Susan Williamson receives McDaniel Phi Beta Kappa chapter’s Lifelong Learner Award

Susan Williamson, visual arts coordinator at the Carroll Arts Center, received the 2018 Delta of Maryland Lifelong Learner Award from the McDaniel College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa national honor society during the chapter’s recent Celebration of the Liberal Arts.

The April 29 event also included presentation of seven capstone projects by Phi Beta Kappa students.

The Delta of Maryland Lifelong Learner Award is given to an individual or group from the greater Westminster, Md., community who has pursued intellectual inquiry beyond their professional field or fields, thus demonstrating the liberal arts value of lifelong learning.

A current resident of Westminster, Md., Williamson grew up in Pittsburgh and taught elementary school in Cambridge, Md., before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Her fascination for art history and love of painting led her to her second career teaching art.

Known as a true Renaissance woman, she opened her own pottery studio after learning pottery skills. Williamson became an accomplished equestrienne and learned, as well as taught, sailing on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in order to keep a children’s sailing program going. She also ran Tally Ho Caterers.

After graduating with a master’s degree in liberal arts from McDaniel College in 1996, she taught as an adjunct instructor in art history at McDaniel and Carroll Community College.

Williamson has worked as the visual arts coordinator at the Carroll Arts Center for more than 15 years, where she has curated exhibits in the Center’s galleries, developed a program of art lectures and led trips to various museums and galleries throughout the region. She also helped to establish “Off Track Art,” an art co-op and gallery in Westminster, Md.

An avid traveler, she has visited Europe, Asia and South America. After deciding to learn Spanish, she immersed herself in classes and traveled to Mexico and, since becoming fluent in the language, has become a member of the St. John Catholic Church’s Latino choir and reads during the church’s Spanish-language services.

The Delta of Maryland Lifelong Learner Award was established by the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society at McDaniel College to celebrate the liberal arts. Nominations come from chapter members, as well as members of the McDaniel community.

Capstone projects presented during the Phi Beta Kappa Celebration of the Liberal Arts:

• “Italo-Byzantine Panel Paintings: Changes and Innovations” by Art History major Caroline Kaufman of Hanover, Pa.

• “Swipe Right on Find/Replace: invention, equity and technofeminist potentials of find/replace technologies” by English major Margaret Self of Catonsville, Md., and Paul Muhlhauser, professor of English

• “Mathematical Modeling of the Spread of Infectious Disease” by Mathematics major Samantha Smith of Westminster, Md.

• “A Baseline Wetland Survey to Inform Bog Turtle Conservation and Management” by Environmental Studies major Jason Swartz of Dillsburg, Pa.

• “K-Nacci Word Fractals” by Mathematics major Darby Bortz of Adamstown, Md.; Elias Jaffe ’19 of Silver Spring, Md., and Benjamin Steinhurst, Mathematics professor

• “Designing Gas-Storing Metal-Organic Frameworks to Address Environmental Change” by Chemistry and Physics double major Shannon Bernier of Ijamsville, Md.

• “The Effect of Music Volume on Anaerobic Performance and Performance Perception” by Kinesiology majors Christina DeJoseph of Palmyra, N.J., and Teryn Rath of Grass Valley, Calif.