Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Sabrina Hodur.  Born in Marlton and grew up in Pennsauken, New Jersey.  She went to public schools and graduated from Pennsauken High School in 2000.  She decided that she wanted to study history in 11^th grade and began as a history major at Rowan in the Fall of 2000.  She graduated in the Spring of 2005 with double major in history and secondary education.  After graduating, she taught at Pennsauken High School but eventually left teaching and now works in accounting.

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My first two history classes were United States History to 1865 with Lee Kress and World History to 1500 with David Applebaum.  I remember that there was one student who was always trying to trip Dr. Kress up with questions, but he was always ready with great answers.  I ended up taking Dr. Kress two more times.  I loved Dr. Kress’s unbelievable amount of knowledge.  He knew so many things that weren’t in the textbooks.  He never needed his notes.  He was so engaging.  He also gave us great extra credit assignments, such as going to Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  Dr. Kress, however, wasn’t even the faculty member who I took most.  I took five classes with Dr. Scott Morschauser!  His classes were so packed with learning that I always left his classes with my hands cramped from note taking.

At the end of my sophomore year, I got a letter from Kris Myers inviting me to join the history honors society, Phi Alpha Theta.  I joined and started attending meetings.  I immediately began helping with the planning of the end of year induction ceremony, suggesting the Wedgewood Country Club.  My enthusiasm must have caught the eye of the advisors because when I volunteered to serve as Secretary the next year, they denied my offer and instead requested that I serve as President!  I ended up serving as President for two years before stepping back to the vice presidency in my last year when I was student teaching.  I was proud of my participation in Phi Alpha Theta.  My background in high school left me a bit unprepared for college, and I had to work hard to adapt.  The fact that I got into the Honors society meant a lot to me.  Once I was involved, I became determined to grow our membership.  We had a great group of student leaders at this time, and we did well when presenting our papers at the regional Phi Alpha Theta conferences.  I planted the seed that Rowan should host one of the regional conferences in the future, which they later did after I graduated.

Even though I ended up leaving history education, I think that my history major has been so helpful to me in my life.  It helped fuel my desire to know about the past and how things have changed over time, inspired me to become a life-long learner, and instilled a desire to see what lies beyond my immediate surroundings.  One of the things that I have spent much time on since graduating is exploring my family’s genealogy.  I enjoy sharing these passions for family history, travel, and learning with my daughter.

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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.  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/