From business to banking, education to engineering, media to marketing, and so much more, our recent graduates enjoy high rates of career success shortly after graduation. In fact, 95% of the Class of 2014 was either gainfully employed or enrolled in graduate school full-time just one year after their graduation.

The reason?

Gettysburg College is committed to helping all students develop their career plan and build their network.

“Gettysburg works with students to from their first year through their senior year and beyond,” said Kathy Williams, director of the Center for Career Development. “Through internships, externships, job shadowing, career immersion trips, and networking events, Gettysburg College students gain insight about various career fields, leading to career success shortly after graduation.”

To that end, the Center for Career Development provided more than 6,000 career connections to students over the past five years, thanks in large part to our active and global alumni and parent network.

All of these opportunities for practical career development, in addition to our graduates’ high rate of career success, have earned Gettysburg College the distinction of being one of only 17 liberal arts institutions featured in The Princeton Review’s newest guide, Colleges that Create Futures: 50 Schools that Launch Careers by Going Beyond the Classroom.

Check out the video above to learn more about our most recent graduates’ career success.

Gettysburg professors are more than teachers that assign papers and grade exams—they are students in their own right, curious about the world we share and what we can do to make it a better place.  From conducting research with undergraduate students to working on their own books and scholarly publications, from prepping for class time to scheduling meetings, the role of a Gettysburg College professor is one that often extends far beyond the classroom.

To get a better understanding of what the job entails, we checked in with a few of these professors at the same time on one day.

9 professors. 1:03 p.m. Here’s where they were:

Who:

Prof. Dave Powell, Chair and Associate Professor of Education

Where he is:

Teaching his first-year seminar, “This Machine Kills Fascists!”: Protest Music & Social Change in the American Experience.

“I have more fun getting ready for that class than any other one—it means listening to music, thinking about how to connect music to my students in meaningful ways, and coming up with new ways to get them excited about music and culture,” said Powell. “This year a couple of students actually wrote and performed original songs for the class, and the whole group worked together on a final project to record an album of protest songs. I might have to start selling copies so we can bring more musicians to campus.”

Who:

Prof. Josef Brandauer, Associate Professor of Health Science

Where he is:

Working alongside Normonique Dyer ’16, a Gettysburg student and research fellow.

Normonique Dyer ’16 received the Integrative Organismal Systems Physiology (IOSP) fellowship awarded by the American Physiological Society undergraduate research fellowship and turned to Brandauer for guidance as she studied the physiological advantages of nucleated red blood cells.

“I’ve had students win American Physiological Society fellowships before, and they take away a lot of applicable experience. In general, [Gettysburg] science students are so knowledgeable, it would be very difficult to attend a conference and be able to tell it’s an undergraduate presenting,” said Brandauer.

Who:

Prof. Paula Olinger, Associate Professor of Spanish  

Where she is:

Coordinating El Centro, an after school program for underserved children and families in Gettysburg.

“The children I have worked with over the years at El Centro are the bravest little heroes in the whole world,” said Olinger. “They maintain a hopeful and happy attitude in the midst of enormous challenges. They lift my spirits and give me great hope for the future of our country.”

Who:

Prof. Timothy Shannon, Chair and Professor of History

Where he is:

With his senior capstone class, History 426: Pennsylvania’s Indians, at the Pennsylvania State Archives and State Museum.

Prof. Shannon asks his students to go where the primary resources are.

“The seminar really encourages them to think creatively. So much of their history major has been reading what other historians have written, but their senior seminar is asking them to now do the work themselves,” said Shannon. “The students identify a topic, amass the bibliography, they write the paper and they critique it amongst themselves. It really operates like a graduate school class.”

Who:

Prof. Salma Monani, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Where she is:

In Munich, Germany, writing a paper on recently conducted research in a field she helped create and develop—ecomedia studies.

Monani received a fellowship for her research on Native American film from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an international center that focuses on advancing discussion about the interaction between humans and nature.

“What I’d like my students to know is that the environment is everywhere, and I want them to bring that consciousness to everything, including media,” said Monani. “We often think of nature as separate from society and that it’s not about people. But when you look at people and different cultures, you start to realize that nature is very much about people.”

Who:

Prof. Sahana Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Where she is:

Planning a study with several Psychology students as part of the Mind and Culture Research group and on independent research projects.

“We are hoping to collect data in big cities and smaller, more rural towns in the U.S. and in Canada. Our goal is to not only consider the regional variations in national identity, but also to understand how psychologies tendencies—experience of national identity—is historically constructed and embedded in everyday practices,” said Mukherjee. “Finally, we also want to examine the implications of different understandings of national identity for international engagement.”

Who:

Prof. Scott Hancock, Associate Professor of History

Where he is:

Leading a Spring Break Immersion Project in León, Nicaragua

“I decided to go on the trip because the theme of the trip and the specific recent history of Nicaragua was intellectually intriguing, because I love going to places I have not been before, and, selfishly, because it was a chance to improve my Spanish,” said Hancock. “We learned a great deal about how a system of education succeeded despite significant obstacles due to widespread commitment by both government and citizens; and we were exposed to a different, and in my opinion more effective, model of how development organizations can work in countries like Nicaragua.”

Who:

Prof. Darren Glass, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Where he is:

Directing the first-year seminar program

Prof. Glass works with faculty in disciplines as diverse as Physics and Religious Studies to help them develop and enhance new seminars. Additionally, he works with colleagues across campus to implement programming that will help students transition to college and to integrate their academic and residential lives.

“Both of these administrative roles have been opportunities to think more broadly about what is at the heart of a Gettysburg College education, and they have given me a chance to learn more about the great work that my colleagues do,” said Glass. “Gettysburg students get to take advantage of many interesting opportunities, and through the strategic planning process we are hoping to help the college find new ways to build on these and to publicize them to the world.”

Who:

Prof. Felicia Else, Associate Professor of Art History

Where she is:

On a departmental trip to New York City with Art History and Studio Art majors.

“To give my students further connections to real world experiences, I invite alumni to campus to speak about the many possibilities for work in the arts after graduation, ranging from education and marketing in major museums to art therapy programs,” said Else. “The Department of Art and Art History also takes the seniors on an annual trip to New York City where we host a networking dinner with alums and professionals in the field as well as visit gallery owners and museums.”

Ever wonder what you can learn about epidemics from episodes of The Walking Dead?

Or maybe you’ve wanted to study the evolution of social movements through folk music.

What about the intersection of diets and deities, or the relationship between math and art?

For first-year students at Gettysburg College, they can explore these and more topics through First-Year Seminars.

Designed to introduce students to the academic rigors and thoughtful conversations that are characteristic of a liberal arts education, these courses teach students to write, speak, research, and think critically. First-Year Seminars are put together by faculty members based on their personal interests, and therefore cover a wide array of academic diversity.

“To me, a First-Year Seminar is about giving students an introduction, not only to Gettysburg, but an introduction to the intellectual work they are going to do as College students,” said Education Professor Dave Powell, who teaches the Protest Music and Social Change in the American Experience seminar. “It is a great opportunity to explore a topic that you find interesting but that you may not know a lot about.”

To encourage active participation and conversation, seminars are capped at 16 students, with those students being assigned to the same residence hall in order to promote the open exchange of ideas beyond the classroom.

Check out the video above to hear from current students about their favorite aspects of their First-Year Seminars, read stories from our First-Year Seminar series below, and find out what seminars will be offered in the Fall 2016 semester.

First-Year Seminar: Bringing the Past into the Present

First-Year Seminar: Bubonic Plague, Avian flu, and Zombies: Pandemics Past, Present, Future

First-Year Seminar: Protest Music and Social Change in the American Experience

First-Year Seminar: A Day in the Life: 24 Hours in Literature and Film

You are five years old, playing with your friends outside, when suddenly someone new appears. You size them up and realize they must be two or maybe even three years your senior. You give up your swing as a sign of respect. Playground politics.

You are thirteen years old, begrudgingly attending a family reunion. Across the mile-long dinner table sits a relative you’ve never met before. You infer from her grey hair and wrinkled face that she must be someone’s great, or possibly great, great-aunt.

We spend our days making assumptions and understanding one another on the basis of appearance. We unconsciously use height, hair color, and facial cues as indicators of age and attractiveness. But how and why?

Psychology Prof. Richard Russell devotes his time to investigating these very questions. Combining his passion for visual art with a biologically based method of studying human behavior, Russell is interested in learning more about how and why we perceive one another.

“We have, not just one part of the brain, but a whole network of regions in the brain that seem to be dedicated to perceiving faces,” said Russell. “We get a lot of information from faces; we spend our waking hours looking at faces. And it’s not because we don’t have anywhere else to look but because it’s such a rich source of social information.”

Most recently, Russell has shifted his focus to study how we perceive health from the face. His research is aimed at identifying and analyzing the visual cues we use to decide how healthy we think a person is based on their appearance.

Russell, along with a team of researchers, took 150 photos of women between the ages of 56-60 years old—controlling for demographic variables like age and gender as well as for photogenic conditions. Using and manipulating these images, Russell and his team came up with a list of questions that asked individuals to evaluate how healthy they thought these women appeared.

The results indicate that there are key facial cues we use that impact how we perceive facial health. The first is facial contrast—the more contrast between facial features such as the eyes and lips, the healthier the person appears. They also found that skin coloration, particularly the coloration under the eyes and on the cheeks, influences our perception of facial health. Rosier cheeks are signs of a healthy individual, while dark bags under the eyes might suggest the opposite. Finally, facial expressions greatly impact how healthy we think someone might be. As it turns out, healthiness is predicated on happiness. People perceived as happier, were perceived as healthier, as well.

A natural extension of this type of research includes an attempt to answer the questions: how and why do humans decorate themselves? Can we cosmetically change the way we look to appear healthier?

Russell is especially interested in exploring this research question and better understanding the cultural use of makeup in society.

“Hundreds of millions of people are applying makeup every day. That suggests to me that there’s something important about it,” said Russell. “It’s a part of understanding who we are as people. Why are we putting on makeup, what are we getting out of it, and how does that work?”

While we may not understand how makeup works on a theoretical level, it is working perceptually—it changes people’s perception of the face in a mostly positive direction. And it does so by targeting those key facial cues we use to judge healthiness and appearance. Makeup can increase facial contrast and affect skin coloration—thus helping us appear healthier.

“One nice thing about visual perception is that you have a physical variable, like contrast. And we are pretty accurate at measuring physical variables,” said Russell. “We have been doing it for hundreds of years and know our way around it. With psychological variables, it’s very difficult to study them because they’re so abstract.”

In addition to investigating this topic outside of the classroom, Russell also teaches a class and an advanced lab in sensation and perception that examines questions related to visual preference. For example, why do we like looking at some things more than others?

“Being actively engaged in research shapes how we, as professors, teach. We’re not reading about research from someone else, we’re engaged in the process of expanding our knowledge of a particular topic.”

Working at the interface of facial health and visual perception is especially fun for Russell, whose decision to study the psychology of the brain was sparked by a developing interest in visual arts—particularly painting and photography. And while it might not seem like Russell is doing visual art now, he has come to find that there is a great deal of visual creativity involved in the research he conducts, research he hopes will some day make a difference in how we understand and use our makeup products.

“Some people study how you can help people live longer, and other people study how you can make it more worthwhile to be alive, and I think of my research as being in that latter category—it’s something that helps make life interesting and beautiful.”

How are you going to make an impact?

How are you going to make a difference in your community?

How are you going to do great work?

These are questions that Gettysburgians ask themselves regularly, and questions that our socially-minded entrepreneurial alumni ask themselves almost every day.

Instead of advancing commercial goals, these alums are working to improve social conditions by using skills and business practices typically reserved for the business sector.

Take Blake Mycoskie’s TOMS to Yvon Chouinard’s Patagonia, for example, or small businesses in a local community that have a formal and documented social impact. It is growing trend, and while it is leaving its mark in the commercial sector, it is fundamentally changing the way entrepreneurs think about business, too.

Our alums are building their own businesses from the ground up and are overcoming challenges in order to fulfill a demonstrated need within their community that resonates with their personal passions. And above all else, they are having a social impact.

Humanitarian Social Innovation

When Linda Zweizig Rentschler ’86 first heard the term social entrepreneur, something clicked for her. She identified with it, not just as a business practice, but also as the way in which she lives her life.

At the time, Rentschler was enrolled in an MBA and M.Ed. program at Lehigh University. She saw the challenges that her classmates faced as they tried to plan and launch their own non-profits.

According to Rentschler, most social entrepreneurs have a passion, but not necessarily the business acumen, driving their organization. Her classmates, for example, often needed support talking through their business model, connecting with resources, and marketing their product to the right audiences.

In fact, the biggest challenge Rentschler finds social entrepreneurs facing is finding sustainable sources of revenue.

“I kept thinking that there has to be a better way for people who want to do good to be able to do that good,” Rentschler said. “Everything came together at that point.”

What she created in February of 2014 is Humanitarian Social Innovation (HSI), a social profit that acts as a consultant for other entrepreneurs in order to ensure their organizations are built on a solid business foundation.

“You are not only giving these people and their organizations what they need on a basic level, but you are encouraging and inspiring their passion,” Rentschler stated. “It’s an amazing moment when you sit with someone who has this vision and you can give them what they need to make their passion come to fruition.”

Kids Sports Network of San Antonio

For Frank Martin ’63, finding funding was one of the initial challenges he faced when he created the Kids Sports Network of San Antonio. He had just retired from the U.S. Air Force and was interested in addressing systemic issues he saw in the management of youth sports leagues.

It was during his last four years in the U.S. Air Force that Martin began working with youth sports leagues and saw how poorly managed they were. After his retirement, he became dedicated to improving the management of children’s sports.

The challenge to find funding was one that he quickly overcame, though, as the Kids Sports Network of San Antonio gained the sponsorship of the NBA Spurs, received a Point of Light from President George H.W. Bush, and created an innovative sports league that has taken off across the country.

“I vividly remember thinking, ‘What am I doing? How am I going to make this work?’” Martin recalled. “I had two kids in high school who were getting ready to attend college, and here I was trying to make something from nothing. But I stuck with it, got creative with resources, and promoted the program quite aggressively. I had a lot of groundwork to do, but eventually, it really started to grow.”

Kisses from Katie

For Alan ’02 and Victoria Anderson Manning ’01, it was an unimaginable tragedy that showed them the unique opportunity they had to make a positive change. A few days after their daughter, Katie, was born, she was diagnosed with congenital heart failure. She passed away a few short months later.

“My wife and I were actually really lucky,” Alan explained. “We both had good jobs that allowed us to take time off as we needed. We had laptops that we could take into our meetings with doctors in order to research and better understand what they were saying. We had family and friends to support us, and we were in a place where we could relate to the doctors and nurses, we could understand each other in a way that other families weren’t able to.”

It wasn’t until one of Katie’s hospital visits and a chance encounter with another family that the Mannings recognized the full extent of their privilege, and in turn, their ability to help others.

“We were waiting outside of Katie’s room, watching while she was in surgery, when we noticed the young woman in the room next to hers,” Alan recalled. “She was maybe 16 years old, a single mother in her daughter’s room all alone. She had no support, no means to advocate for her daughter, nothing.”

In that moment, both Mannings saw an opportunity for others to benefit from their experience, and the seeds for Kisses from Katie were sown.

A nonprofit that prides itself on “taking the edge off,” Alan and Victoria have developed many different programs in the years since Katie’s passing that help to level the playing field in terms of privilege.

“This is more about creating a community and providing an outlet or a system of support for people who are going through similar experiences. At the end of the day, if we can have a little bit of an impact or make a little bit of a difference for another family, that is what means the world to us,” Alan said.

The Gettysburg Connection

Alums like Rentschler, Martin, and the Mannings strive to make an impact in the communities they work with every day. It is that intentional impact that is the unifying factor of any social entrepreneurial venture, and turns a business into a personal commitment.

In many ways, that level of commitment is akin to the programming that the Center for Public Services strives to promote.

“At Gettysburg, our goal is to create sustainable partnerships with the community,” said Kim Davidson, Director of the Center for Public Service. “This long-term type of interaction with the community makes service something that becomes very personal. There’s a transitional moment – when it goes from being something that you are told to do to something that you do because you have a connection to it.”

It makes sense, according to Davidson, that many of our alums would crave that level of connection to their communities when they graduate, and find it by integrating it into their professional paths.

Find out more about how we are inspiring socially-minded entrepreneurs and learn more about our entrepreneurship competitions.

The summer before her junior year, Jacqueline Beckwith ’16 was looking for an internship. By then she’d already fully immersed herself in campus life but was looking for more professional experience. As a first-year, she completed the competitive Inside Politics course with Kasey Pipes from The Eisenhower Institute (EI) at Gettysburg College; by sophomore year she just about completed the course requirements for her music minor (she’s a saxophone player); and she studied abroad and had already interned with The Webster Group, led by Judge William Webster GP’14. Academically, Beckwith was equally accomplished—the Political Science major and Economics and Music double minor came to Gettysburg as a Lincoln scholar, a top distinction awarded to the most academically promising students.

Even with all this under her belt, Beckwith at first found it challenging to secure another internship.

“I applied to several and wasn’t hearing anything back,” she said. So she reached out to Jeffrey Blavatt, EI’s executive director, for some help—he is the person who’d connected her with her first internship with The Webster Group. “I thought I was selling out,” Beckwith joked. “I wanted to find something on my own merit, but Jeffrey advised that it’s about your network, not paper applications.”

Fast forward to today and Beckwith, now a senior, has not only been deeply involved in campus life, but has also completed three internships—one of which helped her make a connection with Steve Scully, a senior executive producer and political editor for the C-SPAN television network. And it all started with her reaching out to Blavatt.

“Jeffrey introduced me to William Gray, who works at Issue One now but used to work for C-SPAN and has been involved with The Eisenhower Institute for awhile,” she said. “I had a great interview over spring break and he connected me with a hiring manager. I was lucky to then be placed in Steve Scully’s department,” she said.

There, Beckwith was responsible for identifying and scheduling interviews for Scully’s daily radio show, Washington Journal. This routine helped her cultivate relationships with the journalists and elected officials who’d appear on the show. Beckwith’s standout assignment was helping to research questions for an in-depth interview with Hillary Clinton. “I watched every interview she’d ever done so we could be sure Steve was asking questions Clinton had never been asked before,” Beckwith said. She was thrilled when Scully picked one or two of the questions she’d suggested and used them verbatim.

Just this past summer, Beckwith was back in Washington D.C., interning for the office of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (Beckwith is from Virginia)—an internship she also landed through a connection, this time through someone at C-SPAN. She decided to use the opportunity to keep in touch with Scully.

“I met up with him for lunch—internships at C-SPAN and other companies greatly increase your job offer chances, and it's pretty simple,” said Beckwith. “A future employer sees your talent, work ethic and potential growth. As a mentor, Steve Scully has opened new career paths for me, while also giving me the practical advice I need once I graduate from Gettysburg.”

Other than helping her to cultivate and tap into a professional network, Beckwith said her internship experiences have helped her apply her classroom knowledge and learn from real world experience.

“Everything we’re taught in the classroom is so important and underlies everything we do in the real world,” she said. “In Senator Kaine’s office, I wrote briefs. Working with Steve Scully, I learned how to digest the news and focus on what was most important and timely—to analyze what I’m reading. I see now how important that is in the real world. Internships really speed up the understanding process.”

One of Beckwith’s long-term goals is to run for elected office.

“When I worked in Senator Kaine’s office, one of my favorite things to do was take calls from constituents—some of their concerns felt so foreign from mine, even though we were from the same state,” she said. To start, Beckwith said she’d like to continue to learn more by first running for state office—her dream is to eventually hold national office.

In her last year at Gettysburg, Beckwith continues to participate in programming offered by The Eisenhower Institute. This year, she helped launch the new Fielding Center for Presidential Leadership Study as a Fielding Fellow.  She also helps lead the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative on campus, plays in a quartet, and works with Associate Prof. Paul Austerlitz of The Sunderman Conservatory of Music.

Read more about the power of the Gettysburg network.

Learn more about The Eisenhower Institute.

Learn more about The Sunderman Conservatory.

Have you ever found yourself wondering how to complete your look? Asking, “What would make me stand out from the crowd?” Gettysburg College alum Andrew Larsen ’08 would say that you’re in need of a statement sock. Namely, a sock from Ace & Everett—a made-in-America sock company where Larsen serves as Chief Financial Officer.

From Finance to Fashion

In 2008, Larsen graduated from Gettysburg with a finance position lined up at Merrill Lynch, working in the hedge fund and private equity space in New York City.

“I was really excited that I had a job offer and was able to network and leverage my economics major to get a really meaningful job in New York. I never knew what I wanted to do long-term, but I liked the idea that Merrill was a well-known company and that I would establish a strong analytical skillset.”

After four-and-a-half years, he joined UBS. It was there, inspired by emerging tech-startups in Silicone Valley, that Larsen began to consider entrepreneurship as a potential career path.

In May 2015, Larsen left UBS with ambitions of launching his own consulting company. While establishing his client base, Larsen met brothers Cody and Sage Disch, who had an innovative idea for a new fashion brand—Ace & Everett.

Their grandfather, for whom Ace & Everett is named, founded a heavy machinery company in New Jersey, and their father jumpstarted ventures in the beverage, restaurant, and real estate industries. Determined to build upon their family’s entrepreneurial legacy, the brothers set out to make a splash in the fashion world.

Photo by Erick Hercules

Heavily influenced by the sneaker culture that came to prominence in the 80s and 90s, Cody foresaw tremendous potential in lifestyle socks. He partnered with Sage, who brought a wealth of marketing and social media experience, and the siblings’ company was born.

Minutes after meeting Larsen, the Disches were convinced there was something there—an entrepreneurial chemistry—that could help the new sock enterprise define a niche market.

Larsen felt it too. He signed on to be the CFO of Ace & Everett that day.

Patterns, Personality, and Promise

Bringing valuable fundraising and logistical knowledge to the team, Larsen was sold on the brothers’ vision of a beautiful, authentic, luxury sock made right here in the U.S.A.

“All of the materials are sourced and all the manufacturing is conducted here in the United States,” he stated proudly. The product is made in High Point, N.C., and the company’s brand is targeted toward millennials, whom research has shown to be more invested in where and how their clothes are manufactured.

Photo by Humza Deas

At the time Larsen joined Ace & Everett, the business was already attracting considerable hype, with a seed round having already been raised on Kickstarter for their first production run. This excitement—both from loyal costumers and the sock trio—has yet to wear off.

“My excitement comes from [the business] being a startup; it’s on you and your team to ensure the company sets out on the right strategic path, investors are happy, and socks get delivered on time,” said Larsen, who commends the team’s shared attention to detail. “It is really exciting that we have direct impact on the business on a daily basis.”

An added bonus—Larsen’s dresser is now full of amazing socks. Although, picking a favorite isn’t always easy.

“I love all of my Ace & Everett socks. I have different favorites for different occasions,” he said, smiling. “In our Fall/Winter 2015 Collection, each pair of socks is named after an influential American author. When I put my Twains on, for instance, I feel a sense of adventure. I know that sounds sort of cheesy, but there is actually a physical change in my mood when I put them on. Today, I had the Humzillas on; I wear those when I want to feel cool.”

For Larsen, Ace & Everett socks are more than organic Supima cotton—they’re a voice, a declaration.

“Each collection is designed with a focus on art, architecture, and culture; it’s what sets us apart from the competition. We are a fashion company that happens to make the highest quality socks. Cody takes great care in hand selecting the color palette, designing the patterns, and identifying the theme for the collections. Most people don’t realize it, but we are a sophisticated fashion brand. We release biannual collections for the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons.” In short, Ace & Everett gives the people new reasons to come back month after month, season after season.

“We are a little bit provocative. We want people to look at our content—at our Facebook page, at our Instagram—and feel a sense of inspiration. We want them to feel that these guys are really on the cutting edge of something here. That we’re not just pushing a commodity product, but that we have given their sock a real personality,” Larsen shared. “We are very conscious of the aesthetic and the emotion that goes into the whole process, and the consensus is that our customers very much appreciate that.”

A Bright Future (…like Mamba Morgan bright)

Today, Ace & Everett—with their committed brand ambassadors and trendy fashion-forward designs—appear poised to have a breakout year in 2016.

“I certainly didn’t plan this out seven years ago,” Larsen reflected, “but now, I definitely see the value in going the corporate route, getting some solid training, and then being able to leverage that into a product that I am passionate about, which is socks.”

Larsen’s advice for current Gettysburg College students? Network.

“Networking is key. Start poking around early. Try new things. And if you don’t like it, make note of it and move on,” said Larsen. “I would definitely encourage every single Gettysburg student to network, even if you are not looking for something directly. I find that the best networking takes place when you’re just curious and you’re not looking for something. Anything can happen.”

One thing is for sure, though, “Once people take a dive into trying our fashion-focused socks, their whole perspective on fashion changes.”

Eliza Gray ‘16 has played soccer for as long as she could remember. She played other sports, too, but she knew soccer was the one she wanted to pursue in college and perhaps even beyond. The question was, how would this affect her college decision?

“I was encouraged to look at the Centennial Conference because the schools would be competitive athletically while also strong academically,” Gray explained. “From the moment I stepped on Clark Field, though, I knew exactly where I wanted to be. It was the other girls on the team who really sold the decision for me.”

She liked the ability to balance her commitment to athletics and academics, while being able to seek out other opportunities, as well. Head Women’s Soccer Coach Matt Garrett’s reassurance that she could study abroad also appealed to her.

The Organization and Management Studies major and Business minor started as a record-breaking goalie for the varsity soccer team for the past four years. She worked an on campus job, and was eventually promoted to Assistant Director of Fitness, overseeing student fitness instructors. She joined the Delta Gamma sorority, volunteered with El Centro, and even studied abroad in Seville, Spain, during the spring of her junior year.

“Coach Garrett was one of the people who really encouraged me to go abroad,” Gray said. “I knew it was always something that I wanted to have as an option, but when the time came, I wasn’t sure if it was something I could actually do.”

Among her concerns was the impact a few months away from the field would have on her game, as well as the time she'd have to spend away from her family and friends. It was the assurances from her coach, though, that assured her the time away would be worth it.

“We want Gettysburg to be the place you can do everything and be great at everything. Studying abroad is a big part of the four year experience that helps you grow and develop to make sure you are a better student, person, and leader,” said Garrett. “Eliza did everything at Gettysburg and excelled at everything— she is a wonderful soccer player, a high-achieving student, has accepted a job right out of college, worked on campus, is a member of a sorority, and studied abroad. She epitomizes a win/win player.”

For Gray, the opportunity to study abroad not only reaffirmed her dedication to those activities, but it also pushed her to excel at them even more.

“If anything, I think my time abroad has helped me grow as a student, a soccer player, and a person,” she stated. “I’m much more independent now, and even though Seville became my home away from home, it made me appreciate all of the opportunities Gettysburg has given me.”

Through it all, she has stayed competitive athletically and academically. She was a recipient of the College’s Linnean Award, which is awarded to a senior who stands out for the academic accomplishments and commitment to the collegiate and local community.

She was named to the NSCAA Division III All-America First Team as a senior, and she received the highest honor for any goalie in Division III as the lone first-team selection. She also received First-Team NSCAA All-Mid-Atlantic Region, First Team All-Centennial Conference, and Centennial Conference Player of the Year accolades as a senior. For her career, Gray finished with nearly every school record for goalies, including wins (47), shutouts (38), goals-against average (0.46), and save percentage (.863). She also broke the Centennial Conference records for shutouts and goals-against average and is second in conference history in goalie wins.

But it is the team that drew her here that still holds the most value for her.

“Without a doubt, the best four years of my life have been the past four years, and that’s because of the Gettysburg women’s soccer program,” Gray said. “This place, this field, all of my coaches, every girl that I’ve played with, the lessons that I’ve learned on and off the field, the successes and the failures—it’s all an integral part of the memories I’ve made here and the experiences that have made Gettysburg so special to me.”

In fact, she found the lessons she learned from the soccer team to be the ones she shared most often while interviewing for jobs. Her work paid off—she was offered a job in outside sales with Automatic Data Processing (ADP), LLC in New York City a few months before graduation. While she is anxious about starting the next chapter of her life, she is excited to tackle the new challenge, too.

“I know I will enjoy this new opportunity,” Gray said. “I’ll be starting a new chapter of my life in a different city and have totally new responsibilities. It will definitely put me out of my comfort zone a bit, but thanks to my time here, I know that is where I learn best. I think that is the challenge I am looking forward to the most.”

Watch Gray and the entire Women's Soccer team in action—check out the video below:

Two scientists huddle over a computer. On the screen is a list of prices next to the names of chemical compounds and they’re discussing what they need to buy in order to conduct a new experiment. Someone else enters the room in a white lab coat, checking in with the group while his experiment finishes up in the lab upstairs. At the back of the room, Prof. Funk speaks with a small group sitting at lab tables as Prof. Brandauer comes over to greet me. 

The room’s energy feels akin to that of a professional pharmaceutical lab, but I’ve just walked into an undergraduate class, CHEM-359 X-lab: Drugs and Cells, co-taught by chemistry Prof. Tim Funk and health sciences Prof. Josef Brandauer. The course is part of the Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute at Gettysburg College (X-SIG), made possible through a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and, more recently, by a gift made from the estate of Harrison Dickson ’48.

“I love Excel spreadsheets,” says Brandauer, turning to speak with Kathryn Fodale ’16 and Katherine Boas ’16, the two scientists who I saw checking prices on the computer when I first walked in. “Tell me what you’re looking to buy, the price, and why you need it so we can discuss if you really do need it or if we can do what you need with something we already have in the lab.”

Fodale and Boas are in the process of figuring out how to conduct an experiment that will allow them to determine the impact of a compound’s structure on its biological activity. More specifically, they’re modifying the structure of resveratrol—a compound found in the skin of grapes and red wine that may be linked with positive health benefits—to determine whether or not there is an effect on mitochondrial function in cells.

The other lab partners scattered about the room are working on individual projects of their own design. They picked partners based on major—so ideally one partner has a chemistry background, and the other, biology. In this pair, Fodale is the chemist—she’s interested in organic synthetic chemistry—and Boas is the biologist, interested in microbiology and infectious diseases.

“What we are having students do is everything, really,” says Funk. “They have to understand both the chemistry and the biology. What no single person does at a pharmaceutical company—they are learning it all.” 

This is the second X-SIG class to be offered at Gettysburg, preceded by Salty and Fatty, which was a course focused on the intersection of physics and chemistry. Funk and Brandauer divided the semester into two parts: the synthesis, isolation, and characterization of a derivative of a known, biologically active organic compound (resveratrol); and the assessment of its effect on cellular biology.

At no point would you walk into the lab and see learning happening in the form of students listening to a lecture from Brandauer or Funk standing at the front of the room. It’s all hands-on and driven by the students.  From the first day of the course, students were asked to come up with their own derivative of the compound resveratrol, and in the second semester they were asked to propose and run experiments testing the biological activity of the derivative they synthesized.  

“What I really like about this class is we were given the freedom to come up with [our experiment design], we explained it to our professors, who liked it,” said Fodale, “and now we need to figure out how to make it happen.”

Beyond bringing their research designs to fruition, these students are contributing new ideas with practical implications. By the end of the class, Fodale and Boas will not only have investigated the molecular mechanisms of resveratrol, but also developed a better understanding of how to enhance its therapeutic benefits.

“For me, some of the techniques these students are developing I can use in my lab, in my research,” said Brandauer. “One thing I really like about this course is we are asking students to become experts in an experimental technique.”

In the future, Funk and Brandauer said a third course will join the X-SIG series—the topic to be determined—and the Salty and Fatty course will be offered again next year on rotation.

“The endowed gift from Dickson is what’s allowing us to continue offering these innovative X-SIG lab courses that were originally made possible by the HHMI grant,” said Funk.

Learn more about the Cross-Disciplinary Institute.

On Friday, April 22, 2016, Gettysburg College welcomed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in a town hall meeting, with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard joining him as a special guest. The town hall event was held in Bream Gym.
 
"As a part of our educational mission and commitment to a liberal arts education, Gettysburg College is pleased to provide today's forum for respectful discussion," said Executive Director of Communications and Marketing Paul Redfern '00 once students and community members alike had filled the gym. "Gettysburg College does not support of oppose Senator Sanders or any other political candidate. In fact, we have extended an invitation to all the presidential candidates to hold a town hall meeting on our campus."

Check out highlights from the event in the photo gallery above, or watch footage of the entire discussion below.

Junior Sarah Hansen and her teammates took care of business at the Centennial Conference Championship at the Foxchase Golf Course with Hansen taking home medalist honors and leading the Bullets to a record sixth-straight team crown.

Gettysburg, which led the field by 11 strokes after the opening round, finished with the best final round in championship history, carding a score of 334 on Sunday. The team finished with a two-day total of 691 (357-334) to best McDaniel College (372-352) by 33 strokes. Ursinus College finished third at 732 (368-364).

The sixth-straight crown pushed the Bullets ahead of the Green Terror for the most consecutive titles in conference history. It was the program's seventh championship overall – all since 2008.

"It feels great," said senior captain Kate Schwartz. "We've definitely worked hard for this. We've built an amazing program here at Gettysburg College and we've earned every single title we've won. We're going to keep it up and we're ready to go to nationals."

As the conference champion, Gettysburg receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship on May 10-13 at the Bay Oaks Golf Club in Houston, Texas.

Hansen became Gettysburg's fifth-straight individual champion and was also named Centennial Conference Player of the Year. The junior carried a two-stroke lead into the final day after posting an 82 on Saturday. She was even better on Sunday, shooting one-over on the front nine and carding an 80. She tallied 10 pars and birdied hole No. 3.

Samantha Sessa '18 and Sarah Hansen '17 earned All-CC First Team for the second consecutive year.

"Every golfer lives for this moment," stated the junior, who earned her second consecutive selection to the All-CC First Team. "I really tried to stay in the present and focus on every shot. I just tried taking it hole-by-hole and playing steady."

Hansen edged Muhlenberg College freshman Aine Filler by three strokes. Filler was named the CC Rookie of the Year.

Joining Hansen on the all-conference team for the second year in a row was sophomore Samantha Sessa. Despite feeling under-the-weather physically from the outset of the tournament, Sessa powered through for a third-place finish. She posted an 85 on day one and shaved four strokes off that total for an 81 on Sunday. Sessa was the defending conference champ, but she was happy with the weekend's results.

"Definitely not upset about my finish," said the sophomore. "Not feeling so well and being able to finish top three, I'm pretty happy about that."

All five Gettysburg players dropped their scores during the final round, but no one did more work than sophomore Fontaine McFeaters. After shooting a 95 on Saturday, McFeaters tied a career low with an 82 in the final round. She logged nine pars, including four in a row on the back nine. McFeaters missed a top-five finish and all-conference accolades by just two strokes and finished eighth overall.

Junior Lynn Hatcher and Schwartz finished one stroke apart. Hatcher cut five strokes off her opening round tally by carding a 91 and finished 14th with total of 187. Playing in her fourth conference championship, Schwartz managed a 93, cutting two strokes off her first round and placing 15th overall with a score of 188.

Gettysburg was the only school with all five starters ranked among the top 15.

"The conference has definitely grown the last two years," noted Hansen. "This was definitely the most competition we've had going into conferences. It was definitely a fantastic opportunity to be a part of this team and we did a great job."

"I think the team definitely toughed it out," said Schwartz. "I know everyone hasn't been up to par in their games with the conditions we've had, but I think everyone played great. It was a great day to be a Bullet overall."

Leadership development is at the core of Gettysburg College’s mission, and now every student has the opportunity to get involved from day one.

The Gettysburg College Leadership Certificate (GCLC) is a new customizable yearlong program designed for any student—regardless of class year—to grow into a leader of action and integrity through the guidance of a trained leadership coach.

So how does the program work?

Well, the GCLC provides a platform for students to take one of their current campus activities—say, playing a sport, performing in the marching band, serving as a peer learning associate, or any other potential Gettysburg experience—and use it as a springboard to build lifelong leadership skills, and ultimately learn how to articulate those skills to a potential employer.

“As a first-year, I was hesitant to jump into too many things, but I saw that the Gettysburg College Leadership Certificate had a good balance of activities and was not an overwhelming time commitment,” said Christina Noto ’19, one of more than 45 first-years and 140 total students who registered this past fall for the program’s inaugural year.

For Noto, it was all about working side-by-side with a personal leadership coach.

The coaches—dedicated Gettysburg professors, administrators, and staff members—facilitate one-on-one conversations with their leadership students to underscore tenants of the program and help them connect the dots between their passions and career aspirations.

GCLC students at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center.

“It helped me adjust to Gettysburg and I am really happy that I chose to get involved with the GCLC. I would recommend all first-year students participate in it.”

As a senior, Tucker Snow ’16 also found the program to be rewarding.

“I have been able to hone my leadership skills in a way that will not only benefit me this year, but throughout my career. Plus, the relationship and connections that I have built with my leadership coach, Jim Duffy, have been invaluable in my development throughout this journey.”

Duffy, Associate Dean of College Life, views serving as a volunteer leadership coach as yet another touch point to help students explore the opportunities available to them at Gettysburg and beyond.

“I worked with both a first-year student and a senior this past academic year. Exposing the first-year student to all that Gettysburg College has to offer, while assisting with the senior’s job search made for a great experience,” Duffy reflected. “In fact, the most rewarding part was connecting the two students I worked with, and observing how they learned from one another’s experiences.” 

In addition to the coach mentorship, the GCLC also works hand-in-hand with the Center for Career Development to refine each participant’s resume and discuss potential networking opportunities.

“The power of the GCLC is that it encourages students to reflect on their practical leadership experiences and identify how that activity is developing their leadership skills,” said Andy Hughes, Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center. “Through this intentional action, students then deepen their self-awareness. It also provides our campus community with a glimpse into the high-impact leadership experiences of our students.”

This insider’s look is most prominent during the Gettysburg College Leadership Certificate Showcase, the culminating event of the program, where students—voted by their peers—provide a public presentation highlighting their personal leadership journey. View photos of the Leadership Certificate Showcase on Flickr.

All in all, for Gettysburg College students, the Leadership Certificate is a commitment that requires daily reflection and a relentless pursuit of self-improvement. It’s a commitment—not to your school, to your friends, or to your coach—but to yourself.

Are you ready to get started? Register today for 2016-17.

Students from over 38 countries attend Gettysburg College to make it a rich academic, co-curricular, and social atmosphere. And more students continue to choose Gettysburg to call home— the number of international students who attend the College increased from 41 in 2007 to 138 students in 2015.

There are several reasons why international students choose to come to Gettysburg, among them the support that’s made available through the Office of Intercultural Advancement, which continues to provide mentoring and assistance post-graduation. Brad Lancaster, the director of international student services and intercultural advancement, said he continues to advise alumni who decide to remain in the United States to work after graduation, helping them navigate the logistics of things like taxes and work visas.

What also sets Gettysburg’s program apart from others is internship opportunities and career support.

“Our international students have many more opportunities to complete internships while they are in college compared to international students studying at other institutions,” said Lancaster. “And that’s because we have made it a point to ensure internship credits can count towards graduation, which positively impacts our international students’ ability to meet the requirements for work authorization off campus. And in many instances, students have gotten hired by the company that they interned for between their junior and senior year—so I see that as a major advantage.”

Below, several alumni share more about their experience at Gettysburg as international students and update us on where they are today.

Wei Xiong ’15

• Solution Developer at Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Xiong was also the winner of the Center for Career Development’s Entrepreneurial Fellowship where he built and designed Scholar Oasis—a student-to-student textbook sale website connecting more than 600 people on 10 different college campuses.
• From China

“The solid Computer Science curriculum prepared me, technically, for a career in the tech industry. More importantly, I honed my critical thinking and communication skills during my time at Gettysburg. I think they will play far bigger roles in the long run. Last but not least, our College's emphasis on leadership, initiative-taking, and difference-making truly emboldens and empowers me and many others that I know to become confident leaders in our workplace and communities.”

Sneha Shrestha ’10

• Founder & Director of the Nepal Children’s Art Museum
• From Nepal

Shrestha leads the many programs within the art museum that provides a creative space for children and youth of Nepal. They teach children literacy through art as well as empower youth in Kathmandu, Nepal.

“Coming from the other side of the planet, I was afraid because I looked and talked different than my friends and the thousand something students on campus. But soon enough I realized what’s more important is what I do and how I can contribute to the community around me and meaningfully express myself through art.

“Gettysburg introduced me to what being a global citizen is—from learning theories to looking up to my professors who have lived all over the world and encouraged my steps in exploring and understanding my own views of the world and myself.”

Enzo Pinga ’11

• Co-founder and COO of EarthBeat Farms
• From The Philippines

Pinga oversees the production, operations, head of sales and marketing at EarthBeat Farms. In 2012, he also cofounded Bahay Kubo Organics, a non-profit urban farming and sustainability company that strives to grow fresh food for people in need.

“I feared that I would find it difficult to settle in moving to a different country. From the beginning, those fears were alleviated by the general atmosphere of the College thanks to the students and staff. The holistic approach to education definitely helped me find the path after graduating. It was an approach that worked well for me given my interest in so many fields and topics.”

Justina Poskeviciute ’11

• Hostelhops, Account Manager
• From Lithuania

Poskeviciute currently trains hostels to use a booking platform called Hostelhops. She resides in Sao Paulo and works in several areas throughout South and North East Brazil.

“Gettysburg College has taught me that the word 'experience' goes way beyond academics, that knowledge in itself means little if it cannot open your mind, and that the best way to enrich your life is by being open to it.”

Lionel Hong ’12

• Centrifuge Productions, Co-Founder
• From China

“I went to a small boarding school up in New England. When I was looking at colleges, I knew I wanted a community-focused environment. The campus felt rich and cultured. It was the vibe that drew me.

“I loved the relationships I had with my professors as well as the students and alumni. I built very strong relationships with my professors, whether it was for academic questions I had on assignments, or big questions about life. They have always been there, in many ways, like a family. Being away from home—and knowing that you have good and trustworthy people on campus whose office you can walk into at any moment during the week—was reassuring when making that initial decision of leaving my home country in the first place.”

If you like science and you want to help people, what career do you pursue? 

An obvious option is to become a doctor, and many students do come to Gettysburg College intending to one day pursue a career as a doctor or medical professional. Some find their calling in research or public health. The list of potential careers for science majors is extensive, but often students aren’t aware of their opportunities until they get to college.

This was true for Emily Wasson ’16, a Biology major and Chemistry minor who will pursue a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh this fall. Epidemiology is an area of medicine that focuses on the incidence and control of disease in a population.

“Although doing clinical work might seem like the obvious way to make an impact on helping people live healthier lifestyles, conducting research is a good way to integrate the clinical and policy side of medicine and to help people in ways that are not so obvious,” Wasson said.

Wasson, like many other high school students, came to Gettysburg anticipating she’d major in science so she could pursue medical school. But her experiences led her in a different direction—to public health, which is an area of study focused on promoting health for populations of people, not just individuals. Her choice in major and minor is still applicable, however, she said. 

“Biology and chemistry are important to understanding the larger concepts with public health. All of my research comes back to biochemistry. Understanding that context is important. You need research to back up your policy decisions.”

This past summer Wasson interned at the Nemours A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, where she worked on epidemiological research to identify racial and/or ethnic disparities in pediatric populations. The end result was a paper published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Wasson was listed as one of the authors. 

The paper’s findings show that total cholesterol directly correlates with obesity and being overweight and suggest there may be significant racial variability in abnormal total cholesterol as well, bringing questions to mind like: Is there a connection between race and health, and if so, why? Wasson thinks varying levels of access to preventative care resources and primary care is one reason why health disparities exist within populations. At the hospital, Wasson also worked on several other research projects identifying racial/ethnic disparities in pediatric populations. Several have papers that are pending publication in leading public health journals.

“As a result of this research opportunity, I saw that through research we can drive policy change that will ultimately impact populations,” she said. “I realized that if we want to make changes to how people make choices about their daily lives, it starts with research that then drives policy to ensure people can get access to care. Ultimately access to care is what’s preventing [people] from having the best health outcomes, specifically in the United States.”

In addition to her research experiences, Wasson said several opportunities offered through Gettysburg impacted her decision to pursue a career in public health. With support from the Center for Career Development, she was able to shadow a physician in Kentucky, where she learned more about the impact of issues like drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, mental illness, obesity, homelessness, domestic violence, foster care systems, and poor dental hygiene.

Last spring she completed an immersion project in Port au Prince, Haiti, where she learned more about education reform and the importance of healthcare in treating chronic diseases.

“When we think of global health, we often think of the Zika virus or other infections, but some of these countries—including the United States—are facing chronic disease issues,” she said.  “And it’s eye opening to see how having access to health care can help people.”

In Prof. Chris Fee’s first-year seminar on homelessness, she worked with children through the South Central Community Action Programs in Gettysburg and had the opportunity to learn more about the impact of homelessness on health. When the class traveled to Washington, D.C., she learned about the connections between homelessness and chronic disease.

On top of all this, Wasson pursued opportunities to teach and mentor others, serving as a Gettysburg College tour guide and a peer learning associate for a number of science courses. She also tutored at El Centro, a Gettysburg community organization and children's center. 

And now all of these experiences are about to come full circle as Wasson heads to graduate school.

“One of the really interesting things I’ve learned is I love teaching. Education is a huge component of influencing other people to want to make change,” she said.  “A lot of my research has been focused on public health, and I’m on my track to get a master’s, but I think I’m also going into this with the intention of one day pursuing a Ph.D. The classes I’ve taken here show me that public health is something that needs to be talked about. Most people don’t have that exposure. The best way I think I can make an impact in the future is to teach.”

“What Gettysburg has taught me to do is live in the moment and experience all that is around—even when there are mishaps. I’ve learned to soak it all in, take a challenge head on, not back down, and act immediately,” said Ashley Fernandez ’16.

With graduation only a few weeks away, many seniors are being asked to reflect about their time at Gettysburg. Students look back at the past four years desperately trying to understand how their first year became their second, then their third, and finally their last.

It’s impossible to remember all of the late-night conversations with your roommates, the hours spent in the library during finals weeks, the Springfest concerts, or even the dozens of chocolate chip Servo cookies. But what students are left with are specific moments, moments filled with memories—the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of Gettysburg College—that transcend the residence halls and classrooms.

For Ashley Fernandez ’16, her Gettysburg story is best told as a collection of remarkable moments that together make up her undergraduate experience.

A Political Science and Public Policy double major, Fernandez has certainly made the most of her four years at Gettysburg. She has been involved with the Black Student Union, the Latin American Student Association, Gettysburg African Student Association, the Eisenhower Institute, and the Admissions Office. But when asked to reflect on her Gettysburg experience, Fernandez first remembers the people and the moments that changed her life.

Fernandez was in the midst of a two-week college tour when she first visited Gettysburg. With so many college visits in so little time, Fernandez found it difficult to distinguish one impressive school from another. But there was something special about Gettysburg, something that set it apart from other campuses she explored.

“Gettysburg College stood out to me because of my tour guide. He talked about the different types of diversity on campus and how it impacted his experience at Gettysburg,” said Fernandez. “He talked about his time in an authentic, genuine manner, and I really appreciated this transparency. That tour made my college decision easy.”

Thankful for the gift this tour guide gave her, Fernandez decided to pay it forward. She now works as the multi-cultural coordinator with the Admissions Office, overseeing all of the overnight visits for students from different backgrounds.

After moving all of her things into her new room in Stine Hall, Fernandez embarked on her Gettysburg journey. Her first year was—like it is for many—an exciting time. New faces, new classrooms, a new home. So much change is enough to intimidate any student, but Fernandez credits her First-Year seminar course with giving her the confidence she needed to succeed at Gettysburg.

“I took The Bush Administration: Approach to the War on Terror, Torture, and Prisoners of War with Prof. Warshaw during my first semester. It is by far one of the most exciting classes I have ever taken,” she said. “We spent a lot of time looking at different institutions and identifying problems, and this ultimately helped spark my interest in the Political Science major.”

The rest of her first year was spent making new friends, getting involved on campus, and exploring the different academic departments at Gettysburg. What was once a strange, unfamiliar campus became a home that Fernandez began to love.

She specifically remembers Get Acquainted Day and talking to prospective students about the Gettysburg College community. Fernandez was almost done with her first year and was excited to share what she’d learned.

“I was able to articulate why I chose Gettysburg, why I loved it, why it was the right school for me, and why it can be the right school for them, too,” she said. “I could understand their nervousness but I could also tell them that everything was going to be okay. In fact, if they chose Gettysburg, it was going to be a really fun ride.”

Fernandez’s Gettysburg ride took a whole new turn during the spring of her junior year when she decided to spend a semester abroad in Morocco. Leaving behind everything and everyone she had come to know and love at Gettysburg, Fernandez embarked on a whole new journey—one that came with its own set of challenges and rewards.

“My host family encouraged me to take advantage of all the different places, food, and opportunities. We spoke no English in the house because they wanted me to learn the language so badly. I found that their enthusiasm helped me. I had to learn to be comfortable with embarrassing myself.”

And while challenging at times, Fernandez was thankful for her Gettysburg education—an education that helped her navigate the difficult situations she faced abroad.

“Gettysburg taught to me trust my instincts, and this was so important in Morocco. The lack of familiarity was the hardest part—if something was going on and there were no instructions being given, I didn’t always know what to do. I had to trust what I knew.”

Upon her return to Gettysburg in the fall, Fernandez began to identify ways in which the Gettysburg community could grow. Together with the Black Student Union and the Latin American Student’s Association, Fernandez organized a Town Hall meeting to discuss issues of diversity and the racial climate at Gettysburg. Adhering to her initial goal of improving the College community, Fernandez and her peers set out to start an open and honest dialogue about inclusion on our campus.

“We have a community that’s willing to listen—listen and reflect critically about different aspects that make up our campus,” said Fernandez. “Being able to talk about it in such a free and open space was really empowering.”

Thousands of members from the Gettysburg community attended the meeting and many more watched the live stream coverage from across campus.

“We were very intentional with how we structured this meeting—from the language we used to the issues we covered,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we capitalized on this moment so students of all backgrounds can feel like they can be proud of their Gettysburg community.”

It is this community of friends, faculty, and mentors that Fernandez will miss most after graduation this May.

“Our community, for such a small place, our community is amazing,” said Fernandez. “Gettysburg College has a spirit about it, and it’s contagious. It makes you want to be a better person. It makes you want to keep exploring and experiencing new adventures.”

And that is exactly what Fernandez plans to do. After graduation she is traveling to Israel as part of the Inside Middle East Program with the Eisenhower Institute. When she returns, Fernandez will start her job as a recruiting consultant with the global recruiting firm, SThree. Fernandez will work in their financial branch, Huxley Associates.

To learn more about Fernandez’s Gettysburg experience, watch her speech from the Gettysburg Great Campaign Event in New York City:

How does the size of our hands affect our perception of objects? Will artificial intelligence surpass human intelligence? These are just a couple of the questions students tackled and presented at the eighth annual Celebration, an annual colloquium showcasing undergraduate research, creative activity, and community engagement.

The two-day event kicked off Friday, April 29, with poster presentations in the CUB Ballroom as well as panel discussions, film presentations, and theatrical performances from a variety of disciplines and departments. 

This year, 271 students presented 173 projects from 29 departments and programs. We asked a few students to share their research projects and what they took away from the experience.

Read their takeaways below:

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Zuozhi Yang ’17
Yang used the board game Quoridor to compare different heuristic search algorithms and explore topics of artificial intelligence.

Faculty advisor: Todd Neller

“Recently Google developed AlphaGo, which is a complex artificial intelligence system that is designed to play Go, one of the most difficult strategy games. A lot of people were excited about it while others worried that Al would surpass human intelligence. Part of Google's Go player is built upon Monte Carlo Tree search, which is an algorithm I also used in my research and is based on many researchers’ efforts in the past decade. So, in my opinion, there’s nothing to worry about right now—there is the same amount of human intelligence behind machine intelligence.”

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Harley Emmons ’16

Emmons investigated the gap between LGBT+ characters in Japanese media compared to the real life community as well as whether these characters accurately portray the issues of the community and an authentic Japanese gay identity. This research began as a Mellon Summer Scholars project.

Faculty advisor: Eleanor Hogan

“I learned a lot about my own Western mindset of what ‘gay identity’ was and how to expand that to realize it is not a universal concept. After studying abroad in Japan I noticed a prevalence of LGBT characters on TV and other media, but there also seemed to be little discourse or education about the subject when I talked to people. I hope others can learn more about both LGBT and Japanese culture and how cultural identity can change outlooks.

In my thesis, I have combined so many different areas and classes from my past four years, and I feel like I have really become an expert in the subject. From working with primary sources in the original language, I have improved my spoken Japanese and my translation abilities and have become well versed in issues facing LGBT communities here and abroad.”

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Eric Osorio ’16

Osorio and Kelsey Poholsky ’16 examined how hand constriction affects people’s ability to estimate size when the graspability and familiarity of objects were manipulated and if the size of a person’s hands aid in the perception of the length of objects.

Faculty Advisor: Rebecca Fincher-Kiefer

“We’ve been learning about psychologist Arthur Glenberg’s theory of embodiment, which says that the meaning of an object centers around how a person interacts with that object. I thought, we’re always using our hands, and this was a variable that hasn’t been tested much in the literature as it relates to embodiment. We found that when people were familiar with the objects—such as mugs or toothpaste—they tended to overestimate their size, and this was independent of hand position. Future experiments could examine the characteristics of familiarity and graspability with target objects that exceed the size of participants’ hands to see if body scaling is utilized in size estimates.”

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Celina Harris ’17

Harris and Savannah Miller '17 investigated the effects of ion saturation on the polymeric coating of spherical gold nanoparticles.

Faculty advisors: Kurt Andresen and Lucas Thompson

“I began working in Prof. Thompson's lab last fall because I thought that the realm of nanoparticles was extremely interesting and had a wide array of applications. This specific project was started by Savannah Miller, who works in Prof. Andresen's lab, last summer. The coupling of the two labs and the interdisciplinary nature of the project have been my favorite part of the work. There are other projects which Prof. Thompson has been working on, but my interests thus far have aligned most strongly with this project, and I look forward to getting to working with it more this summer as part of my X-SIG research.”

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Anna Malone ’16

Malone worked with Eun Chon ’16, Mia Phillips ’16, and Spenser Greeley ’16 to develop a religious studies program for inmates at the Adams County Adult Correctional Complex.  The idea started with a Mellon Summer Scholars project.

Faculty advisor: Charles Myers

"When I started research at the beginning of the summer for my Mellon grant, I didn't expect that it would change my life at all.  However, as my research in Christian prison ministry progressed, I decided to begin a volunteer program with other students and the nearby Adams County Adult Correctional Complex.  After some initial obstacles to starting this program, we were able to begin volunteering at the Community Reentry Program.

It is hard to express the impact this project has had on me.  Although we've been discouraged at times by a lack of attendance, the personal connections we have made with inmates has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my senior year.  I've developed a passion for caring for those who are incarcerated and for sharing that with others.  I'm looking forward to hearing how this program continues, as there are more students signed up to volunteer next year."

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Hamasa Ebadi ’16

Ebadi tested whether non-invasive stimulation of the parietal lobe affects mental rotation and rotated object recognition in a similar fashion.

Faculty advisor: Kevin Wilson

“My takeaway from the project is that a properly designed experiment with controls and a single-blind design can provide significant insight into the truthful nature of the brain's working.

Daily behavior that we take for granted, such as instant recognition of objects and the ability to masterfully visualize them in multiple orientations and positions—these abilities have been perfected over millennia by evolution. And to be able to augment our ability to manipulate the environment through wearable technology and other human-tech combinations, we need to understand the building blocks for how it works.”

Read about more Celebration projects.

See pictures from Celebration on Flickr:

 

“My first visit to Gettysburg was on Get Acquainted Day,” recalled Senait Weldemariam ’16.

A history major and education minor, Weldemariam’s first visit to Gettysburg stands out with significant clarity for her and her family. She, of course, had already been accepted, but her acceptance went viral when her College Bound Initiative (CBI) career counselor recorded a video of the surprise delivery.

Weldemariam had known for quite some time that Gettysburg was her top choice school from the research she and her career counselor had done. But before Get Acquainted Day, she had never been able to visit.

 “I remember that weekend—I was able to sit in on meetings and classes, meet peers, and see what I was getting myself into for the next four years,” Weldemariam said. “By the end of the weekend, my mom was so comfortable and happy with my decision. She knew I would do my best here with the resources this campus provided and the people this campus had.”

It didn’t take long for Weldemariam to get involved in campus life. She joined the Black Student Union—where she later held leadership roles—attended Latin American Student Association events and meetings, sang in Gospel Choir, spent a semester abroad in London and Lancaster, completed field work for her education minor, and found an invaluable mentor in History Professor Dina Lowy.

“I always knew that I was passionate about history, but I actually came to Gettysburg thinking I would study political science or international relations,” Weldemariam stated. “It wasn’t until I took Professor Lowy’s world history class my first year that I realized this was what I wanted to focus the rest of my studies on.”

She loved how the course showed her how to turn a natural academic interest into a major. However, it was the way the course pushed her out of her comfort zone that she enjoyed more than anything.

“I was so quiet when I first sat down in that class,” Weldemariam recalled. “To be honest, I was scared. I was a first-year, one of the youngest people in class, but the more I began to participate in discussions and challenge my classmates’ ideas, the more Professor Lowy encouraged me to voice my thoughts.”

When Weldemariam declared a history major, she was thrilled to be able to choose Lowy as a faculty advisor.

“I literally got to watch Senait bloom before my eyes—what a wonderful thing to see!” Lowy stated. “She found her voice during that class—shaping, directing, leading the conversation. After that, she spoke up in class regularly. I don’t think she has stopped talking since, and that, too, is a wonderful thing."

Since then, Weldemariam has found Lowy to be just as supportive with her class participation as her career plans. In fact, she cites Lowy as a source of inspiration for those plans—continuing her education, and ultimately, teaching American history with a focus on African American experiences at the collegiate level.

The ability to realize her personal and professional dreams only reaffirms the qualities that attracted her to Gettysburg in the first place.

“I always say that the people you surround yourself with will contribute to your ability to have an impact,” Weldemariam said. “The people I have chosen to surround myself with and the opportunities they have helped me to pursue have all made my experience here exceptional.”

Men’s and women’s lacrosse were both named Centennial Conference champions with victories this weekend. The titles capped an outstanding winter and spring for the Bullets in which 13 out of 17 teams finished in the top-four in the Centennial Conference, making Gettysburg the most successful school in the conference during that stretch. The men’s swimming, women’s golf, men’s lacrosse, and women’s lacrosse teams all captured conference championships while the women’s swimming and men’s golf teams finished as conference runners-up. In addition, the softball team tied for first in the Centennial Conference during the regular season.

Read more about the lacrosse victories below.

Men’s Lacrosse Championship 

On the strength of a tremendous defensive effort, the men’s lacrosse team won its 15th Centennial Conference title and its second in a row with a 9-2 victory over 17th-ranked Ursinus College at Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium. The Bullets outscored Ursinus 9-0 to start the game, shutting out the Bears for the opening 54 minutes, with goalie Jake Adoni ’16 making 13 saves and defenseman Geoff Davis ’16 picking up seven ground balls.

Freshman Tommy Heller ’19 netted five goals and one assist and was named tournament MVP, finishing with CC tournament records for goals (11) and points (15). He also broke the tournament record for points in a game (nine) with six goals and three assists in the Bullets’ 18-8 Centennial Conference semifinal victory over Swarthmore.

The Bullets were awarded an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III tournament and will make their 24th appearance in the national event when they host Lynchburg College on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s NCAA semifinals.

Women’s Lacrosse Championship

The women’s lacrosse team captured its 10th Centennial Conference championship with a 6-5 victory over fourth-ranked Franklin & Marshall College on the Diplomats’ home turf. Gettysburg shined on the defensive end, holding F&M to a season low for shots and goals. The Bullets took a 4-3 lead on a last-second goal by Katie Landry`18 heading into halftime and the defense locked down the Diplomats in the final stanza, allowing just one goal through the first 26 minutes of the frame. Gettysburg’s final two goals were scored by Maggie Connolly ’16 and Abby Baigelman ’16.

Landry finished with two goals in the game, while Baigelman, Connolly, and Katie Willis ’18 each contributed a goal and an assist. goalkeeper Shannon Keeler ’17 recorded five saves. Ali Gorab ’18 was named tournament MVP after leading a defense that allowed just nine goals in two postseason games.

Gettysburg clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs with the win. The Bullets will make their 15th consecutive appearance on the national stage and face the winner of Roger Williams University and William Smith College on Sunday, May 15 at 2:30 p.m. on Clark Field.

Gettysburg College will hold its 181^st Commencement—rain or shine—during a May 15^th ceremony that will take place on the Beachem Portico on the north side of Pennsylvania Hall at 11 a.m.

Graduates and their families can access all things Commencement, such as the complete schedule and information for graduates, on the 2016 Commencement webpage. Additionally, specific information for graduates and their families is provided with a unique webpage for each, along with information pertaining to the Baccalaureate ceremony and other Commencement-related events.

You can join the conversation on social media with #gburg2016. The Commencement ceremony will be livestreamed, and indoor viewing locations set up in Masters Hall’s Mara Auditorium, Brua Hall’s Kline Theater, and College Union Building room 260.

A Special Commencement ceremony for the Women’s Lacrosse—which will also be livestreamed—will take place on Thursday, May 12. Professor of Psychology Kathleen Cain will deliver the keynote address at the Special Commencement ceremony. Men's Lacrosse is also advancing into their playoff season, but will be able to attend Sunday's Commencement ceremony.

Political commentators and nationally-renowned journalists Steve and Cokie Roberts will deliver the keynote Commencement speech, and will receive honorary degrees during the Sunday ceremony.

Other honorary degree recipients include CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund Wade Henderson, and former Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates. Trustee Emeritus Jim Thomas ’53, P’80, GP ’11 will be presented with the Lavern H. Brenneman Award for his exemplary service to the College.

English and philosophy double major Peter Rosenberger ’16 has been selected as the 2016 student Commencement speaker.

Over the course of the weekend, the Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Mark Hourigan ’81 and Jack Howard ’79.

The Gettysburg College Award for Distinguished Teaching will also be presented during the Sunday ceremony.

Following the ceremony, light refreshments will be served in the College Union Building and the Dining Center.

Pictures taken by the College will be posted on the website and social media platforms. GradImages will also be taking pictures during the ceremony. Students and their families can pre-register to receive a notification when those pictures are available to review and purchase.

About Steve and Cokie Roberts

Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts has been a journalist for more than 45 years, covering some of the major events of his time, from the antiwar movement and student revolts of the 60s and 70s to President Reagan’s historic trip to Moscow in 1988 and eleven presidential election campaigns.

Today, he appears regularly as a political analyst on the ABC radio network and is a substitute host on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. He is also the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, where he lectures widely on American politics and the role of the news media.

Cokie is a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for NPR. Over the course of her more than forty years in broadcasting, Cokie has won countless awards, including the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting for her coverage of the Iran-Contra Affair, and three Emmys.

Cokie Roberts

In addition to her appearances on the airwaves, Cokie has published multiple books, the most successful of which was her number one bestseller, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters. Roberts’s histories of women in America – Founding Mothers, and Ladies of Liberty, as well as her recently published Capital Dames, about women and Washington in the Civil War—were all rated as New York Times bestsellers.

Steve and Cokie are just as proud of their personal accomplishments as they are of their professional ones. Together, they have two children and six grandchildren – three of whom live near to them in Washington, D.C. One of Steve’s greatest joys is coaching first-base for his grandson’s Little League baseball team, along with family vacations to Pawleys Island in South Carolina.

“After almost 50 years of marriage, we make a good team,” Steve reflected. “I hope our model is as useful as our words. Personal relationships – with a partner or protégé, a child or parent, a friend or mentor – bring life’s greatest joys."

Take initiative. That’s the charge Gettysburg College President Janet Morgan Riggs ’77 gave to the Class of 2016 in her Convocation address nearly four years ago.

She shared the story of 1851 alumnus David Wills to illustrate her point. It was his initiative to invite President Abraham Lincoln to deliver a “few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the national cemetery after the battle of Gettysburg that led to the delivery of the Gettysburg Address, one of the best known speeches in the world.

“Taking initiative does not require you to invite the president of the United States to campus—although you may do that,” she stated. “It means taking action that will have some positive impact. There are so many opportunities for you here, but none of them will just happen. You must take the initiative. The quality of your Gettysburg experience depends on this, and the quality of our community does as well."

It’s a message that the Class of 2016 took to heart. They studied abroad, excelled academically and athletically, challenged themselves as leaders, and served their communities.

Of the 662 graduates who will be recognized during Sunday’s Commencement ceremony, 78% completed an internship, and more still held other opportunities for career exploration through externships, job shadowing, and networking events.

55% of the graduating class forged invaluable relationships with their professors by completing independent research with a faculty mentor.

Another 55% spent at least one semester studying abroad in one of 33 countries around the world.

64% took on leadership positions around campus, 43% joined the Greek community, and overwhelmingly, nearly 90% participated in service activities.

The Class of 2016 took initiative in great numbers. Along the way, they’ve built relationships, created lasting memories, and learned the skills that a liberal arts education seeks to impart—critical thinking, effective communication, engaged citizenship, and a global perspective.