"Strong Roots" will be available for purchase at various book signings throughout the country. Can't make it to a book signing? Purchase it online today!
Upcoming Book Signings:
Aurora, Illinois Friday, May 16, 2008 • 4:15 p.m.
Aurora University, Institute for Collaboration Atrium
To RSVP call 630-844-5486 or 800-377-2782
Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 • 4:30-7:00 p.m.
University Club of Chicago, 76 East Monroe Street
To RSVP call 630-844-5486 or 800-377-2782
Bar Harbor, Maine Sunday, August 31, 2008 • 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Bar Harbor Inn and Spa (Porcupine Room) on Newport Drive
To RSVP call 630-844-5486 or 800-377-2782
"Strong Roots" may also be purchased online or by calling 630-844-5486 or 800-377-2782 or e-mail alumni@aurora.edu.
It's your story — a story about the history of George Williams College
In this book, the author records stories of generations who have passed through George Williams College for more than 100 years. These memoirs demonstrate consistent themes of what people value about their college education that prepared them for effective living.
For more information about Strong Roots or the GWC Reunion, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 630-844-5486 or alumni@aurora.edu.
From the Book Cover The author, a college professor, gives little thought to the history and culture of the educational institution where she teaches, until the unthinkable happens. The college closes in the middle of the academic year. Amid the trauma, she discovers an extraordinary student-faculty response that triggers a noteworthy chain of events. Disaster becomes opportunity. Academic programs survive and thrive. Preparing students for the ups and downs of real life moves beyond textbook and blackboard learning. Students are living out values rooted in the history of college.
In this book, the author records stories of generations who have passed through George Williams College for more than a hundred years to the present day. Their history is uniquely tied to that of the YMCA, founded by George Williams in the nineteenth century. She finds in their memoirs consistent themes of what people value about their college education that prepared them for effective living. They share a common identity around service; relationship in community; learning-by-doing approaches; regard for the whole person in body, mind and spirit; and a disposition to learn and serve through diverse local and global ties.
For Sandra Alcorn, this book comes after a gestation period of some thirty years at George Williams College. She was a faculty member for fifteen years, and dean of the School of Social Work for another seventeen years, when George Williams College became a part of Aurora University.
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, her formative learning in youth and community development came from summer experiences as a youth worker in the 1960s in Harlem. After graduating from Wheaton College in Illinois, she completed her master's degree in social work, focusing on "group work," at the University of Pittsburgh, where she later received the Distinguished Alumna Award in social work education. Her doctorate in social work is from the University of Illinois. She received the YWCA's Women of Distinction Award and the Leading Us in Commerce and Industry Award in Aurora, Illinois.
Sandra Alcorn is retired, and lives in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with her husband, Charles. She has two sons, and is a grandmother of five.
