Gianna Leonen was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, but raised in Deptford, New Jersey, she went to Catholic schools all the way through and graduated from Paul VI in 2018.  Her father is one of seven children, and he attended Delsea Regional High School where she now teaches.  He works in instructional technology.  Her mother helped raise Gianna and her two sisters and now works in accounting and bookkeeping.  Gianna began college at Kean University but transferred to Rowan in the Fall of 2019.  She graduated in the Spring of 2022 and began teaching at Delsea Regional High School that Fall.  After one year of teaching, she decided to return to Rowan as a graduate student in the Holocaust and Genocide Education program.  While pursuing her Master’s degree, she continues to serve in the classroom as a substitute teacher.

***** 

Most of my classes at Rowan were online due to the covid pandemic.   I had Professor Manning for Historical Methods in the Spring of 2020 when the pandemic hit.  All of my subsequent upper-level history classes were online.  Therefore, one of the great highlights of my time at Rowan was taking Professor Manning’s summer study abroad course, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.  I had hoped to take it in the Spring of 2021, but it was cancelled. Professor Manning helped me take it in the Spring of 2022 even though I was student teaching and very busy with work and graduating.  I was excited to travel in general and was especially compelled by the itinerary, which took us to places I would otherwise never have considered visiting.  The course also covered an historical period that was both fascinating in and of itself and also useful for my future as a social studies teacher.

The trip was an emotional roller coaster.  During the day, we visited many concentration camps, sites of horrific brutality that fueled great reflection and vigorous discussion, but we also got to spend time in the evenings exploring great European towns and cities.  I especially fell in love with Poland.  Another wonderful aspect of the trip was the people.  Because my classes had been online, I had very limited experiences with my fellow history majors.  On this trip, we forged bonds quickly.  One of my classmates, Jimmy Witkoski, and I developed such a strong bond that it endured the end of the trip, and we are still dating seven months later.

Professor Manning was very important to me.  I had him for Historical Methods, and he made that class so rewarding. Even when the class went online in March 2020, he continued to make the experience meaningful.  Far more than any of my other classes that semester, he found a way to overcome the limitations of the pandemic and give us the foundational training we needed for our upper-level classes.  I was very happy that I got to end my time at Rowan with one of his classes as well.  He was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of not only the World War II era but also the history of the nations, cities, and towns that we visited.  He also was critical in creating the social atmosphere during the trip, encouraging us to go out in the evenings and soak up local culture.   

My time at Rowan was certainly shaped by the pandemic, but Professor Manning and the trip to Europe made my time at Rowan special.  I recommend that all history majors study abroad if they can and to take Professor Manning if at all possible.

*****

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/