When visiting Tyler State Park, Fort Washington State Park or Delaware Canal State Park, you may not immediately notice them but there is a dedicated group of people tasked with ensuring the safety of the parks and everyone who visits them.Just like national parks, state parks are protected by law enforcement rangers. The state park rangers are overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservations and Natural Resources (DCNR). For the first time, Pennsylvania's state park rangers are being trained by Temple University's Criminal Justice Training Programs."There are park...
Washington Square in Philadelphia has a history as old as the city itself. One of the five original planned squares devised by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme, today it is part of Independence National Park in the heart of the city's historic district.Washington Square's tree-lined avenues — an oasis in urban Center City — and its historic sense of place attracted the interest of Temple University Ambler History senior Sherrice Johnson who wanted to explore well beyond the "surface history" of the location, both figuratively and literally.What today is a...
By Kathleen BurnsMarketing and Public Relations InternIn the event of a serious incident — on campus, at work, out with friends — would you be prepared?"Often in dangerous situations, people will panic, they'll freeze. But thinking about how you'll respond and planning ahead knocks you out that 'freeze mode' quickly," said Sarah Powell, Director of Emergency Management at Temple University. "The more you think about something and react to it, the more likely you are to respond automatically. The main thing to remember is that in any situation, you are not helpless."...
Parks don't typically pop up in the middle of town overnight.Thanks to a collaboration between the Temple University Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture, the volunteer Park(ing) Day team, residents and civic organizations, that's exactly what has happened in the heart of Doylestown four years running!This year, the team transformed the corner of Hamilton and West State streets in Doylestown Borough into "a fleeting green oasis," according to Temple University Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Associate Professor Baldev Lamba, who...
Temple University Ambler is enjoying a technology boom all its own.From new technology-supported breakout and meeting spaces to new specialized equipment to new software, the Ambler Campus has been enjoying advances in the technology capabilities available for students, faculty and staff throughout the summer."What drives technology services on campus is ensuring quality student/teacher learning experiences. We are always striving to make it easier for teachers to use technology in their instruction," said Reid Overturf, Information Technology Manager at Temple University...
When thinking about the nation's majestic national parks, law enforcement might not be the first thing that comes readily to mind. Protecting and serving the hundreds of thousands of people and families that visit the parks every year and the natural resources they have come to experience and enjoy, however, is vitally important.Temple University's Criminal Justice Training Programs (CJTP) has been training professionals for nearly 50 years. In addition to Temple's Municipal Police Academy and training programs for deputy sheriffs, state constables, school security staff and...
Mike Stokes considers himself among the very fortunate. He had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Jeffrey Featherstone, Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple University, for more than 30 years.When Featherstone went to work for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in the 1980s, Stokes thought of him as the "the young guy" even though Featherstone was two years his senior."There were the old engineers working with their slide rules and in comes this young guy with new skills and a new approach to planning," said Stokes, Assistant Director of the Montgomery...
Students in Temple's Division of Architecture and Environmental Design have developed a clear vision of a viable future for the Germantown Avenue corridor in East North Philadelphia.It is a vision where economic revitalization has taken a strong foothold. Where residents in the neighborhood just blocks from campus have not only found jobs but have developed their own businesses, providing goods and services not just to their community but well beyond.During the spring semester, master's students in the Department of Architecture and graduate and undergraduate students in the...
Horticulture major Alexis Bacon doesn't consider herself an entrepreneur, but she should.She had already started two businesses before she turned 24, including a gardening business for several landowners in Chester County. Add in tutoring students in math, English and history outside of Temple and teaching a photography elective at her former high school and it's clear that Bacon, 24, of Pottstown, knows a little something about self motivation. It's a trait she might have picked up from her grandfather, Erwin Bacon."My grandfather's retirement plan consisted of moving to...
Caitlin Morrissey Glagola wasn't simply going to content herself waiting around for opportunities to make a difference to come to her. She decided to go out and find them, a search that landed her at Temple and the Master of Landscape Architecture program…though not immediately."I didn't always know that I was interested in landscape architecture. I discovered my passion later in life, but I was always interested in the environment and studying ecology. Consequently, I pursued a B.A. in Biology at Washington...
Cassandra Berardi is a perfect example of "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."An Adult and Organizational Development major who has just days to go until she graduates from Temple, it's still not difficult for Berardi's thoughts to travel back to a fall 2014 study abroad adventure in Rome."I had the opportunity to finish a number of my elective at the Rome Campus. My boyfriend, Jason Domingues, was studying Landscape Architecture at Temple and was also heading to Italy to study abroad for the fall," said Berardi, 29, of Ambler. "It was actually...
Andrew Sargeant can trace his interest in landscape architecture and design to some of his earliest memories — a comprehensive set of Legos will do that to you.Building upon his early creativity, day trips with friends to New York — located just minutes from his family home — provided him with a general understanding of the complexities of cityscapes and a desire to learn much more."I attended a magnet high school where I was able to take pre-engineering and environmental science classes. It was where I was introduced to the idea of landscape architecture as a...
Brad Vassallo came to Temple with a specific goal — "to have a tangible effect on communities.""Growing up, I watched my dad working in a high stress office job. I decided I wanted to make a social focus my primary focus from the very beginning," said Vassallo, 22, of Quakertown, who will graduate with a B.S. in Community Development. "I want to be able to help people in a meaningful way. Temple was the only schools I applied to — I wanted the experiences and hands-on opportunities that the city environment would provide."Nearing the finish line of his four-year...
Teachers are invited to get hands-on in developing outdoor classrooms for their students at Temple University Ambler this summer.The Office of Non-Credit and Continuing Education will be offering a one-week Education for Sustainability (EFS) workshop that provides K through 12 educators with the tools to integrate the environment into their existing curriculum."One of the goals of this new program is to provide another venue for children to connect to the planet. There is a lot of evidence supporting how using the environment as an integrating context for the curriculum...
Amelija Sorg-Taylor is not one to approach important tasks at a leisurely pace. Temple's planning program certainly played to her strengths.In just five years at Temple, Sorg-Taylor has been able to complete not one, but two degree programs as part of the Department of Planning and Community Development's "4+1" program."I come from a family of civic minded people. I've been passionate about helping people and communities for a long time," she said. "Planning is a tangible way to make some sort of difference in a creative way."As a Community Development undergraduate, Sorg-...
Kelly Tascarella runs toward dangers that, rightfully, would send others fleeing in the opposite direction.At just 22, Tascarella already has nearly six years under her belt as a volunteer firefighter with the Fort Washington Fire Company."You have to be confident in your abilities, in your training and your team. Responding to an emergency call — and you treat every call as if it is definitely a fire — it's a feeling that I can't really describe," said Tascarella, who will graduate in May with a degree in Criminal Justice. "The firefighters are my family; they are...
John Hesdon is unique among his fellow Temple owls.Not only is he a Film and Media Arts major — certainly not unusual at Temple — he's also a member of the ProRanger Philadelphia program, a partnership between Temple University and the National Park Service to train park rangers. That combination is a first."When I was in high school, I really wasn't sure of my career path. I took a media class, which fostered my interest in film. Temple has a great film program and is affordable, so my next step was clear," said Hesdon, 22. "My goal at the time was to move to LA...
Javon Johnson is Temple Made through and through. Her family is a veritable parliament of owls in their own right!Javon won't be the first in her family to graduate from Temple when she receives her bachelor's degree in Adult and Organizational Development on May 6 and she won't be the last.Her older sisters Jalene and Jaslyn Johnson (collectively known as the JJs with Javon when they were growing up) are recent Temple graduates. Her brother Joshua Johnson is a freshman. Her father Jerome Johnson worked at Temple University Hospital (her mom, Dorothea Wescott, did too 20 years...
Liam Cleary wants to set the record straight. Being in a country that is predominantly desert, doesn't mean it's always hot.He knows this from experience. Cleary, 34, of Lederach, served for seven years with the United States Army 82nd Airborne, achieving the rank of sergeant. His time in the Army included being part of the support service response and relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, a 16-month tour in Afghanistan and a year in Egypt."In Afghanistan, the war occurs in the mountains. When you are 7,000 feet up, it can get to be -20 degrees at night," said Cleary, who will...
A dedicated group of scientists is hard at work seeking viable solutions to water contamination removal and oil spill containment and remediation — vital environmental issues that impact everything from potable drinking water to animal habitats to the fishing industry.What makes this particular group of scientists stand out is that they happen to be 10th and 11th grade chemistry students at Central High School in Philadelphia."Our students have been working in small groups conducting on-going chemical/water quality research to gain a better understanding of pollutants in...
