MAGAZINE FALL 2014 Team feeds of new tradition P. 21 Inside this issue: MAJOR GIFT HELPS AIM STUDENTS ON CAREER PATH P. 3 PRESIDENT GAMBLE TO RETIRE IN 2015 P. 6 LAKER ALUMS HEADING TO LAW SCHOOL P. 7 POPULAR COURSE EXPLORES ‘BREAKING BAD’ PHENOMENON P. 15 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI, ATHLETES HONORED P. 23-24 A message from the president I’m amazed at how often I feel the inspiration of the Sisters of Mercy who founded this school – like when I was privileged to watch our own Sister Mary Matthew Baltus fy o ver campus. What a joyous – and well-deserved – moment that was for her. I’ve also been thinking about Sister Maura Smith lately as I watch our Autism/Asperger Initiative at Mercyhurst (AIM for short) build a national reputation. Her dream led Mercyhurst to create a program for students with learning dif erences more than 20 years ago. She was convinced that serving those students was a natural outgrowth of our Mercy mission. We were pioneers in the feld then, just as w e were in 2008 when we added a program to serve college students on the autism spectrum. Now, thanks in part to the parents of one of our AIM students, we’ve launched a Career Path Program to make sure these talented students are ready for the job market. You can learn more on pages 3-5. Then there’s the photo on the cover of this magazine, one of my favorite images from fall term at Mercyhurst this year. That’s football coach Marty Schaetzle holding a giant spoon aloft for each player to touch on his way onto Tullio Field. Laker football didn’t do very well early in the season. As the losses piled up, Marty scrambled to fnd something t o motivate the team to perform as he believed it could. I have to think it was the Sisters of Mercy (Sister Damien, perhaps?) who inspired him to use a sort of parable to make his point. Check out the story on page 21 to read his message to the team – and to learn how the rest of the season unfolded. Let’s just say he seems to have started a wonderful tradition here on the Hill. As you may have heard, I’ve decided to step down as Mercyhurst’s president at the end of this academic year. You can read about that, and the search for the university’s next leader, on page 6, but I’m going to wait until the spring magazine to refec t a bit on the past 10 years. I wish you and your families a happy and blessed holiday season and a wonderful new year. God bless you and God bless Mercyhurst University. Thomas J. Gamble, Ph.D. President, Mercyhurst University The Ofc e of Marketing and Contributing Writers Associate Vice President We’d love to hear from you. Public Relations publishes Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 for Advancement Send your story ideas, Mercyhurst Magazine twice a year. David Leisering ’01 Ryan Palm ’07 suggestions and comments to Amy Lombardo ’96 ’01 [email protected] [email protected]. Magazine Editor Deborah W. Morton (800) 845-8568 Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 (814) 824-3320 Send changes of address to: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Alumni Relations (814) 824-2090 Jennifer Cassano Director, Alumni Relations Mercyhurst University Matt Durisko ’14 Tamara Walters 501 E. 38th St. Design/Photography Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 [email protected] Erie, PA 16546 Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 Caitlin Ewing ’14 (814) 824-3350 [email protected] [email protected] Ed Mailliard (814) 824-3022 Frank Rizzone Class Notes Editor Debra Tarasovitch Vice President for External Afairs [email protected] Monsignor David Rubino, Ph.D. (814) 824-2392 [email protected] (814) 824-3034 1 Come fly with me Anyone staring skyward Aug. 28 near the Mercyhurst campus spied a plume of smoke streaming from the back of a restored 1944 Boeing Stearman. It was none other than our own Sister Mary Matthew Baltus buzzing by. Nancie Baltus was 15 when she took her frst fying lesson in a vin tage biplane. That summer day, the spry 90-year- old strapped on a headset, boarded the open-air fying machine at North Coast Air and let pilot Scott Allen fy her back in time to the golden age of aviation. The rarefed e xperience for Sister Mary Matthew, the longtime astronomy professor for whom the Baltus Observatory atop Zurn Hall is named, came courtesy of a Mercyhurst trustee who prefers to remain anonymous. Sister was cool and collected as she climbed Once back on the ground, Sister Mary The opportunity arose last year at a on board the shiny red, white and blue plane. Matthew was all smiles. Mercyhurst Prep gala when a biplane figh t over the peninsula was of ered for bid at a “I just want to feel what it is like again,” she “I got to see Mercyhurst, the observatory and fundraising auction. Sister eagerly bid, but said. “The last time I few one of these w as my old family home on Beech Avenue,” she was outdone by deeper pockets. Seeing her back in 1945.” said, obviously pleased. disappointment, the Mercyhurst trustee Allen few Sist er along the peninsula and quietly placed an anonymous bid for a second When asked if she’d do it again, she didn’t then up and around Mercyhurst, where he figh t as a gift for her many years of Mercy hesitate: “Oh sure, but next time I’d like him to unleashed his smoke system to the delight of service. This year marks her 70th anniversary as let me fy it .” spectators below. a Sister of Mercy. 2 ‘Hurst aims high for students on the spectrum By Susan Corbran Transitions can be hard for students on the autism spectrum. Two unique components of the Autism/Asperger Initiative at Mercyhurst (known as AIM) have been developed to ease such transitions. For students trying to decide whether they’re ready to attend college, AIM of ers a three-week residential program called Foundations each summer. And now, thanks to a generous gift from the family of an AIM student, a Career Path Program will help ensure that AIM students can succeed in the work world following graduation. When Mark Stookey and Lisa Chismire started researching college • academic support, including priority scheduling, testing options for their son, they had some special concerns. accommodations, mediation with teachers, and more. Diagnosed as a child with Asperger’s syndrome, Andrew Stookey was at The one thing the Mercyhurst program needed to add, Mark Stookey the top of his high school honors classes academically, but had a harder believed, was a mechanism to help AIM students move forward into the time in areas like social interaction and executive functioning. As he work world after graduation. got closer to graduation, his parents discovered public schools in their hometown near Philadelphia had little to of er to students like Andrew. AIM Director Brad McGarry agrees, noting that unemployment rates among adults on the autism spectrum hover around 85 percent. “It’s not They pushed the school district, even threatening legal action, until enough to prepare these students academically for the world of work. it developed a program to help Andrew and others on the spectrum We have to make sure they’re employable after graduation,” he said. prepare for college. He and his staf w ere already working on a new vocational track for AIM Determined advocates for their son, they researched options all over students when Stookey and Chismire approached them with a proposal the East Coast before eventually settling on Mercyhurst and its AIM to help fund it. program. “Mercyhurst was by far the best program I saw,” Mark Stookey said. “Lots of the others had one or two of the pieces that Mercyhurst They have agreed to donate $250,000 – $50,000 to kick-start the of ers, but Mercyhurst was the most complete package.” new Career Path Program as it rolls out over the next three years, and $200,000 as seed money for an endowment to fund the program into AIM of ers: the future. • a supported living environment. Students can choose to live in a “Where else could we put our money where it would have a bigger special AIM residence hall run by a trained hall director. impact for Andrew and other students like him?” Mark Stookey asks. He says the lifetime earnings of just one successful AIM student will more • individualized social skills training. AIM staf ha ve identifed mor e than cover the family’s investment. than 100 social skills that students may need to practice and created training modules to address them. Students are assigned He adds that the stars aligned for this project because Mercyhurst to complete the modules that address their specifc needs . already had a plan in place and was ready to launch it as soon as the funding became available. He’s convinced that Mercyhurst can be a • peer mentoring. AIM students spend several hours each month model for the rest of the educational establishment. “We’re going to with their peer mentors, other students from the Mercyhurst help the world understand just how much people on the spectrum have community. to of er.” • social activities, including optional meal gatherings and events on and of campus . 3 Mark Stookey, center, and his wife have donated a quarter-million dollars to build a career preparation track into Mercyhurst’s AIM program. He’s pictured with, from left, Ryan Palm ’07, associate vice president for advancement; President Tom Gamble; his son, sophomore Andrew Stookey; and Brad McGarry, director of AIM.