and land. Dam removals and other projects have improved the Conococheague Creek’s water quality.

The College has received recognition for its environmental stewardship and preservation efforts, including winning two Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Excellence in 2001 and 2003.

12 wilson magazine

As the Fulton Center begins its 20th year, there is cause for renewed optimism, according to Wells, Mayer and others. The farm’s designation in December as U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified organic should open doors for research and funding partnerships. In addition, a feasibility study is underway to examine a new academic program involving food—food policy, safety, access or security—that may finally be the link between the Fulton Center and academics the center’s founders envisioned.

Bay said she looks forward to strengthening that connection.

To celebrate the Fulton Center’s 20th anniversary, the College has organized several events. Spring Convocation on Feb. 11 kicked off the celebration with a special program about the Fulton Center that Susan Fulton attended. On April 26, volunteers planted native trees and shrubs to

expand the riparian buffer along the Conococheague, as part of a joint effort with Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Pennsylvania office. On June 6 during Reunion Weekend, an evening bonfire with music and food will also recognize the center’s birthday.

“Farms are life forces of a community,” Bay said. “If you want to get down to the food aspect, it’s in politics; it’s in economics, sociology. The idea of farming is ingrained in every little aspect of society. It’s all there.

It’s all connected. That’s what I believe.”

Like other Fulton Center managers, Mayer brought her own interests to the job while continuing to focus on core sustainability issues such as energy conservation and promoting healthy, local food to the College and community. For the past five years, she has organized a workshop series called “F.R.E.S.H. (Finding Responsible Eating Strategies for Health).” She has planned an annual “Energy and You” conference to educate area residents and business owners about saving on energy costs by using alternative energy technologies.

“I guess my overall goal with that is creating this awareness, giving people information and letting them decide,” Mayer said. “They need the awareness before they can begin to appreciate the environment, food, community, neighbors, clean water, their world—and then they can act on it. It’s all connected.”

With the help of a five-year, $433,612 grant for environmental education from the

Farm Living

D

uring the growing season at the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living, farm manager Sarah Bay works in the fields from sunup to sundown, checking plants for pests and disease, pulling equipment with the tractor and supervising interns, work-study students and volunteer workers at the farm. The work leaves her dirty and feeling satisfied. “Boots filled with dirt, wet clothes if I was working on irrigation, permanent dirt etched in the cracks of my fingers for the whole season,” she says of her typical work day. “Maybe some sunburn, probably a killer tan—but hopefully, all with a smile on my face.”

It takes an incredible amount of planning and a finely honed ability to multitask. “I feel like I’m just everywhere up there all the time,” Bay says, laughing.

Bay oversees the growing of fruits and vegetables with natural methods that do not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. “I knew it would be a very hard job and it is a very hard job,” says Bay, who marked her second year at Wilson in February after working for five years on an organic vegetable farm in south-central Pennsylvania. “It is very challenging.”

The farm supplies produce for the center’s community-supported agriculture program, which allows members to share in the harvest through paid subscriptions. In addition, the campus dining hall purchases and prepares Fulton Farm produce. Bay and farm interns sell vegetables, herbs and flowers at a campus farm stand and at the North Square Farmers Market in downtown Chambersburg.

After growing up in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Bay graduated in 2006 from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., with a degree in environmental science. A senior research project on organic farming prompted her to begin considering it as a career. She enjoys physical labor and being outdoors. “I knew that I needed to be outside, whatever I did,” Bay says.

After college, Bay traveled to India to take a course in sustainable agriculture. “[The course] was being developed right around the same time I was doing this organic farming research,” she says. “I hadn’t gone abroad in my college years, so it seemed like a pretty awesome opportunity to go abroad and have that experience, and learn about sustainable farming to see if I wanted to pursue it further.” Sustainable agriculture also struck a chord with her because of her interest in the environment. “The fact that it involves preserving the environment and it involves the whole ecological system—that obviously appealed to me, being an environmental science major,” Bay says.

In mid-summer, Bay begins her day at 6 a.m., meeting with farm interns before they start work. “I have a plan for the day that I figure out the evening before or quickly that morning,” she says. “It’s written down so all interns know.”

Some interns may harvest ripe vegetables early in the day while it’s still cool, others may be tasked with setting up irrigation for the plants.

“I could be hopping on the tractor and getting ground ready,” Bay says. “I am on the tractor a lot.” She uses it to prepare fields and for tasks such as mowing, turning compost, spraying an organic pesticide and transplanting vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers and squash. “That thing gets run hard every day. It’s a workhorse.”

After a one-hour lunch break, Bay and her crew get back to work, weeding, watering or harvesting vegetables and herbs.

The interns’ workday ends at 4:30 p.m. “I usually work beyond that at least an hour,” Bay says. By the end of her day she says she is usually dirty, sweaty and usually sporting a new bruise or scrape from attaching implements to the tractor.

As the sole person responsible for coordinating planting and production of the farm crops, Bay also keeps a vigilant eye on plants because she cannot use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to address or prevent pests and other problems.

“As a farmer you just learn to multitask,” Bay says. “If you’re harvesting something, you’ll be looking around at the crops for bugs or disease. You’re just constantly on the watch.”

Bay spends the off-season nurturing the soil to create conditions for a healthy harvest. “Healthy soil is key,” she says.

“I take [annual] soil tests so I know how it’s looking, how the nutrients are. Depending on that and what crop I’m going to grow where, I’ll add compost or natural minerals.”

Bay enjoys the physical labor and thought that goes into growing things sustainably, as well as sharing her knowledge and passion for it with others. “It’s a really meaningful job,” she says. “I feel pretty satisfied at the end of the day after a day of farming. Being outside is great, too.”

Bay keeps detailed records of the crops planted each year as well as how popular—or unpopular—certain vegetables are with those who buy from the farm. “I try to predict how much food I’ll need for CSA shares,” she says. “I also try to predict how much we could sell at the farmer’s market and how much I give to the dining hall. It’s an involved process.”

Bay donates any surplus produce to the local Salvation Army.

The farm grossed more than $60,000 on its crops last year, which paid for about half of the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living’s budget, according to Bay. In spite of her busy day-to-day work schedule, Bay makes time to host events at the farm, including potluck dinners, bonfires and other events. “Farms are the life forces of a community,” she says. “It’s important to have people involved.”

—Cathy Mentzer

spring 2014 13

— Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick

PHOTO BY RYAN SMITH

We have to set leadership examples for our community and for our students. It's a limited planet and we really have to be good stewards for the future.

Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, the Fulton Center has overseen a number of new sustainability-related facilities on campus, including a charging station for electric vehicles with rooftop solar array at the art annex building, an outdoor classroom and composting toilet at the farm and last summer, a new produce washing station and pole barn at the farm. The pole barn is equipped with a solar array to power an irrigation pump and electric tractor.

But the Fulton Center also is in need of a focused direction, said Mayer, who plans to develop a new strategic plan. “There’s never enough time to do that visioning and planning,” she said. “We could look at things like certificate programs in sustainable agriculture. I’d love to see a lab and a classroom and a teaching kitchen.”

Through the Fulton Center, the College has served as a leader in sustainability issues and can be proud of that, said Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick. “We have to set leadership examples for our community

Richard Alsina Fulton Center fo 1974

Wilson bought Lehman farmstead

1994

Eden Hall and Klein Foundation grants provided seed money to open the center Center for Sustainable Living launched and first director hired

1991-94

Center for Sustainable Living concept developed

14 wilson magazine

1995

Environmental studies major began at Wilson

1996

Robyn Van En Center founded Wilson College established a communitysupported agriculture program

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW LESTER

Photos, from left. Fulton Center for Sustainable Living Program Manager Chris Mayer '07 is the longest serving head of the center, joining in 2007. Fulton Farm Manager Sarah Bay sets produce out for pickup. Solar panels cover the roof of a pole barn.

and for our students. It’s a limited planet and we really have to be good stewards for the future.”

Mistick, Mayer and others are encouraged by recent positive developments, such as the USDA designation of Fulton Farm as certified organic. “I think our greatest hope is that we’ll get more opportunities for students to do research projects up there,” Bay said. “Having certified organic land to work on is a wonderful asset. It’s probably going to open doors in ways we’re not even thinking about.”

The farm is also certified naturally grown, a peer designation that will continue. But Mayer worries about staffing to keep up with the certification requirements. “We need more full-time staffing at the farm, especially now with this USDA certification,” she said. “The increased record-keep-

ing alone is going to demand way more of someone’s time.”

The Fulton Center has faced staffing problems at other times as well. Since its inception, interns, AmeriCorps Volunteers and part-time workers have staffed the Van En Center. “We’ve turned down speaking engagements because we have no budget for travel,” Mayer said. “If we had a fulltime person, we would be able to take a look at mission and visioning.”

The staff could expand if the feasibility study leads to a new food program, Mayer said. “I think that has the potential to blow the socks off of things,” she said. The results of the feasibility study are expected to be released soon.

central Pennsylvania, where the family farm is still a big part of the economy,” Mistick said. “Having academic communities that are positioned to deal with those issues is important.”

Engle called the prospect of research projects for students at the farm exciting and expressed optimism about the potential for an academic program involving food. “I think it has tremendous potential,” he said. “Depending on what comes out of it, it would be a program that directly links the farm and the center into the curriculum. I think all along that’s what we envisioned.” W

“The thing that’s wonderful about doing the food study here is, we sit in south-

or Sustainable Living Milestones 1997

Lucille Tooke gave $100,000 endowment for the Center for Sustainable Living

2001

Fulton Center won Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence

2002

Interpretive trail opened

2004

Wilson won Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce Historic Preservation Award for Owens Barn restoration First conference on sustainability and environment held

1999

Susan Fulton gave $1 million endowment, center renamed Richard Alsina Fulton Center

2000

Wilson College was founding member of Southgate Farmers Market

2003

Fulton Center won a second Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence

2013

Fulton Center received U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified organic status

spring 2014 15

Telling

Stories

The Hankey Center makes connections between past and present through the history of the College

By Brian Speer

PHOTO BY BRIAN SPEER

F

iled in the Wilson College C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives, a February 1942 edition of the Billboard carries a passage by Ellen Jacobi ’43 in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor that could just as easily have been written after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “There has been an awakening in the past few days,” Jacobi wrote. “It is not enough just to wake up. It is too easy to fall asleep again as soon as the alarm is shut off. We have all shut our ears to warning. We have all said, ‘It can’t happen here.’ Now we know it can happen here. Hysteria won’t help. Sensibility won’t help unless it’s backed up by something constructive. Are we going to doze again …?”

Drawing connections between the past and present can play an important role in liberal learning. As poet Robert Penn Warren said, “History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of common humanity, so that we can better face the future.”

spring 2014 17

PHOTO BY CATHY MENTZER

In establishing the Hankey Center for the Education and Advancement of Women in 2003, the College created a home for the C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives. But the mission of the Hankey Center aims much higher. Beyond being a historical repository, the Hankey Center was founded with a vision to position the center as a national resource on the education of women and girls where researchers can pull from Wilson’s history. At Wilson, the center already serves as a resource, as well as adding to the academic experience and intellectual life of the College.

The role of the Hankey Center in the academic program has two main aspects, said Amy Ensley, director of the Hankey Center. First, is “individual research by students, where they’re learning to evaluate primary resources, analyze and synthesize data, and then present it,” she said. “The other aspect is to create curriculum packets with documents from the collection and analysis for [high school] teachers to use.” Ensley is currently building partnerships with area high schools in order to create connections to implement the use of Hankey Center-based curriculum packets.

Ensley uses a range of resources from the Hankey Center in teaching a section of the First-Year Seminar to help students learn critical thinking, communication and writing skills. “Students read selections from sources and analyze the difference between an autobiography written with hindsight versus something written contemporaneously,” Ensley said. Students then conduct research in the archives to compare and contrast their own experience against that of the authors they have read.

This past fall was the first time Ensley had a man in her First-Year Seminar. “It was interesting to hand out the assignments that were all 100 percent focused on women’s history and contemporary women’s issues,” Ensley said. “They had to read ‘The End of Men’ by Hanna Rosin, which they evaluate critically. All of his presentations focused on women. I think there’s tremendous value in educating men in an environment of strong women, with a history of strong women. I think our society will be better for that.”

Kay Ackerman, associate professor of history, is quite familiar with the Hankey Center and the Boyd Archives. When Boyd , a former registrar and volunteer archivist, retired in the mid-1990s, Ackerman added the title of part-time archivist to her job, serving in the role for about three years. The archives has a lot to offer, especially “for those interested in women’s education,” Ackerman said. “Courses I teach from 100-level up to the senior thesis use the archives in the Hankey Center.”

Ackerman’s U.S. History Since 1945 course includes an assignment called “American History in the Wilson Archives,” and requires students conduct research in the archives to find items relating directly to events covered in their course text. “What goes on at Wilson is not only the history of Wilson College, but it’s part of the bigger history of the country and the world,” Ackerman said.

The students culled the archives and found Wilson people involved in the environmental movement and connected to the National Orga-

nization for Women. They found Billboard articles discussing President John F. Kennedy’s decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis, documents concerning Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun as commencement speaker in 1972 when Roe v. Wade was before the court, and the recently donated collection of Patricia Vail ’63, who went to Mississippi with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Freedom Summer of 1964.

A June 1964 letter in the archives from Vail to her family conveyed, in a way history books cannot, the atmosphere of being in Oxford, Miss., after three others from the organization disappeared and months before a federal investigation would unearth their remains. “At the moment there is evidently nothing at all in the way of protection between us and the ruthlessness and whimsy of Miss. officials,” Vail wrote.

The Hankey Center has “this amazing collection,” Ackerman said. “There’s a lot of material there for scholars.”

Sarah Wilson ’10 is one such scholar to take advantage of the archives. Wilson—a volunteer at the Hankey Center between the first and second years of her master’s program—was looking for a topic for her thesis when she came across the Margaret Criswell Disert Collection. “I knew it [the collection] was there, but I kind of discovered it for myself,” Wilson said. “I became very interested in her life and her influence on the College. She was this really incredible woman that I knew very little about.”

“My research was very much driven by the archives,” Wilson said of her thesis, “Margaret Criswell Disert: A Story, the Undercurrents of American Feminism Before 1960.” “I used her story to describe various changes that happened in women’s culture in America in the ’40s and ’50s—from her role as an administrator at Wilson College to being one of the first 15 women chosen to be an officer in the Navy WAVES during World War II. She came back with all these new ideas about the role of women in American society. I used her speeches to illustrate these views and how they were similar to those that would show themselves again during the women’s movement of the ’70s.”

“Daily in the Navy, I marveled at the tremendous power generated by a group of people, disciplined, organized, working together toward a common end, and achieving almost incredible results by their cooperative effort,” Disert said in a 1946 Founders Day address. “I hope never to lose the vividness of that impression. I have come back convinced that somehow we must intensify our cooperative efforts in educating these, your daughters, for more intelligent, more enlightened, more active citizenship than some of us in the past have practiced.”

In addition to Disert’s speeches, Wilson used the personal correspondence of Wilson President Paul Swain Havens, faculty files, the scrapbook collection, the photo archives and the material culture collection in her research. “There’s something for everybody,” Wilson said. “Students often think of archival research as having to be

done at larger institutions. Well, there are a lot of really great things in our archive that haven’t even been looked at yet.”

The priorities of the Hankey Center are now squarely centered on its future. “I think the mission [of the Hankey Center] will be the same, the way that we accomplish it will be refined,” Ensley said.

“Having the resources to present information will be a strong focus.”

“Over the past 10 years a tremendous amount of work has been done to organize materials and create exhibits,” Ensley said. “We have been a traditional archive with a list of the general items that we collect. But, when you direct someone to your website and you’ve just got a list of general records, is a researcher really going to travel to come and see documents they’re not quite sure about?”

An initiative to systematically digitize the collection is now underway. While there have been small-scale digitization projects in recent years, a comprehensive archival database software package is now in place along with updated computer equipment that will allow new Wilson College Archivist Leigh Rupinski to begin working on organizing and presenting the entire collection as a digital resource.

“The strength of the archive is definitely as a resource for the history of women in America,” Wilson said. “Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia has a great women’s history archive, but because it’s Bryn

I think there’s tremendous value in educating men in an environment of strong women, with a history of strong women. I think our society will be better for that.”

— AMY ENSLEY spring 2014 19

Accessing

History

Archivist helps bring history to life

Wanting to find out more about his late mother, a man and his wife visited the Hankey Center recently in search of information about the 1941 graduate. Wilson College Archivist Leigh Rupinski showed them yearbooks, class photos, scrapbooks and news articles of the woman’s years at Wilson. The couple “were thrilled” to find out about her life at Wilson, Rupinski said. Helping to bring someone’s story to life through the collection is one of the things Rupinski loves about her job.

Rupinski began as Wilson’s college archivist last October. A history enthusiast, Rupinski volunteered at libraries when she was younger. She continues to enjoy working with books, archival collections and helping people at the Wilson’s C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives.

“The point of having all this stuff is so people can come in and use it,” Rupinski said.

The 24-year-old Grand Rapids, Mich., native graduated last spring from the University of Michigan School of Information with a master’s degree in information. She received her bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

Rupinski, who worked in both universities’ archives, has training and experience using digital collection management software to organize archival materials and display images of them online. She is also well-versed in creating “finding aids,” documents that list information about subjects as a guide to help users find what they’re searching for in an archival collection.

The job at Wilson “was exactly what I was looking for,” Rupinski said. “I like working in an academic setting. There is a lot of opportunity to work with the collection in different ways. Digitizing, preparing exhibits, handling the materials—a little bit of everything, which makes for a more exciting day.”

20 wilson magazine

PHOTOS BY BRIAN SPEER

Mawr, it deals with more upper class women’s history. And Wilson College had a lot of middle class students. So it’s a slice you won’t find at the ‘Seven Sisters.’ I know the archivist is going full force, but organizing a collection is a long process.”

In addition to the education of women, another strong point of the collection is the stories “about what these women did with their education and how that changed across time,” Ensley said. “For the early generations who had to fight for the right to be educated, they had real careers.” Alumnae went on to distinguish themselves as accountants, lawyers, journalists, including the Class of 1901’s Hannah Patterson, who served as director of the Women’s Department of Holmes Investment Securities of Pittsburgh, and Pauline Morrow Austin ’38, who worked on the secret radar project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II. The Hankey Center is more than an archive, however. Staff members are involved in a range of initiatives for the Wilson community and beyond. The center puts on the Science in Society Seminar Series, where prominent women in math and science discuss their career paths. It also organizes a number of Women’s History Month events, including a high school essay contest, women’s history speakers and exhibitions.

Ensley—who serves as a guest speaker on women’s issues for historical societies, community organizations and women’s conferences—also organizes a lab day that brings about 50 local schoolchildren to Wilson to explore the sciences. “I give a professional development workshop for the children’s science teachers on classroom methods of including girls and encouraging girls in math and science,” she said.

When thinking about the question of how coeducation affects the Hankey Center and how the staff members approach data collection moving forward, Ensley gets excited by the possibilities. Are the majors that women take affected as the composition of the student body changes over time? And the possibility of being able “to compare the young men that go here—and we have examples of a hundred women’s colleges that merged with men’s colleges or went coed—to see if there was a way to survey them. Because you still have a lot of careers that are primarily [dominated by] women, or they think of being feminized. Like veterinary medicine. But to see if there is a difference between what our young men study and those that have just gone to a coed liberal arts college that has always been coed,” Ensley said.

Ensley is energized when she looks at the direction of the Hankey Center. Developing partnerships, integration into the curriculum, genealogy research by families of alumnae, and especially, the digitization of the collection, will allow the center to bring its stories to as many people as possible.

“Right now, all of these stories are hidden,” Ensley said. “Having them be told, whether that's an online exhibit or a physical exhibit; whether it's encouraging researchers who have similar interests to come and discover things on their own, or having the stories there for students to explore, that's just exciting.” W As director of the Hankey Center, Amy Ensley uses a range of the center's resources to help teach students.

BEAUTY Business in

ALISA MARIE FOGELMAN BEYER ’89 CREATES COMPANIES

By Gina Gallucci-White

W

hile a student at Wilson College, Alisa Marie Fogelman Beyer ’89 recalled, alumnae would come back to speak about their successful careers. At the time, many women were not in the higher ranks of the corporate world. Yet, Wilson still had many accomplished graduates.

“I remember sitting in the auditorium and listening to them and just [thinking] ‘This is great,’” she said. “‘I’m going to stick with business and stick with English and take that all the way through.’”

And did she ever. Beyer has created three successful companies: The ProMarc Agency, AXM Swimwear and The Beauty Co. She started her fourth, Coastal Salt & Soul, last year. “I’ve always been a really hard worker,” she said.

spring 2014 23

Beyer and her three siblings grew up in Southern California, where her father was an entrepreneur. Her mother started out as a waitress, but later earned her realty license and became a Realtor. Beyer tagged along as her mother knocked on doors and left her business card. Her mother became one of the first women in the area to own her own successful real estate company, Golden State Realty.

“That was a huge influence” on me, Beyer said. “Even to this day I think about it because women just didn’t do that.”

During her teen years, her family moved to Pennsylvania.

While in high school, Beyer met a Wilson College graduate who was pursuing a law degree—a career path Beyer had considered.

“She just loved her Wilson experience and told me quite a bit about it,” Beyer said. “I had a lot of horses at the time and I never thought you could go to a school and study and bring your horses with you.”

Beyer soon set up a tour of the College. “I just walked on to campus and I just felt really comfortable there,” she said. “I just thought it would be a really good place for me.”

Beyer accepted a partial volleyball scholarship to Wilson College. She also brought one of her four horses with her to Wilson.

With a love of reading and business, Beyer graduated magna cum laude in English and economics. “I’ve always been a writer and I’ve always been in business so I’ve always made a business out of writing,” she said.

Even before attending Wilson, Beyer was an advocate for women. She interned for a public defender, served as a bridal model and worked at the state’s Women, Infants and Children program. “I’ve just always really enjoyed women and building products for women and being around women and women’s issues,” she said. “Wilson just really worked for me and cemented that desire. When I got out, it just really happened that my companies kept getting built around services for women.”

BUILDING BUSINESSES Beyer’s first job out of school was as a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. Later she became a speechwriter for politicians in Prince William County, Va. She was then recruited by a Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm, Hager Sharp, to become a crisis communications manager. Her clients were mainly in the chemical industry, but her work varied. If there was a strike at a cosmetic plant in Italy, Beyer was sent to speak

24 wilson magazine

with the community. If a mill in British Columbia wanted to expand yet the community was outraged, she would manage the dispute. She enjoyed the work even though she spent 80 percent of her life for four or five years in an airplane, she said.

After 80 consecutive days on the road, Beyer needed a break from the work and constant travel. While on vacation, a former client called her and inquired about the possibility of her working for them. The phone call led her to found The ProMarc Agency in 1996.

Beyer joked that the reason she became an entrepreneur is because she is unemployable. She was always the person who had a new idea or who wanted to change something—from the way they built clientele to the dress code. “I always said that I was two weeks from getting fired at any job I’ve ever had," she said. “I’m sure all of my past employers that I’ve remained good friends with would tell you that as well. I think that if you are an entrepreneur you just know it.”

While building the successful firm, she acquired and grew Globescope Internet Services Inc., a website development company which served embassies in Washington D.C. She sold both companies and later became the general manager for the Washington, D.C., office of Hill & Knowlton, the company that bought The ProMarc Agency.

In 2003, Beyer left to start AXM Swimwear thinking the venture would be fun, but she did not know much about fashion or manufacturing. “That was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “As I always say, ‘You learn a lot more from the things that go wrong than the things that go right.’”

Beyer also found she did not like the industry. “My goal was to build it and sell that thing as quickly as possible,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to get back to what I love to do.’”

Beyer successfully sold the company two years later to the largest swimsuit manufacturer in Mexico. She took a year off to have her third child with her husband, Thomas, and figure out what she wanted to do every day.

“I am obsessed with beauty products,” she said. “I always have been. I’m a very creative person and a writer and I just wanted to create amazing things all day with a staff of people that I love.”

In 2006, The Beauty Co. was born to help business startups and successful global companies with branding and strategy for products like hair, skin and nail care, color cosmetics and fragrances. Beyer also serves as creative director. “Seriously, I feel like I have the best job in the world,” she said. “I play with products all day long .... The best part of the job is just working with these clients and making their dreams come true. Them telling me here’s my vision and me bringing that vision to life for them. It’s awesome ...

I feel really lucky to do this every day.”

Beyer’s passion is contagious, said longtime colleague Jennifer Thomas.

“She has a way of capturing a room full of people—whether it is one person or 3,000,” Thomas said. “She turns heads not only with her beauty but with her words, her mastery of the beauty industry and her enthusiastic attitude.”

succeed,” Sutton said. “It’s not often that you can find a CEO with such an inviting open-door policy.”

Sutton called Beyer a fantastic storyteller. “Whether she is discussing how to build a new brand or just simply explaining the hilarity of how a snowstorm delayed her travel plans, the whole office loves to listen with open ears,” she said.

Always wanting to have her own beauty care brand, Beyer started Coastal Salt & Soul in January 2013 with body, bath and home products launching this summer. “I wanted a brand to bring together my love of the coast—whether it’s the coast of Italy or Southern California,” she said of the vintage, romantic-themed line.

"You learn a lot more from the things that go wrong than the things that go right."

Beyer knows that most women need something to make them feel special or provide a small escape because many women work extremely hard and take on multiple roles in their daily lives. She aims to make her products a must-have.

“We can’t all live on the side of the ocean and every day is stress free,” Beyer said. “It’s not reality, but what I want to do is I want to give you a fragrance or body product or hand wash that adds this little bit of amazement to your every day.”

“You don’t ever really do it all,” she said. “One of the reasons I decided to be an entrepreneur—I always say I’m Thomas has worked with Beyer on a full-time mom that actually works all of her business ventures except for on the side.” Her job allows her to one. “She could be selling tires to a attend sporting events, take her kids farmer and I would want to work with to school every day and be home for her,” Thomas said. “Whatever busiAlisa Marie Fogelman Beyer ’89 dinner time. “That was really importness she is aligned with, she throws ant to me to be able to do that,” Beyer herself full throttle into the industry.” said. “The only way to do that is to be my own boss.”

Beyer has the uncanny knack for squeezing even better work Beyer often gets asked for advice on having a successful proout of her team, especially when they all thought they were done, fessional career and family life. She tells people to work as hard said Martha Kepner, who serves as The Beauty Co.’s director. as they can at the very start of their careers because the contacts Beyer has an incredibly warm personality and is always willing to take time to discuss a business project, new idea or creative strategy, said Katherine Sutton, The Beauty Co.’s manager.

“She is always willing to work with her employees to help them

they make will give them a good start. Beyer also advises not to let starting a business delay starting a family. “It all works out,” she said. “I’ve had companies and kids all along the way.”

spring 2014 25

PHOTO BY MATTHEW LESTER

AROUND THE GREEN

26 wilson magazine

NURTURING

ROOTS

For Derrick Group ’14, His Interest in the Environment Runs Deep

By Marissa Feldberg ’14

E

ven before he began his college academic career, Wilson senior Derrick Group ’14 knew he wanted to study the environment. Before college, Group spent several years in the U.S. Navy, where he worked as a sonar technician, monitoring ocean tides and currents to avoid disrupting whale migration patterns. He credits this experience as the impetus for his decision to study the environment.

Group has enjoyed his Wilson experience, as well as the individualized attention and guidance he has received from Wilson professors and faculty. “For a small college, it’s very diverse,” he said. “Professors are very involved. I like the small class sizes. For the most part, I’ve been lucky with professors. They have really helped me, cared about where I am going, helped to put me on a path or direction.”

Group, 29, began his college career at Hagerstown Community College. In 2011, he transferred to Wilson College because of its strong environmental studies program and proximity to his home. While in the Navy, Group completed numerous service projects all over the world in places like Japan, the Philippines and Thailand, but he ultimately hoped to give back to his hometown so he returned here. “I am a product of Chambersburg and it is a big part of me,” said Group, an adult degree program student majoring in environmental studies.

Group’s professors praise his character in and out of the classroom.

Group has contributed to the Wilson College community and the Chambersburg area through his coursework and extracurricular activities. He is vice president of the Wilson College Environmental Club, where he coordinates fundraisers, plans community cleanup efforts and organizes a bonfire for Wilson’s annual Earth Day celebration. Group also has integrated his academic studies with community projects.

This semester, he is completing a senior research project with classmates to help refine the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living’s curriculum for visiting students and community members.

“I really like being able to go back to the Fulton Farm,” Group said. “I love being able to do field work. That’s what I like to do best.”

D. Rose Award for Environmental Studies in 2013, as well as a “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges” award certificate in 2013, which requires nomination from a Wilson professor or faculty member. Group was also named to the Wilson College Dean’s List for both spring and fall semesters in 2013. Wilson’s willingness to help and work with students of different ages and backgrounds has served Group well. “Wilson is a great place for a working adult or parent. Wilson has the ability to accommodate people from all walks of life,” he said.

He is an exceptional human being. He is going to do great things in the future in his area … but also simply in life.

— Amanda McMenamin

Assistant professor of Spanish and director of the Wilson Scholars Program “Derrick is one of the hardest-working and most diligent students,” said Amanda McMenamin, assistant professor of Spanish and director of the Wilson Scholars Program. “He is an exceptional human being.

He is going to do great things in the future in his area of specialization, environmental studies, but also simply in life.”

Group’s academic adviser Edward Wells, director of the environmental studies program, said that Group seeks solutions to some pressing environmental concerns including pollution, waste, and concerns about the availability of finite natural resources. “He refuses to get tied down by political ideologies that drive the agendas of many environmentalists,” Wells said.

At Wilson, Group has received numerous awards and accolades, including the John

After graduation from Wilson, Group plans to pursue a master’s degree in environmental studies or public policy at nearby Shippensburg University or Pennsylvania State University in State College. Ultimately, Group hopes to work in environmental and public policy, possibly for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection or the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

“My goal is that my work influences the safe and responsible use of our nation’s limited natural resources. I also hope to influence the public on the importance of conservation,” Group said.

“I think Derrick will go on to do great things after Wilson, whether it is working on community, regional, national or global issues,” Wells said. W

spring 2014 27

MONOLOGUES

RETURN TO WILSON Student Performers Empowered by Production

By Ben Ford

S

tudent director Heather Humwood ’14 sat with her legs stretched out in front of her along the edge of the stage in Alumnae Chapel, following The Vagina Monologues script as three narrators read their lines aloud. She applauded them when they finished. “I’d like you to do it with less of a monotone,” she said. “And put more humor in it.”

After seeing students at Shippensburg University perform The Vagina Monologues, Humwood, 21, wanted to bring the play to Wilson. “I thought it would be a good idea,” she said. “With Wilson going coeducational, hopefully it’ll become an annual event.”

In March, about a dozen Wilson students performed parts of the award-winning The Vagina Monologues, an episodic play with monologues covering different aspects, often in graphic detail, of feminine experiences such as love, rape, masturbation, menstruation and repressed desire. The

Wilson College Women’s Studies Advisory Group sponsored the performances.

paign, a global campaign to stop violence against women and girls.

Wilson students last performed The Vagina Monologues in 2003. “It’s a great piece of theater,” said Michael G. Cornelius, chair of the English department, who co-directed the 2003 performances. ”It’s an important work and it’s wonderful to see students getting excited by it and putting it on again.”

One of the reasons The Vagina Monologues is so powerful is because it talks about issues the way women do when they are together, said co-director Jordan Cox ’16, who also performed in the play. “It talks about things the way women talk about things,” she said.

As Wilson’s director of theater, Cornelius wanted “to do something different” in 2003. “We had a really great, enthusiastic crowd and raised a lot of money for Women In Need,” he said of the past performance.

During one of the rehearsals, Nesha Hubbard ’14 waited to read her part, when her 6-year-old daughter entered the auditorium. Hubbard, 31, a single mother, took her daughter by the hand and led her back to the bench outside the auditorium. “It is about women empowerment and anything I can do to help with women empowerment, I’ll do,” she said, although later she laughed when describing how her daughter was too young for the play’s material.

Cornelius encouraged Humwood to put on the performance, saying it was time for the monologues to return. “The more theater the better,” he said.

Proceeds from the March performances also went to Chambersburg’s Women in Need, as well as the V-Day Spotlight Cam-

It’s an important work and it’s wonderful to see students getting excited by it and putting it on again.”

— Michael G. Cornelius

Chair of the English department

28 wilson magazine

The Vagina Monologues is a play more men and women should see to open their eyes to different issues and viewpoints from the perspective of women, Hubbard said. “At a women’s college, you’d think they’d have been doing this annually,” she said.

“This could help start conversations,” she said. “It’s always good to open up people to different viewpoints. This is a perfect time to have that conversation with men.”W

PHOTO BY BOB STOLER

AROUND THE GREEN

Students rehearse The Vagina Monologues on the stage of the Alumnae Chapel before the performances in March. About a dozen students performed parts of the episodic play.

spring 2014 29

Wilson's international students recently wore traditional clothes from their native countries during the Muhibbah celebration. The College expects a large influx of international students for the upcoming school year.

30 wilson magazine

PHOTO BY BOB STOLER

AROUND THE GREEN

FAMILIES AWAY FROM

HOME Expected Influx of International Students Prompts Call For Volunteers

By Ben Ford

Y

ears ago at a local book club meeting, Patricia M. Keffer ’96 heard about a Wilson College program for local families to host international students. “A friend doing it spoke about how much it enriched her life,” she said.

That prompted Keffer to sign up for the Friendly Family program at Wilson about six years ago. Since then, she has served as host for six students from countries ranging from South Korea to Palestine’s Gaza Strip. “It’s very rewarding. I’ve learned a lot about their culture,” she said.

But with a large influx of international students expected for the upcoming school year, Wilson is in need of more volunteers for the program, said Paul Miller, director of international student and scholar services. For the upcoming academic year, Wilson expects more than 40 international students and the number could grow before the fall semester begins, he said. By comparison, for the current school year, Wilson found host families for 17 incoming international students.

Nearly all those students will want to be assigned a host family, Miller said. “Rarely do I get a student who doesn’t,” he said.

Friendly Family program volunteers agree to contact their student at least twice a week, but many of them do more, from taking them on trips to historic sites in the area to inviting them over for dinner, Miller said.

Most of the Friendly Family hosts are Chambersburg area families with no connection to Wilson. Betty Jane Lee ’57 said she would like to see more of her fellow alumnae/i join her and the others as host

families. She has volunteered in the program for five years with students from China, Pakistan and South Korea. “I kind of think of myself as their American grandmother,” she said.

International students arrive Aug. 14 and Miller likes to partner them up with those in the Friendly Family program soon after that. “I do my best to match a student’s personality with the family’s,” he said.

for her after they shopped at a supermarket in search of the ingredients. And Keffer has learned about life in the Gaza region of the Middle East.

“She’s really delightful too,” Keffer said of her student. “She’s come from a lot of hardships in her country and she takes it in stride.”

Keffer and her husband have taken their students to Annapolis, Md., to see the state capital and the U.S. Naval Academy, as well

The main thing for me is I like to learn about other cultures and like to share our experience with them.

—Patricia M. Keffer ’96 Miller interviews the volunteers and then they undergo a state police background check. The volunteers range from single women to young couples with children, he said. Most of the volunteers tend to be either educators or people who have traveled extensively overseas.

“Educators tend to be open to other cultures and diverse ways of thinking,” Miller said.

Many international students attend Wilson for a year of study abroad before returning to their home country, Miller said. “I encourage that if you really want to know what life is like in America, you have to experience it with a local family,” he said.

Lee and Keffer said they both learn a lot about the countries of their students. Lee’s Pakistani student has cooked native meals

as Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. One time, a South Korean student wanted to rent a violin from a local music shop, but they would not rent it to her since she was not local. Keffer went to the shop and vouched for the student.

Keffer takes the students to WalMart and other stores to show them how to find items they might need and also she helps teach them about American customs, Keffer said. “They like doing the Halloween thing, handing out the candy, seeing the kids in costume,” she said. “I think they like it more than the kids.”

Keffer has encouraged her friends to sign up as Friendly Family volunteers. “The main thing for me is I like to learn about other cultures and like to share our experience with them,” she said. W

spring 2014 31

HITTING THE BOOKS AND THE BACKBOARDS

Vanessa Whitfield ’14 Leads On and Off the Basketball Court

By Samantha Burmeister

S

enior basketball player Vanessa Whitfield ’14 lit up the scoreboard in a recent game for Wilson, scoring 49 points en route to a 72-64 victory against Valley Forge Christian College. Her Jan. 27 performance set not only a Wilson single-game record, but also a new record for the North Eastern Athletic Conference.

Not bad for a player who played only one year of junior varsity basketball in high school before being cut from the varsity squad her senior year.

“It was an honor breaking the record for Wilson and the NEAC,” Whitfield said. “I have my coaches and teammates to thank for encouraging me. I could not have accomplished this without them.”

In many ways, Whitfield exemplifies the Division III student-athlete. “Being involved in athletics at Wilson has shaped who I am today,” she said. “Competing on the basketball court, I learned how to climb obstacles to be successful and gain confidence. Wilson athletics has given me the skills I need to succeed and achieve many accomplishments.”

Wilson’s women’s basketball head coach Jared Trulear praised Whitfield for her work on and off the court. “I am truly proud of Vanessa for accomplishing this feat,” he said. “She has matured tremendously this year and has been the heart and soul of this team.”

While Whitfield’s name is on the record book for an individual feat, she was a team player throughout the season, Trulear said.

“Vanessa had a great year statistically but what stands out the most was her leader-

32 wilson magazine

ship,” he said. “We relied on her heavily to lead us on and off the court and she embraced that role. Her acceptance to our rebuilding model as a senior was remarkable. As a coach, I couldn’t ask for a better person to lead us. She will be a success upon graduation.”

Whitfield’s college journey began long before she decided to attend Wilson as a student. At 15, she moved to the Wilson campus with her mother, who was in the College’s Women with Children program.

“I wanted to go to a college that focused on academics,” she said. “Being around Wilson growing up with my mom, I knew Wilson would help me be successful in the future and a place where I could voice my opinion and gain confidence.”

Reflecting on her experiences at Wilson, Whitfield said she appreciated being a part of several teams. “As the field hockey manager, I felt like I was their number one fan,” Whitfield said. “I became the manager because I felt it was important to support Wilson’s athletics teams, not only the ones I play [on]. What matters is what it says on the front of the jersey, ’Wilson.’”

Her experiences on the field and the court helped Whitfield develop relationships that served her well in college. “Shelly [Novak, the head coach of field hockey] has really been there for me and has helped me mature over the years,” Whitfield said. “It is nice to have a family feeling in athletics that Shelly and athletics director Lori Frey have created. I always feel supported.”

Whitfield graduated from Chambersburg Area Senior High School, where she played one year of junior varsity basketball. Whitfield wanted to continue her athletic career in college in an environment that would also support her academics.

As graduation looms, Whitfield will always remember the many opportunities that Wilson College gave her, she said. “I could not have participated in all of the activities, including my internships and workstudy jobs at another school,” she said.

In addition to college classes and athletic practices, her days also include extracurricular activities such as an internship at the Chambersburg Recreational Department and a work-study position at the campus library. Whitfield also worked as a peer teacher for First-Year Seminar at Wilson College, is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and holds a part-time job. She also is manager of the Phoenix field hockey team and played on the lacrosse team.

Whitfield will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and a minor in athletic coaching. Over the summer, she will search for an internship in coaching. “When I leave Wilson, I want to be known as an athlete that would do anything for her team,” she said. “You win and lose with your teammates, which makes being part of a team unique and worthwhile. We are truly a family and are each other’s number one fan.” W

As a Division III student-athlete, Whitfield received no athletic scholarship money.

PHOTO BY JAMES BUTTS

AROUND THE GREEN

PHOENIX SPORTS WRAP The Phoenix women’s basketball team finished the 2013-14 season with a 2-17 overall record and 1-14 in North Eastern Athletic Conference competition. The team snatched wins over Penn State Berks, 62-58, and Valley Forge Christian College, 72-64.

Individually, senior VANESSA WHITFIELD ’14, a guard from Chambersburg, had a record-breaking season, becoming the new leader of points scored in a single game both for Wilson College and the NEAC on Jan. 27. She scored 49 points in Wilson’s win over Valley Forge Christian College. Whitfield was named

to the NEAC Second Team All-Conference this season. Wilson graduates just one senior and returns all other players on the team next season. Under the guidance of new head coach Jared Trulear, the team looks to improve in conference play and create a foundation of core players to establish future success. Trulear took over the program midway through the season after being the assistant coach for the previous three years. The 2014-15 season opener is at home versus Cairn University on Nov. 15.

spring 2014 33

viewpoint —

FIRST LADY TAKES A LEAD

ON PUBLIC POLICY

R

elieved by Michelle Obama’s recent foray into higher education policy, Politico Magazine recently dubbed her soft-focus first ladyship up to that point a “feminist nightmare.” On the surface, there may be something to this claim. For example, Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” website currently features her gardening with school children and cooking with Elmo from Sesame Street.

As part of her Let’s Move campaign, the first lady has set out to solve the problem of food deserts. These are urban and rural “nutritional wastelands” where residents do not have access to a market that carries fresh and healthy eating options. The first lady has used the policy tools of public education and government subsidies to help solve this problem.

But feminists are wrong to say that Michelle Obama has not been active in policy. Just because her policy activism has more to do with children—and less to do with abortion rights and birth control access and paycheck fairness—does not mean she has been a retro throwback to the Mamie Eisenhower era.

And it is also not true that Michelle Obama has managed to avoid controversy. Her policy actions are inherently ideological. Backed by the presidential seal, she is essentially telling Americans what to put into their kids’ lunch boxes and onto their dinner plates. This kitchen-level intrusion flies in the face of the free market.

In fact, when I teach courses on public policy, I regularly use Michelle Obama as a case study to highlight important aspects of the policymaking process.

While Michelle Obama does enjoy higher approval than her husband — particularly of late — so have all first ladies, even Hillary Clinton. But consistent with the ideological fissures in the overall population, a recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 31 percent of Americans, including 68 percent of tea party identifiers, have an unfavorable opinion of her.

Take the first lady’s food politics, since she’s most well-known for her campaign to get Americans, especially children, to eat healthier.

The first step in policy analysis is to identify and measure the problem. Michelle Obama has done this.

How far she delves into the policymaking process with her latest foray into higher education is yet to be determined.

Few question her assertion, backed by loads of government data, that childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, where nearly one in three children is obese including 40 percent of Hispanic and African-American children. These children will inevitably become a grave burden on a health care system that is already overburdened by citizens’ unhealthy lifestyle choices.

But it is time for feminists to take another look at Michelle Obama.

Her policy efforts should not be dismissed because they involve children, for she realizes what many feminists may not. To quote Mrs. Obama, “The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake.”

The next step in the policy process is to state a goal or an objective related to the problem. Michelle Obama has done this.

Excuse the policy lingo, but if this isn’t a positive externality, I don’t know what is.

Her often-repeated, ambitious policy goal is to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.

— Jill Abraham Hummer, Associate professor of political science

One of the final steps in the policy process is to design and implement a program using a set of policy tools. Michelle Obama has also done this.

34 wilson magazine

PHOTO BY MATTHEW LESTER

—

— from the —

archives W

hile becoming acquainted with the collections of the C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives, I came across two shoebox-size, tan containers that had “A-V Reel-to-Reel” written on the front. What was different about these boxes was their smell.

As I opened the boxes and removed film canister lids, the unmistakable smell of vinegar became overpowering. Even with proper conditions and storage, all materials within an archive are subject to decay. Newspaper pages yellow, leather-bound books rot and acetate film suffers from vinegar syndrome.

Introduced in the early 20th century, acetate film was promoted as a safe replacement for nitrate film, which was prevalent at the time. Nitrate film is highly unstable and dangerously flammable. In contrast, acetate film is considered safe for home use.

While more stable, acetate film will break down because of its chemical makeup, and vinegar syndrome is the result of that deterioration. The central symptom of vinegar syndrome is the release of acetic acid, which causes the signature vinegar odor.

The deterioration process is autocatalytic, which means that it cannot be stopped or reversed because it feeds off itself and accelerates over time. The more advanced the deterioration, the more problems may emerge. The film may become brittle and crack, twist or even shrink, and color film may fade. Perhaps worst of all, vinegar syndrome is contagious. If one film in a box is contaminated, it will spread to the surrounding films.

If film deteriorates too far, the content is gone for good. When it becomes too damaged, it cannot be projected or digitized.

I tested the films by placing an acid-detection strip in each film canister and left them overnight. The strips change color based on the amount of acidic vapor present in the air of the closed canister. In the morning, Hankey Center work-study student Ashlee Yealy ’14 and I checked each strip’s color and compared it to a color chart indicating the severity of deterioration detected on a scale of 0-3.

Four films rated a level 2 (“actively degrading”) and seven rated a level 3 (“critical—shrinkage and warping imminent; possible handling hazard.)”

The immediate dilemma was whether or not these films were worth saving. What insights into Wilson’s history could they provide? Among the sparse notes in the canisters were labels for “May Day,” “President Havens Inauguration” and “Sports.” While the notes may not have been particularly informative, saving any piece of Wilson history from these forgotten films is worth the cost.

I gathered up all 13 films and sent them to an experienced digitization company to try and save the contents. Experienced film engineers inspected each reel, repaired cracks and cleaned each film as best they could. Then they created digital files for each film reel and stabilized the film by reducing noise for improved viewing. All but one film could be digitized.

So what records of Wilson history did these films contain? Visit the Hankey Center and Boyd Archives Facebook page and website, or visit the archives to learn more.

— Leigh Rupinski

spring 2014 35

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Spring is the time when our focus is reunion planning and honoring our soon-to-be graduates—the newest members of the Alumnae Association of Wilson College.

We just participated in the on-campus graduation fair to speak to seniors and emphasize the importance of keeping the Office of Alumnae/i Relations up to date with contact information for ongoing communication such as the monthly e-news, the Wilson Magazine and AR Wilson on Facebook for college and classmate news and events or volunteer updates. The Wilson College Government Association and the alumnae/i relations office also collected “Miles of Pennies” as part of a fundraiser for the Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project. Wilson also hosted a Career Development Day in February which featured several alumnae as speakers, offering advice on subjects ranging from networking to how to dress for interviews.

We hope many of you will consider joining us for Reunion 2014 June 6-8. The brochure was in the winter edition of Wilson Magazine and the schedule may be found online at www.wilson.edu/reunion14. Questions may be directed to alumnae@wilson.edu or call the alumnae/i relations office at 717-262-2010.

This issue highlights the new volunteers who are being put forth for the AAWC Board of Directors ballot. Please take a moment to read about them and vote by either returning your paper ballot in the enclosed envelope or vote electronically by following the ballot directions. Your third voting option is to cast your ballot in person at the annual meeting June 7, which this year will be held in Brooks Auditorium.

We would like to thank all of you who serve in any volunteer capacity for the activities of the AAWC (from the board of directors to the Aunt Sarah Program, campus events, as donors and more). We are excited that each semester, we make forward strides to offer a greater variety of opportunities with increased collaboration both on and off campus. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.

— Mary F. Cramer ’91 President , Alumnae Association of Wilson College — Marybeth Famulare Director of alumnae/i relations

36 wilson magazine

We are excited that each semester, we make forward strides to offer a greater variety of opportunities with increased collaboration both on and off campus.

— Mary Cramer ’91

REUNION AWARD

WINNERS ANNOUNCED The Alumnae Association of Wilson College has named the 2014 award recipients to be honored at Reunion Weekend: • Distinguished Alumna Award—Linda Kaley Erkelens ’64 • Distinguished Adult Degree Program Alumna/us Award—Maxine Lesher Gindlesperger ’98 • Outstanding Young Alumna Award—Catherine Shaffer ’94 • Tift College Award—Nancy Kostas, ’64 Ed.D., and Marian “Mimi” Stevenson ’74 • Faculty Award—Abdolreza Banan, Ph.D., (Due to his schedule, his award presentation will be the Saturday of Leadership Weekend, Sept. 26-28. There will be a brief presentation at the Reunion faculty brunch.)

The Reunion 2014 brochure was published in the winter edition of Wilson Magazine and also is available online at www.wilson.edu/reunion14.

ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION SEEKING

COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS The Alumnae Association invites people to nominate themselves to be considered as appointed volunteers to work on committee projects and participate in occasional conference calls between AAWC board meetings. Volunteers may submit their name by calling the alumnae/i relations office at 866-446-8660 or sending an email to aawc@ wilson.edu. Individuals will be appointed by the association president. Committee membership is revisited annually in June. Committees available: engagement, heritage, recognition and stewardship, and student and parent relations.

BALTIMORE CLUB'S

ANNUAL BOOK CLUB MEETING Members of the Baltimore Club of Wilson College gathered recently for its annual book club-style meeting. The featured book was a memoir entitled When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa, by Peter Godwin.

Recounting the beauty and the terror of living in Zimbabwe, Godwin (a journalist who lives in the U.S. but grew up in Zimbabwe, where his parents stayed), “creates an indelible picture of life in that besieged and battered land,” according to a New York Times review.

Making the meeting especially interesting was the fact that one of the club members, Patricia Pensel ’67, spent time in Zimbabwe a few years ago. She brought photographs to share, including some of a class in session at a local school, a community meeting, her surroundings and many animals.

“How wonderful to have her first-hand experience to supplement what we learned from reading the book and our discussion of the culture and politics,” said club president Melissa Behm ’76.

From left, June Rose Behm '53, Karen Ellensen Coulson '56 and Patricia Pensel '67 look at photographs from Zimbabwe taken by Pensel.

spring 2014 37

ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION

BOARD NOMINEES Alumnae/i can vote by mail or online at www.wilson.edu/nominees. Online voting will close on June 5, 2014, before Reunion Weekend. Members can vote in person during the annual Alumnae Association General Meeting on Saturday, June 7, from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. in the Brooks Auditorium. (Profiles are printed as submitted by the nominees at the request of the AAWC.)

Samantha Ainuddin ’94 was born in Chicago to an Indian father and white mother.

Her advertising father re-located the family in 1981 to Pakistan where Samantha and her two siblings were able to learn the language and culture of their father. At age 16, Samantha returned to the States to live with relatives and finish high school in Harrisburg, Pa. It was at her high school college fair that a poster for Wilson College caught Samantha’s eye and Wilson became the only single-sex college on her list of desired schools. During her senior year at Wilson, Samantha began working at WHAG TV in Hagerstown, Md. as a part-time production assistant and radio reporter for WCPN in Chambersburg. Her ambition and degree in communications led to a long and varied career in television news and sports that has taken her all over the country working for ESPN, PBS, Turner Studios, Fox Sports and NBC. At the age of 25, Samantha was diagnosed with breast cancer and became involved in several non-profit cancer organizations, raising over $50,000 for cancer research without major corporate sponsorships. She is a two-time breast cancer survivor. In 1999, Samantha became a certified chef and began a small cake business for a time.

She has been a member of the National Academy of Arts & Sciences since 2006 serving on various committees including Emmy Awards Judging. Samantha currently lives in Philadelphia where she does freelance work for Comcast in addition to commuting to New York City for freelance work.

“Alumnae were a constant presence on campus when I was a student in the 90s. They were role models for many of us because they were so put together and smart. The giants for me were Carolyn Trembley Shaffer ’50, Carol Tschop ’72 and the legendary Miss Boyd (Miss C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33). As a student it was intimidating to approach alumnae, but once you did, they were so friendly and down-to-earth. They were such fountains of information on the traditions and history of Wilson. As editor of the Billboard, I was very taken with Wilson’s history and interviewed Miss Boyd on

38 wilson magazine

several occasions for the student paper. I can only hope to bring a fraction of what they did to the Alumnae Association. Being as this would be my first term, I would be content learning the process by which things are accomplished for the Association. I would like to see the Association become savvier with social media and keeping the entire alumnae body connected, encouraging more activities with alumnae regardless of their physical location and having more interactions with the student body.”

Cynthia Fink Barber ’73 Cynthia is currently completing her twelfth year as an elementary school principal in West Virginia having previously taught special education for 23 years. She is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Cynthia is a team captain for Relay For Life. She is pianist for Ganotown United Methodist Church. Her spare time is spent knitting prayer shawls for Hospice, sweaters for Knit for Kids as well as crocheting preemie baby items for Stitches from the Heart.

Cynthia currently serves on the Student and Parent Relations and Heritage committees of the Alumnae Association board. She previously served on the Nominating Committee and was one of the original participants in the Aunt Sarah program. Cynthia wants to serve on the board in order to be supportive of the students and staff as they develop their own personal Wilson experience. Her goals would be to provide additional opportunities to encourage relationships among all those who love Wilson and to strengthen ties with alumnae/i from all programs.

Rita Handwerk Fisk ’64 graduated from Wilson with a degree in biology. She also earned a Master of Arts in education from Lehigh University. Her first position was teaching 9th grade general science in the Philadelphia area. After three years, Rita switched to the corporate world and worked at DuPont in Wilmington, Del., as a patent analyst. At the time she didn’t know it was the beginning of the information age. After three years reading and analyzing patents in a lonely office she returned to boisterous joys of teaching where she met her husband. Rita interrupted her working career to stay at home with three sons. When the youngest was in kinder-

ASSOCIATION NEWS

garten she again took a position at DuPont as a business/research librarian and enjoyed the challenge of working during the development of the digital revolution in information technology. She serves as vice-chair of the Engagement committee and on the Recognition and Stewardship committee of the Alumnae Association.

“Serving on the board as a representative from this year’s 50th Reunion Class is an honor and gives me a long term perspective on the role of Wilson for today’s and tomorrow’s students. The world has changed a lot in 50 years and Wilson must change and grow to be relevant,” Rita said. “The young men and women coming to Wilson choose to be pioneers in a new experiment – in a ‘we are small, but are mighty’ place – where they can’t hide in a huge classroom. Alumnae/i who thrived at the Wilson of their day can now support the college during its continuing evolution. My goal during this term on the board will be to outreach to alumnae/i to support Wilson financially and to figure out ways to help the Alumnae/i Relations Office communicate with the 8,000 alums out there.”

Karen McMullen Freeman ’76 After graduating from Wilson, Karen earned an MBA from Ohio State University (OSU), married Mark, and moved to Perrysburg, Ohio, where, now married for 34 years, they have raised three children.

Since graduating from OSU, Karen has worked for a number of companies including: Owens-Illinois, Bristol-Myers Squibb, The Toledo Hospital, and United Way of Greater Toledo holding positions in business analysis, strategic planning, market research, and finance. For the last eight years Karen has been the Finance Director for the City of Rossford, Ohio. Rossford recently received an AAA debt rating from Standard & Poor’s and Karen has been recognized four times by the Ohio Auditor of State for excellence in financial reporting and accountable government. Her volunteer board experience includes terms on the boards of F.U.M. Preschool, Boys & Girls Clubs of Toledo, and FOCUS (a homeless shelter for families). Currently, Karen

is in her fourth year as a board member of the OSU Alumni Club of Wood County and in her third year as the organization’s treasurer.

Karen’s interest in serving on the Alumnae Association board stems from a long standing desire to stay connected to Wilson College, which she says has not always been easy living in northwest Ohio. She would like to use her experience in finance and accounting to help the Alumnae Association and she hopes that her experience with the OSU alumni club will allow her to contribute ideas that will help to cement relationships between Wilson College and alumnae/i.

Leslie Hickland Hanks ’70 is a retired public elementary school teacher. She taught for 35 years in Washington County, Md. Public Schools as a classroom teacher, library media specialist, staff developer and intervention teacher. After graduating from Wilson, Leslie received an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Shippensburg University. She enjoys volunteering, reading, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Leslie is married to George Hanks and has two sons, Brian and Justin. George is retired from the US Department of Defense. Brian is married to Cortney Timmons Hanks and is a Chinook helicopter pilot and member of the PA Army National Guard. Justin is married to Caitlin Lacy Hanks and is the Building and Grounds Supervisor at the Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring in Chambersburg.

“I agreed to serve because I believe everyone needs to do their part to help Wilson to prosper,” Hanks said.

Patricia M. Keffer ’96 has been a member of the Alumnae Association board since June 2008. She served as secretary of the Board for the past three years. Pat is retired from a 43 year career in the telecommunications industry. She now works part-time at Park Avenue United Methodist Church as secretary and treasurer. Pat and her husband are part of the Friendly Family community here at

spring 2014 39

ASSOCIATION NEWS Wilson College. She spends her spare time taking art classes at the Council for the Arts in Chambersburg and enjoying her monthly book club meeting. She is married to Bob, has two sons and seven grandchildren.

“I want to serve on the Alumnae Association board of directors as a way of giving back to Wilson for the opportunity to earn a long-anticipated degree. I am grateful for the Adult Degree Program since it was instrumental in helping me to achieve my dream of a college degree,” Pat said. “My goal, as a member of the board, is to be there for the students and make their academic journey as easy as possible. I am hopeful that what our Alumnae Association can help to accomplish is a vibrant and active college for many years to come.”

Susan Graham Mowen ’97 is also a graduate of the University of Phoenix, Ariz. and Hagerstown Community College. Her degrees include an associate’s degree in communications, a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in curriculum and technology. She is currently certified to educate students in kindergarten through eighth grade, high school literature and special education students. She currently teaches English Language Arts to 6th grade Merit and on grade students. Prior to becoming an educator, Susan was an on air personality for local radio stations and a copywriter for WHAG TV 25, a local television station.

Susan has been married to Mark for over 20 years and their daughter Katie is a freshman at Wilson. Susan loves to spend time with her family and her Cavachon, Allie. She loves to read all genres, participate in Zumba classes with her daughter and collect Disney collectables, Michael Jackson memorabilia and historical items.

Susan’s favorite vacation destination is Disney World, followed by Ocean City, Md. Her reasons for serving on the Alumnae Association board are to support Wilson students (past, present and future); to connect with fellow alumnae/i; to be a part of the ever changing/ever growing Wilson campus; to be a “cheerleader” for current Wilson students; and she says, “I have loved Wilson College since my first day. The warmth and support of the staff and fellow students stays with me always. One of my happiest moments recently was when my daughter selected Wilson College. She, too, loves Wilson. Today, when I am on campus, I feel like I am at home.”

Her goals as a board member are to connect with current students with mentorship/personal connections (maybe bi-weekly alumnae/i/student lunches); to adjust “Welcome Boxes” and other incentives/gifting for our male students; to expand the online community

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(Facebook, Twitter) and to hold a monthly coffee house, or other events, where alumnae/i, staff and students can make connections with those who have same aspirations.

Dr. Jacqueline Elder Murren ’69 After graduating, Jacie obtained a master’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1972. Having passed the written, but not the oral, Foreign Service exam, she returned home and secured a teaching position with the newly formed Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12, earning a second master’s degree in special education from McDaniel College in 1978. During her 37 years with LIU, Jacie served in the capacities of special education teacher, instructional advisor, and supervisor of the various programs of preschool, life skills support, occupational/physical therapy, and hearing and vision support. She earned her doctorate in reading education from the University of Maryland in 1984 and married Douglas Murren in 1987.

Jacie also taught numerous graduate courses in reading education and inclusion strategies/differentiation in the classroom for Penn State York, Immaculata, and Wilson. Throughout her career, she made numerous presentations at LIU, local school districts, area community groups, and the Pennsylvania State Conference of the Council for Exceptional Children. While working for LIU, she served on the boards of York-Adams Mental Health-Mental Retardation, Adams County Children and Youth Services, and the Governor’s Task Force on Preschool Education in Pennsylvania. Jacie retired in 2010 to care for her mother who was in declining health.

In retirement, she pursues her interests in gardening, reading murder mysteries, walking her two beagles, and attending Zumba. Jacie continues to serve as Secretary/Treasurer of her alumnae class.

“I enjoy working with fellow Wilson alums of all ages on common goals to improve the life of our alma mater,” Jacie said. “My goal is to be part of the solution and help effect a smooth and productive transition for Wilson into the next phase of her life.”

Lorrie Rejonis Trader ’05. Lorrie is currently a fifth-grade teacher for Washington County Public Schools in Maryland. She and her husband David have two children, Mackenzie Ann, age six, and Carson Allan, 20 months. She is finishing up her master’s degree from McDaniel College, with a certification in Elementary Math Leadership.

While at Wilson, Lorrie was very active on campus, involved in

MAIL-IN BALLOT FORM TEAR OFF AND MAIL TO: the Conococheague Yearbook club, Wilson College Government Association, a resident advisor, and Campus Activity Board. She also was the class officer as Song Leader. From 2011 to the present she has served on the Alumnae Association board of directors, volunteering on a variety of committees: Student and Parent Relations and serves as its chair, Nominating, Engagement and Heritage. “It has been a pleasure getting to know and work with so many different Wilson alumnae from many decades, while on the board of directors; it allows me to continue my ‘Wilson experience’ in new ways. I am also able to give back to Wilson from all she has given me!”

Dorothy M. Van Brakle ’06 & ’09 attended Wilson as a non-traditional student and received a bachelor’s degree in business management after completing an associate’s degree in 2006. Her 30-year tenure at Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pa. has culminated in her current role as the chief of logistics division in the Directorate of Public Works, where she supervises 130 employees. She serves as an alumnae Trustee from the Alumnae Association to the College board of trustees.

Van Brakle is a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Special Emphasis Program committee and the manager of the depot’s Minority College Relations Program. She also serves on the Elm Street Board of Directors in Chambersburg and belongs to the Federal Managers Association, the Federally Employed Women Organization, and the National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees.

Wilson College Alumnae Association of Wilson College 1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, Pa. 17201-1285

NOMINEES FOR ELECTION TO THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION BOARD SLATE 2014-2017 SECRETARY Patricia M. Keffer '96

ALUMNAE TRUSTEE Dorothy M. Van Brakle '06 & '09 DIRECTORS Samantha Ainuddin '94 Cynthia Fink Barber '73 Rita Handwerk Fisk '64 Karen McMullen Freeman '76 Lorrie Rejonis Trader '05 Jacqueline Elder Murren '69 Susan Graham Mowen '97 NOMINATING REPRESENTATIVE Leslie Hickland Hanks '70

D VOTE FOR D VOTE AGAINST

_____________________________________________ Name/Class Year

_____________________________________________ Date

Vote online at www.wilson.edu/nominees before June 6, 2014.

— last —

word A NIGHT AS

THE PHOENIX

A

s I pulled on bright yellow tights for the first time in my life, I told myself, “I am doing this for Wilson.”

Once I finished putting on the rest of the costume, from the feathery tail to the bulky head, I transformed into the Phoenix, the mascot of Wilson’s athletics teams. I clomped up the Gannett Field House stairs in the mascot’s oversized feet to cheer on the women’s basketball team as best I could.

Wilson has not had a student perform as the mascot for a long period of time, something athletic director Lori Frey hopes to rectify in the future by recruiting a student to wear the costume. On this wintry night, I wore the Phoenix in order to share the experience with readers and to encourage a student to step into the role. I always had cheered on my high school’s basketball teams—girls and boys—from the stands, but I had never served as a mascot or cheerleader. From my one night as the Phoenix, I came away with an appreciation of how much fun it is to be a mascot.

The College has rules to follow while in the costume, such as not speaking to the fans, but how much I cheered and how I did it was left up to me. During the player introductions, I stood on the court and slapped hands with Wilson’s players and then I moved to the sidelines. Following the expression, “Go big or go home,” I shook my tail feathers, waved my wings, clapped, covered the “eyes” of the mask in disbelief at referee calls I did not like, and generally tried through body language to cheer on the action even though I could see little of it through the mask’s eyehole beneath the beak.

During timeouts, I danced along the bleachers to the music playing over the loudspeakers, trying my best to fire up the small crowd. I gave high fives to those in the front rows, several of whom I recognized from around campus as professors or students. Still, despite my desire, the best I could manage were a few dance moves picked up from participation in the occasional Zumba class at the gym. As the night wore on, the heat of the costume intensified.

PHOTOS BY JAMES BUTTS

I picked the perfect night to attend because I got to cheer on Vanessa Whitfield ’14 on her way to setting Wilson’s single-game scoring record of 49 points (see page 32) in the team’s 72-64 victory over Valley Forge Christian. Her feat also set a new mark for players in the North Eastern Athletic Conference Wilson has tremendous student-athletes, playing their best for the enjoyment of the sport and the camaraderie of their teammates. They deserve to hear the cheers. Being the Phoenix is worth it—even with bright yellow tights.

Ben Ford

64 wilson magazine

GIVE A

GIFT BRICK Remember your parents, spouse, friend, classmate, professor or even your favorite horse on the Wilson College Commemorative Brick Pathway. Your gift brick will be personalized and permanently set into the beautiful pathway. This is an excellent way to memorialize someone important to you.

For $100, purchase a gift that lasts.

WWW.WILSON.EDU/GIFT-BRICK or call 717-262-2010, ext. 3182, with any questions.

1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285

As a student, Alisa Marie Fogelman Beyer ’89 was inspired by the successes of Wilson’s women in the business world. Since then, she has founded her own successful companies. Story on Page 22.