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Supporting Students
This past fall, several members of the Gettysburg community stepped forward to give back in support of today’s students:
- A distinguished alumna and Benefactors Circle member, Daria Lo Presti Wallach ’76 made the largest commitment by any living Gettysburg College donor in the 191-year history of the institution, pledging $10 million to her alma mater. This record commitment, which will help provide today’s students with a liberal arts and sciences education that is relevant, meaningful, and amplifies the most transformational aspects of Gettysburg’s undergraduate experience, was announced at the Summit on the Future (turn to page 28 to read more).
- Dedicated on Oct. 2, 2023, the Donna Jean Brogan Center for Quantitative Learning, which was funded by a grant from the George I. Alden Trust and a generous donation from Donna Jean Brogan ’60, provides students with a spacious and accessible 24-hour hub for quantitative learning, including mathematics, chemistry, data science, physics, and many other academic programs offered at Gettysburg. This continuing education will help students gain the quantitative skills they need to be successful in a data-driven world.
- The Ann McIlhenny Harward Interdisciplinary Fund for Culture and Music at Gettysburg College, established by the Endeavor Foundation and envisioned by Donald W. Harward P’86, P’92 in honor of his late wife, Ann, is a $1.5 million endowed fund dedicated to the humanities and humanistic sciences. It will leverage the interplay of music and culture for the College and community. With this fund and an additional $75,000 grant from the Endeavor Foundation, an annual series of interdisciplinary programs and events launches this spring to showcase music as the vehicle for exploring and understanding culture. Africana Studies Chair Scott Hancock will serve as the program’s inaugural director.
- In honor of his late wife, Sally Warehime Yelland-Ehrhart, Sidney Ehrhart ’50 made a gift of $3 million to establish The Ehrhart Family Scholarship Fund and support renovations and improvements to Paul Recital Hall in the Sunderman Conservatory of Music in Schmucker Hall. The scholarship funding will provide financial assistance to multiple students each year, including music majors and those who demonstrate financial need. Among the upgrades will be a large convex reflector over the stage and additional diffusive panels and angled reflectors to help musicians and singers refine their performances and improve both teaching and learning.
BRAVO, MR. MAJESTIC!
After 20 years leading the Majestic Theater, Jeffrey Gabel, its founding executive director, has retired.
“It has been a privilege and pleasure to build ‘the grandest small-town theater in America,’ which has been so generously supported by the College and the community,” said Gabel. “My time at the Majestic has been the most gratifying period of my career.”
In 2003, Gabel joined Gettysburg College to drive the theater’s $16.5 million renovation. He’s programmed more than 300 concerts, raised $21.7 million in community support, established a $5.9 million endowment for programming support, and produced last year’s “Who Are We? A Festival Celebrating the Films of Ken Burns.” A highlight of Gabel’s retirement celebration was the announcement of The Jeffrey W. Gabel Endowed Fund for the Majestic Theater, established in his honor with commitments to date of more than $350,000.
“Jeffrey represents the very best of our community,” said Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano. “His collaboration, his charisma, and his deep commitment to the arts have helped to build the Majestic Theater into all that it is today.”
Highest Honor
History Prof. Timothy Shannon received the Gettysburg College Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor Gettysburg’s faculty can bestow on a colleague. With a focus on early American, Native American, and British history, Shannon’s work has received fellowship support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Huntington Library. In 2023, he edited a critical edition of “French and Indian Cruelty,” Peter Williamson’s 18th-century captivity narrative, published by Edinburgh University Press.
Teaching Excellence
During Fall Honors Day, Africana Studies Prof. Jennifer Collins Bloomquist and Psychology Prof. Erin Clark ’99 were recognized for teaching excellence.
Bloomquist received the Bruce S. Gordon ’68 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Teaching Excellence Prize, which was established to recognize the faculty member who stands out as having advanced a campus climate that is supportive of differences in the classroom or beyond. Joining Gettysburg in 2002, first in the English Department with advanced degrees in linguistics from the University at Buffalo and then the Africana Studies program as the first Derrick K. Gondwe Fellow, Bloomquist researches African American Englishes in the regional context.
Clark received the Dr. Ralph Cavaliere Endowed Teaching Award, which is selected by Student Senate and is presented to a faculty member who exhibits excellence in teaching. After serving with Teach for America, teaching in K-12 classrooms, and receiving a master’s in education from Temple University, she returned to Gettysburg in 2013 to teach psychology and education. With a passion for cognitive science, Clark values building sincere relationships with her students, designing challenging and dynamic classroom instruction, and helping students become more critical writers and thinkers.
Consequential Work
Last September, the U.S. State Department announced it waived restrictions on frozen Iranian assets held in foreign banks in exchange for the release of five unlawfully imprisoned U.S. citizens. Work completed by last year’s Fielding Fellows, as part of the Eisenhower Institute’s Fielding Center for Presidential Leadership Study, touched on this topic of coercive diplomacy in authoritarian regimes. A portion of the conclusions they reported to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs last April mirror those actions taken by the executive branch.
“The Fielding Fellows worked tirelessly over the course of the academic year, and to see conclusions from their work find traction in real-world public policy stratagems is incredibly rewarding for everyone involved,” said Fielding Center Director and Political Science Prof. Scott Boddery. “The ability to take part in this sort of consequential work is what sets apart the Eisenhower Institute’s Fielding Center and Gettysburg College from other institutions. I simply couldn’t be more proud of this group of Fellows and the work they accomplished.”
Inspiring Words
On Nov. 1, 2023, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke at the 22nd Annual Blavatt Lecture, hosted by Gettysburg College’s Eisenhower Institute. Alyssa Gruneberg ’24, a public policy and political science double major, reflected on his presentation titled “More Than Waving a Flag: Redefining American Identity in a Gen-Z World,” during which he aimed to inspire today’s students to rise as leaders and responsible global citizens:
“There could not be a better time or place for the event because, as Gettysburg College students, we are tasked with rising to the ‘unfinished work’ of our time, pursuant to the call of President Lincoln’s famous address 160 years ago,” wrote Gruneberg. “Listening to my governor speak on stage at my school, I am proud to be a Marylander and proud to be a Gettysburgian. As I prepare to enter an uncertain job market, I am confident that my Gettysburg education has given me the critical thinking, communication, and civic engagement skills to stand out from other applicants. Gov. Moore reminded us that, as graduates of Gettysburg, people will take us seriously. I will soon possess this ‘potent credential,’ and I intend to use it wisely.”
Hall of Athlectic Honor
Seven alumni were inducted into the Hall of Athletic Honor during Homecoming Weekend: Julika Blankenship Olliver ’04 (lacrosse), Donna Bourke ’92 (basketball), Jessica Cortese Wolverton ’05 (volleyball), Tim DeMore ’95 (lacrosse), Steve Jirgal ’80 (track and field), Jason Vishio ’00 (soccer), and Henry Schwartz ’42 (wrestling, posthumous). The living inductees met with current student-athletes from their respective programs, sharing career advice in law, coaching, sales, college administration, and professional leadership and development.
