Wilson Magazine Winter 2017

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BACK TO THE BOOKS Adult Degree Program students speak to the undeniable power of college education

Good Vibrations on Campus | Earthwatch Trip Inspires Citizen Science Taking an Activist Stand | Fighting Food Insecurity | A New Partnership volume 89 | WINTER 2016 | number 4

one spirit REUNION 2017—JUNE 2-4

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

volume 89 | WINTER 2017 | number 4

FEATURES 10 Back to the Books

By Coleen Dee Berry It’s never too late, and you’re never too old to get that college degree. Wilson’s Adult Degree Program helps nontraditional students from all walks of life achieve their goals.

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18 Food for Thought

By Cathy Mentzer Wilson’s new food pantry, Sarah’s Cupboard, opens as a resource to help combat hunger on campus.

32 Citizen Science Associate Professor of Philosophy John Elia brings back lessons from his Earthwatch research trip to the Sierra Meadows.

34 Congressional Gold Kyla Martin ’17 receives the Gold Congressional Medal for her community service efforts.

36 An Active Role Gretchen Hand, Wilson’s new women’s volleyball coach, also acts as fitness instructor.

22 Taking a Stand

By Coleen Dee Berry From her role as a Wilson student in civil rights protests to her new leadership position in a national grassroots network, Janice ‘Jay’ Johnson ’61 leads a life of activism.

ALUMNAE/I

26 Good Vibrations Take a tour of the new look on the Wilson campus.

42 Class Notes

39 Alumnae Association President’s letter; calling all authors; Tift Award; AAWC trips.

61 In Memoriam

DEPARTMENTS 02 Letter from the Editor

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AROUND THE GREEN

03 Wilson News Board of Trustees holds line on tuition; Wilson and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute form partnership; College adds Master of Educational Technology degree; new director joins Master of Fine Arts program; Candace Straight ’69 hosts private screening of Equity; NPR features Wilson’s Single Parent Scholar Program; Wilson adopts new mission statement.

07 Alumnae/i News Selma Wertime Thomson ’38 recalls life in Harmony Cottage; M.I.T. honors Pauline Morrow Austin ’38, Janet Swinehart Vea ’37 celebrates milestone; literary note; Donor Recognition Dinner.

38 Hidden History

By Amy Ensley Penn Hall evolved from Wilson’s preparatory department.

64 Last Word: Postcard from the Sierra Meadows

By John Elia

ON THE COVER ADP graduate Marybeth Richards ’16 with her children.

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

“It always seems impossible, until it’s done.”

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, Frances Caroscio, Debbie Chestnut, John Elia, Amy Ensley, Gina Gallucci-White, Cathy Mentzer Contributing Photographers Coleen Dee Berry, James Butts, Terry Clark, Fred Field, Greg Holder, Markell Deloatch, Matthew Lester, Cathy Mentzer, Bob Stoler, Kendra Tidd, Courtney D. Wolfe ’12 Cover Photo by: Markell Deloatch

Nelson Mandela Perseverance is often an underrated virtue. It is one of the keys to any success, but it requires toughness and commitment to a goal. It is not for the faint of heart.

Perseverance means bouncing back from setbacks, slogging through the day-today details and always having hope.

After interviewing students in Wilson’s Adult Degree Program for a feature in this edition, perseverance is the word that keeps coming to mind. These nontraditional students often juggle many challenges—family commitments, job responsibilities, time constraints—along with study, class work and projects. Yet they all are driven to get their college degree. Many spoke of repeated efforts, of trying online courses and different schools, until they found the right path to getting a degree.

For the past 35 years, Wilson has provided that path for adult students—male and female—to get a college education through its Adult Degree Program. Read about some of these inspirational students in the feature, Back to the Books, and rejoice in the words of Steve Oldt ’99: “Just don’t stop. Stay motivated.”

Perseverance has also played a role in the life of Janice “Jay” Johnson ’61, who was at the center of civil rights protests as a Wilson student and continues to live an activist’s life. Read how she has persevered in her lifelong efforts for social justice in the feature, Taking a Stand.

This magazine also examines Wilson’s efforts to address the issue of food insecurity by opening the Sarah’s Cupboard food pantry on campus. In the news section, you can read about Wilson’s recent partnership with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the College’s newest master’s degree program.

And don’t forget to page through the photo essay to appreciate the campus’ new vibe.

Happy 2017 to all! Read on … and enjoy!

Coleen Dee Berry Managing Editor

You can read Wilson Magazine online at:

www.wilson.edu/wilsonmag 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.

WILSON NEWS

he College again demonstrated its commitment to college affordability and value when the Board of Trustees voted at its October 2016 meeting to hold the line on tuition for traditional undergraduate students for an unprecedented seventh consecutive year. On the recommendation of President Barbara K. Mistick, the board agreed to hold tuition for 2017-18 at the current rate of $23,745.

“We are seeing a continuation of constrained income growth and families remain extremely price sensitive when it comes to choosing a college,” said Mistick. “By holding the tuition rate, we are responding to our families’ ability to pay, as well as helping keep our student debt levels down.”

Along with the tuition freeze, the board held the housing fee steady while approving modest increases in fees for meal plans and technology of 3 and 5 percent, respectively, to cover direct increases in the college’s cost of providing those services. The overall result is that full-time, residential Wilson students will pay just $195 more—0.54 percent—next year for tuition, room, board and fees, for a total of $35,815.

The College also held tuition at current levels for graduate students and students in the teacher intern program, while approv-

“By holding the tuition rate, we are responding to our families’ ability to pay, as well as helping keep our student debt levels down.”

President Barbara K. Mistick ing a 1 percent tuition increase for students enrolled in the adult degree program for fall 2017.

Wilson has held tuition steady—or reduced it—every year since 2011-12, the first year without an increase. 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 2014-15 as part of the Wilson Today plan, which also included the creation of a student loan buyback program that became available to qualified first-year students who enrolled beginning in fall 2014. The tuition reduction was followed by a

PHOTO BY TERRY CLARK

WILSON MARKS 7 YEARS WITHOUT TUITION INCREASE FOR TRADITIONAL UNDERGRADS T

freeze for traditional undergraduates for 2015-16, 2016-17 and now, again for 2017-18.

Prospective students and their families are responding to Wilson’s “value plan”—tuition affordability and the loan buyback program—according to the admissions office, a fact borne out by the increasing number of enrolled students. This fall, Wilson’s overall enrollment increased by nearly 19 percent over fall 2015, with a 7 percent increase in new students and the largest traditional undergraduate enrollment since 1973.

In addition, the Institute for College Access and Success study on the average debt level from student loans for the Class of 2015—which did not directly benefit from the 2014-15 tuition reduction—shows the debt level for Wilson graduates is $3,185 below the state average of $34,798.

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 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings for 2017. U.S. News moved Wilson from fifth to fourth in the “best value” category for regional colleges in the North, listing the percent of Wilson students receiving need-based grants at 90 percent.

Wilson’s value ranking, along with recognition as a “Tuition Hero” for holding tuition without an increase over the past six years, affirms the school’s commitment to providing an affordable college education.

— Cathy Mentzer

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WILSON NEWS WILSON LAUNCHES NEW MASTER’S DEGREE IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY Building on its successful master’s degree program in education, the College has added a Master of Educational Technology to its growing list of graduate programs. With classes set to begin in spring 2017, the program will be offered primarily online, but it can also be delivered through a blend of online and traditional classes.

Geared toward education professionals who want to strengthen their skills and knowledge of how to incorporate technology effectively into all aspects of education, the M.E.T. program will consist of 10 courses, eight of which will be provided through Eduspire, an innovative provider of continuing education courses for teachers with whom Wilson is partnering. The two remaining “capstone” courses are created and taught by Wilson College faculty and offered online.

Although the program is mainly completed online, if a local school district has a cohort of students enrolling in the M.E.T. program, “we will bring an instructor to the individual district,” said Eric Michael, director of Wilson’s Master of Education program.

There is great potential for enrollment in the M.E.T. program at Wilson, according to Michael, who said that each semester Wil-

son gets numerous inquiries about an M.E.T. degree. “School districts across the country have invested heavily in technology,” he said.

New and evolving technologies have steep learning curves and school districts are seeking employees with the skills to effectively make use of the latest technological developments.

Eric Michael “Increasingly, school districts and schools are looking for those teachers who have the knowledge and desire to use technology to its greatest potential for the classroom and for each student,” Michael said.

He said the degree will help certified teachers in the classroom, while providing the potential for advancement for both teachers and other education personnel who do not have teaching certifications.

The M.E.T. is Wilson’s eighth graduate program. In addition to the Master of Education, the college has master’s programs in nursing, management, fine arts, the humanities, accountancy and healthcare management.—CM

WILSON ANNOUNCES NEW MASTER OF FINE ARTS DIRECTOR Choreographer, performer, dance historian and artistic director Joshua Legg was named the new director of Wilson’s Master of Fine Arts program, effective in January.

Legg, who lived and worked for many years in Winchester, Va., most recently managed the dance Joshua Legg program at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. For the past 11 years, he has also served as artistic director of JoshuaLegg/ Dance Projects, which is based in the Mid-Atlantic region and produces artistic and scholarly programs that span a variety of contemporary and historical dance genres, dance-theater and theater. Legg is also a dance historian.

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Legg—whose work encompasses ballet, classic modern, post-Judson, street jazz, dance theater/performance art, opera and classical, contemporary and musical theater—has performed dance roles in masterworks by Balanchine, de Mille, Petipa and Robbins, as well as a diverse range of contemporary works.

He is the author of Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques and he has taught in dance or theater programs at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Harvard University (where he received a certificate of distinction in teaching), Suffolk University in Boston, Shenandoah University and Lake Superior State University.

“We are confident that he will take our M.F.A. program to the next level,”

said Elissa Heil, vice president for academic affairs.

The College has “the potential to develop an exciting laboratory that is flexible enough to meet the needs of our students while we practice highly contemporary approaches to artmaking,” Legg said. “It is exciting to see the potential for us to create artist collectives for the 21st century. I can’t wait to get started working with our graduate students and the Wilson community in general.”

Legg has three degrees from Shenandoah University in Winchester, including an M.F.A. and a bachelor’s degree in dance performance and choreography from Shenandoah Conservatory. He replaces RoseAnne Spradlin, first director of the M.F.A. program, which began in 2015. —CM

PHOTO BY GREG HOLDER

CEREMONY FOR NEW PARK AVENUE ENTRANCE

Wilson officials hold an indoor “virtual” ribbon-cutting ceremony for the College’s new entrance off Park Avenue. Rainy weather drove the event inside the Lenfest Learning Commons at the John Stewart Memorial Library on Oct. 22, 2016.

PARTNERSHIP WITH SMITHSONIAN FINALIZED conservation challenges by applying and sharing what they learn about animal behavior and reproduction, ecology, genetics, migration and conservation sustainability, according to institute officials.

Details of the partnership are still taking shape, but Harriger explained how the partnership might work for Wilson students: In a student’s first semester, they would be introduced to the discipline of conservation biology through their first-year seminar, which would include an introduction to SCBI. Students in the program would enroll in specific collaborative courses in their sophomore year to expand their knowledge of conservation biology.

“The goal would then be for the students in this program to study in residence for a semester in Front Royal at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation Biology,” Harriger said. Jointly operated by SCBI and George Mason University in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation Biology is the on-site education center at SCBI. As part of Wilson’s established, undergraduate research sequence, students in the program would be mentored by SCBI scientists and faculty at its education center, as well as have an opportunity to use the institute’s laboratories and other facilities, according to Harriger.

“At the end of four years, the students enrolled at Wilson would fulfill the requirements for their biology degree, focusing on conservation biology, and they would have the experience of working with top-notch research scientists from the Smithsonian,” he said. —CM PHOTO BY RYAN SMITH

Wilson College and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have formed a partnership that will provide academic opportunities for Wilson students and help develop future generations of conservation professionals. The partnership between Wilson and SCBI will draw on mutual strengths and interests of both institutions, allowing Wilson students to be exposed in their first year of college to the work being done at SCBI, whose 3,200-acre Front Royal campus is just 90 miles from Chambersburg.

“Having the ability to interact with the Smithsonian is something that most institutions don’t have,” said Wilson Professor of Biology Dana Harriger. “From an institutional perspective, this partnership will strengthen our program, while developing a strong core in conservation biology.”

Wilson and SCBI recently signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the intent of a five-year partnership suggested by Susan Breakefield Fulton ’61, who proposed that the College and SCBI team up. Fulton made contributions to both organizations to help launch the partnership, according to Camilla Rawleigh, Wilson vice president for institutional advancement.

SCBI plays a leading role in the Smithsonian’s global efforts to save wildlife species from extinction and train future generations of conservationists. Spearheading research programs at its headquarters in Front Royal, Va., the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and at field research stations and training sites worldwide, SCBI scientists tackle some of today’s most complex

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WILSON NEWS PRIVATE SCREENING OF EQUITY HELD FOR WILSON COMMUNITY

PHOTO BY BERTHRAND KAROVERO

The film is billed Wilson alumnae/i, stuas one of the first dents, faculty, staff and female-driven Wall friends were treated to a Street movies and stars private screening of the Anna Gunn, a two-time Wall Street film Equity, Emmy winner for her hosted by executive prorole in the television ducer Candace Straight show Breaking Bad, as ’69 and Wilson President senior investment bankBarbara Mistick at the er Naomi Bishop, who Chambersburg Carmike uncovers a web of corTheatre on Nov. 16. ruption when her IPO A successful investCandace Straight ’69, right, (initial public offering) ment banker, private with Laura Giacomini, Wilson’s falters. Sarah Megan investor and consultant Fulbright foreign language teachThomas portrays Bishin the insurance indusing assistant, at Equity screening. op’s deputy and Alysha try, Straight provided Reiner plays a prosecufinancial backing and her tor for the U.S. Attorney’s office. insider knowledge of Wall Street to help The three female leads all face ethical make Equity a reality.

WILSON TRUSTEES ADOPT NEW COLLEGE MISSION STATEMENT At the October meeting, Wilson’s Board of Trustees adopted a new mission statement for the college: Wilson College empowers students through an engaged, collaborative, liberal arts education that combines the skills and focused study needed for success in work and life. We are a close, supportive community that develops the mind and character of all students, preparing them to meet the challenges of a global society.

The mission statement was crafted through a yearlong process by a special Mission Committee comprised of senior staff and faculty.

After a review of best practices in mission statements within higher education and the private sector, a survey was developed and administered to faculty and staff in late spring 2016.

The survey asked respondents to rank the importance of existing statements of Wilson values with regard to mission. The results leaned heavily toward affirming the liberal arts at Wilson and the qualities instilled through a liberal arts education. The student-focused nature of the College and career preparation also stood out. Additional feedback from campus focus groups helped the committee refine early drafts into two versions of a mission statement that were presented to the trustees. The board considered aspects of each version in creating the new mission statement for the College. —CDB

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decisions in the movie, which made for a lively post-screening discussion with the Wilson audience. Straight revealed that Equity originally had two endings and the unconventional ending eventually selected was the one that won over test audiences.

The independent film was produced

by Thomas’ and Reiner’s company, Broad Street Pictures. After debuting to positive reviews at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Equity was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics and opened in movie theaters last summer.—Coleen Dee Berry

NPR FEATURES WILSON’S SINGLE PARENT SCHOLAR PROGRAM On Nov. 30, 2016, National Public Radio’s iconic All Things Considered—the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country—featured a segment on Wilson’s Single Parent Scholar program.

Reported by NPR national correspondent Noah Adams, the five-minute segment, “When the Students on Campus Have Kids of Their Own,” spotlighted the College’s residential program for single parents and their children.

The broadcast came as the program was celebrating its 20th anniversary on campus.

“Getting a degree is hard enough for anyone, but these students face extra challenges. And when it comes to helping out with their needs, Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., is considered one of the best in the country,” Adams says in the story accompanying the broadcast.

To hear the program, visit www.wilson.edu/nprbroadcast

ALUMNAE/I NEWS MIT HONORS CAREER OF PAULINE MORROW AUSTIN ’38 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid tribute to the pioneering career of Pauline Morrow Austin ’38 in December, unveiling a permanent display in Austin’s honor at its Cambridge campus.

“Pauline Morrow Austin—Life and Legacy—A Centenary Celebration,” opened Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016. The opening was hosted by MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Austin, who earned a doctorate in physics from MIT, would have celebrated her 100th birthday in December. Wilson alumnae/i and college officials were on hand to celebrate the event.

Attending the reception honoring Pauline Morrow Austin ’38 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are, from left: Amy Ensley, director of Wilson’s Hankey Center; Ted Lamson; Marsha Haley Lamson ’66; Wilson President Emerita Gwen Jensen; Margaret “Peg” Diffenderfer ’70; Barb Werner ’64; Catherine Riley; and John Ross, Wilson director of major gifts.

Austin joined the Weather Radar Research Project at MIT at its inception in 1946 (she was the sole female member of the project at that time) and served as project director from 1956 until her retirement in 1979. Austin was the first woman to work in the field of weather radar research and MIT’s project made seminal contributions to the development of radar technology and its use in mapping rainfall distributions and mid-sized weather patterns.

After graduating from Wilson with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Austin received a master’s in physics from Smith College

before getting her degree from MIT. In January 1942, while Austin was completing her doctorate during World War II, the New York Times named her one of nine top female scholars nationally aiding in the war effort. She was working on adapting radar to track planes.

After the war, she became one of the first women identified as a meteorologist in the new era of radar technology.

LITERARY NOTE Robin Weaver ’76 has interviewed many interesting women over the years: Linda Fairstein, mystery author and former chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s office sex crimes unit; Peggy Noonan, political columnist and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan; and Dana Perino, former press secretary for President George W. Bush.

Weaver, who is currently president of the Women’s National Republican Club in New York City, has published 25 of her interviews in a new book, Exceptional Women And Their Stories. The

interviews showcase not only each woman’s professional achievements, but also her personal challenges and motivations, demonstrating “how these extraordinary women shaped their careers and destiny,” according to Weaver.

Exceptional Women And Their Stories can be purchased online through www.ondemandbooks.com.

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ALUMNAE/I NEWS SELMA WERTIME THOMSON �38 CELEBRATES 99TH BIRTHDAY

A

PHOTO BY CATHY MENTZER

few days before her 99th birthday, Selma Wertime Thomson ’38 visited the house where she was born—Harmony Cottage on the Wilson campus.

Thomson, who was celebrating her upcoming birthday at a dinner held at the Brooks Science Center, sat in what once was her parents’ front parlor and regaled family and friends with reminiscences about life at Harmony Cottage. With five brothers and sisters, along with Selma Wertime Thomson ’38 at her parents, life there was—at Harmony Cottage. times—anything but harmonious.

“One of the professors here once asked my mother, “How did you live at the cottage with six children and maintain your sanity?’ and she replied, ‘I may have lived there but I didn’t maintain sanity,’” Thomson recalled with a laugh. “We were a handful.”

On Oct. 3, 1917, Thomson became the first child born on the Wilson campus. Her father, Rudolf Wertime, was employed as the College’s director of music. Then-Wilson President Ethelbert Warfield wanted to name her Sarah Wilson Wertime, after the college’s first benefactor, but “my parents didn’t agree and I ended up as Selma.” She was the fourth of the Wertimes’ six children and lived on campus with her parents until she was about 9 years old.

Thomas has fond memories of growing up on campus, especially of the May Day pageants. “There were horses and chariots, medieval costumes—it was all very exciting,” she said. She and her siblings participated in several of the pageants. “I got to dress up in my white dress and carry the May Queen’s train.”

At that time, a train line ran through campus quite close to the cottage, and that raised havoc at bedtime, Thompson told her listeners. “Mother would no sooner get us into bed when the

train whistle would go off and we’d be up running to the window.”

Another memory involved the construction of the John Stewart Memorial Library. “My brothers and I found the sand pile they were using for the mortar and had fun making mud pies. You can just imagine how thrilled the contractors were!” she said.

When Selma was 9, her father died of pneumonia, leaving her mother alone to raise the six children. They moved off campus to Chambersburg, “but the faculty at Wilson kept an eye on us. They made sure that I and my sisters were able to attend Wilson and get a college education,” Thomson said. “They were always looking out for us.”

Thomson graduated from Wilson with a bachelor’s degree in music and received her master’s degree from New York University.

She went on to teach music at several different colleges, including Southern Connecticut State College, where she met Yale music student and her future husband, James Thomson. Her husband became professor of music at Wilson from 1952 to 1963. Selma Thomson often gave lectures here for the local Institute of Retired Persons.

As she approaches the century mark, Thomson has a project she hopes to complete. When her family moved off campus, she became

“They [faculty] made sure that I and my sisters were able to attend Wilson and get a college education.”

Selma Wertime Thomson ’38 a student at a one-room schoolhouse on Roland Avenue in Chambersburg. Her experience there and her memories prompted her to gather information from other Cumberland Valley residents who also attended one-room schoolhouses. With the assistance of several family members, she hopes to be able to turn these memories into a book. —Coleen Dee Berry

CENTURY CELEBRATION Happy 100th! Janet Swinehart Vea ’37, center, first row, celebrates her century-mark birthday with friends and family in Maine this past November.

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DONOR RECOGNITION DINNER

PHOTOS BY GREG HOLDER

Wilson’s annual Donor Recognition Dinner was held Oct. 21, 2016, and provided an opportunity for donors to meet the students who benefit from their generous gifts. This year the dinner also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Single Parent Scholar (formerly Women with Children) program.

At top: Student scholarship recipients who attended the dinner pose with Wilson President Barbara Mistick and President Emerita Gwen Jensen (center, second row). At left: Richard and Cynthia Dimmick Grove ’63, with Stephanie Sparagna ’19 (right) and her son, Tyler. At right: Martha Spendlove Strohl ’64 (left) and Jarena Griffin ’17 with her daughter, Melody.

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PHOTO BY MARKELL DELOATCH

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Marybeth Richards ’16 at home with daughter Serafina.

Back to

the Books Adult students find their path at Wilson

by Coleen Dee Berry

A

quiet voice in the back of her mind kept nagging at Marybeth Richards: Wasn’t it time for her to go back to school and get that college degree?

After one long discussion about finances with her husband—which ended with them asking each other, “Where do we go from here?”—she sat in her living room holding her baby daughter and watching her two older children play. “And that quiet voice suddenly got really loud,” Richards recalled.

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“I knew education was the door for many opportunities,” said Richards ’16. “But growing up in my family, what we said and what we actually did never really lined up.” While her parents stressed the importance of education, they also did not give her the encouragement to go to college. In that moment in her living room, Richards said, it became clear: “I never wanted to stand in front of my own children and say, ‘This is what you should do,’ without having been willing to do it myself.”

Her mind made up, Richards first took some online courses and then in 2013, entered the Adult Degree Program at Wilson.

On May 15, 2016, Richards stood in front of her fellow graduates as a featured speaker at commencement, recounting her moment of decision. “I realized, how could I tell my children about the value of education if I myself had nothing to show for it? I wanted them to see that education—no matter what your area of study is, whether it is a trade or a skill—is powerful and life-altering.”

Throughout the past 35 years of Wilson’s Adult Degree Program (ADP), adult learners have sought degrees for many reasons—to advance a career, begin a career, enhance their knowledge or expand their worldview, acquire new skills or complete a personal goal. The program was founded “to help lifelong learners, both male and female, get a college degree,” said Beverly Evans, director of ADP admissions. The program has been in place since 1982 and has always been coed.

Originally called the College for Continuing Education, adult education was part of Wilson’s “renaissance” in the 1980s and was seen as an extension of Wilson’s core mission.

enrollment for adult learners increased 51 percent from 1991 to 2011. For the 2016-17 school year, Wilson has enrolled 290 ADP students, a 10 percent increase from 2013.

Making the decision to complete—or begin—a college education as an adult involves a whole set of challenges, including budgeting for college costs and making time for study. Many adult learners have to learn study habits all over again, and adjust to new technologies. Juggling multiple responsibilities of home, family, school and work can be daunting. “You have to learn to prioritize your classes, learn how to carve out time,” said Robert Washinko ’14, who balanced a civilian job at Letterkenny Army Depot and time in the Army Reserves with his Wilson courses. “I traveled a lot for my job, so I ended up doing a lot of homework in hotel rooms and a lot of reading on planes.”

In order to accommodate adult students from all walks of life, Wilson’s adult degree program offers a wide range of options, Evans said. ADP students can attend Wilson full time or part time and can even live on campus (though few opt to do so).

While ADP students take the same courses as traditional undergraduates and sit side by side in the classroom, they have the option of scheduling courses at their own pace, even if it’s just one course a semester.

“The program is incredibly flexible so that it can take into account family life, kids, jobs,” Evans said. “ADP students can take up to a two-year leave of absence from coursework without penalty. They can re-enroll even after big gap and we will try to give them as much credit as possible for what they previously studied here, depending how our curriculum has changed.”

All campus resources are open to ADP students.

They can belong to clubs, engage in study abroad and perform internships.

The one thing they cannot do, according to Evans, is participate in NCAA sports, due to NCAA rules. “But we’ve had ADP students on the archery team and the equestrian dressage team because those are club sports, not NCAA sports,” Evans said.

“I never wanted to stand in front of my own children and say, ‘This is what you should do,’ without having been willing to do it myself.”

—Marybeth Richards ’16 Adult learners are becoming an increasingly larger segment of the U.S. college demographic. Recent statistics show that 38 percent of today’s college students are adult learners older than 25. Adult undergraduate enrollment has been steadily growing. According to the National Center for Education Statistics,

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Wilson also supports veterans returning to college and participates in the Veteran Administration’s Yellow Ribbon program, which helps veterans pay for the costs of college not covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

PHOTO BY MARKELL DELOATCH

Older students often worry about being accepted in the classroom by their younger traditional undergraduate counterparts.

“Everyone comes to college with apprehensions,” Evans said.

“The traditional undergrads out of high school wonder if they will be able to cope with the schedule and the courses. The ADP

PHOTO BY MATTHEW LESTER

Benjamin Luzier ’17 was a military policeman in the Air Force, stationed at McConnell AFB in Kansas, and served two tours of duty in Iraq before leaving the military in 2012. “I knew I did not want to continue to be a police officer, but I had no other training,” Luzier said. “I had a wife and two children and I knew I had

From left, Marybeth Richards �16 addresses her fellow graduates at commencement; packages homemade Christmas cookies with her children Serafina, 7, at left; Aislynn, 10; and Joshua, 9, at right.

to do something to provide for them, so I went back to school.”

He enrolled full time at Wilson as a veterinary medical technology major, but later switched his major to what he really loves—history and political science. “My kids are very aware that I’m going to college,” Luzier said. “When I come home they ask me, ‘What did you learn in school today, daddy?’ And I’ll tell them some history tidbit.”

Luzier is looking forward to graduating in May. “I will say that going to Wilson has definitely expanded my horizons. I’m looking forward to going ahead with a career—maybe even running for office,” he said. “I’ll start at the ground level and run for city council.”

students wonder if they have been out of school too long and whether they will be out of touch. And somehow those concerns meet in middle and get resolved.”

Wilson’s faculty welcomes the maturity and real-world experience these adult learners bring to the classroom, according to Elissa Heil, vice president for academic affairs. “Most of the students have been or are currently employed. They have experiential knowledge that can complement various theories and notions that are presented in the classroom. Their perspectives are more holistic, which can evoke great discussions,” she said.

“It’s not unusual for these students to be the most ambitious ones in the classroom, thereby posing as great role models for our traditional students.”

winter 2017 13

The turning point came when she took a class in African-American literature with Professor of English Lisa Woolley and “I just fell in love all over again with reading and with writing,” Richards said. “I always liked to write stories when I was a little kid. … I decided, this what I’m going to do: pursue a career in literary studies and the humanities.”

PHOTO BY MARKELL DELOATCH

Richards credits her professors with pushing her to develop a repertoire of skills and helping to define her goals. “I had to discover my path here at Wilson,” she said.

“I don’t think I would have graduated if I had just tried to do this online.”

Marybeth Richards prepares for some family study time with her children.

Many of Wilson’s adult students who have children share Richards’ desire to be a role model. “If your kids see you going to college, they will more fully understand the importance of college when their time comes,” Evans said.

Richards’ college education is already making a difference for her children, she said. Her oldest daughter, Aislynn, who is in 5th grade, was recently named student of the year at Guilford Hills Elementary School. “As a parent, I’m starting to see the fruits of my labor,” she said. “I see in Aislynn an appreciation and a pride that she has in the entire education process.”

In addition to the graduate work, Richards’ bachelor’s degree has already helped her find work as an editor for the publishing firm Pearson Co. She also is a substitute teacher for the Chambersburg Area School District and a graduate assistant in Wilson’s writing lab.

At Wilson, Richards also found strength in the supportive community forged by her fellow ADP students, which she described in her commencement address. “How many times have we leaned on one another for academic and moral support? A lot,” she said. “My experience was never unique, special or different because the solidarity among the adult students provided

“It's not unusual for these students to be the most ambitious ones in the classroom, thereby posing as great roles models for our traditional students.”

Richards is now pursuing a master’s degree in the humanities at Wilson, in order to teach at the college level.

That was not her original plan when she first enrolled in the adult degree program.

“I thought about teaching, but as maybe a high school teacher.

I had taken courses, but they were all over the place. I really didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do—until I came here.”

14 wilson magazine

—Elissa Heil the opportunity for us to learn from and empathize with one another. When we shared our experience, strength and hope with each other, we found the motivation that we needed to persevere, to finish.” W

ADP students share their stories: Robert Washinko ’14 was taking courses at Hagerstown Community College while serving with the Army Reserves “when 9/11 happened and I went into active duty with the Army.” His Army service landed him a job in aviation ground support at Letterkenny Depot and led to a two-year assignment in Germany.

“You know how it is—you get away from going to school and get out of the habit of studying and it gets harder and harder to go back to school.” Washinko said. “But when I was in Germany, I did a lot of traveling, a lot of learning about different cultures and it inspired me to go back to school.”

degree was a lot of work but it was a great experience, and looking back, I really appreciate my time at Wilson.”

Annika Dowd ’17 was a stay-at-home mom looking to continue her education. She tried taking an online course at one point “but it didn’t work for me,” she said. “I just love being in class, taking part in the give and take and just soaking up the academic atmosphere on campus. You don’t get that online.”

He chose Wilson after speaking with admissions representatives who visited Letterkenny. “I had tried some online classes, but they really left me cold. Bev (Evans) walked me through the whole admissions process and made it very easy for me to get started.”

“My degree was a lot of work but it was a great experience, and looking back, I really appreciate my time at Wilson.”

—Robert Washinko ’14 “I don’t like hearing younger people say they don’t have time for school,” said Washinko, who has talked a co-worker into taking ADP courses at Wilson. “I can’t really remember one bad study night now. My

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

Washinko started by taking just one course a semester. “I just dipped my toe in at first, but once I got used to being back in the classroom, I was taking three classes a semester.” He balanced his Letterkenny job (which involved regular travel out of the state), his Army reserve time and classes to receive a bachelor’s degree in business management; then went on to earn his M.B.A from Shippensburg University.

His Wilson degree helped him secure a new position at Letterkenny as a program analyst for the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Annika Dowd ’17 examining an artifact from the classics collection in the Hankey Center display room.

Dowd grew up in Germany and attended university there to study law before she met her husband, who was an American military member serving in Germany. When he returned to statewide duty, she took one semester at University of Texas in Austin. “When my daughter, Lina, was born, I decided to be a stay-athome mom,” she said. “Though I loved being a mom, I never really stopped thinking about getting my college degree.”

The family eventually moved to the Chambersburg area when her husband was transferred to Letter-

winter 2017 15

kenny. “I had my eye on Wilson ever since we moved here. I was very attracted by the campus and by the small size.” Dowd began attending Wilson after first getting her associate degree at Harrisburg Area Community College.

Wilson helped create a major for her in art history.

“I’ve always been creative without being artistic and I love the history that goes with each work of art, so this is something I really love,” Dowd said. “I would like to teach art history when I have my degree.”

She currently works as an intern at Wilson’s Hankey Center, cataloging the classics collection in the center’s downstairs display room.

Dowd helped her husband when he studied for his master’s degree and now he helps her juggle her home and parental duties. “It takes the two of you when you have a family, to do this. It takes a lot of collaboration. And I only have one kid. I can only imagine how tough it is for those going to school with more than that.”

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

Daughter Lina is now 12. “I hope I have been a good role model for her. She’s never complained about the time study takes me away. I think I’ve modeled to her that when the going gets tough, you have to keep going, keep working, until you accomplish your goal.”

Mary Cramer ’91 taking in the renovations to John Stewart Memorial Library during Reunion Weekend 2016.

Mary Cramer ’91 went to work when she graduated from high school because her parents could not

16 wilson magazine

afford to send her to college. After she moved to the area from western New York, she took a job at F&M Trust Co. as a switchboard operator.

“I always wanted a college degree. At that time, it was not a requirement for a good-paying job, but it certainly did not hurt,” Cramer said. She at first signed up for classes at Shippensburg University in the late 1970s and then enrolled in Wilson’s Continuing Education program when it began in 1982.

“I worked 40 hours per week during the day, went to college at night and raised a family. It was not easy, which makes the accomplishment of obtaining a degree all that much more gratifying,” Cramer said.

It took her 11 years to graduate. “I feel my degree assisted in my career. I moved up from a switchboard operator through many departments to a vice president of retail operations,” before retiring after 40 years with F&M Trust.

Cramer, now president of the Alumnae Association of Wilson College, offers this advice to current ADP students: “Work hard and receive that degree. It will help you in your work future.”

Netha Kane ’17 graduated high school in Arkansas in 1998 and went into the Army as a linguistics specialist. She had one tour of duty in Columbia, transcribing Spanish voice intercepts. “I always wanted to go on to college and thought I’d take courses in the Army, but something always postponed that. And then when I left the Army, I wanted to wait to take courses until my son was in school.”

“I’m excited to see where this degree will take me. I think I have a lot of freedom of choice with a business management degree—it can take me in a lot of directions.”

—Netha Kane ’17

Kane started off as a business major, but took a Spanish 101 course as a refresher. “I found myself falling

in love with the language all over again.” She added Spanish for a double major. “Dr. (Amanda) McMenamin (assistant professor of Spanish) was a very inspiring teacher and her enthusiasm for Spanish and the culture was really infectious,” said Kane, who ended up becoming president of the College’s Spanish Club.

Kane was able to take a month-long study-abroad trip to Spain during the summer of 2016 and studied the variations of Spanish language and Spanish literature.

She also took a course in Spanish business.

tinuing education program there was discontinued.

He spoke to Gunlog Anderson, who was then the program director for Wilson’s adult degree program, and she enrolled him at Wilson.

Steve Oldt ’99 was in his 50s when he was an ADP student at Wilson. “I was often the oldest person in my class. So I was able to bring outside experience to the classroom discussion—what it was like in the real world vs. what was being taught from the book. A lot of the professors were very eager to take advantage of that.”

“So I was able to bring outside experience to the classroom discussion—what it was like in the real world vs. what was being taught from the book. A lot of the professors were very eager to take advantage of that.”

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

Kane currently volunteers as a medical translator for Chambersburg Hospital and would like to pursue the hospital business management field after she graduates. “I’m excited to see where this degree will take me. I think I have a lot of freedom of choice with a business management degree—it can take me in a lot of directions.”

Steve Oldt ’99 after the alumnae awards ceremony during Reunion Weekend 2013. Oldt was awarded the Distinguished ADP Alumnus Award.

“By the time I got my degree, I was chief operating officer of Orrstown Bank,” Oldt said. “So, graduating was more of a personal accomplishment, a personal goal for me. And it was important to show my children that education is important, and that you don’t just have to start college when you’re 18.”

Oldt went on to serve on Wilson’s Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2012. His advice for current ADP students: “You’re never too old to get your degree. Just don’t stop. Stay motivated.”

—Steve Oldt ’99 Oldt, who played with the Chambersburg Cardinals football team and is a member of the National Minor League Football Hall of Fame, also pursued a career in banking. He wanted a college degree—“I kept trying to take courses, but life kept happening.” He attended two years at Shippensburg before the con-

winter 2017 17

food for

th ught Nationally, one in four college students goes hungry.

Sarah’s Cupboard offers Wilson students help.

O

nce little talked about, let alone acknowledged, hunger on college campuses across the nation is increasingly

recognized as a problem and a growing number of colleges, including Wilson, have joined what has been called “the campus food pantry movement.”

Wilson opened its food pantry in Lenfest Commons, dubbed Sarah’s Cupboard, on Oct. 1, joining

by Cathy Mentzer

some 385 other institutions that have opened food pantries and become members of the College

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

Keion Adams �19 manages Wilson's food pantry, Sarah's Cupboard.

and University Food Bank Alliance. Within

office, directing a successful grant application

six weeks of opening—even as word of the

that netted $5,000 from an anonymous

pantry was still getting out—a total of 40

foundation to make Sarah’s Cupboard a reality.

traditional, international and adult degree students had already used Sarah’s Cupboard, according to Wilson Vice President for Student Development Mary Beth Williams.

“There is a great deal of food insecurity on college campuses,” Williams said. “More than 50 percent of college students at some point during the year experience food insecurity and

Williams has been aware of food insecurity as

about one in four are regularly hungry. They

an issue on college campuses for a number

are making choices between their rent and

of years and in 2015, made it a priority of her

their food. When money’s tight, one of the

winter 2017 19

first things to go out the door is food.”

That has been the case with two Wilson students who regularly experience food insecurity, which is defined as “the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.” Jeff Montwicki and Julianne

ably do it two or three times a week,” she said. “When I first started doing it, it was embarrassing.”

A study conducted by the College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA) and three other organizations and released in October sheds light on

“There is a stigma associated with needing food assistance, and part of what we want to do is address that stigma on our campus.”

—Mary Beth Williams

20 wilson magazine

the lives of 1,800 students who identified as food-insecure. Of those, 32 percent believed that their hunger or housing problem had a negative impact on their education—something that resonates with Skorski, who plans to become a veterinary medical technologist after graduation.

“I’m not homeless. I do have a roof over my head so that makes it a little better,” she said. “But what makes it harder is, I’m always stressed. It affects my school sometimes. It’s like it’s all tied together. If I didn’t have to work and I didn’t have to worry, I’d probably be doing so much better in school. I don’t think people realize the amount of stress it puts on somebody.”

The CUFBA study, “Hunger on Campus,” showed that of the students surveyed with food insecurity, 56 percent said they had a paying job. Still, they aren’t able to make ends meet.

Both Skorski and Montwicki have federal student loans to help pay for college. In addiAdult Degree Program student Jeff Montwicki ’17, left, assists tion, Skorski has a private loan Dr. Hoefert of the Northside Veterinary Clinic in Carlisle. He and receives financial aid from said Wilson’s new food pantry will help him make ends meet. the Commonwealth of Pennsyltraditional students live off-campus and vania, as well as the College. don’t buy a meal plan at all.

Though there is a recognized lack For some students, times when the of data when it comes to food insecucollege dining hall is closed pose a rity on college campuses, anecdotally, PHOTOS BY KENDRA TIDD

Skorski, both Adult Degree Program students, say they experience hunger on a regular basis.

“Absolutely, probably a couple times a week,” said Montwicki, who expects to graduate in May 2017 with a double major in biology and chemistry. “I’ve been going to soup kitchens and food pantries for the past five years.”

Montwicki, who rents an apartment near the College and works two jobs, says after he pays his bills, there isn’t much money left for food. “All my money goes for rent, college, car insurance, utilities. I get $300 a month electric bills in the winter time,” he said.

Skorski, who is majoring in veterinary medical technology, lived on campus last year—her first year as a Wilson student—but couldn’t afford to this year so she moved into a small, off-campus apartment in Chambersburg. By late November, she had visited a food pantry at a Shippensburg church four times since October and said her boss at the grocery store where she works 16 hours a week sometimes buys her food.

“I do pretty well with what I have now,” said Skorski, 27, of New York City.

“I make sure everything’s paid first and then I might have $20 or $30 to spare.”

But last year, Skorski regularly visited her local McDonald’s just before closing time to ask for food that workers would otherwise have thrown away. “I haven’t done it this year, but last year I’d prob-

not only is the problem widespread, but “the more affluent the college, the greater the need seems to be,” said Williams, adding that it may simply not occur to members of the campus community that some students in their midst don’t have enough to eat.

While the only Wilson students who came forward to be included in this story are ADP students, the problem of food insecurity affects all types of students, according to Williams. “A lot of our students are in different stages of life so they face this problem for different reasons,” she said. “For many, they are stretched just to be here.”

Traditional students living on campus sometimes try to save money by buying a limited meal plan that does not include three meals a day, and then have to make it stretch. Skorkski did that last year, purchasing a plan that provided only two meals a day. Other

problem—particularly for international students and those in the Single Parent Scholar Program who can’t go home over holidays and breaks. “The hungriest day on every college campus is Thanksgiving Day,” said Williams.

This year, the Office of Student Development was able to offer boxes of fresh food to students who requested help over Thanksgiving break, which several international students said was a big help. The boxes Adult Degree Program student Julianne Skorski ’19, works at a checkout lane in Weis Market in Chamberscontained things like burg. She said she has often dealt with food insecurity and looks forward to making use of Sarah’s Cupboard. bread, milk, eggs and fresh produce. Williams rundown of churches and other places lege has taken steps to ensure students’ hopes to be able to provide boxes at within walking distance of Wilson that anonymity. “There is a stigma associatother times during the year if funds and offer free meals, as well as an overview ed with needing food assistance, and supplies permit. of county human service agencies with part of what we want to do is address Sarah’s Cupboard is run by Wilson contact information. that stigma on our campus,” said WilCurran Scholars, headed by Keion By late November, Montwicki and liams. “(The food pantry is) a completely Adams ’19. The pantry stocks a variety Skorski had both just learned that Wiljudgment-free zone.” of non-perishable and canned foods. son had a food pantry. Both think it’s a The bags provided to students to carEverything from dry pasta and cans of good idea and both plan to check it out. ry food out of the pantry do not all look spaghetti sauce to soup, cereal, pea“I definitely will,” said Montwicki, the same, so that the bags alone don’t nut butter, tuna, dry beans and rice is who works at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and become identifiers. Also, the pantry available, along with snacks like pearecently accepted a part-time job at is easy to use. Unlike many other local nuts and granola bars, according to a veterinary clinic where he had been food banks, Sarah’s does not require Adams. Even condiments and utensils performing an internship. He plans to anyone to provide income information are available at the pantry, which is continue in school and become a vetor any other kind of proof of need. And open three days a week: from 11 a.m. erinarian, ultimately aspiring to work although students must sign in with to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, 4 to 6 p.m. Thursat Idexx Laboratories in Switzerland to their ID card, identities are kept strictly days and 2 to 5 p.m. Saturdays. find a cure for feline leukemia. confidential, according to Williams.

The pantry uses a point system Montwicki hopes his current situation In addition to the initial $5,000 grant devised to encourage users to choose will improve with his new job, but will to get the pantry off the ground, other more nutritious foods over snacks, continue to do what he needs to do to contributions have come in, including a which use more points. An individual get enough to eat. “I don’t feel shamed $500 donation from the Alumnae Assostudent may use up to 10 points per visby going to soup kitchens and food ciation of Wilson College. And thanks to it to the food pantry and can visit up to pantries,” Montwicki said. “It gives me a a food drive by a group of local churchtwice a month. Students with children sense of humility and perspective that I es, a large cache of food came into the are allowed 15 points per visit. think a lot of people will never have. In a food pantry just before Thanksgiving.

Pantry hours and rules are not necesway I’m sort of grateful for it. And I feel The food is being stored in an upper sarily set in stone. “We set this up drawlike by me talking about this, people will floor of Lenfest Commons. ing from best practices as other food be less reticent to talk about it.” W In addition to the food provided, pantries,” Williams said. “It may change Sarah’s Cupboard offers ingenious based on our students’ needs. We’re recipe cards that use ingredients comstill evaluating.”

To learn more about how you can help monly found in food pantries to create To combat any reluctance on the part Wilson students fight food insecurity, unexpected, nutritious meals. Other of students who may feel embarrassed contact sarahscupboard@wilson.edu. resources are also available, including a about needing help with food, the Col-

winter 2017 21

T

22 wilson magazine

S

TAKING A Janice “Jay” Johnson ’61 Has Led an Activist’s Life

U

by Gina Gallucci-White

.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

the cultures of three different organizations

once stated, “The credit belongs

together and form a baseline in terms of

to the man who is actually in the

values and action.”

arena … who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

Whether volunteering her time for the Young Women’s Christian Association, serving as a Girl Scout executive or being president of a national grassroots organization, Johnson has spent her life dedicated

When people ask Janice ‘Jay’ Johnson ’61

to activism—both at the community and

why she became president last year of

national level—to help bring a voice to those

People’s Action—a network of three grass-

who feel they have been ignored.

roots organizations dedicated to advancing economic, social and racial justice—she cites Roosevelt’s speech as the reason. “I have aspirations to be ‘the woman in the arena,’” she said. “I am with (People’s Action) because I really felt like it was a progressive stream and a hell of a challenge … to bring

“(Activism is) important to me because I don’t believe citizenship is a spectator sport,” she said. “I believe unless people take action, things can go quickly awry. I believe that too many people sit silently and watch things happen and think that they can’t do anything about it. We at least

STAND

need to be able to sit down and reason about what we think is good for this country and for our families and communities.

The conversations that everybody says that we need to have, somebody needs to start.”

families, not only in Virginia but across the country. “She is a natural leader,” Hall said. “She’s really good at listening and reaching out to people and hearing where they are at, and starting a conversation with people.”

She has been active in Virginia Organizing for the past two decades. Founded in 1995, Virginia Organizing is a nonpartisan, non-profit community action group that brings people together to address issues that affect the quality of life in their local communities. Johnson has worked with the organization to reform the state’s tax system and push for policy changes in housing and redevelopment.

While she is praised for both her planning and insight, Johnson also knows when to act. Several years ago, the Center for Community Change was putting together a protest on immigration policy in Washington, D.C. Virginia Organizing at that time was doing a lot of work on behalf of undocumented immigrants.

Johnson met a woman who decided to participate in the protest even though she was undocumented. “Understanding what the risk was for her and her family, I felt like if she could do it, then I could do it. So for the first time in my life, I volunteered to be arrested,” she said. Johnson was 70 years old at the time.

Over the years, Johnson has served as both chairperson and treasurer for Virginia Organizing. “Jay is an incredibly dynamic person,” said executive director Joe Szakos. “I think one of the real things that Jay brings to an organization like Virginia Organizing is that she can be incredibly thoughtful about big-picture items, but really stays grounded in what has to happen day to

The group marched and chanted in front of then-Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner’s office and about 10 protestors, including Johnson, were arrested by the U. S. Capitol Police.

Above: Janice “Jay” Johnson ‘61, center, back row, with fellow members of the Wilson College Government Association. The WCGA in 1960 voted to institure a college boycott of the Chambersburg cafe that had refused to serve a table of Wilson students because Johnson was there with them. Opposite: During Reunion Weekend in 2016, a gathering of classmates (from left): Loretta Hunt Marion ‘61, Margee Grimes Idding ‘61, Johnson, Lynn Negus ‘61, who all participated in the protest and sit-ins, and Patricia Layden Jerabek ‘61, who moderated a discussion of those events in 2011.

day in (terms of) what one person can do, what two people can do, what small groups can do and how they can fit into working on long-term change in a broader sense. She lives on both ends of the continuum at the exact same time.”

Johnson is now leading People’s Action, a national group founded in June 2016 and formed by a merger of three powerful organizing groups: Alliance for a Just Society, National People’s Action and USAction. The nonprofit’s mission is “nothing less than to create a new people’s politics in America,” according to its webpage. People’s Action’s campaigns take on the issues of social justice, climate change and immigration.

LeeAnn Hall, former executive director for the Alliance for a Just Society and current co-executive director of People’s Action, said Johnson has heart, compassion and a real desire to fight for the dignity and well-being of poor and working-class

24 wilson magazine

For Johnson, it was worth it. “We were trying to get attention to stop separating (immigrant) families,” she said. “Sometimes you have to take a stand. It can’t be all talk. You’ve got to do some walking along with it.”

B

orn and raised in Hampton, Va., Johnson became active with Girl Scouts at the age of 7. She credits being selected as one of two high school-aged girls to represent her home state at an All-States Encampment as one of her reasons for selecting Wilson College. “That was the first time that I even had any thought to go to a college that was not a black college because I met girls from all over the United States,” she said, adding she befriended girls who were from different backgrounds such as Italian, Scandinavian and Native American.

When Johnson returned from the encampment, her high school

guidance counselor connected her to the National Negro Scholarship and Service Fund, which was dedicated to helping African-American students in the top 10 percent of their class find integrated colleges. She was given five colleges to choose from and picked Wilson, sight unseen.

I

ferent educational and racial backgrounds. “These people were for real,” she said. “(They) respected each other and were serious about the issues, but managed to have fun with each other while they were going about the business. I thought, ‘You know what? This might not be too bad.’”

believe unless people take action, things can go quickly awry.

I believe that too many people sit silently and watch things happen and think that they can’t do anything about it.”

“I chose Wilson because the correspondence and other communication from both college and alumna were the warmest and most caring that I received, which led me to believe that I would be in a friendly, supportive environment,” Johnson said. “Wilson, and the friendships I formed there, have not disappointed me—even after all these years.”

She earned her bachelor’s degree at Wilson in psychology and after graduation, worked for several years at the welfare department in Baltimore. She later returned to Virginia to be closer to family and get her master’s degree in guidance counseling from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). Her résumé includes time spent in social work, entrepreneurship, Girl Scouts and in the City of Hampton’s youth department. She served as the executive director for both the Northwest Settlement House Early Learning Center in Washington, D.C. and the Western Reserve Girl Scout Council in Ohio, before starting her own real estate business, I. Jay Enterprises, in Hampton.

From that meeting, Johnson emerged as a leader of the group.

Johnson can go from high-level meetings across the country to back home to Newport News, Va., to work on local issues such as voter registration or helping people in flooded neighborhoods, according to Szakos. “They are both important to her,” he said.

“Nothing is too big and nothing is too small for Jay Johnson.”

Johnson’s first taste of activism actually came when she was attending Wilson. She and several friends had gone to a cafe in Chambersburg to celebrate a classmate’s birthday. After being seated, they watched as table after table were waited on, yet no one came to serve them. Johnson told her friends the service wasn’t slow. They weren’t being served because she, an African-American, was sitting with them. Having never seen racism this close before, one of her friends confronted the waitress.

The owner would not let her wait on them.

Growing up in the South, Johnson had experienced segregation from a young age. But since Wilson was north of the Mason Dixon line, “I really did not expect this to happen,” she recalled.

She and her friends decided to organize a protest, stage sit-ins and lobby the student government to boycott the restaurant— which did later change its stance on serving African-Americans.

The incident was highlighted in a recent exhibit about civil rights at the College’s Hankey Center.

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

At a Wilson class reunion many decades later, one of her friends told her they participated in the protest because, “The fight became our fight because you were important to us, and it hurt us that this is what your life had been. We needed to do something different as people.”

Then, nearly 20 years ago, a member of Virginia Organizing approached Johnson about starting a chapter in Hampton. “I was too busy and I kept sending her to other people, and she kept coming back to me because other people sent her back to me,” Johnson recalled. The back and forth occurred for about two years until she was invited to a state board meeting with the promise that if she didn’t like it, she would not be asked again.

Johnson said she was initially hesitant because she didn’t “want to be part of another organization that meets to meet, meets to greet or meets to eat—or a combination of all of those things.”

Johnson attended the conference and met people from all dif-

Looking back on that experience, Johnson wrote on her blog this year: “Our protest was about more than vindicating the right of black and brown people to eat in a restaurant without discrimination. For me, protest was a way to exert my humanity and claim that I am a person exactly like everyone else in our free nation.

“That’s why, at the age of 70, I engaged in civil disobedience to support my friends who need a path to citizenship, and was arrested. I decided to stand with them, just as my friends stood with me,” Johnson wrote. “We all need to do a lot of soul-searching, remember our history lessons and stand together.” W

winter 2017 25

Good Vibrations 2017 has arrived, and the Wilson campus is sporting a fresh new vibe. The formal reopening of the John Stewart Memorial Library at the start of the spring semester last year was only the beginning.

Much of 2016 was taken up by other construction projects that are now complete and have transformed the campus. In addition, the College continues to explore and enhance its program offerings.

So the start of 2017 rings in new looks, new improvements and new programs to the Wilson campus. Here’s a top 10 list of what to appreciate on campus, in no apparent order:

NEW ENTRANCEWAY TO THE COLLEGE: The new entrance to Wilson is now next to Alumnae House across from Park Avenue, and is flanked by handsome stonework walls that match the stone in the John Stewart Memorial

26 wilson magazine

Library renovation. The entrance creates a formal arrival experience for prospective students and visitors, providing a view of the new academic quad followed by the campus green as one travels the expanded loop road.

NEW ACADEMIC QUAD: There’s a new, inviting green (well, for most of the year) space linking all of the primary academic buildings on campus, with walkways and native trees planted courtesy of a grant from the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Trees for Tomorrow.

A RENOVATED ROSENKRANS: The dorm opened this fall to students after upgrades to bathrooms, lounges, electrical and lighting. Besides the renovated student living space, there’s also a brand-new lab and clinic on the ground floor for Wilson’s nursing students.

winter 2017 27

LOUNGING AT THE LENFEST LEARNING COMMONS: The College café is now open. Customers have a choice of Odd, Even and Phoenix blend coffees, sandwiches and other on-the-go

treats. In warmer weather, the plaza outside of the new library learning commons with its nifty tables and chairs—complete with sun umbrellas—is sure to become a popular outdoor gathering place.

NEW COLLEGE STORE: The learning commons is also home to the revamped College store, which is already offering deals on Phoenix T-shirts and travel mugs.

28 wilson magazine

BYE, BYE POTHOLES: Those driving around campus can rejoice! Loop Road and Gall Way have been widened, the Hankey Center lot has been repaved and reconfigured, and the parking lots behind Disert and Rosenkrans have also been repaved. With all the work, the campus picked up another 32 parking spaces.

GOOD NEWS FOR NURSING: The College’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs in nursing now hold pre-accreditation status from the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education

Accreditation (CNEA). The CNEA held a campus visit in September as part of the accreditation process. Accreditation approval is expected early in the spring 2017 semester.

winter 2017 29

WILSON WRITING ACADEMY: The College will use a prestigious grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for $100,000 to create the Wilson Writing Academy to strengthen writing instruction for students, especially those in their first year. The academy, under the direction of English Professor Larry Shillock and Vice President for Academic Affairs Elissa Heil, will offer a comprehensive system of instruction to help faculty shape students’ writing skills and analytical reasoning capacities—central components of a liberal arts education.

TIP ACCREDITATION: Wilson’s Teacher Internship Program (TIP) received approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to move forward with a certification in business, information and technology for Pre-K-12.

The certification prepares individuals

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to teach computer skills-based courses, as well as business-related courses such as accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing and finance. TIP will begin offering the new certification courses in the spring 2017 semester.

NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMS: Building on its successful master’s degree program in education, the College has added a Master of Educational Technology (see more about the M.E.T. program on page 4) to its growing list of graduate programs. With classes set to begin in spring 2017, the program is geared toward education professionals who want to strengthen their skills and knowledge of how to incorporate technology effectively into all aspects of education. Wilson’s education division is also finishing a proposed Master of Special Education program for the spring.

This will bring the number of Wilson graduate programs to nine, with most of the programs offered online. W

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CITIZEN

SCIENCE

Professor John Elia brings back lessons from Earthwatch Sierra Meadows

By Coleen Dee Berry

A

ssociate Professor of Philosophy John Elia remembers the moment a few years ago when an enthusiastic student in his environmental ethics course declared, “Hey, we should go get in the (Conococheague) creek, take the whole class out there and DO something.”

“And I thought, I would love to do that, but I don’t really know how,” Elia said. “I didn’t know where to start, what we would be doing, what we would be measuring. I really wanted to take the classroom out and learn by doing, but I didn’t know where to begin.”

That moment stuck with him. “I didn’t take a course in environmental ethics when I was an undergraduate or in grad school, but in the last 10 years, it’s become one of my favorite courses to teach. And the kinds of issues I find myself drawn to as a scholar now, most are issues under the umbrella of environmental ethics,” Elia said. “I haven’t participated in fieldwork connected to this developing area of my scholarship, in large part because fieldwork isn’t a traditional mode or space of inquiry in philosophy … But more and more, I could see the value of fieldwork and I wanted to incorporate that into my classes.”

so “restoring and monitoring this ecosystem is critical to understanding potential threats to water supply and biodiversity due to climate change,” according to the Earthwatch website.

Choosing a philosophy professor for a scientific research project was not a stretch, according to Elissa Heil, Wilson vice president for academic affairs. “Philosophy is an ideal discipline for ethical fieldwork,” she said. “We have to avoid the stereotype that philosophers live and work mostly in their heads. What Elia shows us—and particularly his students—is how the life of the mind works hand in glove with applied experience. It serves the college well to support work that so closely aligns with our mission to prepare our students to think and do, and hence become more evolved citizens.”

effects of greenhouse gases on the meadow and the water gauges helped the project’s hydrologist measure how water moves through the terrain.

“I hadn’t really spent time working with people who have these backgrounds and experiences. It was eye-opening,” Elia said. “The meadow looks like one dry pasture, but it turns out there is enormous variety. By the second and third day, I was sitting down with the botanist and I could start to see species I hadn’t noticed before and that the ground is wetter here than over there. So their disciplinary lenses helped me.”

Elia also was impressed with his fellow volunteers—many of whom took vacation time to work with Earthwatch. His biggest takeaway from the project is the concept of cit-

They connect volunteers with practicing scientists to help impart new knowledge that could help alter policy and inform state and local decision-making.

With that in mind, Elia applied for Wilson’s Joan M. Thuebel ’52 Earthwatch Prize— which sponsors a student or faculty member who wants to participate in an Earthwatch Institute project of his or her choosing— and was selected for the award last May. He chose as his project the weeklong field study trip “Restoring the Sierra Meadows,” and traveled to California last September for the research.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains supply twothirds of the water for California, which has been mired in a drought since 2013. Meadows in these mountains capture rain and snow to replenish the state’s water supply,

32 wilson magazine

— John Elia, Associate Professor of Philosophy Another reason Elia chose the Sierra project: One of his favorite teaching resources for his environmental ethics course is the writing of John Muir, the late 19th-century environmental philosopher who wrote extensively and poetically about the Sierra region. “And there I was in the Sierra Meadows, finding them just as romantic and magical as Muir described,” said Elia.

The research was “a lot of hard work.”

Elia found himself either working on his hands and knees, painstakingly cataloging 16-by-16-inch meadow plots for types of plant life or “acting like a human pile driver” to help install water gauges and monitors.

Cataloging the plant life helped the botanist accompanying the group analyze the

izen science. “This is one of the great things Earthwatch does—they connect volunteers with practicing scientists to help impart new knowledge that could help alter policy and inform state and local decision-making,” he said.

This concept of citizen science is the lesson Elia intends to take back to his students in the classroom. “I want to get them involved, to learn about natural world possibilities with real insight, so that they are thinking ethically about the environment as a result of this experience,” he said.

And he is ready to take that step to get his students out into the field. “I’ll be teaching environmental ethics next fall and I’m already considering a field exercise.” W

AROUND THE GREEN

Clockwise from top left: Associate Professor of Philosophy John Elia helps to install a rain gauge on a Sierra meadow; analyzing plant life; view across the meadow.

winter 2017 33

PHOTO BYKENDRA TIDD

AROUND THE GREEN

34 wilson magazine

CONGRESSIONAL

GOLD

Kyla Martin ’17 honored for her community service

By Debbie Chestnut

W

hen Kyla Martin was 14, she helped her mother collect winter jackets for needy families in her community. It was one of the first projects they undertook after co-founding a charity called Angels at Work. The experience made a lasting impression. Since that time, Martin ’17 has organized a second nonprofit charity, worked with several other organizations and spent more than 1,000 hours helping others, both at home and on campus.

For her dedication and service, Martin, now 21, was awarded the Gold Congressional Medal in 2016, after previously earning Bronze and Silver awards. While she is honored to have earned the awards, her greatest satisfaction is knowing that she has simply made life better for someone else.

“I just want to help and make a difference wherever I can,” she said.

The Congressional Medal is the highest award given by the United States Congress for young people and recognizes their dedication to community service. Anyone age 13 to 23 is eligible to participate in the program, according to the award website.

Participants are required to set goals in voluntary public service, personal development, physical fitness and expedition.

“You have to have goals for yourself to make yourself into a better person,” said Martin, who was one of 27 Pennsylvania residents to receive the Congressional Award Gold Medal in 2016.

The daughter of Kathy and Dave Witcoskie of Paxinos, Martin is a 2013 graduate of Shamokin Area High School. She is a dean’s list student at Wilson, majoring in English with a focus on creative writing and equine journalism.

Growing up, Martin watched her mother volunteer with different organizations and witnessed firsthand the positive impact of community service. When she got older, she knew it was something she wanted to do, as

well. In 2005, she and her mother launched Angels at Work and collected food and clothes for local people in need. They also organized a variety of community programs.

“One of the things we did was a small street carnival to raise money to send overseas to our troops,” Martin said. “We also had Operation Bedtime Story. We collected bedtime (toiletry) items for local families in need. Kids from the community came for activities and people took what they needed.”

This year during Martin’s winter break, Angels at Work will collect handmade baby blankets and hats for local children.

While most of her community service hours were completed through Angels at Work projects, Martin also launched her own equine therapy charity, Hooves Helping Hearts, in 2015. The charity allowed her to share her love of riding, as well as help accrue the required 400-plus hours of volunteer time needed to qualify for the Gold congressional award.

Martin organized Hooves Helping Hearts because she believes in the therapeutic qualities of animals. “The horses are therapeutic tools that help people,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to open up around an animal than it is to open up around a person. I think that’s what makes it so beneficial.”

Working with her mother and three of her friends, Martin takes her miniature horse, Charlie, to visit patients and residents of children’s hospitals, veterans’ organizations and assisted living homes. Martin has also rescued and retrained a Haflinger pony and donated it to Marley’s Mission, a therapeutic program in Scranton, Pa. For as long as she can remember, Martin has been interested in equestrian sports.

She learned to ride when she was 15 and by the time she was 16, she had already won numerous awards, bought her first horse—a Saddlebred named Tango—and was an

accomplished equestrian athlete. She participated in the 2011 national vaulting championship—a sport she describes as “gymnastics on horseback”—and was the highest-ranked vaulter from Pennsylvania.

Martin also served as assistant coach for her community vaulting club for one and a half years before starting college, helping children ages 4 to 16 sharpen their equestrian skills. “I helped with coaching and training the animals, and I helped with fundraising so they could go to competitions.”

At Wilson, Martin is treasurer of the Equine-Facilitated Therapeutics (EFT) Club, which provides a program for community children who have mental or physical disabilities. Once a week, they get a free riding lesson.

“I would definitely tell students, especially the equestrian students, to volunteer with the EFT Club to see the difference it makes in people’s lives,” Martin said. “I have seen one of our students grow so much more confident in herself since she learned to ride. Another has gained muscle control.

When she started the program, she had trouble sitting up and now she is becoming more independent.”

Martin also chairs the fundraising committee of Wilson’s Hunt Seat team and she is a member of the Environmental Club.

Her volunteer work will continue after graduation, Martin said. “I definitely plan to work more with the charities once I’m back in the area again. And look for a job. I want to attend grad school in the next five years.”

Martin’s academic adviser, Professor of English Michael Cornelius, praised her community service work. “Kyla is very modest about all of her accomplishments and the volunteer work she does,” he said. “She really appreciates working hard for other people and is very selfless in her approach to doing so. She is an excellent role model for all of us.” W

winter 2017 35

AN ACTIVE

ROLE

Gretchen Hand joins Wilson’s athletics team

By Frances Caroscio

G

retchen Hand joined the Wilson community this past fall and already has added to campus her experience as a volleyball coach, her dedication to fitness and her enthusiasm for the sport of beach volleyball.

As the head coach of the new Phoenix women’s volleyball team, Hand guided players through a challenging inaugural season.

“When first starting a program, the important thing is to have all the right components,” said Hand, who has more than 15 years’ experience coaching volleyball. “Wilson has the program, the staff and the students who are committed to the game. We have the necessary key components in place. Now comes the education and training part.”

The volleyball team started the fall season with only three student-athletes who had played on an organized volleyball team prior to coming to Wilson. “The other students on the team were very passionate about the sport, but hadn’t been in organized competition, so that was a challenge,” Hand said, “My goal is that every year the team will improve.”

Players lauded Hand for her positive attitude—and keeping them motivated—through a winless season. Team member Laury Jean Baptiste ’20 said that Hand encouraged her players even when they were losing or feeling frustrated. Baptiste, who played volleyball for the Atlantic Coast Volleyball Club in Florida while in high school, added that Hand’s coaching techniques were helpful to new players on the Phoenix team. “The new kids learned a lot,” Baptiste said. “They learned so much in such a short amount of time, so it was impressive.”

In the off season, Hand will be actively searching for recruits to add depth and skill to the team to build for next year.

36 wilson magazine

As a strength and conditioning coach, Hand plays another role on campus. Her programs are designed not only for the College’s student-athletes, but the entire student body, as well as staff and faculty members. “My goal, not just for the athletes but for every student, faculty and staff member, is to be active four times a week,” she said. She held fitness classes for students, staff and faculty in the fall semester and plans additional classes this spring.

Hand’s commitment to fitness and her view of athletics as both a lifestyle and a way to bring people together, fuels her drive to get the entire Wilson campus involved. “When you talk about sports and recreation, it’s not about the workout,” she said. “It’s about having a social gathering that’s fit and fun.”

Although Hand began her athletic career playing volleyball at Hillsboro High School in St. Louis and became an all-conference volleyball team player for the University of Missouri at St. Louis in 2001, she discovered she had the talent for another sport: beach volleyball.

“I had a coach who encouraged me to try the sport and I found the one beach volleyball court in St. Louis and started to play,” Hand said. “Then my playing partner and I began traveling up to Chicago on weekends to compete.” She was asked to join the professional beach volleyball circuit and moved to Manhattan Beach, Calif., in 2003 to devote more time to the sport she had come to love. Beach volleyball “is truly a real lifestyle sport. If you love the outdoors and love fitness, it’s a great sport,” Hand said.

She competed with the Association of Volleyball Professionals, National Volleyball League, EVP Volleyball and FIVB (Federa-

tion Internationale de Volleyball) and was coached by Olympians Liz Masakyan and Holly McPeak. She also competed on the international circuit in Brazil, Columbia, Ireland and Thailand before being sidelined by a shoulder injury. She returned to coaching volleyball in Fort Lauderdale before coming to Wilson.

Now, Hand would like to bring the benefits of beach volleyball to the Wilson campus.

It’s easier on the joints and offers more diverse training opportunities to push all athletes, not just volleyball players, toward their full potential, she said. Hand has raised the idea of a beach volleyball court on campus to college officials “and we’re exploring the possibilities,” she said.

Hand said she decided to take on the job of volleyball coach for Wilson because “when I stepped on campus I was really impressed with the people,” and she is happy to be a part of the Wilson College community because she is “surrounded with people who are passionate about what they’re doing.” For Hand, that’s important. “I think that you have to find a passion in life that pushes you to be the very, very best,” she said, “Volleyball is my passion.”

She wants to continue to contribute to the change and growth of the Wilson community. “It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to change your body or your attitude, you still have to change to move in a positive direction,” she said. “My hope is that I bring out positive change for everyone…Athletics, strength and conditioning, it’s all really valuable in contributing to the college experience.” W Frances Caroscio is the athletics communications intern at Wilson.

AROUND THE GREEN

Women's Volleyball Head Coach Gretchen Hand looks on during warmups for a match last fall.

PHOENIX SPORTS WRAP Wilson College athletics finished up the fall season with the men’s soccer team narrowly missing a post-season bid, while the women’s soccer team improved their win total from the previous year. The winter sports season includes both men’s and women’s basketball, and both Phoenix teams have racked up early victories. The men’s volleyball season begins on Jan. 20 with an away game at Bard College.

MEN’S SOCCER finished the season with a 3-2 victory over

SUNY Cobleskill and collected the most wins (six) in program history and missed the NEAC tournament by one game.

Raihan Azim ’20 was the first Phoenix men’s soccer player to earn all-conference accolades, as he was named Third Team All-Conference while setting single season records for goals scored (11) and points (25).

Improving on their season from a year ago, the WOMEN’S SOCCER team, under the direction of first year head coach

Caleb Davis, collected two more wins than the previous year.

Nana Ohene-Manu ’17 led the team with 10 goals on the season, while Noemi Regan ’20 added nine goals. The team also received the NEAC Sportsmanship Award for its performance on the field during the previous season.

The WOMEN’S BASKETBALL team won two of its first three games. As first year head coach Matt Allen led the Phoenix to a 77-45 victory over Christendom College and a 79-71 win over Cedar Crest College. Jordyn Day ’19 leads the Phoenix with a 17.6 points per game average.

MEN’S BASKETBALL earned its first win of the season by

defeating defending conference champion Lancaster Bible College 74-71. Keion Adams ’19 is nearly averaging a double-double for the season with 20.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. By Jan. 16 the team had four wins.

winter 2017 37

— hidden —

history

PENN HALL EVOLVED FROM WILSON’S PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT

By Amy Ensley

P

enn Hall, the preparatory school and junior college for women adjacent to Wilson College, closed its doors in 1973.

The remaining members of the Penn Hall Alumnae Association (PHAA) held their final reunion this past October. Prior to disbanding, the association decided to give their archives to the Hankey Center, along with a gift of $20,000 for its care and to provide small stipends for interns to work with the collection. It is an appropriate home for the collection, since Penn Hall had its origins as the Preparatory Department at Wilson College.

“Our mission as a school, and later as an alumnae association, has always been to promote, encourage and broaden the education of young women,” said Bonnie Lee Kepner, PHAA board member.

“It is particularly fitting, with our shared early school histories, that the legacy of the Penn Hall Preparatory School and Junior College will forever be an integral link in Wilson’s research into the history and importance of women’s education.”

The Penn Hall archives collection dovetails nicely with the Hankey Center’s mission to study the history of women’s education. The collection includes many items similar to Wilson’s archives, including yearbooks, catalogs, student newspapers and scrapbooks. Also included are Penn Hall’s maroon and white dinks, equestrian trophy cups, class rings and other jewelry.

Penn Hall’s photograph collection is distinctive for its series of “To the Sea Shore” class pictures. Every year the entire school closed up shop and moved to the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, N.J., for three weeks in May. Lessons were conducted as usual, but the students were able to attend concerts, stroll on the boardwalk, enjoy horseback riding on the beach and bathing in the surf. The tradition ended during World War II. Wilson and Penn Hall were intertwined from the start. From the very first year of Wilson’s operation in 1870, the Preparatory Department was essential to the College’s success. In 1860, there were only six public high schools in the entire state. As late as 1895, only 2 percent of the eligible population was enrolled in high school. The number of young women who were interested, let alone qualified, to do college level work was in very short supply.

President John Edgar stated, “The Preparatory Department is sustained to give us in the higher departments, students who are better prepared for higher work than those who often come to us.”

38 wilson magazine

Penn Hall students prepare to take the train for their "To the Sea Shore" session.

By 1905, enrollment was stable and President Matthew Reaser was able to make Wilson’s graduation requirements in line with the best institutions of the time. The Preparatory Department was no longer needed, so a committee of trustees recommended the College encourage the creation of an independent college preparatory school. Wilson entered into a lease agreement with the new school for space on the north end of campus and within a year, Penn Hall opened its doors to students.

The school grew rapidly and moved several times before building its campus next to Wilson in 1921. In 1927, Penn Hall began a junior college while still operating the preparatory school, and had the distinction of being the oldest private junior college in Pennsylvania. But by the 1970s, dwindling enrollment led to the school’s closure.

Once the Penn Hall collection has been processed, it will be open to researchers. Please contact Amy Ensley at amy.ensley@ wilson.edu for additional information.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Greetings to our extended Wilson Community: Your time, talents and treasures are important to the association. We continue to need your support. Check out the monthly e-News, our web page, www.wilson.edu/alumn, and the Wilson Magazine for opportunities to be of service.

At our winter retreat this year, we hosted a social to network with graduate students. We also received updates on our nursing program from Carolyn Hart and on the work of the Hankey Center from Amy Ensley.

The Office of Alumnae/i Relations has been very busy:

The new year is here and plans for a new reunion are underway. Reunion is the time to return to campus to reconnect with old friends and make new friends. It is also a time to learn what is new on campus, as well as what is planned for the future. All are invited. Mark your calendar for the weekend of June 2-4. A registration brochure is included in this issue of the Wilson Magazine. The schedule includes the Friday picnic on the green with a larger tent, D.J. and photo booth this year; a program highlighting Wilson authors in the John Stewart Memorial Library; exhibits and presentations by the Hankey Center; the annual State of the College and AAWC meeting, raffle and award presentations; class dinners and Sunday chapel service.

• Preparing for Reunion Weekend 2017.

• Updating the list of class officers and contacting them.

• Pairing students and alums in the Aunt Sarah Program.

• Sending the monthly e-News to all alumnae/i on the 15th of each month.

• Planning a variety of events and activities to make Wilson connections.

Please review the list of confirmed class officers featured throughout this issue’s Class Notes column. Materials have been mailed to all these individuals. If you believe yourself to be an officer and you are not listed, please reach out and confirm with the alumnae/i relations office.

More and more students are requesting an Aunt Sarah.

If you are able to adopt a new niece or nephew, and contact them once a month, please reply to the alumnae/i relations office. As always, please make sure we have your current email address so that you can keep informed on alumnae and Wilson happenings.

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

winter 2017 39

ASSOCIATION NEWS AAWC trips for 2017 The 2017 AAWC trips will include:

April 23-May 1 Riverboat Cruise: Southern Grandeur

REUNION RAFFLE TO SUPPORT AAWC OPERATING FUND During Reunion 2017, the Alumnae Association will 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 good luck. Prizes will be drawn the evening of Saturday, June 3.

Seven nights aboard the elegant American Queen from Memphis to New Orleans and one pre-cruise night in Memphis. New: Distinguished Lecture Series. Contact: GO NEXT, www.gonext.com or 800-842-9023.

July 1-8 The Great Parks of California: Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Experience storybook scenery and living history. Eight nights include national parks and San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Carmel and Monterey. Contact: ORBRIDGE, www.wilson.orbridge.com or 866-639-0079.

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 aawc@wilson.edu.

Sept. 27-Oct. 5 Alumnae/i Campus Abroad in Italy: Sorrento

AMAZONSMILE DONATES

TO AAWC

You shop. Amazon gives. · Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Alumnae Association of Wilson College. · AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service. · Support AAWC through the AmazonSmile, using the link below. Proceeds benefit alumnae/i student activities.

Link to AmazonSmile: smile.amazon.com/ch/23-1352581

Seven nights in first-class Hotel Plaza Sorrento. Tour five UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Amalfi Coast, Naples, Greek ruins in Paestum, Herculaneum and Pompeii (optional extra—hydrofoil tour to the Isle of Capri). Includes most meals, wine, tips and motor coach transportation. Early booking by April 16 saves $250. Contact: AHI Travel, www.wilson.ahitravel.com or 800-323-7373.

Oct. 14-22 Village Life in France: Languedoc, the REAL South of France

Seven nights in the 16th-century Chateau Des Ducs De Joyeuse at the foothills of the Pyrenees. Cruise the 17th-century Canal du Midi (a UNESCO World Heritage site); tour Rennes-le-Chateau; take a walking tour of Carcassonne; take a day excursion to the coastal town of Collioure (inspiration to Matisse and Picasso). Contact: GOHAGAN, www.gohagantravel.com or 800-922-3088.

For more information, visit: www.wilson.edu/alumnae-tours-and-travel

40 wilson magazine

CALLING ALL

WILSON AUTHORS

A special area of the John Stewart Memorial Library has been set aside for books written by Wilson College authors. All members of the extended Wilson community—alumnae/i and current and former faculty, staff and administration—are invited to send us a copy of your published book(s) to add to our collection.

This “Authors Wall” will be highlighted during Reunion 2017, and our goal is to have the section populated with as many books as possible prior to Reunion Weekend June 2 to 4.

Please send a new copy of the book(s) you wish to donate to: Wilson College Office of Alumnae/i Relations 1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201 If you want to verify whether we already have a copy of your book, please email alumnae@wilson.edu or call 717-262-2010.

TIFT AWARD FOR

JANE HILLEMAN WINGERD ’51 Jane Hilleman Wingerd ’51, center, accepts the TIFT College Award at Alumnae House from Lisbeth Sheppard Luka ’69, left, and AAWC President Mary Cramer ’91. The TIFT College Award recognizes alumnae/i who make exemplary efforts to promote the continuing growth of Wilson College. Wingerd was unable to attend the award ceremony at Reunion Weekend.

Save the Date for Reunion Weekend 2017!

For classes ending in 2 and 7

REUNION 2017—JUNE 2-4 winter 2017 41

— last —

word

Postcard from the Sierra Meadows

By John Elia extravagant is Nature with her choicest treasures, “S ospending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring

it forth into land and sea, garden and desert,” John Muir exclaimed about the California Sierra meadows in his book, My First Summer in the Sierra. In Muir’s retelling, wild animals are like garden apprentices, carefully tending the meadow lilies, columbine and larkspur; interloping humans and their grazing animals are pests who fail to appreciate, much less cultivate and conserve, nature’s gifts: “And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels, wolves and sheep, birds and bees, but as far as I have seen, man alone, and the animals he tames, destroy these gardens.”

I have used this section of Muir’s journal many times over in my environmental ethics courses. Every time I read it, I’m reminded that Muir has a naturalist’s eye and a poet’s heart.

I’m envious of the eye, for its ability to identify the finer parts of nature—I’m renewed by the heart, for its openness to the agency of the more-than-human world.

I had the good fortune to spend a week in the Sierras this fall. My trip was made possible by Joan Thuebel ’52, who graciously funds an annual Earthwatch expedition for a Wilson community member. (See story on page 32.) My goal was to learn about, by participating in, environmental fieldwork. In a sense, I hoped to follow in Muir’s footsteps.

I helped a group called SYRCL (South Yuba River Citizens League) with data collection prior to their restoration of a series of Sierra meadows. Working closely with practicing scientists, poring over small plots of meadow flora, taking hikes with people versed in reading their landscapes, I got a brief taste of Muir’s delight in the Sierras.

A week in the mountains didn’t turn me into a scientist or a poet. But it did persuade me that fieldwork, done well, can open us up to both science and poetry. It has the potential to turn otherwise arm’s-length judgments about the environment into meaningful knowledge and heartfelt appreciation, which is why I’m planning to introduce field experience into my next environmental ethics course.

Environmental thinkers sometimes wonder how much knowledge one needs to effectively protect nature. Does stewardship require the professional botanist’s ability to discriminate between plant species, or might the amateur birder’s ear be enough? Do we need knowledge at all, or might care for nature be more a matter of feeling than thought?

In the Anthropocene, nature’s garden, to use Muir’s words, is being destroyed on a scale unparalleled in human history: by our massive resource extractions, our rapid species extinctions and our now unavoidable climate disruptions. We needn’t debate the merits of science and poetry, the eye and the heart, any longer.

Either—or both together—can do some very real good. We need more scientists and more poets working up close rather than at arm’s length, protecting plants and animals and water and soil, so that nature has a chance to continue pouring forth, on all of us, her extravagant beauty. Let’s all take to the field. W

64 wilson magazine

THE WILSON FUND

Difference Maker

“I want to thank all the Wilson Fund donors.

Without your generosity I would not have had the opportunity to grow and excel at Wilson.”

Cody Dunlap ’18 Hanover, Pa.

LENFEST

2 0/2 0 C H A L L E N G E Major: financial mathematics 2016-17 WCGA President

MAKE A DIFFERENCE MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY wilson.edu/makeagift

1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201-1279

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Greencastle, PA Permit No. 10

PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

One of the fresh looks on campus is the view of the new Park Avenue entrance at night. Catch more good campus vibes on page 26.