Dickinson Magazine Summer 2016

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DICKINSON MAGAZINE SUMMER 2016 VOLUME 94 NUMBER 1

Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Publisher and Vice President Stefanie D. Niles

[ contents ]

Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara

20 The World Is Your Comfort Zone: Embracing

Editor Michelle Simmons

Dickinson’s liberal-arts mission, software giant Epic

Associate Editor Lauren Davidson College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Amanda DeLorenzo Printer Intelligencer

Systems is home to a dozen alumni from diverse, and unexpected, disciplines. 26 Bronze or Bust: A London

Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore Alejandro Heredia ’16 Grace McCrocklin ’16 Caio Santos Rodrigues ’16

society tracks abolitionist and author Moncure Conway, class of 1849, to Dickinson’s archives. 30 What Can

Magazine Advisory Group Jim Gerencser ’93 David Richeson Adrienne Su Robert Pound Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Donna Hughes Nicole Minardi

You Do With a Philosophy Degree? It turns out, many

Website www.dickinson.edu/magazine

empowerment.

Email Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu

things. 34 A Place at the Table: Latino/a Dickinsonians navigate new communities, find sources of

Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2016. Dickinson Magazine (USPS Permit No. 19568, ISSN 2719134) is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October, by Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA 17013-1773.

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Address changes may be sent to Dickinson Magazine, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896.

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UP FRONT

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Dickinson matters

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college & west high

5 kudos 16 fine print 18 in the game IN BACK

38 beyond the limestone walls 40 our Dickinson 54 obituaries 56 closing thoughts

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ON THE COVER

Kathryn “Kaylee” Mueller ’16 (center) prepares to descend the old stone steps after receiving congratulations from Neil Weissman, then-provost and dean of the college (read Weissman’s column as interim president on Page 2), and Joyce Bylander, vice president and dean of student life.

Photo by Carl Socolow ’77.

[ Dickinson matters ] Remaining true to ourselves NEIL B. WEISSMAN, INTERIM PRESIDENT

I

came to Dickinson in July 1975, simultaneously with the new president, Samuel Alston Banks. Although my arrival as an instructor on a two-year, nonrenewable contract was considerably less heralded than his, I did have the opportunity to observe the transition to new leadership. Dickinson’s current presidential transition will be my fifth here, albeit this time my role is rather different than previously. Reflecting both on my past experience of change and on the current state of the college, I approach service as interim president with real optimism. Let me explain why.

First, I point to quantitative measures of the college’s strength. Demand for a Dickinson education remains high, as evidenced by the recruitment of our largest class ever last year (733 in the class of 2019) and our record applications this year (6,140). The class of 2020 will be among Dickinson’s most talented and diverse. From the standpoint of finance, we are finishing the 2015-16 academic year in the black and have been able to invest additional funds in projects ranging from a new science lab to deferred maintenance. The college’s Standard & Poor’s rating remains A+, with an increasingly rare in higher education “positive outlook.”

We also had a strong year in recruiting talented faculty and staff. All seven of our newly hired tenure-line faculty, for example, were our first choices. This includes successful searches in such

competitive fields as international business & management and psychology. On the administrative side, we are delighted with recruitment of our new, experienced and imaginative vice president for college advancement, Kirk Swenson (see Page 4).

This too comes in a field where competition for good candidates is intense, particularly for an institution that is in presidential transition.

My chief reason for confidence in looking to the year ahead, though, rests with the interim Report on Strategic Direction produced by the college’s Strategic Planning Committee. As most of you know, Dickinson’s first comprehensive plan—Strategic Plan I—was drafted in 2000. It affirmed the college’s mission of providing a “useful education” in the liberal arts, articulated the Benjamin Rush narrative and shifted our strategy from “balance” to a focus on areas of excellence such as global education. Strategic Plans II and III, done at five-year intervals, essentially updated the first, adding a few key elements, including our initiative in sustainability and a heightened commitment to accountability, particularly regarding assessment of student learning.

The charge to the Strategic Planning Committee established last fall was not to produce another iteration of the original plan.

No Strategic Plan IV but rather something novel. Meetings, open sessions, consultations and calls for input from all constituencies of the Dickinson community followed, punctuating the fall and winter calendars. With what result? A strong community consensus that Dickinson remain an undergraduate liberal-arts college; that our mission remain a “useful education”; that we remain committed to faculty as “teacher-scholars” who work closely with students; that we remain focused on leadership in global education and sustainability; and that top priorities remain enhanced alumni engagement and fundraising.

You will notice the refrain “remain.” It’s not that the report lacks innovation. The committee called for heightened attention to “inclusivity” at Dickinson, endorsed a civic engagement initiative and recommended extending our “layered support” for first-year students into a full “Dickinson Four” for all class years. We will consider these and other dynamic elements.

Yet the report reaffirms our core commitments. In essence, Dickinson is a college that knows itself and understands how to build creatively on that foundation. What better, stronger way to enter a presidential transition and move forward?

Learn more about the Report on Strategic Direction at dickinson.edu/SPReport.

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[ college & west high ]

Carlisle STRONG What defines a “strong town”? It’s about the sense of community, the grassroots initiatives, the collaborative approach to problem solving. So when Strong Towns, a national media nonprofit that supports and promotes local communities and commerce, launched its inaugural Strongest Towns competition, a group of Carlisle residents—including several Dickinson employees—thought, “Why not us?”

“Strong Towns looks for progressive towns that actively seek opportunities to connect people in their community,” explains Brenda Landis, Dickinson’s multimedia specialist and member of the Carlisle West Side Neighbors community organization.

Landis collaborated with Chris Varner, Elm Street project manager; Andrea Crouse, Carlisle borough parks and recreation director; Neil Leary, director of Dickinson’s Center for Sustainability Education and co-chair of the Greater Carlisle Project; and Debra Figueroa, Carlisle’s assistant borough manager, to submit a portfolio of Carlisle’s strengths to the competition.

The portfolio included photographs that depict the town’s strength and resilience and responses to questions ranging from what transportation options are available to how has the town adapted to the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Strong Towns began with a March Madness bracket-based approach, with 16 contestants, narrowing the field down to the Elite 8, the Final 4 and then the top two: Carlisle and Hoboken, N.J. Residents came out in droves to vote Carlisle soundly through each round, with the town garnering 52 percent of the final vote.

“In each iteration of the Strongest Town contest, Carlisle stood out for its diverse and supportive community,” noted the Strong Towns website, “which has helped to shape this town into a truly wonderful place to live.”

“We have a great base of people who believe in this town,” Landis adds. “The people who not only live here but used to live here, they all came together to push us over the top.” —Lauren Davidson

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[ our view ] Making Dickinson home KIRK SWENSON, VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLEGE ADVANCEMENT

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n 1948, my grandfather left his job in a Reading, Pa., rug mill to start a small-engine repair shop in Kutztown called Kunkel’s Saw & Mower. With an iron will and a work ethic that would make a coal miner blush, he carved out a life for his family. My mother and her brothers were the first in their family to attend college, and three of them earned graduate degrees. This is his legacy, and I carry it with pride, dedicating my career to ensuring that others have similar life-altering opportunities.

As a boy, I spent many happy days in Kutztown playing in my grandfather’s shop, climbing over mowers and marveling at the maze of machines. Since then, I have enjoyed a career that spanned major research universities and small colleges. When I first drove around the outskirts of Carlisle this spring, I knew I was home: The landscape called out to me with a familiarity and connection that I did not realize had been missing in my life. Along with my wife, Whitney, and our son, Owen, I now make my home in Carlisle, just three counties over from the family farm where my grandfather was born.

As the beneficiary of a liberal-arts education, I believe in the power of the Dickinson approach to prepare young people for lives of consequence. Benjamin Rush and John Dickinson believed it too. Read through Dickinson’s founding documents and you can feel the hopefulness, the confidence that Dickinsonians would shape the future of this new nation. Education can spark a passion for serving others; it can lift families and whole communities from poverty. And a Dickinson education is even more relevant

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today, as our students must be prepared to tackle the complex issues they will encounter throughout their lives.

As Dickinson’s vice president for college advancement, I lead a team responsible for building the relationships and securing the resources needed to move this great institution forward. I am eager to meet many of you in the months ahead as I travel across the country to hear your Dickinson stories, to learn about your life’s journey since you walked down the steps of Old West and to better understand your hopes and dreams for Dickinson.

There is no question that Dickinson is one of the leading liberal-arts colleges in the nation. Likewise, there is no question that we will need financial resources if we want to not merely maintain our position, but also move forward. While there are many worthy competing demands, I want to address one issue of particular importance to me—financial aid.

We must ensure that affordability is not a barrier to outstanding students who would make Dickinson their first choice. The educational landscape has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. Household income has stagnated for most Americans while household costs continue to increase. Against this backdrop, financial aid is more critical than ever.

Making Dickinson accessible to highly qualified students who might not otherwise be able to attend benefits the entire community. Our faculty know this, as they are deeply committed to developing the young people entrusted to their care. These students come from all over the U.S. and around the world, and they include groups that historically have been underrepresented at Dickinson. Such students contribute to the intellectual climate in our classrooms, the competitiveness of our athletics teams and the quality of the residential experience.

My brief time on campus already has filled me with great appreciation for the Dickinson community and great hope for the college’s future. Every student, faculty member, staff member and trustee I meet impresses me with their unwavering commitment to Dickinson. Indeed, it was the unanimity and the power of their enthusiasm that made Dickinson stand out and convinced me to join the college. They all seem to know that we have something special here, and they want to do what they can to make it even better.

I invite you to join us. We need every Dickinsonian to do your part. Volunteer your time and expertise to help students and fellow alumni. Work within your sphere of influence to build pride and appreciation for a Dickinson education. Contribute to the Dickinson Fund each year and to special initiatives that resonate with you. Be a partner, be a philanthropist, be a Dickinsonian.

Kudos

[ college & west high ] Promotions

Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology John Henson has been promoted to senior associate provost.

The following were promoted to the rank of full professor: Grant Braught, mathematics and computer science; Ben Edwards, earth sciences; Dengjian Jin, international business & management; Andrea Lieber, religion; Ed McPhail, economics; Tony Pires, biology; and Karen Weinstein, anthropology.

The following received tenure and were promoted to the rank of associate professor: Carolina Castellanos, Spanish & Portuguese; Alyssa DeBlasio, Russian; Kamaal Haque, German; Sharon Kingston, psychology; James McMenamin, Italian; Hector Reyes-Zaga, Spanish; and Claire Seiler, English.

Magda Siekert, Middle East studies, has been

named senior lecturer.

Samantha Brandauer ’95 has been promoted to executive director of global study & engagement and associate provost.

In the News

Professor of History Marcelo Borges’ work Company Towns was quoted in The Economist in “Town and Company,” an article detailing thriving company towns in Germany.

Professor of Political Science Jim Hoefler was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor for a story on California’s right-to-die legislation.

Susan Rose ’77, professor of sociology and

director of the Community Studies Center, and College Archivist Jim Gerencser ’93 discussed the work of the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Ted Merwin, director of the Asbell Center for

Jewish Life and associate professor of Judaic studies, has appeared in numerous media outlets—including PRI’s The World, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Times of Israel, The New York Times and The Forward— for his award-winning book Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli.

Erik Love, assistant professor of sociology, discussed Islamaphobic rhetoric among presidential candidates post-9/11 in a U.S. News & World Report story, “America’s Tough Talkers.”

Assistant Professor of Political Science Sarah Niebler discussed candidate endorsements for a story that aired on NPR member station WITF. Niebler and Assistant Professor of Political Science Kathleen Marchetti also discussed gender bias and the presidential primary on the WITF program Smart Talk.

Publications A. Lee Fritschler, former Dickinson College president and professor emeritus of public policy, published with Catherine E. Rudder and Yon Jung Choi Public Policymaking by Private Organizations: Challenges to Democratic Governance, Brookings Institution Press.

Professor Emerita of German Beverly Eddy has a new article in a jubilee book put out to honor the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Karin0 Michaëlis Society in Copenhagen, Denmark: “‘Min kære unge Ven’: Karin Michaëlis’ breve til en vordende forfatter,” in Hardy Bach and Karen Klitgaard Povlsen, eds., Karin Michaëlis: Skriftens Vagabond, Aarhus: Scandinavian Book, 2016, pp. 148172. The article shows how, from 1929 to 1950, the Danish author and humanitarian Karin Michaëlis befriended and nurtured the young Danish author Aage Dons.

Professor of Chemistry Cindy Samet published “Using Student-Made Posters to Annotate a Laser Teaching Laboratory” in Journal of Chemical Education 93 (5). The article was based on a project initiated by Associate Professor of Chemistry Sarah St. Angelo and completed with the assistance of Instrument Support Technician Jim Kuenzie, Aaron Cook ’15, Yu Lim Kim ’15, Brittany Livingston ’15, Brianne Dudiak ’16 and Zev Greenberg ’16 in an advanced topics course taught by Samet.

Melinda Schlitt, professor of art history and

William W. Edel Professor of Humanities, published “Galileo’s Moon: Drawing as Rationalized Observation and its Failure as Forgery,” Open Inquiry Archive, vol.5, no.2 (2016), pp.1-19. Read the article at dson.co/schlittgalileo.

Anthony Rauhut, associate professor of psychology, published “Timing of SCH 23390 Administration Influences Extinction of Conditioned Hyperactivity in Mice” in Behavioral Pharmacology 27(1), 73-76, which examines the involvement of a specific dopamine receptor in memory retrieval versus memory reconsolidation.

Kristin Strock, assistant professor of environmental studies, and scientists from the University of New Hampshire and University of Maine, published “Extreme weather years drive episodic changes in lake chemistry: implications for recovery from sulfate deposition and long-term trends in dissolved organic carbon” in Biogeochemistry 127(2), 353-65. Strock and fellow researchers analyzed an unprecedented three decades of data, looking at how the chemistry of more than 80 lakes across the northeastern U.S. changed depending on the weather. The region has experienced a more than 60-percent increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events, making it the area of the U.S. with the most substantial increase in these events.

Awards and Grants

From over 450 applicants, Professor of Music Blake Wilson was one of 30 chosen to receive the National Humanities Center Fellowship, for his project “Dominion of the Ear: Memory, Performance, and Oral Poetry in Early Modern Italy.”

Professor of Music Amy Wlodarski received a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend of $6,000 for her project “Postwar Humanism and the Music of George Rochberg.”

Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy, assistant professor of Africana studies and Distinguished Chair in Africana Studies, received the Duke University Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellowship to finish “Rapso and Revolution: Musical Performance, Activism, and the Postcolonial Subject in Trinidad” and its complementary documentary short film, Rapso Chants.

Additionally, she will use her time at Duke to create the plan for the Caribbean Arts Oral History Archive, employing Dickinson students to help build the archive, which also will be available for public use.

The Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Libraries Association, recently named Social Science Liaison Librarian Anna Kozlowska a featured librarian.

Mea Culpa: The Yoshitoshi woodblock print that appeared in “Dreamland” (spring 2016) was incorrectly identified as having been purchased through The Trout Gallery’s new student acquisition program. The print is a gift from Knut Royce ’62. We regret the error.

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Heather Shelley

Heather Shelley

[ college & west high ]

Learn more about Commencement 2016 at dickinson.edu/commencement.

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}

Class of 2016 527 graduates By the Numbers 49 inducted into Phi Beta Kappa

51 earned departmental honors

40 percent graduated with Latin honors

TOP 5

majors: • i nternational business & management • psychology • economics • biology • political science

Top 5 minors: • economics • Spanish •F rench & Francophone studies • mathematics • creative writing

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hailed from states and 19 foreign countries

56 PERCENT studied abroad in 27

countries on 6 continents

Where some of them are going: Wells Fargo Viacom Beacon Hill Staffing Group UBS Deutsche Bank The Vanguard Group Vail Jazz Foundation Epic Systems American Folk Art Museum Princeton in Africa London School of Economics Peace Corps

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences University of Chicago Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine University of Oxford Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship AmeriCorps Teach for America U.S. Army (commissioned as 2nd lieutenants)

See more at dickinson.edu/limestone.

Dickinson prizes: James Fowler Rusling Prize for Scholarly Achievement: Kyle Liss (physics and mathematics) John Patton Prize for High Scholastic Standing: Olivia Calcaterra (French & Francophone studies) and Tucker Mitchell (psychology) Hufstader Senior Prize: Ian Hower (law & policy) and Jiyeong “Faith” Park

Young Alumni Trustee: Ethan Andrews (economics) Constance and Rose Ganoe Memorial Award for Inspirational Teaching: Suman Ambwani, associate professor of psychology

Distinguished Teaching Award: Marie Helweg-Larsen, professor of psychology

(self-developed)

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A LAYER OF

TRADITION

Yet I turn, I turn, exulting somewhat, with my will intact to go wherever I need to go, and every stone on the road precious to me. …

Though I lack the art to decipher it, no doubt the next chapter in my book of transformations is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

Heather Shelley

—Stanley Kunitz, “The Layers”

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In its early days, the medieval European tradition of Baccalaureate served as a way to honor graduates receiving their bachelor’s degree (“bacca”) with laurels (“lauri”). At Dickinson, the ceremony points to the college’s religious origins. A peek into one of The Dickinsonian’s first issues recounts James Andrew McCauley, class of 1847 and college president 1872-88, preaching the Baccalaureate sermon as part of the 1874 Commencement ceremony.

By 1884, the service was part of Commencement exercises but stood alone as its own program.

This history is how Donna Hughes, director of the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice, found herself at the helm of planning and executing the ceremony when she came to Dickinson. Now she is part of a committee of faculty and students in charge of deciding which seniors will make speeches, perform musical or dance pieces and lead a multifaith prayer.

“Originally it was a religious ceremony, and now that’s not true at

most places and definitely not at Dickinson, where it’s a way to offer what people’s experiences have been,” she says.

After two days of open auditions to choose the featured students— whose involvement was revealed only when the Baccalaureate program was passed out at the May 21 ceremony— selected speakers and performers participated in rehearsals and a timed run-through, necessary for any production of this caliber.

“It takes a fair amount of preparation to make sure that it runs smoothly and that it all fits the theme,” says Hughes. This year’s theme, based on former U.S. poet laureate Stanley Kunitz’s poem “The Layers,” was both reflective and forward-looking.

For many graduating seniors, the ceremony offers a moment to consider their own layers. “Baccalaureate offers a brief reprieve from the madness that is Commencement Weekend,” says John “Mac” Dinsmore ’16. “It provides an opportunity to reflect upon our last

four years in a calm and reverent environment.”

In past years, notable figures like the Rev. Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, and the Right Rev. Desmond M. Tutu, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, took their turn leading the meditation. This year, Brian Kamoie ’93, assistant administrator for grant programs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was the keynote speaker.

“When you look back, consider the milestones along your way,” Kamoie told the assembled crowd. “Kunitz wrote the poem when he was in his 70s, so he references his milestones dwindling against the horizon, but you are just getting started. It may surprise you, but I am still closer to you in age than I am to Kunitz when he wrote the poem, and to this day, the support I received from the faculty and staff here continue to propel me forward in my own milestones, as they will for you.”

—Grace McCrocklin ’16

[ college & west high ]

SECOND

ACT F I R ST

Carl Socolow ’77

IS A DICKINSON

Anna Wagman ’16 descended the steps of Old West on May 22, becoming the first member of her family to graduate from Dickinson College. But that wouldn’t last long.

Seconds later, another member of the Wagman family appeared at the top of the steps—Anna’s father, Joe. In a Dickinson first, the tradition of a family legacy delivering the diploma was executed by a child delivering to a parent, rather than the other way around, and the crowd reacted with a swell of cheers.

Flash back to nine years ago when Joe, CEO of York, Pa.-based Wagman Construction with a bachelor’s from Georgetown University, an MBA from George Washington University and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco, plucked the latest copy of Current World Archaeology magazine from his mailbox and spotted an article featuring a dig site in Mycenae, Greece. The article mentioned Dickinson Professor of Archaeology Christofilis Maggidis. Joe’s longtime passion for archaeology was piqued—he has since joined the board of the Mycenaean Foundation and serves as treasurer—and he decided to give Maggidis a call. Soon the two were hitting it off over the business of buried bones.

“I was just beginning to think about planning for retirement and finally having some time for my other interests,” he recalls, and after that conversation with Maggidis, he realized that Dickinson might have just what he was looking for. More calls were made, and soon Joe was approved to pursue a bachelor’s in archaeology.

“I was told, ‘Yeah, you can do this, but you’re going to be treated like any other student,’ ” Joe recalls, noting that since he was able to transfer in credits, he would need only 16 to complete the requirements, which he divvied up into one class per semester for eight years. “I had to deal with the phys-ed and language requirements. I had classes that had group projects, too. But everyone was very accepting.”

While he was busy balancing full-time work with schoolwork, the time came for his daughter Anna to undertake the college search.

“We did the full tour program with a number of schools, and I assumed Dickinson would be an early elimination,” Joe says. But it ended up being the right fit for Anna too.

“Going to school with him has been a funny experience, but I’ve loved having him around for my time here,” Anna shares. “He

brings dedication and humor to everything he does, and having that presence at Dickinson has shaped my own attitudes and experience for the better.”

“We have friends in common, we’d get together for lunch or dinner, and we had some professors in common and I could ask about them and she’d get me the scoop,” Joe says.

And even with three degrees under his belt, Joe found the program challenging. “I had to hire a tutor for Biological Anthropology class,” he recalls. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken a biology course before—it was a lot of work.”

After surviving Biological Anthropology and enjoying the required archaeology courses—including two trips to the dig site in Mycenae—Joe wrapped up his Dickinson career by filling his U.S. Diversity requirement with Debating Civil Rights through Film, taught by Assistant Professor of History Crystal Moten.

“It had such an impact on me, an old white guy,” Joe says. “Whether you’re 20 or 60, as a white person, taking a course on civil rights was really eye opening. The class had great diversity among the students, and we had really healthy dialogue about the civil rights movement. It was a great way to end.”

Which brings us back to Commencement.

“We’ve always been really close, so it was great to be able to share this with him,” Anna said after the ceremony. She earned a bachelor’s in anthropology and will study health care management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta.

“It’s nice that Dickinson has a tradition of legacies, and to have this little bit of a spin on it with my daughter giving me the diploma was great,” says Joe, who plans to take some time off before deciding how exactly to put this new degree to good use. “My wife deserves a break, and it will give me time to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life!” —Lauren Davidson

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At the 2016 Commencement, Elaine Livas ’83, who majored in anthropology and minored in Russian studies, received an honorary doctor of public service degree for her work as founder and executive director of Project SHARE, an interfaith cooperative effort involving over 66 local congregations, schools and civic organizations. More recently, Livas founded PET Carlisle (personal energy transportation), which builds hand-powered carts for people with disabilities. Editor Michelle Simmons recently talked with Livas about her Dickinson experience, her work and her inspirations.

MS: Tell me about Project SHARE’s mission.

EL: The idea was always to empower

people to step out of the line and move to a different place in their lives. To do that, you have to show different perspective.

You have to show people a different way to look at their own lives and a different way to look at their world.

MS: How did you decide to come to Dickinson?

EL: I’m from New England; I went to

Glastonbury High School in Connecticut.

My parents did not believe in free time; they didn’t believe in study hall. And at the time, there were a lot of Russian skaters coming to train in Connecticut.

Read Elaine Livas ’83’s honorary degree citation and learn more about her projects at dickinson.edu/magazine.

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So, I had a choice between study hall and a Russian language class. Of course, I started taking Russian. When I was looking for a college, I wanted someplace that taught Russian language.

MS: It sounds like, when you first arrived at Dickinson, you weren’t planning to stay in Carlisle.

EL: I don’t think I was planning anything. I think I wanted to be an interpreter and work at the United Nations. I remember my mother saying, “An interpreter? Why do you want to interpret what other people have to say?

Don’t you think you have some interesting things to say yourself?”

[Laughs] And yeah, I guess I probably do have some interesting things to say.

MS: Why a food bank?

EL: Let’s see. One, I needed a job. I missed the messiness of life. And I missed seeing babies and grandparents.

I missed the variety of life. I got a job downtown, at a little place called the Health Mart. It’s where JW Music is now. Doris Yocum was the manager there. And she said, “I don’t usually hire Dickinson students because they don’t stay. I need you to work through the summer.” I worked there for three and a half years. We’re still friends today—she lives at the Todd Memorial Home now.

Carl Socolow ’77

Elaine Livas ’83

[ college & west high ] What a wonderful mentor she was for me. So, I worked there and got to know the people in town, the regulars who came to her store. I also did an Appalachian semester in southeastern Kentucky and an internship at the Salvation Army Senior Center. Those three things together made me realize that there was a lot to do here, that there were people suffering here and that suffering could live right beside wealth.

MS: You have a number of projects beyond Project SHARE. How do you decide where your efforts and energy go? How do you decide what programs work for you and what you want to do?

EL: It’s basically like investing. How do investors decide how to put their time or money into what’s going to have the greatest impact? You take the wheelchair project. You’re not only teaching people here in Carlisle or in Mount Holly new skills, you’re teaching them how they can combat the sense of entitlement that so many American have. You’re teaching them to grow a heart of gratitude. Here’s the big thing: You’re teaching them that with their own hands, they can transform somebody else’s life. Each of the things that I choose to do has the possibility of such great return, and it also has risk. And you can totally flop.

MS: Have you had any flops?

EL: Oh sure. And when it doesn’t work out, you just do something else. When Project SHARE started, there were times when people wouldn’t call me back or say, “Oh, that’s not going to work.” But I learned from each setback. I always wanted Dickinson to teach a class in failure, you know? In failing forward, or failing well, because we don’t experience enough of it in a safe environment. So when we do experience it, we think it’s a character failure instead of being a part of the messiness of life.

MS: In the 30-plus years you’ve been doing this work, what do you see has changed? What has stayed the same?

EL: In the mid-80s, hunger was a big

thing. Then there was a period of time that homelessness was a focus. And then there was a time that AIDS was the focus.

Causes go in and out of fashion. But people are resilient. They’re much bigger than their issues. It’s like a doctor sees a pancreas, or lung cancer, or epilepsy. But you know, people are not their issue.

They’re much more multidimensional. I think, really, if there is one way to help people, it’s to help them see themselves from the outside. So many of the people I work with, they seem to take on whatever happens to them as a defining moment, that it becomes a definition of them— rather than that these things happen in your life, and you work through them.

MS: How much of your work has to do with your faith?

EL: When I came to Dickinson, the

Quakers were just beginning a meeting not far from the college, but I’ve been attending an Evangelical Free Church for a couple of years now. One of the food bank’s recipients invited me to an Alpha class, so I went. He stopped going, but I kept going to the class. Anthropology made me a very curious person, and Professor H. Wade Seaford was also a devoted Christian, one of the first Christians I really met. He didn’t press it on me, but I found it interesting. I find this idea of having all that you need so you don’t lack for anything fascinating. It gives me a sense of peace—that you can ask for peace, and receive it.

EL: It’s a great privilege. I’m awed at the experiences the students bring. I’m thrilled at the diversity that’s there. I’m proud of Dickinson students when they come and interact with other people in the community. They’re ambassadors for the entire college.

MS: At a poverty forum hosted by Dickinson last year, I was struck by something you said, that poverty isn’t necessarily about lack of money; it’s about lack of hope.

EL: Sometimes the smallest thing can

give people hope. It always starts with a relationship. And so, with Project SHARE, it’s not about whatever the vehicle is. It could be volunteering at the food bank. It could be working at PET. When Project SHARE started, I soon realized that we were giving food to people without offering them a chance to be part of something. People who are pressed down like that, you ask to come in and help give food to others. That’s how you start turning it around. You know, there’s a difference between a hope that things will change—wishful thinking—and hope like a knowing. What I’m talking about is a hope that does something, that goes places that you are scared to go to, not because no one else will, but because you know you’re equipped to.

MS: How did you know you were equipped to do these things?

EL: Because I feel God’s delight.

Through each season, I have felt God’s joy and power, reminding me that I am not alone. I do not want to sleepwalk through life; I want to enjoy all that God has prepared for me.

MS: Your work has had an impact on thousands of people—including Dickinsonians. A lot of Dickinson students talk about their experience working or volunteering for Project SHARE as transformational.

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Events lectures art forums Calendar of Arts: dickinson.edu/coa The Clarke Forum: clarke.dickinson.edu (includes event podcasts)

SEPT. 2

The Trout Gallery Colorama: The World’s Largest Photographs Opening Reception SEPT. 8

The Clarke Forum The World That Food Made

Raj Patel, award-winning writer, activist and academic SEPT. 9

Charter Day SEPT. 19-21

Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism Residency

Elizabeth Kolbert SEPT. 27

The Clarke Forum Iran and Saudi Arabia Relations

Panel Discussion OCT. 5

The Clarke Forum Women on the Run: Why Women Don’t Run for Office and What Happens When They Do

Jennifer Lawless, American University OCT. 28-30

Homecoming & Family Weekend OCT. 28-FEB. 18, 2017

The Trout Gallery

José Guadalupe Posada The Broadside in Early 20th-Century Mexico

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Black Lives

Matter A

n undersung artistic heritage found voice during an April concert inspired by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) social justice movement. Held one day after BLM co-founder Alicia Garza (above, left) delivered a conference keynote address at Dickinson, the Black Music Matters concert used music, text, multimedia and student research to spotlight black creativity, identity and history.

The College Choir performed a work by Harry T. Burleigh, the first African-American composer to graduate from the National Conservatory of Music; William Grant Still’s 1939 oratorio And They Lynched Him on a Tree; and Rosephanye Powell’s arrangement of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”

The Dickinson College Jazz Ensemble assembled a program of social justice works by Dizzy Gillespie and collaborators Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. The Dickinson Improvisation & Collaboration Ensemble (DICE) highlighted music by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to have a composition premiered by a major American symphony orchestra; Julius Eastman, a minimalist composer whose works confronted racist and homophobic stereotypes; and Frederic Rzewski, whose Attica added musical context to landmark witness testimony about the inhumane treatment of black inmates at Attica prison.

That historical footage was one of 10 multimedia clips peppered throughout the performance, including interpretations of texts and poetry by Frederick Douglass; Langston Hughes; Esther Popel Shaw, class of 1919; and others, performed by students, faculty and staff.

For the performers, an event like this can raise awareness of racism in the U.S., past and present, and deepen their understanding of interconnected issues, said clarinetist Katya Hrichak ’17, who played in DICE and contributed to the poster session showcasing student research on black composers and black music.

The same is true for audience members, many of whom have a limited exposure to non-Eurocentric music and arts, said saxophonist Edwin Padilla ’16, who performed with the Jazz Ensemble. “This is not a post-racism age by any means; many of the issues spoken about in this program still resonate today,” he said. “I’d like the audience and community to remember that and to engage.” —MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

[ college & west high ]

Day of Giving THE CHALLENGE

2,020 gifts in 24 hours to honor the incoming class of 2020 and the bright future they represent for the college.

REUNION ALUMNI: With 413 gifts from alumni celebrating a reunion year, we unlocked $200,000, thanks to a challenge gift from an anonymous alumni donor.

YOUNG ALUMNI: With 512 gifts from graduates of the last 10 years, we unlocked $50,000, thanks to a challenge gift from Eva and Marc Stern ’65.

RUSH HOUR: With 615 gifts between 7 and 9 a.m., we unlocked $10,000 in funding, thanks to a challenge gift from Kevin Holleran ’73.

POWER LUNCH: With 454 gifts

between 12 and 2 p.m., we unlocked $30,000 in funding, thanks to a challenge gift from George and Jennifer Ward Reynolds ’77.

Learn more at dickinson.edu/dayofgiving.

THE HISTORIC RESULT …

2,580 gifts totaling

$765,124.

Thank you!

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[ college & west high ]

Honoring the

Houdeshels Flutist Harry Houdeshel ’40 was smitten from the moment he spied classmate Ruth Donahue ’40, and when she stepped into his checkout line at the College Bookstore, he wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass. He couldn’t chat with her then, so he slipped one of her textbooks behind the counter on the sly, hoping she’d return.

That creativity and determination were hallmarks of Harry’s remarkable life and career. Dickinson recently paid tribute to one of its most distinguished music alumni with a concert in Harry’s honor.

Raised in Bethlehem, Pa., Harry began to play flute at age 9, and by 12, he was a card-carrying professional—the youngest music-union member at that time. The Great Depression was on, and he contributed to the family economy by playing flute in silent movie theatres and jazz saxophone in nightclubs, chaperoned by his father. Harry also competed in regional and national competitions, earning first place nationally in piccolo and second in flute.

After the family moved to central Pennsylvania, Harry played first chair in the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra (HSO). He maintained that position while at Dickinson, where he studied English and education, with initial plans to go into law.

Dickinson did not yet have a music program, so Harry studied flute off campus; when opportunity arose to study with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s William Kincaid, he didn’t let a lack of funds hold him back. With help from a local women’s club and his HSO colleagues,

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Harry organized a benefit concert and raised $1,000—enough for a year of lessons. All this while playing varsity tennis, playing in Dickinson’s orchestra, being involved with Omicron Delta Kappa and Sigma Alpha Epsilon and working in the bookstore, the spot where he met his future wife.

It’s easy to understand why Harry fell. A vivacious transfer student from Upper Darby, Pa., Ruth earned the nickname “Skipper” because she often skipped across campus, and she shared Harry’s love of music and puns. She also was no stranger to the art world—her father, an engraving company professional and friend to N.C. Wyeth, brought Ruth to Wyeth’s studio throughout her childhood—and was supportive of Harry’s musical dreams. They married in 1943.

Meanwhile, there was a war on, and a draft. Harry auditioned for the U.S. Navy band in 1941, and he didn’t make the cut, so he planted himself outside the conductor’s office and asked for a second audition. This time, he was in.

Harry spent two decades with the Navy band, completing 27 tours. He also performed regularly at the White House, rubbing elbows with heads of state and diplomats and bringing gala treats home for Ruth and their children, Pete, Jo Ann and Marc. Along the way, he befriended noted musicians Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galway. He was soloist during President Eisenhower’s 1960 Goodwill Tour to South America, his final Navy stint.

Carl Socolow ’77

From left: Harry “Pete” Houdeshel III, Barry Hannigan, Marc Houdeshel, Mary Hannigan and Jo Ann Houdeshel Miller.

We all grew up listening to stories about Dickinson, so this concert means so much to us.

—Jo Ann Houdeshel Miller Between tours and concerts, Harry earned a bachelor’s in music from Catholic University (1946) and a master’s from the Washington Musical Institute (1953). He led master classes after concerts and at summer music schools in Maine, and when he left the Navy in 1960, he went on to teach at Indiana University (IU). Harry also performed with the American Woodwind Quintet and established a woodwind department at the Banff School of Fine Arts.

Daughter Jo Ann Houdeshel Miller fondly remembers family summers in Maine and cross-country trips to recitals and concerts.

She and brother Marc also accompanied Harry on a sabbatical trip to Europe, where Harry performed and studied in conservatories, bringing his teenagers along to see the world. His sabbatical accompanist was the cultural attaché to Spain.

Harry retired from IU in 1986; in 2005, the university named a concert hall chair in his honor. He passed away in 2007.

Ruth also made a mark. An avid reader who played classical piano and harp, she worked in the personnel department at the U.S. Navy Yard during the war and then taught in the D.C. public school system before earning her master’s in education from IU. Ruth taught at the

IU Speech and Hearing Center and worked for 18 years as a reader for the blind, recording more than 30 books for the Indiana State Library Talking Program. She also volunteered for the IU Art Museum. She passed away at age 96.

On April 23, Dickinson staged a concert in Harry’s honor. It also was the farewell concert for Mary Hannigan, who has taught flute at Dickinson since 2000, often performing on campus with husband Barry, a pianist. Besides the flute, Mary shares two notable commonalities with Harry: She met her spouse as an undergrad (the Hannigans met at Colorado College and will retire out West), and she holds the first-flute chair in the HSO, Harry’s onetime spot. During the concert, Mary completed that circle by performing “Sicilienne” by Gabriel Fauré, one of Harry’s favorites.

“We all grew up listening to stories about Dickinson, so this concert means so much to us,” said Jo, who traveled to Dickinson from Cincinnati, along with Pete (Salt Lake City), Marc (Maryville, Tenn.) and other family members, to attend the concert. “Somewhere, my parents are grinning ear to ear.” —MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

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[ college & west high ]

fine print Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book)

The Fighting 30th Division: They Called Them Roosevelt’s SS

By Julie Siegel Falatko ’93, illustrated by Tim Miller Viking Children’s Books

By David Hilborn ’93, Martin King and Michael Collins Casemate Publishing

Snappsy the alligator is having a normal day when a pesky narrator steps in to spice up the story. Is Snappsy reading a book ... or is he making crafty plans? Is Snappsy on his way to the grocery store ... or is he prowling the forest for defenseless birds and fuzzy bunnies? Is Snappsy innocently shopping for a party ... or is he obsessed with snack foods that start with the letter P? What’s the truth? An irreverent look at storytelling, friendship and creative differences, Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) is Julie Siegel Falatko ’93’s debut book.

In World War I, the 30th Infantry Division earned more Medals of Honor than any other American division. In World War II, it spent more consecutive days in combat than almost any other outfit. Recruited mainly from the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee, they were one of the hardest-fighting units the U.S. ever fielded in Europe, earning five battle stars in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe campaigns. Their U.S. Army nickname was the “Old Hickory” Division. But after encountering them on the battlefield, the Germans themselves came to call them “Roosevelt’s SS.” The Fighting 30th Division is a combat chronicle of this illustrious division that takes the reader right to the heart of the fighting through the eyes of those who were actually there. The last remaining veterans of the 30th Division and attached units who saw the action firsthand relate their remarkable experiences here for the first, and probably the last, time.

The Art of Instant Message: Be Yourself, Be Confident, Be Successful Communicating Personality

By Keith Grafman ’06 Rainbow Books, Inc. Many single people experience anxiety, have insecurities and are reluctant to engage themselves in online dating. Keith Grafman ’06 believes success lies in learning to maintain balance and express authenticity in communications. The Art of Instant Message was written to help sincere people begin the process of forming a long-term, committed relationship.

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Heat & Light

By Jennifer Haigh ’90 HarperCollins Author Jennifer Haigh ’90 returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart. Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: It sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas. To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn’t count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother’s skepticism or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter. Meanwhile his neighbors, organic dairy farmers Mack and Rena, hold out against the drilling—until a passionate environmental activist disrupts their lives. Told through a cast of characters whose lives are increasingly bound by the opposing interests that underpin the national debate, Heat & Light depicts a community blessed and cursed by its natural resources.

Stellfox Award

At her April 7 public reading, Edwidge Danticat told aspiring writers in attendance, “Just seek the truth and write about it.”

And as any reader familiar with her work knows, it’s an approach Danticat has embraced over the course of her career.

Danticat was on campus as the 2015-16 recipient of the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program award.

The Stellfox program brings high-caliber writers to campus each year for a brief residency, and previous Stellfox awardees have included Booker Prize-winning authors Ian McEwan and Margaret Atwood, Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Rita Dove and Paul Muldoon.

Haitian-born Danticat is the author of several books, including Krik? Krak! (National Book Award finalist), Breath, Eyes, Memory and Brother, I’m Dying (2007 finalist for the National Book Award and 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography).

Danticat touched on subjects such as the importance of the mother-daughter relationship, the foibles and power dynamics of parenting, the Haitian diaspora and the surprising forms her writing takes as she crafts her novels and short stories.

“That’s one of the most exciting parts of the process: Writing and then seeing the story reveal itself to you,” she told a packed Allison Great Hall. “That’s very exciting to me, to be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was coming!’ ” —Tony Moore

Saying Farewell House Divided Through more than two dozen websites, 15,000+ digitized public-domain images and online exhibits and tools, Dickinson’s House Divided project brings the history of the Civil War era to K-12 and undergraduate classrooms. It recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a new interactive learning studio in Carlisle, where history is just a swipe away on any smartphone.

“We’re trying to use 21st-century tools to bring to life that period,” says Matthew Pinkser, associate professor of history and Brian C. Pohanka ’77 Faculty Chair in American Civil War History. “We want to engage students with the kind of technology they’re familiar with but with subjects and content that they don’t know as well.”

“House Divided is a really remarkable and important project to basically spread historical information and particularly to train teachers in the most up-to-date historical insight and interpretation,” says Columbia University’s Eric Foner, who spoke at Dickinson as part of the anniversary celebration. “History, unfortunately, is being slighted in the curriculum in many, many places, … so [this project] is tremendously salutary, and it will reverberate out.” —Tony Moore

The Dickinson community gathered on April 17 to celebrate the life of Jigme Nidup ’19, who died while swimming in the nearby Conodoguinet Creek at the start of the 2015-16 academic year. It was the fourth campuswide gathering in Nidup’s honor and the first that included members of his family.

Nidup was a soft-spoken and giving young man who planned to study international business at Dickinson. He found great happiness in life and in meeting new people, and in the days and weeks following the tragic loss, Dickinsonians came together to reflect and remember one of their own.

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff shared memories of Nidup during an impromptu service on Sept. 20, and four days later many joined together for an hour of communal interfaith/ no-faith meditation, contemplation and solace led by Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice staff members and by Brooke Wiley, a studio technician and Buddhist priest. In November, Buddhist monks from Drepung Monastery’s Gomang College paid tribute to Nidup. During their residency, the monks created a mandala, and after sweeping up the mandala sand, they poured it into the Conodoguinet Creek, the site of his passing.

At the April 17 memorial service Nidup’s parents, Lham Nidup and Sonam Choetsho, and his sister, Leksin Nidup, presented a thangka, a silk painting often used for meditation, to the college.

Two books, given by the family when Nidup first arrived on campus, also were on display in the Waidner-Spahr Library’s East Asian Studies Room throughout the weekend. A Bhutan pine was planted on campus in his memory.

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When Everything Clicks

“ You know when you see something and you know this is meant to be?

Just feel it in your heart, that blossoming.

I thought, ‘I can see myself here.’ ”

Chris Knight

tudent-athletes choose Dickinson for several reasons. Some want to be a part of a strong program; some want to participate in collegiate athletics without sacrificing academic pursuits. Many fall in love with Dickinson during a visit, where things just click. That was the case for track and field standout and biology major Aphnie Germain ’17.

“It was the buildings—all the buildings,” she recalls. “I came in the fall and the leaves were falling.

You know when you see something and you know this is meant to be? Just feel it in your heart, that blossoming? I thought, ‘I can see myself here.’ ” She soon joined the team as a walk on. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made, because I love competing.”

And compete she does—in the 100, 200 and 4x100 meter races outdoors; indoors she runs the 60, 200 and 4x200 meter. This year, she set a school record on the 60 meter dash (8.14) and earned a silver medal in the Centennial Conference outdoor championship.

That competitive spirit has given her the confidence to set her sights on a career in medicine.

Germain came to Dickinson on a Samuel Rose ’58 Scholarship and secured the National Science Foundation’s NSF-STEP scholarship before being awarded the Forney P. George Prize this spring.

Germain also conducted original research with John Henson, Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology, and Missy Niblock, associate professor of biology, and she volunteered in a nursing home and a holistic clinic, experiences that opened her eyes to the need to make quality health care more widely accessible. Her goal is to return to Haiti, her home country, to improve its health care. “I can see myself in this field and I can see what I can do to make a difference,” Germain says.

“That’s what is motivating me to keep going.”

Germain, tapped this spring to the Wheel and Chain women’s honor society, is also a member of the Pre-Health Society, the African American Society and the Latin American and Caribbean Club; she serves as a multicultural ambassador for the admissions office; and she works as a student supervisor at the WaidnerSpahr Library. Last fall, while studying abroad at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, she also joined that school’s track and field team.

For many, this might seem like a full schedule with no time to relax, but for Germain, it works. “Working, interacting with my friends and running helps me to relax,” she says. “My coach asks me, am I all right? My adviser’s like, am I all right? I talk to them, and I feel better because I know that people are here for me.”

Nothing beats being around one’s teammates, she says, especially when everything clicks. Germain recalls one of these moments, when the Red Devils beat Johns Hopkins University in the 4x100 relay last year. “We were doing well and we thought, ‘We’ve got this,’ but then saw that our competitor was Johns Hopkins,” she says. “This was such a huge team. Then we actually beat them, and we were so happy. It was the best win ever.” —Caio Santos Rodrigues ’16

[ in the game ]

Men’s track and field had strong showings in the relays at the CC championships. The Red Devils won the title in the 4x800 and placed second in the 4x400, both anchored by Mason Hepner ’17. Duncan Hopkins ’19 turned in some great performances in his first collegiate season, earning All-Region honors in the 10,000 meters and a silver in the event at the CC championships.

Women’s lacrosse (10-8, 5-4 CC) returned to the CC playoffs and put a scare into No. 4-ranked Franklin & Marshall College in the semifinals.

Moira Mahoney ’16 was named a third-team All-American and was a three-time, first-team All-CC selection.

Juniors Maddy Siebold and Tara Cuddihy joined Mahoney on the All-CC first team, and all three were named first-team All-Region as well. The Red Devils had three players selected for the North/South Senior All-Star Game, with seniors Jennifer Morrissey and Caroline Clancy joining Mahoney on the South roster.

Men’s lacrosse just missed a conference playoff berth, finishing 8-7 on the season, with five of the seven losses decided by one or two goals.

The Red Devils had six players named All-CC. Rob Kendall ’16 and Chris Menard ’16 earned first-team recognition while Nick Baxter ’16, Graham Parsons ’16, Ryan Campbell ’18 and Dylan Maher ’18 received honorable mention. Menard became the 17th Red Devil to be selected for the 75th USILA/Nike Senior All-Star Game.

Baseball had a great start and a solid run, finishing 20-18 overall, marking the third 20-win season in the past four years. Ryan Dolan ’16 earned his third All-CC selection this spring and had a major impact on the program in just three seasons. He ranks in the top 10 in numerous statistical categories, ranking second all-time in on-base percentage (.461) and triples (20), and third in stolen bases with 52. Rick Hopkins ’17 earned All-CC honors in his second season as starting catcher. Watson “Reid” Collins ’18 set a school record with four saves on the year while Ben Woodard ’19 posted a remarkable 1.53 earned run average.

Softball overcame some early adversity, losing one of its top pitchers to an injury. Madison Milaszewski ’19 and Killian Kueny ’19 took over the primary pitching duties, both putting together strong rookie seasons. Milaszewski was just shy of the century mark with 99 strikeouts on the year. Grace Edelson ’16 made her second-straight appearance on the All-CC team, earning first-team honors. Casey Ditzler ’16 and Nicole Torlincasi ’17 were named to the secondteam. Edelson hit two doubles on the final day of the season to break the school record, with the 37th of her

career. She ranks in the program career top 10 in almost every offensive category. Ditzler set the school record with 279 career assists, cracking the top 10 in multiple categories as well, including RBIs and doubles. Nicole Piet ’16 capped a great career, recording over 100 hits and making her mark in the record book as well.

Women’s golf had some great performances at the end of the season, playing to a match-play draw with conference champion Gettysburg College and winning the Susquehanna Invitational with Stephanie Heiring ’17 claiming individual honors. The team placed fifth at the conference championship, with Alexis Emmett ’19 improving by eight strokes on the second day of competition to lead the Devils with a 13th place finish.

Women’s tennis (10-6, 6-4 CC) started the year 3-0 and had a fivematch winning streak in the middle of the season to earn the No. 5 seed in the conference playoffs. The Red Devils avenged a 5-4 loss to Franklin & Marshall by turning the tables for a 5-4 win in the first round of the tournament, marking the first CC playoff win in program history. Joana Nunes ’17 earned All-CC honors in both singles and doubles and was the Centennial Women’s Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year. Madison Parks ’17 made her second appearance on the All-CC squad, joining Nunes in doubles as they posted a 7-3 record in conference play.

Men’s golf continued to improve throughout the year and into the conference playoffs, earning a sixth place finish. The Red Devils had a great final round at the championship, led by Bobby McFadden ’19 shooting a 78. Jake Kessel ’18 and George Voris ’16 had final rounds of 82 and 83 while Stephen Bonacci ’19 and Ryan Kowash ’18 carded an 84 and 87, respectively.

—Charlie McGuire, sports information director

Men’s tennis (6-9, 5-4 CC) posted a big win over Washington College and defeated Muhlenberg in the regular season finale to secure the No. 5 seed in the CC playoffs. The opening match had to be moved indoors, with the Devils suffering a first-round setback at Franklin & Marshall. Joey Frank ’17 battled at the number one singles spot, earning All-CC honors for the second straight season. He partnered with Evan Davis ’16 to post a 5-1 conference record in doubles.

Jenn Hopkins

Women’s track and field Rebecca Race ’16 broke the school record in the 800 meters twice in a span of four days to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Women’s track and field captured second place with an outstanding team effort at the Centennial Conference (CC) championships, hosted at Dickinson.

Amanda Jimcosky ’17 won her third CC outdoor title in the high jump while Abby Colby ’16 won the steeplechase.

Race ran to a silver medal in the 800 meters and claimed bronze in the 1,500. She earned All-Region honors, along with Colby and Rikka Olson ’17, who won silver in the pole vault.

Need more Red Devil sports?

Check out all the stats, scores, schedules and highlights at www.dickinsonathletics.com. Information about live streaming and radio broadcasts is available on a game-by-game basis, so check the website regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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The World Is Your COMFORT

ZONE Embracing Dickinson’s liberal-arts mission, software giant Epic Systems is home to a dozen alumni from diverse, and unexpected, disciplines 20

By Tony Moore

d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Summer 2016

[ feature ]

F

ive college graduates—an art & art history major, an economics/political science major, a biology/religion major, a computer science major and an American studies major— walk into a bar. No, make that a software company. Five college grads from really diverse majors walk into a software company’s headquarters.

There’s no punchline. They walk into a multibillion-dollar software company, in this case Epic Systems, and they’re all hired. And that’s what the liberal arts can do: create well-rounded graduates able to apply their education to spheres that might seem wholly alien.

Photos of Epic Systems’ campus in Verona, Wis., were provided by Epic.

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—Kyle Anderson ’15

Photo provided by Epic Systems

My general openness to opportunities and critical approach to projects and things outside my comfort zone is what has allowed me to be successful.

“More than specific classes, I learned how to live and think from my liberal-arts education, and that made me open to any challenge,” says Kyle Anderson ’15, the art & art history major in the previous scenario and current quality assurance specialist at Epic. “Epic is nothing close to my major in terms of subject matter, but my general openness to opportunities and critical approach to projects and things outside my comfort zone is what has allowed me to be successful in my current job.”

Founded in 1979 by Judith Greenfield Faulkner ’65, Epic Systems is a 9,000-employee software company that specializes in health care software. Its customers care for approximately 190 million patients worldwide, and having these systems facilitates collaboration and sharing and enables studies such as the one that led to the 2015 discovery of the Flint, Mich., water crisis (see Page 25).

Before graduating with her master’s in computer science from the University of WisconsinMadison, Faulkner was a mathematics major at Dickinson, and she established an endowed scholarship “to help students who otherwise couldn’t afford it get the benefits of a good college education and to help Dickinson continue its liberal-arts mission,” she says.

Last year James Doyle ’10 and Seth Tracy ’12 visited Dickinson to share with fellow computer science majors their experience at Epic. Both are software developers, and a big part of their daily to-do lists involves figuring out how to make Epic’s software talk to hundreds of disparate systems and exchange data in a meaningful way—across the country and across the world.

“Dickinson makes you a really good programmer,” Tracy says. “You not only have the applicable skill to develop a computer program, but you have the theory and the underpinnings that you’re probably not going to get anywhere else.”

Doyle was equally effusive about how directly his path led from Dickinson to Verona, Wis., and he was quick to note that everything he learned about computer science as an undergrad formed the spine of a fully fleshed-out education.

“It’s one thing to figure something out in your head,” he said, “but you have to be able to communicate it to others so they can help you execute it. The liberal-arts environment gives you the background to be able to do that.”

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Broadest of backgrounds Larry Jolón ’15 is a former American studies major and Posse scholar who’s now a project manager for Epic’s implementation services. He also found a broad-based educational foundation at Dickinson, although at first he wasn’t looking for it.

“When applying to colleges five years ago, I was dead-set on majoring in marine biology, living on an ocean tanker, scuba-diving with sharks and researching phytoplankton,” says Jolón. “I was initially disappointed upon finding out that I could not dedicate my first year [at Dickinson] to marine life.”

It wasn’t long, though, before Jolón’s disappointment was replaced by a full load of diverse classes that would redirect his interests and eventually his life.

“What I didn’t know at the time was that taking these other classes was the start of a journey on finding out what I was truly passionate about,” he says, “and that these new classes would equip me with tools to solve real-world problems.”

What I didn’t know at the time was that taking these other classes was the start of a journey on finding out what I was truly passionate about.

—Larry Jolón ’15

Now Jolón and his team help modify, build and implement inpatient software suites, working with physicians, nurses and other providers.

Photo provided by Epic Systems

“It’s odd that an American studies major, an individual who spends a lot of his time in the social justice sphere, would even be remotely interested in working for a software company,” Jolón says. “But the main caveat [in my job search] was that the job I accepted must enable me to directly help other people, and our software literally saves patients’ lives daily across the U.S.”

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Tony Moore

James Doyle ’10 (left) and Seth Tracy ’12 visited Dickinson last year to share their experience at Epic Systems.

Like fish in water Epic’s software helps patients around the world as well, and Dan Litwack ’05 (economics and political science) ensures that rollout of the company’s products goes smoothly in the Netherlands, where he’s worked for the last couple of years. It’s a role he says Dickinson prepared him well for, both in terms of education and mindset.

“Before I went to Dickinson, I don’t think I had the taste for traveling and seeing the world,” he says, noting that he lived with international students while at Dickinson and generally absorbed the global atmosphere on campus. “But now I’m more comfortable with and open to the travel that comes with my role at Epic and seeing the world and living overseas. That part of Dickinson was something I didn’t realize at the time, but it changed my perspective on things.”

Anderson’s perspective would unexpectedly come into play as well, shaping his career in a unique way.

“As one might think, there are not a lot of parallels between art history and a quality assurance job at a health care software company,” he says. “But to my surprise, my general eye for aesthetics and discerning eye for visuals actually manifests itself well in creating great-looking products here, and that eye was developed through four years of looking and thinking about art.”

So the next time five liberal-arts students walk into the room, expect them to feel at home no matter the setting, varied backgrounds and all.

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These Dickinsonians also call Epic their home: Brett McGeehan ’05 (mathematics and physics) Jacob Wright ’05 (biology and religion) Kate Lang ’08 (computer science) Michelle Su-Ling “Mickey” Wang ’14 (mathematics) Sara Hoffman ’14 (mathematics) Sean Ryan ’15 (mathematics)

Photo provided by Epic Systems

Graham Williams ’16 (computer science, mathematics)

doing data justice

Flint, Mich., began using the Flint River as its water source in 2014, and in September 2015, Virginia Tech researchers reported high levels of lead in the city’s drinking water. Soon after, Flint-based pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha used Epic’s Cogito software to dive deeper into the data at the heart of the issue.

Her discovery helped define what would become known as the Flint water crisis: In blood samples taken from inner-city children in 2015, lead levels were nearly double those from a similar 2013 sample.

In some neighborhoods, the levels had nearly tripled.

“If we did not have Epic, if we did not have

EMRs [electronic medical records], if we were still on paper, it would have taken forever to get these results,” Hanna-Attisha said in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Flint residents and health care providers are not the only ones benefiting from Epic data. The software giant recently formed Cosmos Research Network, a group that includes leading health care organizations such as Johns Hopkins Medicine and Duke University Health System, to pool patient data—with identities removed—for further research collaboration and best practices in patient care.

25

Carl Socolow ’77

Don Sailer, library digital projects manager, with Dickinson’s bronze bust of Moncure Conway, class of 1849.

BRONZE OR Bust London society tracks Moncure Conway to Dickinson’s archives

By Grace McCrocklin ’16

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It’s not often that an ordained minister confesses to pulling “the greatest prank perpetrated at Dickinson.” It’s even more unusual for that minister to have matriculated at Dickinson at age 15 and go on to become a preeminent abolitionist, suffragist and humanist freethinker. But like his close friend Walt Whitman, Moncure Conway, class of 1849, contained multitudes. More recently, he’s also at the center of an international hunt for a missing bronze bust.

Conway, son of a wealthy Virginia slaveholding landowner, was profoundly influenced by Dickinson professors and abolitionists Spencer Fullerton Baird, class of 1840, and John McClintock, who led the McClintock Riot of 1847 in an effort to enforce a new Pennsylvania law that contravened the Fugitive Slave Act. Conway was not always a moral compass, however. His prank on President Jesse Truesdale Peck, who was briefly detained by orderlies of a Staunton, Va., insane asylum based on a letter Conway had sent to the institution, has become the stuff of Dickinson legend. Conway kept his involvement a secret for decades, confessing to the practical joke in an 1875 letter to The Dickinsonian, noting it as “the very essence of college mischief.”

But Dickinson also set him on his path as a writer and serious thinker. After he graduated, Conway served briefly as a Methodist minister, attended Harvard Divinity School (where he became a protégé of Ralph Waldo Emerson and joined the Unitarian Church) and spoke at abolitionist events throughout the country.

In 1863, he traveled to London to convince a divided Britain to back the Union cause. Conway faltered diplomatically, however, when he precipitously offered to the Confederate representative in Britain an end to the war in exchange for full emancipation.

THE HUMANIST Conway, circa 1880.

THE ABOLITIONST Conway with his family, circa 1877.

THE SUFFRAGIST Conway as a young man, circa 1850.

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THE BUST AT DICKINSON Bosler Hall circulation desk, 1945.

DICKINSON TREASURES Boyd Lee Spahr, class of 1900, with Joseph Priestley’s telescope and the Conway bust, 1967.

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Rebuffed, he took a position at the South Place Religious Society in London, which turned out to be exactly the tonic he needed: He stayed there for most of his professional life, lecturing, traveling and publishing some of his most important work.

Conway’s friendships thrived in the United States as well.

He was well known in literary circles, serving as literary agent in London for Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott. A prolific author, Conway published across genres, including an authoritative biography of Thomas Paine, a two-volume autobiography, travel literature, as well as studies of Hinduism, transcendentalism and demonology. He died in November 1907, just six months after delivering an address at Dickinson celebrating the 225th anniversary of William Penn’s Frame of Government of Pennsylvania and advocating for an academic department of “peace and public service.”

Fast forward to 2015, when the renamed Conway Hall Ethical Society began digitizing its monthly newsletters. In the process, archivists discovered a 1905 report detailing the process of fundraising to purchase a bronze bust of Conway.

A 1927 photo confirmed that a bust had once existed but had since gone missing.

A Google search led Conway Hall investigators to Dickinson’s Archives & Special Collections. “We got in contact with Don Sailer [library digital projects manager],” said Jim Walsh, CEO of Conway Hall. “We found out that Dickinson had a bust, started to understand what was going on and then thought, ‘Well, this is really annoying that we don’t have ours. What can we do?”

He continues, “One of the largest 3-D printers in the world is just down the road from us, about half a mile away. We had a look in there and spoke to them about the bust. By that time we understood how large it was, because Dickinson had given us the measurements.” The printer had recently completed a job for a sculptor in which it had fabricated a similarly sized bust in plastic with a 2-millimenter coating of bronze.

“It looked fantastic,” Walsh says. “At that point, it became obvious.”

Walsh’s conversations led to the decision to film a documentary about Conway, hiring a presenter and camera operator to travel through Pennsylvania and New York, stopping at locations important to Conway’s life. The crew was on campus this spring, shooting footage of Memorial Hall and of the eponymous residence hall in the Quads neighborhood.

They also spent time talking with Sailer and with College Archivist Jim Gerencser ’93 and taking photos of Dickinson’s bust, from all angles. Their work is continuing through the summer. Walsh plans to open a café at the society’s central London location this fall, with a ceremony to unveil the restaurant, the documentary and the new bronze bust. With help from Dickinson, Walsh says, “We can use technology to save our heritage and get our bust back to Conway Hall.”

CONWAY IN PROFILE

THE LEGEND Conway, circa 1905.

THE DICKINSON BUST

29

[ feature ]

What can you do with a philosophy degree?

It turns out, many things.

By Caio Santos Rodrigues ’16

A

lthough the value of a philosophy major is clear for those who study the discipline, for many others it seems puzzling. And the single question I have been asked most often since my sophomore year is, “What are you going to do with a philosophy degree?” Before I declared the major, I wasn’t sure how to answer that question either.

Caroline Stephenson ’13 thought she would be a bioethical advisor to the U.S. president. “I had big dreams of helping the leader of our country work through his or her ethical quandaries on human health and health care systems,” she recalls. Stephenson is operations manager at National Geographic Learning: Her team oversees strategy, administration and operations for customized educational materials such as language translations, and she recognized early on in her Dickinson career the broad application of philosophy as well as art & art history, she says.

For Artrese Morrison ’92, a nonprofit consultant, philosophy was the perfect match for her personality and interests. She recalls her advisor, Professor of Philosophy Cyril Dwiggins, telling her, “Artrese, philosophy doesn’t teach you what to think; it teaches you how to think.”

“I was always curious about ideas and information, and philosophy helped satisfy that curiosity,” she says. “I knew after a couple of classes it was what I wanted to study.” She declared her major during her first year. “I’ve truly, truly experienced that idea of having been taught how to think, not what to think.”

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Keith Negley

? ?

?

31

Ron Reisman ’76 was considering a law career when he arrived at Dickinson. That goal was influenced by his mother, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States. “That was what drove me along,” he recalls. “That drove me to law and to philosophy. Philosophy was seen as a place to develop arguments for law.” While at Dickinson, he changed his mind, however, and double majored in philosophy and Greek. For the past 30 years, he’s been a computer engineer at NASA. Reisman says that when it comes to complex issues, the abstract and systematic thinking he developed in his philosophy courses helped him make important decisions. “A lot of what we do here at NASA is deciding which new ideas should be [carried forward],” he explains, “and there are all kinds of questions we have to consider. If you choose the wrong thing, the government loses tens of billions of dollars in investment. All that philosophy stuff that we learned at Dickinson comes up all the time in practical issues.”

Some philosophy majors never leave the discipline. Alison Bailey ’83 is a professor of philosophy at Illinois State University. Her scholarship engages broadly with questions in feminist theory, with a focus on applied ethics. She is particularly interested in epistemology and questions of social justice related to the intersections of gender and race, and has directed the women’s and gender studies program for the past 10 years.

Lawrence Shapiro ’84 is also a philosophy professor, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where his research focus is in philosophy of mind and of cognitive science. “We all go to college knowing something about math, history, English, etc.,” Shapiro says. “But few of us are exposed to philosophy as high school students.”

“Philosophy courses were the first courses that I really enjoyed and did well in,” Bailey adds. “The tools philosophy gave me provided a clarity that I found helpful during frightening political times.”

Neither had philosophy as their career goal, however. Shapiro recalls how, like many

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college seniors, he was unsure of what he wanted to do after graduation. He applied to different graduate school programs and decided that if he got accepted into a top program, he would continue doing philosophy for as long as it was possible. He was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his master’s in 1988 and his doctorate in 1992, and has been at Wisconsin since 1993.

“The career is everything I hoped it would be,” Shapiro says. “I have a lot of time to write articles and books on the subjects of most interest to me.

Basically, I’m being paid to teach stuff I like to teach and learn stuff that I want to learn. It’s hard to imagine a better profession.”

Bailey applied to graduate school because of her growing activism in women’s issues, in nuclear nonproliferation and in social justice in Central America. She was convinced that philosophy could help her understand these issues more clearly and deeply, and that there was a strong gendered component to these issues that needed to be addressed. Her interest in feminist philosophy began with Professor of Philosophy Susan Feldman’s Women and Philosophy class.

“It was the only class of its kind,” she recalls.

After graduation, Bailey moved to Colorado to pursue her master’s in applied ethics at Colorado State University. There she worked with a local Central American solidarity group and wrote a book on the moral dimensions of the Reagan administration’s nuclear policy. Bailey met well-known feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar, who invited her to continue her studies at the University of Cincinnati the following year. Bailey defended her dissertation on feminist peace politics and earned her Ph.D. from Cincinnati in 1993.

When reflecting on her time at Dickinson, Bailey remembers how much she loved being a

philosophy student. “The department was small, friendly and really engaging,” she says. “It was quite a supportive intellectual community. The faculty were first rate, and I especially loved the upper-level seminars.”

Shapiro also had many memorable moments as a philosophy student, but probably the most memorable one was when he met Athena Skaleris ’84, whom he would eventually marry, in his Introduction to Philosophy class. “I guess philosophy wasn’t the only thing on my mind,” he says.

The job market in academia is competitive.

This is particularly true of the humanities, and even more so of philosophy positions. Yet that has not stopped Chaney Burlin ’13 or Alison Springle ’11 from pursuing graduate degrees in philosophy. In fact, both knew they wanted to study philosophy even before college.

“I like trying to answer deep questions—about what we can know, what we ought to do, whether we have free will, how society ought to be organized and so on—and philosophy can enable one to do that,” says Burlin. “[Deciding to study philosophy] was how I found my purpose and in truth turned my life around,” Springle adds. “I get to think about questions concerning the nature of meaning, consciousness, various mental states, the relationship between the mind and the body and other questions I find riveting. I get to read what really smart people who have thought about these questions have to say about them, and then I get to try to make my own contribution to the debate. My favorite thing about philosophy remains the thing that first got me hooked: good philosophical conversation—to be engaged in a dialectic.”

Burlin is a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University, where he focuses on the history of early modern philosophy, philosophy of perception, mind and epistemology. Springle is in her third year at the University of Pittsburgh, where she focuses on philosophy of mind, including philosophy of psychology, cognitive neuroscience and perception.

She is also completing a graduate certificate at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.

Both Burlin and Springle have their sights set on tenure-track careers. Springle has stated an especially urgent reason to seek a position in academia: making philosophy departments more diverse and inclusive. “One of the things that motivates me is the fact that women—and minorities—are underrepresented in philosophy,” she says. “Change is happening, slowly but actively, and I am excited to be a part of that change.”

So, what am I going to do with my philosophy degree? This July, I joined the Nielsen Company as part of its Watch Emerging Leaders Program, a two-year rotational program where I will work on projects with different teams, develop my professional skills and network across departments.

Once my rotation is over, I will choose an area of the business to focus on.

I also will continue reading philosophy, both mainstream articles, such as those in “The Stone” section of The New York Times, and more scholarly ones. When I studied abroad in Copenhagen, I received a scholarship that allowed me to focus on my studies without having to take on a job. As a result, I had a lot of free time. I took advantage of that and took my time reading my assignments, sometimes even twice before the next class session.

It was one of my favorite memories of being abroad.

Ultimately, prospective philosophy majors should consider Reisman’s advice. He understands the challenges every college graduate faces when navigating the job market, and that things have changed since he graduated in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, he still thinks studying philosophy helps students with issues beyond getting a job.

“A philosophy major will prepare you for so many aspects of life, not just work, but issues of life and death—if you do it right,” he says. “What I would say is get the philosophy degree for your life.”

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A

Place at the Table

Latino students at Dickinson navigate new communities, find sources of empowerment

By Alejandro Heredia ’16 Photography by Carl Socolow ’77

From left: Edgar Estrada ’18, Janel Pineda ’18, Armando Moreno ’20 and Jennifer Zapata ’17 in front of the Social Justice House.

[ feature ]

I

t’s no secret that the U.S. is in the midst of a demographic revolution, with all of its institutions—social, political and educational—adjusting to change in varying degrees. And with the increase of the national Latino population comes an increase in Latino students attending colleges and universities. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2001, only a little over half (51.7 percent) of recent high school graduates who identified as Latino/Hispanic went to a two-year or four-year college or university; in 2012, 69 percent were attending college.

At Dickinson, Latino students are the largest population of domestic students of color and make up about 7 percent of the student body.

They are engaged in all aspects of college life—from the sciences to the arts, from leadership roles in organizations like MANdatory, Exiled Poetry Society and the Center for Sustainability Education to honor societies Wheel and Chain and Scroll and Key.

Latino students

are the largest population of domestic students of color:

7 percent of the Dickinson student body

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They are Posse Scholars, Schuler Scholars and recipients of the Questbridge College Match Scholarship. They have garnered Fulbright awards, graduate degrees and high-level positions in the professions of their choice. Their experiences are wide-ranging—some positive, some negative—and many of them point to how their struggles have allowed them to grow in unexpected ways and to contribute significantly to Dickinson’s social and academic environment.

“ I’m aware of where I’ve come from and how that has shaped my perspective of the world, and all I want to do is learn more, know more.”

Complex identities

Matt Atwood ’15

—Jennifer Zapata ’17

Many Latino Dickinsonians are first-generation college students and come from immigrant households, often in communities made up of predominately working-class families.

Edgar Estrada ’18 says that young Latino men like him aren’t expected to go to college, much less a private institution like Dickinson.

“I thought I would be working in construction or something like that, because that’s what most high schoolers from my area do,” says Estrada, who hails from Los Angeles. “They just work in construction or go into the military.”

Although transitioning from a working-class environment in southern California during his first year at Dickinson was difficult, he says, the values and support he received from his family helped him to push through his insecurities. “My mom always told me that my education was very important, but it wasn’t until I came to Dickinson that I realized how important it was—not only to me, but also to her,” he says.

“Keeping her sacrifices in mind really helped me to stay grounded and focused.”

Estiven Rodriguez ’18, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic when he was 9, had attended the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS). Not long after he was accepted to Dickinson in spring 2014, he visited Washington, D.C., for the College Opportunity

Summit, where President Barack Obama singled out Rodriguez’s success story. Obama spoke of Rodriguez’s experiences migrating to the United States, his journey navigating his education while learning English and how he was accepted to Dickinson on a full scholarship through the Posse Foundation.

For Rodriguez, the pressure to succeed once he arrived at Dickinson was unprecedented. But he notes how he was able to tap into his immigrant experience as a source of strength. “Going from New York City to Dickinson was hard,” he recalls. “But thinking about my experience moving from Santo Domingo to New York, that’s completely different. It prepared me.”

As a Dominican Afro-Latina, Jennifer Zapata ’17 has spent time during her college experience working to understand her complex identity and trying to unpack her African ancestry, while finding comfort in who she is in addition to her identities.

“I’m aware of where I’ve come from and how that has shaped my perspective of the world, and all I want to do is learn more, know more. Why are things the way they are? Why do people feel the need to identify with these social boundaries?” she asks. “I’m a neuroscience and philosophy double major. I’m asking all these whys. That’s who I am. I say Afro-Latina, because if I had to put myself into a box, it would be that.”

Finding community

Despite their academic and extracurricular success, Latinos can still struggle with finding community and with fitting in, especially those in the vanguard of diversity initiatives. Glenda Garcia ’09, a member of the first Los Angeles Posse at Dickinson and who went on to garner a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Thailand, recalls that she was often the only Latina in the classroom, which created a

distance between her and her peers.

“In a classroom being Latina definitely made me stand out because I was able to speak to a lot of the experiences that people would read about in the books,” she says. “But because I was able to put so much narrative to what people were reading, sometimes they would feel intimidated by my experiences.”

That discomfort moves in both directions. Data from a studentengagement survey conducted last fall revealed that Latina women, along with black women, experience the lowest satisfaction rates in terms of “Campus Fit and Climate.”

“General climate refers to the broad sense of student attitudes and behaviors on campus that influence student experience on a general level,” explains Jason Rivera, director of institutional research. “It’s not necessarily specific to only social settings or classroom settings but all, broad settings while at Dickinson.”

Last year, when a few white students posted photos on Instagram of themselves wearing sombreros at an off-campus party, with the caption, “We promise we have our green cards,” members of the Social Justice House (SOJO) launched a campuswide

dialogue to address the campus climate.

“I think a lot of people just aren’t sensitive or aware of what immigrant experiences are like or how these ideas perpetuate anti-Latino sentiment,” says Janel Pineda ’18.

More than 100 students from all backgrounds huddled in the cramped SOJO living room to discuss what kind of impact such actions might have.

Pineda, one of the students who led the dialogue, says that although it was a difficult experience for Latino students, she was able to turn the conversation toward positive change.

“In sharing my own experience as the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, I was able to use story as a means of empowering my Latinidad,” Pineda says. “The exchange of stories and perspectives [during the meeting] was ultimately powerful and momentous in its creation of a space to begin building understanding within our community.”

Moving forward

Valeria Carranza ’09 encourages students to continue turning instances of struggle into sources of empowerment.

The daughter of Salvadoran immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from college, she is currently the

executive director of the U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Carranza, who received the Outstanding Young Alumni award in 2015, was also a member of the first Los Angeles Posse at Dickinson, and she reports experiencing similar difficulties as Garcia, her fellow Posse member.

She adds that there were also great moments of joy. For example, she points to members of her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, who, knowing that Carranza identified as a gay woman, changed the organization’s gender policy, making it more inclusive.

She also met “amazing people” who would become friends for life. Members of her Posse were at her wedding recently, and Vice President and Dean of Student Life Joyce Bylander, who was her Posse mentor, officiated at the event.

“Dickinson offered me a snapshot of what the rest of America looks like and how difficult it can be to be brown in a sea of white,” she says. “I saw both sides of the coin, which prepared me for the American workforce that I’m a part of now. I’m able to navigate non-Latino spaces while still embracing my Latina identity.”

She continues, “Embrace every little part about you, because that adds value. You’re bringing your community to the table.”

Above from left: Valeria Carranza ’09 and Joyce Bylander during Alumni Weekend 2015; Fabian Hernandez ’15 in the annual Diversity Monologue Contest; Andy Vargas ’16 steps forward during Commencement.

Opposite: Several Scroll and Key members, including Alejandro Heredia ’16 (second from right, bottom row) at the 2015 tapping ceremony.

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[ beyond the limestone walls ]

Increasing our impact

Carl Socolow ’77

M I C H A E L D O N N E L LY ’ 0 2 , A L U M N I C O U N C I L P R E S I D E N T

A

s we come full circle, one year after my initial inquiry as to your involvement—your Dickinson story—I find myself reflecting on what awesome connections I have made. Throughout this year, I have had the great fortune of meeting alumni from many decades, I have received a multitude of emails from alumni of many ages, and I have spoken at numerous alumni events.

Without fail, I’ve observed great love for our alma mater.

Dickinson holds a special place in the hearts and minds of so many, including me.

One alumna reached out to me after reading my spring column. While the region in which she lives does not support a club structure as robust as others, I was able to connect her with the Office of Alumni Relations to discuss potential programming for alumni in her region. A few other alumni reached out to me to voice their concerns with the campus climate, specifically about a perceived over-liberalization. I trust that they found my response time to their concerns to be efficient, as well as my working to share their concerns with strategic members of the college’s staff. No matter the inquiry, I value the time each Dickinsonian takes to think about and to

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act upon Dickinson. I encourage you to continue to send your thoughts my way!

At the spring meeting of the Alumni Council, there was much discussion of what the council members have done to increase our impact. From attending college fairs and participating in panel discussions to meeting with prospective and new students, as well as financially supporting the college, council members have been quite busy. I encourage you to visit the Alumni Council page on the website (dickinson.edu/ alumnicouncil) to learn more about its members, to reach out and ask a question, to provide a suggestion or just to say hello!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Coco Minardi, assistant vice president of engagement and the Dickinson Fund, and her entire team for the work that they have been doing, are doing and will be doing on behalf of alumni, parents, current students and prospective students.

Celebrating the many successes of our alma mater is easy, as there is so much of which to be proud. To engage and to motivate can be more challenging, and that is the work of the college advancement team, as well as the charge of each Alumni Council member.

I want to thank each and every one of you for being part of the Dickinson family. Our ties run deep and strong. Our commitment to ensuring that the institution that became our home will continue to be just as amazing tomorrow as it was yesterday is a collective charge. Thank you for the volunteer hours you commit to spreading the word about Dickinson.

Thank you for the effort you make in sharing your story.

Thank you for the dollars you donate to help ensure access for future Dickinsonians.

My previous column closed in a similar fashion and put out the charge for you to contact me if you would like to do so. The Dickinson alumni network is only as strong as each of its individual members. I welcome the opportunity to hear your story and how you engage others on behalf of the college.

If you would like to learn about ways you can expand (y)our network, please contact me at profe207@gmail.com.

Until next time, be well!

Guðmundur Jónasson Travel

ALUMNI TRAVEL

Join us in Iceland!

June 17-July 1, 2017

Iceland is synonymous with spectacular landscapes—waterfalls, glaciers, geysers, hot springs and volcanoes—and is known for its populous bird colonies and charming towns and farms. Share this well-paced, two-week adventure, in one of the most geologically active places in the world, with Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Benjamin Edwards, plus an expert Icelandic guide and a group of like-minded Dickinson alumni, family and friends!

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumnitravel or call 800-856-8951.

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[ closing thoughts ]

My millennial moment

BY SIRAJ HASHMI ’09

I

am a millennial, part of the apathetic generation. And I’ve gone back and forth on whether I hate millennials.

That’s a very millennial thing to say: Start with an admission that you’re a millennial and state how indecisive you are about the generation you’re a part of, which is now the largest in the United States.

Any time I read an essay about millennials, I let out a sigh followed by an eye roll. I would love to insert a gif image to describe my feelings, because that too is very millennial of me.

I like our generation because we’re entrepreneurial and innovative, and we have a distinct sense of humor.

My dislike for millennials isn’t necessarily because of what we in our generation do. It’s more how members of older generations are casting us. We’re given the labels “entitled,” “selfish” and “lazy.” But that’s only some of us.

If there are valid reasons to dislike us, they might be that we’re buried in our smartphones, we only discuss trivial nonsense, and, most of all, we’re not politically engaged. Well, at least most of us.

Being politically disengaged irks me more than anything else, mostly because I was one of those carefree millennials who only voted based on a candidate’s personality or one particular issue.

As a biology major at Dickinson, I didn’t care for politics. I was one of the many millennials who turned out in large numbers in 2008 and 2012; yet, in the 2014 midterm election, only 12 percent of individuals under the age of 30 showed up to vote, according to exit polls conducted by NBC News. Today, as a political correspondent working in Washington, D.C., I realize how wrong I was to not think of politics critically.

Now in 2016, half of millennials identify as Independents, according to the Pew Research Center, and during this latest election cycle, are all over the place in terms of who they support for president. In the beginning, millennials said “I’m With Her” while they ignored a 74-year-old Democratic Socialist until he set foot on college campuses accompanied with promises of free tuition.

Back when there were still 17 candidates in the Republican race, millennials took a stand with Rand, dubbed Marco “Ru-bae-o” and cruised with Cruz before they ultimately stumped for Trump.

Then, of course, you have those millennials in the #NeverTrump movement, who also can’t stand the thought of choosing Hillary Clinton.

Of course, there’s always Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.

And just as many see the 2016 presidential election as out of control, many seem to have the same feeling about the millennial generation.

We protest in the streets to combat police brutality, fight for peace in the Middle East or demand action from the Supreme Court on matters such as LGBT rights, abortion and big money in politics. Yet no matter what side we fall on regarding any issue and how strong our convictions, the most important thing that millennials can do is simple—yet difficult for this day and age.

That’s to listen.

It’s something I think many of us have forgotten how to do, and it’s true for those in every generation. But I highlight millennials because I’ve observed how stubborn we are in convincing ourselves and others that our position is morally superior. When we’re confronted about our positions, we cry foul and, in many instances, insult and threaten those who don’t agree with us.

The new form of discourse has devolved into sending a disparaging tweet or Facebook comment, screaming “F**k you!” at a controversial speaker or storming the podium to force said speaker offstage.

But you don’t make gains by yelling at one another. So consider inviting whomever you’re debating to grab coffee and decide you’re going to learn something from them. You may even end up becoming friends.

And if you become friends with someone like me, a millennial Muslim man who works as a political journalist by day and enjoys making hip-hop music at night, know that I too am not perfect and am trying to make sense of this complicated and cruel world, just like you.

Siraj Hashmi ’09 is Washington, D.C., bureau chief at GVH Live, a nonpartisan media production startup delivering original programming, documentaries and live events for and about millennials, and associate producer for The Morning Briefing with Tim Farley on SiriusXM radio.

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Homecoming & Family Weekend OCTOBER 28–30, 2016

Learn. Connect. Explore.

P. O . B O X 1 7 7 3 C A R L I S L E , P A 1 7 0 1 3 - 2 8 9 6 PERIODICAL

W W W. D I C K I N S O N . E D U / M A G A Z I N E

P O S TA G E P A I D AT C A R L I S L E , P A AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICE

[

well-stated

]

The most valuable thing you can ever give someone is your time.

Make sure you spend it well, whether you are building houses for the needy or talking to your friends after a long day.

J ON AT H A N NOR T H R I D G E ’ 1 6 .

Read more at dson.co/northridge16.

Just seek the truth and write about it.

E D W I D G E D A N T IC AT , 2015-16 recipient of the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program. See Page 17.

For me, attending Dickinson was not solely a transaction of four years and dollars spent on a degree. I view my relationship with the Dickinson community as a lifelong partnership, in which we continuously learn from and support each other.

K E L LY R O G E R S ’ 1 0 .

Learn more at dson.co/rogers10.

Hashtags are things that live online, while movements

are comprised of people who share a vision, have values

and goals, who decide they want to work in concert with each other. Hashtags don’t start movements. People do.

A L IC I A G A R Z A , co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. Learn more at dson.co/garzamovement.

The constant struggle in sporting competition is often juxtaposed by startling moments of profound humanity that can lead to drama, comedy and even tragedy. This can all be very compelling for us as spectators. Like any other passion, sports have the same power to generate extreme patriotism and fanaticism.

S H AW N S T E I N , associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, on soccer and storytelling. Read more at dson.co/steinfof.

There’s always conflict as language adapts. I only wish the discussion, like the discussion of who should lead the nation, were not so hatefully splintering us. Contempt is born of fear, and fear makes us say ridiculous things.

A DR I E N N E S U , poet-in-residence and associate professor of English, in “People Were Upset That People Were Upset” in VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts. Read more at dson.co/adriennesureport.