Kathy Hargis, a music teacher and
4th-5th-grade band director in Ballston Spa, NY, has been named
co-director of a $15,000 NEA grant for art and music teachers
to develop special regional curricula--Adirondack Challenges.
This initiative grows directly from Kathy’s graduate program
at Skidmore. Her final project for MALS was a music curriculum
that Kathy distributed to schools throughout the Adirondacks,
designed to help students learn more about their native natural
environment.
January 1994 Seminar:
Barbara Bornmann is a Drama Therapist
at an in-patient child psychiatric unit at Elmhurst Hospital
in Queens, NY. She’s taking classes in the Forensic Psychology
program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Barbara chaired
the 2004 Creative Arts Therapy Festival and Community Outreach
at BWAC’s Pier 12 show, and is a new aunt to twins Amelia
and William, born November 2003. Barbara’s also writing
a play titled A Place Like Home. Go get ‘em, Barbara!
Pat Keegan manages a large natural foods grocery store
in Edgewater, NJ where she teaches classes on “The Joy
of Soy” and “Good Foods.” She recently presented
a lecture at a women’s wellness weekend in Annapolis,
Maryland. Pat is also helping her daughter through med school
at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in NYC.
January 1995 Seminar:
Deborah Jacobs was recently profiled in the New York
Times for her work as Executive Director of the New Jersey state
affiliate of the ACLU. “Armed with a master’s degree
in liberal studies from Skidmore College…[Jacobs] became
the [ACLU’s] youngest executive director…. Since
she took over as executive director in September 1999, membership
in the New Jersey affiliate has nearly doubled…and its
lawyers have argued some of the most important Constitutional
cases in the country, from the detention of immigrants to the
classification of sex offenders.” Rah Rah!
Kathy Tarrant is treasurer of Saratoga’s very own
Tarrant Manufacturing Company, located in Saratoga Springs,
and has recently become an empty nester during the school year
as she reports that all her children are now in school full-time.
Rick Rantz has been named Director of the Chester Campus
of Feather River College in Chester, California. Located on
Lake Almanor in the High Sierras, the campus is surrounded by
Lassen National Park. Ricky’s role over the next few years
will be to facilitate construction of a new campus. In addition,
he was recently invited by the Ministry of Education of Thailand
to examine the higher education system of that nation, and just
published a chapter titled “Higher Education Finance in
Thailand and Future Considerations” in the book Financing
Higher Education in a Global Market. In Ricky’s spare
time, he serves as President of The Celidon Foundation, an international
environmental organization. Congratulations and all the best
in your new position, Ricky.
July 1995 Seminar:
Penny McMullen, math tutor and
peace activist, is participating in several citizen action projects,
particularly those that deal with nuclear weapons production
and their environmental impact. Penny has also been very active
in the field of autism. She presented a talk at the 2003 National
Autism Symposium in Springfield, MO, on the topic of art’s
role in aging with autism.
Marty Thompson is teaching English—honors, advanced
placement, and mythology—at the Cobleskill-Richmondville
Central School. He is also president of his Teachers Association.
Carolyn Sgambati Potvin, a pharmaceutical sales representative
for GlaxoSmithKline, has shifted her hours to spend more time
with her son Joseph, age 3.
Sue Kaesgen went back to Peru last summer from her home
in Rocky River, OH, and continues to support the Cusco Center
for Traditional Textiles. She recently donated selections from
her Andean weaving collection to Valparaiso College and wants
to know if anyone in the program is interested in finding out
more about indigenous backstrap loom weaving. If so, let us
know and we’ll forward your request to Sue.
Terri S. Ross After finishing her
MALS degree, Terri took a job teaching anthropology and environmental
issues at Beacon College in Florida. In 2001, she finished her
Ph.D. and now chairs both the General Education and Liberal
Studies departments at Beacon College. She writes “I will
always have fond memories of my time spent in the MALS program.
Thanks for helping me achieve a dream and touch the lives of
others.”
January 1996 Seminar:
Steve Aiello, Assistant Professor
of Communications at Lynn University in Florida, is coordinating
a new program in Drama at the College of International Communications.
He teaches acting, theater history, and drama criticism. Steve
helped to create and coordinate a weeklong field trip to the
Caribbean for the entire freshman class, called “The Academic
Adventure.” Sounds like a great idea for next January’s
introductory seminar….
Anne Schock, a preservation consultant, is opening a
business that offers photographic collections care and management
services to institutions, artists, private collectors, and family
archives. She has presented workshops on photo preservation
funded by the NYS Documentary Heritage Program. Anne has continued
her work in bookbinding and last November apprenticed with master
bookbinder Jan Sobota in Ioket, the Czech Republic.
July 1998 Seminar:
Pernille
Dake continues to create and show her artwork around
the country. Last winter she collaborated with three regional
museums in South Carolina to produce a traveling educational
art show. She showed her abstract expressionistic oil paintings
and organized and participated in lectures, arts analysis discussions,
and education across multi-cultural and multi-generational groups.
Pernille put her MALS thesis into action as she sought to create
stronger communication and understanding between artist, museum,
and audience. She has recently begun writing a novel about the
life of an artist.
F. Wade Nixon has decided to change
course after a long career in HR. Wade is now teaching accounting,
statistics, and business courses at a community college near
his home in Hamilton, Alabama.
Polly Parkinson lives in Salt Lake City, UT, and has
been busy being a full-time parent until her youngest is in
first grade next year. She found time to teach watercolor classes
last winter at a local private high school.
January 1999 Seminar:
Jess Markay has almost finished
year one of the Ph.D. program in History at University of
New Mexico. Way to go, Jess!
Melodee DeCoteau has moved from
northern New York State to Florida. She was working as an instructor
of Biology at North Country Community College, teaching courses
is Environmental Science, Ecology, Adirondack Biology and Human
Biology.
July 2000 Seminar:
Perry
Babcock continues to serve as Director of Advancement
at the Northwood School in Lake Placid, NY, and is currently
leading a $10 million capital campaign. He’s reshaping
his MALS final project into a Centennial Edition for the history
of the Northwood School to be produced in spring 2005.
July 2001 Seminar:
Karen
Lawson, a librarian at Iowa State University, has finished
her coursework to have her NYS 7-12 teaching certificate transferred
to Iowa. Congratulations, Karen!
January 2002 Seminar:
Liane Weiner, Vice President of Outreach for the Boston
Ballet, recently became VP of Support Services as well. She’s
also chairing the archiving project on dance history at the
Harvard University Theatre collection.
July 2003 Seminar:
Christy D'Ambrosio’s big news involves her stepdaughter's
impending wedding in Italy this April, to be officiated in a
castle in Umbria. Christy and her husband “are using this
event as an excuse to visit Florence. There was an article in
the January 15th NY Times Arts section about some da Vinci frescoes
in the military geography institute. These frescoes may have
been on the walls of Leonardo da Vinci's workshop. We hope to
see the sights, and possibly the frescoes, if we are allowed.”
We hope you have a wonderful trip, Christy!
Karyn Tomczak reports that her
students at South Junior High School put on so impressive a
dance recital that they were invited to perform at “A
Day of Dance” at the Newburgh Free Academy in celebration
of National Dance week. Congratulations, Karyn!
Jim Whittle of Athens, Greece, continues his work on
Byzantine iconology. He is working with a professor in Greece
on a Byzantine art course that started in June. He writes that
he’s itching to get at more of Penny Jolly’s Medieval
art sources, but can’t find a way out of his Byzantine
labyrinth!
July 2004 Seminar:
Linda Allred Steele completed two courses last summer
in Salem and Plymouth, Massachusetts and this past fall had
the opportunity to study on the Skidmore campus for over a month.
She writes, “I enjoyed my time in Saratoga Springs (and
not just because my granddaughters live there). Everyone –
faculty, students, and staff – were so gracious and helpful.
It was also valuable for me to get a feeling for the college
and to get to know my advisors and the MALS staff even better.
My family life has been full – my son was married in September,
my husband had major surgery in November, and my youngest son
is “threatening” to marry this summer. And they
are doing all this even though they know I am busy working on
this program! This winter I am at Utah State University in Logan,
Utah taking a graduate seminar on the Southwest Borderlands
and two independent study courses from Skidmore.” We miss
seeing you, Linda!
January 2005 Seminar:
Susan Sechrist currently consults
as a technical writer and business analyst for IA Systems, a
software development firm in Albany, NY. She recently made the
move to Saratoga County from the Albany area and reports loving
the change of scenery. She’s also “been dabbling
in creative writing for a long time, currently striving to get
into a more disciplined practice by participating in a writer's
critique group.”
Creative Thought Matters.
Master of Arts Program
Skidmore College ·
815 North Broadway · Saratoga Springs, NY · 12866 mals@skidmore.edu · 518-580-5480
