Big Man on Campus - Moravian College

out&about
Reaching Readers,
One Book at a Time
HAPPENING . . .
March 22–25
Steel Magnolias
ArENA tHEAtrE • Flowery on the outside but
tough on the inside, six southern belles laugh, cry,
and support each other. Performed by the Moravian
College theatre Company.
Esther Tutella likes a challenge. “I wanted to
teach in a school that really needs teach-
ers,” says the 2006 graduate. “I feel strongly
that some kids get overlooked, and I wanted
to fill that gap.” So she applied to Teach for
America (TFA), an organization that places
recent college grads in underserved public
schools. Because TFA wants teachers who
will excel in difficult circumstances, their
selection process is a demanding one. “There
was a long application
process,” Tutella says.
“I had to write essays
explaining how I’d over-
come obstacles in my
life.” After undergoing an
extended interview and
teaching a sample lesson
for the selection commit-
tee, Tutella became one of
2,400 teachers accepted
into the TFA program
(out of 19,000 applicants
nationwide).
Tutella’s assignment, teaching English
to 150 tenth and eleventh graders at Forrest
City High School in rural Arkansas, came with
challenges of its own. To help her class im-
prove their vocabulary and reading skills, she
decided to assign each student a book match-
April 14
Relay for Life
NortH CAMPuS quAd • Come and support
Moravian students, faculty members and staff in
this fund-raising event for the American Cancer
Society.
Above: Donated books, packed by Moravian students and future educators : Daniel
Huster ’08, Karla Erdman ’07, Christine Holmfelt CC, and Keith Brotzman ’08.
Left: Esther Tutella ’06 and students.
ing his or her ability and interests. The individual attention works. In
one case, a struggling reader was assigned to read forty pages; the next
day she complained that she was only able to read sixty pages before
her mom told her to turn out the light and get to sleep.
This approach did bump up against a significant difficulty,
though: a scarcity of books. “We’re in a rural area, the library doesn’t
have much, and there aren’t many places to buy them,” says Tutella.
Help came when Tutella described her situation to mentor Joseph
Shosh, assistant professor of education at Moravian College. Shosh
put a call out for donations, resulting in a collection of about 500
books contributed by Moravian students, faculty members, and staff-
ers. They arrived at Forrest City High just in time for the December
holidays. “One day I got a call from the school office telling me I had
nine boxes that needed to be picked up,” Tutella says. She was able
to hand-pick a book for each student to read over Christmas break,
with enough left over to keep in her classroom library and share with
a fellow English teacher. “I seem to get more support from my former
professors and classmates than most teachers do,” Tutella says.
April 19 – May 13
Moravian College Senior Show
PAyNE GAllEry • Get a glimpse of the
next generation of artists, as the College’s
graduating seniors in art show off their
creations.
MORAVIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE WINTER 2007
photo by John Kish iV
Preserving a
Singular Treasure
Few structures provide as many years of useful ser-
vice as Moravian College’s most historic building, the
Single Brethren’s House. In the decades after its 1748
construction, it served as a dwelling for single men, a
workplace, a hospital for the Revolutionary army, and
a dining spot for Bethlehem visitor George Washing-
ton (once). Today the Brethren’s House contains music
practice rooms, classrooms, and offices. In 2006, a
Save America’s Treasures matching grant from the
Department of the Interior, National Park Services,
enabled a welcome spruce-up: the windows were re-
glazed, 39 rotted windowsills were replaced, all sills
were painted, all the carpeting and subfloors were
removed and replaced, and the hallways and stair-
wells were painted. A new air conditioning system
was installed as well. For all that, George Washington
would still recognize the building, since its layout and
stone exterior appear much as they did 259 years ago.
Washington’s fellow revolutionary Ben Franklin
also visited the Brethren’s House, where according
to his autobiography he “was entertain'd with good
musick” in January 1756. These days, the technophilic
Franklin would be able to use his laptop to post blog
entries while strolling around campus. Thanks to a
grant from the George I. Alden Trust, Moravian’s wire-
less computer network is now available in and around
more than a dozen College buildings, including the
Brethren’s House. Eventually even the school’s out-
door spaces will be covered, which should allow users
to follow one of Franklin’s many adages: “Employ thy
time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.”
April 20–22
Presidential Inauguration Weekend
Christopher thomforde is inaugurated as the College’s
15th president. Celebratory events will include
a parade down the Moravian Mile, a barbecue at
Bethlehem City Hall Plaza, and a fireworks display.
MorAVIANBooKSHElF
■ Medieval moralists considered the tongue
a dangerous weapon, and in the later Middle
Ages deviant speech became
increasingly feminized. Women
of all social classes risked
being charged as “scolds” and
prosecuted in court for insult-
ing others or talking too much
in public. This phenomenon and
its consequences are examined
in Venomous Tongues: Speech
and Gender in Late Medieval
England (University of Penn-
sylvania Press, 2006) by Sandy
Bardsley, assistant professor of history at
Moravian College.
■ Saving money for a down payment on a
home, choosing between health insurance
alternatives, under-
standing survey results
reported in the media…
sometimes mathemat-
ics is about more than
abstract numbers.
The new textbook
Quantitative Reason-
ing: Tools for Today’s
Informed Citizen, by
Alicia Sevilla and Kay
Somers, professors of
mathematics at Moravian College, prepares
students to make informed decisions in their
daily lives. (Key College Publishing, 2007).
■ What happens when a
mouse’s deepest wish comes
true and the whole world turns
into cheese? The answer may
surprise you, as it does the
title character of the children’s
picture book Scuttle's <strong>Big</strong> Wish
(Regan Books, 2006). Author
and Moravian alum Sean Delo-
nas ’84 enlisted the help of his
then six-year-old son Ryan to
craft the tale. Sean is a painter
and illustrator best known for
his cartoons that appear daily on the
New York Post’s Page Six.
WINTER 2007 MORAVIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE