On Saturday, May 8, 2021—a beautiful spring morning—we gathered at Truist Stadium (home of the Winston-Salem Dash baseball team) for an in-person and virtual Commencement ceremony to honor the Salem College Class of 2021. I—along with members of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, and staff —shared the enthusiasm and the pride of our graduates, their loved ones, and friends who assembled. This was a unique year, a unique day, a unique moment in a journey for many reasons, the most important of which is that we honored our graduates and their accomplishments.

We were extremely honored to have Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones as our Commencement speaker, particularly in these times, when the matters on which she has spent a lifetime are newly visible to us all. Across the past year, we have heard the phrase “it is a moment in a movement” as we have seen again and again moments in the movement that we call the racial justice movement.

We have endured moments of frustration and celebrated occasions of change—and moments in our recognition that this matter is deeply entangled in all that we do and experience. Dr. Jones was, indeed, perfectly situated to speak to our community at Commencement, as a leader whose wisdom matters.

Dr. Jones is a family physician and epidemiologist whose work focuses on naming, measuring, and addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and indeed of all of us. By pointing to racism as itself a public health concern, she ensures that we recognize our call to hope and to act, in this time of COVID-19 and of ongoing racism and gendered racism, to bend the arc of history toward justice—and toward health. She calls us to the public good as well as inspires us to individual growth.

Dr. Jones’s allegories on race and racism illuminate topics that we all must understand, discuss and that call us, as Salem College’s mission does, to change the world. Recognizing that racism saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources, she aims to mobilize and engage all Americans in a National Campaign Against Racism. Among others, she aims to mobilize us—to mobilize Salem.

I hope you will take a moment to watch Dr. Jones’s speech, and indeed the entire Commencement ceremony. You can find a link to the video on our website. The fact that we were able to gather with so many of our graduates in person was a powerful and important experience after more than a year of remote learning.

Best wishes for a happy, restorative summer for us all.

Susan Henking
Interim President

The end of the year and 2021 Commencement activities were a little different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic but were no less meaningful than other years. You can watch the 2021 Baccalaureate (virtual) and Commencement (in person and livestreamed) Ceremonies by visiting our website. On the same webpage you will also find the Honors Convocation videos and the Fleer Center’s annual Back Porch Party, which were all held virtually this year.  Although the past year has been challenging, our seniors emerged triumphant. We can’t wait to see what they do next.

The H.A. Pfohl Awards were established by the children of a long-time trustee of Salem. The Pfohl Awards are given annually in two categories: $500 to a senior student who exemplifies strong campus citizenship, moral character, loyalty, and effective service to the College; and $1,000 to a faculty member who has demonstrated sound service, loyalty, moral character, and effective teaching. These awards are considered among the most prestigious at Salem College.

At Salem College Commencement on May 8, Interim President Susan Henking presented the 2021 H.A. Pfohl Faculty Award to Dr. Diane Lipsett, who serves as Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Classical Studies, and Health Humanities and the 2021 H.A. Pfohl Student Award to Fatima Amjad C’21.

2021 H.A. Pfohl Faculty Award: Dr. Diane Lipsett

Dr. Lipsett serves Salem College in a variety of ways, most particularly as a leader in shared governance. She has been a member of several standing committees, including chairing the Curriculum Committee and her department. Dr. Lipsett has served as Faculty Secretary, as a member of the College Design Task Force, as co-chair of the Health Leadership Team, as co-chair of the Quality Enhancement Plan committee, and as chair of the Committee on the Faculty. Last year, students awarded her the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society Outstanding Teacher Award, which honors a professor each year who carries out the society’s value of leadership and service in extracurricular activities to encourage development of general campus citizenship.

What more powerful way is there to describe the dedication and commitment of Dr. Lipsett than through the words of her students? One remarked that she helped mold her writing, saying “I needed the challenges she presented to me in her course to hone my skills.” Indeed, many have said, “I needed her.”

Another student said that her “knowledge, commitment, and passion make her an incredible professor. However, her kindness, her willingness to take time out of her own busy schedule to work closely with her students, and her compassion is what truly sets her apart as an exceptional educator. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to be able to learn from her and [for] the tremendous impact she has had in shaping my college education.”

2021 H.A. Pfohl Student Award: Fatima Amjad

This year’s H.A. Pfohl Student Award recipient was Fatima Amjad C’21. President Henking stated, when announcing the award, that Fatima “possesses a probing intellect, always actively in search of the truth. On more than one occasion, she has held the feet of a faculty member, administrator—and even a president—to the fire during a meeting with her kind, direct, and eager questioning of us all. We are honoring a student today who has, indeed, exhibited strong campus and community citizenship during her four years at Salem. She is known by her classmates and her professors as ‘always reliable, always thorough, always cheerful and positive.’

“She has served Salem College—and us all—through the Off Campus Association, the International Club, the Art Society, the Asian Culture Club, and as a member of the Sights and Insights staff. And her service extends beyond the campus through her volunteer work with Old Salem, Habitat for Humanity, Visit Winston Salem 360, the Great American Clean Up, and the Annual Blood Drive hosted by the World Health Organization. She is a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta and Tri-Beta honor societies and the ODK National Leadership Society, as well as the American Chemical Society. Her varied academic interests and achievements underscore her ability to, as one of her professors said, ‘investigate the connections between what other people might see as disparate things’ such as art and science—in her case, through the pursuit of a double major in art history and biology.”

Calling all classes ending in 1s and 6s, and the Class of 2020! Every year Reunion gifts are critical to Salem meeting our College Fund goal. The graphic shows giving by class to date. The Reunion giving deadline has been extended to June 30. Give today at salem.edu/give, by phone at 336-721-2607, or mail a check to Salem College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 601 South Church Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Thank you for supporting Salem!

There’s still time for prospective students to apply for fall 2021. We would love your help as we look for great applicants. Let anyone you know who is interested in learning about Salem College about our upcoming event:

Discover Salem Virtual Information Session for Traditional Undergraduates May 27 at 5:30 p.m.
This virtual information session will begin with a presentation on all Salem College has to offer, followed by a question-and-answer session. This is a great opportunity for prospective students to learn about academics, student life, admissions, and financial aid at Salem College. Interested individuals can register on our website.

Salem’s Seal Gamma Kappa Delta

This month’s column is adapted from a paper titled “Decoding the Salem Seal” that was written by Rev. Deborah L. Austin, C’78.

The Salem Academy and College seal is the official symbol reserved for important papers and occasions, such as diplomas and school programs. Designed in 1907 by a student named Dorothy Doe, it was drawn to include ribbons in 1948. The symbols on the seal include a scroll that represents learning and a wreath for peace. There is also a row of books that originally was a mountain peak, which represented Pilot Mountain and designated strength. On the ribbons are three Greek letters, Gamma Kappa Delta, which stand for “Gnosis Kai Dikaiosune.” In the 1907 Sights and Insights, the motto is translated as “Knowledge and Virtue.”

The motto was devised for the Class of 1907 by Bishop Edward Rondthaler, who served as the President of Salem Academy and College from 1884 until 1888. After 1888, he took on the role of Greek, Latin, and Biblical Literature professor. He taught at Salem until his death in 1931. Through the years, a tradition developed for him to compose a Greek letter motto for each college class. The members of the 1907 senior class wore pins with the motto’s letters. One of the seniors, Dorothy Doe, drew a seal for Salem, and Bishop Rondthaler gave the same motto to the seal that he had given to the Class of 1907.

It is intriguing to realize that the gnosis and dikaiosune motto has the capacity to provide fresh new vision for Salem Academy and College, a vision both anchored in Moravian heritage as well as proving relevant for present and future generations. It is a motto that calls us to large living.

Consider how these two Greek words show themselves in various places around Salem. Indeed, do not Salem’s honor code and Honor Council point to learned truth, integrity, and the honoring of both self and the other person? Each student is being challenged to meet their full potential. In our time, Salem is working hard to be a community of diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice.

These Greek words offer depth to the Salem spirit, a spirit which includes our history born out of Moravian tradition and imbued with excellence. As Salem prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary year, the entire school community is being challenged to dikaiosune, to integrity and honor and inclusiveness and character building. That kind of challenge is not met through the rote practice of learning facts from books. It is a deeper knowledge, a gnosis that comes from living life, from knowing God, from exercising leadership, from experiencing life’s counterintuitive and creative truths, and from glimpsing wisdom.

Rev. Deborah L. Austin, C’78

On Tuesday, May 4, we aired the 15th episode of Salem Voices, which featured a conversation between Lucy Rose, C’76 and Dr. Cristi Magracia, C’15. Cristi is an emerging world traveler. Beginning from her hometown of Lemon Grove, California, she crossed the country to graduate from Salem College with a B.S. in Exercise Science and then crossed back to earn her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at the University of Southern California. During her time at Salem, she spent a semester studying abroad in Nagasaki, Japan, which gave her a unique perspective and preparation for a clinical rotation she spent in Beijing, China as a Student Physical Therapist. Currently, she works at NYC Health + Hospitals/ Metropolitan as a Physical Therapist, primarily working with patients in the Acute Care setting.