In As You Like It, William Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage.”
Susan Nicodemus Quinn, Temple University University College’s new Director of Summer and Pre-College Programs, has taken that idea to heart, using the performing arts to build connections with students, adults and the community to provide them with the tools necessary to succeed in the classroom and life in general.
A professional performer, director, teacher and general manager for a variety of professional theaters in New York, London and Philadelphia, Quinn arrives at Temple with more than 30 years of experience in student and community engagement.
“I’m very excited to become part of the team at Temple. I’ve had a lot of associations with Temple over the years — interns who went on to become Temple students, family members who go to Temple, friends who work at Temple,” she said. “Temple has a wonderful presence in the community I've had so many good experiences that I'm thrilled to call it home.”
Quinn said when she was seeking professional opportunities for herself at Temple, Summer and Pre-College Programs’ long history and record for success definitely drew her attention.
“I think the programs are poised for growth and that’s really exciting, especially as we all try to figure out how to deal with the changes in our world specific to higher education,” she said. “We have opportunities for students to come for a day, a week, two weeks — which includes the wonderful option to study abroad in Rome — four weeks, all the way up to living on campus and getting college credit. I personally had a truly transformational pre-college experience so I understand how important these programs can be for students.”
Prior to joining the University College team, Quinn was Executive Director of After-School All-Stars.
“After-School All-Stars provides comprehensive after-school programs at Title 1 schools, meeting the needs of the students and providing enrichment activities. We offer visual and performing arts, health and wellness, nutrition, even gardening,” she said. “After-School All-Stars also provides STEM education and career exploration.”
Quinn was also previously Senior Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Kimmel Center, Executive Director of the Darlington Fine Arts Center, Executive Director for Young Audiences of Eastern PA and Director of Education for the Walnut Street Theater. She has taught adults and children in various settings and has specialized in teambuilding workshops and acting for young people with disabilities.
“As a professional performer I quickly found that I was supplementing my income teaching. I found working with young people really engaging,” she said. “I worked with these performance arts organizations, and it just kept leading me closer and closer to youth development, especially for kids in Philadelphia. I've worked with kids from kindergarten through 12th grade, and I've kind of grown up with them. Now I'm ready for college; I'm ready to grow.”
The performing arts experience, Quinn said “is just a great point of connection for a lot of people”
“Then you can depart from there into expanding your worldview and growing in all different kinds of ways,” she said. “It makes perfect sense to me that everything in my career has progressed in this way — I'm excited for the breadth of opportunities that Temple has in all these different areas. I’m really looking forward to embracing my own intellectual curiosity again.”
As she takes on her new role at Temple. Quinn said, her short-term goals include “getting to know as many people as possible at Temple.”
“I think that’s integral to this position. We are really looking at all the things that are happening at Temple’s campuses and saying, ‘Hey, how can we integrate this into our pre-college experience, how do we provide students with the fullest opportunity to experience the depth and breadth of what Temple has to offer,’” she said. “Pre-college experiences are pivotal to young people; we certainly hope that they will come to Temple, but either way we're having a tremendous impact on a young person. A lot of the research supports the idea that in order for kids to really think college is the right thing for them, we have to get to them earlier and with more experiences year over year.”
With the Summer Academy, Quinn said, “students are actually getting college credit in a class taught by a college professor.”
“That is a tremendous opportunity to actually gain college credits and gain an understanding that they can do the work,” she said. “With the program in Rome, students stay at the Temple Rome campus for two weeks. They get to really see what it's like to be a study abroad student, but they get to do it before they're even college students.”
Whatever pre-college experience students might engage in, Quinn said, “ultimately, what I think is most important is that they leave us changed in a positive way, believing that they can be successful academically, socially and emotionally.”
“If we can leave a whole lot more kids thinking, ‘Yes, college is for me,’ and Yes, I can be ready,” that is the best possible outcome we can hope for,” she said.
Learn more about Temple University Pre-College and Summer Programs here.