Wilson Magazine Winter 2016

e on sid ni In eu rt ok r R nse Lo ou 6 I r Y 01 fo 2

reimagined

A leap of faith revives the John Stewart Memorial Library

Sculpture Shows Wild Side | Outstanding Lenfest Challenge A Landmark Lacrosse Legacy | Poverty Perception | Holding Tuition volume 88 | WINTER 2016 | number 4

THE WILSON FUND

SUPPORTING STUDENTS 923 40% 96% Undergraduate Graduate Adult Degree STUDENTS

First-Generation Traditional Undergraduate STUDENTS

Undergraduate STUDENTS Receive Institutional Aid

MAKE AN IMPACT TODAY WITH YOUR GIFT wilson.edu/makeagift

volume 88 | WINTER 2016 | number 4

FEATURES

10

10 “An Inspired Leap of Faith”

By Cathy Mentzer The generosity of hundreds of donors and the collective determination of the Wilson community revive the John Stewart Memorial Library as the heart of the campus once again.

18 A Walk on the Wild Side

By Coleen Dee Berry Built with the help of more than 100 volunteers, artist Patrick Dougherty’s sculpture on the campus green delights the community.

24 Undefeated

By Coleen Dee Berry In 1975, the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Touring Team accomplished the extraordinary—and Wilson women played a key role in the landmark achievement.

AROUND THE GREEN 30 Stepping Into Someone Else’s Shoes First-year students take lessons to heart during a poverty simulation.

32 Harmonizing Once Again Elisabeth Turchi returns to Wilson and reboots the art of a cappella.

34 Research Relationships Shippensburg interns discover inspiring stories at Hankey Center.

36 A Wilson Perspective Wilson student-athletes voice their views on NCAA proposals.

ALUMNAE/I 39 Alumnae Association AAWC President’s letter; Silver Lining Fund; 5K walk/run; AAWC trips.

42 Class Notes 62 In Memoriam

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DEPARTMENTS

24

03 Wilson News Wilson holds line on tuition; Women with Children program expands to include single fathers; Lenfest challenge a success; nursing program partners with Widener University for new online program; Orr Forum and Confronting Climate Change announce spring lecture schedules; Fulton Farm finalizes composting agreement with Volvo.

02 Letter from the Editor

08 Alumnae/i News Donor Dinner photos; alumnae/i represent Wilson; Delia Velculescu ’97

appointed IMF mission chief to Greece; an alumna celebrates the century mark.

38 Hidden History

By Sheila Joy Kathryn C. Keller ’40 created a written language for the Chontal people of Mexico.

64 Last Word Chambersburg resident Alice Elia recounts her volunteer experience helping to build A Walk on the Wild Side with artist Patrick Dougherty.

ON THE COVER The rededication of the John Stewart Memorial Library.

STAFF

WILSON MAGAZINE COMMITTEE Coleen Dee Berry, Managing Editor Mary F. Cramer ’91, Alumnae Association President Amy Ensley, Director of the Hankey Center Marybeth Famulare, Director of Alumnae/i Relations Lisbeth Sheppard Luka ’69, Alumnae Association Cathy Mentzer, Manager of Media Relations and College Editor Camilla Rawleigh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Jeremy Shepherd, Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Communications Brian Speer, Vice President for Marketing and Communications Kendra Tidd, Graphic Designer Courtney D. Wolfe ’12, Class Notes Coordinator Judy Kreutz Young ’63, Alumnae Association 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. 17201-1279, 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.

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 Office of Alumnae/i Relations alumnae@wilson.edu 717-262-2010 www.wilson.edu/alumnae

— letter from the —

editor Happy 2016 to all!

PHOTO BY JAMES BUTTS

Brian Speer Executive Editor Coleen Dee Berry Managing Editor Kendra Tidd Design Cathy Mentzer College Editor Courtney D. Wolfe ’12 Class Notes Coordinator Contributing Writers Coleen Dee Berry, Gina Gallucci-White, Sheila Joy, Cathy Mentzer, Jeremy Shepherd, Brian Speer Contributing Photographers James Butts, Flip Chalfont, Fred Field, Daniel Glazier '19, Matt Lester, Cathy Mentzer, Kendra Tidd Cover Photo by: Fred Field

Even though it’s been the better part of four months since the rededication celebration, every time my path on campus takes me past the John Stewart Memorial Library and Patrick Dougherty’s A Walk on the Wild Side sculpture, I find myself smiling. The memories of the library rededication on Oct. 23 are still strong—the blue skies and warm weather, the first amazing glimpses inside the library and learning commons, the whimsy of the completed sculpture and most of all, the joyful spirit present in all the alumnae/i, students, parents, faculty, staff and community members who came to campus that day. Those happy remembrances can cut through any winter gloom.

This issue of Wilson Magazine features stories of the success of both the Reimagining the John Stewart Library project and the Patrick Dougherty sculpture. Once again, a key element runs through both stories—community. More than 100 volunteers from the Wilson campus and the surrounding community came together to help build A Walk on the Wild Side. More than 750 donors generously contributed to the library fund to make the renovations and the new learning commons a reality. “There is on this campus a shared sense of ‘we can do this,’ especially when it is something that speaks to our core mission,” Professor of English Larry Shillock says in the feature story, “An Inspired Leap of Faith.” Wonderful things happen when the Wilson community collectively rolls up its sleeves and gets to work!

You will also find an inspiring story about a little-known, but mighty, women’s lacrosse team and the role of Wilson women in its achievement. Read about Wilson’s returning choir director, the impact of an eye-opening poverty exercise on campus and the work of interns at the Hankey Center. Those who are interested in Reunion Weekend 2016 will find the brochure and registration form inside. News items of note include the decision to hold the line once again on tuition, a change to the College’s Women with Children program and the results of the Lenfest Wilson Today fundraising challenge.

If you find yourself on campus in the next few months, be sure to visit the library and view the sculpture just outside its historic front door. You’ll be sure to come away with a smile.

Read on—and enjoy!

Coleen Dee Berry Managing Editor

Editor’s Note: The address for the Women’s National Republican Club in New York City is 3 W. 51st St. The location was incorrect in the fall 2015 magazine article on Robin Weaver ’76.

You can read Wilson Magazine online at:

www.wilson.edu/wilsonmag

FPO

Class notes are not published online for privacy reasons.

If you would like to receive a PDF of the class notes, please email Wilson Magazine at mag@wilson.edu.

PHOTO BY FLIP CHALFONT

WILSON NEWS

Wilson holds the line on undergraduate tuition for the sixth straight year, as overall enrollment continues to increase. The College had its largest traditional undergraduate enrollment this fall since 1973.

WILSON HOLDS UNDERGRADUATE TUITION

FOR SIXTH STRAIGHT YEAR

R

eaffirming its commitment to college affordability and value, the Wilson College Board of Trustees voted at its October 2015 meeting to hold the line on tuition for traditional undergraduate students for 2016-17. The board agreed to the recommendation from President Barbara K. Mistick to hold tuition at the 2015-16 rate of $23,745 for the next academic year, making it the sixth consecutive year that Wilson has either held or reduced tuition for traditional undergraduates.

“It is critical for Wilson to do all we can to help reduce costs for our families,” said Mistick. “The expansion of our enrollment and success of the Wilson Today plan allow us to hold tuition in check, which helps keep student debt levels down as well.”

Along with the tuition freeze, the board held the housing fee steady while approving modest increases in fees for meal plans and technology of 5 and 10 percent, respectively, to cover direct increases in the College’s cost of providing the services. The overall result is that full-time, residential Wilson students will pay just $365 more—0.88 percent—next year for tuition and fees, for a total of $35,620.

Tuition for other students—including students enrolled in the adult degree and teacher intern programs, as well as graduate students—will increase between 3 and 6 percent beginning in fall 2016.

After three years with no tuition increases for traditional undergraduate students, the college reduced its tuition for those students by $5,000, or 17 percent, for the 2014-15 academic year as part of the Wilson Today plan, which also includes the creation of

a student debt buyback program that became available to qualified first-year students who enrolled beginning in fall 2014. The tuition reduction was followed by a freeze for traditional undergraduates for 2015-16 and now, again for 2016-17.

Prospective students and their families have responded enthusiastically to Wilson’s “value plan”—tuition affordability and the debt buyback program—according to the College’s admissions office. That is borne out by the increasing number of students enrolling at Wilson. This fall, Wilson’s overall enrollment increased by more than 21 percent over fall 2014, with a 15 percent increase in new students and the largest traditional, undergraduate enrollment since 1973.

Wilson’s commitment to affordability is being recognized in other ways: The College was ranked a leader among colleges offering quality academic programs at an affordable price, according to the 2016 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings. U.S. News placed Wilson fifth in the “best value” category for regional colleges in the North, listing the percent of Wilson students receiving need-based grants at 89.3 percent and placing the average cost of attending the college—after needbased grants (or scholarships) are factored in—at $19,952 a year.

In addition to the “best value” recognition from U.S. News, Wilson was also named a “tuition hero,” a designation given by the group of the same name that tracks higher education tuition rates. Any institution with a four-year compound annual tuition growth rate of 2.5% or less receives the designation.

—Cathy Mentzer

winter 2016 03

WILSON NEWS WILSON EXPANDS PROGRAM FOR MOTHERS WITH CHILDREN TO INCLUDE SINGLE FATHERS The College is expanding its acclaimed Women with Children program, which allows single mothers to live in campus housing with their children, to include single fathers with children. Wilson’s Board of Trustees voted on Oct. 24, 2015, to rename the program— which marks its 20th anniversary this year—the Wilson College Single Parent Scholar Program and to accept single fathers with children, effective immediately.

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW LESTER

The move completes the expansion of coeducation to all programs at the College and keeps Wilson in compliance under the federal Title IX law, which governs gender equity within education.

A recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that 26 percent of all undergraduate students are raising dependent children, including those who are married and single. Single mothers make up 43 percent of the total student-parent population, while single fathers make up 11 percent, according to the study.

Vice President for Student Development Mary Beth Williams said that during two campus forums held in August and September, Wilson students and staff expressed a desire to see the College expand the program. “Specifically, regarding the addition of men to the pro-

gram, all those who attended both forums were in favor of adding opportunities for single fathers,” she said.

At Wilson, 17 women and 18 children are enrolled in the program in the fall semester, living in two-room suites with private baths in Disert and Prentis Halls. The program is open to a maximum of 26 students, based on available space in the two residence halls. Students in the program may have up to two children who must be between the ages of 20 months and 12 years while their parent is enrolled in the program, according to Assistant Dean of Students Katie Kough, who oversees the program.

“Wilson’s Women with Children program has been a model within higher education and we look forward to continuing that legacy as we expand the program,” said Williams. “Giving single parents the opportunity for a residential college experience has benefits not only for the program’s students and their children, but also for the whole student population as well. The life experiences and perspectives that our single parents bring to campus life and the classroom enriches the Wilson experience for everyone.”

Wilson launched the Women with Children initiative, one of the first programs of its kind in the nation, in 1996 under the leadership of President Emerita Gwen Jensen, who was a strong proponent of the notion that single mothers would do better in college if they could reside on campus with their children. —CM

VOLVO PARTNERSHIP Francois Guetat, vice president and general manager of operations at Volvo Construction Equipment in Shippensburg, Pa., speaks at Wilson’s Fulton Farm on Nov. 12, announcing the company’s unique composting partnership with the College.

Volvo will send pre-kitchen waste from its cafeteria, which serves approximately 1,000 employees, to Fulton Farm, where it will be composted and reused on the fields. —Coleen Dee Berry

04 wilson magazine

PHOTOS BY CATHY MENTZER

WITH FULTON FARM ANNOUNCED

LENFEST MATCH BOOSTS WILSON FUND The Wilson Fund is off to its best start in years, thanks in large measure to a $500,000 matching gift from Marguerite Brooks Lenfest ’55.

Through the Lenfest Wilson Today Challenge, gifts and pledges made to the 2015-16 Wilson Fund from Nov. 16-18, 2015, were tripled until the $500,000 level was reached.

The challenge was completed in three days and more than $884,000 was raised from 578 donors, according to Vice President for Institutional Advancement Camilla Rawleigh.

The fundraising goal for the 2015-16 Wilson Fund is $1.1 million.

“We’re extremely grateful to Marguerite for her gift and just thrilled by the reaction of the community,” Rawleigh said.

A total of 468 alumnae and alumni representing classes from 1939 through 2011 were among the challenge donors, along with Wilson employees and friends of the College. A total of 203 donors who had given to the Wilson Fund previously increased their gifts during the challenge. “[Lenfest] wanted to applaud the good work of the Wilson Today plan, but her overarching goal with these matches is

to incentivize others to give,” Rawleigh said. “Matches seem to work extremely well in this community.”

Last year, Lenfest helped the 2014-15 Wilson Fund reach its goal of $1 million—the first time the Wilson Fund goal was met in seven years—by providing a $300,000 challenge that doubled other donors’ gifts. This year, she provided the challenge to express her ongoing confidence in the college leadership and commemorate the third year of the Wilson Today plan, which was adopted by the Board of Trustees in January 2013, Rawleigh said.

Gifts to the Wilson Fund are unrestricted, which is vitally important. “Unrestricted giving touches every aspect of campus life,” said Rawleigh, adding that the fund is used for everything from operations and supplies to scholarships.

Fundraising for the 2015-16 Wilson Fund will continue through June 30, 2016. “The success of the Lenfest Wilson Today Challenge so early in the year lets us now focus on working to exceed our goal for the year, increasing the impact of the fund on the lives of our students,” said Rawleigh. —CM

"RETURN OF THE APOCALYPTIC" LECTURES CONTINUE THIS SPRING The spring session of the Orr Forum will continue its exploration of how the concept of the apocalypse is interpreted with a series of lectures beginning in February.

A History of Modern Evangelicalism, Jerry Falwell and the Rise of the Religious Right and Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America.

David True, Orr Forum director, noted while the apocalyptic has often been dismissed as the concern of only a few “primitives,” modern society currently is inundated with apocalyptic visions, both religious and secular. “It seems that that apocalyptic has returned, if it ever went away, and that for all the anxiety about the future, the apocalyptic is a force here and now,” True said in his description of the lecture series.

The Orr Forum Common Hour discussions will be held at 11 a.m.

Tuesdays during the spring semester. Speakers and topics will include:

Matthew Sutton, keynote speaker for the spring forum, will present two lectures on Tuesday, March 29: Preparing for Doomsday at 11 a.m. and American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism at 6:30 p.m.

Sutton is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of History at Washington State University. He is currently working on a new book tentatively entitled FDR’s Army of Faith: Religion and Espionage in World War II. He is the author of American Apocalypse:

• A Front-Row Seat for the Apocalypse: Fundamentalists and Filmmakers Imagine the End-times by Larry Shillock of Wilson College on Feb. 9.

• Jihadism and the Modern Apocalyptic by Megan Adamson Sijapati of Gettysburg College on Feb. 23.

• Yearning for the End of All Things: Who Wants That and Why? by Lee Barrett of Lancaster Theological Seminary on March 9.

• Millenarianism and the Refusal to Plan by Brad Littlejohn of Davenant Trust on April 12.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, go to www.wilson.edu/orr-forum. —CDB

winter 2016 05

ALUMNA-PRODUCED FILM CHOSEN FOR SUNDANCE FESTIVAL Equity, an independent film with Candace Straight ’69 as executive producer, was chosen to compete at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January. The film’s plot follows a female senior investment banker who is threatened by financial scandal and must untangle a web of corruption.

Straight, who happens to work as an investment-banking consultant specializing in the insurance industry, calls Equity “the first female-driven Wall Street film.” The film was one of 16 full-length features premiering in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, Straight said.

Directed by Meera Menon, Equity stars Anna Gunn, a two-time Emmy winner for her starring role in “Breaking Bad,” Alysia Reiner of “Orange is the New Black,” Sarah Megan Thomas of “Backwards” and British actor James Purefoy, who starred in the Fox TV drama, “The Following.”

The festival, sponsored by the Sundance Institute founded by Robert Redford, is an important showcase for independent films and provides filmmakers with distribution opportunities.

Equity, which is produced by Broad Street Pictures, had its world premiere at Sundance on Tuesday, Jan. 26. Anyone interested in the film can follow it on Facebook at wilson.edu/EquityFB. —CDB

WILSON MSN PROGRAM ENTERS UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP WITH WIDENER UNIVERSITY Wilson College has entered into a partnership with Widener University to provide Wilson Master of Nursing (MSN) graduates advanced entry into an online nurse practitioner program. The nurse practitioner (NP) field is among the fastest growing areas in the high-demand nursing arena and Wilson MSN students now have an advantage in entering the nurse practitioner field.

Most nurse practitioner programs are available only onsite at the schools that offer them, resulting in few options for working registered nurses in the central Pennsylvania region. The Widener agreement, which is open only to Wilson MSN graduates, provides a unique advantage to Wilson students by transferring credit between programs and, unlike most online NP programs, provides graduates with NP certification.

Under the new partnership, students who graduate with a Wilson MSN degree and have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average will be guaranteed admission to the 18-month Widener program. Enrolled students will work with a local preceptor—either a nurse practitioner or doctor—who will help guide the student’s studies and oversee hands-on learning experiences. Summit Health and Key-

06 wilson magazine

stone Health—two of the area’s largest healthcare providers—have been approved as preceptor sites.

Widener University is located near Philadelphia in Chester, Pa. The Widener School of Nursing offers a full range of nursing programs and is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

The nursing profession has evolved greatly in recent times, with nurses serving a critical role not just in hospitals and private medical practices, but also at urgent and long-term care facilities and community health centers, among others. NPs are advanced-practice registered nurses who are trained and educated to provide physical and mental care and maintenance to patients throughout their lifespan. They perform physical examinations; diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries; provide immunizations; manage high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and other chronic health problems; order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests; prescribe medications and therapies and educate and counsel patients and their families regarding healthy lifestyles and healthcare options.

—Brian Speer

WILSON NEWS CLIMATE CHANGE DISCUSSIONS SCHEDULED “Confronting Climate Change” discussions sponsored by the Global Citizens Fund will continue during the spring semester. The fund is a campus organization dedicated to supporting education about the multicultural world.

Two keynote speakers will be featured. The first, guest artist Alejandro Durán, will give a talk to open his exhibit at the John Stewart Memorial Library on Tuesday, March 22. Durán is a multimedia artist working in photography, installation and video. His work examines the tension between the natural world and an increasingly overdeveloped one.

The second keynote speaker, Maria Silvia Muylaert de Araujo, will lecture at Wilson’s Student Research Day on Friday, April 29. Her topic will be Mitigation of Climate Change: Working Group III Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, which will concentrate on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation. Muylaert is a member of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change and the Collaborative Program of the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change, coordinated by the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University.

Other talks on climate change will be held during the Common Hour at 11 a.m. Tuesdays. Speakers and topics include: • The Politics of Climate Change by Jill Hummer of Wilson College on Feb. 16.

• The Prospects for Preventing Dangerous Climate Changed After The Paris Accord by Don Brown of Widener University on March 1.

• Animals and the Anthropocene by John Elia of Wilson College on March 22.

• The Economics of Climate Change by Lawrence Knorr of Wilson College on April 5.

• Engaging Climate Conflict by Lisa Woolley of Wilson College on April 19.

All discussions are free and open to the public. For more information, go to www.wilson.edu/confronting-climate-change. —CDB

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARY

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

SERVICES CHIEF NAMED José Dieudonné recently joined the College in the newly created position of associate vice president for technology and library services.

Dieudonné, whose position was created under a $2 million federal Title III grant the College announced in fall 2014, supervises all aspects of the renovated John Stewart Memorial Library, as well as information technology and academic support services. He replaces former library director Kathleen Murphy, who most recently served as interim dean of library, information and technology services until her retirement in October 2015.

Dieudonné has a background in technology and libraries at other higher education institutions, including most recently at Point University in Georgia, where he served as vice president for technology and chief information officer for two years.

Previously, he was with Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., where he served for seven years as director of information technology before being promoted to vice president for library and information technology and chief information officer, a position he held for three years.

Dieudonné has three academic degrees, all from Arcadia University: a bachelor’s degree in computer science; a Master of Education degree in leadership and a Master of Business Administration in international business operations management. He has a number of technical certifications, including Certified Network Engineer, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Associate. —CM

NEWS

IN BRIEF

WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM GETS SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD The Wilson women’s soccer team was recently honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Wilson was one of eight intercollegiate soccer teams to receive the platinum designation within the NSCAA's College Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award.

The platinum award is given by the NSCAA to women’s and men’s soccer teams that completed the entire 2015 season without receiving a single yellow caution or red ejection card.

In all, 83 teams received either the platinum, gold, silver or bronze version of the award, which recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the rules of the game. —CDB

winter 2016 07

ALUMNAE/I NEWS MARY CLINKSCALES WHITE ’38

JOINS 100 CLUB M

Left, Mary Clinkscales White ’38 at 100. Her Wilson yearbook photograph is at right.

PHOTOS BY FRED FIELD

ary Clinkscales White ’38 celebrated her 100th birthday this past October in Marietta, Ga. Though her career path eventually led her to the Centers for Disease Control, she once modestly described herself to the College’s alumnae/i relations department as “a late bloomer.”

After raising two children and working at a number of office jobs, White began studying statistics in her 40s. She received a master’s degree in statistics from Emory University in 1960 and went on to become a statistician for the CDC in Atlanta. “I had a fascinating career assisting doctors in their investigations of epidemics nationwide,” White wrote in a letter prior to her 60th reunion in 1998. “I finally retired when I turned 70.”

White came to Wilson from Montgomery, Ala., and received a bachelor’s degree in humanities. Her aunt, Elizabeth Gilreath, taught physical education at Wilson when she was a student here.

In her retirement, White has kept busy with oil painting, gardening (including bonsai) and bridge. Her son, Lamar White Jr., reports that she remains in “good health and good spirits.”

DONOR RECOGNITION DINNER More than 175 donors, trustees, parents, students attended the annual Donor Recognition Dinner held the evening of Oct. 23, concluding a celebratory day that saw the rededication of the John Stewart Memorial Library and the "unveiling" of the sculpture, A Walk on the Wild Side. Pictured: Wilson scholarship recipients who attended the dinner and at right, scholarship recipient Krista DeWald �16 with Ray Anderson, professor emeritus of religion studies.

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REPRESENTING WILSON In 2015, Wilson alumnae represented their alma mater and Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick during 14 inaugural events across the country: For Fall 2015: Betty Lou Leedom Thompson ’60 attended the inauguration of Mark C. Reed, Ed.D., as the 28th president of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, on Sept. 18.

Kathleen Keenan Riddle ’68 attended the inauguration of Mary K. Grant, Ph.D., as the seventh chancellor of the University of North Carolina in Asheville, N.C., on Sept. 19.

Joan Riden Suriano ’53 attended the inauguration of Algeania Marie Warren Freeman, Ph.D., as the 20th president of Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, on Sept. 25.

RoseMarie Becci Butz ’58 attended the inauguration of John S. Pistole, J.D., as the fifth president of Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., on Oct. 2.

Maureen Atwell ’95 attended the inauguration of Mark A. Mone, Ph.D., as the ninth president of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee on Oct. 2.

Patricia A.W. Bennett ’68 attended the inauguration of Colleen M. Hanycz, Ph.D., as the 29th president of La Salle University in Philadelphia, on Oct. 9.

Mary Jane Fischer ’69 attended the inauguration of Valerie Smith, Ph.D., as the 15th president of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa., on Oct. 3.

Gretchen Sahler Patterson ’68 attended the inauguration of Laurie L. Patton, Ph.D., as the 17th president of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., on Oct. 11.

Rhona Applebaum ’76 attended the inauguration of the Rev. Dr. Leanne Van Dyk, Ph.D., as the 10th president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., on Oct. 28.

Cynthia Dimmick Grove ’63 attended the inauguration of D.E. Lorraine Sterritt, Ph.D., as the 20th president of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, N.C., on April 24.

Betty Lou Leedom Thompson ’60 attended the inauguration of Donald Generals, Ed.D., as the sixth president of the Community College of Philadelphia on May 1.

Carol Schaaf Heppner ’64 attended the inauguration of Mary C. Finger, Ed.D., as the 10th president of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., on May 1.

Please convey my thanks to the Wilson community, and especially Barbara, for the opportunity to represent Wilson...

This [inauguration] was very inspirational as well as spiritual.”

— Rhona Applebaum '76 Jacqueline Mason ’78 attended the inauguration of Donald A. Crutcher, Ph.D., as the 10th president of the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va., on Oct. 30.

For Spring 2015: Carol Wirt Burke ’53 attended the inauguration of Marylou Nancy Yam, Ph.D., as the 14th president of Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore on April 17.

In addition, Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick attended the inaugurations of Sheila C. Bair, J.D., as the 28th president of Washington College in Chestertown, Md., on Sept. 26 and also of G.F. “Jody” Harpster, Ph.D., as 16th president of Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pa., on Oct.2.

DELIA VELCULESCU ’97 NAMED IMF MISSION CHIEF IN GREECE In 2015, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) named Wilson alumna Delia Velculescu ’97 the organization’s mission chief in financially troubled Greece.

Since 2010, Greece has been grappling with a national debt crisis. To avert calamity, the so-called “troika”—the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission—helped forge three monetary bailouts for Greece over the past five years.

Velculescu is now leading the IMF’s negotiation team in Greece and is the one assessing the country’s financial affairs on the IMF’s behalf. She is one of four international representatives who have been working to determine the Greek economy’s long-term growth rate and the factors that affect it.

Since joining the International Monetary Fund in 2002, Velculescu has been involved in numerous assignments, including fiscal analyses of Italy, Poland, Mexico and Peru, and the development of international debt relief initiatives for low-income countries.

She is the former mission chief of the IMF’s Cyprus office. Her published research has included topics such as: growth-enhancing structural reforms, pension systems in the EU, population aging and cross-border and global effects, and intergenerational habit formation.

Velculescu was born in Sibiu, Transylvania, in Romania. In 1992, she earned a scholarship to study economics at Wilson and later earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

winter 2016 09

An "Inspired Leap of Community and vision restore the John Stewart Memorial Library as the heart of campus

by Cathy Mentzer Photos by Fred Field

I

t’s been said that we need a “third place” in our lives—a space for community and interaction that is neither home or work.

These third places, discussed in such books as Harvard Professor Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, are spaces where people congregate and build community. Convening places.

Third places can be cafés, parks, clubs, even barbershops. And libraries.

“People need a third place. They need a place where they can do intellectual exploration, but also to convene with each other,” said President Barbara K. Mistick. “That’s what the library is going to be for us. It’s going to be a big place to build community.”

Wilson’s renovated and expanded John Stewart Memorial Library was rededicated at a jubilant, campus-wide celebration held Friday, Oct. 23—90 years after the original Stewart Library was dedicated. It officially opened three months later, in time for the spring 2016 semester.

Thanks to the Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project, the restored 1925 Stewart library building is again a jewel of the campus and the new learning commons, with its gleaming stone and glass façade and wide open spaces, is welcoming students to a different kind of library—one that serves as a hub of activity yet still functions as a place for study and reflection.

The completion of the project is not only a milestone for Wilson College—it’s a bellwether, according to Professor of English Larry Shillock. “I think it’s a historic moment, actually,” he said. “It’s a fitting symbol for the next 10 years of this college. It’s going to have a wonderful impact on all of us.”

Students are excited about having a traditional library—Sarah’s Coffeehouse temporarWilson President Barbara K. Mistick, right, ily served that function for more than four greets visitors at the library rededication. years—for the first time since the spring 2011 semester. The Class of 2015 graduated without

of Faith"

ever setting foot in the library and for the Class of 2016, the consensus is that “it has been a little challenging at times,” according to Class of 2016 President Katelyn Wingerd.

“I think having that one space on campus is probably what we missed the most—just that one place that’s completely dedicated to academics and learning and research.”

“I like that each room has a stack (of books) in it,” Adele Reinoehl ’18 said at the rededication. “I’m a real book person—forget the e-books! I have to open it, hold it in my hand and smell that great book smell to get the reading experience. So I love that all the books are back. And I really like the way they have merged the old with the new, that they were able to keep the old building and join it to the learning commons.”

exactly what we’re going to see here. We’re going to see more use of the library—physical use, more people in the library, but we’re also going to see more circulation of materials as well. That has been my experience.”

Months of detailed planning went into the library project, with the programming needs of today’s users in mind, as well as the changing ways patrons use libraries today.

In addition to spaces for quiet, heads-down study, the library houses reading areas and a children’s space; classrooms; conference, work and study rooms; a commuter lounge where adult students can hang out and relax; an art gallery, café and college store; and an outdoor plaza where professors can convene classes on pleasant days or members of the campus community might gather

Wilson Trustee Betty Lou Leedom Thompson �60, left, addresses those gathered for the John Stewart Memorial Library rededication ceremony.

Mistick, who oversaw the construction and renovation of several libraries during the 10 years she headed Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library System before coming to Wilson, predicts a surge in library use. “I found that with every library we (built or renovated) in Pittsburgh, the minute that the library was finished, our number of cardholders would go up. Our circulation would go up. I think that’s

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to hear a lecturer or musical performance.

Staff offices and the academic support center will also be housed in the library.

“This is intended to be a core facility at the heart of the campus,” said principal architect Benedict Dubbs of Murray Associates Architects, Harrisburg. “I think it will totally transform the campus for a long, long time.”

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he story of the renovation and expansion of the John Stewart Memorial Library goes well beyond programming and construction. With all of the issues that swirled around the project—the magnitude of need, the urgency, the setbacks and achievements, and the timing [both bad and good]—the “reimagined” library is already becoming part of Wilson College legend.

It began in 2011 as a full-blown crisis, when the original library building’s interior basement walls had started to actually crumble after a massive heating system failure—and at a time when the College was welcoming a new president. Shortly after she arrived in July 2011, Mistick made her first major decision in closing the Stewart Library.

Its functions were moved to Sarah’s Coffeehouse, with book collections housed off campus and a retrieval system put into place. The College also provided students with increased access to online databases and virtual books and periodicals.

As the process of deciding how to deal with the library unfolded—whether to undertake a major capital improvement project shortly after the completion of the Leading with Confidence fundraising campaign—the College was in the midst of a tumultuous time of change, with the library serving at times as a point of disagreement. Yet just one month after the Board of Trustees approved the Wilson Today plan that would usher in a new era at the College, Marguerite Brooks Lenfest ’55 pledged a $3.6 million matching gift toward the $12 million project and ultimately, the library campaign became a resounding success. From start to finish, it took four and a half years.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this, to be honest,” said Camilla Rawleigh, vice president for institutional advancement, who directed the fundraising effort for the Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project after joining Wilson in August 2012.

By all accounts, one of the most remarkable aspects of the library project is the number

of people—Wilson family and friends, primarily—who made financial contributions.

An unheard-of 750 donors gave $12,225,431 for the project. “My guess is it’s probably as many individual donors as have ever given to a single [Wilson] project,” Rawleigh said.

“It almost tripled the number of individual donors to the [Brooks] science center.”

The collective determination of the Wilson community was on full display throughout the library project, which was made all the more daunting because of a mandate from the Board of Trustees that $10 million of the $12 million price tag be in hand before construction could begin.

“It was an amazing effort,” said Kathleen Murphy, who retired in October after serving as library director for 16 years.

“What’s really dramatic about it is the way the alums stepped up to the plate for that building so that it could be built and paid for before the doors opened. That doesn’t happen very often.”

The largest gifts to the library came from three alumnae/philanthropists—an initial $1.1 million from Thérèse “Terry” Murray Goodwin ’49, a matching gift of $3.6 million from Marguerite Lenfest ’55, and gifts totaling more than $3.6 million from Sue Davison Cooley ’44. Theirs were the largest gifts, but certainly not the only noteworthy contributions.

“One of the most extraordinary things was the number of reunion classes that designated their gifts to the library,” said Rawleigh.

Among them was the Class of 1964, whose 50th reunion gift of $101,964 was the largest reunion gift in the history of the College.

The Class of 1963 wasn’t far behind, making its reunion gift to the library of $80,550. And the Class of 1966 has already designated a reunion gift of $50,000 for the library.

“I think it was love of their alma mater,” Rawleigh said of the fundraising response. “People understood the magnitude of the need.”

˙Pane-staking˙ Work One of the signature architectural features of the original John Stewart Memorial Library is the 16 soaring Gothic, diamond-paned, leaded glass windows. Thousands of 5-by-5-inch diamond-shaped panes make up these two-story windows—and many had been cracked or broken over the years.

R.S. Mowery & Sons, contractor for Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library renovation project, turned to Allegheny Restoration and Builders of Morgantown, W.Va., for help in restoring the windows. Allegheny stained and leaded glass restoration expert Amanda Morrow went to work assessing and repairing the original library windows.

Morrow, who has her own stained glass studio in Ohio, was faced with the gargantuan task of not only repairing the broken diamond panes, but also replacing the windows’ wooden frames, restoring the cement and leading for the glass panes, and caulking the windows. The 16 large, arched window bays were not the only features in need of attention—many of the smaller, leaded glass casement windows in the original library building had similar problems.

One unique challenge of the library, Morrow said, was that “most leaded glass windows have wooden frames that can be removed for repair, but many of the windows here were built right into the masonry. So there was a lot of scaffolding work involved.”

Leaded glass restoration expert Amanda Morrow repairs a

window in the library.

To replace the most damaged of the diamond panes, Morrow used fused kiln glass by Paul Wissmach Art Glass from Paden City, W.Va., and also did some repurposing. One of the smaller windows had been damaged when an air conditioning unit was set inside it at one time.

Workers replaced that window with standard pane glass and Morrow then used the leftover diamond panes in her repair work.

The job took Morrow close to five months, with help from her assistant, Casey Young, and husband Derrick Smith, who also works for Allegheny as a carpenter. “The windows really are a key feature in the old part of the library and I am happy that I could help with their restoration,” Morrow said.

—Coleen Dee Berry

Rawleigh first addressed the campus community about the library fundraising effort

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PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

at an all-campus forum in fall 2012—just as the Commission on Shaping the Future of Wilson College was holding sometimes

P

eople really answered the call.

And I think they did in a way that was very, very powerful.”

– Camilla Rawleigh,

And soon, donors started stepping up, providing much-needed momentum for the project. “People really answered the call,” said Rawleigh. “And I think they did in a way that was very, very powerful.”

contentious public meetings outlining early parameters of the Wilson Today plan. It was an uneasy time, with the Great Recession affecting many and the Leading with Confidence campaign having ended not long before.

One of the most pivotal moments for the library project was Lenfest’s $3.6 matching gift, which came in February 2013—only one month after the Board adopted the Wilson Today plan with its expansion of coeducation. “Once Marguerite came forward with her match, I think people who’d been sitting on the sidelines started to come around,” Rawleigh said.

vice president for institutional advancement

Among those who came away from the campus forum somewhat skeptical, Shillock now calls the decision to move forward with the library renovation and expansion “an inspired leap of faith.”

Visitors in the brighter, more colorful lower level of the original library building.

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But having worked at the College for 20 years, he had seen the indomitable will of the Wilson community before. “There is on this campus a shared sense of ‘we can do this,’ especially when it is something that speaks to our core mission,” Shillock said, adding, “I was really interested in what a 21st-century library would look like and I think the president was tremendously well-positioned, because of her previous experience, to help the College produce one.”

“We knew it needed to be done, but my heavens … ” Shillock said. “That’s not an auspicious moment to begin something.”

Still, the project would face detours on its long road to completion. After initially approving the idea of tearing down an outdated, 1960s library annex, the Board wanted to step back and review the options for

moving forward. Some members wanted to reuse the annex to keep costs down, while others agreed with the administration’s recommendation to raze and rebuild. “[Board members] really felt the need to be satisfied that it was a project that was within the scope of what we could afford to do,” said Mistick, who was convinced that the annex would never meet the needs of today’s educators and students.

After numerous presentations, cost-savings analyses and careful consideration of all options, the Board voted at its February 2014 meeting to release funding to tear down the annex and build the learning commons. Just before that vote, a dramatic $1.2 million gift was pledged by Cooley—her second in a

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nce the final design was approved, the College moved quickly, hiring contractor R. S. Mowery & Sons of Mechanicsburg as general contractor. Mowery, which had served in the same capacity for the Brooks Complex, began preliminary work, including demolition and excavation, in May 2014 and construction began that August, according to project manager Steve Switzer.

He said in total, approximately 350 people worked on the project over the course of the project, including employees from about two dozen subcontractors. “The maximum number of people who worked on the project at one time was probably around 70,” Switzer said.

stories about the stone used in the learning commons and the restoration of the leaded glass windows in the original building].

One involved how to line up the old and new buildings, while creating higher ceilings in the learning commons. To address the issue, the learning commons is situated so that its bottom floor is 30 inches lower than the original building. “We manipulated floors to get higher spaces [in the learning commons],” Dubbs said. “It was a challenge, but also a wonderful opportunity to make that connection work. It has a nice flow to it.”

The 1925 Stewart building still houses its historic bookcases and Gothic-inspired tables. But colorful, modern carpet tiles

Above, sunlight streams into the original Stewart library building during the rededication. Right, architect Benedict Dubbs leads a tour of the learning commons.

month and a twist of fate that quite possibly convinced the Board to move forward with the new learning commons.

“At the end of the day, what happens in all that process time is that everybody gets a chance to come along on the journey, and that’s really important,” said Mistick “That can be frustrating, but it’s important to let that process happen.”

Despite a frigid winter in 2014-15 and the need to pour concrete floors and cast-inplace concrete supports during that time, construction was able to move forward, thanks to reinforced plastic tenting, concrete “blankets” and temporary heaters to keep temperatures up while the concrete set. “We poured the structure from November through most of March,” said Switzer.

The library project included some interesting features and challenges [see related

were used in the building. “That was very intentional,” said Dubbs. “It was to bring some modern design elements into the lower level of the original building … so we would actually start to blend the two buildings together.”

Some of the most visible aspects of the restoration of the Stewart building are a new slate roof and the replacement of missing and/or damaged cast-stone turrets with finials, as well as restoration of the concrete

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Local Limestone One of the most talked-about features of Wilson’s renovated John Stewart Memorial Library is the limestone façade of the new learning commons.

Limestone was used to build many of the College’s iconic buildings—Warfield, Lortz and Thomson Halls and the original the Stewart library among them— but the learning commons limestone has a decidedly different look.

“The stonework is really beautiful,” said Olivia Noone ’18, echoing the sentiments of many other members of the campus community.

When workers began construction of the library’s learning commons, plans called for the limestone for the façade to be trucked from the same New York quarry that provided the stone for the Brooks Science Complex. The New York stone didn’t exactly match the limestone on the 1925 library building, but it wasn’t all that different either.

façade at the entrance and the use of more period-appropriate doors.

“I really feel that when you look at the building now, with all the restoration work, it’s very close to what it looked like in [1925],” Dubbs said.

The learning commons, on the other hand, has a different feel and, when the two are taken together, the space is irresistible. “It is contemporary space. It’s bright, it’s inviting,”

Masonry contractor Kurt Tolbert, whose company had faced the Brooks building and was hired for the stonework on the library, got an idea. “I said, ‘We’re putting this addition off the back of a building that was built in 1923.

They didn’t bring that stone out of New York. Why wouldn’t we get the stone right here in Franklin County?’” said Tolbert, vice president of Ralph E. Tolbert Masonry Inc., Chambersburg.

Tolbert knew of only one local quarry—known as the Williamson Quarry—that, although closed for many years, had the right kind of stone. He approached the owners of the Williamson Quarry and was granted permission to send his men to the quarry, where a small team of masons spent about eight months using carbide chisels and three-pound hammers to cut the stone into rectangular and square shapes for the ashlar pattern used on the façade.

The limestone façade of the original library, at left, contrasts with the limestone on the learning commons.

Tolbert presented samples of the Willliamson limestone to lead architect Benedict Dubbs of Murray Associates Architects, Harrisburg, not expecting Dubbs to approve it. “It’s a little darker, deeper blue,” said Tolbert.

But Dubbs loved it. “I thought the texture was beautiful, I think the color is beautiful,” said Dubbs. “Over time it will lighten and become much more like Stewart and Warfield.”

According to Tolbert, 2,408 man hours went into cutting and facing the approximately 155 tons of limestone needed for the learning commons and plaza walls.

By quarrying and facing the stone locally, Tolbert was not only able to begin construction earlier, but also to save money because the material didn’t have to be transported a great distance, and only stone that had already been faced was brought to the construction site. This also meant that no waste from the facing process had to be hauled away.

“People love that story,” Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick said of how the limestone was obtained. “I think it’s just wonderful. It’s really about listening to craftsmen and I think that’s something that, from my perspective, happens in smaller communities.”

—Cathy Mentzer

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Mistick said. “People are going to want to be there. That just makes a huge difference.”

The library is brightly lit, using a combination of energy-saving LED lighting and fluorescent lights. At least some of the lights will be left on at night so the library “will glow like a beacon at the center of campus,” Dubbs said.

At the October rededication ceremony, students, faculty, staff and alumni exploring it for the first time gave the library an emphatic stamp of approval. “I’ll have to come back and see what it is like here when the students are using it, to see if they will make good use of this wonderful space that they have been given,” Rose Gerke ’59 said.

“It certainly is a beautiful facility,” added her friend, Jane Fox ’59.

For sophomore Bassil Andijani, the library is a pleasing combination of old and new, but more importantly, it provides something that had been missing on campus. “I think this will help create a great, serious study atmosphere at Wilson. You didn’t get that, that much at the coffeehouse,” he said.

Students and faculty are especially excited about how the library will strengthen the academic program, according to Shillock.

“The president talks about it as the beating heart of the institution,” he said. “It’s also the working brain of our community. It’s where ideas wait to be mobilized.”

The library will be overseen by Murphy’s replacement, Associate Vice President for Technology and Library Services José Dieudonné. Dieudonné’s position, created under a $2 million federal Title III grant the College announced in fall 2014, supervises information technology and academic support services, as well as the library.

– Benedict Dubbs, lead architect

time staffer, will work evenings and weekends, along with trained student workers.

Although today’s libraries rely heavily on online databases and ebooks, Dieudonne plans to add to the library’s collection – judiciously. He said he will consult with students and especially faculty to develop what he calls “patron-driven acquisitions”

of books that will be more useful companions to courses and as research tools. But he is quick to add, “[The library is] not there to build collections. We’re going to build community in that building. It’s an exciting moment.” W Coleen Dee Berry contributed to this article.

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

The library is open every day from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and during finals, it will stay open until 2 a.m., according to Dieudonne, who said the learning commons assistant, a full-

T

his is intended to be a core facility at the heart of the campus. I think it will totally transform the campus for a long, long time.”

Above, the main entrance to the learning commons and surrounding outdoor plaza. Left, President Barbara K. Mistick and Wilson Trustees cut a ceremonial ribbon to mark the completion of the library project.

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a

walk

PHOTOS BY KENDRA TIDD

on the

18 wilson magazine

Wild

by Coleen Dee Berry

Artist Patrick Dougherty’s creation on the Wilson campus embodies community spirit

F

or three weeks in October, mystery and anticipation reigned on Wilson’s campus green, as internationally renowned artist Patrick Dougherty

and an eager band of volunteers set to work

Side

creating a unique sculpture armed with bundles of sticks cut from local willow, elm and silver maple saplings.

What shape would Dougherty’s sculpture take? The environmental artist who bends and weaves sticks into art installations that resemble whimsical huts, dancing bottles and windswept castles, said even he wasn’t sure of the exact design until he began work at Wilson.

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“It evolved from the first three days. Oftentimes you can’t take the full measure of a site until you’ve spent some time there,” Dougherty said. “Finding the right scale for the site is contingent on spending time there.

Sometimes you find maybe you overthought things—you thought too big or too small. But we hit this right.”

The name of the work was revealed in a ceremony later in the afternoon: A Walk on the Wild Side. The sculpture evokes “a sense of protection ... a sense of wonder and awe as we explore the pathways into and through the structure,” Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey told a crowd gathered at the opening ceremony. “The work invites play and calls us back to our youth.

PHOTO BY FRED FIELD

Dougherty’s sculpture was introduced to the public during the rededication of the John Stewart Memorial Library on Oct. 23. Early that morning, Dougherty and

between. The scroll ends became the towers and the scroll became a flying wall.”

Above: Artist Patrick Dougherty's completed sculpture, A Walk on the Wild Side, on Wilson's campus green. Right: Volunteer Michael Hasco (left) works on the sculpture with Dougherty.

volunteer workers were still putting the finishing touches on the piece. By the time visitors were gathering outside the library for the 11 a.m. rededication ceremony, they were greeted by the finished sculpture—a circular, sweeping structure with six tower-like peaks, arched entranceways and rounded pass-throughs that invite viewers into its surprisingly cozy interior.

The sculpture intentionally echoes the architecture of the library, Dougherty said. “The library was an important project for the College and it played a role in the imagery that we had with the sculpture,” he said.

“There’s some mimicry, echoing the towers on the library. And I also imagined we had a wood scroll and we had two end pieces, and the reading part was in

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It has the feel of a giant fort built in the forest, where grand adventures played out in childhood dramas. It feels safe; we want to wrap ourselves in those twisted willow saplings.”

Those exploring the sculpture enthusiastically agreed. One young girl seated herself inside on the floor of one of the tower rooms and announced to her parents, “This is where I want to have my next sleepover—right here in the castle!”

That’s the sort of comment that makes Dougherty smile. “I love what children can see in these pieces and I hope the grownups can be inspired to their own flights of fancy,” he said.

W

ilson President Barbara K. Mistick first saw one of Dougherty’s sculptures, Twisted Sisters, on the campus of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., during a visit with her youngest daughter, who was a student there. Several years later in 2012,

“So I got back to Wilson and immediately called Dougherty’s assistant” to see if an installation at Wilson was possible, Mistick said. “I was told there was a waiting list of about three years and I said go ahead, put us down.”

“I think your president is very fond of me,” Dougherty said with a laugh. “And she saw the potential of having an artistic work on campus that would add to the world of ideas here.”

Mistick said when she called to book the installation, she had no inkling the project would coincide with the rededication of the library. “Patrick would say it must have been ordained to happen, but I truly didn’t plan it that way.

As it turned out, the timing could not have been better,” Mistick said.

“Artists have a great way of cluing into what a community needs and then giving it back to you. I feel like Patrick did that here at Wilson. He must have tapped into how important the library was to the campus.”

PHOTO BY CATHY MENTZER

she encountered another Dougherty creation, Snake Hollow, on a trip with a friend to Bernheim Forest in Louisville, Ky., and was captivated by a group of delighted children who were playing in and around the sculpture.

project. When he read about Dougherty coming to Wilson in a local newspaper, “I practically levitated because I was so excited about it,” Hasco said.

The work of bending and weaving sticks was demanding but rewarding, Hasco said. “Even though it’s been all-out, exhausting work, it’s not drudgery. It’s an enjoyment,” he said. ”What’s so interesting [is that] the president’s idea, her ethos from the College’s standpoint, is to bring the community together to make a oneness, and I think that’s exactly what this project has done. For me, it hasn’t been just about learning from Patrick.

It’s been relating to all the other folks that I’ve met. You know them on a first-name basis now and when they come [together] it feels like a family.

When this whole process is done, I’m going to feel a sense of loss.”

I love what children can see in these pieces and I hope the grownups can be inspired to their own flights of fancy.”

Barb Houpt, a fitness and wellness director at the Chambersburg YMCA, took three half-days off work and also spent a weekend working with Dougherty. “I wish I could be here more,” Houpt said during one of her shifts onsite. “I love it. This is incredible and an unbelievable opportunity because when’s this going to come to Chambersburg again?”

Having a creation by a world-renowned sculptor on campus is certainly a high point for Wilson. But the project also represents a coming together of college and community to create something worthy of celebration. Dougherty provides the artistic spark and direction, but volunteers play a —Patrick Dougherty Faculty, staff and students also key part in making signed up to help.

“It was a great way for students and his visions come to life. They help cut faculty to work together for a common goal outside of the sticks and assist Dougherty in buildthe classroom,” said Theresa Hoover, assistant profesing and weaving his sculptures. sor of education. “I found it fascinating to see an artist “When I found out about the volunat work and watch how his vision came to life through teer aspect, that made me all the more community efforts.” convinced it was a good project for Student-athlete Keion Adams ’18 put in more than 30 Wilson,” Mistick said. She and several hours of volunteer time with the project. “Working with members of the College’s Board of Trustees were among the more than 100 volunteers who Patrick was a great experience by itself,” Adams said.

“He was always a joy to be around because he didn't helped Dougherty build A Walk on the Wild Side. see someone as only a volunteer, but as another person he could get to know.” very day from Oct.5 until the sculpture was

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unveiled on Oct. 23, a crew of volunteers from both campus and the surrounding community arrived to assist Dougherty. Michael Hasco, a garden center nursery associate in Carlisle, used his vacation time to work with Dougherty nearly every day of the

Board of Trustees member Jill Roberts �88 said she had no idea what to expect when she arrived for her volunteer shift. “Patrick quickly gave us the task involving selection, cutting and prepping of materials (saplings), without asking if we had any skill or aptitude,” she said.

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PHOTO BY CATHY MENTZER

Like Hasco, Kerry Watson, a retiree from Chambersburg, worked almost every day on the project, beginning with helping to cut saplings used for the sticks. “I thought it just sounded like a really interesting, educational, fun thing to do,” said Watson, who grew up on Scotland Avenue near campus. “I always felt a connection to Wilson College. I think the fact that … it was being done at the college just made me want to be a part of it.”

Lindsey said he was impressed by the way Dougherty used the sculpture as a teachable moment for students. “I heard and saw Patrick speaking with students about what is involved in being an artist and making a work on this scale.

He spoke with eloquence and conviction about work ethic, analysis, synthesis, decision-making and he shared invaluable life lessons,” he said.

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Walk on the Wild Side, like all of Dougherty’s creations, is intended to be impermanent, to gradually decompose back into the environment. “As with the beauty of a spring flowerbed, the fleeting lifespan of these objects adds urgency on one hand and a bittersweet pleasure on the other,” Dougherty says on his webpage.

I heard and saw Patrick speaking with students about what is involved in being an artist and making a work on this scale.

He spoke with eloquence and conviction about work ethic, analysis, synthesis, decision-making, and he shared invaluable life lessons.”

Dougherty graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1967 and earned a master’s degree in hospital and health administration from the University of Iowa. After spending time in the Air Force and as a hospital administrator, he began building his own house in the woods outside Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1975. In the process of fitting together beams, notching logs and clearing saplings from his yard, the idea of his “stickwork’ creations came to him.

“It was the lessons learned while problem-solving the issues of personal shelter that proved the most useful in conceiving sculptures that could be woven through trees and flow over buildings.” Dougherty said.

“It was the realization that the saplings crowded along my driveway, when cut and piled together, had an infuriating tendency to entangle with each other, but even more, that these branches could be seen as lines with which to draw and could be configured into large-scale patterns.”

He went back to the University of North Carolina and took art courses.

A sculpture he made for his final student show called Maple Body Wrap caught the eye of a curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, who encouraged him to submit it for the 1982 North Carolina Art Exhibition.

The following year, he had his first During the installation work, one-person show, Dougherty told his volunteers one entitled Waitin’ It of the secrets to the sculpture was Out in Maple, at to treat the sticks as if they were —Philip Lindsey the Southeastern lines on a drawing. “The sticks all Center for Contemporary Art in Winhave to be flowing in a certain direction.” said Lindsey ston-Salem, N.C. Commissions for his Sutton ’16, who is majoring in chemistry and fine arts. “I work began coming in. never thought of sticks as being lines to draw with, but when you look at his sculptures, you can see they have a Over the last 30 years, Dougherty lot of lines and you can see how it’s done.” has built more than 250 sculptures,

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PHOTO BY FRED FIELD

“I was afraid he might regret not having us do something simple like hold the ladder, but after a few minutes we felt right at home and that we were experts—and that was all Patrick. What an incredible guy—he asked all the volunteers to sign his gloves. How amazing that he wanted my signature!”

PHOTO BY FRED FIELD

Above: Visitors can explore the interior spaces of A Walk on the Wild Side. Top left: Long poles mark the beginning of sculpture. Bottom left: Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick with artist Patrick Dougherty.

from Scotland to Japan and Brussels, including all over the United States. His works can be viewed at www.stickwork.net.

“I think a good sculpture has a lot of different associations for the viewer. Everyone has the experience of playing with sticks when they were children, so there’s that initial impression,” Dougherty said, adding other associations his sculptures invoke are “building birds’ nests, maybe something you saw when you visited an indigenous tribe, building a fort when you were a kid.”

He personally feels that his works channel the primitive side in all of us, citing, “The shadow life of our indigenous past … the need for simple shelter, the hunting and gathering instinct.”

After Wilson, Dougherty began working on another sculpture in his home state of North Carolina, near Hillsboro. He said he enjoyed his time at Wilson, as he does when working on most college campuses. “When I’m working at a museum or another institution like that, there are usually massive considerations. College campuses are much more loosely organized. I find I usually have more volunteers and more time to interact with people who just happen by,” Dougherty said. “Things went very well here.”

Mistick said she hopes the sculpture will be a source of pride for the Chambersburg community and draw people to the campus—which the installation already seems to be doing, as evidenced by the number of parents and children who can be found there in nice weather. “This sure puts all my childhood forts to shame,” Waynesboro teacher Erin Staley ’12 said one sunny day as she watched her toddler son, Carter, explore the inside of A Walk on the Wild Side.

The project has been “a wonder-filled experience for our community,” according to Lindsey. The essence of A Walk on the Wild Side “fits perfectly with the ideals and goals of Wilson, where there is no division between the life of the mind, life of work, life of service and life of honor,” he said. “The liberal arts are, of course, at the core of Wilson’s mission. The same could be said about Mr. Dougherty’s sculpture.” W Cathy Mentzer contributed to this article.

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UNDEFEATED THE LANDMARK 1975 U.S. WOMEN’S LACROSSE TOURING TEAM HAD TWO WILSON PLAYERS AND A DETERMINED COACH ON THEIR SIDE

By Coleen Dee Berry

winter 2016 25

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orty years ago, 17 women did something extraordinary, unexpected, even earth-shattering by sports standards. They were members of the 1975 U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Touring Team and they went to Great Britain—at that time the acknowledged number one powerhouse of the sport—and returned home undefeated, with 13 wins.

For American women’s lacrosse, the 1975 team’s triumphant two-month tour was a landmark achievement—the equivalent of the U.S. women’s soccer team defeating China in the 1999 World Cup or the U.S. women’s ice hockey team winning Olympic gold in 1998.

“

“Lacrosse has always had special moments that signal important new growth in the game … which only become fully clear decades later,” wrote author and lacrosse historian Jim Calder in his 2015 book, Women Play Lacrosse. “The United States’ success during the 1975 tour changed the direction of women’s field lacrosse.”

If Wilson College had not had a lacrosse team, this whole story would not have happened.

—Kathy Heinze Two Wilson women were part of that team—team captain Connie Lanzl ’72 and defensive player Sandy Walker ’74—as well as team coach Kathy Heinze, who served as Wilson’s lacrosse coach from 1965-69. Heinze, whose American mother married a British diplomat, grew up in England playing lacrosse and was a member of the All-England team from 1961-64.

Heinze is fiercely emphatic about the crucial role Wilson had in building the 1975 team. “If Wilson College had not had a lacrosse team, this whole story would not have happened. Wilson was very instrumental—not just

26 wilson magazine

for the three of us individually, but for the whole 1975 team,” she said.

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o understand Wilson’s influence on the 1975 team, it’s necessary to understand how different the sport of women’s lacrosse was in the 1960s and ’70s from today.

Title IX, the federal law that set up gender equity in college sports for women, did not take effect until after 1972. The sport had not gained the popularity it has now—not many colleges had lacrosse teams for either men or women. Wilson was one of the few colleges in the area with an organized women’s lacrosse team.

In addition to college teams, there were private, amateur lacrosse clubs who fielded teams. The NCAA did not officially sponsor women’s college lacrosse teams until 1982, and so there were no NCAA rules forbidding women lacrosse players from playing on both a college team and a club team.

After Heinze came to coach at Wilson in 1965, she founded a club team called Central Penn. Many of Central Penn’s games were played on a field at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, Pa., which is owned by Heinze’s in-laws. “I’d play for Wilson on Saturday and then for Central Penn on Sunday,” Lanzl said. “In those days, you played for anyone, anywhere, any chance you got.”

The athletes who came to play for the Central Penn club would later form the nucleus for the 1975 U.S. team.

Lanzl and Walker played for Heinze on Central Penn, along with 1975 teammates Mary Ann Smeltz (West Chester College), Sue King (Gettysburg College) and Rose Ann Neff (Lock Haven University). Barbara Doran, who was one of the first women athletes to receive a Title IX scholarship to play lacrosse for Penn State, also played for Central Penn.

-

Both Lanzl and Walker said Wilson’s lacrosse team was a deciding factor for them in choosing to attend the College. “I had played lacrosse since I was 12. I loved the game and I wanted to continue to play it at the college level,” Walker said.

British and American women’s lacrosse touring teams had been competing against each other since the 1930s. When the British touring team came to the United States in 1973, the American team played exhibition games at Wilson to prepare for area matches. Heinze coached that 1973 U.S. team, which included Lanzl and Walker as members.

“When I came here, no one (in the area) was playing lacrosse except for Wilson, and they happened to need

Above: The 1975 U.S. Women's Lacrosse Touring Team official photo. Team captain Connie Lanzl ’72 is in top row, fifth from left; team coach Kathy Heinze is at the end of top row on right; Sandy Walker ’74 is at the end of bottom row on the right.

a lacrosse coach,” Heinze said. “I took the job and then formed Central Penn. Without being at Wilson, I don’t know if there would have been a Central Penn. You could say Wilson was the catalyst for all that.”

T

he 1975 U.S. touring team arrived in London on Sept.18, regarded as underdogs in the wake of a lackluster stateside exhibition game against the U.S. Reserves team. “We played poorly and there were some British coaches on hand and they carried the word back,” Walker said. "They thought we were weak.”

Their first game on English soil set the tone for the rest of the tour—a 15-0 shellacking of the England Reserves team, second in rank only to the English national team.

In fact, Heinze noted several players from the national team had been slipped onto the Reserves. “I guess they wanted to put us in our place early,” Heinze said. “When I saw them on the roster, I was really very angry, but as it turned out, it didn’t matter. We never looked back after that game.”

That first game remains an indelible memory for both Lanzl and Walker.

“I remember looking up early on and the scoreboard read 4-0, and I will never forget my sense of absolute

wonder and elation at that moment,” said Lanzl, who scored three goals in the game. “I felt that I was part of the most perfect game that I had ever played in. There were few errors, our passing was flawless, we were just on a roll and it was like nothing I had ever felt before.

I knew that if we kept playing like this, nothing could stop us.”

“They couldn’t even score one goal against us,” Walker said. “I remember our goal-keeper (Sally Wilson Owen), late in the game, making these two incredible, impossible saves. She dug down deep to make those saves … and winning the game in that way, making the impossible possible—it bonded us, it gave us an inner confidence that carried us through the tour.”

The British press took note of the U.S. team’s prowess: “The U.S. … interchanged passes and attacked with bewildering speed and accuracy, which made England look statuesque. England only managed the occasional attack but never could breach the massed American defense,” wrote The London Observer about the 15-0 defeat.

From there, the U.S. team translated its confidence into impressive results. The team traveled all over Great Britain, including Wales and Scotland, and the scores piled

winter 2016 27

up: U.S. 18, Anglo-Irish team 0; U.S. 25, Midlands 3; U.S. 31, Home Scots 1.

From the Sunday Telegraph that September: “They've struck terror into our hearts," observed Judy Herten (a British coach), with much gusto and respect as the American women's touring team continued on their successful tour of this country, walloping all comers. "The Americans are so good—quite the best touring team we have seen here.”

The closest game was a 6-5 win over the English national team on Oct. 8, 1975, in Liverpool. The game featured an unprecedented timeout to search for a contact lens lost by U.S. attack wing Rose Ann Neff. “There were no timeouts in our game and this was a big decision by the referees to allow the search,” Walker said. “Ironically, it’s the only time the American press gave us any coverage during the tour.” (The contact was never found and Neff played the remainder of the tour with only one lens.)

Heinze, Walker and Lanzl all stress that women’s lacrosse in the 1970s was very different from today’s sport. It was a game of finesse, not power, relying on stickwork and passing, footwork and endurance.

“So we had no gloves, no helmets, no contact, no pads, no boundaries. No offsides, no timeouts, no substitutions. No lines (on the field),” said Walker, describing the 1970s version of the game. “I loved playing at Wilson because it was not a football field. The moment you have a football field with lines on it, there’s a structure there that the game really didn’t have. It was actually harder to play on a lined football field encircled by a track.”

For the 1975 tour, Heinze developed a physical regimen designed to give her players more endurance. Besides the usual calisthenics, the players ran track, everything from 100-yard sprints to 880-yard drills. The result paid off. “The British press kept referring to us as the ‘fast and fit’ Americans,” Lanzl recalled. “The training was both a confidence builder and a challenge because we knew Kathy was training us as no [women’s lacrosse] team had been trained before.”

The training also helped Lanzl and Walker play through injuries. Lanzl suffered a tear in her hamstring three weeks before the tour and Walker played with injuries to both knees. “I had all these weights to exercise my hamstring that I had to lug around from host home to host home throughout Great Britain,” Lanzl recalled.

The team had some spare time to be tourists, and went punting on the Thames, sightseeing and shopping. Both Lanzl and Walker have high praise for the British families who hosted the team members. “They were very warm and affectionate, the exact opposite of the British ste-

28 wilson magazine

From top: Members of the 1975 U.S. Women's Lacrosse Touring Team walk onto the field during their British tour; team captain Connie Lanzl ’72 discusses strategy on the field; at the team's 40th reunion in Boiling Springs, Pa., from left: Connie Lanzl ’72, team coach Kathy Heinze and Sandy Walker ’74.

reotype,” Walker said. “They would do anything for us,” Lanzl added. Several host families took to the Americans so much that they traveled some distance to cheer for the U.S. team at matches.

B

y the time the Americans played Great Britain’s national team at the end of the tour—winning by a score of 8-6—they had also won the admiration of many Brits. Walker remembers the team walking onto the field, hearing long and loud applause from the crowd and “the oohs and aahs that our passing game would bring.”

“The British, from first match to last, were dazed by the speed and dexterity of the visitors, but most of all they were destroyed by determination,” the Observer wrote, and the Times of London concluded, “There is no shame in losing to such a fast, fit, determined and supremely talented side such as the American girls.”

Walker retired from lacrosse after the tour and now works as a renewable energy consultant in California; Lanzl spent time in Japan and became the first coach of the Japanese national women’s lacrosse team before moving to Greenville, S.C., and running a nonprofit organization.

The lack of acknowledgement never daunted the team members. Every few years they would get together to renew their bond and remember their triumphs.

The team gathered for its 40th reunion this past September at the Allenberry Resort at Boiling Springs and presented its coach with a special memory book of photos, clippings and reminiscences from all the team members. “After succeeding in doing something so extraordinary, the bond that the experience formed between all of us is a story in itself,” said Walker. “For

For me, the experience created this deep well of support and confidence, and for 40 years I've been drawing from that well.

Not only did the team return undefeated, but the Americans had outscored their opponents 189 to 27.

“By beating the once-invincible British—all 13 international and territorial teams of them—America now reigns supreme,” wrote Jackie Pitts, then-president of the United States Women’s Lacrosse Association in the April 1976 edition of the organization's magazine, Crosse Checks. “Without a doubt, the women’s game in the U.S. currently displays a high standard of play—a standard which is our responsibility to preserve and improve.”

It was the U.S. team’s accomplishment that catapulted American women's lacrosse forward, according to Pitts. In 1976, a little more than 15,000 women and girls played lacrosse. By 2014, nearly 300,000 were competing across the country at all levels.

The undefeated team returned home largely unheralded. First Lady Betty Ford sent a letter of congratulations, along with then-Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp.

Seven members of the 1975 team were later inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, including Heinze and Lanzl.

”

—Sandy Walker '74 me, the experience created this deep well of support and confidence, and for 40 years I’ve been drawing from that well.”

Four decades later, no other validation is needed because the team members all know what they accomplished.

"It was about time the old order was changed," Heinze told the Daily Mail in Liverpool during the tour. "We decided to put everything into this tour, to see if we could come back at No. 1 in the world."

And they did just that. W

But there were no parades, no television interviews, no one clamoring to do a “Miracle on Grass” movie.

winter 2016 29

AROUND THE GREEN

STEPPING INTO

SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOES Community members experience the pinch of poverty during campus simulation

By Coleen Dee Berry

I

t didn’t take long for a hard reality to hit many of the “families” gathered at Wilson’s Laird Hall to take part in a poverty simulation sponsored by Circles, a program of South Central Community Action Programs [SCCAP].

behind the exercise, the broader goal, is to give participants the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes,” said Jonathan Raber, coordinator of Circles. “People in poverty are not living the comfy high life.

It’s a struggle to get by week by week.”

“When I call your name, all family members please stand up,” said Megan Shreve, SCCAP executive director, after everyone went through the first 15 minutes of the role-playing event. When she was finished calling out names, almost three-quarters of the 92 participants were standing. “You did not feed your children this week!” she declared, to a chorus of groans. Those standing had not managed to buy groceries for their family, either for lack of money or time.

Among the participants at the exercise were many Wilson first year-students taking classes with Mary Beth Williams, vice president of student development/dean of students, and Julie Raulli, associate professor of sociology. “I’m hoping my students will come away with an appreciation of the choices people have to make in their struggle to make ends meet and stay off assistance,” Williams said, noting that Wilson has hosted poverty simulations in the past, but this was the first one in several years.

That was one of the major lessons of the simulation—that even with a job and public assistance, those in poverty face an endless challenge to make ends meet and provide the basics of food and shelter. “The idea

When participants arrived, they chose a name tag that gave them their identity for the evening—everything from being a young child or a disabled person to a breadwinner or senior citizen. Everyone

30 wilson magazine

was assigned to a family group and each family received a packet containing items such as food stamps, social security cards, transportation tickets and disability checks.

The hour was divided into 15-minute “weeks” and at the signal, everyone had to assume their roles to go to work, go to school, go to the bank, do the food shopping, arrange child care and take care of emergencies. Everyone quickly learned that coping with poverty isn’t just about money, it is also about time and the ability to get to places to get things done.

Cedric Owusu ’19, an international student from Ghana, received a profile for a divorced dad with three young children.

“First I had a job, but I forgot to go buy food,” he said. “Then I went to buy food and that took so much time that I couldn’t get to work and I lost my job.”

Members of SCCAP and Circles were on hand to provide some real-life curveballs for “family” members. “I was on disability

[Wilson students'] involvement with the community makes a stronger Chambersburg, which can only make Wilson stronger.

— Jonathan Raber, coordinator of Circles and I had to stay at home by myself a lot.

Well, someone tried to sell me drugs, and then we almost had a home invasion but he got frightened away,” said Kyleen Wolfe ’19.

Williams held a class discussion for her first-year students on the simulation after the event. When she asked students what lesson they took from the exercise, Hanna Quarry ’19 responded, “I learned how extremely fortunate I am.” Her students also agreed that stepping into someone else’s shoes helped dispel stereotypes, such as that people receiving assistance

are lazy, that they have kids just to get more assistance, or that they are drug addicts or simply don’t want to work.

The sponsor of the exercise, Circles, is designed to provide a support network for people working to get out of poverty.

Circles arranges for those seeking help to have three or four personal “allies” who meet with them regularly to keep them on track to fulfill their goals—getting a job, keeping a job, caring for children and dealing with crises, according to Raber.

“We’re building a healthy support network

for them,” he said. Allies can be students, teachers, stay-at-home moms, business people, doctors—anyone who can help model success for the person who is trying to rise from poverty.

Both Williams and Raber hope the recent poverty simulation will encourage members of the Wilson community, including students, to consider getting involved in Circles. “Wilson students are important because if they get inspired to help the community, they have the energy, the passion to get things accomplished,” Raber said. “And their involvement with the community makes a stronger Chambersburg, which can only make Wilson stronger.” W For more information on Circles and how to help, go to www.supportcircles.org/ franklin-county

winter 2016 31

PHOTOS BY DANIEL GLAIZIER ’19

Photo, left: Wilson first-year students and community members interact during the poverty simulation. Photo, right: Wilson first-year students Serad Williams (center, with hat) and Allen Bull (right) go over their assigned roles for the evening's exercise with other participants.

HARMONIZING

ONCE AGAIN Choir director Lisa Turchi returns to campus

By Gina Gallucci-White

A

fter taking a hiatus from Wilson to perform with jazz legend David Brubeck and Grammy-winning choral conductor Robert Page, Elisabeth “Lisa” Turchi returned to Wilson College this year as choir director, with the aim of bringing more music to campus.

When classes began in the fall semester, Turchi set up a table at the student activities fair with a sign-up sheet to gauge student interest for both choir and an a cappella group. With the popularity of the television show Glee and the Pitch Perfect movies, Turchi's a cappella group sign-up sheet filled up the fastest. "I had to go on the second side of the page," she joked.

The a cappella club was formed and practiced for two hours on Wednesday evenings during the fall semester. “Some of them are familiar with harmonics, some of them aren't, but they are all enthusiastic,” Turchi said of the group members.

“It's been exciting to watch them really take ownership and to really want to see [the group] grow."

Judy Kruetz Young ’63 was a member of the popular campus a cappella group, Ten Tones, while she was at Wilson. When she heard about the new group, Young came to speak with members, and together they listened to old Ten Tones recordings. “I want to continue to support them and I want to support Lisa in her efforts to revive a cappella on campus,” Young said.

The new group decided to pay tribute to those who harmonized before them by taking on the name DiversiTones to both honor the Ten Tones and acknowledge the diverse nature of the current club.

Turchi first served as choir director at Wilson in 2007 and 2008. She was born

32 wilson magazine

in France, but moved to the United States three months after she was born and grew up in the Chambersburg area. She was first drawn to music at age six after her parents took her to see a traveling Broadway performance of Annie. "I remember sitting there with my parents and turning to my mom and saying, ‘That's what I want to do. I want to do that,’” Turchi said.

She began taking voice lessons at 12 and by the next year sang her first opera aria.

“As a child, your only exposure to opera is Bugs Bunny and women in iron brasseries with horns on their head,” Turchi said.

“You have this stuffy or skewed image of what you think opera is … I felt so unique and excited to have such a high range and music that enabled me to use it to express

Turchi took part in a European tour with Page and his Festival Singers in 2008, and one of the biggest thrills of her life was performing in 2009 with Brubeck and his famous jazz quartet. She has taken on comedic, dramatic and romantic roles in operatic stage productions, including the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Musetta in La Boheme.

Being on stage is “a feeling like none other,” Turchi said. “There is nothing in the world that is comparable for me. Standing on a stage in front of complete strangers would terrify most people but for me, it just lights me up. It's just the way that I have found to be the purest expression of who I am. There is something about being

It's been exciting to watch them really take ownership and to really want to see [the group] grow.

— Lisa Turchi, choir director

all of the emotions a teen goes through. To me, it was a risk worth taking."

After earning vocal performance degrees from Carnegie Mellon and Shenandoah universities, Turchi was hired by the Cumberland Valley School of Music in 2006, where she continues to teach voice classes. CVSM Executive Director Paula Hepfer first met Turchi when she was taking voice lessons as a teen. “Lisa's combination of natural talent, excellent training, national and international performing experiences and sparkling personality make her a powerful model for our students, and she is an inspiration to her CVSM colleagues— myself included," Hepfer said.

able to tap into your own personal emotions to work through a song, but there is also something very exciting about putting on somebody else's personality and letting parts of your personality out to play."

Teaching students at Wilson make her job a joy, Turchi said. “Not a single one of them expresses their enjoyment of music in the same way,” she said. “Different songs appeal to different students, and you try to run the gambit with the music that you choose so that you hopefully have a little something for everybody. It's neat watching them hear how their parts fit together to make this orchestra sound.” W

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

AROUND THE GREEN

Choir director Elisabeth "Lisa" Turchi at practice.

winter 2016 33

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

AROUND THE GREEN

Shippensburg University intern Karlee Johnston at work last fall in the Hankey Center.

34 wilson magazine

RESEARCH

RELATIONS Interns dig into women's history at Hankey Center

By Coleen Dee Berry

L

ast year, Shippensburg University Director of Graduate Studies and Internships John Bloom led his oral history class to Wilson’s Hankey Center for a tour at the invitation of Amy Ensley, the center’s director.

The center’s archives and oral history section—along with the civil rights exhibit that was on display at the time—made a big impression. Four graduate students of the 15 graduate and undergraduate students on the tour voiced a desire to become interns or volunteers at the center. “That’s a pretty good percentage, four out of 15,” Bloom noted. “All four had a passion for women’s history and they found a lot to dig into at the Hankey Center.”

Two applied-history graduate students, Sheila Joy and Karlee Johnston, spent their internships at the Hankey Center this fall.

Another two of Bloom’s graduate students will arrive this spring—one as an intern and one as a volunteer.

Having the Shippensburg students as interns is helping to fulfill the crucial mission to position the center as a national resource on the education of women and women’s history, according to Ensley.

“This is what Joan Hankey wanted,” Ensley said, referring to Capt. Joan R. Hankey ’59, whose contributions established the center. “She envisioned the archives as a research center for the history of women’s education. This internship program is helping to expand our reach.”

Johnston worked on creating lesson plans designed to provide high school teachers with supplemental lessons on women’s history and the use of primary documents. One lesson plan she put together on the civil rights movement contained information pulled from the center’s exhibit on the involvement of Wilson’s students and alumnae during those times.

Another plan was based on the life of Elizabeth McGeorge Sullivan ’38, a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) during World War II. Johnston said she found Sullivan’s life inspirational. “She was a really independent woman for her times,” Johnston said.

“She learned to fly before she learned to drive and she wrote home to her mother that learning to fly was far easier than learning to drive.” What can students today learn from Sullivan’s example? “You don’t have to follow accepted gender roles,” Johnston said. “She became a pilot, she didn’t marry until she was almost 40 and she lived on her own, which was all very unusual for the time period.”

Joy spent her internship organizing a large collection of items from Kathryn C. Keller ’40, a missionary with the Chontal indigenous people in southern Mexico, who created a written version of the native

rience and management expertise they will need out in the professional job market, according to Bloom. The Hankey Center not only hits the mark, he said, it offers students a different choice. “In this area particularly, there are a lot of opportunities for more male-centered archives, in military history for example,” Bloom said. “For our students who are interested in women’s history, the Hankey Center is a great option.” Ensley points out that the Hankey Center also has an outstanding collection related specifically to women’s military history.

The two interns gave their Hankey Center semester rave reviews. “Amy (Ensley) is great to work with—she’s very passionate about women’s history,” said Joy. Both said they intend to recommend the internship to their teachers and classmates. “We’re going to create a wave to come down here from Ship to the center,” Johnston said.

Both Bloom and Ensley said they would like

She [Capt. Joan R. Hankey] envisioned the archives as a research center for the history of women's education. This internship program is helping to expand our reach.

—Amy Ensley, Hankey Center director Chontal language (Read more in Hidden History, page 38). “Keller’s family donated a huge amount of material that we haven’t had the resources to catalog properly, so Sheila’s work organizing the collection will be an enormous help to future researchers,” Ensley said.

The goal of the internship is for Joy and Johnston to acquire both the archival expe-

to see the internship program with Shippensburg continue.

“There’s so much here, so much about women’s history.” said Joy about the Hankey Center. ”There were women at Wilson who tie into almost every national event or a time in history, and their stories are here.

It’s a great resource.” W

winter 2016 35

A WILSON

PERSPECTIVE Student-athletes have their say on NCAA proposals

By Jeremy Shepherd

T

he NCAA has recently debated rule changes concerning the use of social media for recruitment purposes and whether athletes should participate in off-season fundraising —and Wilson student-athletes were able to voice their opinions on these controversial issues, thanks to the College’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

SAAC is an NCAA-mandated organization designed to represent the voice of student-athletes in its governance structure. Each NCAA division (I, II and III) has a committee comprised of male and female student-athletes charged with the responsibility of assisting in the review of NCAA-proposed legislation.

During fall semester, three Wilson student-athletes attended the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) SAAC Conference to represent the College: Miranda Long ’18 (field hockey), Michael Martin ’19 (men’s soccer) and Jennifer Hornberger ’18 (softball). All three submitted votes on behalf of Wilson College.

“I think the conference was a great opportunity to learn about what other schools and student-athletes in our conference feel about NCAA issues and how the (issues) affect them,” Hornberger said.

“Our perspectives at Wilson on these issues can be heard and voiced at the national level.”

A major piece of legislation voted on at the NEAC SAAC Conference was the proposal to deregulate electronic transmissions between coaches and recruits.

Under the proposal, any form of electron-

36 wilson magazine

ically transmitted correspondence would be allowed, including public or private communication through any social networking site (such as Facebook or Twitter).

Current NCAA rules do not permit public communication on social media sites between coaches and prospective student-athletes.

Wilson student-athletes were opposed to the use of social media for recruitment.

“Although we know student-athletes are using social media more and more, we don’t feel using it publicly (for recruitment) is appropriate, especially with all of the other ways coaches can contact us,” said Long. Hornberger added, “Social media isn’t a professional way to communicate and there could be a lot of pressure on a student to accept a coach on social media, out of fear that a coach may stop recruiting them.” The NEAC SAAC ultimately voted against the proposal.

"It’s great that the NCAA wants its student-athletes involved in the decision making process,” Martin said, noting that positions evolved as the discussions continued. “The Division III philosophy became apparent at our conference after the student-athletes and coaches were coming to agreements on certain legislation that we didn't necessarily all agree on at the beginning."

Another change under consideration was a proposal to permit student-athletes to participate in voluntary, out-of-season institutional fundraising activities involving athletic ability. Currently the NCAA does not allow student-athletes to use their sport-specific athletic skills for fundraising

purposes outside of their NCAA-defined season. For example, the softball team could not hold a “hit-a-thon” during the summer to raise money for their program; however, it is permitted during softball season.

Those students who supported the proposal said it would be helpful for student-athletes to use their skills to raise money, and those who opposed the proposal said they feared coaches may try to take advantage of the legislation by having regular “fundraising” activities that serve as practices.

While the NEAC conference generally supported the proposal, Wilson student-athletes expressed some hesitation and voted to support the proposal only if there could be limitations on the amount of fundraising activities. “While fundraising is important, we don’t want student-athletes to feel pressured to come back to campus multiple times during the summer to raise money,” Hornberger said.

“We feel like limiting the amount of times we would have to participate could alleviate that pressure.”

Nationally, Division III’s SAAC opposed the social media deregulation (as did Wilson students) and it voted to support the fundraising legislation. Long was selected to be one of the NEAC representatives at the national SAAC convention to be held in Dallas this spring, where these issues will continue to be discussed. W

AROUND THE GREEN

Field hockey team members, from left: Annie Demmy ’17, Megan Sterling ’17 and Taylor Crouse ’16 with the NEAC regular season conference trophy.

PHOENIX SPORTS WRAP Wilson College athletics finished up its fall season with the field hockey team playing for the NEAC championship, while the men’s soccer team wrapped up its inaugural season with a victory and women’s soccer finished the season on a high note with a win.

The NEAC sponsored FIELD HOCKEY for the first time and the Phoenix captured the inaugural regular season championship after posting a perfect 3-0 record in conference play, earning the right to host the NEAC championship game. Teammates Lauren Moss ’19, Kari Lehman ’18, Annie Demmy ’18 and Megan Sterling ’17 each were named First Team All-Conference, while Head Coach Shelly Novak was named Coach of the Year.

MEN’S SOCCER finished the season with an exciting 1-0 win over SUNY [State University of New York] Cobleskill. Carson Tagner ’19 scored the game-winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in the match. Aaron Russ ’19 and Justin Teague ’19 led the Phoenix in goals scored during the season with four each.

The WOMEN’S SOCCER team ended the season with a 3-0 victory over the College of Saint Elizabeth. Erin Stephan ’18 recorded the three-goal hat trick in the victory. Goalkeeper Brianna Martin ’19 ranked third in the nation for Division III in total saves and fifth nationally in saves per game.

Basketball season has arrived and the WOMEN’S BASKETBALL team got off to a hot start, defeating Cairn University 60-45 and following with a 69-63 victory over Penn State Mont Alto. Lindsey Purvis ’19 began her collegiate career with back-toback double-doubles, scoring at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in both wins. She was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Rookie of the Week.

MEN’S BASKETBALL scored its first victory of the season with a dramatic 73-72 victory over Penn State Altoona. Marqwon Wynn ’18 hit the game-winning shot with under six seconds left in the game and Kasdan Holder ’17 sealed the win with a blocked shot at the buzzer.

winter 2016 37

— hidden —

history

TOOLS TO CREATE A WRITTEN LANGUAGE

By Sheila Joy

A

A second technique involves the use of a plaster mouth cast mong the mountain of materials held in the C. Elizabeth to create a three-dimensional model of the mouth cavity at the Boyd ’33 Archives is an odd group of artifacts found in the moment a sound is made. In this scenario, an oil injector syringe is Kathryn C. Keller ’40 Collection. The collection contains the usual filled with plaster cast material and injected into the mouth while a manuscripts and photographs, but beyond these are four small particular sound is being made. The series of mouth casts can then mirrors, two oil injector syringes and nine mouth casts. be studied and used to develop the phonics behind the language.

At first glance, one wonders what significance these items hold, Researchers will also find contained in the collection cassettes, as the mouth casts emit a peculiar toothy appearance. Further reel-to-reel tapes, LPs and two magnetic tape players/recorders exploration of the collection reveals that all these items were used

by Keller to assist her in creating a written language for the Chontal people, an indigenous tribe of southern Mexico.

Keller grew up in Chambersburg, Pa., and graduated from Wilson College with a bachelor’s degree in classics. She then trained to become a missionary and phonetics teacher at the Wycliffe Bible Translators Summer Institute of Linguistics, held in Oklahoma. Beginning in 1943, Keller spent 40 years as a translator and missionary in rural Mexico working with the Chontal. She also earned a master’s degree in linguistics from Indiana University in 1958.

Keller’s most prominent work was the translation of the New Testament At left: Hankey Center intern Sheila Joy tries out the reel-to-reel tape recorder in the Kathryn C. into Chontal, but in order to create the Keller ’40 Collection. At right: one of the oil injector syringes used by Keller in her phonetics work. translation, she had to first develop a written form of the tribe’s language. that Keller used to record her linguistic work with the Chontal. In To do this, Keller used a technique developed at the University of addition, the photographs in the collection provide a visual compoEdinburgh known as palatography, which is a means of investigatnent, encompassing not only Keller’s work, but the culture of ing tongue contact with the roof of the mouth in the production of the Chontal. speech sounds. She published a book in 1971, Instrumental ArticuThe audio materials are especially unique because they provide latory Phonetics: An Introduction to Techniques and Results, in which another dimension to the language and culture of the Chontal. The she explains the technique of using a “marking substance” on the ability to listen to this group as they practice linguistic exercises roof of the mouth and then photographing the resulting smudge and play their indigenous music complements the work produced by left after a speech sound is made. The marking medium is either Keller and allows the Chontal to essentially speak for themselves. powdered graphite or medicinal charcoal, and is sprayed into the mouth using an oil injector syringe. Then a photograph called a Sheila Joy, a Shippensburg University applied-history graduate stupalatogram is taken with the help of a series of mirrors to reflect the dent, interned this fall at the Hankey Center image of the mouth cavity.

38 wilson magazine

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Winter Greetings from Wilson College Hello, The campus is full of energy and excitement since the jubilant rededication of the John Stewart Memorial Library on Oct. 23.

The ribbon-cutting for the library and the unveiling of Patrick Dougherty’s A Walk on the Wild Side sculpture were wonderful.

The library is great! Alumnae/i and the community enjoyed tours of the renovated facility on rededication day. Wait until you see it. I hope you will join us in June for Reunion and tour the reimagined library and see the “stickwork” sculpture for yourself.

Yes, it is time to plan to attend Reunion 2016. We look forward to seeing you the weekend of June 3-5 to get together with former classmates and make new friends. The Alumnae Association is planning a weekend full of events, including alumnae/i college sessions, class dinners, entertainment, awards and much more.

The theme for 2016 is “Many Paths, One Spirit.” Look for the registration brochure in this issue of the Wilson Magazine.

What can you experience at Reunion? Here are some comments from Rita Fisk ’64, chair of the Alumnae Engagement Committee: “Wilson reunions have found me in Chambersburg sporadically over the past 50 years. How I wish we had recordings of the topics of conversation that evolved at five-year intervals—from entry into the workplace so many years ago to love and marriage, kids, adventures, sometimes divorce, travels, careers, grandchildren, retirement, life-changing moments and plans for the days ahead.

“We get a chance to talk to people we haven’t seen in years as though it was just last week. And it’s enlightening chatting with Wilsonites we never met before but with whom we share experiences of this special place. As

the years go by, we continue to grow and change just as Wilson has. We return to the Wilson of our pasts—not just to rekindle memories of the time we spent here, but to consider the richness of its present and future days.”

I am happy to report the Aunt Sarah Program is gaining ground, with more students having signed up for an “aunt.”

What a great way to connect to the future. Here are a few words from Cindy Barber ’73, chair of our Student and Parent Relations Committee: “This fall, I had the privilege of engaging with students in Lenfest regarding the Aunt Sarah program.

A monthly note, card or small gift (comfy socks, deck of cards, a gift card or a snack) is a welcome surprise in their mailbox. Put a reminder on your calendar, the same date each month, to send that note. If you are not comfortable with a long-term commitment, please consider sporadic support of the program. This could be in the form of gift cards or monetary donations for the director of alumnae/i relations to use to purchase an occasional “pick-me-up” for a student. The main purpose is to offer support to the students. Please be there for them.”

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

winter 2016 39

ASSOCIATION NEWS AAWC SPONSORS

5K RUN/WALK REUNION RAFFLE TO SUPPORT AAWC OPERATING FUND During Reunion 2016, the Alumnae Association will again sponsor a round-robin raffle to raise funds for the association’s operating budget.

Tickets can be purchased for $2 each or $10 for seven.

Drop your ticket into the jar for the item or items you are interested in and cross your fingers for luck. Prizes will be drawn the evening of Saturday, June 4.

Get those sneakers out of storage! Sign up for the AAWC 5K Run/Walk, to be held on Saturday, May 7, at Norlo Park in Fayetteville, Pa. Proceeds will go to help support conservation efforts at Norlo Park, in addition to the AAWC’s ongoing contributions to student activities and internship aid.

One way to help raise money is by purchasing a support sign for $50. Support signs are displayed along the route the day of the race/walk. Send a message of congratulations or honor or remember a faculty member, classmate, relative or friend—or even a horse or pet! Up to 10 words can be printed on your sign.

Your sponsorship or donation will be tax deductible.

Please contact Jaqueline E. Murren ’69 at jemurren@comcast. net by March 1 to order your sign. For more information on the 5K run/walk, visit the Facebook page at on.fb.me/1NhFDVc or web page at runsignup.com/Race/Events/PA/Fayetteville/ AAWCRun2016

The association is also currently accepting donations for the raffle. Donate a piece of Wilson memorabilia, a merchant gift card or even your vacation home for a weekend!

For more information on the raffle or how to donate, please contact Kendal Hopkins at aawc@wilson.edu.

THE AAWC

SILVER LINING FUND The Alumnae Association of Wilson College has created the Silver Lining Fund to help students who are experiencing a time of crisis or financial need. The fund will provide students with a limited amount of immediate cash to get through their initial crisis.

the Silver Lining Fund was launched by the association board during the 2015 Reunion Weekend.

During the 2014-15 academic year, several students encountered crises that required emergency funds. These directly impacted the students’ ability to continue their education at Wilson. Out of these experiences, the idea of

Please make donations payable to AAWC with Silver Lining Fund in the memo line. Mail to AAWC, 1015 Philadelphia Ave., Chambersburg, Pa. 17201.

40 wilson magazine

More information about the fund can be found online at www.wilson.edu/alumnae-association. To donate, you may also use the enclosed reunion brochure in this issue.

2016 TOURS AND TRAVEL Start thinking about that summer trip! The Alumnae Association of Wilson College Tours and Travel Committee is offering the following trips in 2016: JUNE 22-29—COASTAL MAINE AND NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA Two nights in Bar Harbor, Maine; three nights on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada; two nights in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick. Please contact AHI Travel at www.wilson.ahitravel.com or call 800-323-7373.

JULY 15-22—DISCOVER SOUTHEAST ALASKA Seven nights on the Admiralty Dream. Enjoy Sitka, Hidden Falls, Glacier Bay, Point Adolphus, Juneau and Baranof Island, with an optional pre-tour in Denali National Park. Note: this ship has a 66-guest maximum. For more information, call Orbridge at 866-639-0079 or visit wilson.orbridge.com.

AUGUST 10-18—OXFORD, THE COTSWOLDS AND THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE A visit to Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle and the village of Bampton; a private lunch at Blenheim Palace and a meeting with Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill. Please contact Gohagan at www.gohagantravel. com or call 800-922-3088.

SIGN UP FOR ALUMNAE/I NEWSLETTER Do you receive the monthly e-newsletter? Do we have your email address? Update us at www.wilson.edu/alumn Find out about: • Upcoming events, including Reunion 2016.

• The Silver Lining Fund.

• Class of 2016 request for tradition memories.

• The Aunt Sarah program.

• Updating your employer information for Career Connections.

And be sure to tell us what type of activities or events that interest you.

Lake Como, Italy

SEPTEMBER 8-16—ITALIAN LAKES AND VENICE Three nights in Venice, four nights in Cernobbia on Lake Como, Bellagio, Maggiore, Verona. Please contact Gohagan at www. gohagantravel.com or call 800-922-3088 For more information on AAWC-sponsored trips, please go to www.wilson.edu/alumnae-tours-and-travel.

REWARDS PROGRAM BENEFITS WILSON COLLEGE ALUMNAE/I STUDENT ACTIVITIES Do you order from Amazon?

Use our link, www.tinyurl.com/wilsoncollege, and Amazon will provide a portion from each purchase to AAWC alumnae/i student activities. There is no extra charge to you as an Amazon customer.

Spread the word and the link to support our efforts to give back to Wilson students.

This program is a collaborative effort of alumnae/i volunteers with the alumnae/i relations office and the Alumnae Association of Wilson College.

winter 2016 41

— last —

word

Walking on the wild side with artist Patrick Dougherty

By Alice Elia

W PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

hen I first met Patrick Dougherty on the green at Wilson College, it was 8 a.m. on a chilly morning. We were surrounded by piles of black willow branches of varying sizes.

Apart from the materials, all I could see was a roughly spray-painted design on the grass.

I had not heard of Mr. Dougherty, or his work, before getting the initial email inviting community members to volunteer for his project on the Wilson campus. After just a few minutes of online searching, however, I had become enthralled by the scale and imagination of his sculptures. When I contacted Philip Lindsey, Wilson professor of fine arts, to see how often I could contribute to the three-week project, only three remaining openings fit my schedule. I promptly signed up for them all.

Four other volunteers joined me on that first brisk morning, along with Mr. Dougherty’s assistant for the project, Lorenzo, and the artist himself—whose kindness and gentle presence transformed him from “Mr. Dougherty” to “Patrick” within minutes of our arrival.

Even with the by-now dozens of images of Patrick’s Stickworks projects I’d seen online, the willow piles and spray paint didn’t do much to help me envision what Patrick began to describe to us. Nor did it prepare me for my first assignment, which was to help assemble the scaffolding—how many artists need scaffolding?—that would allow for the creation of the sculpture.

Meanwhile, two-foot-deep holes were being drilled in the ground in preparation for sinking in the tallest limbs—the skeleton of his structure. Before I left my first shift, most of these limbs were installed. From a blank canvas, something very cool was emerging.

When I arrived the next morning, it was time to start weaving branches into the skeletal walls.

Patrick is as much a teacher as an artist. He showed us how to weave middle-sized and smaller branches between the larger, structural limbs to create windows and doorways in what was quickly becoming a spiraling stick castle. Watching Patrick work was fascinating. His plans seemed to be fluid, regularly morphing, based on the limitations of his materials and, I’ll be the first to admit, his crew.

My final day of volunteering with Patrick was almost two full weeks later, and a mere two days before the official unveiling of his sculpture. In the interim, the work had become increasingly intricate in nature. While Patrick made it look easy, most of the volunteers struggled with “stickblindness,” which, in my experience, seemed to be a combination of loss of depth perception and a difficulty distinguishing one stick from another, making it really hard to see what you were working on. Like scaffolding, stickblindness is something most artists have probably never had to manage.

Working with Patrick Dougherty was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In a funny way, building with him might not only induce stickblindness, but also cure it. Even after exploring the finished piece on campus or seeing friends’ Facebook images of their kids running around it, I’m still overwhelmed by the materiality and scale of Patrick’s sculpture. I’ll fondly recall my own time working with Patrick, and his many willing volunteers, for years to come.

64 wilson magazine

Many Paths

one spirit REUNION 2016—JUNE 3-5 Registration opens Feb. 1 and closes May 6

For her name is Alma Mater, And we’ll ever stand as one, Firmly pledged to love and honor, Till the sands of life are run.

Bertha Peifer, Class of 1921 Virginia Mayer Zacharias, Class of 1920

www.wilson.edu/reunion Contact the Office of Alumnae/i Relations at 717-262-2010 or alumnae@wilson.edu

1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201-1279

PHOTO BY FRED FIELD

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Volunteers who worked on the A Walk on the Wild Side sculpture on the Wilson campus green pose with artist Patrick Dougherty after the official unveiling of the installation. Story on page 18.