Inside our November/December issue
For our November/December cover story, timed both with this year’s election and the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, we spoke with Penn State historian Cathleen Cahill, whose new book examines the women of color who played a prominent role in the movement for women’s suffrage. Recasting the Vote highlights the work of six women—Native American, Chinese, Latina, and Black—to tell the broader story of women of color who fought for the right to vote. Our interview with Cahill begins on p. 40.
Our new issue also highlights the work of former Penn State president Milton Eisenhower, best known in history as an influential advisor to his brother Dwight, but who spent the best years of his career as a university president—including a transformational tenure at Penn State as the institution transitioned from college to university. Our feature on Eisenhower begins on p. 32.
And we take you inside the new Student Veteran Center at University Park. Located in a $4 million renovated space on the first floor of Ritenour Building, the center houses both the Office of Veterans Programs, which processes GI Bill benefits and supports military students at University Park, and the Office of Veterans Affairs and Services, which oversees university-wide military service-related events and advocacy efforts. But the center also serves as a 24/7 gathering space for military-affiliated students enrolled at University Park. Our look at the new space begins on p. 48.
Also, meet Anne Puchalsky, a sophomore whose conservation work led to the Eastern hellbender being declared Pennsylvania’s state amphibian (p. 16); read about ultrarunner Lauren Wilke’s fight against COVID-19 (p. 27); and learn NFL Network reporter Kimberly Jones’s favorite memory from her undergraduate days at Penn State (p. 19).
It’s all in our Noveber/December issue, arriving in mailboxes soon.
—B.J. Reyes, associate editor
“Defending Freedom is Not Easy”
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the conversation I had about two years ago with Jack Spielvogel, the beloved history professor who educated generations of Penn State undergraduates on the history—and renewed threat—of fascism, ultra-nationalism, and authoritarianism. We featured that conversation in our January/February 2019 issue; unfortunately, it’s only grown more relevant since. You can read the full feature here.
Ryan Jones, editor
Inside our September/October issue
Aside from the global pandemic, the summer of 2020 will be remembered for the nationwide protests against systemic racism and violence against Black Americans. Mindful of that context, we approached our September/October issue as a platform for Black alumni, students, and faculty to share their experiences and perspective.
Our cover story features former Nittany Lion and NFL defensive end Aaron Maybin, now an artist, activist, and teacher in his hometown of Baltimore. Maybin “went viral” in the winter of 2018, when a video he posted from a freezing elementary school classroom sparked outrage over the city’s inability to provide for the basic needs of its children. That moment amplified the local activism he’d been immersed in since the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody, work that remains as relevant as ever. Maybin’s story begins on p. 40.
Also inside: We asked 11 Black alumni from the 1960s to today to share memories of their time on campus. That collection of alumni voices begins on p. 46. And we convened a roundtable discussion with faculty from Penn State’s African American Studies department to discuss the past, present, and future of the civil rights movement, connecting the dots between a fight that most consider a long-ago historical moment, but which these professors explain as an ongoing battle for equality. That feature begins on p. 30.
We’ll also introduce you to Tyla Swinton, the incoming president of the Black Law Student Association (p. 14); hear from Alumni Association president Randy Houston ’91 on the value of allyship and advocacy; and learn from a recent grad what it’s like trying to cover the summer of protest for Time magazine (p. 96). All that and much more in our September/October issue, arriving in mailboxes soon.
B.J. Reyes, associate editor
Heroes Among Us
In a different time, I would’ve hoped to spend a few days shadowing Brett ’03 and Corinne Andria Feldman ’02 as they made their rounds on the streets of Los Angeles. If only we’d found out about them a few months earlier.
Instead, we didn’t learn about the Feldmans until March, right as COVID-19 was beginning to take hold around the country. The alumni couple, who met as undergraduates in the kinesiology department at University Park, work together as physicians assistants and leading practitioners of street medicine—the provision of basic health care and social services to unsheltered homeless populations, delivered on the streets where they live and sleep. After running their own innovative practice in the Lehigh Valley for years, they were drawn in 2018 to Los Angeles, where the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine recruited them to establish the first dedicated street medicine program at a major university. There, they serve the largest unsheltered homeless population in the United States.
Work that was already hugely relevant became even more so with the outbreak of a pandemic, and as we pulled together features for our July/August issue, the Feldmans’ story seemed too timely to ignore — even if the timing did rule out a trip to Los Angeles. Instead, they found time to share their story by phone, and we’re proud to be able to include that in our current issue, and to share it as a PDF here.
Ryan Jones, editor
Inside our July/August issue
Our July/August issue highlights how the Penn State community has been impacted by—and is responding to—the COVID-19 pandemic. Our feature well is focused on stories of Penn Staters on the front lines of the pandemic fight, including a profile of alums Brett and Colleen Feldman, whose groundbreaking street medicine program serves the massive homeless population in Los Angeles. We also highlight the work of nurses and doctors across the country, from local hospitals to the national spotlight. Our “Front Lines” package begins on p. 30.
We also asked our readers to share how you’ve been coping with the pandemic. From stories of recovery after contracting the virus to gaining a new perspective on everyday life and work, we share nearly two dozen of your stories—that feature begins on p. 50.
And we spoke with some of Penn State’s international students who were forced spend the early months of the pandemic at their campuses across Pennsylvania, thousands of miles from home. Their stories begin on p. 60.
Plus: See how some of Penn State’s Olympic hopefuls are spending the time in quarantine (p. 24); meet Alexa Tiemann, a student volunteer firefighter with the Alpha Fire Company who stayed in State College during the shutdown (p. 14); and get Penn State research insights on a potential COVID-19 vaccine (p. 18).
It’s all in our July/August issue, arriving in mailboxes soon.
—B.J. Reyes, associate editor
Remembering Milt Feldman
Our May/June issue features a profile of Milt Feldman ’47, a World War II veteran who survived both the Battle of the Bulge and—particularly daunting given his Jewish heritage—a Nazi POW camp. Milt died in March at age 95, just as we were wrapping up the issue, so he never got to see our piece, but he did tell his story in a book, Captured, Frozen, Starved—and Lucky. Milt was adamant the rest of his life how lucky he was to have survived the war. As a small nod to so many others who never came home, we’re proud to share Milt’s story here.
Ryan Jones, editor
