When Edinboro University’s School of Graduate Studies launched its first ever “Scholarship Challenge” last spring, officials hoped enough money would be raised for a single scholarship award.

Because of generous donations from students, faculty and others, however, the contributions significantly exceeded expectations. As a result of the high level of giving, Edinboro’s Office for Advancement provided an additional $1,000 match.

When the awards ceremony was held in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center last month, not one, but three scholarships were granted to Edinboro graduate students.

The awardees are:

• Emily McGarvie, an M.A. in Counseling candidate, who received $1,300;
• Anna Morris, an M.A. in Communication Studies candidate, $1,000; and
• Kelly Shaffer, who is seeking an M.A. in Reading, $500.

According to Dr. Alan Biel, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research, the Graduate Studies Scholarship Challenge was created last spring to further help grad students with higher education attainment.

“The fun and competitive aspects of this initiative were outshone only by the generosity of so many who contributed,” Biel said. He also said there was an “overwhelming sense of compassion, as evidenced by the Graduate Student Council’s request that students be given the opportunity to apply for scholarship awards on behalf of other students. They were concerned that many highly deserving individuals might be unable to apply for themselves.”

Because of the generosity of many, the Scholarship Challenge could select one student from each of three graduate programs to receive an award. The grants will be used to help offset costs associated with the current fall 2012 Semester.

Dr. Wollman, 17th president and the first woman to lead Edinboro University, chose a three-word theme for the occasion: “Excellence. Optimism. Leadership.”

Simple, but with considerable breadth and depth, encompassing qualities of the university in the past, present and future, as the president stated in her inaugural speech:

Excellence. Optimism. Leadership. I chose these three concepts as my theme because I think there is value in lifting up, celebrating, and recommitting to what makes Edinboro special and what will carry us into the future.

Remember, it was Excellence, Optimism and Leadership that led to the founding of Edinboro Academy in 1857 and that has shaped our rich history and brought us to where we are today.

But my focus will not be on the university as an institution. Rather, I want to focus on our students. Our students get it—they are here to be transformed into better people than they think they can be when they come to us. And they are open to the possibilities and optimistic that the transformation will occur. Their stories exemplify what is best and most distinctive about Edinboro University.

Dr. Wollman illustrated her point with the stories of three students, whom she described as “at once extraordinary but typical” of Edinboro students in their personification of the theme concepts:

• Excellence: Senior Jeff Person, a high-achieving “political junkie” who aspires to be a Congressional staffer and eventually an elected official, and happens to have grown up in a wheelchair as a result of being born with Arthrogryposis.
• Optimism: Tom Ricci, a freshman music education major who has found a welcoming home and a promising future at Edinboro after growing up facing discrimination and bullying in a Chicago neighborhood where few attended college .
• Leadership: Rachel Goldstrom, a freshman art education major who overcame her own shyness to present a petition calling attention to a need for better art facilities on campus, exemplifying what Dr. Wollman drescribed as “everyday leadership” by stepping forward for what’s right.

“Having heard their stories it should come as no surprise that I feel privileged to lead this outstanding university into a future of high hopes, high engagement, high standards and highest recognition for what we do in the way that only a Fighting Scot can!” the President’s address concluded.

Click here to read President Wollman’s full address.

Click here to see a gallery of Inauguration Week Photos.

From left: Linda Kightlinger (Edinboro’s Director of International Student programs), Si Honghai (High School Section Chief, Municipal Teaching and Research Section and the group’s interpreter), and Diao Baoliang (Zhoucun District Education and Sports Bureau director).

Edinboro University President Julie E. Wollman on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with representatives of the Zibo (China) Municipal Education Bureau.

The Memorandum outlines continuing cooperative relations between Edinboro and the ZMEB on such activities as exchange of students and faculty and staff, joint research and publications, participation in seminars and academic meetings, exchange of academic materials, and student teaching opportunities in both countries.

The Zibo delegation that visited Edinboro included Zhao Xinfa, ZMEB director; Liu Changwei, International Education Exchange Center director; Niu Shaojian, Zichuan District Education and Sports Bureau director; Diao Baoliang, Zhoucun District Education and Sports Bureau director; An Chunhua, Zibo No. 17 High School principal; and Si Honghai, High School Section Chief, Municipal Teaching and Research Section, who also served as the group’s interpreter.

Linda Kightlinger, Edinboro’s Director of International Student programs, led the Zibo delegation on a campus tour. The group also attended the University’s Veterans Day Reception and Tribute at the Diebold Center for the Performing Arts, and attended a dinner hosted by President Wollman.

As a result of Erie’s Sister City relationship with Zibo, Edinboro University and the Zibo Municipal Education Bureau began the mutual cooperative effort in October 2007 when the University hosted the first delegation visit.

Kightlinger said the renewed agreement will further enhance the relationship between Edinboro and the ZMEB by providing opportunities for Edinboro’s faculty to train teachers in China, place Edinboro student teachers at Zibo’s new all-English high school, and enroll prospective degree-seeking students from Zibo at Edinboro.

“We’re always exploring new opportunities for our students to become global citizens,” Kightlinger said.

Edinboro’s International Student Program is represented by more than 80 students from 33 countries.

His education legacy continues through five endowed scholarships at Edinboro. Two of his endowments reward academically deserving female athletes, and two are awarded to deserving male athletes. His On Special Assignment Scholarship is awarded to an incoming student newspaper editor who must be a member of The Spectator staff.

These scholarships have provided over $30,000 in awards to Edinboro students.

Stanko came to Edinboro following 11 years as a teacher and basketball coach at Cecil and Canon-McMillan high schools in Washington County, Pa. A 1953 graduate of Clarion State Teachers’ College with a degree in English and history, he served two years with the U.S. military in Korea following graduation. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1960 and pursued doctoral studies there.

As a Frick Scholar, Stanko became a diplomat of the University of Birmingham, England, for his work in Shakespearean studies. He also completed post-graduate work at the University of Chicago, Gannon University, the Walloon Writing Institute, Bard College, and Columbia University.

At Edinboro, he was one of the first members of the graduate faculty in English, teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and served as department chair from 1979-1990.  He was the faculty advisor to the Edinboro student newspaper, The Spectator, from 1983-1995. 

His passion for basketball led him to be the “voice” of the Fighting Scots basketball teams for more than 22 years. He served a number of years as the faculty representative to the NCAA as well as the conference.

Two of the Stanko scholarships are named in honor of his family: wife, Rena; son, Thomas Kevin, a 1987 graduate of Edinboro with a degree in criminal justice; and daughter, Rebecca Lynn Mastrangelo, also a 1987 graduate of Edinboro who practices law in Las Vegas.

“T” Stanko has expressed a great love for Edinboro and noted that the years passed by rather rapidly. Providing financial assistance to students is a way to “give back to the Boro.” He  also gives regularly to the Annual Fund in support of the Professor Robert J. Pfingstler English Scholarship, a scholarship created in memory of his good friend and colleague. 

DePauw University features retrospective of art by Robert Kingsley ’67

More than 50 paintings by Robert D. Kingsley, professor of art and art history at DePauw University for more than 35 years, are featured in an exhibition at the university’s Richard E. Peeler Art Center in Greencastle, Indiana. Robert Kingsley: A Retrospective, 1976-2012, remains on display through Dec. 14.

An art education graduate of Edinboro, Kingsley joined the faculty at DePauw in 1976 after completing a Master of Fine Art degree from Indiana University. He attained the rank of full professor and was art department chairman on three occasions before retiring at the end of the 2011-12 academic year.

In addition to teaching, Kingsley has shown his work nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Read More »

Chris Longwell ’05 Receives 2012 Arts Partnership Award

Chis Longwell, of Elmira, N.Y., was recognized by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes as a recipient of one of the council’s annual ARTS Partnership Awards. The awards honor artists and others who significantly contribute to the region’s arts and cultural life.

Longwell is director of the George Waters Gallery and professor of art at Elmira College. An award-winning printmaker and ceramic artist, he has long been involved with Catholic Charities of Chemung/Schuyler’s Empty Bowls Luncheon, which collaborates with local potters to create handmade bowls for attendees. He donated more than 150 bowls to the project this year.

Scott Dow ’94, ’96 and His Team Place Second in Chainsaw Carver World Cup in Germany

Scott Dow, of Corry, Pa., was handpicked to be on a U.S. team that competed in May in the annual World Cup competition in Mulda, Germany, an event known as the most prestigious chainsaw carving competition in the world.

Dow was chosen for his expertise in design, having earned a Bachelor’s degree in drawing and a Master’s degree in sculpture at Edinboro.

This year, teams were asked to create a 12th century horse and rider in the Ore Mountains of Germany. Dow’s three-person team was given the task of carving King Otto, which they created out of three large oak logs over the course of about six and a half days.

Their sculpture earned the People’s Choice Award and a second-place nod from the judges. Read More »

Geoffrey Schaab ’03 Honored by Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice

Geoffrey Schaab, a Senior Sanctions Investigator in the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, Counterterrorism Sanctions Division, was named Edinboro’s Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice Honored Alumnus for October.

Schaab earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science in 2003. He received a Master’s Certificate in National Security Policy from George Mason University in 2008.

Prior to assuming his current duties in 2009, Schaab served as an intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency and Military Forces Analysis Office from 2004 through 2009. He served with a team of analysts who successfully identified and seized bank accounts attributed to Muammar Ghaddafi and Bashar Al-Asad, and played an integral role in thwarting an Iranian assassination plot targeting the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States.

Jody Shell ’75 Receives Juror’s Award for Artwork

Jody Shell, a Fox Chapel Area High School teacher, recently received a Juror’s Award for her work, “Paper Armor,” in the Pittsburgh Society of Artists’ show “Scapes.”

The award-winning mixed-media work was made by photocopying paper dolls, painting them and attaching them to a canvas Shell co-created with longtime friend Karen Larson.

Shell and Larson’s work was among 155 pieces submitted to the exhibit by 85 artists.

Winners were selected by juror Petra Fallaux, creative director of Springboard Design and the former director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Art Galleries. Read More »

Jack Anderson ’76 Band Director for Pitt, to Retire

Jack R. Anderson will march into retirement this fall after 18 years as full-time University of Pittsburgh band director and a nearly lifelong association with the band.

Anderson earned a Master’s degree in music and certification in education from Edinboro after graduating in 1970 from Pitt, where his father was assistant band director for 22 years. Following in the footsteps of his father and namesake, Anderson became a part-time assistant band director in 1986 before becoming band director in 1995.

He plans to retire at the end of this football season. Read More »

Dr. Kathryn MacCluskie ’81, ’83 Receives Distinguished Faculty Award from Cleveland State University

Dr. Kathryn MacCluskie has received the university-wide distinguished faculty award for excellence in teaching from Cleveland State University, where she teaches in the Counseling Education department.

Dr. MacCluskie received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Edinboro University. She lives in the Cleveland suburb of Elyria, Ohio, with her husband and two sons.

Marilyn Goellner ’01 Director of Edinboro University’s Annual Fund and Stewardship, receives certification

Marilyn Goellner has attained Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) certification, having completed all requirements through education, experience, performance, and community service.

An employee of Edinboro University for more than 18 years, she has been with the Advancement office for 12 years.

John C. Lyons ’00 named Executive Director of the Film Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania

Well-known in Edinboro and throughout the region as a filmmaker, John C. Lyons has been named executive director of the Film Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania (FSNWPA). The new nonprofit was established to foster awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of film, while providing support and education for regional film production.

The FSNWPA has partnered with the Erie Art Museum and each week presents FILM at the Erie Art Museum, showcasing award-winning documentaries and independent films that might not otherwise be shown locally.

Lyons is president of Lyons Den Productions, an independent production company specializing in digital video entertainment and design services. He works at Edinboro University in the Desktop Systems and Learning Technology division, and also serves as campus advisor for the Edinboro Film Series.

Alpha Phi Omega holds 4^th Annual Reunion

Fraternity Alpha Phi Omega alumni held their fourth annual reunion at Rachel’s Roadhouse Restaurant in Mercer, PA on October 5th, 2012 

Tim Stoops ’99 Receives Doctorate in Educational Leadership

Tim Stoops, who graduated from Edinboro with a Master’s degree in education in 1999, then earned his secondary principal certification in 2000, graduated from Youngstown State University in August with a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Stoops’ dissertation was titled An Examination of the Beliefs and Practices of Alternative Education Principals. He has presented his research at various state and national conferences.

The Director of Alternative Education for Millcreek Township School District, Stoops resides in Erie with his wife, Karen.

Marcy Bogdanich ’68 Named PAEA’s Outstanding Elementary Art Educator

Marcy Bogdanich, an art teacher at Central Elementary School in Hampton Township, Pa. for 27 years, was named Outstanding Elementary Art Educator for 2012 by the Pennsylvania Art Education Associaton (PAEA).

PAEA honors art educators based on background and professional involvement with educational associations and within the art community. Bogdanich has served as regional representative for the association, giving presentations at art education conferences and serving on those committees.

She has also been the president of the Hampton Township Education Association and director of the preschool program, co-director of the CCD program, and a religious education teacher at her church in Cranberry, Pa.

Allen Shreffler ’77 Retires From Library Post After 31 Years

Allen Shreffler retired after 31 years as High School Library Media Specialist in Tully Central Schools, Tully N.Y.

Shreffler served as president and vice president of the Tully Teachers Association for many years and was a negotiator in eight contracts. He also taught at the American School in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Kerstetter, whose Edinboro undergraduate degree was in political science, now combines an interest in public policy with explorations of the deep as a marine biologist. The Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center research scientist and adjunct professor was featured recently in a CNN news story about sustainable fishing methods for swordfish in the Florida straits.

Kerstetter was interviewed about a new buoy-gear fishing method that has shown benefits as a sustainable alternative to the once popular but now banned practice of longline fishing. The longline technique, which involved miles of line and hundreds of hooks, was banned in 2001 after it was found to endanger rare sea turtles and contribute to depletion of the swordfish population in the Florida Straits because many juvenile swordfish were being killed before they became old enough to reproduce.

For more about the situation, click here to watch the full video.  

Kerstetter also was a source cited by the Miami Herald in October when a giant blue eyeball washed ashore in Pompano Beach, Fla. – he was among those who said it most likely was from a swordfish – and his work was featured in a September post on the New York Times’ Green blog.

After graduating from Edinboro, Kerstetter earned Master of Public Policy and Master of Science in Marine Science degrees at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, where he also earned a Ph.D. in Marine Science from the college’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

From left: Presenter Christine Ristuccia, Dr. Susan Hegel, presenter and program alumnus Dr. Matina Balou, and Dr. Roy Shinn

The 24th Annual Alumni Conference, coordinated by Dr. Susan Hegel, was held on the campus on October 5. The conference offered two full-day continuing education tracks to address contemporary topics in speech-language pathology to an audience of Edinboro graduate students, faculty, area practitioners, and internship supervisors.

This year’s pediatric track was on a phonemic approach to remediating articulation errors and was presented by Christine Ristuccia, CCC-SLP of Carlsbad, Calif.

The adult track addressed the evaluation and management of swallowing function in individuals with head/neck cancer. It was presented by Edinboro alumnus Dr. Matina Balou (M.A. ’08), CCC-SLP of NYU Langone Medical Center. The transcript of an interview conducted with Dr. Balou the day before the conference will be published in an upcoming edition of the program’s newsletter.

From left: Graduate Student award recipient Chantal Haase, Dr. Susan Hegel, undergraduate student Grace Johnson

President Julie E. Wollman was the speaker at the awards luncheon, and she reflected on the many opportunities in speech-language pathology.

Presenting this year’s Dr. Frank Johnson Scholarships was his granddaughter and junior in the Speech and Hearing Sciences program, Grace Johnson. The recipients of the $600 scholarships were Chantal Haase (Conneaut Lake, Pa./Edinboro University) and Karen Kesterholt (St. Marys, Pa./Penn State).

The Dr. Randy Rodak Award of $500 and a VAMC traineeship was awarded to Jenna McCabe (Poland, Ohio/University of Toledo). The recipient of the Dr. Richard Forcucci Scholarship of $400 was Blake Ebbitt (North Huntingdon, Pa./Edinboro University). Coincidentally, Presenter Dr. Matina Balou received this same award in 2007.

From Left: Dr. Susan Hegel, undergraduate student Grace Johnson, graduate student and award recipient Karen Kesterholt

Jacqueline Weber (Youngstown, Ohio/Thiel) received the $500 Award for Citizenship, and Kelly Watkins (New Castle, Pa./Edinboro University) was the recipient of the $500 Dennis Ranalli Award.

Funding for these scholarships was made possible by many alumni and friends of the speech-language pathology program, including a gift of $1,500 during the luncheon from Jean Johnson, grandmother of Grace and widow of Dr. Frank Johnson.

The Edinboro University Office of Alumni Relations cordially invites Edinboro graduates to a Family Fun Event on January 18-19, 2013 at Splash Lagoon, one of the largest indoor water parks on the East Coast!

Reserve your spot now! Limited Availability!

Call 1-866-3SPLASH – Group ID#907844 or book online at www.splashlagoon.com/eup

This would make a TERRIFIC gift!

Splash Lagoon 2013 Details

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