PEL seniors and their families gathered in Cobb Gallery on Saturday, May 20, to celebrate their journeys and to honor some of the accomplishments of those in the PEL community. The slide show below shares highlights from the PEL Celebration, and we offer our heartfelt congratulations to all!
To learn more about the PEL Visual Arts exhibit, curated by Professor Arthur Skinner '76, click HERE.
Friday, June 9, 2017
May Graduates; Alumni Updates; Faculty & Staff News
Under blue skies and with a light breeze cooling the air, Class of 2017 graduates and their families gathered early Sunday morning, May 21, in the South Beach area for the Commencement Ceremony. Led by bagpipers, the graduates processed, by collegium, from the robing area in Fox Hall ,past the library and dorms, and into the massive tent to hear speakers mark the occasion and to receive awards and diplomas. | |||
| Eckerd College President Donald R. Eastman III presents PEL graduate Lora Vineberg '17 with the Irving G. Foster Award. |
Vineberg was awarded the Irving G. Foster Award given to a PEL graduate who has demonstrated overall academic achievement. The award is named in honor of the late Irving G. Foster, Professor Emeritus of Physics, who played a major role in the design and inception of the Program for Experienced Learners.
 |
| Eckerd College President Donald R. Eastman III presents PEL graduate Gladys Hall '17 with the David and Blanche Colgan Memorial Prize. |
 |
| PEL graduate Richard Schomp '17 (Organizational Studies) |
Scroll below to see a list of the graduates, some of the images from the ceremony, and graduating PEL senior Teresa A. Stewart's Commencement speech.
Please note: A number of PEL seniors who plan to graduate in August 2017 also participated in the ceremony. The list below includes only students whose official graduation date falls in August 2016, December 2016, or May 2017.
 |
| courtesy of SweetClipArt.com |
Congratulations!!!
Warmest congratulations to these PEL students who completed their programs of studies and graduated during the 2016-2017 academic year.
May 2017
Christine M. Aderhold, Media
& Film Concentration
Carla Baker, Concentration in
American Culture/Minorities Studies
Steven E.Ballinger (D), American
Studies
Jonathan Booker, Human
Development
Jessica M. Bossen (D),
Business Management
Edward J. Bozeman (HH), Business
Management
Samantha Browning, Humanities
Dawn R. Bryant, Human
Development
Sylvie Cantin (D), Human
Development
Angelina R. Capobianco (HH), Business
Management
Stacey Clarke, Human
Development
Charles D. Claybaker (H), Business
Management
Kim C. Cobham, Human
Development
Ludy Cole, Business
Management
Michell L. Cox,
Organizational Studies
Craig A. Cranston (D), Humanities
Christel Dykes (D), Business
Management
Lorraine Eastman, Organizational
Studies
Teresa R. Flournoy, Human
Development
Davie Gill, Sports &
American Culture Concentration
Kenneth L. Grimes, Business
Management
Gladys Hall, Business
Management
Megan L. Halloran, Business
Management
Molly C. Henry (HH), Concentration
in American Culture & Society
James Hill (D), Business
Management
Joshua P. Hunziker (D),
Business Management
Kristen L. Inoa (D), Business
Management
Quandala Johnson (HH), Management
Christopher J. Kelaher, Organizational
Studies Concentration
Michelle J. Kiekenapp Nelson
(HH), Creative Writing Concentration
Jamie E. Klempner, Organizational
Studies Concentration
Benjamin Labay, Business
Management
Joshua T. Lewis (H), Business
Management
Bradley Lowe, Business
Management Concentration
Rachel A. Luna. Human
Development
Catherine M. McBride (HH), American
Studies
Dorice M. Michalik (D),
Business Management
Timothy J. Mineo, Business
Management
Joseph C. Mobilio, Business
Management
Yadira L. Montes Rivera (HH),
Humanities
Courtney Niedens, Business
Management
William Morelli (D),
Organizational Studies
Tashauna L. Nobles, Business
Management
Kelly L. Pickering (D), American
Studies
Katherine C. Quinn, Global
Business Concentration
Stephan L. Ralph, Business
Management
Jared B. Rishel (D), American
Studies
Tanya M. Rotter (H), Humanities
Jeanne A. Salvo (D), American
Studies
Richard Schomp,
Organizational Studies
Kelly A. Schooley, Humanities
Christopher Shaun, Business
Management
Emily P. Strickland, Concentration
in American Culture & Communication
Zachary C. Thompson, Visual
Arts
Jeanette I. Ventrone (HH), Human
Development
Theresa G. Vess (HH),
Business Management
Lora D. Vineberg (HH),
Business Management
Caitlin Q. Wells (HH), Human
Development
Shirley Wells, Business
Management
Kimberly Whitford (H), Human
Development
December 2016
December 2016
Yvonne C. Comeau,
Humanities
Ricky Counts, Human
Development
Priska Green (HH), Business
Management
Charissa A. Jackson, Human
Development
Jason W. Malpass (HH),
Creative Writing
Peter Marer (HH), Business
Management
Bonnie L. Mason, Creative
Writing
Daniel McGlone, Business
Management
Andrew J. O'Connell (H),
Humanities
Daryl L. Osburn (H), Human
Development
AKM R. Rahman, Business
Management
Natalie Ricketts, Human
Development
Stephen Sabella (HH),
Business Management
Sandra Singleton (D), Human
Development
Teresa A. Stewart (HH),
Human Development
Cecilia Walker, Business
Management
Lisa Washington, Human Development
Lisa Washington, Human Development
August 2016
Richard P. Anglewicz (D), Business Management
Major
Sherry Ball (H), Organizational Studies Major
Robert M. DiPalma (D), Humanities
Melanie R. Ducane, Human Development
Aaron Flinn (D), Business Management Major
James C. Fort, Environment & American Culture Concentration
Rashad Lewis, Business Management Major
Regina A. Perkins (HH), Organizational Studies Major
Thomas J. Pyche, Business Management Major
Monica L. Taylor (HH), Business Management Major
Sherry Ball (H), Organizational Studies Major
Robert M. DiPalma (D), Humanities
Melanie R. Ducane, Human Development
Aaron Flinn (D), Business Management Major
James C. Fort, Environment & American Culture Concentration
Rashad Lewis, Business Management Major
Regina A. Perkins (HH), Organizational Studies Major
Thomas J. Pyche, Business Management Major
Monica L. Taylor (HH), Business Management Major
HH - High Honors; H - Honors; D - Distinction
Alumni News
Edward G. "Teddy" Baldwin '99 (American Studies) was inducted into the Eckerd College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa this last week as an alumni member. Baldwin earned his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School in 2003 and currently is a partner in the Baker McKenzie law firm in Washington, D.C., where his practice focuses on international arbitration, transactional litigation, sovereign immunity issues, and enforcement of judgments and awards.
Dean Lloyd Chapin, president of the Zeta Chapter of Florida, noted that Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.
Renee Hamad '10 (Human Development), a retired concert pianist and philanthropist, was honored in April at the eighth annual Sertoma Sarasota Celebrity Roast. Sertoma is an international service organization whose primary projects help people with speech, hearing, and language disorders. Local chapters develop other projects based on community needs. The event honoring Hamad benefited Sertoma Kids Speech Therapy, which provides speech/language therapy for Sarasota area children in the Sarasota area with communication challenges regardless of their families' abilities to pay. An article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune noted that Eckerd College adjunct professor Tom Honsa was one of the participants roasting Hamad, who was the first woman the Sarasota chapter has so honored.
Remembering . . .
William Sanford Scott III '95 (Business Management Concentration) of Venice, Fla., who died April 1, 2017. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/heraldtribune/obituary.aspx?pid=185003555
Faculty / Staff News
Professor Sergei Novikov was honored recently for 25 years of service to Eckerd College. Novikov earned his Ph.D. from Moscow State University – known as “the Russian Harvard” – with a degree in International Political Economy and served for a time as one of a group of economic advisors to Mikhail Gorbachev. Novikov teaches courses in international business and in Russian culture.
Visual arts representative exhibit covers almost 40 years worth of PEL students, instructors
 |
| Jim Crane A New Day September, 1999 Symbolizing the Program for Experienced Learners |
article and photographs
by Anne W. Anderson
Over the almost 40-year history of the Program for Experienced Learners, or PEL, many students have discovered or rediscovered the importance of creating and understanding art. By Professor Arthur Skinner's "unofficial count," PEL has produced at least eighty-four students who majored in the visual arts. More students minored in the subject, and even more students took an art course or two during their journey. More than thirty instructors have helped shape PEL students and, thereby, the Tampa Bay arts scene and beyond.
 | |
| Attending the reception were (above, l-r) PEL visual arts instructors Rebecca Skelton and Rose Marie Prins with Betsy Orbe Lester '93, who also became an instructor, and Cal Brown '16 and (below, l-r) Lisa Sibley '12, Karen Mitchell Tremmel '12, Annie Culbertson '09, and Betsy Orbe Lester '93 |
Scroll down to the end of the article to view a slide show of the exhibit.
Look familiar?
Two of the works were very familiar to students, faculty, and staff members who saw them in the PEL offices but may not have realized the connections.
In 1999, the College wanted to recognize West's service and suggested Jim Crane, one of the founding professors in the Art Department, create a piece of artwork for West. Crane, a cartoonist, painter, and collage artist who joined the faculty in 1963, asked West what he should paint. According to Crane's note (below), mounted on the back of the acrylic-and-plaster-on-wood painting, West had asked him to "paint something that would symbolize PEL." West, in turn, gave the painting to the Program for Experienced Learners.
For the last several year's, Crane's work hung in the back area, visible across the length of the offices. Pamela Jones' 92 untitled work (below) hung in the reception area. PEL visual artists impacting their worlds
What does one do with a degree in art? As the brief biographies of the PEL graduates whose work was included in the show indicates, many alumni continue working as artists, have become teachers -- including here at Eckerd --and work in related fields:
1980s
 | ||
| Pamela Jones '92 Untitled Mixed Media Until it was removed for the exhibit, this work hung in the reception area of the PEL offices. |
1990s
Pamela Jones ’92 (Visual Arts) subsequently earned her MFA through the University of South Florida and teaches Visual Problem Solving in the residential program at Eckerd College. Jones also works as an admissions and outreach counselor at the College and is the site coordinator for the Florida campus of the National University of Health Sciences. The untitled work included in this slide show hung in the PEL office reception area for many years. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-jones-137a8a20)
Betsy Orbe Lester ’93 (Visual Arts) subsequently earned her MFA through the University of South Florida, and she also teaches Visual Problem Solving in the residential program at Eckerd College. Her work has become part of a number of permanent collections and was included in the 2015 issue of the Eckerd Review. (http://theartlofts.com/betsyorbelester/) 2000s
Laura Irmis ’06 (Visual Arts) currently teaches 3-D studio art at Boca Ciega High School in Pinellas County, is a freelance graphic designer and fine artist, and is a certified childbirth trainer and postpartum doula. (http://laurairmis.com/#about)
Pamela Callender ’07 (Visual Arts, minor in Human Development) subsequently earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Until recently, Callender was the house curator for the Fogartyville Community Media & Arts Center in Sarasota. Her art-making practice is shaped from years of experience as a dance educator in the Florida public school system, as a regional sports director (and Frisbee competitor and adjudicator) for Wham-O, California, and as cargegiver to her mother and home. In the fall of 2016, Callender taught a course in Environmental Art at Eckerd College. (http://www.pamelacallender.com/index.html and www.becomingagardenho.com)
Lori Loveberry George ’08 (Visual Arts) studied printmaking at Ringling College of Art and Design (1983), owns and operates a decorative painting business in Sarasota, is a teaching artist with the Sarasota County Schools and Sarasota County Libraries, and is a member of the Association of Florida Teaching Artists (AFTA) . (https://artiststelltheirstories.blogspot.com/2015/10/lori-loveberry-george-mixed-media.html and http://loveberryart.weebly.com/)
Annie Culbertson ’09 (Visual Arts). No information available.
Debra Mixon Holiday ’09 (Visual Arts), who also holds a B.A. in English from the University of South Florida, is a printmaker and mixed media artist currently living in St. Augustine. She exhibits her work across the Southeastern United States. (http://www.debramixonholliday.com/)
2010s
Kirk Daniel Palmer ‘10 (Visual Arts) served more than twenty years in the USMC, including a tour as a Middle East Foreign Area Officer and Arabic linguist at the American Embassy in Caro, Egypt, before deciding to pursue the creative life more fully. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Eckerd College, recently earned his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and lives and works in St. Petersburg. (https://www.kirkdanielpalmer.com/)
Jim Rolston ’12 (Visual Arts) transitioned from working as an executive for public utilities to working as an artist and as an advocate for the arts. Rolston works from his studio in St. Petersburg and serves on the boards of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. (http://redzenart.com/about-the-artist.html and https://vimeo.com/144921454)
Angela “Angie” Marshall ’12 (Visual Arts) worked as a web designer for corporations and is currently a Technology and Digital Multimedia teacher at Braden River Middle School in Bradenton. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-marshall-81b22477/)
Lisa Sibley ’12 (Visual Arts) subsequently earned her MFA in Visual Art Photography from the Lesley University College of Art and Design (formerly The Art Institute of Boston) in Cambridge, Mass. She is a photography artist, educator, and juror, teaches photography at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center), and her work appeared in the 2015 and 2017 issues of the Eckerd Review. (http://lisasibley.zenfolio.com/about.html)
Karen Mitchell Tremmel ’12 (Visual Arts, Sculpture) works in many media from her studio in St. Petersburg and has, for many years, written a newspaper column, “Back to Nature,” which appears locally in the Tampa Bay Newspapers (Seminole Beacon, et al.). (https://www.linkedin.com/in/karentremmel/ and http://www.mymuddypawsstudio.com/)
Michael della Penna ’13 (Visual Arts, Art History) is working toward an M.A. in Luxury and Fashion Management from Savannah College of Art and Design. He owns Della Penna Fashion in St. Petersburg. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dellapennafashion/)
Ralph Samples ’14 (Visual Arts). No information available.
Cal Brown ’16 (Visual Arts) worked as an advertising agency art director and creative director and attended St. Petersburg (Junior) College and the University of Florida before graduating from Eckerd College.
Anne W. Anderson was director of blended and online learning in PEL
and was co-editor of The PEL Connector.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)