Moravian College Magazine Summer 2010

SUMMER 2010

Moravian

Words Count

Moravian writers imagine, interpret, make meaning of our world

Moravian

summer 2010 2

Prelude: The Chipmunk Connection

By Lois Brunner Bastian ’60

10 Of People and Places Joyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of English, speaks the language of landscape in her stories, poems, and essays.

14 Not Your Mother’s Freshman Comp Effective writing requires more process, less rhetoric, says English professor Joel Wingard.

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Writers at the Center

By nurturing ideas, the Moravian Writing Center develops better writers and thinkers.

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Brave New Words

andra Novack-Gottshall ’98, whose first S novel was published by Random House last year, is forging life as a writer of fiction.

04 Out & About 20 Alumni News 22 Greyhound Sports 23 Transitions 24 Orbis Pictus: “Translation,”

poem and artwork by Alexis Vergalla ’06

See www.moravian.edu/magazine/extra for more from this issue.

Moravian College Magazine : editor, Victoria Bingham; sports editor, Mark J. Fleming; web manager, Christie Jacobsen ’00; director of publications, Susan Overath Woolley; director of public relations and marketing, Michael P. Wilson.

Creative Direction: Jane Firor & Associates.

Alumni Relations: director, Marsha Stiles, M.B.A. ’99; assistant director, Patricia Murray Hanna ’82.

Copyright 2010 by Moravian College. Photographs and artwork copyright by their respective creators or by Moravian College. All rights reserved.

No portion of this publication may be reused or republished in any form without express written permission.

Cover: Joyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of English and Cohen Chair in English and Literature, plans lessons, meets students, grades papers, and shapes language into stories in her Zinzendorf office. photo by John Kish IV Cover and Contents photos by John Kish IV.

prelude

Stories from the Moravian community

<< We are not strangers, but friends who met through a young man

>>

Courtesy of Nancy and Ben Evans

and a book.

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The Chipmunk Connection

By Lois Brunner Bastian ’50

How could the lives of two Moravian College alumni—strangers who graduated more than fifty years apart—be linked by chipmunks? It sounds improbable, even impossible. But “uncanny” is a far better word to describe this story.

It began many years after I graduated from Moravian College for Women as an English major. In time, I became a freelance writer/photographer, publishing newspaper and magazine articles on travel and any other subject that piqued my curiosity.

That’s when chipmunks bounded into my New Jersey backwoods and became an obsession. Appealing and unapproachable, they presented a challenge. I wanted to know more about their secret lives.

When one of them took refuge in a downspout, I saw an opportunity to get closer. Holding out sunflower seeds in the palm of my hand, I would wait and wait by the mouth of the spout. One day, the animal snatched the food and bolted back into the spout. After that breakthrough, the spout became unnecessary. The chipmunk would come to me as I sat outside, cautiously climbing my leg, into my lap or onto my shoulder, wherever the food was.

So began thirty seasons of observing, hand feeding, watching courtship and mating, as well as photographing a series of mothers together with their litters. Because the mother trusted me, so did her young ones, as I sat beside their burrow.

Before the young left to make burrows of their own, I often spent eight hours a day watching their behavior. They examined every leaf, blade of grass, and twig nearby. Trying to stand on their hind legs, they lost their balance at first and toppled over. That would take practice. They teetered on twigs too slender to support them. Fluttering leaves and the shadow of a flying bird sent them fleeing underground.

Books about the life cycle of Tamias striatus are plentiful, but I’d never found one describing a mother with her offspring. Hmmm . . . was there a market for such a book? In 2000, Chipmunk Family, my nonfiction book for young people, was published.

That seemed to culminate my wildlife experience. Until eight years later, when I received a poignant letter. It came from Nancy Evans, a stranger who lived in Lansdale, Pa. She explained that she and her husband, Ben, were the parents of David Evans, who was

killed twenty-three days before his twenty-third birthday—and two weeks before he was to graduate from Moravian. Dave, a computer art and graphic design major, was awarded his diploma posthumously in May 2004.

A book by Lois Brunner Bastian ’50 (above) Nancy wrote to tell me was the basis for a healing friendship with the family of David Evans ’04 (page 2). how my story was woven together with Dave’s story. “He was very enamored of chipmunks,” she wrote. “When Dave went hiking with his older brothers, he wished he could catch one for a pet.”

As a bereaved mother, she was trying to “stay connected to her son in any way and every way” she could. She and her husband spent time at a local arboretum, hoping chipmunks would appear, as if they represented a message from their son.

For Christmas 2007, Ben ordered several chipmunk books for her. “He ran into months-long difficulty trying to purchase your book,” she wrote. “First they backordered it and he waited. Then he got notice that it was out of print. He gave up.”

In April 2008, Nancy received a package in the mail. It was her husband’s Christmas gift to her: my book. “I opened it and read about you in the Meet the Author section. Well, I stopped in my tracks when I read, ‘Ms. Bastian was born in Bethlehem, Pa., and graduated from Moravian College.’”

Dave’s classmates planted a tree on the Church Street campus in his memory. The Evans family comes to Bethlehem regularly to place a wreath beneath it. On one of their visits, we met, after I had moved back to Bethlehem.

Nancy ended her letter with these words.

“You, your background, and your book are to me another connection with my dear Dave, and I find joy in it! Thank you for the delightful look at these oh-so-charming animals. We are not strangers, but friends who met through a young man and a book.”

That alone makes writing the book worth the effort. W Photo by Lois Brunner Bastian

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out&about

photo by grad images

A Graduation Story

David Fisher ’10, who graduated from Moravian with Honors in May, overcame a traumatic childhood to succeed academically.

HAPPENING . . .

David Fisher ’10 could write a book about persistence in the face of adversity. The May 2010 Moravian graduate overcame a traumatic childhood that included homelessness to finish his Moravian years with dual degrees in psychology and sociology with Honors. He will enter grad school at Lehigh University this fall on a full scholarship, on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming a professor.

At Moravian, Fisher worked hard and rarely spoke of his past. For Professor Robert Brill’s psychology class, Fisher wrote a prize-winning research paper that suggested how Wegmans food markets could prevent the annual loss of $4 million in unscanned items beneath shopping carts. Psychology professor Dana S. Dunn was so impressed with Fisher that he invited him to co-author a research study and book review. Another Moravian mentor, sociology chair Debra Wetcher-Hendricks, helped open the door for Fisher at Lehigh, where he will begin graduate study with a teaching assistantship in August.

“I’m not genius smart,” said Fisher. “I study hard. I work hard. I do homework. I didn’t want to become a statistic.”

Fisher’s story was featured in local and regional media, including ABC-TV Philadelphia. Read the Morning Call story at http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_mc-bethlehemdavid.7265780may16,0,1893721.story.

for more details, see www.moravian.edu/news, or call 610 861-1300

August 30

September 25

First day of classes

Family Day

Students and professors get down to business (and biology, English, music, and other academic matters) in classrooms on both ends of the Moravian Mile.

9:00 A.M.–7:00 p.m. • Something fun for everyone! Hockey, football, tailgating, Celtic Celebration party, and special interest sessions. Watch our website for online registration and more information.

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photos by john kish iv

June Guitar Classic

Classical guitarists Duo Mellis (husband and wife Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurakis, above) instruct and encourage a young student (right) at a master class given at the Bethlehem Guitar Festival. Festival founder and director John Arnold, Moravian artistlecturer, highlighted “Married Couples” for the event’s 10th anniversary.

“Married Couples” filled Peter Hall with the sweet sounds of classical and steel string guitars paired with lute, piano, and voice in early June, marking the 10th anniversary of the Bethlehem Guitar Festival. Presented by the Moravian College Department of Music and C. F. Martin Guitar Co., the festival featured concert performances by multi-award-winning Duo Mellis (husband and wife Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurakis) and Thom Bresh, son of the legendary Merle Travis. Four other duos also performed, and Martin Guitar’s Dick Boak spoke about Martin Signature Editions.

Duo Mellis, which closed the festival with a Saturday evening concert, drew rave reviews for their “astounding sense of intimate communication.” Prieto of Spain and Muzurakis of Greece have been performing internationally together since 1999, and have been married since 1996. The couple performed a Spanish-flavored repertoire that included “Sonatina Canonica” by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Manuel de Falla’s flamenco-inspired “The Short Life,” and three dances by the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera—all beautifully synchronized.

Festival founder John Arnold, Moravian artist-lecturer in classical guitar, directs the annual event, which includes a guitar expo, workshops, master classes, recitals, and concerts. Aspiring musicians—as young as elementary school age—have a rare opportunity to learn from the pros at the festival. This year, Duo Mellis conducted private master classes with young local musicians, while Moravian’s Arnold offered a workshop. Arnold is a member of the flute and guitar duo Two Part Invention, which records for Bummer Tent Records.

Vist Our New Website Come home to Moravian online! Our newly redesigned website at http://www.

October 27 2010 Janet A. Sipple Lecture Foy Hall 5:30 P.M. • “Globalization and Urbanization and the Risks to Women,” a lecture by Dr. Afaf I. Meleis, Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

moravian.edu will take you to all of your favorite campus places and keep you current with fresh news and information about faculty members and students.

Through a comprehensive planning, design, and development process, we’ve created a site that features an attractive design, easily accessible information, and timely, relevant content. Our new site offers a vastly improved browsing experience for prospective and current students, parents, alumni, faculty members, staff, and friends of the College. Through clear entry points on the home page, you can reach information, forms, and other interactive content in a quick click or two.

Rotating features designed to highlight the achievements of students and faculty provide a window into the vibrant life of Moravian College. Webmaster Christie Jacobsen ’00 developed the site after gathering input and feedback from the entire College community.

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out&about

Celebrating 50 Years of Moravian Honors

Judith Share Yaphe ’66 (right) signs her Honors thesis at the program’s 50-year anniversary celebration last spring. Upper right: John ’65 and Jan Whitfield Landis ’64 reminisce about Jan’s Honors history project and Moravian College days.

Photos by john kish iv

A Moravian scholars’ Hall of Fame gathered on campus this spring, as dozens of Honors alumni returned to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Moravian Honors Program. Honors alumni, their guests, 2010 Honors candidates, and faculty members paid tribute to the academic research program that launched more than 750 alumni on rewarding paths of professional success and personal fulfillment. In Reeves Library, alumni signed bound copies of their Honors theses, spoke with students, and reconnected with faculty friends. The informal signing ceremony was followed by an address in Prosser Auditorium given by Judith Share Yaphe ’66, whose Honors history research on American policy toward Palestine (advised by Daniel Gilbert, professor emeritus of history) became the foundation of her career as a top CIA analyst and university professor. Dinner in Peter Hall was followed by a music performance in Foy Hall.

GUESTSPEAKING

James Lyon ’76: Clean Energy Now? “We are addicted to oil. We spend $1 billion per day to purchase oil overseas, money that many of our veterans say is being diverted to terrorist organizations. Yet even if we sunk a well in every square mile of our coastline, we still would not have enough oil to meet our demand. Clinging to relics of the industrial revolution weakens us in the 21st century.

“We need to embrace a new era driven by clean energy, which will create jobs here and beat China to the economic punch. It is the right path. As conservationist Aldo Leopold said, ’a thing is right, when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.’ Our self interest is not enough at this point. What in God’s name are we leaving to our children? Are we so certain that the status quo is Photo by john kish iv

right, that we are willing to roll the dice?”

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—Jim Lyon ’76, National Wildlife Federation vice president for conservation policy, from his lecture “Beyond 40 Earth Days,” given at Moravian College on April 20, 2010.

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Transformation of Collier Hall Begins The architectural firm Einhorn Yaffee Prescott (EYP) of New York has been selected by Moravian’s project leadership team to provide professional architectural and engineering services for the renovation and expansion of Collier Hall of Science.

The Hall of Science houses the departments of biological sciences, chemistry, nursing, and physics and earth science.

EYP was selected for its outstanding track record of success, including recent projects for Assumption College, Boston College, Boston University, and Cabrini College. “EYP exhibited a real excitement about working with us,” noted Kim Sherr, Moravian’s assistant director of planning and project management, and a member of the project leadership team. “Their creative ideas and focus on academics and community, thoughts on the

continuity of our academic program during construction, and commitment to designing a facility that reflects the new, but remains consistent with the old, won the day.”

The preliminary work, over the next seven months, will include all pre-design activities such as confirming the academic program and project budget, preparation of civil drawings, providing various testing requirements, and developing fundraising materials. The next milestone will come in April 2011, when the pre-design will be complete. If funding is secured, the College will move forward with a full design and anticipate completion by October 2014.

“We have worked many years in preparation and are excited to move forward with this very important project,” noted President Christopher Thomforde.

“Modernizing the Collier Hall of Science is the greatest priority for our facilities if we are to maintain and build on our new and successful curricular programs.”

MORAVIANBOOKSHELF n Brand It Like Barack by Gary Kaskowitz, associate professor of economics and business, analyzes the success of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign from a marketing perspective. The campaign stands as a shining example of effective marketing strategies that can be employed by students, small businesses, and politicians of all affiliations to achieve their goals. Professor Kaskowitz offers actionable advice but reminds readers that delivery must follow promises. Otherwise, even the most effective marketer will fail to sustain the brand. n A new book in a series on the role of sports and athletes in American culture will be published this summer.

Co-edited by Joel Nathan Rosen, associate professor of sociology, and David C. Ogden, associate professor of communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha,

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Fame to Infamy: Race, Sport, and the Fall from Grace, is a compilation of essays about the public slide of once-cherished male sport icons. Professor Rosen and C. Oren Renick co-authored the essay “Inextricably Linked: Joe Louis and Max Schmeling Revisited.” n Heikki Lempa, associate professor and chair of history, and Paul Peucker, faculty associate and director of the Moravian Archives, have edited and contributed to a new book, Self, Community, World: Moravian Education in a Transatlantic World. The anthology, published January 2010 by Lehigh University Press, includes contributions on the history of Moravian education in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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out&about

Lasting Legacy The revered old elm that once grew near Main Hall has returned to its Church Street roots. But instead of beautifying the street before Main Hall, as it did for more than 200 years, the legendary tree now graces Main Hall’s parlor in the form of a one-of-a-kind table. Local woodworker Michael Kane contacted the College in 2007, after the tree was taken down because disease had made it a hazard.

“I admired that tree for years,” Kane said. “The day it was cut down, I offered to make a table from some of the wood.” Kane smoothed the surface of the rough-cut slabs with a series of sandings, then applied seven coats of tung oil and two coats of wax. With its gnarly perimeter and distinctive knots, the finished 4-by-7foot table captures much of the character of the original. It promises to be at the center of many gatherings of good cheer and warm fellowship for years to come.

pho to by mic ha el

wil so n

Henry Elms I was pleased to learn that the wood from the famous Church Street elm is being preserved (“From Tree to Table,” Summer 2009). This tree was not an American elm but an English elm—a rare species in this area. English elms have become associated with the Henry family, who, for five generations, operated the Henry Gun Factory at Boulton, just north of Nazareth, Pa. There were two large English elms at the Henry homestead (in Jacobsburg, Pa.), which fell to Dutch elm disease some time ago. Across the road, there once were two ancient English elms at the John Joseph Henry house; these were more recently destroyed by the same disease. Moravian’s Church Street elm bears witness to the fact that Henry daughters attended the old Female Seminary.

To my knowledge, the last standing Henry elm is on the grounds of the church in the village of Belfast, Pa. The Henrys helped to build this church and established a Moravian congregation there to serve workers at the nearby Henry Gun Factory. It is curious that there is no record of an English elm at Nazareth Hall, a Moravian school for boys that was attended by Henry sons.

—Robert P. L. Frick ’49, Bethlehem, Pa.

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Warm greetings to you from campus!

Great energy and expectation filled Prosser Hall during Blue & Grey Days, when students of the Class of 2014 came to campus to begin their journey into the future as members of the Moravian community.

We have a strong cohort of new students. About 380 graduated from high school this past spring, roughly 100 are transferring to Moravian from other institutions, and about 15 will re-enter after having taken a leave of absence to work, serve in the armed forces, or study elsewhere.

New Greyhounds join our community just as 417 young men and women of the Class of 2010 have gone on to begin careers, graduate studies, and professional school. What a fine record of accomplishment they established in the classroom, on the athletic field, and in the concert hall!

The Class of 2010 also made a mark in terms of giving. Fifty-six percent contributed to the Senior Class Scholarship, which is awarded to senior students who face a financial hardship that may preclude them from completing their studies. I hope you will follow the example of the Class of 2010 by making a contribution to the Moravian Scholarship Fund, if you have not already done so. Your annual contributions help keep the door of opportunity open for students of ability, promise, and achievement, through the awarding of scholarships and financial aid.

In response to the challenges of the Great Recession, Moravian increased its financial aid budget by about 20%. This required us to make several difficult and painful decisions that affected some of our faculty and staff positions and programs.

We have responded to the current financial uncertainties with prudence while exercising good stewardship of the Moravian mission for the future.

Over the past year, a group of faculty and senior administrators met weekly to consider the best ways to make the College sustainable now and in the future. We asked the campus community to help us

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think through questions like, “What are our strongest programs, and how can we strengthen them for the future?” “What new programs might we offer?” “How can we communicate our rich educational experience more effectively to high school students and their parents?”

Many wonderful and vibrant answers have arisen from asking these questions. As our answers become more clearly defined, I will keep you informed.

In the meantime, we all agree that the Moravian educational experience builds

<< The Moravian educational experience builds a strong foundation for a student’s future. >> a strong foundation for a student’s future.

Students are challenged to grow intellectually. Students are prepared for the world of work through hands-on learning. Students develop personally to realize a deeper enjoyment of life.

The life and mission of Moravian continue to move forward, despite the real economic challenges that bear down upon all colleges and universities throughout our country. The radiant faces of our graduates, crossing the platform to receive their diplomas, and the hopeful faces of our incoming Class of 2014 remind us of what is most important. Moravian is on a mission that really matters!

Thank you for your support!

Christopher M. Thomforde, President

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Of People& Places

PHOTOs BY john kish iv

Joyce Hinnefeld speaks the language of landscape through her stories, poems, and essays.

oyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of English, Cohen Chair in English and Literature, and director of the Moravian College Writing Center, began writing as an undergraduate student at Hanover College in Indiana: “I took a creative writing class taught by Margie Stewart and got hooked.” She went on to receive graduate degrees in English from Northwestern University and the State University of New York at Albany, and began teaching at Moravian College in 1997. She is the author of Tell Me Everything and Other Stories, a collection of short stories that won the 1997 Breadloaf Writer’s Conference Bakeless Prize, as well as the novel In Hovering Flight (Unbridled Books), which received wide critical acclaim. Her second novel, Stranger Here Below, will be published by Unbridled Books in October. Her short story “Benedicta, or a Guide to the Artist’s Resume” was recently accepted for publication by the literary journal The Literary Review.

Dr. Hinnefeld’s ongoing interest in the relationship between people and their landscapes is the basis for her current project, an essay on land ownership issues in Pennsylvania and their impact on the Delaware River. She is collaborating with student Michael Watson ’11 on the summer SOAR project “Knowing Our Place: Writing to Uncover, and Reconnect with, Community and Landscape.”

Tell us about your new novel, Stranger Here Below. It’s basically the stories of three generations of women connected through two very interesting communities in Kentucky. One is a Shaker site, Pleasant Hill. The other is Berea College. The core of the story is the friendship between two girls—one white, one black—who are roommates at Berea College in 1961, a time of upheaval.

Where did you get the idea for this story? My husband was interested in photographing Shaker sites and artifacts when we lived in upstate New York, near the Hancock Shaker village. So the summer we were married,1994, we traveled to Kentucky to check out the Shaker site, Pleasant Hill, and Berea College, which is famous for its crafts. I became intrigued with the idea of bringing together the two places in a novel. I was interested in what they would have been like in the ’50s and ’60s. In fiction, you can make connections that might not be there otherwise.

Places inspire much of Hinnefeld’s writing. Above: walking on Bethlehem’s Sand Island with Lily, an American Eskimo Dog, sparks ideas for an essay about the Delaware River.

How did you link them in your novel? I created a character, Georgia, who was born in late 19th-century Ohio and was the daughter of an abolitionist. As a student at Oberlin College, she falls in love with a black man, but her father forbids her to marry him. He sends her to teach at Berea, a new school founded on principles of racial equality. Georgia is an ardent believer in equality, so when the school backtracks on integration [due to a Kentucky law that

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Of People and Places

From Stranger Here Below: “Pilgrim and Stranger, 1962” They trotted her out like a show pony. A circus act. When they asked her to play, she played—the waltzes, Debussy, the Chopin Etude she’d mastered.

They reported on her perfect grade average before she began, every time. She was exceptional! A remarkable exception!

Proof of something surely, of the school’s right mission. Virginal and pure to boot.

Studious. Accomplished on the piano, on which she did not play race music, but the

prohibited integrated education], she defies the rules and continues to invite black students into her classroom. Eventually she is fired and ends up becoming a Shaker at the age of 40, when Pleasant Hill has only two other people in the community.

Berea comes back into the story through the character of Vista, a single woman from the mountains, who becomes Georgia’s caretaker in her later years. Vista’s daughter, Maze, is a student at Berea College in 1961.

I wanted to explore issues of race, women’s relationships, and spirituality and sexuality—because to become a Shaker, as Georgia does, is to forgo a sexual life.

Georgia’s one great love has been forbidden, and she must try to make sense of this in spiritual terms.

classics.

Mary Elizabeth kept picturing that young man’s hands floating over the keys, from such a distance, from the faraway seats where she and Aunt Paulie were sitting. And yet she felt like she was right there, beside him, or somehow inside him, her hands his hands, glazing the keys like rainwater.

Fingers like the legs of racehorses.

She thought that if she could play the French composers and also, now, Stravinsky, the pieces Aunt Paulie regretted never learning, the music might somehow still be hers. Hers, and Aunt Paulie’s. Those years in Paris, that longing in Paulie’s chest, in both their chests, when they played. Sometimes, when she finished playing Chopin, Mary Elizabeth sat at the piano and wept.

But a funny thing: She couldn’t play the Stravinksy. She knew now that she never would.

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What is your research process? It’s fairly indiscriminate—you read and absorb and note anything that seems quirky or interesting. Then something gives you an idea and you pursue it. For this novel, I received an FDRC summer stipend my first year at Moravian, 1998. I went to both Berea and Pleasant Hill and read everything I could find in their archives—old newspapers, journals, log books. Pleasant Hill had this funny photo album that belonged to a family that had run an inn on the property. A lot of that material ended up in the novel.

As I read and learned about Kentucky, I became so fascinated with the historical background that early versions of the novel included too much of it. My editor graciously pointed that out, and finally I could hear it from him. [She laughs.] But I feel that if you’re going to write historical fiction, you need to try to learn as much as possible about the place and time that you’re writing about. The peril is that you then want to teach everybody.

I’m in that mode now—reading and researching, getting ready to write a per-

sonal essay. It can be uncomfortable—you often feel like you’re spinning your wheels because you’re not writing. But ultimately, it’s what I have to do to feel like I’m ready to begin writing.

How do you integrate all of the pieces into a single structure? This was a long, tortured process. I’ve been working on this novel for over 10 years, and it’s gone through many, many versions. It isn’t always like this. The structure for In Hovering Flight became apparent to me fairly early, and it just worked.

In the first version of this novel, I was using first person to tell the story of Mary Elizabeth, an African-American girl, and my agent at the time cautioned me about it. It’s a source of some concern to me— that I will be seen as co-opting her story.

And I understand that. So, very early on, I changed to third person, and I think that was for the good.

But I think that early uncertainty created a rocky path for deciding how to structure the book. When I rewrote it for the last time last summer, I cut some, and added new material about the friends and about Mary Elizabeth’s mother, Sarah. Then I just laid it out on the floor and thought, well, this ought to come before that. And I just took chunks and wove them together. I tweaked it some more, and I thought that’s it. It’s not a chronological order at all.

What inspires your writing? Places. That’s where my novels seem to come from. I’m very interested in exploring topography and trying to capture the beauty of the languages of different places. I have another novel in mind, very unformed so far, but I know it will involve the city of Prague.

Places, and events—historical moments.

In In Hovering Flight, it was the resurgence of the environmental movement in the ’60s, and ’70s. Also, social justice issues. That’s a tricky one for a novelist. There’s always the risk of being heavy-handed.

Favorite authors? Alice Munro, who writes short stories almost exclusively—I think she’s brilliant. Marilynne Robinson, author of the novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home. Nicholson Baker, who wrote A Box

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of Matches and The Anthologist, which I just read. It’s just lovely.

I’m also a fan of the German writer W.G. Sebald, who blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction genres. His Emigrants is a novel that reads like a memoir. I seem to be drawn to many of the post-war German writers.

And I should mention C. E. Morgan, a great young writer who went to Berea College, author of All the Living.

I always have a stack of things going— right now, I’m reading about efforts to dam the Delaware River for the essay I’m working on; poetry by Robert Frost, John Clare, William Carlos Williams; and Eric Freyfogle on law and property ownership in relation to environmental issues. And always the latest New Yorker magazine.

Is it difficult to transition from writing to the classroom to being at home as a mother and wife? Oh yeah, it’s just a crazy struggle and I don’t do it very well. [She laughs.]

Almost everybody has that quandary.

I wrote this piece called “The Paradoxes of Caring,” which is on my blog [http:// inhoveringflight.blogspot.com/2009/01/ paradoxes-of-caring.html]. It talks about the current tendency to over-parent. So many readers of In Hovering Flight are angry with Addie—they see her as a neglectful mother—and that always shocks me. I didn’t intend for her to be a bad mother.

Maybe parents need to back off a little—let kids play in the creek.

People often ask me, “How much of your writing is about you?” I always say, “none of it really.” But of course some things are. For Addie, the question is, how does she combine making her art with being a mother and being concerned about the planet?

In my blog piece, I included a quote

by Scott Russell Sanders that originally appeared in the Writer’s Chronicle. Essentially, he says that it’s a struggle—but also a gift—to balance all of these things: writing, parenting, teaching. And when I read that, I only felt a little bit like, “yeah, but you’re a man.” [She laughs.] It’s artfully put—and I feel that’s what I aspire to.

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What do you feel is most important to convey to students who desire to write? Seize every opportunity to fill your time with writing. Yes, you are busy now, but not like you will be later. Savor having the time to write—and, no matter how busy you become, reserve a block of time for writing.

I also tell my creative writing students about the value of graduate school—it can give you that time to write, along with a community of people devoted to writing. It can be affirming.

I recently did a reading at the Northshire Books bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and a former student gave me a lovely introduction. The woman was Tina Mabey [Weikart ’98]—she had an independent study in poetry with me. I remember that she was so in love with language—she devoured William Carlos Williams. That kind of exuberance is what you’re looking for in students who will go on to become writers—they love reading as much as they do writing. Because what you love, as a writer, is not the sound of your own voice—it’s bigger than that. A love of language . . . that’s what you’re looking for. W

<< Savor having the time to write—and no matter how busy you become, reserve a block of time for writing.

>>

Joyce Hinnefeld discusses her short stories with Advanced Placement students at Easton High School.

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<< Now, first-year students can see that writing is an important way of knowing in any academic fieldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not just in English.

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Photo by John Kish IV

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Not Your Mother’s Freshman Comp Modern English101 is more process, less rhetoric.

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irst-year writing—or freshman composition as it used to be called—is the most widely required course in American higher education. Since a course of this type was first taught at Harvard in the 1870s, its main purpose has been to introduce students to the practice of academic writing—the kinds of writing students are likely to encounter throughout their college careers. Some 135 years later, the methods of teaching this course have changed considerably.

A major force in making first-year writing what it is today was the process movement, which recognizes that most good writing, especially good academic writing, follows a process that involves inventing ideas, arranging them for expression, trying out that expression in an early draft, and then revising and editing until a paper is “finished.” Older models of instruction in first-year writing assigned students regular “themes” in which apprentice writers were expected to demonstrate competence in “rhetorical modes” such as narration, description, comparison, and argumentation. These papers were typically due, in finished fashion, one week after an assignment was given or even at the next class meeting. And the evaluation of student writing most often focused on its correctness in terms of grammar, spelling, and writing mechanics, such as punctuation.

But in the 1970s and ’80s that method began to change as teachers and composition scholars realized that rhetorical modes were artificial and that no one—other than a first-year writing student—ever purposely wrote to demonstrate competency in comparison-and-contrast, for instance.

Studies in the writing practices of professional writers have shown that written prose is driven by the purposes of the writer and the needs of the audience, and that it often takes several drafts of an essay with the attendant revision to each draft—to make it what the writer wants and what the reader needs.

An influential book by composition scholar Peter Elbow, Writing Without Teachers, in the early 1970s contributed to a shift in writing teachers’ roles from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.” Instead of being a classroom figure who tells students what to do and how well they have done, the writing teacher now facilitates student development by coaching the writing process.

This involves providing feedback—not just grades—to student writers as they work on an essay: talking over a student’s ideas for an essay before she ever sits down at her keyboard; commenting on a preliminary draft so that the student can make revisions herself; creating writing groups in a class and guiding them in “writerly”

By Joel Wingard

ways of reading each other’s work; and perhaps most especially, attending to deeper matters of a piece of writing—structure, development, consistency—and leaving attention to correctness until the piece is nearly finished.

It follows that the students’ writing is the central text in the class: student writing is what is primarily practiced, produced, and studied. Any other writing, such as essays by professional writers, is secondary and used only to exemplify writing strategies or provide intellectual context for the students’ work. First-year writing courses are writing courses, not literature or history or political science courses in disguise.

Traditionally, first-year writing was taught by English faculty members, based on the premise that their training in the belletristic canon gave them responsibility for student literacy. In recent years, however, many small liberal arts colleges “decentralized” first-year writing beyond the English Department. At Moravian, this occurred with the institution of the Learning in Common (LinC) curriculum in 2001. A typical semester at Moravian would have sections of Writing 100 (the required course) taught by biologists, psychologists, musicians, political scientists, economists, mathematicians— in short, faculty from a variety of disciplines other than English.

Now, first-year students can see that writing is an important way of knowing in every academic field, not just in English.

The teaching of first-year writing continues to evolve. Starting in fall 2011, the course will be called First-Year Seminar. The crossdisciplinary model will continue, but the faculty members who teach the class also will serve as academic advisors to the students enrolled in their sections.

This makes sense because the approach to teaching this course encourages close student-faculty interaction anyway, and a first-year writing student often gets closer to his instructor than a student in a lecture or lab course might. And the notion of “writing” itself is broadening and changing to include digital media and genres, so one would expect to see not just print essays developed in first-year writing, but audio essays and video mash-ups as well.

Even with these anticipated changes, the process approach continues to be well suited to helping students develop the clear thinking and clear writing they will need throughout their college years and beyond. W Joel Wingard is professor of English and director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program.

Taught by faculty members of all disciplines, Moravian’s Writing 100 develops writing skills that students will use througout college and beyond. Shown: Jennifer Gillard ’07

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Writers at the Center Focusing on ideas, not punctuation, develops better thinkers and writers.

By Meg Mikovits ’03

Photos by John Kish IV

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any students who visit the Writing Center for the first time enter the room with one of two misconceptions: either they expect to drop off essay drafts and later pick up revised, edited copies ready to be submitted to the professor; or they steel themselves to face tutors who will barely be able to conceal their disdain for unsophisticated first-year writers, all while fixating on draconian grammar and mechanics rules.

Neither of these beliefs is true, of course, and both actually run counter to the goal—shared by Moravian’s Writing Center and hundreds of others—espoused by Stephen North in his landmark 1984 essay, “The Idea of a Writing Center.”

“In a writing center,” asserts North, “the object is to make sure that writers, and not necessarily their texts, are what get changed by the instruction.”

Writing tutors aim to help writers become more comfortable with their own writing process and style—not to impart the tutor’s own preferences on a paper or to provide judgmental commentary about a writer’s shortcomings.

Writing Center visits generally are relaxed and informal.

Tutor and writer sit side-by-side, and the writer retains control of the paper and pencil (or computer) throughout the session. The writer explains the assignment, shares any areas of concern, and then reads the paper aloud. The tutor will take notes or sometimes interject to ask questions as the paper is read. The real work happens throughout the remainder of the session, when the tutor and writer discuss the paper. Talking about the ideas contained in a paper, rather than focusing on the specific words written, is a highly effective way to make sure a paper’s content is logical, organized, and appropriate for the assignment. Usually, the writer leaves with copious notes and a solid plan for further revisions; ideally, the writer and tutor meet again to review the revised draft before the paper is due.

Writing Center tutors are an integral part of this system.

All of our tutors, predictably, are strong writers. Beyond

Get it in writing: at the Writing Center, tutors and writers discuss ideas first.

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that, though, they are friendly, assertive, and creative. Tutoring demands the ability to work with writers of differing abilities, assignments from every academic department, and papers in varying stages of development—often in back-toback-to-back tutoring sessions over the span of a few hours. Tutors are also relentless supporters of the writing process, and will help writers understand how time spent brainstorming and prewriting can greatly impact the effectiveness of a paper. They often use creative revision strategies to appeal to a writer’s interests and learning style. It’s not unusual to see tutoring sessions where papers are colored with highlighters or crayons, or literally cut apart and shuffled around.

Writing centers teach writers how to be resourceful, interactive, and critical thinkers. We tell writers that what they do in the Writing Center can and should be applied to any writing task, in class and at home.

A student in my Writing 100 class last semester showed the impact the Writing Center can have, beyond the grade on a given paper. This student had visited the Writing Center many times of her own volition, and she was a good writer—not exceptional, though certainly not weak. What made her stand out among the rest of the class was her performance during our in-class peer workshop sessions. Rather than offering bland advice about comma placement and word choice, she dove into the content of her peers’ papers and offered helpful and insightful feedback about content and organization. She asked probing questions and was able to elicit thoughtful responses; she and her peer workshop group consistently made great strides from their drafts to their formal essay submissions.

As someone who tutored for many years before teaching composition, I am especially aware of the potential synergy between the writing classroom and the Writing Center. I encourage my students to visit the Writing Center at various stages of the writing process, and I try to give my composition students a crash course in writing center pedagogy. This, I hope, lets students know why the act of giving and receiving feedback is valuable, especially in a writing class that emphasizes a process-based approach to writing. Though many

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<< Students who utilize the Writing Center find themselves involved in a far more engaging learning experience.

>>

students at first find it easy to fall back on the easier and safer tactic of proofreading each others’ papers for punctuation and spelling, it is clear that the students who do utilize the Writing Center find themselves involved in a far more engaging learning experience. W Meg Mikovits ’03 earned her M.A. in English from West Chester University in 2006. Next year, she will serve as director of the Moravian Writing Center.

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Brave New Words Sandra Novack-Gottshall ’98 forges life as a successful fiction writer.

By Kate Helm ‘05

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<< Through the power of words, worlds are destroyed, created, and re-envisioned.

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>>

andra Novack-Gottshall ’98 doesn’t want to write—she needs to. She compares her devotion to writing to that of a friend for her son who is going through the “terrible two” stage.

“Once something is yours, and you love it, and it’s in your bones and blood and heart and head, you can’t just give it up when things become rough,” she says. “I wouldn’t stop focusing on writing or fiction any more than she’d give up her son. It doesn’t work like that.”

Indeed, the fiction industry can be unpredictable. Random House published her first novel, Precious, last year. Despite the struggling economy and shake-ups at the publishing house, Precious was hailed as a top ten debut novel of the year. With a collection of short stories set to be published next year and work underway on a new novel, Resurrection Fern, Novack-Gottshall is quick to point out that accolades are not necessarily a reliable forecast of future success.

“I’m harder on myself than anyone else is or ever could be, and whatever successes I have never seem to be good enough,” she says. “Not everything in a writer’s life comes down to one book or even two, but rather the entirety of the career. Writers are built over lifetimes, not a single book or event. Again, you go back to basics after everything is said and done: you get up, you write.”

Although she writes predominantly in the morning, inspiration keeps her on-call, often striking in the middle of the night. She also gets new ideas from her reading; other writers are the best mentors, she says. A self-described recluse, she believes that tendency is an integral part of her life as a fiction writer. In order to breathe life into another world, she has to disengage from her own reality. “[Writing] takes time, physical time, during which you are away from other people and other things,” she explains. “With a short story, you might go a week or more before your mother calls and asks why she hasn’t heard from you. When writing a novel, you might go months ignoring friends, more or less, and cutting your social engagements down to practically nonexistent status. And then there is the psychological aspect of it: the deeper you are into a novel, the more ‘there’ rather than ‘here’ you are. Writers get called anti-social a lot, but really I think it’s necessary to the craft.”

The trade-off for those sacrifices comes in the cathartic release of thoughts and emotions the page provides. Novack-Gottshall

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Photo © Sandra Novack

dedicated Precious to her sister Carole, who left home when the writer was seven. At first, she thought she was writing to organize her fuzzy memories of her sister, but in the end realized the book was a chance to say goodbye. But the book was not directed at Carole; rather, it had a broader scope.

“Fundamentally, I write because I have something I want to say, something I’m trying to get at, some truth about what it means to live in this world and be human,” she says. “Then I always hope what I’ve said finds an audience. I think books are radical. They recreate the world and, in the process, they recreate us as well. Through the power of words, worlds are destroyed, created, re-envisioned; characters come to life, and they love and hate and learn things and live and die. It’s necessary to encounter and to try and understand all different types of people, situations, and lives.

Fiction is one of the best ways we can do that.”

As a psychology major at Moravian, Novack-Gottshall unknowingly began honing her insights into the human experience, which would serve as a springboard for the characters and worlds she creates. Robert Brill, associate professor of psychology, and Joseph Gerencher, emeritus professor of earth science, had a special impact on her undergraduate years.

“Dr. Brill was always a great guy, supportive, helpful. And Dr. Gerencher was so dedicated and took time with all his students, not just science majors,” she says. “I always appreciated that. He was probably my favorite teacher at Moravian, even though I couldn’t, and still can’t, calculate the elliptical orbit of planets to save my life.”

Although Novack-Gottshall took a winding path to becoming a writer, every choice she made always brought her back to the page.

“At some point, I thought, ‘I am a writer.’ It’s me, it’s what I do,” she says. “And once that’s in you—really in you—discouragement about the industry or a difficult writing day aren’t enough to sway you. I’ve made a choice to write; we’re defined by our choices. And when I commit to something, I focus on it.”

Precious will be released in paperback August 31. For more on Novack-Gottshall, visit her website at www.sandranovack.com or her blog at www.blahblahblahwriter.blogspot.com. W

Born in Bethlehem, Pa., Sandra Novack-Gottshall ’98 now lives and writes in Chicago. Her acclaimed novel, Precious, will be released in paperback Aug. 31.

Storied Alumni Many authors of published fiction honed their writing skills at Moravian College (or an earlier version of it); they include: Laura Benet (1884-1979), newspaper editor, poet, novelist;

sister of Stephen Vincent Benet and William Rose Benet

Nancy J. Jones ’77, fiction writer and women’s studies instructor Scott Morro ’95, children’s book author Scott Heydt ’02, author of novels for children This is only a partial list of our alumni authors. If you have a recently published book (fiction or non-fiction), please share the news with fellow alumni: write to vbingham@Moravian.edu.

Kate Helm ’05 is a freelance writer and admissions officer at Northampton Community College. She lives in Easton, Pa.

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alumninews

TO REACH THE ALUMNI HOUSE: 610 861-1366 OR WWW.MORAVIAN.EDU/ALUMNI

Photos BY john kish iv

New Initiatives Outlined by Board President Corvino

Brian Corvino '02 discusses goals and new initiatives with other alumni at the May meeting of the Alumni Board.

Alumni will play a vital role in the future of Moravian College, and your participation is needed. “As a community, we are currently experiencing a period in which transformational change surrounds us,” said Brian Corvino ’02, elected Alumni Board president in May. “Now, more than at any other time in our history, Moravian College needs your time, talents, and financial resources.”

Corvino outlined the Alumni Association’s mission, goals, and new initiatives in a letter posted on the Alumni Association pages of the College website at www.moravian.edu.

In the year ahead, the Association will build upon the alumni traditions supported over the past few years and will develop new initiatives identified through strategic planning. The new initiatives call for alumni

ALUMNIBOOKSHELF In Racing Odysseus, a College President Becomes a Freshman Again (University of California Press), former Moravian College president (1986-1997) Roger “Rusty” Martin shares the story of his six-month experience as a 61-year-old freshman at St. John’s College. Defying a 2000 diagnosis of terminal cancer, Martin took a 2004 sabbatical from Randolph-Macon College, where he was president, to enroll in St. John’s, the Great Books school in Maryland. Reading Homer and other classical authors, rowing on the college crew team, and living life as a freshman provided Martin with new insight regarding his personal journey and the value of the liberal arts in America today. Alumni of all eras will appreciate the book’s life lessons. Called “an extraordinary memoir” by the Times Literary Supplement.

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involvement in three key areas: 1) admissions (attracting the next generation of alumni); 2) career preparation (helping new alumni prepare for a meaningful career); and 3) development (ensuring that the College has the resources to continue to offer students access to the highest educational experience possible).

“I encourage you to please reach out to any member of the Alumni Relations Office or Alumni Board, as we all look forward to discussing with you how you can become engaged in ways that are meaningful to you and to our shared Moravian community,” said Corvino in his letter to alumni.

Other newly elected Alumni Executive Board members are Alyson L. Remsing ’03, secretary; Richard Subber ’69, ’95, treasurer; and Kelly McLean Rindock ’03, president elect. Read their bios and those of the entire Board on the Alumni Association pages of the College website, www. moravian.edu.

Snyder '80 Honored for Physics John Snyder ’80, senior lecturer in the School of Engineering at Cardiff University, Wales, has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his “contributions to synthesis and characterization of magnetic bulk and thin film materials.” According to IEEE, the grade of Fellow is “conferred upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.” The number of fellows selected each year is less than 1/10 of 1% of the Institute’s total membership. “I got my start in magnetic materials research through the Moravian College Honors Program and my advisor, professor Joseph Powlette ’60 of the Physics Department,” said Dr. Snyder.

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SAVE THE DATE!

for details or registration, CONTACT the ALUMNI house: 610 861-1366 OR WWW.MORAVIAN.EDU/ALUMNI.

August 29 Freshmen Houndfest

September 17 Omicron Gamma Omega Gus Rampone Memorial Golf Outing

Alumni Weekend

October 5

Where were you Alumni Weekend, May 21-22?

If you were one of the hundreds of alumni who returned to campus, you joined us at the Hotel Bethlehem for dining and dancing to the alumni jazz band and a champagne toast with classmates.

Saturday, we gathered in the HUB, had breakfast with old friends, then toured the new HILL. We took the party outdoors for a picnic lunch, then renewed wedding vows, before saying farewell after a reception at Payne Gallery. Can’t wait to see you at Homecoming, October 16!

Coffee & Connections Student Alumni Career Networking Event

Photos By john kish iv

October 9

Alumni, including Professor Joe Powlette'60 (top right), kicked off Alumni Weekend with dining and dancing at the Hotel Bethlehem. President and Dr. Kathy Thomforde led the way onto the dance floor (above).

L.V. Home Club Bus Trip to Gettysburg (Moravian Football vs. Gettysburg College)

October 15 Calvo Golf Outing Bethlehem Golf Club

October 16 Homecoming

Happenings...

Photo By john kish iv

Hound Hour New Jersey

Founder's Day

April 24 Graduates of the Women's College returned to Hurd Campus to share memories, songs, and a delightful lunch.

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April 23 In Morristown, N.J., young alumni met at Sona Thirteen for an evening of friendship and fun.

Hound Hour New York

July 8 Pat Murray Hanna '82, Kara Mergl '05, Ken Hanna ’81, Rusty Trump ’05, and Vincent Byrne ’02 partied at Lucy's Cantina Royale in New York, N.Y.

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greyhoundsports

for up-to-the-minute sports news: www.moravian.edu/athletics or 610 625-7865.

the top ten times in the 200-meter dash in Moravian history.

photo by mark Fleming

Greyhounds Set the Pace for Charitable Teamwork

FAMOUS

Every dog has its day. Amos the Greyhound mascot faced down thirty-one opponents in April to win the 2010 national title in SportsTalkNY’s Mascot Madness contest! Amos received more than 94 percent of the 8,000-plus votes in the final round to win the championship. Earlier in the online competition, Amos defeated Goldy the Gopher (University of Minnesota), Timeout (Fresno State University), Iggy (Loyola Marymount University), and Ozzie the Osprey (University of North Florida). Amos also received a total makeover, morphing from a pajama-clad fuzzy-wuzzy into a buff, high-performing hound. Look for the spiffedup Amos and a new student group—the “Dawg Pack” Performers—at games this fall.

Moravian Ranked in Top 50 for Directors’ Cup The Greyhound athletic teams’ successful spring season helped Moravian attain a 48th-place finish (314.25 points) in the 2009-10 NCAA Division III Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Final Standings. Moravian was the only Landmark Conference school to finish in the top 50, and it was the Greyhounds’ best finish in the cup’s fifteenyear history. To receive points, teams must compete in the NCAA National Championships (for individual sports) and the NCAA Tournament (for team sports). A total of 311 of the 420 NCAA Division III institutions earned points in this year’s standings.

Spring Spotlight Anna Heim ’10 won the 2010 NCAA Division III Indoor National Championship in the pole vault with an NCAA Division III all-time indoor record height of 4.16 meters (13 feet, 7¾ inches). In June, Eric Woodruff ’11 competed in the 200-meter dash at the 2010 United States Outdoor Track & Field Championships, after winning the NCAA Division III National Championship title on May 29 with a time of 21.04 seconds. In just three seasons, Woodruff has run nine of

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photo by Marty moyle

Amos is

The Greyhound softball team’s winning season helped Moravian finish in the Directors’ Cup top 50.

For Moravian athletes, fighting the good fight means more than finishing strong on the field, court, or track. When an important cause is involved—like battling breast cancer or leukemia—the Greyhounds always rise to the challenge.

In April, the Greyhound football team registered more than 450 new, potential donors for the Be the Match® bone marrow campaign—far more than schools with much larger student bodies. All day long, registrants lined up inside the Moravian field house to offer cell samples for the national bone marrow registry, which is used to find matches for patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases.

Earlier this year, the women’s basketball team, led by coach Mary Beth Spirk, helped strike a blow against breast cancer by raising the most funds of any Division III team in the nation on behalf of the Pink Zone® initiative. The Greyhounds rallied to support player Amy Heffner ’11, whose mother lost her life to cancer earlier in the season.

The team was honored at a national event held in April.

Greyhound football players led the April bone marrow drive, which registered 457 new donors.

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Look for Class Notes Online

transitions Marriages 2009 Jenna Famularo and Ryan Sokolowski, August 1, 2009.

2008 Andy Goodbred and Marcey Muffley ’10, May 29, 2010.

2007 Tim Guider and Jill Woodbury, June 5, 2010.

2005 Todd James and Charlsie Keefe, May 22, 2010.

2005 Joseph Holmes and Gena Gallo, December 19, 2009.

2003 Justin Arnold and Lori Christensen, July 24, 2009.

Births 2000 Christine Roye Henry, and Nathan, a son, Mathew Porter (“Porter”), April 7, 2010.

1997 Heather Whary Turner and Marion, a daughter, Baxter Peach Turner, March 11, 2010.

Deaths 1997 Ryan P. Sporka, March 22, 2010.

1983 Nancy Thomas-Roman, March 17, 2010.

1974 Barbara Davidson, February 21, 2010.

1972 Greg Tropea, April 23, 2010.

1968 Larry H. Haftle, May 8, 2010.

1963 Barbara A. Johnson Keller, April 25, 2010.

Kathleen C. Klammer Spear, April 24, 2010.

1960 Gene Salay, June 24, 2010.

1959 James Yasenchok, April 20, 2010.

1956 Robert Gray, June 12, 2010.

1951 Reverend Milton E. Detterline, April 6, 2010.

1949 George Svadeba, June 26, 2010.

Gloria K. Roth, June 24, 2010.

1943 Grace Shaner Schuchardt, March 19, 2010.

1942 Margaret Lutz Gray, March 11, 2010.

1941 Marian Carty Durkee, March 2, 2010.

1937 Mary Erhardt, April 21, 2010.

1926 Anna Feldman Toye, March 9, 2010.

Faculty & Friends

Eloise Bassett Miller, adjunct faculty member, April 15, 2010.

Otis H. Shao, former professor of

political science, April 16, 2010.

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For complete Class Notes, please go to www.moravian.edu/classnotes. Our online Class Notes are updated monthly, so information is current and space is unlimited. If you do not have access to a computer and would like to receive a printed version of your class’s notes, please call the Public Relations Office at 610 625-7880 to request a computer printout, which we will mail to you. If you have news or updates for Class Notes, please contact your class correspondent or the Alumni House. Thank you.

Faculty Retirement Dennis Glew, professor of classics and history, retired last spring after forty years as a Moravian College teacher, mentor, leader, and friend. Dr. Glew served for many years as chair of both the Honors committee and History Department.

From his earliest days at Moravian, he impressed colleagues and students with his intelligence, wit, and collegiality.

“Of all my professors at Moravian, Dr. Glew probably had the biggest influence on me, not only guiding me through my academics, but also shaping my future career decisions,” said Judy Stevenson ’06, a former Honors advisee, now archivist at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Del. “One of my most memorable moments was when the Classics Society put on a production of Minotaurus, an original play written in Latin by Moravian’s own Dr. Jim Tyler.

After much coercion, Dr. Glew agreed to play a small role that had a grand speech. I still can picture him in his toga as he delivered his lines in a manner befitting a Roman god!”

One of Glew’s first post-Moravian projects will be to complete a study of the coins of the eight kings of Bithynia. He also looks forward to traveling with his wife, Dorothy Glew, former information literacy and reference librarian, who also retired in spring.

State Rep. Robert Freeman ’78 presented Professor Dennis Glew (center) with a citation to honor his long service to the College and students. Heikki Lempa, chair of the History Department, and other faculty members were on hand for the occasion.

Have you heard?

Here are just a few of the latest updates from your classmates. Read more online at www.moravian.edu/classnotes. While you’re there, share your news.

2008 Yi Li is enrolled in graduate school (biochemistry) at Purdue University. She recently shared the following news: “We were at the Banff conference on plant metabolism and Nick proposed to me on Lake Louise! Also, I won the best poster award at the conference. What a conference!”

2006 Casey Jackson, working toward his Ph.D. at Wayne State University, recently published his first scientific paper. “Ironbinding and mobilization from ferritin by polypyridyl ligands,” co-authored by Jackson and Jeremy J. Kodanko, appeared in the journal Metallomics.

1975 Susan Bacci Adams reports that Gail Warren and her husband, King Au, have relocated to Gaithersburg, Md. If any classmates find themselves in the area, Gail would love to have you visit so that she can show you around D.C. 1969 Rick Subber is having a great time working on an oral history project for the College. He has interviewed about fifty alumni, retired faculty members, students, and others. If you would like to participate and talk with Rick about your experiences at Moravian, please e-mail him at the College at rsubber@moravian.edu, or call him at 610 865-5644.

1959 Neil Boyer and his wife, Johanna, rented a house in Venice, Italy, for two weeks this past December. Because they were there at the time of high water, they had to buy knee-high boots to wear outdoors. New Year’s Eve at the Piazza San Marco wasn’t very romantic in 18 inches of water—but, it was fun. Johanna, who is switching careers, is studying for a Master’s degree in social work at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

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orbispictus

translation

Alexis Vergalla ’06

Some people say dand-e-lion, others dan-da-lion. It’s a subtle difference, like the way two people will angle their bodies towards each other or not. The conversation the same—it was a busy day at work.

I am hungry. The weather is clearing, they say it will be warm soon.—I notice hands and forearms. Other people like knees. And sometimes I speak entirely with my fingertips.

I am uncomfortable. Tap. Tap. please.

A flat open gesture. My tongue says the warmth will be nice, and I can never remember the difference between cumulous and nimbus either. listen. I don’t care. just come closer.

Artwork and poem by Alexis Vergalla ’06. Vergalla received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside, in 2008. Her first chapbook, Letters Through Glass (Finishing Line Press) was published in 2009; her new chapbook, Experiments in Light and Ether (Dancing Girl Press) will be published this summer. Vergalla’s work has appeared in Diode, elimae, and other journals. She lives in Seattle and is on the staff of Poetry Northwest; visit her blog at www.alexisv.wordpress.com.

Orbis Pictus (The World Illustrated), written by Moravian bishop and educator John Amos Comenius and published in 1658, was the first illustrated book specifically for children. (This Orbis Pictus image, from“The Master and the Boy,” is courtesy of Reeves Library.) On this page we celebrate the ways that members of the Moravian College community illuminate our world.

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SUMMER 2010

Our greatest need The Moravian Scholarship Fund

Moravian College has a long tradition of helping students and their families. In recognition of this commitment, we’ve renamed the Moravian Fund to reflect our priority. All dollars raised for the Moravian Scholarship Fund will go to unrestricted financial aid to academically qualified students.

A Commitment to Aid • • •

During the 2009-10 school year, the College provided students with $8,590,843 in need-based aid and $10,328,789 in merit-based aid.

The College provides an average aid package of $12,455 per student (this is aid from Moravian only—not loans, outside grants, or scholarships).

Over 90% of Moravian students received aid from the College in 2009-10.

Give to the Moravian Scholarship Fund today.

It’s easy on our secure web site www.moravian.edu— just click on “Giving to Moravian.”

Or call 800 429-9437 to give by credit card.

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

1200 Main Street Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018

PAID

Bethlehem, Pa. Permit No. 301

Postcard from…

Cusco, Peru Tara Latteman ’11 and Jennifer Mead ’11 made new friends with local women and their llamas during a May trip to southeastern Peru, where the students participated in Moravian’s SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Research) program. Working with John Bevington, professor of biology, Latteman and Mead researched Cecropia tree species in the Andes.

“Besides being educational, the experience broadened our view of the world and exposed us to a different and exciting culture,” wrote Mead.