Wilson College Magazine Winter 2015

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THE BIG

STINK

How Tracy Leskey ’90 became the ”stink bug czar”

Orr Forum Turns 50 | Rhona Applebaum ’76, STEM Leader and Mentor No More Comes to Campus | We Are Ayotzinapa | Raising Art's Profile volume 87 | WINTER 2015 | number 4

YOUR WILSON FUND GIFT

MATTERS Students returning to campus for the spring semester were welcomed by campus improvements that make a difference in their Wilson experience. New flooring and updates to food service in Jensen Dining Hall, improvements to the Gannett Memorial Field House and new equipment in the Eden Hall Fitness Center all have an impact on the lives of Wilson students. And that impact is made possible by your contributions to the Wilson Fund.

Make a difference in the lives of our students today.

Give to the Wilson Fund. www.wilson.edu/makeagift Contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at 717-262-2010 or advancement@wilson.edu

volume 87 | WINTER 2015 | number 4

FEATURES

22

10 A Bug's Life

By Cathy Mentzer Meet the stink bug czar. Go behind the scenes with Tracy Leskey ’90 and find out how she became the nation’s leading expert on those pesky stink bugs.

16 Orr Forum at 50

By Amy Ensley From its early roots in the Week of Prayer to today’s interdisciplinary lecture series, the Orr Forum has provoked discussions and tackled difficult issues.

22 Coke's Leading Woman

By Coleen Dee Berry Rhona Applebaum ’76 speaks about the importance of STEM mentoring and her impressive list of firsts.

AROUND THE GREEN 26 No More Silence Wilson student Nicole Melanson brings a national campaign against sexual violence to Wilson.

28 Raising Art's Profile Professor Philip Lindsey inspires his arts students to find their voice, and his College to bond with the community.

30 An Offer He Didn't Refuse How David DeBevoise ’74 ended up as Wilson’s first male undergraduate resident student.

32 Phoenix Basketball Firsts Women’s and men’s basketball teams score first victories; an update on the field house renovations.

ALUMNAE/I 36 Alumnae Association President’s message; Reunion raffle.

38 Class Notes

10

57 In Memoriam

DEPARTMENTS

16

02 Letter from the Editor

34 Viewpoint

03 Wilson News The Pennsylvania Department of Education approves charter changes; noted environmental artist Patrick Dougherty comes to Wilson; President Mistick visits China; the Rev. Rosie Magee leaves Wilson; and an update on the library renovation project.

By Christina Gonzalez ’16 Why we should care about 43 missing Mexican students.

08 Alumnae/i News The memories of a 105-year-old Wilson grad; a new book of poetry by President Emerita Gwen Jensen.

35 Hidden History

By Leigh Rupinski Wilson’s collection of souvenir spoons chronicles a fad of the past.

61 Last Word Mark Blackmon, director of communications, ponders the state of discourse in society and unbridled joy.

STAFF

WILSON MAGAZINE COMMITTEE Coleen Dee Berry, Managing Editor Mark Blackmon, Director of Communications Samantha Burmeister, Director of Athletics Communication/Sports Information Mary Cramer ’91, Alumnae Association President Amy Ensley, Director of the Hankey Center Marybeth Famulare, Director of Alumnae/i Relations Lisbeth Sheppard Luka ’69, Alumnae Association Cathy Mentzer, Manager of Media Relations and College Editor Camilla Rawleigh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Brian Speer, Vice President for Marketing and Communications Kendra Tidd, Graphic Designer Courtney D. Wolfe ’12, Class Notes Coordinator Judy Kreutz Young ’63, Alumnae Association Wilson Magazine is published quarterly by the Office of Marketing and Communications and the Alumnae Association of Wilson College.

Send address changes to: Wilson College Alumnae/i Relations, 1015 Philadelphia Ave., Chambersburg, Pa. 17201-1279, 717-262-2010 or mag@wilson.edu.

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

— letter from the —

editor T

here are times I fear storytelling is becoming a lost art.

In this age of 140-character tweets, text messages full of cyber slang and 30-second sound bites, does anyone have the attention span for a good story, well told? Too often I see the same complaints in reviews: The movie is too long (more than two hours— OMG!) The novel was great, but the reader has to “plow through” more than 300 pages to get to the resolution.

PHOTO BY JAMES BUTTS

Brian Speer Executive Editor Coleen Dee Berry Managing Editor Kendra Tidd Design Cathy Mentzer College Editor Courtney D. Wolfe ’12 Class Notes Coordinator Contributing Writers Coleen Dee Berry, Mark Blackmon, Samantha Burmeister, Patricia Clough '95, Amy Ensley, Christina Gonzalez '16, Cathy Mentzer, Leigh Rupinski Contributing Photographers James Butts, Flip Chalfont, Peggy Clark, Kevin Gilbert, Matthew Lester, Cathy Mentzer, Bob Stoler, Kendra Tidd Cover Photo by: Kevin Gilbert

Well, consider me a dinosaur. If the story captures my attention and imagination, I have time for epic. Hasn’t everyone read at least one book that they didn’t want to end?

The same short attention span afflicts the print industry. In a world obsessed with news briefs and fancy charts, too often not only are context and nuance lost, but too many questions are left unanswered at the end of the story.

In my short time here, I am already impressed by the number of amazing Wilson College stories waiting to be told. I can promise that we will continue to tell these stories as completely as possible. Magazines are meant to be savored, perused at length—I hope you can take the time to do so.

In this issue you will find stories on alumnae/i leaders, committed students and dedicated faculty. Among the wonderful Wilson stories in this issue are our cover story on Tracy Leskey ’90, one of the nation’s leading experts on stink bugs; a profile of Rhona Applebaum ’76, a vice president at Coca-Cola and a prominent woman in science leadership; one student’s efforts to bring a national campaign to raise awareness of sexual violence to the Wilson campus; and many more.

Information from the Alumnae Association on the upcoming June 2015 Reunion, along with the reunion brochure and registration form, is included in this issue. Don’t pass by the delightful reminiscences of 105-year-old Miriam Klopp Tiller ’30 in the Alumnae/i News section, now toward the front of the magazine.

And don’t miss the Viewpoint from Christina Gonzalez ’16 about the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico and the involvement of Wilson students in an international effort to raise awareness of the issue.

Read on—and please, take the time to enjoy!

Coleen Dee Berry Managing Editor

CONTACT US: Wilson Magazine mag@wilson.edu 717-262-2607 www.wilson.edu/magazine Alumnae Association aawc@wilson.edu 717-262-2010 www.wilson.edu/aawc Office of Alumnae/i Relations alumnae@wilson.edu 717-262-2010 www.wilson.edu/alumnae

FPO

Correction: In the fall issue of Wilson Magazine, M. Dana Harriger’s title was incorrect in an article about Wilson’s research partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His title is professor of biology.

PHOTO BY FLIP CHALFONT

WILSON NEWS

PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

APPROVES WILSON COLLEGE CHARTER

A

challenge to the Wilson College charter by a group of alumnae has been resolved in favor of the College. In a Jan. 6 report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) approving amendments to the College’s charter, the department affirmed that the Board of Trustees’ January 2013 decision to expand coeducation was within the Board’s scope of authority. “ … Wilson's decision to allow the admission of male residential students is a decision within the purview of its Board of Trustees,” the report signed by Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said. “Amending its Articles to operate as a coeducational, residential college is not a basis for PDE to deny the proposed amendments.”

The charter amendments, which were submitted to PDE for approval in May 2013, contained updated language to clearly reflect the College’s shift to coeducation in the undergraduate residential program, along with additional administrative updates.

The long-awaited PDE decision—which cannot be challenged, according to the report—followed a June 2014 informational hearing that was automatically triggered by objections made after the charter text was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Four alumnae were named “limited participants” and testified at the hearing, along with Wilson officials. The alumnae argued that the College acted improperly by moving forward with coeducation before receiving PDE approval.

While acknowledging that Wilson filed its application with PDE well in advance of admitting male students, the report states that the College should have received the department’s approval before moving forward with coeducation. However, it was not a reason to deny the charter application or impose other restrictions, according to the report.

After receiving the PDE decision, the College filed its charter with the Pennsylvania Department of State, ending the process.

“We are happy to have the department’s affirming decision and to continue the successful work of the Wilson Today Plan,” said Barbara Tenney, board chair.

In January 2013, the Wilson College Board of Trustees approved the five-point Wilson Today plan aimed at ensuring a sustainable financial future for the College. In addition to extending coeducation to all programs, the plan also included value and affordability initiatives, new academic programs, infrastructure improvements and increased marketing efforts.

The plan, which was in place during the 2013-14 recruitment year, has already begun to show progress. Applications more than doubled that year from 2012-13, including a 43 percent increase in female applicants. Last fall, Wilson welcomed its largest class of new students in more than 40 years.

The increase in applications and student enrollment also represents a positive response to the College’s $5,000 tuition rollback and a first-of-its-kind student debt buyback program, as well as capital improvements such as renovations to McElwain and Davison halls, the new student center and the John Stewart Memorial Library project.

“The PDE’s decision marks another positive milestone on the road to a sustainable future for Wilson,” President Barbara K. Mistick said. “Our success to this point really is a result of the entire campus community working together, as well as the support of our alumnae. This decision continues our momentum and commitment to the Wilson Today plan.” —Cathy Mentzer

winter 2015 03

WILSON NEWS

LIBRARY PROGRESS The new John Stewart Memorial Library learning commons is beginning to take shape. The foundation is in place and workers are pouring concrete supports for the second level of the building. Work is also progressing on the original building, including exterior masonry repairs and some interior electrical and heating system work. By mid-January, a total of 666 donors had contributed nearly $10.5 million toward the $12 million project. —CM

WILSON PRESIDENT VISITS CHINA TO PROMOTE

PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS President Barbara K. Mistick traveled to China last fall to promote Wilson College as part of a delegation from FriendlyPA, an economic development initiative aimed at building partnerships and promoting exchange activities between Pennsylvania and Chinese educational institutions.

During the two-week trip, which included visits to the cities of Chengdu and Beijing, a FriendlyPA team representing 18 private and public Pennsylvania colleges attended college fairs and met with Chinese universities. Wilson was one of four institutions whose representatives made the trip, which began in late October.

“The FriendlyPA initiative aims to help brand Pennsylvania as a destination for quality education in the U.S.,” Mistick said. “The trip was a great success, from my perspective, and it was wonderful to be able to represent Wilson and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—and all of the educational resources Pennsylvania has to offer the people of China.”

The FriendlyPA delegation was well-received at events such as the China Education Expo—China’s largest annual educational event—where the group manned an information booth and spoke to students interested in coming to the U.S. and their parents.

04 wilson magazine

“Because of our consortium approach, Chinese students and parents could speak with representatives from a variety of institutions,” said Mistick. “That seemed to make our booth more appealing than the booths for single institutions.”

In addition, FriendlyPA’s Chinese-speaking representatives helped smooth communication with parents and students, which had a significant impact, according to Mistick.

In Beijing, the FriendlyPA team talked with more than 300 parents and students over two days, while in Chengdu, more than 80 students and parents visited with the FriendlyPA delegation, according to FriendlyPA Manager of Greater China Initiatives Lingling Zhu. While in China, Mistick and other FriendlyPA team members visited the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu to discuss possible exchange programs with schools in Pennsylvania.

FriendlyPA is a program of a Pittsburgh-based, nonprofit economic development organization called the Idea Foundry. More information about FriendlyPA can be found at www.friendlypa.com. —CM

The Rev. Rosie Magee, Helen Carnell Eden Chaplain since July 2009, left the College in February to accept a position with the Iona Community in Scotland, a dispersed Christian ecumenical community working for peace and social justice, rebuilding community and the renewal of worship (www. iona.org.uk).

Magee will serve as as director of the organization’s Island Centres on the tiny Hebridean island of Iona. She said she will provide strategic leadership and management for IC’s two residential centers and ensure that services in the Abbey Church reflect the community’s values and vision.

As Wilson’s chaplain, Magee helped nurture the College’s Presbyterian roots, providing a moral compass for the institution. She served as a board member with the Presbyterian College Chaplains Association and was on a Wilson committee charged with updating the College’s synod agreement.

Magee conducted weekly worship services, oversaw the Curran Scholars program, led student volunteer activities on Alternative Spring Break, advised the college Habitat for Humanity chapter, inspired Wilson’s involvement with a local food bank initiative called ProjectSHARE, and hosted thought-provoking speakers. She presided over the annual Blessing of the Animals service.

that culminated in the construction of a large, temporary labyrinth on the campus green and a variety of community activities on World Labyrinth Day on May 4, 2013.

The Rev. Rosie Magee at Wilson's

Blessing of the Animals service.

In her time as chaplain, Magee became something of a Wilson institution. From her recognizable Northern Irish brogue ringing out at weekly worship services and campus gatherings to her dedication to students and her work to strengthen ties with local churches and the Presbytery of Carlisle, Magee placed her own distinctive stamp on the College.

PHOTO BY JAMES BUTTS

CHAPLAIN ROSIE MAGEE LEAVES WILSON

The Office of Student Development hopes to have a new chaplain in place by August. In the interim, Wilson will partner with local pastors to fill the duties of the position while the search is conducted. —CM

One of Magee’s most visible achievements was the Labyrinth Project, which involved a semester-long celebration

Wilson welcomed two first-year students as Marguerite Brooks Lenfest Scholars for 2014-15. Tianna Weist of Chesterland, Ohio, and Amanda Haase of Culpeper, Va., were selected for the honor from among a pool of entering students with the highest cumulative grade-point averages and demonstrated leadership initiatives.

Weist, who plans to major in equine-facilitated therapeutics, graduated from West Geauga High School with a GPA of 3.959. She hopes to eventually combine her love of music with her interest in therapeutic riding to change the lives of children with disabilities.

“I have such a passion for horses and music that I would like to try to combine music therapy and horse therapy together somewhere in the future to see how it affects the

learning process and emotional well-being for those with disabilities,” said Weist.

Haase, who intends to major in biology, graduWeist ated from Eastern View High School with a GPA of 3.875. After earning her bachelor’s degree, Haase wants to attend veterinary school. “I’m looking at becoming an equine vet,” said Haase, who is a member of Wilson’s field hockey and softball teams.

Because their high school grade-point averages were 3.75 or above, both students have been awarded a four-year Presidential Merit Scholarship from Wilson College.

As Lenfest Scholars, students are granted automatic acceptance into the Wilson College Scholars Program and receive special academic and leadership mentoring.

In addition, students occasionally are invited to meet and speak with donors, trustees and other Haase dignitaries about their Wilson experiences.

The Lenfest Scholars program recognizes the generosity of Marguerite Lenfest, a 1955 Wilson graduate, and her husband, Gerry, who have contributed to many college initiatives, including the Harry R. Brooks Complex for Science, Mathematics and Technology. —CM

winter 2015 05

PHOTOS BY CATHY MENTZER

CLASS OF 2018 LENFEST SCHOLARS PURSUE ANIMAL-RELATED CAREERS

STICKWORK COMES TO WILSON location that has not yet been determined.

The pieces are intentionally designed to be as inviting and as interactive as possible.

Dougherty said that the finished sculpture should draw people into the campus.

Funding for the sculpture will come from a variety of sources, including private donations, the Given Fund and possible foundation support.

Dougherty, who is the subject of the feature-length 2013 documentary Bending Sticks, spent three days at Wilson in early December, scouting locations for one of his sculptures.

During his time at the College, he toured campus for potential installation sites, met with a variety of community members and identified harvest areas for the materials that he will need when he returns in Hedging Your Bets (2009), Mulvane Art Museum of Washburn October to create a unique University, Topeka, Kansas. sculpture.

“I’m excited,” Dougherty told a group of Garden and a number of colleges, including faculty and staff over lunch in the Jensen Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Middlebury.

Dining Hall at the conclusion of the visit.

Dougherty will be in residence at Wilson “We can do something fun here!” for three weeks, when he and his team— Dougherty began studying primitive including local volunteers and Wilson building techniques in the early 1980s, students—will create a piece at a campus

PHOTO BY PEGGY CLARK

Internationally acclaimed environmental artist Patrick Dougherty will create a oneof-a-kind sculpture on the Wilson College campus in October, putting the College in prestigious company. Recent installations of his wildly inventive sculptures made from tree saplings and other natural materials include the Arte Selia Sculpture Park in Valsugana, Italy; Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France; Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Botanic

J-TERM IN BELIZE Led by Fulton Center for Sustainable Living Director Christine Mayer ’07, Wilson students traveled to Belize to study the ecology and biodiversity of the country’s ecosystems as part of the 2015 January-Term study-abroad course, Tropical Ecology of Belize (BIO 270). On a visit to the Belize Zoo, the group stopped to inspect a living archway built by members of a Wilson BIO 270 course in 2013 as a service project.

Front Row: (kneeling) Students Siri Skowronek ’15, Maegan Majka ’16, (standing) Danniele Fulmer ’16, Jordan Massey ’15, Kisha Pradhan ’15 and Kelly Myers ’15. Back Row: Instructors Jeannine Lessman of Eckerd College, Mayer, and students Carol Smith, Sonja Hess ’15, Krista Dewald ’15, Christianna Bredbenner ’15 and Jessica Meck ’15.

06 wilson magazine

including his first experimentations using tree saplings as construction material. His work quickly evolved from small pieces on conventional pedestals to monumental scale, site-specific environmental works.

Using only green saplings of various sizes and weaving them together, Dougherty creates astonishing pieces that are designed to be reclaimed organically several years after they are constructed.

Impermanence is a major theme of his art. “I think that part of my work’s allure is its impermanence, the life cycle that is built into the growth and decay of saplings,” Dougherty notes on the Bending Sticks website. “My focus has always been the process of building a work and allowing those who pass to enjoy the daily changes or drama of building a sculpture as well as the final product.

“However, the line between trash and treasure is thin, and the sculptures, like the sticks they are made from, begin to fade after two years. Often the public imagines that a work of art should be made to last, but I believe that a sculpture, like a good flower bed, has its season.”

For more information and to see more examples of his work, visit Dougherty’s website, www.stickwork.net. —Mark Blackmon

WILSON NEWS NEWS

IN BRIEF

STABLER FOUNDATION GRANTS $520,000 FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

HOW MUCH DOES THE GARDEN GROW?

FROM THE FARM TO THE CAFETERIA More than one and a half tons of produce from the Fulton Farm were used in the Wilson dining hall this semester.

In total, 3,520 pounds—more than the weight of a small John Deere utility tractor—of certified organic produce were harvested, delivered and prepared for consumption in the dining hall or at special events during the fall semester.

In December, The Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation approved a $520,000 grant to fund scholarships for Wilson College students. Since 2009, the foundation has provided more than $2.9 million for scholarships based on students’ financial need, academic achievement and service to the community. Approximately 55 Wilson students currently receive scholarships through The Stabler Scholarship Endowment. The Harrisburg, Pa.-based foundation has provided funding for a number of programs at Wilson since 1985, including Wilson’s Women with Children program and the Curran Scholars program.

WILSON TO CONDUCT CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY Wilson will conduct an internal campus climate survey this spring in response to an April 2014 White House report, Not Alone: The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which outlines the need for colleges to address sexual violence on their campuses.

The primary goal of a campus climate survey is to examine behaviors, perception and attitudes surrounding sexual violence and campus safety. All Wilson students will be surveyed. The Office of Student Development is working with Assistant Professor of Psychology Steven Schmidt to conduct the survey, which will be done annually for five years and then every three years thereafter.

From A to Z, here’s what came fresh from Fulton Farm to the Wilson cafeteria: Arugula Beets

Herbs (parsley, cilantro, dill)

Broccoli

Kale Leeks

Cabbage (regular and Chinese)

Lettuce Onions

Carrots

Potatoes

Cauliflower

Peppers

Celery

Squash (butternut, spaghetti, summer)

Bok choy and tatsoi

Collard greens Cucumbers Eggplant Garlic Green beans

Sweet Potatoes Tomatoes (cherry, heirloom, red) Zucchini

winter 2015 07

ALUMNAE/I NEWS WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT MIRIAM? Excerpt from the reminiscences of Miriam Klopp Tiller ’30

I

come from a Pennsylvania Dutch family. My mother and father both spoke fluent Pennsylvania Dutch. My father was a country grocer from Shillington. I grew up with three older brothers who let me tag along and do all the things they did. I climbed trees, jumped with an open umbrella from a barn loft and loved all kinds of sports. However, my mother and father started to worry about me becoming more of a tomboy than a lady.

My father called his brother, who had just graduated from Dartmouth, and asked him to come over to discuss “an important family situation.” I’m sure my uncle wondered what that situation was when he came over and he laughed when my father said, “Something must be done about Miriam.” My uncle said that before Dartmouth, he had attended Mercersburg Prep School and that there was a wellrespected women’s college, Wilson College, nearby. He thought it would be just the place for me.

My father thought this was a great idea. So I went straight to Wilson College after high school. When I got there, I found I loved it. The campus was beautiful, the girls were exceedingly nice and I settled in for four years…

I dated occasionally and remember one time in particular. Someone from Dickinson Law School asked me to the “Corpus Juris” dance.

Because it was pretty far away, I had to go there and stay in the home of a widow lady.

To do this, I had to get lots of permissions—first from my parents, who were just happy I had a date, and second from Dean Lillian M. Rosenkrans. The dean was a very prim and proper lady and we were all afraid of her. She had red hair pulled into a bun on the top of her head and wore pince-nez glasses tied to her waist with a ribbon. When she would get excited, the glasses would bounce off her nose and into her lap. She always wore black, long-sleeved, high-necked dresses and she was very stern. I was trembling when I went to see her.

Fortunately, the dean knew the widow lady with whom I would be staying. She asked a lot of questions and finally asked, “And how will you get from the dance back to the house where you are staying?” I answered, “My date has a car and will drive me.” She put both hands flat on her desk and arose with a shocked look on her face. “All alone in a car with a man for three miles?”

She did eventually let me go, though, and I remember my parents sent me a beautiful dress—white bodice, spaghetti straps and a black full skirt with a white border and a big sash. I had a marvelous time! …All of my memories of Wilson are happy ones. My years at Wilson College prepared me for my career, but more importantly, for my life.

I guess, after all, that it was a great answer to the “What shall we do about Miriam?” question, for I definitely learned manners, though I’m not sure that I ever became a true “lady.”

To read all of Miriam Klopp Tiller’s reminiscences of her days at Wilson, go to www.wilson.edu/105

Many thanks to Frances T. Pilch for sending her mother’s memories to Wilson Magazine!

08 wilson magazine

Miriam Klopp Tiller ’30 (right) celebrated her 95th birthday in 2004 with a hot-air balloon ride near her summer home in Maine.

AN ADVENTUROUS 105 YEARS! After graduating from Wilson in 1930, Miriam Klopp Tiller returned to Shillington, Pa., where she taught German at the local high school. She went on to pursue a master’s degree in German at Middlebury College, where she also met and married her husband, Fritz Tiller, in 1939.

She spent 26 years at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, N.Y., where her husband taught German.

During that time she received a master’s degree in library science from the State University of New York at Albany in 1958 and served as school librarian at the USMA post. When her husband retired in the late 1970s, they moved to Piscataway, N.J., where she served as an elementary school librarian before retiring in 1993.

Tiller has always been an avid traveler. Her journeys have taken her to China, Tibet, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), among other places. In 2004, at the age of 94, she traveled to Antarctica with her daughter, Susan, and then celebrated her 95th birthday in a similar adventurous style with a hot-air balloon ride near her summer home in Maine. Tiller still lives in Piscataway. An avid reader all her life, she has now discovered audio books.

PRESIDENT EMERITA GWEN JENSEN

UNVEILS SECOND POETRY BOOK F

riends, colleagues and Wilson College alumnae celebrated the publication of President Emerita Gwendolyn Jensen’s second volume of poetry, As if toward Beauty (Birch Brook Press, 2015), at a special reading in November.

Hosted by Mary Maples Dunn, president emeritus of Smith College, and her husband Richard, the wellattended reception and reading took place in the Schlesinger Library at the History of Women at Radcliffe Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

Jensen resides in Cambridge.

“As if toward Beauty” is the last line of the last poem in Jensen’s first book, Birthright (Birch Brook Press, 2011). Like her debut work, As if toward Beauty includes striking poems with universal themes of love and loss, mixed with astute observations. An example of the latter, “I Sing of a Bus,” about the Number 1 bus that runs between Dudley and Harvard Squares, delighted local audience members.

Jensen, who was Wilson’s president from 1991 to 2001, began writing poetry after her retirement from the College. “Night Riders,” an arresting poem from As if toward Beauty, was inspired by an evening walk on Wilson’s campus. In it, sleeping horses inspire the narrator to wonder, “What would it be to ride, to nuzzle flat against a smooth warm neck?”

The volume also includes three poems by German Romantic poet Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806). Jensen, whose doctorate is in German history, translated these from German in collaboration with Monika Totten, a retired scholar of German literature.

Additional Wilson alumnae attending the reading included Samantha Ainuddin ’94 and Nicole Noll ’03, who live in the Philadelphia and Cambridge, Mass. areas, respectively.

Jensen’s son, Donald Jensen, traveled from Seattle, to celebrate the occasion.

As if toward Beauty features original artwork From left, Nicole Noll ’03, Samantha Ainuddin ’94,

by Jensen’s sister, President Emeritus Gwendolyn Jensen and Patricia Helen Febbo, Clough '95. and is available in a hardcover limited-edition at www.birchbrookpress.info and in paperback on Amazon.

Jensen has held several readings in the Boston area and hopes to do one at Wilson. She welcomes invitations from Wilson College clubs to do readings. You may contact her at gjensen287@comcast.net.

—Patricia Clough ’95

WILSON READS Welcome to Wilson Reads, an online book club for the Wilson College community!

Each month members will read a selected book and discuss it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/wilsonreads with an opportunity to join a group chat. We will offer a variety of books based on recommendations from the group.

UPCOMING READS: February: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty Led by Sharon “Shay” Jaymes Falk ’93 March: Evergreen: Dragomir and Ariana by Maria Green ’98 Led by Maria Green.

April: I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar Led by Judy Kreutz Young ’63

winter 2015 09

A Bug’s Life A chance encounter with a little bug became a big deal for entomologist Tracy Leskey ’90

By Cathy Mentzer

T

racy Leskey’s association with stink bugs seems destined. In 2003, she documented the first brown marmorated stink bug

in Maryland. The entomologist was returning to West Virginia from a meeting in Hartford, Conn., and stopped in Hagerstown for gas. “I saw this stink bug sitting on the gas pump,” said Leskey ’90. She collected the insect in a Q-tip container, took it to her lab, photographed it and sent pictures to the Smithsonian Institution for confirmation. It was just the second, official stink bug sighting in the U.S. A research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2000, Leskey is a leading international authority on the brown marmorated stink bug. She leads a team of about a dozen researchers at the USDA’s Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va., as they try to find a solution to the stink bug problem.

winter 2015 11

PHOTO BY KEVIN GILBERT

The agricultural stakes are high. Since stink bugs—Asian pests that ruin fruit by piercing the skin and sucking moisture from the flesh—first arrived in the eastern United States in the late 1990s, they have spread to 41 states, producing an incredible amount of destruction.

In 2010, apple growers in the mid-Atlantic suffered an estimated $37 million in losses due to stink bug damage, according to the U.S. Apple Association. More than $20 billion in U.S. crops overall are threatened, National Geographic recently reported.

“Stink bugs live a mere nine months, but in that time they can devastate crops like apples and peaches—even corn,” said Leskey, a Wilson trustee since 2009.

never seen anything on this scale. My support scientist at the time and I came back to my office and I said, ‘OK, everything changes this day. We are changing our focus.’”

She put all other projects on hold, devoting virtually all available resources to the stink bug. “It’s not often that there’s an agricultural crisis on your doorstep,” Leskey said. “We just had to move and move quickly. That was 2010. Before that I said I was going to devote 10 percent of my time to the stink bug.”

Leskey’s instinct to drop everything and focus on stink bugs was on target, according to Michael Glenn, research leader and director at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station. “No one else was doing anything so she stepped up,” Glenn said.

Spreading the Word

PHOTO BY CATHY MENTZER

As a result of her research and the insect’s spread, Leskey has become something of a media darling when it comes to all things related to the brown marmorated stink bug. She’s been interviewed by such venerable print media outlets as the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Then there are the radio and television programs, including the BBC and national public broadcasting stalwarts like “All Things Considered” and “The Diane Rehm Show.”

Google Leskey’s name and you will get 10,900 hits and counting—many of them related to news articles in which she’s been quoted or mentioned.

In addition to the damage they cause to crops, stink bugs—so named because of the unpleasant odor they emit (which Leskey describes as “cilantro on crack”)—are a nuisance to homeowners, flocking to warm, dry spaces such as attics in autumn to hunker down for winter.

The tale of Leskey’s quest for a solution to the stink bug threat reads like an ecological thriller. When the bugs began devouring local fruit crops in 2010, some of the growers she worked with were losing so much of their crop, they were on the verge of going out of business.

The extent of the crisis was unprecedented.

“I completely changed the focus of my research program based on a single day in a single orchard, where we had walked in and I was talking to the grower and he was looking at the stink bug damage,” Leskey recalled. “We were looking at his peach trees … and basically every peach on every tree on his farm had this damage. I’d just

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“As far as I’m concerned, if I’m writing on that subject, she is the person that I want to talk to, period,” said Washington Post reporter Darryl Fears, who has interviewed Leskey at least four times. “She’s accessible and she is open with information. She’s always accurate. Also, everybody else refers you to Tracy. You’re talking to someone at the National Wildlife Federation and they’ll say, ‘You know what, I can talk to you about this but who you really need to talk to is Tracy Leskey.’”

For reporters, Leskey is the ideal combination of expert knowledge and accessibility, with a knack for making science understandable for the layman. “When you’re not a scientist, she explains it in a way that you get it,” said Cecelia Mason, a former West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter who now works in the Shepherd University communications department. And Leskey understands the immediacy of news media requests. “She calls back and it’s the same day. Even I don’t do that,” said Fears.

“And I know I’m not the only one calling.”

Leskey sees the interviews as an important part of her job, and after some early stage fright, she has actually come to enjoy it. “I can remember my first big interview.

I

t's not often that there's an agricultural crisis on your doorstep. We just had to move and move quickly.”

—Tracy Leskey ’90 I was petrified,” she said, recalling the live interview on NPR’s “Science Friday.” “But then it just sort of evolved.

It’s kind of fun. I have to think quickly and I enjoy that.”

Leskey maintains a sense of humor about the inevitable stink bug jokes or puns that reporters and headline writers seem to find irresistible. The Wall Street Journal once dubbed her the “stink bug czar.” A USA Today article headline read: ‘For gardeners, stink bugs are nothing to sniff at.’ Does she ever wish the insect with which her name has become virtually synonymous was called something a bit more dignified? “It doesn’t matter to me,” she said, grinning. “I own my geekiness.”

pound. When the stink bug arrives, a pesticide kills them on the spot.

“It’s a mechanism in which we can literally lead them around and make them go where we want them to go,” said Leskey.

The primary goal of the “attract and kill” research is to control stink bugs while using the least amount of broad-spectrum insecticide as possible because that would kill all insects, including beneficial ones. “When we are developing strategies like that, we’re allowing the natural insects to flourish because we’re not treating as much of the acreage with insecticides because of this bug,” Leskey said.

On the lawn outside the Appalachian Fruit Research Station, an otherworldly array of black, three-foot-high pyramids mimics tree trunks to stink bugs as they approach.

Using an olfactory stimulus, researchers attract the bugs, which climb up and are funneled into the pyramids, where a killing agent lowers the boom.

“We’re now using this as a detection and monitoring tool in grower orchards across the country” Leskey said. “A grower can look at this trap and determine if there are enough bugs to warrant spraying an insecticide.”

Although the pyramids are low-tech, some of Leskey’s research is the stuff of science fiction. A National Geo-

Searching for a Solution Leskey’s relentless pursuit of a solution to stink bugs includes, to use her term, annihilating as many of them as possible—strong words for a kind-hearted animal lover who feeds stray cats in her tree-lined Victorian neighborhood in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Leskey and her team study stink bug behavior, using what they learn to develop strategies for dealing with the insects. Although a eureka moment has eluded them, they have developed several methods that are helping manage stink bug populations. Currently, they are experimenting with “attract and kill”—a method that shows promise. Essentially, the bugs are lured to designated areas in an orchard with a pheromone and another com-

PHOTO BY KEVIN GILBERT

“I’ve had growers that were literally on the verge of going out of business (because of stink bug damage to their orchards),” said Leskey. “For me, I’m interested in the science, but it’s also a cause as well.”

Above, in her lab, Tracy Leskey looks for clues to stink bug behavior by watching their movements. Before stink bugs, Leskey was doing important work to develop sustainable strategies to deal with a native pest called the plum curculio, as well as dogwood borer, apple maggot fly and other crop-threatening insects.

Left, Leskey is experimenting with pyramid traps that attract stink bugs and kill them.

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graphic story from last fall featured footage of a stink bug tethered to a “flight mill” in Leskey’s laboratory. Similar to a treadmill, the device allows the bug to fly in circles and the flight can be measured in distance. The average stink bug travels up to 60 miles a day, Leskey said. This information is useful because it helps researchers gauge the threat to crops in a prescribed area.

Researchers also are experimenting with harmonic radar to track stink bugs. In Leskey’s lab, stink bugs have been outfitted with small radar tags made of copper wire with a tiny diode. Data gleaned from tracking the insects helps researchers understand stink bug behavior.

Although Leskey is serious about her work, her office reflects her silly side. The space is scattered with toys, including matchbox cars, glow-in-the-dark plastic bugs, a large Swatch watch clock (she has a collection of about 150 Swatches) and

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he's recognized internationally as THE point person with respect to brown marmorated stink bugs.”

—Chris Bergh Professor of Entomology Virginia Tech

just about anything related to stink bugs, including notepads from stinkybug.com, “for all your stink bug gifts.”

A sense of humor comes in handy in an office full of scientists, according to Glenn. “(Leskey is) a very friendly, warm person and she comes across that way,” he said.

Leskey’s work to combat stink bugs goes beyond research. She has spoken around the world; published numerous papers in prestigious journals, sometimes with collaborators; and leads a prestigious multi-state, multi-institution grant that was just renewed and represents $11 million in total funding to attack the stink bug problem.

PHOTOS BY KEVIN GILBERT

“She’s recognized internationally as THE point person with respect to brown marmorated stink bugs,” said Chris Bergh, entomology professor at Virginia Tech, where Leskey’s status as an adjunct professor allows her to co-advise graduate students. “She’s an outstanding scientist. Her approaches are always pragmatic.”

With its Swatch watch clock and insect-related toys, Leskey’s office reflects her quirky personality.

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Leskey enjoys finding solutions to real-world problems. “It’s very satisfying, working on something that’s very pertinent to people’s lives,” she said.

ary insect behaviorist Ron Prokopy, whose research on fruit flies led to environmental pest control programs that used fewer pesticides. The late Prokopy, who once surprised Leskey by popping an insect into his mouth and encouraging her to do the same, made a big impact.

“That’s been my training and that’s the same kind of thing that I do now,” said Leskey, referring to managing insects by manipulating their behavior.

Leskey has involved the public in stink bug research.

For the past two years, she has overseen the Great Stink Bug Count, a project that invites members of the public to document stink bugs at their properties and submit a range of data to the USDA online. The project has been popular with schoolchildren and homeowners, and provides invaluable data, according to Leskey.

The Budding Scientist Leskey grew up in a small, blue-collar town near Johnstown, Pa., the daughter of parents who indulged her propensity for the outdoors, getting dirty and exploring the natural world. “As a kid, I was allowed to have bug zoos and I could bring in fireflies at night, but I had to release them the next morning,” said Leskey, who brought Monarch butterfly pupae to her kindergarten class to demonstrate pupation as her first show-and-tell project.

“I was definitely encouraged in my field ecology leanings from a very young age.”

When she chose Wilson College after high school, her goal was to become a medical doctor. She majored in biology but during her junior year, changed her mind about medical school. “It wasn’t what interested me. I had become more interested in ecology, at that point.”

She ended up doing her senior thesis on a mosquito-like insect called a crane fly.

Leskey loved her time at Wilson, making lifelong friends and forming bonds with professors. After breezing through high school, she found Wilson classes challenging. “It was amazing and all-encompassing,” Leskey said of her Wilson experience. “I became great friends with the library. If an exam was coming up, I was in the library studying for days and days and days and days.”

After graduating from Wilson, Leskey earned a master’s degree in ecology from Penn State and went on to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to pursue her Ph.D. in entomology. There, she studied under legend-

Though she earned degrees from two other schools, Leskey has maintained close ties to Wilson. Before becoming a trustee, she served on the Alumnae Association board from 2005 to 2012. In spite of a schedule that finds her at work sometimes 70-80 hours a week and a busy personal life, Leskey enthusiastically devotes time for service on the Board of Trustees.

“It’s been an amazing experience, learning about the complexities of running an institution like Wilson, learning about the dedication of the faculty and staff to the College, learning from all of the other board members,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of great friends on the board and gotten to know Wilson faculty and staff in a different capacity. It’s been a gift and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to serve Wilson in that capacity.”

‘ The Best Job in the World’ A typical day at the USDA fruit research facility is atypical, according to Leskey. Some days she’s in the office, gathering and analyzing data or meeting with her lab group; other days, she’s out in the field; and still others, she’s traveling or hosting visitors from other countries seeking help on how to respond when stink bugs show up.

“I think one of the things I like about being a researcher is that every day is different,” said Leskey. “You’re always moving forward. There’s always something new—a new question, a new challenge. It’s never the same. I always think I have the best job in the world. I get paid to do what I think I always knew I wanted to do.”

Leskey, who didn’t necessarily envision herself reaching the level of notoriety she’s received—“not on this scale anyway”—sees herself moving on from stink bug research one day but for now, she’s content.

“I was very happy doing the research I was doing before,” she said “But I’m glad I’ve given this the effort I’ve given because I think the agricultural community deserves that. I’m happy to do that and help solve a problem that’s been such a major issue for them.” W

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Challenging Perception For 50 years the Orr Forum has used religion as a lens to explore contemporary issues.

By Amy Ensley

F

or more than 50 years, Wilson’s Orr Forum on Religion has raised awareness of critical issues with a religious studies perspective. It has fostered meaningful and open discourse and never shied away from controversy or difficult problems facing society, including the stem cell debate, AIDS crisis and gun violence in schools.

What began on campus as part of the Presbyterian tradition known as the annual Week of Prayer has grown into a highly regarded scholarly event that Associate Professor of Religion Studies and Orr Forum director David True describes as key to “fostering and sustaining the liberal arts.”

“The liberal arts encourage the liberating study of the larger world; culture beyond one’s own province. The process engages both critical questioning and thought,” True said. “The Orr Forum also encourages the study of culture beyond one’s familiar terrain and in doing so, raises challenging questions for discussion.”

According to Raymond Anderson, professor emeritus of religion studies and former Orr director, the forum’s underlying question through the years has been: What of ultimate worth is Wilson as a college doing for the world at large? “The forum was crucially important as it posed this kind of core question again and again with the same urgency (from different perspectives in 50 different ways) for each generation of teachers, staff and students,” Anderson said.

Former Wilson President Gwendolyn Jensen said Orr Forum discussions often foreshadowed important issues that the College would have to face. “Take the environment and sustainability—the forum was discussing these issues long before we began to debate how to make the best use of the Fulton Farm,” Jensen said.

Over the years, several themes have recurred. Interfaith dialogue has been particularly important to organizers of the Orr Forum, with at least seven forums devoted the theme. Twenty representatives of different faiths came together in 1987 to share ideas about the limits of tolerance, religion in the public arena and religious identity in a pluralistic society.

Similarly, the role of religion in both politics and foreign policy has dominated the forums, as participants searched for ways for people of different faiths and ethnicities to live together peacefully. The 2000 Orr Forum focused on reconciliation among peoples and nations, including Palestine, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and South Africa; and international students have provided critical global perspectives and insight into different faiths with their participation on various panels over the years.

“Recently, the Orr Forum has begun to function more clearly as a campus-wide lecture series—drawing on multiple disciplines and perspectives,” True said. “My hope is that the Orr will continue to bring the campus together to reflect on important topics related to religion. The so-called ‘return of religion’ makes it all the more important for students and citizens to think critically about religious concepts, movements and personalities. “

Early History The first Orr Forum in 1964 tackled the topic of “The Meaning of Responsibility in a Revolutionary Age.”

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Wilson students have always played a significant role in organizing the religious activities of the College. As early as 1905, such activities were coordinated under the auspices of the Young Women’s Chris-

Photos, from left: Poet Maya Angelou enthralled the audience at the 1976 Orr Forum; the Rev. Dr. James Robinson in 1969 was the forum’s first African-American speaker.

tian Association. Accordingly, students participated in choosing speakers, arranging the schedule for the Week of Prayer and leading dormitory-based discussion groups.

In the late 1920s, the college catalog noted that students were expected to attend chapel daily, church services weekly and observe all customs that would normally be associated with a Christian-affiliated college.

The Week of Prayer at Wilson became known as Devotional Week by the end of the next decade.

World War II brought a shift in the discussions from traditional Bible-based sermons to broader topics of faith related to war and its aftermath. The final lecture of the 1942 program posed the question, “In this kind of a world, why keep trying?”

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surviving heirs decided to donate the remaining $30,000 to Wilson College in 1959 to support religious education as a “living memorial” to the Orrs.

Orr Begins In 1963, the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a lecture series funded by the Orr bequest, to be known as the Orr Forum on Religion. The forum would bring in distinguished scholars to campus for discussion of contemporary topics, as suggested by the Religious Life Committee.

he liberal arts encourage the liberating study of the larger world; culture beyond one’s own province. The process engages both critical questioning and thought.”

That fall, Professor of Religion Harry Buck and three Wilson students met at the home of Professor Edward J. Jurji of the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey to plan the first Orr Forum, which was to take place the following spring. The theme was, “The Meaning of Responsibility in a Revolutionary Age,” with Jurji as the speaker. Jurji, who was born in Latakia, Syria, was professor of Islamics and comparative religion at Princeton Theological Seminary at the time.

But in the 1960s, students were beginning to rebel against required daily chapel. President Paul Swain Havens charged the standing Religious Life Committee with the task Associate Professor of Religion Studies of evaluating the current state of religious activities on campus and and Orr Forum director with finding ways to rejuvenate student interest. One suggestion was to choose speakers and conThe forum began on a Sunday and temporary topics with more relevance to the lives of the students. consisted of a combination of chapel services and lectures that ran for four days. Buffet dinners rotated through each dormitory Around the same time, the College found itself to be the recipient of to allow time for students to interact with Jurji. The forum closed a new bequest. Upon his death in 1936, Thomas A. Orr of the foundwith a seminar and dinner and a communion service featuring the ing family of Orrstown, Pa., established a fund for the maintenance meditation, “Beyond Human Sacrifice.” of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Orrstown in honor of his parents, William and Mary. However, the congregation dwindled, For the 1965 Orr Forum on “Faith in Search of Maturity,” the colservices ended and the church fell into disrepair. The family’s last lege community was asked to prepare for the series by reading The

—David True

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The program for the 1973 Orr Forum, which featured the mind-expanding Jean Houston (left); volunteers unfold a portion of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt for the 1993 forum (right).

Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. The Kittochtinny Players performed Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit and the film David and Lisa was shown.

The lectures included “Faith in Formation,” “The Feminine Mystique and the Female Student,” “Faith in Rebellion,” “Sex and Fantasy” and finally, “Communication between Generations.”

Orr Through the Years The Orr Forum has always embraced timely discussions of deep importance. “Often these featured inspiring guests who were concerned to remind students to face up to the underlying intellectual issues behind their studies, their basic life meaning and their calling,” Anderson said.

I

Perhaps the most recognizable of all Orr Forum speakers over the past 50 years was Maya Angelou, who came to Wilson in 1976 with the theme, “African Values in American Life.” A Billboard headline of the event raved, Maya Enthralls Audience. “From the moment she walked onto the platform, she captured the attention of the audience. All her abilities as an actress, singer and poetess were brought into play during her speech,” the review noted.

t is important for a college to put questions into a religious, philosophical and spiritual context for discussion. It is important for students to have the opportunity to engage in those types of discussions.”

The first African-American Orr Forum speaker appeared in 1969.

The Rev. Dr. James Robinson was founder of the Morningside Community Center in Harlem in New York City, and founded Operation Crossroads Africa, which John F. Kennedy credited with being the progenitor of the Peace Corps. His lecture topics included: “Civil Disobedience: Alternative to Injustice,” “Brotherhood: Alternative to Destruction” and “Imperative Choice: Alternative to Neutrality.”

The 1993 Orr Forum—“AIDS: Our Community Responds”—was one of the most moving. With President Emerita funds from the Franklin Area AIDS Network, a portion of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in Laird Hall. Dr. David Rogers, vice chairman of the National Commission on AIDS, gave the keynote. Professors Raymond and Gunlog Anderson each moderated panel discussions comprised of experts on caregiving and support. Wilson’s dance group, Danceteller, performed “Before Forever,” a piece about living with AIDS.

—Gwendolyn Jensen

One of the best-attended forums was in 1973 with Jean Houston, director of the Foundation for Mind Research. Early in her career, Houston studied the effects of LSD on human personality. She was also involved in the field of futuristics and in the study of altered states of consciousness.

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The first of three forums to focus on the health of the planet was held in 1982. “Living with Planet Earth” included lectures by Thomas Berry, who warned, “No traditional civilization or religion presently constituted is able to manage change on the order of magnitude that will confront us.

The glory of the human has become the desolation of the earth.”

Gun violence in schools was addressed in the 1997 Orr Forum. Anderson, at the time, described the issue as “one of the most pressing problem areas of the day, where community awareness and action are desperately needed.”

Continuing Relevance When she first came to Wilson as president in 1991, Jensen said she was pleased to discover the Forum. “I admired the work of Ray Anderson. It is important for a college to put questions into a religious, philosophical and spiritual context for discussion,” she said. “It is important for students to have the opportunity to engage in those types of discussions.”

In carrying on the legacy of Buck and Anderson, True has remained faithful to the ideal of providing a platform for civil discourse on matters of substance. While adamant about ensuring the academic and scholarly quality of the Orr Forum, True is also eager to experiment with the format.

This year, True has invited a series of speakers for Orr@Midday.

These 30-minute monthly lectures relate to the main theme and bring the college community together in a more intimate setting.

Scholars from disciplines ranging from literature, history and art to philosophy and dance add to the conversation and provide a compelling lead-up to this year’s main program, “Prophetic Fragments” with George M. Shulman of New York University in March.

Prophets by nature challenge society’s values and issue dire warnings to get communities back on track, True said. Examples of prophetic fragments include the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. or the works of author Flannery O’Connor’s, according to True.

“Religion often challenges adherents and hearers to reorient their lives—so in studying religion, these challenging perspectives often come to the fore,” he said. “This is true in the case of the prophetic tradition, which often makes deep and radical criticisms of the present order, warns of consequences and calls for a new way of being a community.”

The intellectual climate fostered at the College has been reinforced for more than 50 years through the forum and is reflected in Wilson alumnae/i, Anderson said. “…Even in this day of encroaching social inequality, it remains practically impossible to find a Wilson alumna/ us who is content to think of her or his own life goals merely in terms of self-absorbed merit, status and wealth,” he said. “It has always been a question of the heart and soul of the College.” W The program for the 1993 Orr Forum on AIDS (top); Professor Emeritus of Religion and Orr director Raymond Anderson (center, bottom photo) leads a discussion.

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Rhona Applebaum '76 is Coca-Cola's first female chief science and health officer, but it's not the first time she has led the way.

By Coleen Dee Berry

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hona Applebaum ’76 hasn’t let the much-discussed gender gap in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) stand in her way.

hired at Coca-Cola as chief scientific and regulatory officer; and before joining Coca-Cola, she was the first female chief scientist at the National Food Processors Association.

She is the first woman to hold the position of chief science and health officer for The Coca-Cola Company.

Prior to that, she was the first woman

As 2015 began, Applebaum added another first, as she became the first female president of the board for the International Life Sciences

Institute (ILSI), a nonprofit, worldwide organization whose mission is to cultivate science that improves human health and well-being and safeguards the environment.

Her stellar science career path led to her being named one of the 100 Women Leaders in Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) in 2012.

Her priority is to encourage and mentor young women to take up STEM careers.

“As our country’s security, economy and creativity rely more than ever on a prepared STEM workforce, increasing the pipeline of women STEM career candidates is essential,” Applebaum said, noting women make up less than a quarter of America's STEM workforce.

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Above, Rhona Applebaum was hired as Coca-Cola’s first female chief scientific and regulatory officer in 2004. Right, raising awareness about the contributions women make in the boardroom and mentoring young women to take up STEM careers are among Applebaum’s priorities.

Applebaum stressed the importance of having a support system to help women succeed in STEM careers. “I was fortunate to have male mentors who were ‘gender neutral’ and assessed people based on their skills, determination and character,” she said. “At this stage in my career, I am building on that mentorship gift and have made mentoring a priority—to women as well as men.”

Her mentoring message goes one step further—everyone, not just STEM majors, can benefit from a STEM foundation.

“Regardless of one’s destiny and vocation, having a basic appreciation of data and its value is the ‘secret formula’ to ensure decisions are evidence based and not agenda driven—that is, supported only by opinions, judgments and/or beliefs,” she said. “I’m proud to have convinced two of my most precious ‘possessions’ of this fact: my son, Brent, currently a freshman in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and my goddaughter, Janice, a junior at the Galloway School in Atlanta.

Both realize that regardless of their profession, STEM principles are ‘added value’ to a successful career.”

As vice president and chief science and health officer at CocaCola, Applebaum is responsible for developing and executing the company’s global health and well-being strategy on issues related to food safety, diet and health.

Her responsibilities include stakeholder engagement, scientific collaborations and partnerships and increasing public awareness of the importance of active, healthy lifestyles. She also serves as executive director of the company’s Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness, established to raise awareness of facts and science related to beverages and their ingredients.

In 2013, Applebaum was named to the Executive Leadership Honor Roll of the OnBoard organization, the leading authority on

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women in the boardroom and executive suites of Georgia’s public companies. In June 2014, she delivered the Kosuna Distinguished Lecture in Nutrition at the University of California, Davis.

The foundation for her success, Applebaum said, was laid during her days at Wilson.

“Wilson gave me the self-confidence—not a bravado, not a braggadocio, but a humble yet firm self-confidence—to set a course for myself,” Applebaum said. “The College encouraged me to have passion and purpose. Steeped in liberal arts, it was the best academic foundation for me. Wilson instilled in me a love of learning and provided a holistic education experience that has served me well.”

But Applebaum’s experience at Wilson College was actually an accident.

She had been accepted to Gettysburg College in 1972, but arrived there to find the college had run out of dorm space. First-year women students weren’t allowed to live off campus, so she was placed temporarily at Wilson through the Central Pennsylvania Consortium (which included Gettysburg, Wilson, Dickinson and Franklin & Marshall colleges).

“I went to Wilson planning to transfer out the first chance I had and then I totally fell in love with the Wilson experience,” Applebaum said. “By the end of the fall semester, I was hooked. I did not want to leave.”

Her favorite memories at Wilson revolve around the John Stewart Memorial Library, where she carved out an area near the rare books section where she and her friends studied.

“When you were there in the library with the light filtering through the old windows—this is decades before Harry Potter and Hogwarts—it was that kind of a warm feeling of belonging, not just to the current campus, but to a legacy that went back decades,” Applebaum said.

As a work-study student, Applebaum had the good fortune to work with the legendary C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33, who served as the College’s registrar from 1956 to 1971. Granted emerita status

by Wilson, Boyd was a volunteer archivist until 1994, doggedly preventing the destruction and loss of college records.

Boyd became one of Applebaum’s mentors. “We were looked after by Miss Boyd, who was your mom-not-mom, your teacher, your mentor, your angel,” Applebaum said. “Wilson was well-being before well-being became cool. In this little cocoon on campus, everyone cared for our mental, our emotional, our physical, our spiritual well-being.”

Applebaum has kept in touch with her Wilson roots. She served on the Wilson College Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2001 and praised then-President Gwendolyn Jensen “for opening my eyes to how active a college president is. Before then I had not realized how much a college president acts like a CEO.” As she watches Wilson enter its newest phase, “It is important that Wilson retain its foundation, its values, its ethos—the soul of Wilson if you will—which, as we know, can last indefinitely

with the proper care and nurturing, to the benefit of so many.”

— Applebaum grew up in Norma, N.J., where her father owned a chicken farm and her mother was a nurse. Her father died when she was 10 and, inspired by her mother’s example, “I knew I was going to college to get a career.”

At Wilson, Applebaum majored in history and biology. “History was my passion; science was my vocation,” she said, noting that she realized that history was not going to get her the job she wanted.

She first thought of following her mother’s footsteps, but a session shadowing a nurse “made it clear I did not have it in me.”

Applebaum turned to nutrition and, after graduating from Wilson, entered Drexel University in Philadelphia, with the intent of becoming a career nutritionist. Then, she said, another one of those accidents happened: “I fell in love with food science.”

“I’m almost fatalistic, I guess. I believe that you have to have the wherewithal to pick up on the insights and cues that life lays out for you in order to find your true path,” she said.

Applebaum received her master’s degree in nutrition and food science from Drexel in 1978 and her doctorate in food safety and microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981.

She then worked for the American Cocoa Research Institute, Chocolate Manufacturers Association, National Confectioners Association and Distilled Spirits Council of the United States—all in leadership roles focused on scientific and regulatory affairs— before being hired in 1994 by the National Food Processors Association (NFPA).

There, as executive vice president and chief science officer, she was responsible for the overall direction of NFPA’s three food science research laboratory centers and technical regulatory affairs functions; oversaw NFPA’s training courses and seminars through the association’s education foundation, the Food Processors Institute; and served as NFPA’s chief scientific spokesperson on such issues as food safety, food security, nutrition and health.

In 2004, providence struck again when a colleague hired by Coca-Cola recruited her for a job as the company’s chief scientific and regulatory officer. In 2012, she was elected by the board of directors as a vice president of the company.

Her key mission is to “inform, involve and inspire.” Her current focus is on raising awareness of the facts and evidence supporting active, healthy lifestyles, which includes a balanced, sensible diet and regular physical activity. Coca-Cola’s products have branched out beyond soft drinks to include choices such as Vitamin Water, Odwalla and Minute Maid beverages.

“The Coca-Cola Company operates in over 200 countries and our goal is to encourage healthy lifestyles in every single one of them. Helping to advance healthy communities and active, healthy lifestyles within the community is the best way to ensure a healthy business into the future,” Applebaum said.

Applebaum, who lives in Atlanta with husband Mark Peabody, also serves on numerous boards and advisory councils, including Georgia’s Advisory Council on Childhood Obesity, the Centers for Disease Control Foundation’s Corporate/CDC Roundtable on Global Health Threats and Harvard Medical School’s Global Health Advisory Council.

Her involvement with the OnBoard leadership program increased her awareness of the underrepresentation of women on corporate boards and the importance of getting more women into corporate leadership roles.

“I wouldn’t call myself a feminist, but I consider myself an egalitarian,” Applebaum said, noting that Coca-Cola has a large number of women in leadership positions. “If you’re not including women on your boards and in leadership positions, then you’re missing a great opportunity—and businesses don’t like missing opportunities.”

It’s up to the women who currently hold high corporate positions to raise awareness about the contributions women can make and to give them a helping hand up the corporate ladder, Applebaum said.

“Especially in consumer-based businesses, a woman’s point of view is important,” she said. “Women do have differing points of view than men, so if you don’t include them, you are missing vital information from a very important segment of society. You’re missing out on a great opportunity.” W

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PHOTO BY KENDRA TIDD

AROUND THE GREEN

Nicole Melanson ’15 began the No More campaign on campus by putting up scores of posters in residence halls and common areas.

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NO MORE

SILENCE Wilson Student Brings the Message of No More to Campus

By Coleen Dee Berry

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he spotlight on sexual violence and domestic abuse had grown white-hot by the fall of 2014, with the national debate focusing on college campuses amid reports of high-profile sexual assaults in the media.

Wilson College officials were already taking a hard look at the training and outreach information available to students and asked: How can we start a real conversation about these issues on campus?

Enter Nicole Melanson ’15, resident assistant and member of the field hockey team, who provided the idea to bring No More, a national public awareness campaign on domestic and sexual violence, to the Wilson campus in a very visual way.

At the beginning of the fall semester, Wilson Assistant Dean of Students Katie Kough reached out to Melanson, a work-study student in the student development office. The challenge: reboot the College’s outreach on sexual and domestic violence.

“I was reviewing our [information] on sexual assault and I thought it was a little dated, so I asked Nicole if she could find something that was more relevant,” Kough said. “She came back to us and said, ’I want to pitch you an idea.’”

Melanson had discovered the No More campaign, which aims to help end the stigma, shame and silence of domestic violence and sexual assault. The No More movement features a highly visible, interactive social media presence coupled with an advertising program that features hundreds of celebrities and sports figures.

The movement’s website also includes a primer for college campuses that want to get involved in the public awareness campaign.

“What I really did not want to happen was what often happens when [information is] put into students’ mailboxes—everyone takes it out, looks at it and then, in most

cases, it goes right into the recycle bin,” said Melanson, an equine-facilitated therapeutics major. “I wanted to do something that would stay with everyone, something that they couldn’t just toss away.”

Dean of Students Mary Beth Williams said the student perspective was needed to revamp the College’s approach to the issues.

“She found it. I wouldn’t have,” Williams said. ”What really spoke to me about this campaign is that it is not gender-based, it’s not based on sexual orientation, it speaks about all types of domestic violence and sexual assault, and it really reaches out to a broad audience.”

Some studies show that as many as one in five students may be assaulted during their time at college, according to Kough. “We want students to know that sexual assault is not ’just college behavior.’ We want them to know that a culture of violence is never acceptable and will never be tolerated at Wilson,” Kough said. “We want them to speak up if they witness an abusive act.”

With Wilson’s increasing enrollment and broadening demographic, it’s even more important to create a healthy culture and heighten awareness of these issues, Kough said.

Melanson began her Wilson campaign by putting up scores of No More posters in residence halls and common areas. “I noticed a lot of students would gather around to read the posters, so I think it did start them talking.” One of the key facets of the campaign is to encourage bystanders who witness or are aware of violence to speak up, Melanson noted.

In early November, she hosted a table in Lenfest Commons with a counselor from the Chambersburg Women In Need (WIN) program and volunteers Molly McElroy ’17 and Lily Rembold ’17.

“We tried to make it an interactive discussion with the students who stopped by about how domestic violence and sexual assault can be prevented,” said the WIN prevention educator who participated that day.

During finals week, Melanson created a display that encouraged students to take a stand by posting their photo on the No More website with a message against domestic and sexual violence.

College faculty and staff also joined in. During the annual employee holiday luncheon in December, supplies were collected for WIN in connection with the No More campaign.

But Melanson doesn’t intend to stop with the end of the fall semester. She plans to continue the campaign into spring and hopes to organize either a discussion group or a workshop on domestic and sexual violence.

Melanson’s commitment to the campaign does not surprise Williams. “She’s very passionate about the topic,” Williams said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

Her work with the No More campaign has only underscored her belief that domestic and sexual violence has to be everyone’s concern, Melanson said.

“A lot of people react to this issue as if it only concerns a very small population, that it’s not something that should concern them—and hopefully this can help them to realize that this affects everyone, no matter where you’re from or how much money you have,” Melanson said. “And if talking about it and understanding the issue can help victims, if you can extend understanding and compassion to them to help them feel safer, then this campaign is a good starting point for that conversation.” W

winter 2015 27

RAISING PHOTO BY FLIP CHALFONT

ART'S PROFILE Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey has helped expand the arts at Wilson and in the community

By Coleen Dee Berry

W

hen Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey first started teaching at Wilson College in 2000, only a single student was majoring in studio art. Lindsey’s teaching job came with a challenge: revitalize the College’s arts curriculum.

Together with other faculty members, Lindsey has energized and expanded the arts program to encompass fine arts, dance, photography, printmaking and art history.

More than 40 art majors have graduated since Lindsey’s tenure began.

Teaching art is his passion. “I enjoy watching students grow and find their own unique voices. That is the best,” Lindsey said. “Watching that process, watching the students put it all together and watching them discover their voice—especially when they didn’t know they had one—is so incredibly rewarding.”

“Wilson art students have the ability to solve complex visual problems through crit-

28 wilson magazine

ical and creative thinking. They are curious, creative and hungry—qualities that are paramount for success as artists,” he said.

This summer, Lindsey is looking forward to the launch of Wilson’s new Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) program, a project he has worked on along with Associate Professor of Fine Arts Robert Dickson and Professor of Dance Paula Kellinger.

The low-residency program—with concentrations in visual arts or choreography—allows students to complete most coursework online with two intensive, month-long sessions on campus in the summer. “The beauty of this program is that you could live in Wisconsin and take the courses and get the degree, as long as you commit to the summer programs,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey grew up in Asheville, N.C., attended Western Carolina University and then earned his Master of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

His own art is inspired by Spanish and Italian Renaissance painters, especially for the personal stories that they tell within their canvases. When he was awarded the Drusilla Stevens Mazur Research Professorship in 2011, he traveled to Spain to view works by artists such as Jose de Ribera, who are not well-known here in the United States. Lindsey’s recent exhibition at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center in Frederick, Md., showed works that were inspired by the trip.

His paintings range from the playful—a self-portrait with his daughter holding a Star Wars-style light saber is a modern twist on the famous Velazquez painting, Les Meninas—to the intense, as illustrated by his Cain and Abel painting, which shows two modern young men fighting in a school yard, one wielding a gun.

Lindsey also sees a strong arts program at Wilson as a creative force that can help forge

AROUND THE GREEN

Photos, from left: Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey in action: "I enjoy watching students grow and find their own unique voices." Darrin and Dave (Cain & Abel), 2007, oil on canvas, 65 x 96 inches.

Wilson art students are curious, creative and hungry—qualities that are paramount for success as artists.

— Philip Lindsey, Professor of Fine Arts a meaningful bond between the College and the Chambersburg area community.

when tightening budgets forced schools to cut art programs.

“People in Chambersburg haven’t always made a connection to Wilson College,” Lindsey said. “Working with community art programs is one way of making them feel connected to the College.”

“Ever since Philip has been at Wilson,” said Anne Finucane, gallery coordinator with the Chambersburg Council for the Arts, “the community and the council have enjoyed an incredibly strong relationship with the College’s art department.”

Early in his tenure at Wilson, Lindsey joined the advisory board for the Chambersburg Council for the Arts, where he worked with a youth arts initiative to bring art education to elementary school children at a time

Now Lindsey is looking forward to the community and the College forming another artistic bond when environmental artist Patrick Dougherty begins a public art project that will place one of his Stickwork creations on the Wilson campus in October.

“Patrick Dougherty will need volunteers to help him build the work and also will need partners to supply him with building material. So this is another opportunity for the community and the College to work together to create art,” Lindsey said. “Dougherty’s piece will be something that both Wilson College and Chambersburg can be proud of.” W

Lindsey expanded his community outreach in 2010 with an annual, juried high school art exhibition that he began with Dickson and the Office of Admissions.

winter 2015 29

AROUND THE GREEN

David DeBevoise ’74 gained a first-hand appreciation of women-centered education as the first male undergraduate to live full time on the Wilson campus (inset: DeBevoise’s photo as it appears in the 1973 Wilson yearbook)

30 wilson magazine

AN OFFER

HE DIDN'T REFUSE Wilson's first male residential undergraduate tells all

By Coleen Dee Berry

T

eacher and educational screenwriter David DeBevoise ’74 took a gamble on becoming an undergraduate at Wilson College—and is forever grateful for what was, at the time, an unorthodox offer.

“I got a great education at Wilson. Wilson taught me how to think independently, how to appreciate all different viewpoints. It was a great, classic liberal arts environment,” DeBevoise said. “Wilson gave me a love of teaching, sharpened my ability for critical thinking and fostered the attitude that you never stop learning something new.”

While DeBevoise was not the only man to attend Wilson—men had taken classes at the college on the G.I. Bill following World War II—he was the first male undergraduate residential student to live full time on the Wilson campus. He owes his experience to his then-girlfriend, fellow Wilson graduate Lisa Heverly Molloy ’74.

The story begins in Italy, where DeBevoise spent his childhood and high school years. DeBevoise, whose father worked for pharmaceutical companies in Italy, attended elementary school in Rome, middle school in Milan and high school in Naples. In high school, he met Molloy, a Lock Haven, Pa., native whose military family was stationed in Italy. When she was accepted at Wilson College in 1970, DeBevoise followed her to the United States and enrolled at Keystone College in Scranton.

“I then started spending every weekend at Wilson,” DeBevoise said. “Not only to be near my girlfriend, but I really liked the whole atmosphere at Wilson. The campus was really beautiful and historic. All the students seemed to be really invested and engaged.”

At the end of their freshman year, Molloy told DeBevoise to speak with her counselor, Assistant Professor of French Joel Patz, who had an offer for DeBevoise.

“He said that Wilson was considering going coed, since schools like Vassar and Barnard were doing it, and that I could enroll as an undergraduate if I wanted to, since I was already spending so much time on campus,“ DeBevoise recalled. “Since I wanted to be closer to my girlfriend, and since I liked everything I saw at Wilson, I said yes.”

He signed up for a double major in English and Spanish, and was given a room on the ground floor of Davison Hall.

“I had the whole floor to myself. Every now and then there would be visiting male students who would share my floor so that I didn’t lack for male companionship,” DeBevoise said with a chuckle. “One semester there were a bunch from Franklin & Marshall College (in Lancaster, Pa.) and another time, a couple of guys from Bowdoin College (in Brunswick, Maine) stayed on my floor.”

However, after he spent three semesters at Wilson, he had another conference with Patz, who told him that the College had decided against going coed.

“I was dismayed. I said, ‘Do I have to leave?’” Patz said, “‘No, no, we made a deal.

You can graduate, as long as you don’t mind being a bit of an outsider.’”

The thing was, DeBevoise never felt like an outsider at Wilson.

“Everyone was very gracious to me. No one made me feel unwelcome. The teachers were just awesome and I gained a great respect for women-centered education,” DeBevoise said. “I had gone all through elementary and high school as sometimes the only Anglo-American in the room, so actually, being the only male in the classroom was just like an extension of that experience. I was used to it and it didn’t bother me.”

Despite having been admitted to Wilson on the premise the College would go coed, DeBevoise admitted that he was at first

“very torn” about Wilson’s recent decision to allow male resident undergraduates.

“After being there and going through the learning experience with all women, I thought it should stay all women.”

But the financial realities also hit home.

“The school has to survive, and if this is what it has to do to survive, then I am OK with it,” he said.

Wilson inspired DeBevoise to teach. He became a middle school teacher in New Jersey and also worked as an English as a Second Language instructor. Then, he ended up in Hollywood.

He was hired in the early 1990s as an educational consultant for screenwriting by his brother, who worked for A.N.D. Communications. The firm produced interactive, multimedia educational programs for corporations like IBM and Simon & Schuster.

“These were literary projects for use in the classroom—early online programs for students that had an interactive component,” DeBevoise said.

He worked on five projects in four years, including one on Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and one on the book, Black Elk Speaks, by John G. Neihardt.

At 50, DeBevoise returned to New Jersey and went to graduate school at Rutgers University, where he earned a master’s degree in Italian. He taught Italian at Rutgers for 10 years.

DeBevoise is now a visiting instructor in Italian at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., which reminds him a lot of Wilson. “When I applied, they asked how I would fit into a small liberal arts college after coming from a big university like Rutgers.

“I said, ‘Let me tell you about Wilson College.’” W

winter 2015 31

PHOENIX BASKETBALL

FIRSTS

Men's and Women's Teams Score First Victories

By Samantha Burmeister

T

he Phoenix women’s and men’s basketball teams opened the 2014-15 season by chalking up a number of firsts.

On Nov. 22, both teams hosted Christendom College, marking the first games held in the recently renovated Frank E. Gannett Memorial Field House. The women’s team earned its first win of the season in topping Christendom 78-77, while the men’s 91-66 victory over Christendom marked the first win in the history of the Wilson College men’s basketball program.

On Jan. 6, the Phoenix men’s basketball team again scored a historic win when it defeated Bryn Athyn College on the road, 72-66, for the program’s first North Eastern Athletic Conference victory. The team’s second conference win occurred on Jan. 11 when the Phoenix defeated the Pennsylvania College of Technology Wildcats at home in overtime by a score of 111-105.

The Wilson College men’s basketball program is led by head coach Miles Smith Jr., who assumed the role in February 2013.

This inaugural squad is creating its own history—every game makes the record books.

Both the Phoenix women and men’s basketball schedules are filled with conference games through February. Each team aims to improve its conference standing and to

32 wilson magazine

We have a commitment as a team to win each day, whether that is in the classroom or on the court.

— Jared Trulear, women’s basketball head coach continue to promote a successful environment for Wilson College student-athletes.

Last year the women’s team consisted of only eight players, not allowing much time for rest and recovery. This season, the team grew to a much larger 14-player squad, led by the team captains, Teniera Prioleau '17 and Morgan Wonders '18.

"We are a much deeper team this year and with this depth we are able to have everyone buy into a role and play within herself," said women’s basketball head coach Jared Trulear. “I am excited for what our youth brings to the table. We will be much better as a team and use our youth as an asset.”

With eight newcomers, wins have so far proved elusive for the women’s team, but Trulear stressed, “This season I am not as focused on our opponents as I am focused on our program getting better every day

and fully embracing our philosophy and mission. We have a commitment as a team to win each day, whether that is in the classrooms or on the court.”

The men’s team hopes to earn a spot in post-season play.

“The North Eastern Athletic Conference is a conference in which any team could win on any given night,” said Smith.

“We have got to compete every day and take one possession at a time. We will let the outcome of the games be decided on our work ethic and our ability to stay disciplined on both ends of the floor.” W

PHOTO BY BOB STOLER

AROUND THE GREEN

The Phoenix men’s basketball team scored its first win against Christendom College, 91-66, on Nov. 22 in the newly renovated Frank E. Gannett Memorial Field House.

FIELD HOUSE RENOVATION PROJECT Renovations to add locker and team rooms to the Frank E. Gannett Memorial Field House have been completed, while work continues on other areas, including a new handicapaccessible bathroom for visitors and additional storage rooms and meeting areas.

Wilson College athletics logos and action pictures of current student athletes are displayed on the new interior walls of the field house. In addition, Wilson’s affiliation with the NCAA and the North Eastern Athletic Conference are displayed on signs and banners.

The additions, designed to meet the needs of the current and expanding student-athlete population at Wilson, will serve as the home locker rooms for the Phoenix women and men’s varsity teams.

The field house is home to the Wilson College athletics department staff and the Phoenix basketball teams, as well as the newly added men’s volleyball team. In addition, the field house serves as a multipurpose facility allowing all Wilson students the opportunity for recreational activities and access to the bowling alley and archery range.

The locker room renovations were completed just prior to the home opening for the women and men’s basketball contests on Nov. 22.

winter 2015 33

—

viewpoint —

SOY AYOTZINAPA T

his past September in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, dozens of young men who were on their way to a peaceful protest at a political rally vanished. They were last seen being accosted by police in the city of Iguala and forcibly hauled into police vans.

I helped organize the rally at Wilson. To explain why I care about this issue, I have to tell you about Buenavista, a small farm town in Colima, Mexico. The translation of the town’s name is “the beautiful view” and everywhere you look there are glimpses of true beauty.

Today the 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College in Ayotzinapa are still missing and at this point presumed dead.

Instead of finding the students, authorities investigating the events of Sept. 26, 2014, have uncovered other horrors: a string of mass graves, burned remains that cannot be identified and allegations of police acting at the behest of drug cartels and corrupt government officials.

This small town holds my heart. I have visited family there since I was two years old. It is home to the most generous people on the planet— people like my aunts, who slave over stoves, bear children and sing killer corrido alongside a couple glasses of ponche. This is the town that my grandfather said was so hot, the devil vacationed there in the summer. The heat, dwindling agricultural cultivation, and the prospects of the American Dream have led many into big urban cities or to the U.S.

This isn’t a telenovela on Univision, but rather, a horrific news story.

The hunt for the students has laid bare the brutality and lawlessness in parts of Mexico that is still under the grip of the cartels, despite years of the government’s war on drugs.

When I first read about the missing students, I could not help but think that they could have been my cousins, brothers, friends or fellow students.

Students from Mexico and all over the world joined together on Nov. 20, in a rally to wear all black to show solidarity for the missing 43 students. From Yale to Cal State Northridge and beyond, students, teachers, mothers, fathers and administrators took a stand.

I care, not just because I am Mexican-American or because I share the surname of some of the missing, but because we are all humans, and to think of students being captured, tortured and left for dead simply because they believed in free speech is revolting.

Wilson College was a part of this movement. Wilson students, dressed in black, met in Lenfest Commons and held photographs of the missing. Their participation gained international exposure through #Ayotzinapa on social media. The photos taken at the Wilson event on Nov. 20 were seen by more than 10,000 people on Instagram.

I saw parallels in the missing Ayotzinapa students with the murders at Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January. Whether you are a cartoonist from France, a rural student teacher from Mexico or a student at Wilson College, it is important that everyone is free to express their beliefs and can stand up for what they believe to be true without the fear of violence or death.

So what does this really mean? What good will a couple of Instagram photos really do? I am certain Marc Jacobs, La Mer or Lena Dunham will get more exposure and followers on their postings.

But isn’t that exactly the fault in our society? A fashion icon or an organic makeup line is of more interest than our fellow students, who have been stripped of their lives because of the blurred lines between politicians and narcos. They lost their lives merely because they were exercising their right to free speech—their right to join in a peaceful protest.

34 wilson magazine

Soy Ayotzinapa was one of the phrases used by many on Instagram who joined the movement. It means I am Ayotzinapa. Wilson is Ayotzinapa.

The beauty of this movement is now, more than anything, that the lives of the missing students will be forever remembered, throughout the world and here at Wilson.

— Christina Gonzalez ’16 Political Science and Spanish major

— hidden —

history C

ollecting is a common hobby, inspired by an interest in some particular object, topic, place or person. People collect stamps, coins, buttons, shot glasses, comic books, Furbies…the list goes on and on.

The C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives also acts as a collector, although the archives collection focuses on the preservation of the history of Wilson College, rather than the eventual value of Beanie Babies on eBay. That history takes many interesting forms, such as the archives’ unique collection of Wilson College souvenir spoons.

Typically made of sterling silver (or, less frequently, nickel, steel or even wood) these souvenir spoons were designed to be ornaments and were proudly displayed on a spoon rack. Popular themes included buildings, landmarks, cities, famous people, names and historic events.

Souvenir spoons rose to popularity in Europe in the mid-1800s.

Wealthy Americans, returning from European vacations, brought home these silver spoons to commemorate their travels. The first souvenir spoon produced in the United States, created by Galt Bros. of Washington, D.C., in 1890, depicted a simple profile of George Washington to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his presidency. A year later, Daniel Low, a jeweler in Salem, Mass., created his famous “witch” spoon after taking a vacation in Germany. Low is largely credited for sparking the souvenir spoon-collecting craze in America.

By June 1891, America was producing hundreds of its own souvenir spoon patterns. In 1893, approximately 27 million visitors to the Chicago World’s Fair could view the largest exhibition of souvenir spoons in history. In addition to the World’s Fair exposure, two other factors contributed to the spoon's popularity.

Industrialization increased production, while the collapse of the silver market in 1893 also made silver available to many ordinary Americans for the first time.

The C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives has two identical souvenir spoons representing Wilson College that were probably made in the late 1890s. Main Hall (now Lenfest Commons), together with Norland and Edgar halls, are engraved in the spoon’s bowl. The handle is elaborately patterned with the words “Sally Wilson” and with a bust of Sarah Wilson herself as the finial.

One of these spoons originally belonged to Jean Davison Gordon ’02, but bears the inscription “Ethyl—Dec. 1891” on the back. Its match originally belonged to Mary Cochran Sprecher, Class of 1897. A smaller, more delicate version of these spoons was donated

by Mary Wheeler King ’23, but originated in the late 1890s. The archives also possess a 1901 spoon decorated with a blue Wilson pennant and a small 1912 spoon sporting the Wilson seal.

The more elaborate Wilson spoons from the late 1890s were created during the height of spoon collecting’s popularity. They serve to promote the College, as well as to pay tribute to the College’s namesake donor. In later years, when the popularity of spoon collecting was waning, spoon designs became more simplistic, as evidenced by the 1912 spoon.

For more information on souvenir spoons and other college memorabilia, visit the Hankey Center’s C. Elizabeth Boyd ’33 Archives.

— Leigh Rupinski

winter 2015 35

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Winter Greetings from Wilson College, Your time, talents and treasures are important to the Alumnae Association of Wilson College and the Office of Alumnae/i Relations. We continue to need your support. Check out the monthly Alumnae/i Relations E-News, our website and Wilson Magazine for opportunities to be of service.

The alumnae/i relations office has been very busy: • Preparing for the 2015 Reunion Weekend.

• Updating the list of class representatives.

• Pairing students and alums in the Aunt Sarah program.

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

• Continuing to emphasize additional collaboration with campus officers.

The E-News is a major avenue for us to communicate with you. Please make sure we have your current email address.

Future happenings: the Alumnae Association will be looking for opportunities to increase career connections with students. Watch for more information on this exciting endeavor.

REUNION WEEKEND: JUNE 5-7, 2015 Reunion is the time to return to campus to reconnect with old friends, make new friends and learn what is new on campus, as well as what is planned for the future. All are invited to join fellow Wilson College alumnae/i and their families for Reunion Weekend 2015. The Alumnae Association is planning a weekend full of events, including alumnae/i classes, dinners, entertainment, awards and much more. Mark your calendar for the weekend of June 5-7. A registration brochure is included in this issue of the Wilson Magazine.

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

36 wilson magazine

UPCOMING ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION TRIPS Oct. 4-13, 2015—Mediterranean Mosaic 8-night cruise Discover an impressive mosaic of enchanting cities, marvelous art and architecture and awe-inspiring seascapes as you sail to timeless Mediterranean destinations, including Italy, Monaco, France and Spain. Travel on the vessel Oceania from Athens to Barcelona from Oct. 4-13 with Go Next. Join alumnae from Agnes Scott and Sweet Briar colleges for this unique traveling experience. Book by March 12 and save $1,000. To learn more, call Go Next at 800-842-9023.

TRI PS I N 2015 Florence, Italy

Athens, Greece

For more information about additional international trips sponsored by the Alumnae Association Tours and Travel Committee, visit wilson.edu/aatours.

May 1-9 — American Queen’s Southern Culture riverboat tour from Memphis to New Orleans with Go Next. Call 800-842-9023 to sign up or for more information.

Aug. 6-12 — Canadian Rockies Parks and Resorts with Orbridge (Calgary, Lake Louise, Jasper, Banff, Calgary) For more information, call Orbridge at 866-639-0079.

Aug. 23-29 — Barging in Northern Burgundy, France, with Canal Barge Cruises on the Luciole. Contact barge cruise specialist Beth Hanson at 888-264-3983 or beth@canalbargecruises.com for more information.

Sept. 25-Oct. 4 — Sicily, Italy, with AHI Travel. Call AHI at 800-680-4244.

Oct. 3-10 — Flavors of Northern Italy with Orbridge. An optional extension to Venice will be offered. For more information, call Orbridge at 866-639-0079.

REUNION 2015 RAFFLE During Reunion 2015, the Alumnae Association will be sponsoring a round-robin raffle to raise funds for the association’s operating budget.

The raffle is sure to have something for everyone and the rules are easy: tickets can be purchased for $2 each, or $10 for seven. Drop tickets into the jar for the item or items you are interested in and cross your fingers for luck.

Prizes to be drawn Saturday evening.

The association is also accepting donations for the raffle. The sky is the limit—donate a piece of Wilson memorabilia, a merchant gift card or even your vacation home for a weekend.

For more information on the raffle or to donate, please contact the Alumnae Association at AAWC@wilson.edu.

winter 2015 37

— last —

word

L

ast weekend I went home. The complexities that exist in modern life have meant that my partner has not yet been able to join me in Chambersburg. It also means that I travel a great deal these days.

When I got to Massachusetts this last time, there was much rejoicing. Cries of joy. Howls of delight. Dancing. Leaping. Shrieking.

It makes one feel good, I have to say, to know that your mere presence can be the cause of such joy, even if the reveler in question is an otherwise curmudgeonly 10-year-old beagle.

We should take such unbridled happiness to heart, I think, especially when we are living with a seemingly unending list of tragedies and catastrophes that serve as a backdrop to our lives— airplane crashes, civil unrest, terrorist threats, famine, war, fire, flood, the Phillies. Even bats and bees are dying. And there are stink bugs everywhere!

It is difficult to disconnect from all this even at the movies. Over this particular weekend, instead of seeing whatever J.R.R. Tolkien book that has been recently released as a Peter Jackson movie, I saw both The Imitation Game and Selma.

The Imitation Game is the story of gay British mathematician Alan Turing, who built the machine that broke the Germans’ “unbreakable” Enigma code during World War II. Selma chronicles Martin Luther King Jr.’s involvement in the 1965 voting rights demonstrations in Selma, Ala. Both films reveal atrocities that seem to me to be based solely on difference: different sexual orientations, different skin colors, different religious and cultural beliefs. The experience made me wonder how much better off as a society we would be if we truly embraced the intent of an education in the liberal arts.

Is it too large a leap to imagine a world where everyone lived by the Honor Principle? After all, when we are able to respect and appreciate difference, think critically and couch issues in a broader, more global context, do we not end up with more nuanced and more humane solutions?

Isn’t that a desperate need?

I think so, but it’s not just me. A little over a year and a half ago, the Association of American Colleges and Universities released a national survey of business leaders who emphatically stated that what would best prepare college students for long-term professional success is a liberal education.

Nearly all—93 percent—of those business leaders said that “critical thinking, complex problem solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings” were needed by graduates, with 95 percent responding that it is “important that those they hire demonstrate ethical judgment and integrity; intercultural skills; and the capacity for continued new learning.”

I don’t know about you, but it sure sounds to me like the world needs more Wilson graduates.

And when that happens, I will worry less about the future and more about playing with my dog.

Mark Blackmon Director of Communications Marketing and Communications

winter 2015 61

PHOTO BY MATTHEW LESTER

1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285

For half a century, the Orr Forum on Religion, now directed by Associate Professor of Religion David True (above), has tackled challenging questions and fostered an atmosphere of open discussion. Story on Page 16.