How Healthy Are Reading’s Neighborhoods?

A native son of Albright’s home community, Michael Thompson ’07 applauds signs of the renaissance of the city of Reading.

“It is a matter of when, not if,” says Thompson, who is majoring in economics and political science. “There are a lot of people working on it already, and I like to be a part of it.”

Thompson has teamed with faculty mentor, Lisa A. Wilder, Ph.D., associate professor of economics and chair of the Economics Department, to survey city residents about factors present in healthy communities.

These factors include positive relationships between neighbors, the presence of successful locally owned businesses, and feelings of safety in the neighborhood.

Thompson and Wilder have taken a particular interest in Reading’s struggling North Riverside neighborhood. North Riverside has benefited from sizable recent public and private investment. The neighborhood is home to the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, one of the largest art venues in Pennsylvania.

The center, which opened in 2005, is located in a formerly abandoned factory that has been completely renovated.

Thompson and Wilder are assisting local non-profit Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) conduct a Sense of Community and Safety Survey via phone calls to a random sample of city residents. NHS encourages home ownership and offers city residents services including low-interest mortgage financing.

After comparing the survey results with economic data, surveys from other city neighborhoods, and other demographics, the research team will propose future economic development strategies for the neighborhood.

Their research will be shared with the mayor of Reading and other city leaders, as well with non-profit organizations who serve city residents.

“Mike has brought so much enthusiasm to this project,” says Wilder. “He is providing a service to the community and gaining hands-on experience in economics and political science. It’s a win-win situation.”

Thompson says there is great potential in North Riverside and throughout the city for locally owned and operated businesses to flourish.

“It might take two or five or 10 years,” says Thompson. “What we need to do is be patient and invest in the process of bottom-up, grassroots economic development.

Papermaking Provides Metamorphosis for Two Artists

Throughout the hot, wet summer, Megan Dietz ’07 and her faculty mentor Kristen T. Woodward gathered and boiled local plants, mixing in lye and soda ash in huge stainless steel pots.

Next, they pounded the plants with a meat tenderizer into a stringy pulp.

“If you pound it for 40 minutes it is a good workout,” says Dietz, of West Easton, Pa.

After rinsing and draining the pulp many times, they placed it in a commercial blender, sometimes adding dye. Finally, the two artists pressed each sheet of pounded plant material into a press. The summer sun dried the handmade paper in about 24 hours.

“Megan has an ideal background for papermaking,” says Woodward, associate professor of art and chair of the Art Department. “Her co-concentration in art and environmental studies provided a synthesis of experiences. She was interested in the laborious task of harvesting and processing indigenous fibers, and the conceptual metamorphosis of found materials.”

Art collided with life for Dietz as she faced her childhood fear of spiders, regular residents of the art studio outside Woodward’s home, where they worked.

“The fact that I worked in a studio that had spiders in it proves how important this work is to me,” says Dietz. “I have a huge spider phobia.”

Each artist created her own body of work, which they hope to exhibit together sometime this year. In addition to their work with local plants, Dietz and Woodward also created paper using sheets of cotton, abaca and flax fiber.

Found objects included wire, sticks, transistors, doors and screens. Dietz and Woodward regularly visited flea markets and L&B Metals, Reading, a warehouse that sells all types of abandoned goods, to find their diamonds in the rough.

In her pieces, Woodward added three types of“found papers” to the paper she created. Luggage tags convey the concept of faith, lottery tickets represent hope, and food stamps symbolize charity.

Dietz stretched the paper she made over various found items, such as pieces of metal, and added materials, such as doll body parts, to create modern statements about the environment.

“I believe I draw attention to the over abundance of materials we waste everyday by using recycled components in my work,” says Dietz.

Faculty Mentor Spots Talented Freshman -
Invites Him to Dive Into Organic Chemistry Through Research

It didn’t take long for Ian J. Rhile, Ph.D., to notice Joseph Polinski ’09 as a freshman with great potential in chemistry. Despite Polinski’s freshman status, Rhile invited him to collaborate on research over the summer.

“I was thrilled when Dr. Rhile asked me to work on research,” says Polinski, who spent the summer surrounded by chemicals, test tubes and thick texts including Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. “My project is organic chemistry based, and I haven’t taken organic chemistry yet. Dr. Rhile instructed me about two hours a day during the summer.”

Rhile, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, says he recognized Polinski’s natural ability in chemistry and encouraged his progress through the research experience.

“I taught Joe two chemistry classes his freshman year,” says Rhile. “His talent was quite apparent. He did top notch work in each class.”

Rhile and Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, guided Polinski through his project, “Synthesis of a Stable Hydrogen-Bonded Phenoxyl Radical.”

“What we are trying to do is make a radical,” says Polinski, of Sayre, Pa., a biology major who plans to attend medical school. “A radical is a species with an atom that has one unpaired electron. They are usually very reactive.”

The collaborators are interested in learning how hydrogen bonding changes the properties of the radical, especially structural properties, Rhile says. While Polinski did not create the radical yet, he made significant progress toward his goal and will continue the research.

“We encourage students at all levels to apply for the Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE),” says Hamann. “Joe courageously stepped up to the challenge, and Ian and I provided the academic support so that he could understand what he was doing and enjoy an authentic research experience.”

Polinski is now studying organic chemistry with other sophomores, as well as some juniors and seniors.

“I can’t say enough about Dr. Rhile and Dr. Hamann,” says Polinski. “They are both brilliant in their field, and they have taken me under their wing. It is great to learn from people who really care about what we are doing.”