Part II: The Goodbye

Champlain Graduation 2019: myself, Ken Howell, MFA graduate Christian Tedjasukmana, and Robin Perlah

This will be surprising news to some, and not so surprising to others, and even still it is difficult for me to write. I've decided to retire from Champlain College and join my fellow colleagues as "faculty emeritus". For the immediate future, besides cleaning out my office and gardening, there are some exciting things:

• BREAKAWAY will be launched in the Mahama refuge camp in Rwanda where UNICEF hopes to eventually engage up to 40,000 children in the game and curriculum, 
• I'll be presenting in Montreal and in Orlando this July for Serious Play,
• I am continuing to paint and will be having a one person show in January of my Tiny Paintings
• Our four year old granddaughter will be coming to visit from California along with her awesome sauce Dad Pat and Mom Emily,
• And Jim and I hope to try out our cross country trek again sometime this following year.

Being me, I also have some other ideas I'd like to pursue but for the summer, I believe I will take a big, cleansing breathe, re-orient myself, and then make the choices that fill my passions and my heart.

Today I sent the following email to the Champlain community and I'd like to share it here. It covers only the Champlain part of my journey and I find there are more folks I hold dear and owe deep gratitude then my memory or the note can name here. Please note if you are not named, it is for brevity. Here goes:

In Gratitude:

Dear Colleagues,
This year marked my 20th year as a faculty member at Champlain, a college I dearly love. Funny fact, my contract has always been for 11 months.  When I was originally hired as the founding PD for Multi-media and Graphic Design (an Associates degree then) all PD contracts were for 11 months and all faculty taught 5 courses a semester! Also included in my position, alongside advising, recruiting, overseeing the growing internship program, budget management, working with Career Planning (thank you Daphne!) and designing a 4 year curriculum: I would teach 6-8 courses a year and manage a computer lab in the MIC. Oh and we had only 1 Mac and the PC computers would crash as we went from Photoshop to Illustrator. 

That program began with 15 students. Teaching in it were David Lustgarten and myself and a wonderful cohort of adjuncts.  Oh yes, and the Division I taught in was Business led by the inspiring Lynne Ballard and there were skunks living in the basement! The College has definitely changed since then. 

Within 3 years, we transformed MMG into a 4-year degree, hired Eric Sample and Karen Klove as faculty bringing expertise in interactive, video, and sound as well as hire Kevin Andrews to manage a growing stable of Macs. We were continually putting in computer labs.  

The program grew in those 3 years to over 350 students. So of course, it was time to start a new degree – the Electronic Game and Interactive Development program (titled so as not to be confused with gambling). Working under Lynne Ballard as chair (we didn’t have Deans then), I was able to hire consultants to work besides me to design the degree including folks from EA and Ubisoft (including my sister Mary DeMarle whom you may know as Narrative Director at Eidos who has written and led narrative on MYST 3 and 4, Homeworld II, and the Deus Ex series). Likewise, Cinse Bonino brought her considerable talents in Creativity, Assessment, and Education. Despite this, it was a year-long, drag down battle to get it through Division, Curriculum, and Senate. However, our biggest supporter was then President Roger Perry. Fortunately, upon launching, our first faculty hires were Amanda Crispel and Josh Buck who brought their incredible talents and drive to the program. 

As many of you may know, by 2004 there were over 650 students between the MMG and Game programs. We had only 7 full-time faculty. CCM Division split from Business and Jeff Rutenbeck was hired as Dean (one of our first). I was a bit tired, felt drawn too far away from the students, and looking for change. It was at that juncture that the then new President Dave Finney and his cabinet offered me the Dr. Roger Perry Endowed Chair (for a year) to create whatever I wanted. 

And in consultation, I did just that. In MMG and EGD, some may have thought the core principle was technology, production, and creativity however this was only partially true, the heart of the programs were collaborative, experiential learning. Yet I knew that more was needed for true learning and student success – deep community connections. Out of this was born the concept for the Emergent Media Center. Again I began small by hiring 5 work-study students and setting up a small office in Skiff – with no furniture at first – finances have always been tight at Champlain. Yet in the first year working with Greg Morgan from Advancement, we received 3 projects: America’s Army, IBM, and my forever favorite, a grant to develop a game to address violence against women and girls for the UN and partnering with Population Media Center— BREAKAWAY. With this success we were able to hire Ray McCarthy-Bergeron and Sarah Jerger – both Champlain alumni and then move into the Winooski Mill. Following in the footsteps of the original 5 work study students, eventually over 90 students positions a year would be filled at the EMC. 

Today’s story, many of you know: the EMC, the MakerLab and the MFA and MS in Emergent Media have connected students to both local and international communities and allowed them to put their creativity and learning into the world to create a better one. For amazing partners, we've created pro-social, behavior changing media from games, to mobile, to video and print, to AR, and VR. I am thankful to all of the faculty, staff, partners, donors, and students we’ve worked with throughout the years. Without you, none of this would have happened. I am proud of our alumni success as well. 

So why this long story? It is time for me to say goodbye, to write a new life chapter, to give room for others at Champlain to carry on and into the future. I’m hoping my story can support you in your work and in creating the new Strategic Plan at Champlain. As you do please consider that our students are heroes in the making, and that you empower them through academics but also through mentorship and connection. With these they will do great things. So to this wonderful creative, caring community we call Champlain, I wish to say thank you. Let Us Dare! 

With love,
Ann 

The BREAKAWAY team in El Salvador for the UNDP

Amanda Crispel in the early days

Myself directing and photographing GIV IT (a camp forVermont  teens that was taught by faculty and Champlain students).

Some of our BREAKAWAY campers in El Salvador

With Jeff and Ray at Kingbridge demonstrating games ad game theory

At the start of the EMC, planning

Faculty, staff and students in Kingbridge

Lauren with a student in South Africa for research prior to the creation of BREAKAWAY

IBM fellow John Cohn working with our first EMC students in Skiff Hall (I hated the yellow walls)

With young women in South Africa for BREAKAWAY.

Our first EMC game jam team for Elliott Masie's Learning conference

Students with the America Army's game designer

Building out the EMC in Winooski

The second time in my career at Champlain that i had no furniture, The Winooski Mill

The first year of the Game program: presenters from Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA

Our first cohort of Master's degree students from China

Our team being thanked by the BREAKAWAY facilitators in El Salvador

Jeff and me