It?s a long way from anywhere in the United States to England?s Oxford University, but getting there from the Cherry Hill section of Baltimore has got to be a more difficult journey than most. Yet last August, Michelle Harris Bondima, Ph.D. ? from Cherry Hill and a graduate of the city?s public schools ? made it.
By invitation, no less.
An environmental science professor at Baltimore City Community College, she lectured at the renowned university as part of the Oxford Round Table, a distinguished international academic forum.
BCCC announced Tuesday that four more faculty members will follow in Bondima?s footsteps.
Tonja Ringgold, Ph.D., the chair of the Behavior and Social Sciences Department; Richard Bucher, Ph.D., a professor in the same department; JaHon Vance, assistant professor of humanities and languages; and Katana Hall, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (and another Baltimore City Public Schools graduate) have all been selected as 2007 Oxford University Round Table Scholars.
“You?re never told who recommended you, and once you?re there it?s a very intense atmosphere,” said Bondima, who graduated from Edmondson High School. Her lecture topic was “Science and Faith.”
“The intelligent design issue and teaching creationism was also a big subject last year in Great Britain, and I was able to bring my personal experience as an African-American, a scientist, a Christian and someone from an urban experience ? Cherry Hill ? to Oxford.”
Bondima said she?s also brought part of Oxford back to Baltimore, regularly exchanging e-mails with peers from around the world she met while overseas. She?s working on a new scholarly article based on her experience.
Bucher, whose forthcoming book, “Building Cultural Intelligence,” is scheduled to be published by Prentice Hall this summer, will present a paper titled “Building Cultural Intelligence: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap.”
Ringgold, who has already left for England, will present “Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale of Computer Attitudes,” using a validation measurement she developed that assesses community college students? comfort level, confidence and computer skills ? and how such feelings impact efforts to close the “digital divide.”
A former Fulbright scholar, Vance?s lecture topic will be “The Historical, Religious and Spiritual Presence of Historically Black Colleges and Universities that Enhance Quality of Life for African-Americans in this Country.”
Hall, a Western High School graduate, will discuss C.P. Snow?s “The Two Cultures: An Afracentric Urbanist?s Perspective.”
“Being invited to be an Oxford Scholar and being an actress also, I can?t help but think back to Paul Robeson, who was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford,” Hall said. “It?s sacred space for me. It?s a dream come true.”
BCCC President Carolane Williams and Board of Trustees Chair Garland O. Williamson both said the invitations disprove some people?s beliefs that community colleges are not institutions for scholarly pursuits.
Board of Trustees student member Steve Wyatt, a 2002 Southern High School graduate, also grew up in CherryHill and said he?d like to pursue a major in psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County after finishing at BCCC.
“They inspire [me] to keep pushing forward, and I see that I?m able to do that,” Wyatt said of the faculty?s Oxford Scholars. “They?re showing me that I have the ability to make it there.”
