As we near the midpoint of the semester, it is always a good time to take stock in how things are going. This year, as we envision higher education in general—and Salem in particular—in new ways during the coronavirus pandemic that has caused such disruption to our lives, it is even more important.

My experience as an historian often prompts me to look back at how past generations coped during such times, and I find inspiration in knowing that Salem has successfully weathered other pandemics in its storied history. I can imagine how future generations will study this moment and learn from what we are doing right now.

It is, by all accounts, a story worth remembering. Faculty meld new technologies and proven teaching techniques to transform their curricula and ensure that students can keep learning despite the distance that keeps us physically apart. Library staff continue to expand access to required texts to help make remote learning a little bit easier for all our students. Our Student Affairs team responds to myriad questions to help ensure that our students succeed in and out of their virtual classrooms.

Despite facing unprecedented challenges and increased responsibilities, students support one another through a variety of remote formats, from online study groups to breakout rooms to chat boards. In all these ways we are creating a new Salem together: an institution that is capable of innovating to meet our new challenges while remaining grounded in our core values.

The responsiveness, resiliency, and care at the heart of all the ways in which we have innovated education during this crisis are just more evidence that we are, truly, Salem Strong. I believe future generations will agree.

Daniel Prosterman
Interim Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs
Dean of the College

The Activities, Leadership, and Intercultural (ALI) office at Salem College is proud to announce the At the Intersections: A conversation with womxn on gender and race series. This series is being coordinated by the newest members of the ALI staff, Alex Prusator and Celeste Banaag. At the Intersections is supported by women’s leadership grants provided to Salem College by BB&T and the Winston-Salem Foundation. Inspired by what lawyer, civil rights advocate, and philosopher Kimberlé Crenshaw calls intersectionality, the series will focus on how women experience the intersections of their gender and race in everyday life.

The series will run October 13, October 20, and November 10. Speakers include Dr. Diana Alvarez, Ms. Makayla Binter, and Dr. Brittany Williams.

Our first speaker, Dr. Diana Alvarez, will be featured on October 13 at 7 p.m. With her voice and guitar, Dr. Alvarez creates an atmosphere where you can hear a “pin drop.” Alvarez’s soulful, bilingual music exalts queer love and liberation, and is the armature of her multimedia performance, Quiero Volver: A Xicanx Ritual Opera. Described by the press as “a visually and acoustically stunning performance meant to honor women, non-binary, and genderqueer people of color,” Quiero Volver features Alvarez’s original music, sonic text scores, a poem-script for ensemble performance, and documentary video portraits.

The ALI Office will be releasing more detailed information about our second speaker (Makayla Binter of the Mural Panel Project in Charlotte, NC) and third speaker (Dr. Brittany Williams Higher Education Researcher, Consultant, and Speaker Engaging Issues of Career Development, Sexual Health, & (In)Equity) in upcoming communication. For updates follow Virtually Salem on Instagram, or email Alan Mueller at alan.mueller@salem.edu. The link for each event will be sent out to the campus community in the Monday “Virtually Salem” emails.

Alan Mueller
Assistant Dean of Students for Student Activities, Leadership, and Intercultural Education

We are excited to introduce a new program, “Salem Voices: A Conversation with Salem Alumnae,” a series of virtual conversations with Salem Academy and College alumnae hosted by Lucy Rose, C’76, Vice Chair of the Salem Academy and College Board of Trustees and owner and president of Lucy Rose and Associates, a global life sciences consulting firm. Salem Voices will post on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 12:30 EST.

“Salem alumnae are making an impact across the globe in many areas,” said Rose, who proposed the idea of Salem Voices as a means to share the careers and life stories of Salem alumnae with the Salem community. “They are pursuing fascinating careers which I know will be interesting to other alumnae. In addition to their stories being inspirational for all of us, including our current students, I expect to learn a great deal from these amazing women. I am very impressed with our alums and can’t wait to share their stories with everyone.”

The first episode of Salem Voices took place on Tuesday, October 6 and featured Sarah Catherine Gutierrez, C’02, author of the recently published book, But First, Save 10: The One Simple Money Move That Will Change Your Life. Gutierrez holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and the CFP® and CRPS® designations. She is the founder of Aptus Financial. She was recently recognized in the Investment News 2020 40 under 40 class of investment advisors. Gutierrez blogs as “Ladysplaining Money,” and writes a column for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette called “Save Yourself.”

If you missed this episode, you can watch it on the website. The next episode will take place on Tuesday, October 20 at 12:30 p.m. Stay tuned for information regarding the next alumna to be interviewed.