the academy journal
munication. The dance minor allows students who
wish to continue their dance education while pur-
suing another major a means of doing so, while
also benefiting the Bryn Athyn community with
fabulous dance concerts. The communication mi-
nor allows students in any major to focus on de-
veloping skills that are highly desirable in college
graduates.
The nursing program, launched in fall 2015,
has been a success, with the first cohort of stu-
dents earning their AAs in pre-nursing this year
and transferring to Thomas Jefferson University’s
School of Nursing to complete a BSN program.
One of the consequences of the nursing program
is that enrollment in science and math courses has
soared, with the science and math departments
operating in 2015-16 and 2016-17 at more than full
capacity.
In 2016-17 Bryn Athyn also laid the ground-
work for a dual enrollment program, to be
launched in 2017-18, that allows students attend-
ing the ANC Secondary Schools to take certain
BAC courses while still in high school and earn
credit toward both their high school diploma and
a college degree. The Art Department also pre-
pared the way for a new BFA program in building
arts, anticipating a fall 2018 launch for that excit-
ing new major. The building arts program takes
advantage of the campus’ proximity and mission
connections to the Bryn Athyn Historic District,
preparing students as craft apprentices in metal,
glass, stone, and wood.
All of these developments in Bryn Athyn’s aca-
demic program are for the purpose of better ful-
filling the institution’s mission: challenging stu-
dents to develop spiritual purpose, think broadly
and critically from a variety of perspectives, and
build intellectual and practical skills. The ultimate
purpose of this education is to enhance students’
civil, moral, and spiritual life, and contribute to
human spiritual welfare.
BAC Faculty and Research Report
Dr. Wendy Closterman, Dean of Faculty
Faculty changes:
Underserved Minorities.”
In 2016-17, Rev. Scott Frazier and Rev. Grant
Schnarr promoted to the rank of Associate Profes-
sor.
• Dr. Eugene Potapov: Monitoring of the
Steller’s Sea Eagle in the Magadan District,
NE Russia.”
Dr. Neil Simonetti received a grant from the E.
Bruce Glenn Fund to complete final revisions for
his textbook Introduction to Quantitative Reason-
ing.
The Carpenter Fund supported Rev. Scott
Frazier to continue the Latin summer transla-
tion project, Dr. Wendy Closterman’s research on
“Reading the Gospel of Luke’s Walk to Calvary as
a Funeral Procession: A Study of Luke 23:27-28,”
and Dr. Aram Yardumian’s research on “The Ge-
ography of Jewish Ethnogenesis.”
Twelve faculty members were supported by the
New Church Faculty Study Fund to pursue sum-
mer study of the Writings of Emanuel Sweden-
borg.
In 2016-17, Dr. Kristin King was a Carpenter
Scholar fund recipient to pursue work on corre-
spondences.
Faculty research:
In the summer of 2016, the Bryn Athyn College
summer research fund supported five faculty re-
search projects:
• Dr. Maxwell Blair: “Design, Fabrication and
Testing of a Hybrid Airborne Wind Turbine.”
• Dr. Fredrik Bryntesson: “Ice Hockey at Bryn
Athyn 1922-24, and the career of Werner
Schnarr.”
• Dr. Stella Evans: “Two New Murine Calcium-
activated Chloride Channel Regulators
(CLCA): mCLCA7 and mCLCA8.”
• Dr. Erica Goldblatt Hyatt: “Assessing Com-
passion Fatigue among Formal Outpatient
Hospice Caregivers working with Medically-
10