Salem College is a place of living, learning, work, and friendship. It is a place that is defined by who we are as much as where we are. As is always the case at the end of academic years, we celebrate and honor those whose time with us is drawing to a close. This is true for our graduates. It is also true for those who work here whose lives carry them forward to new challenges.

These leaders have helped make Salem what we are. Once a Salem sibling, always a Salem sibling! So, join me in thanking these leaders (in alphabetical order):

Shannon Alford – Associate Dean of Students

Marinda “Mindy” Bliss – Dean of Students

Cathy Caldwell – Coordinator of the Fine Arts Center and Administrative Assistant to the Arts and the Sciences faculty

Sandra J. Doran – President of Salem Academy and College

Sharon Hardin – Faculty member in art and painter extraordinaire!

Carolina Ovando – Residence coordinator and Salem alumna

Terry Smith – Faculty member in sociology and reminder that structures matter

Shawn Ricks – Assistant Vice President of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

We wish them well and send them onward with the heartiest of thanks.

Susan Henking
Dean of the College

Each year, two Sophisteia Awards are given to two graduating students: one to a traditional Salem College student and one to a student at the Martha H. Fleer Center for Adult Education. This year’s winners were announced during the Salem College 2020 Virtual Degree Conferral on Saturday, May 23.

The Sophisteia Award for a traditional student began as a gift to Salem College from the Class of 1978, in conjunction with the Class of 1973. It is presented to the traditional senior graduate with the highest grade point average over four full years. This year, the Sophisteia Award for a traditional student was given to Hannah Minh Sprinkle, who graduated on Saturday with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry with a minor in mathematics.

The Sophisteia Award for a student from the Martha H. Fleer Center for Adult Education began as a gift to Salem College from the Prime Times Alumnae Club. It is presented to the Fleer graduate who has achieved the highest grade point average with full-time enrollment over a minimum of two full years of study at Salem. This year, the Sophisteia Award for a student from the Martha H. Fleer Center for Adult Education was given to Kayla Elizabeth Knight, who graduated on Saturday with a Bachelor of Science in accounting.

Hannah Sprinkle

Kayla Knight

 

Congratulations to the Class of 2020! Under extraordinary times, you modeled perseverance, determination, and grace. In all my years in higher education, this will be the graduation ceremony I will always remember.

The team that helped find ways to move award ceremonies and events, including the virtual degree ceremony, from in person to online was a model of diversity and inclusion. A diverse group of individuals from all parts of campus—representing administration, faculty, staff, and adult and traditional students—all accepted the charge of doing something that had not been done at Salem before.

When the team logged into the Zoom meetings, despite our differing cultural backgrounds, worldviews, and individual life experiences—we all came together for a common goal. The intentionality of allowing every voice to be heard and every idea presented modeled the goal of inclusion—not just allowing people to sit at the table, but also allowing them to speak. I could not be prouder of a team that respectfully engaged with each other in courageous conversation as advocates for various campus constituents. Even when we disagreed, as any group of people will do, we treated each other with respect and remembered our common goals. Above all else, I believe the group’s success—and inclusion—is rooted in the willingness to see the humanity in another person.

Please join me in thanking the task force members for their willingness to see and hear each other, and for a great week of virtual awards and celebrations:

Have a great summer!

Shawn Arango Ricks
Assistant Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Mega hours were spent by students, accompanists, other professors, and me, as the conductor, to produce choral music this semester. It was not perfect, but it was our way of sharing our music. We would have sounded different if we had all been together on a stage feeling the music together, but that fact did not keep us from making good music in the strange new land of this virus.

Virtual choir on Zoom was different, but we managed to individually record our voices and turn many solo voices into one sound.

You can watch our concert on YouTube. You have the option of clicking the big red button and seeing the concert straight through or you can click one at a time on each individual song on the playlist. 

I thank Anni Wang, College Choir Assistant, for spending more than 60 hours in post-production editing. Every voice had to be isolated, blended, and put into a track where they all were realigned together (even though every voice was sung as its own isolated solo) plus adding in acoustics. Finally, each voice had to be reattached, the best way possible, to each individual video and then put into one screen. All this with no recording studio or editing crew or prior experience but instead with just a computer, and sometimes with unreliable internet. Gold stars to you, Anni.

Singers also had to become soloists, technicians, and individual learners at a craft that normally is a group effort as one village. We gave it our best and we have grown in new ways by doing this. I am proud of each singer, both at the College and the Academy, for stepping up and doing their best in the midst of massive change.

Also, much appreciation to the accompanists Jonathan Borton, Karen Peters, Anni Wang, and Kara Weimer who came to all the Zoom rehearsals each week to play and who spent hours making recordings of rehearsal tracks and piano accompaniments.

For now, we are living in a new world and we will rise to the occasion. I look forward to the future because singing connects us all no matter what form it needs to take. It is a major part of the legacy that is Salem Academy and Salem College. Ensembles will survive so that we can continue this great expression of the human spirit. We might look different for now but “Salem Sings” still. Good job, all. Until we meet again! We are Salem.

Sonja Sepulveda 
Director of Choral Activities