About the Cultural Geographers
I am a sophomore Biochemistry major and a member of the Bantivoglio Honors Concentration in the Honors College. I serve as an Honors BLAST peer mentor and Rowan University Student Government Association Senator. I’m also a member of the E-Board for WINGS (Women Inspiring the Next Generation of Scientists), along with membership in the ACS (American Chemical Society), and AMWA (American Medical Women’s Assoc.) chapters here at Rowan. Working in the lab of Dr. Timothy Vaden of Rowan’s Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, I am researching on two different projects: “Assessing the Lipid Bilayer Permeability of Ionic Liquids for Drug Delivery Formulations” and “Combining Experiments and Simulations to Optimize Biomolecular Ionic Liquids for Protein Stabilization.” At Rowan, I have been named a President’s Scholar of Excellence and to the Dean’s List for Fall, 2018 and Spring, 2019. I love to read and learn about new places. I also enjoy travel and photography. I often find inspiration in nature for my projects.
I was intrigued by the multi-faceted nature of this project. It was guided by the fact that 2019 marked the 15th Anniversary of Mr. Bantivoglio’s transformative donation to strengthen the Honors College. This gift transformed our “sense of place” within the University. I was interested in the inspiration for the Whitney Center’s name and was surprised by some of the information I learned about the business practices of Whitney Glassworks. In creating this project, I kept in mind my belief that places are distinguished by much more than physical boundaries; rather, their character is a mosaic of the people who have connections to the place. It is my hope that the viewer will become more informed about the meaning of the Whitney Center and Rowan’s Honors College by exploring this project.
Isabella DeStefano
I am a sophomore Biochemistry major and a member of Rowan’s Bantivoglio Honors Concentration in the Honors College.I was named to the Rowan President’s Scholar of Excellence List and the Dean’s List for Fall, 2018 and Spring, 2019. I serve as a BLAST peer mentor in the Honors College, Secretary of Women Inspiring the Next Generation of Scientists (WINGS), and as a member of both Rowan’s American Chemical Society (ACS) chapter and American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). I participate in research in the lab of Rowan’s Dr. Timothy Vaden, Department of Biochemistry & Chemistry, and am currently working on two projects entitled, “Assessing the Lipid Bilayer Permeability of Ionic Liquids for Drug Delivery Formulations” and “Combining Experiments and Simulations to Optimize Biomolecular Ionic Liquids for Protein Stabilization.” In my free time, I love to travel. As soon as I finish one trip, I am busy planning the next! I am inspired by my travel experiences.
I was interested in developing this project because the Honors College is an important part of my collegiate experience. I wanted to know more about why it was named after Mr. Bantivoglio and what motivated him to provide financial support to Honors. The historical context was interesting to me because the building’s name is derived from Whitney Avenue and Whitney Glassworks. Just as Whitney Glassworks was the heart of Glassboro’s glassmaking, the Whitney Center is the heart of the Honors College. This place is connected to Glassboro’s rich glassmaking past, while serving as a present and future center for research and learning. I hope that people who explore this project will appreciate that this place is dynamic and tells more than one story.