- WP, The Magazine of
- William Paterson University
- P.O. Box 913
- Wayne, NJ 07474-0913
- (973) 720-2967
- We welcome letters to the editor.
- Drop us a note via eamil at
- wpmag@wpunj.edu
- William Paterson University
SPOTLIGHT ALUMNI NEWS
Greetings from your Executive Director
Winter
2001
Some of you may have noticed that Allan Gorab '72, Association president, has stepped down after eight years of leadership. Many pivotal activities have occurred during his tenure, including the agreement between the William Paterson University Foundation and the Association which created the University's first Distinguished Visiting Professorship, the establishment of the Association's long-term goals, the development of the Alumni House at Oldham Pond, and the creation of three new chapters. Allan has served the Association with distinction and it has been my pleasure and honor to work with him. Please join me in wishing him well as he joins the council as an at-large member.
Thank you for responding to this year's election of Alumni Association officers and members. An unprecedented number of ballots were returned and we appreciate your interest and participation.
After several months of planning and development, I am pleased to announce our newest benefit low-cost property and casualty insurance through Liberty Mutual. A phone call to a Liberty Mutual representative at 1-800-524-9400, will provide you with more details, and additional information will be mailed to your home.
The Alumni Association will launch another new initiative on October 7, 2001. Join us for a ten-day adventure to Italy as we tour Venice, Florence, and Rome. For more information, call the Alumni Relations Office at 973.720.2175.
Please keep the Alumni calendar of events handy-there are many events and deadlines we want you to know about. Visit us on the Web at www.wpunj.edu for the latest updates.
I continue to be impressed with the number of you who surf the Web and reconnect with the University. Please keep those address changes and e-mails coming! Whether it's a career change or birth announcement, we want to know and share the good news with your classmates.
As always, we hope to get to know you better and help you stay connected to this exciting University.
Allison Kendall Worman Named Alumni Association's New President
Allison
Kendall Worman has three loves -her family, teaching the third
grade, and William Paterson University.
The new president of the Alumni Association has had close ties to the University since she was ten years old when her mother enrolled as a nontraditional student to become a teacher. "She would bring me to square dances on campus," says Worman. "Other times, I would sit on a big red cushion on the window seat in the library and read in what is now the Green Room in Hobart Manor.
"I always knew I would come to William Paterson," she says with a smile. Following in her mother's footsteps, she entered in 1963. Although she worked 30 hours a week and was a full-time student majoring in secondary speech education, she was active on campus, made many friends, and served as secretary of the Student Government.
"But after I completed my junior practicum, I realized it was not the right path," says Worman. "I dropped out, obtained a Department of Education Emergency Teaching Certificate, and taught first grade in Frankford Township. I loved it."
Three years later she married, moved to El Paso, Texas, with her husband who was a lieutenant in the Army, and worked as a K-12 substitute teacher in the city's Chicano district. "A wonderful experience," says Worman.
After her husband was sent to Vietnam, she moved back to New Jersey in 1972. When her son, Danny, was three and in nursery school, she reenrolled at William Paterson. "By that time, I knew I wanted a degree in early childhood education," she says. Among those who aided her were an old friend, Mark Evangelista, then the director of admissions who had been vice president of the student government when she was secretary, and Tony Coletta, an early childhood professor, who she considers a mentor.
Worman graduated in 1975. The following year, Caitlin was born. When her daughter was two-and-a-half she took a job as director of the Day Care Center at Bloomfield College taking Caitlin with her. Later, after passing the state's Emergency Medical Technician Program, she supervised the education and training of EMTs in the program for three years.
A year following her divorce in 1985, she returned to public school teaching at Budd Lake's Sandshore School in Mt. Olive Township. "I love eight year olds turning nine," she says, "and hope to end my career still teaching third grade." In 1995, she married Barry Worman, Schools Superintendent for Sussex County, and added two adult step-children, Merideth and Brad, to her family.
Worman joined the William Paterson Alumni Association's Board in 1988, and served as vice president for the last four years. She praises Allan Gorab "for the many accomplishments of his tenure" and plans to continue involving alumni in closer relationships with the University. "We are building a real sense of community," she stresses, "adding more alumni chapters both on campus and throughout the country.
"The new Alumni House
will give alumni a home to come back to, and they can stay in
close touch through our new Web page. It's an exciting time,
and an honor and privilege to become president."
--Barbara Bakst
Michael and
Emma Burns: Their 35th Reunion
Provides Opportunity to Reminisce
It's
been more than 35 years since Michael J. Burns and his wife Emma
Ann Trifiletti, both 1964 graduates, took turns serving as editor-in-chief
of The Beacon.
Their experiences attending William Paterson (then Paterson State College) and working on the newspaper had such a positive impact on them that the couple traveled across the country from Bellevue, Washington, to join other alumni revelers and celebrate their 35th reunion at the University's first Reunion Weekend in June.
"We had a great time at William Paterson and both got a lot out of it," says Mike, who majored in English and commuted from his hometown of Passaic to attend the institution with the help of a New Jersey State Scholarship. The son of a machinist and a homemaker, Mike was the first in his family to go to college; he worked 30 to 35 hours a week at an insurance agency while going to school.
Emma tells a similar tale. "My mother was an embroiderer and my father was an electri-cian," she recalls. Also the first in her family to attend college, she was interested in journalism, "but my father would only allow me to be a teacher," she says. Knowing she needed to attend college locally, she commuted to William Paterson from Hackensack.
Their days working on The Beacon provide many of their fondest memories of William Paterson. They met in October 1962 when Emma, then editor-in-chief, invited Mike, the features editor, to accompany her to review the premiere performance of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "It was our first date," says Emma. "We split the cost right down the middle!"
"Going to school and participating in an extracurricular activity like writing for The Beacon requires a great deal of discipline in terms of managing your time," says Mike, who still recalls the weekly schedule. "We put the paper together on late Monday night. On Tuesday at noon, we went down to the printer in Paterson and he typeset it. On Wednesday, we picked up the galley proofs, did the make up, wrote the headlines, and dropped it back off at the printer on the way home. On Thursday, I'd go back to the printer with a couple of editors and our advisor. We'd proof it and give it our okay. The paper was picked up and distributed on campus on Friday, On Monday, we'd start all over again."
After graduation, Mike served three years with the U.S. Marines, including 13 months in Vietnam, and was discharged with the rank of captain. He entered the corporate world while earning a law degree at night from Seton Hall University, and now has more than 20 years of experience as the chief executive officer of several large corporations, including Dutch Boy Paints, Kroehler Furniture, and SeaWatch International. His success in growing and transforming companies has been covered in Forbes, Fortune and Money magazines. Burns is currently president and CEO of Pioneer Human Services, a Seattle-based non-profit with annual revenues of $50 million that provides employment and training to ex-convicts and former drug abusers.
Emma has been an active
community volunteer, and has served as director of the Retired
Senior Volunteer Program in Middlesex County. The parents of
four grown children, they have four grandchildren.
--Mary Beth Zeman
Dana Feltz Is Alumni Association's Outstanding Senior
Dana
Feltz, a May 2000
graduate of the University, was named the 2000 Outstanding Senior
by the Alumni Association. Allan Gorab, immediate past president
of the Alumni Association, presented the award during the biannual
Senior Send-Off on May 10, with more than 850 graduating students
and their families in attendance.
An outstanding scholar and athlete, Feltz chaired the University's Council of Student Athletes, as well as the New Jersey Athletic Conference's Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She was one of only 24 student representatives nationwide on the NCAA Student Advisory Committee for Division III. During the 1999-2000 season, she made history as the first University student to serve as the captain of three teams: soccer, basketball, and softball. A dean's list student, Feltz earned a bachelor's degree in exercise and movement sciences with certification to teach physical education and health.
Nursing Alums Form Chapter
As
the first nurses to complete the University's rigorous master's
degree program in community nursing, Diane (Traficante) Silbernagel
'79, M.S. '99, and her fellow graduates shared a special bond.
"We were a very cohesive group, sharing our experiences
as we worked to balance our personal and professional lives along
with our studies," she says.
Among their classmates was Yvonne Parisen, a professional home care nurse, a wife, and the mother of three young children. While pursuing her studies at the University, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. "Yvonne handled her illness with grace and optimism; she never complained," says Paula (Colella) Sisco '78, M.S. '99, president of the Nursing Alumni Chapter. She died shortly after her 1999 graduation.
Silbernagel and her fellow alums have now formed a chapter of the Alumni Association, and are seeking to raise $40,000 to establish an endowed scholarship fund in Parisen's name which would benefit a student enrolled in the graduate program. "A scholarship would be a wonderful lasting tribute to Yvonne," Sisco says. "It is also a perpetual gift that will benefit generations of nursing students at William Paterson."
As part of Reunion Weekend
in June, the group held a walkathon, raising $1600 toward the
fund. "For a first-time event, we're really happy with the
money we made," says Sheri Fistal '82, M.S.'99, an organizer
of the Sunday morning walk. "We're hoping next year that
we have more people walking."
Details That Count: Gloria Herrera's Road to Success
Does
a woman contemplating suicide worry about someone discovering
the intimate details of the life she is leaving behind? What
would be the last few things she would do before ending it all?
And would those things change her mind?
That is the provocative theme of Details, a 30-minute film written and produced by Gloria Herrera '87 (photo at left), who also plays the leading role of a young woman burdened since childhood by the constant pain of a little known illness that has brought her to the point of no return.
The film, an official selection of six film festivals, five in the United States and one in Mexico, is the culmination of more than a decade of hard work and determination on both coasts to forge a career in the entertainment industry. The award-winning film, inspired by her personal life experience and friendship with a woman suffering from endometriosis, fulfills Herrera's goal to "tell good stories about people - real, ordinary people."
Thanks to the encouragement and support of an ex-boyfriend, Joseph LaMorte, a partner in a New York garment business, who believed in her talent as a writer and actress, Herrera was persuaded to move to Los Angeles to be close to the movie industry. "I went cold and broke in 1995," she says with a laugh. "For three years I worked on commercials and auditioned for TV and film projects. When nothing materialized, I was propelled to write my own film, and turned to an idea I had been thinking about for a long time." The idea was the story of Details, which she wrote in five months.
Herrera and LaMorte had stayed in close touch during her stay in California, and upon reading the script, he flew to Los Angeles and agreed to finance the movie's production. "We incorporated to become Ex-Bo Productions," says Herrera with a broad smile, explaining that Ex-Bo stands for ex-boyfriend.
The shooting and editing took six months. The crew worked for free, a common "helping hand" among movie people struggling to make a success in the film world. Once Details was completed, Herrera began the long process of sending the movie to film festivals. It was selected by six festivals, five in the United States and one in Acapulco, Mexico; Details was one of only five short films chosen by the Acapulco Black Film Festival from among more than 100 submissions from the United States. The 2000 New York Latino International Film Festival gave the movie its Best Short Film Award, and HBO purchased exclusive rights to show it for the next two years.
A communication major at William Paterson, Herrera looks back to her involvement in OLAS, the Organization of Latin American Students, as an important highlight of her experience at college. "OLAS supported the concept of leadership - that you could take an idea and make it happen," relates Herrera, who served as president. The close friendships of those years have remained constant as OLAS classmates kept in touch and supported each other. When her film became a finalist in the 2000 New York Latino International Film Festival, and was previewed in Manhattan last June, her OLAS friends for 13 years took a half day off from work to attend.
Born in Colombia, Herrera, now 36, is the fifth child in a family of six children. She came to the United States with her parents when she was seven. The family settled in Hackensack. Her father, a jeweler by trade, had been promised a job in the jewelry business. "But it didn't work out," she explains, "and both my parents became factory workers.
"My family is an example of the work ethic," she says with pride. "They were an amazing lesson - watching how they handled life. They had six kids and came to the U.S. without knowing the language." Today, both parents are retired and her father makes "beautiful" jewelry as a hobby.
Herrera says she always knew that after she graduated she would pursue an acting career in New York. It started with her love of Latin dance music -the meringue and salsa. At 15, she would try and sneak into disco clubs with older friends. "That's where I learned to dance," she says with a smile. Next came formal classes in jazz and Afro-Caribbean dances. She became a member of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company, which performed in the neighborhoods of New York, at street fairs, churches, and community centers.
"It was the first time I did something I loved," confides Herrera. "Right then I knew entertainment was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. You struggle a lot, financially and all the rest. I had a lot of side jobs: as a waitress, chauffeur, selling ads for restaurants, and working for an ad agency developing campaigns for the Latino community. You have to keep reinventing yourself and surround yourself with people who keep you motivated."
In 1987 she became involved with the Shaman Repertory Theatre, a group of actors, directors, and writers who got together to produce their own work. "We paid dues to have our productions put on," explains Herrera, adding that they performed in theaters in East Harlem, the Henry Street Settlement, and in the Nuyotican Poete Café on New York's Lower East Side. It was here that she became good friends with a fellow actress whose lifelong battle with the pain of endometriosis inspired Details.
Three years later Herrera joined "The Body Positive" as an actress and facilitator. Funded by the Henry Street Settlement, the group went into schools and community and homeless shelters to explain the dangers of AIDS and HIV infections. In addition, she appeared in the short film We Always Danced, and as a guest on the television drama "Law and Order."
Herrera has now moved back east and is living with her family in Lodi, New Jersey. She and LaMorte have taken office space in Manhattan for Ex-Bo Productions, which has expanded to produce other films. She has completed another script, based on the experiences of a cousin in Colombia. Her goal: to produce feature-length films, documentaries, and a digital video show.
- Barbara Bakst
Class of 1950 Celebrates 50TH Reunion
Members of the Class of
1950 renewed friendships and shared memories as they celebrated
their 50th reunion on May 9. Led by reunion organizers Anne (DeSpirito)
Arnowitz, Peter Wild, Joseph Decker, and Class President Albert
Doremus, a dozen alumni, adorned in special straw hats, braved
the unseasonably hot and humid day to participate in the University's
commencement festivities. For the first time, they marched behind
the graduating seniors with a Class of 1950 banner. Following
the ceremony, they returned to Hobart Manor for a luncheon with
additional classmates. Pioneer Society celebrant Ann Burns, Class
of 1930, shared her memories. An impromptu tour of the campus
and a trip to the Oldham Pond, site of the future Alumni House,
completed the day's activities. Neither guests nor alumni staff
wanted the day to end!
Next
