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alumni Woman on a Mission, Including High-Seas Rescue By Melissa L. Gaffney ’08 Ms. Martinez’s commissioning portrait Ms. Martinez on her home away from home: the USS Lake Champlain Jacqueline Martinez [’08] of Allentown went from being in the majority, with hundreds of women at Georgian Court University, an allfemale campus in Lakewood, to being one of only eight women aboard a 350-crew ship off the California coast. Ms. Martinez, 24, is an ensign in the Navy, working as an anti-submarine warfare officer. “It definitely has its challenges,” she said, “but it’s also rewarding.” Ms. Martinez said, via a coast-to-coast telephone call, she never imagined being in the Navy after she graduated college. “I went to get a job with my degree in biology, and I couldn’t because I didn’t have any laboratory experience outside college,” she said. “I signed up (with the Navy) and started training in November 2007.” Since then, [she] has been stationed in San Diego. [In May], Ms. Martinez said, she and the crew aboard the USS Lake Champlain completed an anti-piracy mission during which they rescued 52 Somalians. When stationed off the coast, Ms. Martinez said, the crew is responsible for monitoring the shipping lanes that vessels containing fuel or goods travel. Those vessels are often targeted for pirating because of their contents, she explained, after they fill up off the coast of the Red Sea and begin traveling by the Horn of Africa. Piracy off the Somali coast has been a threat to international shipping since the beginning of Somalia’s civil war in the early 1990s. In April, Somali pirates seized the Maersk Alabama, the load of which included relief supplies bound for Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya. Navy snipers killed three pirates who were holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage, and a fourth pirate was taken into custody. The Somalians Ms. Martinez’s crew rescued were migrant workers who had boarded skiff boats, typical fishing boats, and traveled from Somalia to Yemen, where they make money and later return home to their families, she said. The group of 52 contained 11 women and children, she said, and their two skiffs’ engines had gone bad; the boats were simply adrift in the ocean. “Our vessel went out and saw them and reported it back,” Ms. Martinez explained. “We had them onboard for about a week.” While being out on the ocean can be difficult at times, Ms. Martinez said, it is her mission and purpose that remind her of the bigger picture. “It makes you realize you’re making an impact across the world, even though it might not feel like it at times,” she said. “You’re working long hours and days, but you’re still helping out. It felt really good to save those 52 migrants. Had we not, probably 25 to 30 percent of them would have died within the next 24 hours.” Ms. Martinez also has completed other missions, including “Iraqi Maritime,” in which the crew participated in oil-platform descents in the northern Arabian Gulf, and “Aman-09,” a peacetime exercise with multiple countries where activities included formations and gun exercises. “When we were doing the oil-platform descents, I was working hand-in-hand with British and Iraqi forces every day,” Ms. Martinez said. “It makes you open your eyes and realize there are more people out there coming together for the right cause, regardless of what their countries think of each other. It just feels good.” The crew [docked] again at the end of July, Ms. Martinez said. “Back on land, thank goodness,” she joked. Although she [was] off the water, Ms. Martinez said the San Diego area is not as appealing to her as the Garden State. “I miss New Jersey. I miss the summers,” she said. “I miss the greenery and the vegetation. There’s none in San Diego; it’s mostly desert.” When her four years as a commissioned naval officer are completed, Ms. Martinez said, she isn’t quite sure what she’ll do. “I might stay in (the Navy) and transfer from being a service warfare officer to being one in meteorology and oceanography,” she said. “If that doesn’t pan out, I’d like to get my master’s degree in forensics and be a forensic criminalist.” And if she doesn’t stay in the Navy, Ms. Martinez said, she would probably come back to New Jersey. “I think it set me up for success,” she said of being able to grow up and attend high school in Allentown. “I think it’s a great place. Everybody’s down to earth, and there’s a good atmosphere. It definitely helped make a huge impact on my life, and for the better.” Originally published in The Messenger-Press, a Packet Publications newspaper 38 | FALL 2009
Alumni Around Town For more photos of alumni events, check out the alumni Web site at www.alumni.georgian.edu. West Coast Florida Alumni Reception— February 7, 2009 The West Coast Florida Alumni Chapter held a luncheon hosted by Donna Esposito Hughes ’66 at the Shadow Wood Country Club in Bonita Springs. Pictured are (front): Josephine Davis Ashbach ’59; Donna Esposito Hughes ’66; (back): Charles Kalwinsky; Ruth Kalwinsky ’83; Christine Haines ’04; Fia Corona Pfeiffer ’63; Marie “Mimi” Butler ’64; Marjorie Mingione Grady ’64; Lawrence Grady; Diane Szubrowski, RSM, ’68, GCU director of donor relations; and Charles Ashbach. East Coast Florida Alumni Reception— February 8, 2009 The East Coast Florida Alumni Chapter held a luncheon hosted by Sarah Lombardi Pietrafesa ’49 at the BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens. Pictured are (front): Maria Candela Haasenhutt ’52; Cathy Stefanacci Peck ’52; Sarah Lombardi Pietrafesa ’49; Ida Squatrito Simpson ’48; Anita Sugal Levbarg ’79, ’90; (back): Bernadette Barry Bond ’56; Lois Driscoll White ’48; Carol Tilley ’81; Lynne McKinley Schicker ’75, ’85; Lucy Sanquini ’92; and Diane Szubrowski, RSM, ’68, GCU director of donor relations. Class of 1952 Mini-Reunion in Florida— March 2, 2009 Members of the Class of 1952 enjoyed a mini-reunion in Florida. Pictured are (front): Dolores Bauer Mayer, Marie Cusmano Paladino, Mary Kay La Corte Buckridge, Catherine Stefanacci Peck, (back): Joan Kozusko Gadek, and Ann Sheehan. Alumni Association Board Annual Meeting—June 6, 2009 The incoming members of the Alumni Association Board gathered at the annual meeting during Reunion Weekend. Pictured are (front): Cheryl Stoeber-Goff ’79; Joyce Gavan ’61,’82; Rosemary E. Jeffries, RSM, Ph.D., ’72, university president; Andrea Herschel ’70; Deborah Hanley Williams ’68, president of the Alumni Association; (back): Jacqueline Cleveland, Esq., ’03; Beverly Milyo ’69, ’83; Anne Grall Reichel, Ed.D., ’74; Colleen Carney Hemhauser ’04; Yanci Pereira Merkel ’04, ’06; and Rod Colón ’95. Not pictured are Mary Ann Cavallaro ’75; Joanne Mahtook Mercadante ’03; Marcia Dickinson Fishkin ’02; Ron Calderon ’04; Mary Cranwell ’82, ’97, GCU director of conferences and special events; Karen Granato ’08; Tara Jacques ’97, ’03; Scott Kelley ’03; Amelia Alonso McTamaney ’67; Kathleen McGowan Metz ’62; Mary Mewherter ’05; Gail Gleason Milgram, Ed.D., ’63; Patricia Lynch Provenzano ’62; Delores Parron-Ragland, Ph.D., ’66; Elena Trunncellito Santoro ’64; Alicia Scott ’06; Keri Tarantino ’99; and Elizabeth Packard Willis ’97. GEORGIAN COURT UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE | 39
Page 1: volume 7 | number 1 Georgian Court
Page 4 and 5: Lives Transformed T hroughout the a
Page 6 and 7: Doreen celebrated her long-awaited
Page 8 and 9: TheRoad LessTraveled GCU STUDENTS P
Page 10 and 11: This Appalachian resident was thril
Page 12 and 13: 10 | FALL 2009 Father Daniel Berrig
Page 14 and 15: Gail Holian, Ph.D., professor of En
Page 16 and 17: faculty Kudos Scott H. Bennett, Ph.
Page 18 and 19: faculty Cultural Conference. She al
Page 20 and 21: at the court Dr. Joseph M. Monahan
Page 22 and 23: at the court Centennial Commencemen
Page 24 and 25: at the court Georgian Court Granted
Page 26 and 27: at the court Lincoln Scholar Kunhar
Page 28 and 29: at the court Poetry in Ocean County
Page 30 and 31: at the court Court Shorts GCU place
Page 32 and 33: at the court Centennial Closing Spa
Page 34 and 35: at the court The History of Court T
Page 36 and 37: athletics From the BASKETBALL Chris
Page 38 and 39: at athletics the court Softball Squ
Page 42 and 43: alumni Centennial Reunion 2009 CLAS
Page 44 and 45: sClass alumni class notes 40 s Clas
Page 46 and 47: alumni class notes 70 s Class Agent
Page 48 and 49: alumni class notes Emily Anne Schae
Page 50 and 51: alumni announcements Engagements We
Page 52 and 53: Calendar Margaret Farley, RSM, Ph.D
Page 54 and 55: Dear Friends of Georgian Court Univ
Page 56 and 57: Board of Trustees & President’s A
Page 58 and 59: Year-End Highlights of 2008-2009 T
Page 60 and 61: Statement of Activities For the Twe
Page 62 and 63: Georgian Court University Honor Rol
Page 78 and 79: Georgian Court University Special G
Page 80: Office of Public Information and Un

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