By Taylor Broomall (Whetstone Staff)
Pencils, books and dirty looks aside, many teachers and faculty lead adventurous lives in their two-month break from Wesley College.
As many students prepare for the end of the semester, they look forward to relaxing evenings with their families and working summer jobs. But have you ever wondered where your teachers go when all the hallways are deserted?
Joseph Nicolai
Business, Public Speaking, and Communications
My summer is going to consist of taking three classes for my doctorate, hopefully teaching two public speaking classes and fitting in a trip to the Bahamas sometime. I hope.
Dr. Griffin      http://wesley.edu
Dr. Tery Griffin
Media Arts
I’ll mostly be working. I’m teaching two new classes in the fall and one in the spring. I’m also revising the web design class for fall and completely redesigning the interactive design class for spring. Putting all of that together will take most of my summer. I am doing one fun thing — going to San Francisco for about 10 days. I’m looking forward to that. I might even try to go (mostly) off the grid for that time.
Frances Riddle      Whetstone file photo
Frances Riddle
Coordinator of Academic Advisement
My husband and I have been thinking about purchasing a hurdy-gurdy, an ancient stringed instrument. We found one for sale from an instrument maker in Olympia, Wash., and thought it would be fun to drive across the country and visit his shop. As a fall-back, we probably will visit friends in upstate New York – something of a summer ritual for us that allows us to escape the Delaware heat and humidity, walk labyrinths that our friend designs, visit wineries, and enjoy the camaraderie of old friends.
Mike Nielsen     Melissa Boyd / Whetstone
Dr. Mike Nielsen
Media Arts
My wife and I are headed to Cape Breton to stay at our wee cottage on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then, in July, we are headed to Ireland. We will be staying in Co. Kerry for half of the time and Co. Mayo for the other half. I intend to climb two fine mountains in Ireland (Mount Brandon and Croag Patrick) if the weather allows. And if that is not to be, it never rains in the pubs.
Dr. Johnston      http://wesley.edu
Dr. William Johnston
President
Most of the summer I plan to be in Dover as we prepare the campus for our students for fall semester. My wife, dog and I sometimes run to the ocean on a weekend afternoon. Mrs. Johnston and I are planning to take a trip to Alaska and we look forward to seeing that beautiful part of the U.S.
Dr. Colleen B. Di Raddo
I don’t get a “break†over the summer. I do try to take vacation. This summer, when Wanda Anderson arrives, I am going to leave for two weeks and go to the beach in Ocean City, N.J. One week with my extended family (about 15 people) and one week with just my husband. I love the ocean… it can rain, it can be sunny – I don’t care.  On weekends in the late spring and summer, I go to my parents’ farm and do the gardening and help with the meadow and the outside work. It is a chance to get dirty and do something that has a beginning and an end.
Dr. Mask      http://wesley.edu
Dr. Jeffrey Mask
Religion
My wife and I will probably visit her parents in Chiefland, Fla., this summer, and I expect that we will stop off in Atlanta to see our son either on the way down or on the way back. We also have friends in New Hampshire we’d like to visit. I have made a commitment to attend a workshop in July here in Dover that has to do with “integrated†courses—an attempt to make connections between academic disciplines in a course, and maybe a little more than that. Otherwise, I have two writing projects in the works.
Alex Cisar     Melissa Boyd / Whetstone
Alex Cisar
We will spend a couple of weeks in Canada –Quebec and Montreal in July and in August we go to Waterville Valley, N.H., for a week. In between I just catch up on miscellaneous chores that I always put off until summer.
Dr. Anthony Armstrong
Political Science
Marlies (my wife) and I are spending most of the summer in Germany. Marlies is German, and we will be staying at her mother’s house in Grefrath, Germany, which is about 10 miles from the border to Holland. We love to go on bike tours through the quaint villages, woods, and fields. It’s amazing how many interesting places there are to visit in the area. We will also be visiting her brother and sister-in-law in Brussels. We hope to travel to Prague during our stay.
Dr. Nwogbaga      http://wesley.edu
Dr. Nwogbaga Agashi
Mathematics
My summer plans consist of teaching an online course and help with SOAR orientations at Wesley, traveling with family and friends for a special annual children trip, reading many more of the authors (fiction – thrillers) that I recently discovered, participating in summer institutes and work on my professional development activities, hosting family friends that we have not seen for many years, and watching movies.
Dr. Frank Fiedler
Mathematics
Attending a research conference in my specialty if I can find funding. Over the past four years, I went to Canada thrice. Summer breaks are the only periods when I can find time to do scientific research in signal design (electrical engineering) and graph/group/field theory (algebraic combinatorics). Those are the research areas I am trained in. I love figuring out things nobody else has before me. We will be visiting family. My wife’s family lives in China while mine is in Germany. Those are costly overseas trips, so we alternate the continents year-to-year. I will also be remodeling my home. I like working with wood and stone. For me it is also a way of clearing my head. Teaching a class, grading papers, committee work – that can leave you exhausted. There needs to be something else for balance.
