Nationally known comedian Jane Condon will address the Wilson College senior class at the 148th annual commencement ceremony, to be held at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 13. Condon, dubbed “an uppercrust Roseanne” by the Associated Press, has performed on a number of television programs, including ABC’s The View, NBC’s Today Show and Last Comic Standing, and Lifetime’s Girls’ Night Out. The Wall Street Journal calls her “a rarity” whose material “never needs to be laundered.”
Condon graduated from Wellesley College in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and later earned a Master of Education in children’s television from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She began her career as a journalist for Fortune and Life magazines, according to her biography at www.fortyover40, which honored her in 2015 by naming her to its “40 Women to Watch over 40” list. While living for a time in Tokyo, Condon authored the 1985 bestselling book, A Half Step Behind: Japanese Women of the ’80s, which sold out in Japan. According to fortyover40.com, “… when she would lecture about Japan, people would laugh. A new career was born.”
Condon was named “Audience Favorite—New York” on Last Comic Standing. She also won the nationwide “Ladies of Laughter” contest and appears in theaters around the country with the “Ladies of Laughter: Funny and Fabulous” tour. Condon was named one of “10 Comedy Best Bests” in the annual Backstage comedy issue. Her bio at www.fortyover40.com describes her as “a wife and mom who balances her life by getting lots of great material for her stand-up routines from her family, as well as her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut.”
Condon performs at functions ranging from large charity fundraisers to national television. She delivered the 2011 commencement remarks at Wellesley, as well as at the University of New Haven in 2012.
Four Wilson College seniors presented the results of their research and one was recognized for her oral presentation at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science (PAS), held March 23 to 25 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pa. The following Wilson students presented research: Karis Daniel of Ontario, Canada; Amanda Haase of Culpepper, Va.; Kirstin Lehman of Coopersburg, Pa.; and Deborah Rifflard of Harrisburg, Pa. Daniel, who is majoring in biology, placed second in the oral presentation category for her research project, “Validating Fecal DNA Technologies for Ungulate Conservation.” Daniel completed the research during the fall 2017 semester while participating in the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation Semester Program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. Her research involved assessing validity and integrity of fecal DNA for two critically endangered ungulate (hoofed mammal) species.
Haase, a biology and chemistry major, presented her research project, “Comparison of Factors that Affect the Ethanol Concentration in Blood during Putrefaction.”
Lehman, who is majoring in biology and veterinary medical technology, presented her research project, “Investigation of Possible Points of Contamination by Lactobacillus and Pediococcus in a Microbrewery.” Lehman received Wilson’s E. Grace White Summer Scholarship last year in support of her undergraduate research, which was done in collaboration with Chris Collier, brewmaster at the Roy Pitz Brewing Co. in Chambersburg.
Rifflard, a biology major, presented research on “The Effects of Probiotics on Canine Weight and Fecal Fat Content.” Rifflard, who also received the E. Grace White Summer Scholarship to support her undergraduate research, is the recipient the Wilson’s Margaret Criswell Disert Honors Scholarship.
The students were accompanied to PAS by Wilson Professors Deb Austin, Abigail Berkey, Brad Engle, Dana Harriger, Tonia Hess-Kling, Katie Sarachan and Bradley Stiles.
PAS judges oral presentations and posters, providing monetary awards for the top three places in each category. It judges oral presentations in categories for scientific merit–ranging from experimental methodologies to analysis of results–and presentation qualities, including visual impact and fielding of questions. The overall score is reflective of all subcategories.
At Wilson, students begin their projects in the spring of their junior year by writing a research proposal based on a specific question that they are interested in studying. In the subsequent fall semester, they complete lab work and collect data. This semester, the students have been focused on data analysis, writing a thesis and preparing to communicate their results at PAS.
Students will share their results of their research during Wilson’s annual Student Research Day on April 27.
The Wilson College Veterinary Medical Technology Club will host dog washes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 14 and 15, in the college veterinary building near the main entrance to campus. The dog washes are open to the public. The cost is $10 for small dogs, $15 for medium dogs, $20 for large dogs and $25 for extra-large or double-coated dogs. The fee includes a bath, nail trim, ear cleaning and drying—all of which will be performed by VMT Club members. Owners must present a paper copy of their dog’s rabies vaccination. For more information, contact VMT Club President Inna Caruso at inna.caruso@wilson.edu.
Frank Furedi, whose influential books The Culture of Fear and Paranoid Parenting investigated the interaction between risk consciousness and perceptions of fear in contemporary society, will present two talks exploring fear on Monday, April 16, at Wilson College as part of the Common Hour series of lectures. Both are free and open to the public.
The first talk, based on Furedi's forthcoming book The Rules of Fear in 21st-Century Society, will be held at noon in Lenfest Learning Commons, located in Wilson's John Stewart Memorial Library. The way we fear and what we dread is mediated through social and cultural norms. This talk will examine the distinctive features of the culture of fear in the present time. It will explore the symbols and rituals through which modern fear is performed in everyday life, while attempting to answer the question of how fear works in the 21st century.
Furedi's second lecture, Socialization and the `Culture of Fear', will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Lenfest Learning Commons and be followed by a reception. How we fear is closely linked to ideas about morality and personhood. It is for this reason that the way we socialize young people is of great significance in understanding the culture of fear that prevails in the 21st century. The aim of this talk is to explore the effects of contemporary socialization on the way that society expresses its fears about the problems of everyday life.
Furedi is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and visiting professor at the Institute of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London. He has produced a series of agenda-setting books - more than 20 overall - that have been widely discussed in the media. Furedi regularly comments on radio and television, and in the past year has appeared on Newsnight, Sky and BBC News, The Today Programme, Moral Maze and a variety of other radio and television shows. Read more about Furedi at https://www.wilson.edu/socialisation-and-culture-fear.
The Foundry, a Chambersburg art cooperative located at 100 N. Main St., will host Wilson Students at The Foundry, an exhibition of artwork by Wilson College studio art students. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, opens Friday, April 6, and runs through April 30.
Participating students, who range from freshmen to seniors, will exhibit works in a variety of mediums, including drawings, paintings and photographs.
The exhibition is the second in a partnership between The Foundry and Wilson College. The partnership provides opportunities for exhibition exchanges and possible studio/workshop opportunities. Foundry artists will have the opportunity to exhibit their artwork at Wilson College this year.
Wilson College will hold a reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, to mark the opening of the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. The exhibit will continue through April 27 in the Bogigian Gallery, which is located in Lortz Hall.
The show provides a venue for Wilson students to share their work with the community. The exhibition will feature drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics, photographs and mixed-media artwork with a wide array of subject matter and content.
This year’s juror is Holly Shearer, a local artist and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) faculty member at Greencastle-Antrim Senior High School.
The Bogigian Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free. For additional information or an appointment, contact Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey at 717-264-2783 or philip.lindsey@wilson.edu.
The Wilson College Child Care center recently received a $12,920 Keystone STARS Quality Improvement Grant, which will provide stipends for child care center staff in recognition of educational achievements. The grant was awarded by the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh through the Keystone STARS program, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning to improve, support and recognize the continuous quality improvement efforts of early learning programs in Pennsylvania. The YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh serves as the funding partner and the Southwest Regional Key for the STARS program. Wilson’s child care center is located in Prentis Hall and accommodates 36 children ages 20 months to 5 years, year-round. The center provides early care and education for children of Wilson College students and staff, as well as those of Chambersburg families, through a curriculum that is child-centered and developmentally appropriate.
Wilson's modern dance ensemble, Orchesis, will present its annual spring performance on Friday and Saturday, April 6 and 7, in Laird Hall. Performances will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. The performances, which are open to the public, will feature dances choreographed by Wilson faculty, students, alumnae and guest artists, including New York City choreographer Teresa Fellion. Tickets are available at the door and prices are $10 for general admission and $3 for students with I.D. and seniors. Children under 12 get in free.
A $1 million gift for a new veterinary education center at Wilson College has been committed by Margaret Hamilton Duprey, a resident of Wellington, Fla., and member of the college’s Board of Trustees.
With other major gifts for the veterinary education center from two Wilson alumnae, including contributions totaling $975,000 from Susan Breakefield Fulton, Class of 1961, and a $100,000 bequest from the late Eleanor Martin Allen, Class of 1949, Duprey’s gift brings the total raised for the new veterinary facility to $2,075,000. The total estimated cost of the project is $2.8 million, officials said.
While the college continues to raise money for the new facility, which will replace the 20-year-old Helen M. Beach ’24 Veterinary Medical Center, Duprey’s gift will allow Wilson to break ground on the new vet ed center sometime in June, with completion expected in January 2019, according to Brian Ecker, the college’s vice president for finance and administration.
“We are deeply grateful to Margaret for her leadership as a trustee and her commitment to the institution,” said Wilson Vice President for Institutional Advancement Camilla Rawleigh.
The veterinary center—which houses surgery suites, skill labs, dog kennels, offices and other spaces—is a hub for students in Wilson’s four-year veterinary medical technology (VMT) program, one of the college’s most popular majors.
A lifelong horsewoman, Duprey contributed $500,000 to Wilson in 2015 to establish an innovative home healthcare nursing program for horses called Equi-Assist®. A focused concentration within the college’s VMT program, Equi-Assist® trains students to provide home healthcare to horses, under the guidance of a veterinarian.
Replacing the outdated Beach veterinary facility is important if Wilson College is to remain in the forefront of the veterinary medical technology field, Duprey said. “In order for Wilson to expand and excel in the vet tech program, the Equi-Assist® program was needed as the first step. This was a very important gift to advance one of the best teaching programs in the country,” she said. “The reason I decided to support the new veterinary education center is to make sure the vet tech program has the finest learning facility for students and for the treatment and care of all animals—small and large.”
Duprey joined the Wilson College Board of Trustees in fall 2017. She and her husband, Bob, own and operate Cherry Knoll Farm, which is the home of dressage, open jumpers and hunter competition horses, as well as prize-winning Black Angus cattle. The farm has locations in Pennsylvania and Florida.
Wilson officials recognized the need to significantly upgrade or replace the veterinary facility after the American Veterinary Medical Association’s reaccreditation process identified deficiencies in the modular facility—including an inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, according to Ecker.
He said the new veterinary education center will be 9,000 square feet compared to the 5,400-square-foot Beach facility, which will be razed after the new veterinary building is completed. The new center will be built on the west side of the Brooks Science Complex. Plans call for it to include two surgery rooms, a dental room, recovery room and isolation room, as well as kennels and an indoor run for dogs, a cat room, office, lounge, clinical practice area and laundry facilities, Ecker said.
The college has retained R.S. Mowery & Sons of Mechanicsburg, Pa., as the general contractor for the project and Benedict Dubbs of Murray Associates Architects of Harrisburg, Pa., as the architect.
Wilson College sophomore Pratikshya Gaihre has been named a Campus Compact 2018 Newman Civic Fellow, an honor given to civic-minded students who have demonstrated “an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country and abroad.”
Gaihre, one of 269 Newman Fellows named across the country, is an international student from Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. She is a Wilson College Curran Scholar who volunteers with the college’s tutoring program for children from migrant worker families, as well as with Menno Haven’s Elder Day adult daycare program at Penn Hall. She is parliamentarian for the Wilson College Government Association and is a member of Wilson’s international student club. She also works as a resident adviser (RA).
Gaihre, who is majoring in accounting and financial mathematics, has a history of civic engagement activities in high school. As president of a social service club, Gaihre—with the help of her parents—raised $15,000 to buy and install solar panels to provide electricity for 14 families and a school in the remote village of Bhojpur in eastern Nepal.
“I did it because there are so many students, especially in rural areas, that help their parents with households or take care of their farms,” said Gaihre, adding that they are only able to study at night—which is difficult without electricity. After a bus ride of more than 12 hours, Gaihre and the installers from the company she purchased the solar panels from had to walk seven more hours to get to the village. “It was hard, but it was worth it,” she said.
When Gaihre was in 11th grade, she was part of an effort that donated computers and books to establish a library in a poor village in the western part of Nepal.
“It just makes me happy,” said Gaihre of helping people. After graduating from Wilson, she wants to continue her studies and get a master’s degree in the same field. Then she plans to return to Nepal and find a job—perhaps with the United Nations, a UN-based organization or an international corporation—and continue helping Nepali people in need.
“I’m interested in providing service to the people. There are rural places in Nepal that need to be helped,” she said. “I would also like to do something related to accounting.”
Gaihre is Wilson’s third Newman Civic Fellow. The fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional and civic growth. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.
Campus Compact is a Boston-based, nonprofit coalition of more than 1,000 colleges and universities committed to “the public purposes of higher education.”
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate and engage with such an extraordinary group of students,” said Campus Compact president Andrew Seligsohn. “The stories of this year's Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are bringing people together in their communities to solve pressing problems. That is what Campus Compact is about, and it's what our country and our world desperately need.”
For more information about Campus Compact, visit www.compact.org.
