HENINGBURG TO SPEAK AT KELLMAN COURSE CLOSING CEREMONY
May 20, 2002, Bloomfield, NJ - Public policy expert and broadcaster Gustav Heningburg will serve as keynote speaker for the closing ceremony of the Bloomfield College Kellman Course in the Humanities. The ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 1 at the Robert V. Van Fossan Theatre on the Bloomfield College campus.
Heningburg serves as president of Gustav Heningburg Associates, Inc., which provides consultation in communications, public policy analysis and development, government relations, lobbying, and affirmative action. In 1986, he served as chairman of Newark Mayor-elect Sharpe James’ transition team, and in 1987 he was appointed by the Governor as Commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
He has also served as Chair of the Committee to Study the Governance of New Jersey’s County Colleges; Chair of the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund for the first 10 years of the program; and as a trustee of several colleges and universities. Heningburg served as host of the WNBC-TV award-winning public affairs program “Positively Black” for 20 years.
The Bloomfield College Kellman Course in the Humanities brings free college-level classes to a dedicated group of adult students twice a week. The classes are held at Bethany Bapist Church in Newark.
Most of the students are between 40 and 60 years old; they have raised families, worked various jobs, and abandoned their dreams of college along the way. For them, the Kellman Course is more than an overview of the liberal arts; it is a life-transforming experience; it’s a second chance.
“I thought college had passed me by, but this has really inspired me to take more classes,” said student Evelyn Harris. “It may take a while, but eventually I’d like to earn my bachelor’s degree.”
Harris, a Bethany parishoner, decided to enroll in the course to improve her writing skills and to achieve a dream.
“I’ve always wanted to write a book, but I have problems getting my thoughts on paper,” she said. “When I heard about the course, it sounded perfect. And after taking it, I’ve decided that this is the course for me.”
Bloomfield College was selected as one of five institutions across the country to offer this course, which is modeled on the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities. Other participating institutions include Reed College in Oregon, Trinity College in Connecticut, Northeastern University in Massachusetts, and the University of Alaska in Anchorage.
The students receive instruction in disciplines including American history, moral philosophy, art history, literature, and critical thinking and writing. The course is funded in
part by the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and is named for Martin Kellman, the College’s beloved professor of English who died in 1999.
Dr. Cheryl Evans serves as Program Director, and the sections are taught by full-time Bloomfield College faculty including Robert Deischer, Lisa Rabinowitz, Tom Slaughter, and Sandy Van Dyk. The instructors seemed extremely pleased with the students’ progress.
“It’s so wonderful to see a group of students so open to learning; they become engaged in the process and you can actually see people change,” said Professor Sandy Van Dyk, who taught the writing classes. “After the last day of my section, a student stopped me and told me what an amazing experience he had. He told me, ‘I have different things to talk about now than I did before. If this is what college is like, then I definitely want to enroll.’”
The Bloomfield College faculty collaborated in designing the curriculum for the Kellman Course, and decided to center this year’s work around the theme “What Is Justice?” Although some of the coursework may seem intimidating to students at first, the faculty are committed to helping students surpass their own expectations.
“We’re not just giving them Plato to see them squirm. We’re presenting the material in ways that will engage students and help them succeed,” said Van Dyk. “It’s what we’ve been doing at Bloomfield College for years.”
For more information about Bloomfield College’s Kellman Course in the Humanities, please call Dr. Cheryl Evans at (973) 748-9000 ext. 106.
