As we look back at the 2022–2023 academic year, we celebrate all we’ve accomplished and all that’s ahead.
Read below for several highlights and share your favorite Gettysburg College moments on social media: #gettysburgreat.
Introducing the Gettysburg Approach
Throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, Gettysburg College shared how we will live our promise of delivering A Consequential Education to our community. The Gettysburg Approach builds within every student a breadth and depth of knowledge and set of enduring skills—adaptability, communication, creativity, intercultural fluency, leadership, problem solving, and teamwork—to prepare them to thrive in a world marked by change and adaptation.
As part of the Gettysburg Approach, in Fall 2023, the incoming Class of 2027 will experience our new Guided Pathways and Personal Advising Teams.
Our Gettysburg Approach in action can be seen in the stories of Fergan Imbert ’16, a Ph.D. candidate in the Infectious Disease and Immunity cluster in the Biomedical Sciences program at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and Laura Habecker ’13, the post-production supervisor of Amazon’s Emmy Award-winning series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Imbert, Habecker, and many Gettysburg alumni continue to see success in employing the knowledge and enduring skills they gained at Gettysburg in their professional careers.
Leading from the front
Faculty, staff, alumni, and students were on the front lines discussing society’s most complex issues and providing insights on education, public policy, racial equality, national debt, and pop culture. Gettysburgians were cited more than 350 times by media during the 2022–2023 academic year, with 90 mentions in national outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Huffington Post, The Atlantic, and others.
Celebrating America’s storyteller Ken Burns
On Feb. 10–12, Gettysburg College hosted Who Are We?: A Festival Celebrating the Films of Ken Burns at the Majestic Theater. Visitors from 28 states across the country traveled to Gettysburg for the event. The festival featured 35 hours of programming over three days, live discussions with Burns and his collaborators, and screenings of Burns’ most iconic works, including his award-winning production “The Civil War.”
Burns also held an on-campus event specifically for Gettysburg College students. During this event, he emphasized that storytelling is the ultimate tool for breaking through hyper-polarization in today’s world and creating meaningful change.
Welcoming our newest Gettysburgians
On April 9, Gettysburg held Get Acquainted Day as hundreds of prospective students visited campus to discover the many benefits our College offers. On Get Acquainted Day, our community joined together to provide campus tours, share information about our academic programs and co-curricular activities, and encourage students to join us in the fall.
As the College’s reputation continues to grow, so does our national and international footprint. The Class of 2027 comes from a record pool of more than 7,100 applicants. This fall, we will welcome the largest cohort of international students in the College’s storied history, with nearly 100 students from around the world.
Supporting the student experience
Gettysburgians worldwide supported a distinctive education for our students this fund year. New gifts and commitments to the College totaled $23 million from more than 5,300 alumni, nearly 2,000 current and past parents and grandparents, and hundreds of faculty, staff, and friends.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Gettysburg Fund exceeded $4 million, providing essential support for the student experience now and in the future. These results reflect the remarkable generosity shown during the ninth annual Gettysburgives Challenge, recognized for the first time by an on-campus celebration in conjunction with Founder’s Day in April. The Orange & Blue Club also produced a record-breaking year, supporting Gettysburg’s varsity athletics program and student-athletes with over $869,000 raised.
More than 1,300 Gettysburg College alumni and guests returned to campus for Reunion Weekend. Thanks to the efforts of 170 alumni Reunion volunteers, alumni honored their class reunion milestones by raising nearly $7.8 million in gifts and commitments, including a $5.2 million 50th Reunion Class Gift from the Class of 1973.
Faculty, staff dedicate themselves to meaningful work
Dr. Jamila Bookwala was selected as Gettysburg College’s next Provost and began her role in July. Bookwala, who serves on the President’s Council, is a passionate teacher-scholar dedicated to fostering an engaged learning environment for students and her faculty colleagues.
Several Gettysburg faculty members received teaching and mentorship recognitions and teaching awards, including:
- Jim Downs, the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chair of Civil War Era Studies and History, was elected to the Society of American Historians.
- Interdisciplinary Studies Prof. Ian Isherwood ’00 served as the Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the U.S. Army War College. In July, Isherwood was then a Fellow-in-Residence at the University of Oxford’s Rothereme American Institute.
Gettysburg faculty, staff, and emeriti members of the College community also released nine major scholarly works in 2022.
Students, alumni find success
Throughout the year, Gettysburg College students and alumni used the knowledge and enduring skills they gained to achieve personal and professional success.
- Tracy Brundage ’92, Kathryn Morris ’92, and Betty Rider ’80 were inaugurated as presidents of three U.S. colleges and universities.
- On Oct. 14, 2022, Student Senate president, political science major, and Spanish minor Miranda Zamora ’23 represented Gettysburg College at a conference at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris, who recognized the students in attendance as “the future of America.”
- In January, the Sunderman Conservatory Symphony Orchestra performed during sold-out concerts in Lithuania and Latvia as part of the orchestra’s Baltics tour.
Additional alumni and athletics success stories include:
- Andrew Dalton ’19, executive director of the Adams County Historical Society, led a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort for the Society’s new headquarters and Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum, which opened in April.
- Twenty Gettysburg College teams made postseason runs. Ninety-one individuals were honored as all-conference players, and 13 were named All-Americans in their sports. The women’s basketball team claimed their second consecutive and fourth overall Centennial Conference championship, and women’s golf secured an 11th conference title.
Milestone anniversaries
Gettysburg commemorated annual traditions and celebrated two program anniversaries.
For the past 10 years, the Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute at Gettysburg College (X-SIG) has invited Gettysburg students to participate in its summer research program. Students design experiments using state-of-the-art equipment in the College’s laboratories and venture into the field to conduct undergraduate research. In the summer of 2022, 70 students and 25 faculty mentors participated in X-SIG and its varying opportunities.
As profiled in the GETTYSBURG College Magazine, the Black Student Union (BSU) also celebrated its 50th anniversary at Homecoming in 2022. Alumni spanning six decades returned to campus to engage with current students in events, including a series of panels discussing the past and future of the BSU. At the 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala, President Bob Iuliano presented the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award to the family of Buddy Glover ’71. Glover, who died in 2021, established the foundation for the BSU in 1972.
Rankings that matter
Gettysburg College is recognized nationally and ranks among the top colleges in the country for our programs and liberal arts experience. The value of a Gettysburg education is underscored by the great work of our students and alumni who, by applying the knowledge and skills they gained here, positively impact their world.
This year, Gettysburg College ranked No. 1 in Pennsylvania and No. 2 in the nation for mid-length study abroad programs by The Power of International Education (IIE) Open Doors Report.
From substantially reducing the amount of waste produced at dining facilities to collecting rainwater for irrigation on campus, the College was also awarded a Gold rating as part of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) reporting process conducted by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
Charting an ambitious future
In April 2023, Gettysburg College faculty passed a new core curriculum that will ensure students have a shared educational experience as they pursue diverse courses in the liberal arts and sciences, hone enduring skills like critical thinking and communication, and consider multiple modes of inquiry and knowledge. The next stage is to plan and prepare for the new core curriculum to be implemented.
“I applaud our faculty for thoughtfully revising the core curriculum so that it prepares students to be lifelong learners, fosters curiosity and open-mindedness, and encourages a commitment to strengthening communities and improving the world,” said Provost Jamila Bookwala.
This year, Gettysburg also added a new art history and museum studies track in the Department of Art and Art History. This dynamic interdisciplinary experience combines the study of art history with topics in archaeology, anthropology, and public history.
Plus, on July 15, Gettysburg College celebrated the achievements of our first graduates of the College’s new Master of Arts in American History program. The Inaugural Master’s Commencement ceremony was held at Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater, recognizing students from the winter and spring 2023 cohorts who had completed their degree requirements. Each master’s graduate received a Stole of Gratitude, a gift from the Gettysburg College Alumni Association.
Visit our news archive to read all our stories from the past year.
By Corey Jewart, Megan Miller, and Michael Vyskocil
Photography by Thia Anyaoku ’23, Abbey Frisco, Emily Kilcullen ’21, Hang Lian, Kailey White ’21, and McKenna White ’25
Videography by Abbey Frisco
Posted: 08/11/23