Christina Rose is the New Director of the Chesick Scholars Program

This summer, Christina Rose joined the Haverford College staff as director of the John P. Chesick Scholars Program. She replaces Barbara Hall, the interim director of the program who is now an advising dean. 

The Chesick Scholars Program, which was founded in 2012, is the College’s most recent suite of opportunities and resources for first-generation and/or low-income (FLI) students. It includes faculty mentorship, a summer series of workshops called First In, a pre-Customs orientation program called Horizons, summer reading groups, first-year seminars, and more. 

Rose joins the Haverford community from Delaware County Community College, where she served as assistant dean for communications, art, and humanities since last year. 

“I've been working alongside ... the Chesick Program for a few years now,” said Rose. “I was an advising dean at Bryn Mawr from 2012–2020, and my personal mission was to create more programs and resources for FLI students there. Since we did not have anything like Chesick there, I was always talking to [Haverford’s Chesick staff] about what they were doing here so I could learn from them. We worked together at many conferences as well. When I saw the posting for this position and heard that Barbara was moving into the advising dean's role, I was thrilled!”
 
Rose has many pre-existing Tri-Co connections. She earned her undergraduate English degree at Swarthmore, before pursuing a master’s in English education at the University of Florida and an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her eight years in the Bryn Mawr Dean’s Office, she also worked at Haverford as a faculty writing tutor and at Swarthmore as a fellowship and prizes advisor and, later, an interim assistant dean and academic support advisor. She was also associate director of Penn’s McNair Scholars Program, which prepares BIPOC and FLI students for Ph.D. programs. 

“I want students to know that I'm so passionate about this role because I was a FLI student myself, and that my time as a college student at Swarthmore was daunting, riddled with both obstacles and successes, and entirely life-changing,” she said. “My main drive in life is to create a smoother path for FLI students moving forward.”

Rose joins Julian Jackson, Chesick Program coordinator, and Jeff Tecosky-Feldman, a lecturer in the mathematics department, as Chesick staff. It is an exciting time for the program, which expanded this year from serving an invited cohort of 15 students per class to include all incoming FLI first-years in the Class of 2025. It is also looking to grow its programming. (The summer reading program and First In were new additions this summer.) 

“I'm excited to explore new ways for students to work closely with faculty and mentors throughout the academic year as well as build bonds with each other,” said Rose. “We will have workshops and social events throughout the academic year that will enhance Chesick students' experiences and will be open to students from all class years, not just the first two years, so that's a big change as well. It's also one of my main goals to bring together FLI students across the Tri-Co. My work at BMC, and the fact that I'm an alum of Swarthmore, make this especially exciting and feasible!”