Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Jeff Christo.  Born in Bridgeton, Jeff grew up in Salem, New Jersey.  His father was a mathematics teacher at Bridgeton high school.  His mother was a homemaker.  He has a younger brother who also attended Rowan and majored in geography and today works for the Federal Department of Agriculture.  He went to public schools and graduated from Salem High School in 1994.  After graduating high school, he began studying at Trenton State College, soon to become The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).  He went there because he was able to play on their tennis team.  His mother, however, passed away in the Fall of 1994, during his first semester at college.  This was a challenging time for his whole family.  While he managed to finish his first year somehow, he did not return for his second year.  After taking some time off to support his father and his brother by working, he returned to college in the Fall of 1996.  This time, he enrolled at Rowan because it was closer to home and because it offered much greater financial support to his family than TCNJ.  His younger brother received a full scholarship to attend, and Jeff was able to secure student loans.  In the process of navigating these financial issues, Gary Hunter provided critical support and mentorship.  After graduating with a history degree in December of 1998, he later returned and earned a Master of Science in Teaching in 2000.  He was not done with Rowan yet, and he later earned a graduate certificate in School Curriculum Supervision and a second graduate certificate in Principal Preparation.  In the Fall of 2000, he started his first job at West Deptford Middle School, teaching social studies.  One of the highlights of his time there was the student group that he advised for National History Day winning the New Jersey prize for best state history project.  After thirteen years, he became Curriculum Supervisor for social studies in the Gloucester Township School District, a position that he has now held for ten years.

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From my perspective, Rowan’s history department was a great place to be a student because the professors seemed to genuinely love interacting with the students and teaching their subjects.  One of the faculty members that really stood out to me was Corinne Blake.  I took several classes with her.  She was a specialist in the Middle East and Islamic history.  Before September 11^th, detailed information about Islamic history and the Middle East was not easy to find.  One of my grandparents came from Albania, but I still knew very little.  Having her classes opened up my mind to a rich history and helped change how I saw the world.  Dr. Blake, much like the other faculty, really cared about how I was doing.  This personal interest really mattered to me, as I was still having to hold a heavy load at home.  I was working 50 hours a week at Shoprite to help support my family.   

I can’t say too much about Gary Hunter.  He really is responsible for my career and current life.  There were times when I really did not know if I could finish my college degree.  He told me that I had great ability and potential and that I should work hard to continue.  Moreover, he went above and beyond to help me find the funds that I needed to continue going to school.  In addition, his classes greatly influenced me as well.  I really enjoyed learning about African American history and African history with him.  He told me that I was the first non-African American student to complete the new African American Studies concentration.

Edward Wang also really influenced me.  In particular, he helped me see that history was about more than past events, that it was about interpretation and analyzing sources.  When I became a teacher, due to Drs. Hunter, Blake, and Wang, I was committed to teaching world history and the history of the non-Western world.  That deeply shaped my teaching practice, and I have been pleased that the movement for global history has grown so much over my two decades in education.

One of the things that I really enjoyed at Rowan was being able to attend lectures from visiting speakers, often very renowned experts brought to campus by invitation from the history faculty.  While an undergraduate, I remember attending a talk by Cornel West.  Even after graduating, I enjoyed returning for such events, including a talk by documentary film maker Ken Burns, best-selling author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and rare map collector Neil Asbury.

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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. 

• Register for the Reunion on October 20^th:  rowan.edu/historyreunion2023.
• Link to Project 100 on the Web: https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/
• Link to Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524. 
• Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions. Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.