Some students graduate and take paths away from Goucher, while others choose to stick around a little longer. Two recent alums who decided they still had more to give Goucher recently shared stories of their past and present experiences here on campus.
Ross Shaffer wrote in his admission essay to Goucher that he wanted to work in campus technology at the college. When he was admitted, he hit the ground running, working four years in IT at the Help Desk. “I really got to know the place from the tech side,” he said.
When he graduated in 2010, his boss asked if he wanted a full-time job. His response was an unqualified “Of course!”
Shaffer, now a systems administrator, works on the Goucher servers’ general upkeep and maintenance. For five years he’s been the Goucher go-to guy for all virtual servers, including the recent addition of email to his duties. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said.
He says he’s glad to see a stronger emphasis on technology with the new presidency of José Antonio Bowen. “It’s nice to see new ideas come in,” he said. The campus-wide Wi-Fi is just one of the welcomed changes that have impacted Ross’s office and the college as a whole.
He said as a student he often took things for granted—“Here’s my email; it works. Here’s the network; it works.” But now he enjoys being a staff member, making decisions, and seeing how things operate in ways he wouldn’t have as a student.
Shaffer says he’s grateful for the opportunity to stay. “It’s just a nice community,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed being here.”
Chelsea Schields is a Southern California native who transferred to Goucher in 2006 and graduated in December 2008 with a major in history and a minor in anthropology.
She went on to get her master’s degree and master of philosophy from City University of New York and is currently a doctoral candidate en route to a Ph.D next year. Some former mentors at Goucher encouraged her to apply for a visiting position here teaching European history.
“I was really thrilled at the prospect of returning,” Schields said. She particularly relished getting the opportunity to design courses and work with engaged and passionate students.
She now teaches a range of classes on early modern and modern European history, including one on the witch hunts in early modern Europe. And she appreciates getting to know students and working on projects with them. “It deepens the extent to which you can have meaningful exchanges in class, and it facilitates long-term learning,” she said.
Schields said in the seven years since she’s left Goucher, the buildings on campus have vastly improved. Julia Rogers—the library in her day—is “basically unrecognizable,” she said. And, when she was graduating, the Athenaeum was just a groundbreaking ceremony and artist’s rendering.
Schields said another difference in joining the college community a second time around is that she really now appreciates all that Goucher has to offer. “As a student, I loved my classes but otherwise left the bubble at the end of the school day,” she said. “Now that I am far more engaged in the campus community, I feel I am getting to enjoy the best parts of the college experience that I did not witness as an undergraduate.”
There is one mistake she jokingly admits she can’t take back: “I wish I had known how delicious the food is—I would have purchased a meal plan.”
Photo: Julia Rogers Library in 1950, long before its current use.