Westphal College Hosts Fashion, Comic and Television Icons

Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design recently hosted three industry icons on the University City Main Campus.

Fashion designer James Galanos, the 2006 Philadelphia Fashion Hall of Fame inductee, spoke to fashion design students, offering career advice and telling stories about his rise from sweeping floors at a design house to becoming one of the top designers in the world and working with clients such as Nancy Reagan and Marilyn Monroe. He also critiqued the seniors’ designs.

Alumnus Chuck Barris ’53, Hon ‘01 spoke to students in two sections of the entertainment and arts management program about his career as a writer, producer, actor, director and songwriter. Barris is the creator, producer and host of The Gong Show and the creator of The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game. His new book, The Big Question: A Novel of Reality Television, will be published in May.

Comic artist and leading comics theorist Scott McCloud gave the Sibby Merkel Brasler Lecture to a standing-room only audience in the Bossone Research Enterprise Auditorium on November 30. He spoke about media theory as it applies to comics, manga, graphic novels and new media.

2006-07 Drexel Exelon Scholars Honored

Eleven College of Engineering undergraduate students were honored in November as the 2006-07 Drexel Exelon Scholars. A reception in the students’ honor hosted by President Papadakis and PECO President and Drexel Trustee Denis O’Brien ’87 was held at PECO Headquarters in Philadelphia. The Exelon Scholars program provides scholarship assistance for women and minority engineering students.

The award recipients were Kayleigh Beidleman, Megan Bonifacino, Christopher Breland, Patrick Cardano, Samuel Chen, Andy Chiu, Joseph Florencio, Danny Garcia, William Heil, Erica Leeds and Vanessa Moyer. 2005-06 Exelon Scholars Harold Edwards and Eyal Rojstaczer were also honored at the luncheon.

Student Life and Administrative Services

Wins MarCom Awards

Vision Conviction Achievement: A Decade of Progress – Since 1995, a 32-page publication

The Ross Commons Web site, www.drexel.edu/RossCommons, won gold in the MarCom competition. Gold is the second highest award presented in the competition. For more information about MarCom Creative Awards, visit www.marcomawards.com.

SoE Student Wins Milliken Award

Carla Bittner, a School of Education graduate student, was selected to receive the Milliken Award for her outstanding teaching, innovative work in brain-based teaching and significant contributions that have resulted in higher student achievement at her school.

Bittner, a teacher at Evergreen Avenue Elementary School in Woodbury, N.J., is completing her principal certification at Drexel. As a Milliken Award recipient, she will receive $25,000. The award will be presented at the Milliken Family Foundation’s national awards ceremony, to be held in Los Angeles in April. The Milliken Awards were established in 1987 and recognize those educators that best improve student achievement.