P E N N S TAT E B E H R E N D S C H O O L O F H U M A N I T I E S & S O C I A L S C I E N C E S | 2 0 1 9
10 STUDENT TURNS ADVERSITY INTO OPPORTUNITY 5 From Class Project to Videogame 6 Art Sheds Light on Urban Schools 8 Alumna Rejuvenates Children’s Museum 9 History Student Researches Behrend Artifacts 12 CORE is Getting a New Home!
1
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
In Brief Public Policy Fund programs prove popular
Eric Corty, Ph.D. “DOERS AND THINKERS” That’s the start of my elevator speech these days when someone asks me what my plans are for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. I want our students to have two sets of skills when they graduate: the skills of a thinker and the skills of a doer. Thinker skills are the ones gained in all of our majors—a broad and a deep knowledge of the specific content of one’s major. Add to this the critical thinking that allows our students to take in and evaluate new knowledge and the communication skills that enable them to express that knowledge clearly and persuasively. Thinker skills and the liberal arts go hand in hand. There are plenty of good jobs out there for graduates with these thinker skills. In 2016, Burning Glass Technologies estimated that there were almost a million entry-level jobs for graduates with degrees in the liberal arts. And if the graduate had added coursework in an area such as business, computer programming, social media, data analysis, or graphic design—and others that build doer skills—there were an additional 900,000 jobs open for consideration. Taken together, thinker skills and doer skills create a win-win situation: Those in the humanities and social sciences benefit from more jobs and higher salaries; employers benefit from the perspectives brought to business decisions by our disciplines. Our students have an abundance of options to add applied skills. Two of the newest are a media production minor that gives hands-on experience in capturing sound and motion and a digital humanities minor that builds computer skills, including programming. In the coming year, my goal is to create an environment in which more and more of our students are encouraged to grow their options for career success by becoming both thinkers and doers.
In its first year, the Public Policy Fund at Penn State Behrend has drawn hundreds of people to campus to discuss a variety of topics organized around semester-long themes, including “Revitalizing the Rustbelt” and “Environment and Economy.” The fund’s seminars have featured nationally-known journalists, academics, and policy makers. This fall’s theme will be “Access to Healthcare” and will examine barriers to medical services in the 21st century. The Public Policy Fund is based in the Political Science program and was established to bring together a diversity of perspectives to inform public policy decisions that affect the Erie region and similar communities. The fund draws on the expertise of Behrend faculty members to research policy solutions of importance to the Erie region, increase the policy research available to decision-makers, emphasize the importance of research-driven policy decisions, and promote interdisciplinary approaches to policy.
SPRING BREAK IN WASHINGTON, D.C. While in our nation’s capital over spring break, students enrolled in PLSC 177 Politics and Government in Washington, D.C., met up with Penn State Behrend political science alumni for a networking dinner. The students had a busy schedule while in D.C., visiting dozens of historical sites, meeting with lawmakers, and touring government agencies. The course was taught by Dr. Robert Speel, associate professor of political science.
Featured Scholars Support from donors helps our students succeed. Scholarship recipients featured in this publication include: ANGEL MORA—Council of Fellows Leadership Scholarship and the Kim Barbara and Nicholas C. Scott Scholarship AURORA PATTERSON—Donald and Dorothy Leslie Scholarship and the Dr. John Rossi Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award BRIAN WILSON—Anonymous Friend Trustee Scholarship ISABELLE ODELL—Nancy J. Anderson Trustee Scholarship
2
FACULTY NEWS NEW FACULTY AND STAFF
COME HOME! Penn State Behrend welcomed hundreds to campus for Parents, Families, and Alumni Weekend in 2018, and everyone had so much fun that we’re already looking forward to this year’s event, scheduled for September 20-22. We hope you can join us! View photos from the 2018 weekend at facebook.com/pennstatebehrend and facebook.com/behrendalumni.
College hosts second annual Model UN conference Model UN has long been known to help build the public speaking, teamwork, negotiation, and communication skills of participants. According to Ricardo Rodriguez, it also builds something else. “It builds empathy because you have to put yourself in the shoes of other delegates,” said Rodriguez, a senior industrial engineering major and president of Penn State Behrend’s Model UN Club. “That is key for young people as they head to college and eventually their careers.” Nearly sixty high school students worked to hone those skills during the second-annual High School Model United Nations Conference, held in April at Behrend. The event was sponsored by the college’s Model UN Club. Student delegates often had to take on the identity of a country, who they might not personally agree with. This was by design. “We wanted a topical theme, and we also knew it would force students to put themselves in a different position from what they actually might think,” said Marissa Litzenberg, a sophomore political science major and member of Behrend’s Model UN Club. The club recently competed at the International Model NATO Conference in Washington, D.C., and won Outstanding Delegation on the North Atlantic Council, Distinguished Delegation on the Partnerships and Cooperative Securities Committee, and overall Superior School Delegation. “When we won those awards, that was one of the best feelings because we not only hung with some really big schools, we beat them,” Litzenberg said. “Really, though, the benefits of Model UN go far beyond awards. This has done so much for me with regard to my confidence and being able to think on my feet. These are things that you can use in the workforce, regardless of what you do.”
H&SS welcomed three faculty members: lecturer Ian Michalski, Spanish; assistant teaching professor Jasper Sachsenmeier, English and English language learning; and assistant professor Dr. Christopher Shelton, clinical psychology. The school also welcomed two new staff members: Andrea Bierer, director of community outreach at Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE); and Samantha Peters, administrative support assistant.
HONORS, DISTINCTIONS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Assistant research professor Dr. James Hodge, psychology, was named the director of CORE after previously serving as interim director. Hodge also earned his doctoral degree in social psychology from the University of Vermont. Four faculty members earned H&SS school awards: Dr. Patrick Cosby, assistant teaching professor of world history, won the teaching award; Dr. Glenn Kumhera, associate professor of history, received the advising award; Dr. Robert Speel, associate professor of political science, won the research award; and Dr. Lena Surzhko-Harned, assistant teaching professor of political science, earned the outreach award. Dr. Matthew Levy, arts administration, was tenured and promoted to associate professor of art history. Dr. Gabrielle Dietrich, music and choral ensembles; Dr. Joel Hunt, arts administration and digital music; and Aimee Pogson, creative writing and English, were promoted to associate teaching professors.
RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY Faculty members published more than fifty articles and book chapters, presented more than 100 conference papers and posters, and were awarded more than forty research and travel grants. They also published the following books: Dr. Kilic Kanat, political science, Trump’in Bir Yili [First Year of Trump]; Dr. Matthew Levy, Abstract Painting and the Minimalist Critiques: Robert Mangold, David Novros, and Jo Baer in the 1960s; George Looney, creative writing and English, Report from a Place of Burning; and Dr. Molly Monahan Lang, sociology and political science, Seeing Social Problems: Readings on Contemporary Issues in the United States.
3
In Brief Exploring the Dynamics of Group Think HIGH SCHOOL POETRY CONTEST DRAWS 1,500 ENTRIES
From left: Dr. Tom Noyes, George Looney, and Creative Writing major Ben Gauge.
Poetry is often the first foray into creative writing for young people. It is where they can experiment with grammar and play with language and structure to arrange their thoughts in clever and meaningful ways. To encourage this wordplay and creative exploration among high school students, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences hosts the Lake Effect National High School Poetry Competition. The contest is administered by the college’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree program and named after its renowned literary journal, Lake Effect. This year, the contest received 1,500 entries from high school students across the nation. To select the winners each year, Dr. Tom Noyes, professor of creative writing and English, and student assistants whittle down the submissions to about fifty entries. The final fifty are then passed on to George Looney, distinguished professor of English and creative writing and award-winning author of seven full-length collections and two chapbooks of poetry. Three cash prizes—$300 for first, $200 for second, and $100 for third—are awarded thanks to the poetry competition sponsors, Barnes & Noble University Bookstores and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Read this year’s winning entries at behrend.psu.edu/ poetrycontest. 4
Engineering may seem to be a solitary endeavor, with professionals spending hours in the lab thinking, analyzing, and problem-solving. The reality is that it is a highly collaborative field; most engineers are part of larger teams, often interdisciplinary, working to accomplish common goals. Recognizing the importance of teamwork in engineering, the National Science Foundation has funded a two-year, $200,000 study of group dynamics and collaborative problem-solving in simulated manufacturing environments at Penn State Behrend. The research project will assess innovation, creativity, and metacognitive awareness, a mindfulness in how one approaches work, among teams of engineers. In the study, students will work in teams to complete manufacturing simulations, using blocks to construct LEGO cars. Students will work individually in physical and virtual-reality (VR) simulations, each learning a different aspect of the assembly process. Then, in groups, they will try to make the process faster and less expensive by reassessing the design, sourcing, manufacturing, and inspection of the toy-block cars. The design of the study, which involves faculty members from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, is itself an exercise in teamwork. “Engineering students tend to think in a linear process,” said Dr. Heather Lum, assistant professor of psychology and a coresearcher on the NSF study. “That’s how we present content in their courses: ‘You need A, B, and C to get to the end goal. That’s fine when we’re teaching a black-and-white technical skill, but there are gray areas, particularly when you work in a group setting, that sometimes require you to think in a deeper, more critical way.” Lum’s role in the NSF project will be to test the students in VR environments. An eye-tracking system embedded in VR headsets will allow researchers to note which LEGO blocks students look at, and for how long, as they select materials for the manufacturing process. Dr. Lisa Jo Elliott, assistant teaching professor of psychology, will build analytical models to measure the students’ alertness in different environments.
CLASS PROJECT
CREATES A BUZZ
Student’s videogame now available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC platforms Heather Cole got an early peek at “Where the Bees Make Honey,” Brian Wilson’s dreamlike and emotionally resonant indie videogame. Wilson, a senior in Penn State Behrend’s Digital Media, Arts, and Technology program, built one of the game’s puzzle levels for his final project in Cole’s Art 168 course. “He had a good sense of the aesthetics by then,” said Cole, an assistant teaching professor of digital arts, “but he was still testing the mechanics of the game.” Wilson’s method of moving players through the levels— allowing them to rotate their view of the puzzles, twisting them like Rubik’s Cubes—rewards exploration. It’s a big reason the game is now available for PC, and on the Xbox and PlayStation digital stores. “I liked the idea that you could have a cube, and if you could somehow rotate it, you would see a new secret—maybe a door on the other side—that would lead you deeper into the story,” said Wilson, who first started designing the puzzles in 2017. The Rubik’s move also reinforces the game’s emotional pull: By focusing on Wilson’s created world, with its waterfalls, cliff walls, and rock bridges, rather than its central character, and her quest to collect honeycombs, the game offers a wistful look back at childhood imaginary play. The story follows Sunny, an office drone whose four-season daydreams filter nostalgia for creative play through an adult perspective. Wilson, who grew up in Hermitage, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, developed the story after revisiting a lake where he had played as a child.
He shared a beta version of the game at Penn State Behrend’s 2018 DIGITFest, a two-day digital media conference. There, he connected with Dr. Matthew White, of Whitethorn Digital, an Erie-based videogame publisher. White taught game design at Penn State Behrend from 2012 until 2016. He then worked in at Volition, which developed the “Saints Row” games, and later at PlayStation. He thought “Where the Bees Make Honey” was a good fit for his new company. “First of all, it’s gorgeous,” White said. “Every image in the game could be framed and put on a wall. “Brian also has a story to tell, and that’s what sticks with you. There is an element of nostalgia to the game, but it’s more than that. It’s about how you can’t fully appreciate the magic of childhood until you have had some time to look back on it.” With the game finished, Wilson, who will graduate in December, is instead looking forward. He already has an idea for a second game.
“I definitely will develop another game. That’s how I express myself. There is no other way of explaining it: It’s in me, and I have to do it.” BRIAN WILSON
5
Plenty to Celebrate in
“There are teachers doing incredible things with limited resources, talented children leaving a lasting mark on the city, and community organizations supporting public pre-schools and afterschool enrichment activities.” DR. ASHLEY SULLIVAN
This is a collage of the work being done by advanced art students at Erie’s Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy. 6
Urban Schools Study aims to shed light on the positives of city school districts, including Erie’s Dr. Ashley Sullivan was frustrated with the negative news about the City of Erie School District. Before she joined Penn State Behrend as an assistant professor of early childhood education, she taught kindergarten at a large, urban district that, similar to Erie, was labeled as “troubled.” She knew there was likely another—much more positive—side to the story. “Urban school districts may be more challenged in some ways, particularly with funding, but if that’s all you focus on, you’re missing all the good things that are happening there,” Sullivan said. She developed an in-depth anthropological study that would draw those stories out of students in a language that is easily adapted for children from ages 3 to 18— art. “I thought: What if we have them create a piece of artwork— and that could be a painting, a sculpture, a collage, whatever they wanted to do—that illustrated what they love about their school,” Sullivan said. “Then, we could utilize that art as data for our project as well as a community art exhibit.” She enlisted the help of three colleagues— Dr. Karen Rizzo, assistant professor of special education; Heather Cole, assistant teaching professor of digital arts; and Dr. Janelle Newman, now an instructor of applied linguistics at Mercyhurst University. Cole and Newman are Erie city school alumni. Several Behrend Elementary and Early Childhood Education majors helped facilitate the art and interview sessions. Art supplies for the research project were provided by grant funds from Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
AN ARTFUL STATEMENT Cole oversaw “all things art” in the project, from arranging opportunities to create it to curating it to enlisting a Behrend student—Isy Odell—to assist in managing all of the data, i.e. the artwork that was collected. Odell, a senior majoring in both Digital Media, Arts, and Technology and English, created a website—erieartproject. com—that serves as a database for the study with all of the interview transcripts and photographs of the art projects. She described her involvement as an eye-opening experience. “I learned a lot about the Erie community and school district that made me happy to be a resident of Erie County, but I also gained experience building a website, managing data, and communicating with a team,” Odell said. Data collection is now complete and students in advanced art classes at Erie’s Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy are working with their art teacher Tara Shannon to create final
art pieces that sum up each of the themes that emerged from the data. Once that is complete, there are plans to find a location in the Erie area to display the exhibit so that residents can see the positive side of urban schools.
HIGHLIGHTING THE GOOD Sullivan, Cole, Rizzo, and Newman plan to write a book about the project when they have finished analyzing the data, but they have already inferred a number of themes. Sullivan said preliminary findings show the following bright spots in the Erie School District: Resiliency. “The schools and teachers are able to do a lot under challenging circumstances.” Strong relationships. “The schools have amazing teachers and staff who form communities.” Opportunities. “Because of corporate and community involvement, there are programs and opportunities available to Erie School District students that are not available anywhere else in the area.” Dedication. “The Erie school district appears to have a lot of veteran teachers who genuinely care for their students.” The researchers cast a wide net, interviewing not just teachers and students, but parents, administrators, even custodians. They learned about a teacher who makes herself available at the public library every weekend for two to three hours to help any student who shows up and wants to talk or needs help with homework or finding a book. Another teacher told researchers that she keeps her part-time job at Target primarily because it gives her early access to new clearance items, which she often picks up for students in need. “There are teachers doing incredible things with limited resources, talented children leaving a lasting mark on the city, and community organizations supporting public pre-schools and after-school enrichment activities,” Sullivan said. “These are the stories we want to tell, the kind you’ll find if you look below the surface and dismantle the deficient trope.”
7
Alumna’s Leadership Rejuvenates ExpERIEnce Children’s Museum VITAL STATISTICS Ainslie (Ulmer) Brosig Family: Husband and three children, ages 16, 10, and 6 What you might be surprised to know: “The ExpERIEnce Children’s Museum gives back more than $100,000 annually in free programming. We feel strongly about being a good community partner.” On job satisfaction: “It’s rewarding to walk through the museum and see families having fun together. Children remember their mom going down the slide or their dad helping them build a dam in the water table. Those types of interactions are precious and few for many families today.”
As she weaves through the museum, past kids getting their hands (and everything else) wet at a water table, children plugging pegs into an oversized Lite-Brite, and a toddler giggling his way down an indoor slide, Ainslie (Ulmer) Brosig, executive director of the ExpERIEnce Children’s Museum, easily talks above the din. Brosig opens the door to a classroom and explains that it is the only private (read: quiet) space in the museum to talk. She’s not complaining. Brosig couldn’t be happier to have a facility full of noise. Things looked bleak for the children’s museum when Brosig took over five years ago. Attendance and funding were at an all-time low. Exhibits were stale and in need of repairs. Brosig, a 2001 Communication graduate, had no executive experience. But having worked in community relations at the Erie Zoo for several years, she had an insider’s perspective on nonprofit operations. And, as an Erie-area mother of three, she was familiar with the museum and its offerings, which seemed to her to be scattershot. “The museum was trying to be too many things,” she said. “We really needed to step back and look at who we were, what we had to offer, and what the community needed us to be.” Brosig and the museum’s board of directors narrowed the facility’s focus to children ages 8 and under, worked to align the exhibits with Pennsylvania’s early education state standards, and made it a mission to see every kindergarten student in Erie County. “We know that if children are introduced to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) early, it piques their curiosity, gives them confidence to experiment, and influences their future career choices,” Brosig said. “They think they’re playing, but they are learning.” 8
Brosig said successful grant writing and company partnerships helped the museum staff accomplish its goal. Under Brosig’s direction, the museum has tripled membership, has doubled attendance, and is now embarking on a major expansion. “If you look at the trajectory of our attendance, which this year will surpass 63,000, and you extend that out five years, we’re running out of room,” Brosig said. This summer, the museum will unveil plans that include not only more exhibit space, but also structural changes that will allow for safety and parking improvements. These are all things that Brosig has to think about as the executive director. “Ultimately, I’m responsible for the success of this organization,” she said. “That includes everything from finances to guest experience to safety to staff management.” Brosig said her Communication degree prepared her well to juggle the multiple responsibilities. “It’s a versatile degree that touches on many areas of business,” she said. “I had classes in everything from public relations to creative writing to business law. I also did a lot of group projects, and that teamwork experience was especially helpful in my current role.” The museum is not a one-woman show. Brosig is quick to give credit to the hardworking staff, volunteers, and board of directors, whose support allows for continued growth. “This summer, we’re partnering with College for Kids at Behrend to provide week-long STEAM day camps for youngsters at the museum,” she said. “Up until now, the college has not been able to offer a lot of programming for very young kids, but, of course, that’s what we specialize in. So we’re happy to fill that need.”
CHECKMATE HISTORY STUDENT RESEARCHES GLENHILL FARMHOUSE CHESS PIECES One day, Rhonda Steg, then executive assistant to Penn State Behrend Chancellor Ralph Ford, was leafing through Archeology magazine when a story about the Lewis Chessmen caught her eye. The distinctive 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory and whale teeth, looked familiar. They bore a striking resemblance to the bulging-eyed figurine heirlooms on display in Glenhill Farmhouse, home to an eclectic array of antique items left behind by Mary Behrend when she donated her farmhouse and property to Penn State in 1948 for the establishment of the Behrend campus. Ford asked reference and instructional librarian, Jane Ingold, who is also the college’s archivist, if she had any information on the pieces. Ingold turned to Dr. Leigh-Ann Bedal, associate professor of anthropology, who knew the right student to help. Aurora Paterson is a senior History major with a passion for British history. “I had taken an Egyptian civilization class with Dr. Bedal, and she knew I was fascinated by British history,” Paterson said. “The Lewis Chessmen hoard was discovered in 1831 on Lewis, one of the western isles of Scotland. Most of the seventy-eight pieces that were found are on display at the British Museum in London.” Bedal suggested Paterson research the history of the Glenhill chess pieces as an independent study project. As soon as she laid a gloved hand on one of the eleven pieces in the farmhouse, she knew they were not Lewis Chessmen. “All of the Behrend pieces had something that denoted they were not originals, whether it was obvious seams, bubbling, or areas of the carving that were missing because the mold didn’t fill completely,” Paterson said. “It was pretty clear that they were mass-produced reproductions.” Paterson points out that the pieces, estimated to be late 19th century Victorian reproductions, still have value and historical significance. “Altogether, the Glenhill Farmhouse’s pieces are worth several hundred dollars,” she said. “They are made using electroforming, in which stearin, plaster, resin, or wax was poured into molds.”
Paterson theorizes that Mary Behrend’s husband, Ernst, would have found the chessmen interesting for that fact alone. “He had a master’s degree in engineering and probably would have liked the way that they were manufactured,” she said. “Electroforming was revolutionary at the time that it was developed because the use of molds allowed for mass production of artifacts without damaging the original.” One mystery that is likely to never be solved is how the Behrend chess pieces came to inhabit the farmhouse. “The Behrends traveled extensively and they had a wide variety of global contacts,” Paterson said. “It’s likely someone gave the pieces to Ernst or maybe he found them in a shop somewhere. That is something we will probably never know.”
Aurora Paterson has been accepted into graduate school at the University of Sussex in England where she plans to earn a master’s degree in art history and museum curating.
9
ANGEL OF POSITIVITY QUOTABLE ANGEL MORA On leaving the tropics behind: I love the weather in Pennsylvania and the changing seasons, even winter, but especially autumn. It’s so beautiful. On philanthropic support: The economic aid that I have received has allowed me to be successful here at Behrend. If I didn’t have that, I could not be nearly as involved on campus as I am. On poetry as a saving grace: When my mother died, poetry was my rock, especially “The Black Heralds” by César Vallejo. On mental health: I worked with Derick Fiedler, outreach program coordinator in Personal Counseling, to start a meditation club on campus and we are planning to start a mental health advocacy group, too.
10
Angel Mora wants to talk, not about the weather or movies, but about bigger things. He has questions. He carries them on cards in his backpack in a little white cardboard box labeled “Big Talk.” The cards, inspired by a TED talk by Kalina Silverman, are printed with questions such as, “What do you miss?” and “Where do you find peace?” They are marketed on Amazon. com as a way to “skip the small talk and connect with anyone by encouraging deeper and more meaningful relationships.” It’s just the kind of thing you might expect a Psychology major like Mora to carry around. He is fascinated by people—how they think, how they feel, and why they do the things they do. It goes beyond curiosity for Mora. He doesn’t want to simply study humans, but help them. He’s convinced he can do that by teaching them to do the one thing that has always come naturally to him—focusing on the positive and noticing the beauty and good in the world. It’s a remarkable trait for a young man who lost his mother, his native culture, and his bearings at an age when most kids are worried about passing algebra and getting a driver’s license. “There have been many moments in my life where I have felt lost in the darkness, but not for long because there has always been something inside of me that reminds me that, although right now I might not understand where this challenge is going to take me nor what I can learn from it, everything is happening for a reason,” he said. “Like Steve Jobs once said: ‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.’” Mora grew up in Colombia with his mother and older brother, Carlos. Their father moved to the United States when the boys were very young but was supportive, working to meet his sons’ economic and emotional needs despite the distance between them. It was always the plan for Angel and Carlos to join their father in the U.S., but the death of their mother from cancer when Angel was just 15 years old hastened that journey. “I was very excited to live with my dad, but it was hard for all of us to adjust so quickly,” Mora said. “My father had been living on his own for fifteen years, and suddenly he had two teenagers in his house! I couldn’t really speak English, so I felt lost in the process of adapting to my new country.” Mora enrolled in McDowell High School in Erie, entering as a junior in August 2016, and immediately began making a positive impression on his peers. Eager to connect with others, he mastered speaking English in less than six months. Writing it, however, was a different matter.
“One of my biggest challenges has been writing papers and essays,” he said. “Writing in English is very different from speaking it.” He was determined, however, to turn adversity into opportunity.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED Before Mora’s senior year in high school, he participated in a Behrend summer program designed to give diverse, firstgeneration college-seekers an introduction to higher education. Mora liked what he saw. Also, he had family at Behrend: Carlos already was a Political Science major. Much like when he arrived in the United States a few years earlier, when Angel got to Behrend, he was all in. In his first-year, he ran for—and won—a position as a Student Government Association senator, became a Lion Ambassador, enrolled in the new Trippe Hall Global Boarders program, and joined the Model UN, International Student Association, Greener Behrend, and Lion Entertainment Board. He participated in Alternative Spring Break this year, is a global ambassador for a pilot program in the International Student Services office, and will serve as an orientation leader during Welcome Week this fall. He has been mentoring an Erie County high school student from Puerto Rico through the college’s Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation’s Positive Youth Development Program. “The student I’m paired with has experienced many of the same situations that I have in my life,” he said. “I love being able to listen to him and give him the kind of advice that has helped me.” It’s great career training: Angel hopes to turn his passion for positivity into a job. “I’d like to be a professional motivational speaker and promote positive psychology,” he said. “I want to use my story to demonstrate that we are all vulnerable to things that we cannot control, but we can be resilient and use those very things to empower us.” Mora recently received the Irving H. Kochel Award, which is given to a student who demonstrates qualities of character, scholarship, leadership, and citizenship through involvement in programs and services that positively influence fellow students and contribute to the college.
11
Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Erie, PA Permit No. 282
A FEMINIST DINNER PARTY In 1979, feminist artist Judy Chicago created “The Dinner Party,” a giant sculpture that imagines famous women from myth and history engaged in conversation. Last fall, Penn State Behrend hosted its own dinner party in the John M. Lilley Library with plates painted by students in WMNST 106 Representations of Women in Literature, Art, and Culture. Read the full story at behrendblog.com. Enter “women” in the search box.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College School of Humanities and Social Sciences 170 Kochel Center 4951 College Drive Erie, PA 16563-1501
OUTREACH PROGRAM TO GET A NEW HOME $6.3 MILLION PROJECT WILL PRESERVE, EXPAND FEDERAL HOUSE AS NEW HOME FOR CORE Penn State Behrend will renovate and repurpose the historic Federal House, the oldest brick structure in Harborcreek Township, to create a new home for the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE). The $6.3 million project will be funded by private support and by the University. With funding in place and a preliminary design by GBBN Architects, the college will preserve the original brick structure of the Federal House and connect it to a new, modern-design building that will allow CORE to expand its programs, which have an impact on more than 3,000 youth across the Erie region every year. CORE, an outreach center of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, was established in 1998 through a gift from Susan Hirt Hagen, the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of the Erie Indemnity Company, parent company of the Erie Insurance Group.
The program originally focused only on teen-pregnancy prevention. In ten years, CORE and its Positive Youth Development initiative contributed to an 80-percent reduction of the teen-pregnancy rate at Union City High School. Over the same period, the dropout rate at the school decreased by 63 percent. Today, CORE provides programming to elementary, middle- and high-school
students across Erie County. Signature community programs include the Mentor Project, which matches at-risk youth with trained college students and community members at ten sites in Erie County, and Positive Youth Development, which applies the 40 Developmental Assets framework to create a comprehensive safety net of school, community and family support resources.
H&SS News is published annually and provided free to alumni and friends of the Penn State Behrend School of Humanities & Social Sciences by the Office of Strategic Communications, William V. Gonda, wvg2@psu.edu, senior director. Editor: Heather Cass, hjc13@psu.edu. Designer: Martha Ansley Campbell, mac30@psu.edu. This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. U.Ed. EBO 19-254
12