FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 7, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Artist and educator Alejandro Durán brings his stunning photography and installation project – Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape – to the John Stewart Memorial Library’s new Sue Davison Cooley Art Gallery at Wilson College in March. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will open with a reception and artist’s talk on the first floor of Lenfest Learning Commons at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 22.
Washed Up eloquently depicts the worldwide impact of plastic pollution through Durán’s photographs of Sian Ka’an, a tropical nature reserve in Mexico, where the natural world intersects with trash carried there from around the globe by ocean currents.
Durán, who lives and works in Brooklyn, was born in Mexico and has been returning there for most of his life. In 2010 while visiting Sian Ka’an – a UNESCO World Heritage site with more than 20 pre-Columbian archaeological sites, a vast array of flora and fauna and the world’s second-largest coastal barrier reef – Durán noticed the plastic waste that was washing up on the beach. “It was shocking,” said Durán.
He has identified refuse from 50 nations on six continents that has washed ashore at Sian Ka’an.To raise awareness of the issue, Durán began artfully arranging the debris into the natural landscape, creating color-based, site-specific sculptures, which he then photographs.
“Conflating the hand of man and nature, at times I distribute the objects the way the waves would; at other times, the plastic takes on the shape of algae, roots, rivers, or fruit, reflecting the infiltration of plastics into the natural environment,” Durán says on his website, www.alejandroduran.com.
His photo series “depicts a new form of colonization by consumerism, where even undeveloped land is not safe from the far-reaching impact of our disposable culture,” says Durán. “Although inspired by the works of Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson, Washed Up speaks to the environmental concerns of our time and its vast quantity of discarded materials. The alchemy of Washed Up lies not only in converting a trashed landscape, but in the project’s potential to raise awareness and change our relationship to consumption and waste.”
At Wilson, Durán plans to display two large-scale photographs and show a short documentary film. “The last element is a small installation using actual garbage that had washed up in Mexico that I brought back to the United States,” Durán said recently. “I’m going to most likely create something specifically for the space.”
Washed Up has been exhibited at the Galería Octavio Paz at the Mexican consulate in New York, Hunter’s East Harlem Art Gallery and Montréal’s Art Public. Ville de MontréalthetheeThe series was also chosen to exhibit for The Fence 2015, an annual, summer-long photographic exhibition on display in Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta and Houston.
The exhibit at Wilson will run through May 27. The Cooley Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays.
Durán is a multimedia artist working in photography, installation, and video. His work examines the fraught intersections of man and nature, particularly the tension between the natural world and an increasingly overdeveloped one. He has received numerous awards, including: En Foco’s New Works and Center’s Project Launch Juror’s Prize. He was Hunter College’s Artist-in-Residence for 2014-15. Durán’s work has been featured in Land Art, Art & Ecology Now and Unexpected Art. Articles about him have been featured in Wired, Huffington Post and ABC News, among others.
As an educator, Durán has taught youth and adult classes in photography and video since 2002 and has worked as a museum educator at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography. He is a founding board member for the New York City Charter School of the Arts and is a video producer whose clients include MoMA, the Museum of Arts & Design and Columbia University.
Durán’s appearance at Wilson College originated with Associate Professor of Spanish Wendell Smith, who had learned about the Washed Up project from a textbook he uses in his Spanish classes. Smith, who was part of a planning committee for a lecture series this year on climate change, contacted the artist about bringing his work to Wilson. “Because I’m a member of the global studies department, I thought we needed somebody with a perspective that this is a global problem that will require global solutions,” Smith said.
A second art exhibit is also opening at Wilson on March 22. The Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition will open with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Bogigian Gallery in Lortz Hall.
MEDIA CONTACT: Wendell Smith, Associate Professor of Spanish Phone: 717 254-0599 Email: wendell.smith@wilson.edu
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Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 31 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation.
Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college had a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 22, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — The 2015-16 Orr Forum on Religion at Wilson College, which has been examining the multitude of apocalyptic themes in today’s world, will feature two lectures by Matthew A. Sutton, author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism, on Tuesday, March 29.
Sutton’s book has been acclaimed as the first comprehensive history of modern American evangelicalism to appear in a generation. His lecture at 6:30 p.m. will discuss his book, with the focus on American fundamentalists and evangelicals across the 20th century who took to the pulpit and airwaves to explain how Biblical apocalyptic prophecy made sense of a world ravaged by global wars, genocide and the threat of nuclear extinction.
In his “Preparing for Doomsday” lecture at 11 a.m., Sutton will analyze the work of cult leader David Koresh, end-of-times broadcaster Harold Camping and televangelist Billy Graham. While most Americans may want to separate the violent prophecies of Koresh, the date-setting urgency of Camping and the mainstream evangelicalism of Graham, the work of these prophets of apocalypse has far more in common than most realize, according to Sutton.
Both lectures are free and open to the public, and will be held in Wilson’s new Lenfest Learning Commons, located in the John Stewart Memorial Library.
Sutton is the Edward R. Meyer distinguished professor of history at Washington State University. He is currently working on a new book tentatively entitled FDR’s Army of Faith: Religion and Espionage in World War II. He is also the author of Jerry Falwell and the Rise of the Religious Right: A Brief History with Documents, and Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. He has published articles in venues ranging from the Journal of American History to the New York Times and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Fulbright Commission and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation. The Orr Forum brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and artists to engage in a theme through a series of performances and lectures. In “The Return of the Apocalyptic,’’ this year’s Orr Forum has discussed apocalyptic visions, both religious and secular—from the popular culture of “The Walking Dead” to 21st-century jihadist movements. “It seems that that apocalyptic has returned, if it ever went away, and that for all the anxiety about the future, the apocalyptic is a force here and now,” said forum organizer David True, chair of Wilson’s Department of Philosophy and Religion.
For more information, visit: http://www.wilson.edu/common-hour.
MEDIA CONTACT: David True, Associate Professor of Religion Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3396 Email: david.true@wilson.edu
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 29 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation. Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college has a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
Chambersburg, Pa. — The Wilson College 2015-16 World Travel Dinner and Film Series continues on Wednesday, March 16, with armchair vacation to Egypt, featuring dinner at 6 p.m. in Laird Hall followed by the film, “Secrets of Egypt” at 7 p.m. in Thomson Hall’s Alumnae Chapel.
Dinner, prepared by of SAGE Dining Services, will include: kushari (a vegetable and noodle dish), sayadeya (baked white fish), kabab wa kofta (grilled meats), falafel with warm pita, spinach with garlic, Egyptian palace bread and ghorayeba (Egyptian butter cookies).
Following dinner, “Secrets of Egypt,” narrated by filmmaker Marlin Darrah, will be shown.
Dinner tickets are $20 per person and film tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for children ages 10 to 18. To reserve tickets, call 717-262-2003.
MEDIA CONTACT: Joel Pagliaro, Director of Conferences and Special Events, Sage Dining Services Phone: 717-262-2003 Email: conferences@wilson.edu
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 29 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation.
Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college has a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
Chambersburg, Pa. — Wilson College will hold a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, to mark the opening of the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. The exhibit, presented by Wilson’s Department of Fine Arts and Dance, will continue through April 20 in the Bogigian Gallery, which is located on the second floor of 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 Alex Miller, a local artist and art teacher at Greencastle-Antrim Senior High School.
The exhibit is modeled after the famous salons of 19th century Paris, when the French government organized official exhibits that were juried by respected artists and academics. After some 3,000 artists were rejected from the salon in 1863, protests erupted over so many rejections, which forced Napoleon III to order an exhibit of the refused works.
In the spirit of the nonconforming artists who were refused from the state-sponsored event, Wilson’s student art exhibition will also include a Salon des Refusés (Salon of Refusals). Works rejected from the exhibit will be displayed in the second- and third-floor studios of Lortz Hall, and viewers are invited to decide for themselves now, as they were in Paris, if the art is substandard or not.
Another art exhibition is opening at Wilson on March 22. Noted artist Alejandro Durán brings his acclaimed photography and installation project – Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape – to the new Sue Davison Cooley Art Gallery in the John Stewart Memorial Library. It will open with a reception and artist’s talk at 4 p.m. on the first floor of the Lenfest Learning Commons.
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 717-264-4141, Ext. 3305, or philip.lindsey@wilson.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Philip Lindsey, Professor of Fine Arts Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3305 Email: philip.lindsey@wilson.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 2, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — The Wilson College series “FRESH! — Finding Responsible Eating Strategies for Health” — will continue Saturday, March 12, with a book chat on Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on American’s Health, Economy, Politics, Culture and Environment. The talk will be held at 1:30 p.m. in Wilson’s Laird Hall.
All FRESH! events are free and open to the public.
Written by globally recognized environmentalists Dennis Hayes and Gail Boyer Hayes, Cowed offers a revealing analysis of how our centuries-old relationship with bovines has evolved into one that now endangers us. This book chat led by Chris Mayer, director of Wilson’s Fulton Center for Sustainable Living, will explore the impact that our dairy and beef diet has on health and more.
For more information, contact Mayer at 717-264-4141, Ext. 3247, or christine.mayer@wilson.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Chris Mayer, Fulton Center for Sustainable Living Director Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3247 Email: christine.mayer@wilson.edu
Chambersburg, Pa. — Wilson College will offer free sessions on how to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on Tuesday, March 15, in Wilson’s Brooks Science Complex. The sessions will be held at 5:30 and 7 p.m. and are open to anyone who is interested.
Those attending must register for a session of their choice by calling Wilson’s financial aid office, which will provide instructions on what paperwork and documents to bring to the workshop. The office can be reached at 717-262-2016.
The workshop, for college-bound seniors, their parents and school counselors, provides the opportunity to get personalized help completing the 2016-2017 FAFSA and the chance to ask questions related to the financial aid process. A short presentation will be provided by a representative from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). Financial aid staff from Wilson College will also be in attendance to answer questions and assist family members as they complete the FAFSA online.
The FAFSA is used to determine if students qualify for nearly all forms of need-based financial assistance, including the Pennsylvania State Grant; Federal Pell Grant; federal student loans; and many scholarships, work-study programs and school-based awards.
Families should submit the FAFSA as early as possible after Jan. 1 to ensure meeting earlier financial aid deadlines that may be required by selected schools, according to Wilson’s financial aid office.
MEDIA CONTACT: Laura Peiffer, Assistant Financial Aid Counselor Phone: 717-262-2016 Email: laura.peiffer@wilson.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Feb. 25, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — In recognition of Women’s History Month in March, Wilson College will host three lectures and open a new Women’s History Exhibit at the Hankey Center. The exhibit, “Trailblazers and Innovators: Portraits of Educated Women,” is free and open to the public.
The exhibit spotlights Wilson graduates from the years 1875-1975 who made notable contributions in their fields, including medicine, academia, science, law, business, the arts, the military, political activism, social work, libraries and education. It also includes a section on “advice” for women choosing careers and how that advice changed over time, reflecting cultural changes regarding educated, working women.
“The purpose of the exhibit is to recognize the accomplishments of Wilson’s alumnae in various fields of work, during a time when it took great fortitude to gain an education, as well as succeed in some fields which were dominated by men,” said Amy Ensley, Hankey Center director. The exhibit will run through the year.
In addition, the college will sponsor the following Women’s History Month lectures, which are also free and open to the public:
Author Kim van Alkemade, Orphan #8, Monday, March 7, at 4 p.m. Van Alkemade is the bestselling author of Orphan #8. Inspired by true events, and incorporating years of archival research, the novel tell the story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage. This talk is being held in conjunction with the Wilson Writers Series.
Dianna Heim, “Claiming Ground: Challenges and Activism Among Pennsylvania’s Women Farmers,” Thursday, March 24, at noon. Heim’s master’s thesis at Wilson College explores the challenges faced by women farmers from a feminist perspective. Through the use of oral history interviews, she examines the role of activist for those women working in Pennsylvania agriculture.
Karlee Johnston, “Elizabeth McGeorge Sullivan ’38,” Wednesday, March 30, at 4 p.m. Johnston recently interned at the Hankey Center and worked with the Elizabeth McGeorge Sullivan ’38 collection. She will discuss Sullivan’s World War II service as a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) pilot and how women’s service was treated differently than men’s. Items from the collection, including Sullivan’s WASP uniform, will be displayed.
MEDIA CONTACT: Amy Ensley, Director of the Hankey Center Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3279 Email: amy.ensley@wilson.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Feb. 24, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. – The Wilson College Child Care center recently boosted its rating in the Keystone STARS program to a STAR 3 designation from the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning. The child care center, which is licensed by the Department of Human Services, previously had a STAR 2 designation.
Currently, the center located in Wilson’s Prentis Hall, accommodates 45 children ages 20 months to five years, year-round. The center strives to provide high-quality 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.
Keystone STARS is a rating system that offers families a way to evaluate the quality of child care programs so they can make informed decisions that best meet their needs. As STAR levels increase from a STAR 1 through a STAR 4, so do the requirements for meeting higher standards of quality.
Keystone STARS also provides training to advance staff education; technical assistance to help programs meet STAR level requirements; and additional resources through support grants and merit awards to support continued quality improvements. In 2014-15, nearly 3,900 Keystone STARS providers served approximately 166,000 children up to age 12.
MEDIA CONTACT: Karen Zakin, Director of the Wilson College Child Care Center Phone: 717-262-2030 Email: karen.zakin@wilson.edu
By Coleen Dee Berry
For the past 20 years, the Single Parent Scholar Program at Wilson has made dreams come true.
Ligmie Preval ’09 dreamed of working for a high-tech company like Google, but her attempt to change careers meant juggling parenthood, a job and community college classes. Enrolling at Wilson in what was then called the Women with Children program and living on campus with her daughter, Sunaii, “was the easiest and fastest way for me to get my degree. I could go to school full time (and) have more time to spend with my daughter in her transformative years. Being a full time student also allowed me to fully participate in campus life.”
After graduating with a degree in computer science, Preval went on to receive a master’s in instructional technology and media, and then was hired to work in software development as a human factor engineer at athenahealth, an electronic health records company in Massachusetts.
Nicole Zvarik ’03 enrolled in Wilson’s program with her daughter, Savannah, in 1999. “When I came to Wilson, I felt a sense of freedom and support that I had never experienced before,” she said. “Although single parenting while in college was challenging, I found my life work while I was there—my passion for dance.”
Zvarik graduated with a degree in dance and sociology and now is an independent choreographer in the San Francisco Bay area and co-founder of the Deep Root Dance Collective.
“Over the years, the Single Parent Scholar program has helped open the door for college education—first to single mothers and now to single fathers as well—whether they are 18, 38 or 48,” said Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick. “That’s why this program is so special—it is giving students the opportunity to achieve their dreams.”
In 1996, the Women with Children program began with two single mothers and their children. This year, 18 mothers and 19 children were enrolled in the recently expanded and re-christened Single Parent Scholar program, which is open to single parents of both sexes.
The program grew out of Wilson President Emerita Gwen Jensen’s passion to address barriers to education for women in poverty. “I was very concerned about single mothers and the difficulty they faced getting into college,” Jensen said. “What I didn’t realize at the time was that the program at Wilson would also have a tremendous impact on the children—that it would change their lives also.”
Jensen credited then-Dean of Students Kathy Houghton with getting the program off the ground, and praised Sylvia Field of the Eden Hall Foundation with obtaining the grant that allowed Wilson to renovate Prentis Hall for family life on campus. The program continues to receive support from the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation and generous donations from alumnae/i, including class gifts, according to Katie Kough, the current program director.
“Wilson made a very courageous decision to start this program 20 years ago,” Kough said. “Of course it was the right thing to do, but it was also a difficult thing to do from a logistical standpoint, especially for a small college.”
“It’s an incredibly unique program,” said Sherri Sadowski, Wilson’s director of residence life. “The students in the program have their own community. They are very protective of each other. That’s why I like the common rooms they have at Wilson—they share kitchens and play space—because it helps create that community.”
Single parent scholars are treated as traditional undergraduate students, with all campus courses, events and programs open to them—even study-abroad.
Stephanie Marshall ’17 spent this spring semester studying in Berlin with her two children, Brettney, 11, and Logan, 9. “Living and studying in Berlin has been an amazing experience for me and my children,” Marshall said. “As a history major with a particular interest in the lives of women and children under the Nazi regime, the ability to explore and conduct research at former forced labor camps and in the archives and libraries of various museums here is beyond words.”
At the time it was first formed, Wilson’s Women with Children program was one of the first such programs in the nation. Today, according to Kough, only eight other colleges nationally have similar undergraduate residential programs for single parents.
Children, as well as their parents, benefit from living on campus, Mistick said. “Living at a college while their parent goes to school has an enormous impact on the children. The experience encourages them to follow in their parent’s footsteps and achieve a college education. So the program not only helps single parents, it impacts the next generation as well.”
When Keshie Mansouri ’10 enrolled in Women with Children, her daughter, Vanessa Whitfield, was 15, one of the oldest children ever accepted in the program. “I have to be honest, at first I was miserable,” Whitfield said. “I had left friends and basketball behind. When I matured a bit and realized I was going to be here a while, I got more involved, made friends and came to appreciate what a unique opportunity I had.”
When Whitfield graduated from Chambersburg Area Senior High School (the same year her mom graduated), Wilson was her first choice for college. “I had bonded with several professors when I was here,” she said. “I liked Wilson’s no-distractions environment and I already had friends here.”
Whitfield majored in sports management and starred on the Phoenix women’s basketball team, where she scored more than 1,000 points. After graduation, Whitfield ’14 landed a job coaching seventh-grade girls’ basketball in Waynesboro, Pa., and a year later was recruited by Wilson to become an admissions counselor. At college fairs, she can talk about the Single Parent Scholar program from a personal standpoint.
“For me, being in the program helped me realize the feeling of togetherness, of belonging. We were all like a big family. I still am friends with people in the program— some of them my mom’s friends—still see them and talk to them,” Whitlock said. “The bonds we made are lifetime bonds, something that I’ll have forever, and that makes my heart smile.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Feb. 19, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Virtuoso world/folk/klezmer quintet DanazNova will bring its eclectic brand of ethnic dance music to Chambersburg as part of the Wilson College Performing Arts Series. The group will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, March 11, in Laird Hall.
Tickets for DanzaNova are available now and are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and children ages 12 to 18. Admission is free for children under 12 and Wilson College students and employees. Tickets can be purchased by calling 717-262-2003 or visiting www.wilson.edu/events.
DanzaNova was formed in 2009 by composer/pianist/accordionist Ronn Yedidia. The group plays music in the form of folk song and dance, while covering a variety of popular songs with ethnic origins from the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. The group also plays a series of Yedidia's original dance compositions entitled KlezDances. DanzaNova's performances have been described as “passionate, emotional experiences of deep communication between music, musicians and listeners.”
In addition to Yedidia, DanzaNova’s members include violinist Dmitriy Fisch, guitarist Giacomo La Vita, bassist Eddy Khaimovich and percussionist Yuval Edoot.
