A student-produced monthly newsletter created and distributed by the Honors Student Association. Its purpose is to supplement the West Chester University community’s knowledge of the Honors Student Association’s activities and endeavors.
A Note From The Editor
Jodi Lamborn
To all HSA members:
I’d like to begin by welcoming our incoming first-year students to both the Honors College and the Honors Student Association. It is with great empathy that I apologize for the way in which your college experience has started out, but with the community that Honors gives its students, we will surely make it through all of this together, and hopefully we will be united come spring.
I would also like to thank the HSA executive board for giving me the opportunity to manage and edit this year’s edition of HSA Happenings. I’m looking forward to receiving and reading all of your submissions, and to enriching the Honors community even moreso. As we all know, 2020 has already brought hardship to a lot of us, but it has also been a year for unprecedented change. I would like to continue on this trend of change, and bring it about HSA Happenings. As the name suggests, traditionally, HSA Happenings has encapsulated the leadership opportunities that have been brought by both the Honors College and HSA alike; however, since quarantine, we have had to make a lot of adjustments to not only our daily lives, but the way in which we conduct ourselves in leadership positions. I would like to highlight those aspects of leadership that have risen since we have been isolated from the HSA community as a whole.
In this edition, the Honors Student Association would like to offer congratulations to the graduated high school seniors that will be joining us in the fall; Dr. Kevin Dean, Honors College Director and HSAs faculty advisor, will welcome our incoming first-year students and touching on some important learning opportunities that we should take from the current climate of our country; the newly elected executive board will be introduced; Spring Semester 2020 Dean’s List recipients will be given recognition; student award winners will be announced. Furthermore, rising junior Jessie Hazell will tell her Leadership Tales #quarantineedition, rising senior Cassie Tiburcio will give insight on how to start a student-run small business and explain the struggles COVID-19 has brought for her success, rising junior Simon Crew will be explaining his volunteer project he created for frontline workers in his hometown, and I will be shedding light on my experiences throughout my study abroad trip in South Africa with the Honors College, and how what I learned has been translated to understanding the complexities of the Black Lives Matter movement.
I hope you all enjoy this month’s edition of HSA Happenings, and I can’t wait until we are all brought back together in the fall. Have a great summer!
Sincerely
Director’s Corner - Summer 2020
Dr, Kevin Dean - "Summer Reading"
When I find time to read for myself, I frequently turn to history. I attribute this, in part, to my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Robinson, who introduced our class to a Grosset & Dunlap series called Signature Books, biographies of historical figures who modeled an optimistic can do attitude. Published in the 1950s and early 1960s, the fifty-one works celebrate explorers, such as Marco Polo, Daniel Boone and Amelia Earhart, musicians including Mozart, Haydn and Stephen Foster, scientists such as Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur and Madame Curie, authors Mark Twain and Louisa May Alcott, military-political figures including Washington, Jackson, Lee, Grant, Churchill and Eisenhower, native American leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, as well as other notables. I loved these books, indeed many reside on a top shelf in my home office.
Jump forward some thirty (gulp) years. A WCU colleague and friend, historian professor Dr. Charles Hardy, introduced me to sociologist James Loewen’s 1995 award winning work, Lies My Teacher Told Me. Eye opening to say the least, while I was egotistically proud to know some of the “other side of the story” more than I would care to admit was unfamiliar. We used that book in the very first honors seminar I taught at WCU. Regretfully, I should have read even more as I admit having no awareness before this summer of Juneteenth and all the significance it holds for so many.
Now, if you google the Signature Book series, you will see, even today, they remain pretty well acclaimed for their historical accounts; yet they are sadly lacking. Of the celebrated women and men only one, George Washington Carver shares the contributions of an African American. It has caused me to undertake some serious personal reflection to ask, “What are YOU doing to help correct such oversight?” You have been on my mind. These past weeks have made me feel disbelief, disgust, and shame. I can’t imagine the feelings they have evoked in you. Images of brutality and blatant disregard for human life, once again flashed on television. George Floyd was murdered...in broad daylight...in front of us all. This incident of lethal racism plays out on video what many people have been witnessing and experiencing for decades.
I was a third grader in 1968. I vividly remember watching the funeral of Dr. King on television. I also recall the words of Robert Kennedy, speaking in Indianapolis after King’s assassination, bringing people together when he said, “I know what it is like to lose a brother.” I find myself looking hopefully for such leadership now, but partisan politics on both sides seem more interested in pointing fingers. I pray for voices on the national stage to unify and point us in the direction of justice and peace.
Until then, we have to take action locally. As you know, the “locality” I represent at WCU is Honors. I am ashamed that I have not done more personally to address racism either in or through our program. We have done more thinking about apartheid in South Africa than we have the sometimes subtle but real versions of apartheid that exist in the U.S. I want WCU Honors to be an inclusive community that celebrates students’ diversity, and not a place where students would feel a need to “edit” themselves. Now for those who know me, I check off every box of privilege: white, male, protestant, heterosexual, upper-middle income…and I guess I also must add “old[er]”—so I have some work to do here.
I would like to make some changes in Honors to address the omission of race, and would welcome your thoughts as we move forward-----it takes a community. I’m under no illusion that a program or curriculum solves this problem, or adequately confronts the suffering of black and brown people at WCU or anywhere else. That said, we should start somewhere. In case you’re interested, here are three steps I’ve committed to doing:
First, I see a need to become more informed. I reached out to some friends with life experience and asked for suggested reading. I hope to set up a space on the honors web page where the list can be made available to a wider audience and where others can add to it. Indeed, I welcome/encourage any of you who have awareness of books, articles, films, resources to send them along.
Second, my wife and I have committed to viewing/reading and discussing some materials this summer. We recently watched Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, available on Netflix, exploring the role of race in the criminal justice system and that relationship to the Constitutional 13th Amendment. We are currently reading So You Want to Talk about Race (Ijeoma Oluo) and we have ordered How to Be an AntiRacist (Ibram X. Kendi). I also plan to revisit Loewen’s work.
Third, I have spoken with Dr. Martin who works closely with the WCU Frederick Douglass Society. As soon as the university approves travel, I hope to partner with the FDS to support honors student participation in their programming with the Museum of African American History in Washington D.C.
I look forward to finding appropriate space to share insights and listen to the experiences and lessons each of you has to give/share. I am so proud of and grateful for all those who comprise our honors community: current students, incoming first year students, alumni, faculty & staff, administration and support services, parents, family and friends. I also cherish our “global family” in Oslo, Norway and in multiple cities and townships in South Africa. Despite COVID and all the related uncertainties, I hold confidence that the community will provide the permanence we seek to ground ourselves as we seek to serve our communities as agents of positive change…..
to be honorable IS to serve
Congratulations
Incoming First Year Students
Meet the 2020 Executive Board!
Leadership Tales #Quarantine edition
Jessie Hazell
My vision of how I would spend the second semester of sophomore year definitely did not go as planned. I thought I was going to have some brief bonding time with my family for spring break, but Miss Rona had some other ideas planned. Having five kids home for three months was chaotic to say the least. Doing chores for yourself at school is one thing, but helping to do laundry for seven people while hopping on and off Zoom is a whole different story. We had elementary, middle, high, and college classes happening every day in different rooms of the house. My responsibilities began to grow because I could help my siblings with their work a bit easier than my parents could. In one of the honors lectures, Dr. Dean talks about how each person wears a bunch of different hats that represent the various roles they play through life. For me, I was a Gatsby Analysis, Long Division Master, and History Speech Spectator all in one day. The combination of school and trying to keep a normal house life was very interesting in the Hazell household.
Trying to embrace my new role in HSA in the middle of a pandemic was something that took some adjusting. As a Bridge student, I loved going to HSA because I got to meet so many people that I hadn’t met yet. Building relationships is something that I have found important to my leadership style which is a bit harder to continue through a computer screen. It would be easy to not put in effort into what we started at school, but that would make me feel even more helpless than Miss. Rona was accomplishing already. So, the HSA council was able to meet to help move the club’s plans forward. Although we couldn’t meet as a club often, I am excited to see how we adapt HSA in the fall so that we can keep our community bond growing.
Meals for Medics
Simon Crew
The mission of Meals for Medics was to provide Pottstown Hospital Employees, who are working through this pandemic, with meals during their shifts, while also supporting local businesses. There were roughly 15 hospital nurses and doctors during any given shift, so I worked with local businesses to develop meals for a bigger group. Volunteers would sign up on my Sign-Up Genius for slots starting Wednesday, March 31st, and then contact one of the local businesses to order a meal for the hospital employees. The restaurants would deliver this, following precise instructions from the hospital to prevent any contamination. I advertised this through Facebook and local politicians, growing the community's awareness. Eventually, to make it easier for volunteers, I started a Go-Fund-Me so that people could donate, and I would take care of the ordering and delivery.
Altogether, the organization generated $9,000 of income for the participating restaurants. The CEO of the Pottstown Hospital mailed me a handwritten letter of thanks, along with all of the staff in the hospital. I would say this project was very fulfilling and left a positive impact on my community.
A year out of south africa
Jodi Lamborn
As we flew over Cape Town preparing to land, we were immediately introduced to the harsh reality of the current racial injustices in South Africa created by apartheid. Rows upon rows of shipping containers stacked the boroughs surrounding the city center, each belonging to a set of families not millimeters apart from one another. As I reflect on the experiences I had during my study abroad trip to South Africa, I remember thinking that I had never seen poverty to that extreme, and that it’d be quite possible that I’d never experience anything like it ever again. What I hadn’t quite realized at the time, or maybe quite digested fully, is that although the rates of poverty may differ between South Africa and the United States, the system of unequal opportunity placed by racial barriers was as present at home as it was half a world away.
In remembering the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and West Chester’s very own Bianca Roberson, we can sometimes hear the words of great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu ringing in our ears.
“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” ~Mandela
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” ~Tutu
What I saw in South Africa was so painfully beautiful, for the system of oppression that we had been taught had been dismantled was still in full force, and the people continued to fight a war worth dying for. And the same is true here. There is such beauty in the way that people have fought and continue to fight for humanity.
A year out of South Africa, and I continue to appreciate their rich history. On June 16th, 1976, the Soweto Uprising took place. School-aged children took a stand against their preferential educational system which forced them to learn in Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor, instead of their respective native tongues. Somewhere between 176 to 700 children were shot to death by a South African police force, and 4,000 were injured. To this day, the lives of those who were lost are commemorated on that day, a day that will live in infamy. Many had died before them, and many would die after, but it was the will of those children that would inspire change in the political system of South Africa.
On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd had been accused and arrested for the alleged use of counterfeit money, and was killed by an American police force on the side of the road in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many had died before him, and many have and will die after, but that is the day that change would begin.
Tales of Student-Run Businesses
Cassandra Tiburcio
Closet by Cass blossomed amidst the pandemic, due to having a family member who is at-risk and coming to the realization that I needed some form of income that required little to no contact with other people. Through my intersectional experience working for Plato’s Closet and my awareness of the harm on the environment caused by fast fashion, Closet By Cass grew from pure passion.
In the beginning, it just started with selling my own clothes that I didn’t wear all the time, but quickly I realized I was running out of my own clothing! Due to covid, I was nervous as to how I was going to source clothing to sell since all of the thrift stores were closed. Luckily, one of my close girlfriends messaged me shortly after, asking if I would be comfortable trying to sell her clothes on my page. The trial run of consignment was such a success, that now I have fifteen girls lined up to send me their clothing to sell, after only one month of starting CBC. Closet by Cass Consignment is a win-win for everyone involved. Both the original owner of the clothing and myself get some funds, the original owner does not have to throw away their clothing to add to the insurmountable amount of waste created by the retail businesses, and the new owner gets a gently-used, or sometimes even new with tags, article of clothing to add to their closet for a fraction of the price they’d pay in-store!
As the number of followers on my page kept rising and the Black Lives Matter movement gained powerful momentum, I knew I wanted to use my platform for good. That is how the “Black Drop” came to fruition. I collected black items of clothing from my own closet including brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Free People, Urban Outfitters, Nike, Forever21 and others in order to bring a popular drop for my customers. Then, I spoke to a close friend and role model of mine, Kimberly McGlonn, Founder of Grant BLVD, about what organization to donate the funds to. She recommended I look into the Philly Bail Fund, and so I did! Her recommendation aligned perfectly to a social justice topic I am very passionate about: Ending cash bail. Through my Youth Empowerment and Urban Studies minor at West Chester, I had the opportunity to learn so much about the embedded inequalities rooted in our criminal justice system, and the impact of cash bail on low income families. With the information I had learned, I posted a series of instagram stories explaining what cash bail is, the impact, and Philly Bail Fund’s mission to help my followers understand where the donation was going. The clothing drop sold out completely, and we ended up donating $150 to the Philly Bail Fund within two days.
Closet by Cass has brought drive and ambition into my daily quarantined life, as well as an on-going desire to use my platform for good. I aspire to be a teacher someday, but this mini business could turn into a fun summer job for me in the future. :) I love being able to thrift “gems” as I call them, and help my customers feel confident and beautiful in their mother-earth approved, second-hand gems! I’d be lying to you all if I said this small business came easy… nope. It is a ton of work, from sourcing, to sorting, to photographing, to posting, to pricing, to advertising, to bartering, to making every package special… it has never stopped teaching me something new on a daily basis, but that’s the beauty of it. Perseverance, flexibility, and the importance of detail-oriented behavior is what has come to me from this journey thus far, and I can’t wait to continue learning more from it. I encourage any of you who have had a dream of starting a small business to do it! There is no harm in trying, and there is also always so much to learn from the failures you may encounter as I have.
If you have any questions about any of the topics I touched on in this article, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at CT896116@wcupa.edu. Even if you just want a hypewoman to support you through getting your small business started, if you have questions about the Philly Bail Fund, if you have questions about the Youth Empowerment and Urban Studies minor… anything! I’m happy to help! Welcome to the Honors College community at West Chester :)
Credits:
Edited by Jodi Lamborn, Director | Leela Rose & Allison Farrell, Assistant Directors | Dr. Martin & Professor Wooten, Faculty Advisors | Created with an image by Monika Grabkowska - "Lilac blossom - the smell of my childhood"