Secondary Schools are partnering to register high school students in select
college-level courses, for which they will earn college credit. President Blair
at the College and Jim Adams, managing director at the Secondary Schools,
started the ball rolling, and Girls School and Boys School Principals Kira
Schadegg and Jeremy Irwin worked closely with Dean Allen Bedford to
design the program.
Principal Jeremy Irwin said: “This program is one of the best examples
of cross-campus coordination in recent history. Various members of the
larger community have asked about this type of possibility for years, and it’s
gratifying to see it come to fruition. This represents a tremendous opportunity
for high school students to get the best of both worlds.”
President Blair echoed this sentiment: “This is where the true value of the
Academy plays out – where strength is added to both the high school and the
college.”
New Faculty and Programs
As enrollment grows, the College is able to expand its curriculum. Three recent
additions include a minor in communications, a Master of Education program
with a focus on literacy, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the building arts.
The new communications classes are already showing high numbers of
registrants, and one exciting benefit of the program is the opportunity to work
with subject-related organizations like Off The Left Eye, a Swedenborgian
YouTube channel exploring faith, spirituality and the afterlife through video,
hosted by creator and producer Curtis Childs. The video production team,
based on the College’s campus, offers a wealth of workplace experience for
communications interns just steps away from their classroom.
The Master of Education is projected to launch in fall 2018, headed by
Kelly Ballard, Ph.D. Ballard comes to Bryn Athyn College with more than
14 years of experience as a classroom teacher in the William Penn School
District in the third to ninth grades. The master’s program builds on a strong
undergraduate experience in the education major, which has recently been
accredited to offer Pennsylvania state teaching certification in childhood and
special education.
Stephen Hartley joins the faculty as assistant professor and head of the
Building Arts Program. He will be supporting the growth from a two-year
associate degree to a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Building
Arts. Hartley comes to Bryn Athyn with experience as department head of
historic preservation and restoration at Savannah Technical College and, most
recently, as a project officer at the University of York.
Summer Camps
A record number of visitors were at Bryn Athyn College this summer. With
the international Swedenborg and the Arts conference in June, the soccer and
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