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January 24, 2006
La Salle University Students’ Documentary about the School Shows Freshmen They Are “Now a Part of Something Larger”
Working his way through La Salle University, John Smalarz commuted to La Salle University, both for his accounting degree in 1975 and his Masters in Business Administration in 1979. As such, he didn’t have time to take advantage of the programs and opportunities that students who lived on campus had. This is one reason he is so impressed with the documentary that his twin sons, Tim and Nick, produced, Together We Remember: a Legacy of La Salle, a history of the 143 year-old school.
“I am more proud than ever to be from La Salle, now that I know about the Christian Brothers (the Catholic order that founded and operates the University) and where La Salle came from,” said Smalarz, whose three children have enrolled at La Salle.
As a student, Nick Smalarz was working with Brother Joseph Grabenstein, F.S. C., the University’s archivist. Brother Grabenstein, who gave lectures in the school’s First Year Odyssey (FYO), a one-credit program that introduces freshmen students to La Salle, its history and the city of Philadelphia, but scheduling problems made it difficult for him continue. So Tim Smalarz suggested they produce a documentary to fill the void.
Nick Smalarz worked seven hours every Saturday save one last summer on the project, with Brother Grabenstein,. After compiling about 250 pictures and documents with film footage shot by the Smalarzes, Brother Grabenstein and Suzanne Guerin, another La Salle student, wrote a script that Brother Grabenstein narrated. The material was then turned over to Tim Smalarz, for editing.
But before that, the brothers screened it for their parents and older brother, Matt, who graduated from La Salle and is now a graduate student there. “Our family is the first to see our projects,” Nick said. “We have a lot of respect for our parents. They have been in the adult world a lot longer and so they have a better idea of what people will expect.”
Six weeks later, after their family’s suggestions, and feedback from Margot Soven, Ph.D., Director of the FYO, and a few revisions, the film was finished. “Any freshman seeing it will learn that he or she is now a part of something larger,” said Matt Smarlaz.
The 41-minute video starts with the history of the Christian Brothers, the Catholic order that founded the college. The order was started by John Baptist de La Salle in France during the 17th century.
A Catholic cleric, De La Salle started schools for poor children in which students were taught practical skills in French, not Latin. De La Salle was canonized in 1900 and was declared the patron saint of teachers by the Catholic Church
Two members of the order, Brother Emery Mollenhauer, F.S.C., a professor of English and former provost, and Brother Edward Sheehy, F.S.C., a professor of history, are interviewed and discuss the philosophy behind the Brothers’ teaching.
The film shows drawings, photos, and footage of La Salle’s four campuses: its first at 2nd and Jefferson streets; at Filbert and Juniper streets in Center City Philadelphia; at 1240 North Broad Street (formerly the home of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy’s family); and finally at 20th Street and Olney Avenue. (There’s also a schematic of the school’s campus in Bucks County and plans for a new science and technology center.)
The documentary recounts how the school was founded in 1863; weathered the Great Depression; became one of the first colleges in Pennsylvania to offer a degree program for evening students; expanded to add new classrooms and athletic fields; admitted women in 1970; won two national titles in men’s basketball and women’s field hockey; and earned University status in 1984.
The documentary was used this past fall semester for the FYO program. “I've seen the film, and I think it is excellent,” says Dr. Soven. “I watched it with two classes and the students seemed very absorbed.”
“We measure our success by whether the students watching can stay awake and pay attention. If you’ve got that, you’ve got a hit,” Nick Smalarz said.
This is not the first time that the brothers have worked together. They got their start at WMCD TV, the TV station at Bishop McDevitt High School in Wyncote, Pa. In 2005, with help from their family, they incorporated Moose Crossing Productions, a videography business.
“Growing up, we spent a lot of time in Vermont and while we were trying to come up with a name for the company, our mom suggested Moose Crossing,” Nick Smalarz said.
Tim Smalarz is a history major who hopes to go on to law school, while Nick Smalarz, a communication major, hopes to have a career in filmmaking. Meanwhile, their father, John, feels fortunate that his sons can take advantage of the opportunities he did not have.
“Having them there and being able to go and visit them is like traveling back in time for me,” he said.
-- Sarah Klem
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