Compiled by Emily Dalgleish, Opinions Editor
We invited members of the campus community to share their aspirations for the coming decade, whether they be personal, academic, professional, national, or global. Here is what they shared.
(Submitted photo)
Dr. Jeanne Arnold
Chief Diversity Officer
My aspiration for the College over the next decade is that it will evolve to become a model for how liberal arts colleges can create truly inclusive campus communities. This model will include a sustainable infrastructure of staffing and resources to attract and retain students, faculty, and staff from increasingly diverse backgrounds. The College’s distinctive approach to diversity and inclusion work will position it as a source of subject matter experts in disrupting the status quo of bias and racism to achieve genuine culture change.
(Submitted photo)
Liza Barr ’20
OMS Major, Educational Studies Minor
In the short-term, my goal is to win a third national championship on Gettysburg College’s women’s lacrosse team and graduate with a job I am excited about. A few years into the decade, I hope to be a successful woman in the business world and enjoying my 20s. At the end of the decade, it is crazy to think I could be married or having kids! If this is the case, I hope to raise my children in a world that is safer and less polarized than it is today. I look forward to what 2020 holds, and I aim to make the most out of it!
(Photo Kat Mangione/The Gettysburgian)
Dr. Josef Brandauer
Associate Professor of Health Sciences, Director of the Johnson Center for Teaching & Learning
Every once in a while somebody asks me about my Teaching Philosophy, and I always respond with some variation of “Be kind.” As a scientist, I like defining things, and “kind” to me means respecting, supporting, believing, listening to, and appreciating those around me. Science has also taught me to be curious and open to change, so being kind also means learning from those around me and being able to shift my perspective. As I think about the upcoming decade, “Be kind” seems as good a goal as any.
(Submitted photo)
Britney Brunache ’22
Theatre Arts and Psychology Double Major
My goals for this decade are to not only graduate with two Bachelor of Arts degrees, but I would also like to get my master’s in Theatre Arts. I want to gain as much work experience in the many theaters in my hometown so by the end of the decade I can open a non-profit performing arts studio for students in Philadelphia. I hope my decade is full of love, creativity, and success.
(Photo Allyson Frantz/The Gettysburgian)
Ziv Carmi ’23
History Major, Civil War Era Studies Minor and Public History Minor
My biggest aspiration for the next decade is to get a graduate degree (probably a Ph.D.) and continue on my path of becoming a museum curator. Ten years from now I hope to be at a presidential library, making new and unique exhibits that are able to communicate the story of our history and leaders in an effective and entertaining way. Every guest I see, whenever I volunteer at the Reagan Library, is always so happy with their experience at the museum, and I would love to see people enjoying their visit at my museum just as much. No matter what the next ten years will bring into my life, my ultimate dream is that I will be able to, in one way or another, whether it be through curation, interpretation, or academia, educate people on our history- both the good and the bad- and make them better people for it since they won’t repeat the mistakes that we and prior generations have made.
(File photo)
Nicole DeJacimo ’22
Political Science and English Double Major
For the upcoming decade, I want to replace the world’s apathy with sonder: the realization that everyone lives a life as complex as one’s own. The world becomes more complex each year with new technology, subcultures, and generations, so each year there is more to learn. When we take the time to understand one another our arguments can become conversations, our judgments turn to questions, and we work towards a world with more respect for everyone.
(Photo Allyson Frantz/The Gettysburgian)
Dr. Anne Douds
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
I hope that we can work across the campus and the community to promote kindness and courage. Push one another to do the right thing even when it is hard. I hope that my home and my office will continue to be safe havens for my friends, my family, and my students. And at a more pedestrian level, I hope to replant my garden and finish our book, Bold Women of the Eisenhower Era, on deadline!
(Photo courtesy of Gettysburg College Athletics)
B.J. Dunne
Head Men’s Basketball Coach
As a new decade has begun, I could not be more excited to be where my feet are and be the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Gettysburg College. I have been so inspired by the college’s commitment to adapt and navigate to the ever-changing Liberal Arts landscape. It is my hope and vision to build a men’s basketball program of the same unparalleled quality. It is our plan this decade to build the Gettysburg College Men’s Basketball into the model program for: Developing people. Developing leaders. Developing players. Developing teams. Cutting down the nets. We hope to inspire the community with our selfless play and actions on and off the court and make a difference in Gettysburg and beyond.
(Photo Kat Mangione/The Gettysburgian)
Dr. Caroline Hartzell
Professor of Political Science
My aspirations for the next decade center on the theme of connecting. As a teacher, I want to do more to help students connect the concepts, theory, and data we cover in classes to the human realities that lie at the base of what we study. I am endeavoring to do the same in my research as well by seeking to understand how peace agreements affect ordinary citizens. Finally, as someone who lives in one community but works in another, I’m giving more thought to how I can connect with others at the level of the community. Developing all of these connections is likely to take time, but the beginning of a new decade seems as good a time as any to make these efforts “official” on my part.
(Photo Mary Frasier/The Gettysburgian)
Bob Iuliano
President
It is hard to believe the third decade of the 2000s has begun, especially for those of us who feel that the new millennium started just yesterday!
I enter the decade with a renewed sense of optimism, heavily influenced by my time here. There are certainly challenges ahead for the country and world, but my hope is borne from what I’ve seen in the students on this campus. A sense of idealism shaped by a healthy dose of pragmatism, together with an instinct to get involved. My goal, then, for the years to come, is to do all I can to help create the best environment on campus so that students graduate equipped with the knowledge and skills to do that work. Oh, and to improve my time in the half-marathon!
(Submitted photo)
Daniel Jones ’22
Religious Studies and Public Policy Double Major, Peace and Justice Studies Minor and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Minor
I aspire for a campus and world that strives for diversity and inclusivity in all senses of the words. For a global community that understands it is broken, and that it will continue to be broken until it learns to fully live and to thrive On difference; On diversity.
A global community that learns to appreciate the beauty that lies within the intersectionality of social categorizations that we so often rely upon in order to define who a person really is.
I aspire for a college, and for a world, brave enough to begin to push the curtain; brave enough to dare to headline the radical change that is truly needed today; brave enough to Love.
Patrick McKenna ’20, President-Elect of the Gettysburg College Student Senate (File photo)
Patrick McKenna ’20
Political Science and Public Policy Double Major
As 2020 begins it is difficult to conceptualize the idea that I will be a graduating senior from Gettysburg College. For the first time in my life I will be embarking on a journey where ‘more years of education’ is not my next step. I am excited, prepared, and confident for this future after my four years here. One of the most impactful organizations I have been a part of is the Student Senate at Gettysburg, which I hope continues to expand over the next decade to ensure that it represents every student at the College. I hope to see that student advocacy and activism more and more within the Senate to empower students to help continue to transform Gettysburg for the better moving deeper into the 21st century.
(Photo Kat Mangione/The Gettysburgian)
Dr. Abdulkareem Said Ramadan
Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies (Arabic)
I will keep living healthy and enjoying life more. I’m looking for ways to transfer my teaching Arabic expertise to a textbook. Also, I want to “make MEIS and Arabic classes great again!”
(Photo Autumn Menzock/The Gettysburgian)
Matt Salton ’20
Environmental Studies and Political Science Double Major
I hope that in this decade we, as a nation and as a world, put partisanship aside and address the climate crisis as it ought to be addressed. We have an ever shrinking window of time to seriously address the matter. It requires innovation in the realm of technology, but more than that; it requires the innovation of political courage.
(Submitted photo)
Dr. Daniel Terlizzi
Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies
Now that I am well into my sixth decade I feel privileged to contemplate and share aspirations for the next. Reflecting back to a time when Jimi Hendrix was learning to tune his guitar, the transistor was the new technology and the Beatles were still together, I recall reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as an assignment in English class. In this amazing novel about boys isolated accidentally on an island, social order disintegrated and the bully Ralph had rallied his followers to remove the last adherents to civilization and reason, Piggy and Jack. As the mob was descending on Piggy and Jack, Piggy remarks “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?” As tidy as an equation, Golding summarized our fundamental challenge. Over the next decade, we should aspire to think beyond common perceptions of adulthood and toward something I will call meta-adulthood which involves more empathy, less tribalism and a focus on commonality vs. difference.
(Photo Allyson Frantz/The Gettysburgian)
Lily Zhou ’23
Music Education Major, Peace and Justice Studies Minor
In this new decade, I aspire to work for and support the things and people I actually care about. Throughout my life, I always felt pressured to impress others and had (and still have) a hard time saying no to things, even if I had no interest in it. I have been learning that the only way I can live a healthy life is to be able to try new things and meet new people but not to be afraid to leave the ones that don’t help me grow. Through this mindset, I am hoping to develop in my personal relationships, faith, academic endeavors in music education, and overall lifestyle.
This article originally appeared on pages 14-17 of the February 27, 2020 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
