DCCC Tackles Timely Topics with Fall Speaker and Author Series
(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA - September 17, 2024) This fall, Delaware County Community College is offering a full schedule of events focused on the topics of social justice, leadership, social class and inequality, and more. From coaches to filmmakers, from bestselling authors to successful entrepreneurs, the intriguing lineup of speakers is designed to create awareness, promote education and understanding and encourage meaningful dialogue about equity for all.
The events, which are part of the College’s annual signature “Dialogues for Diversity” speaker series and its annual College-Wide Reading Program author series, are supported by DCCC’s Center for Equity and Social Justice.
All are free and open to the public, and all are available virtually. They are:
Community Colleges: A Pathway to the American Dream—Panel Discussion
Tuesday, September 17 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Pennocks Bridge Center, West Grove (280 Pennocks Bridge Rd., West Grove, PA 19390)
Available via Livestream (advance registration required)
Attend a panel discussion on education in the Latinx community, including the barriers and available pathways to success. Hear from DCCC alum Evelyn Lara, Victoria Hernandez, from Esperanza Academy Charter High school and Jorge Duchini, a prominent member of the Southern Chester County Latinx community and board member on several community boards.
Raise Your Bar: Sports/Life/Beyond
Wednesday, October 2 from 10:10 to 11:05 a.m.
Marple Campus Academic Building, Large Auditorium, (901 S. Media Line Road, Media, PA 19063)
Available via Livestream (advance registration required)
Hear from Erick Woods, Director of Student-Athlete Development at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, who is a former high school and college basketball coach and Division 1 student-athlete. Drawing upon his work with student-athletes, Woods will deliver a motivational talk on how we can push our own bounds to achieve whatever it is we set our minds to.
Patrice Banks, Founder and CEO of Girls Auto Clinic
Tuesday, October 8 from 10 to 11 a.m.
Marple Campus, Academic Building, Large Auditorium (901 South Media Line Road, Media PA 19063)
Available via Livestream (advance registration required)
Meet Patrice Banks, founder and CEO of the Girls Auto Clinic, an Upper Darby, Pa.-based growing community of women and girls who are redefining the automotive world on their own terms. Banks—who has been featured in national media—will discuss her success as an entrepreneur, mechanic, engineer, author, speaker and visionary and how she empowers women to have an equal voice and role in all aspects of the auto industry and beyond. A Q&A will follow.
College-Wide Reading Author Series—Jennifer Pashley
Thursday, October 17 at 10 a.m.
Marple Campus, Small Auditorium (901 South Media Line Road, Media PA 19063)
Available via Livestream
Award-winning novelist and short story writer Jennifer Pashley is known for her suspense fiction. Raised by an accordion virtuoso and a casket maker, she writes about the people on the fringes of society with clear-eyed compassion and grace. Her latest suspense novel is “The Watcher” (2020).
William Penn, the Lenni Lenape and the Collapse of the Peaceable Kingdom
Wednesday, November 6 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Marple Campus, Academic Building, Large Auditorium (901 South Media Line Road, Media PA 19063)
Available via Livestream (advance registration required)
Hear from DCCC professors Kevin Cahill, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Lamonica, Ph.D., joined by W. Ronald Williams and Barry Lee, board director and director, respectively, of the Circle Legacy Center, an organization to promote and assist the Native Americans in the southeastern Pennsylvania region.
College-Wide Reading Series—Stephanie Land
Thursday, November 14 at 11 a.m.
Available via Zoom
Stephanie Land is the author of two bestselling memoirs—“Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive” (2019) and “Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education” (2024). Both narrate her lived experiences coping with homelessness, domestic violence, low-wage labor and single motherhood, as well as her simultaneous pursuit of a college degree and a career as a writer. “Maid” was adapted into a Netflix series in 2021.
Documentary Screening: "Pardon Me": Social Workers and the Community's Role in Disrupting the Criminal Justice System
Tuesday, December 10 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Marple Campus, Academic Building, Large Auditorium (901 South Media Line Road, Media PA 19063)
Available via Livestream (advance registration required)
Having a criminal record as a returning citizen can feel like a life sentence. On Human Rights Day, the documentary “Pardon Me” provides a comprehensive look at how a pardon can serve as a powerful legal mechanism to erase a person’s criminal past. Through personal narratives, “Pardon Me” highlights the broader societal implications, including the collateral consequences that affect thousands of families and communities across the U.S. The screening will include an introduction by Shuja Moore, director, with a Q&A afterwards.
