University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 1/1995 MALS: A student experience Enrolled in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) Program in southern Delaware, Alice Stevenson's thesis will be an autobiography from her perspective as an African-American woman who grew up in Philadelphia in the '30s and '40s. William H. Williams, professor in the University Parallel Program in Georgetown, Del., and southern Delaware coordinator of the MALS Program, has encouraged Stevenson in this project. His course on the "African-American Experience" originally attracted her to the MALS Program. "I'm excited about the project," says Stevenson, who has spent most of her adult life in southern Delaware. "I've already written about my family, and I hope that my life story, the choices I had to make and their outcomes will benefit other people. "My parents came from farms in Virginia and moved to Philadelphia. My mother taught school in Virginia, but was not qualified to teach in Philadelphia and so she did domestic work. My father was an entrepreneur selling coal and wood. I was the youngest of 10 children, and my parents worked hard and were supportive and loving," she recalls. Philadelphia schools were integrated when Stevenson was a student, and this was a strong influence in her life. "Integrated schooling was a socialization process for both white and African- American students," she says. "Many of the teachers were Quakers and very kind. 'Tolerance' was a word used a great deal. As younger children, we were a unified class. But, when we reached high school, there was more of a tendency to gravitate toward one's own group." Later in her life, she met people of both races who had attended segregated schools. "They were nice people, but I felt that there was a missing connection and an isolation in their educational experience," she says. After earning her high school diploma in business, Stevenson found there were few employment opportunities. She worked briefly as a nurses' aide, then passed a civil service exam to begin a career with the federal government. When Stevenson married her husband, Howard, who is a retired lab technician from General Foods, she moved to Georgetown for a short period of time and then to Milton, Del. It was something of a culture shock after Philadelphia, but was a good place to raise a family, she recalls. She was a full-time homemaker and mother to the couple's three children for some years and then resumed her civil service career at Dover Air Force Base in 1967. At the same time, she began taking college-level courses on a part-time basis, ultimately, receiving a degree in accounting from Wilmington College. Stevenson's three children have been an inspiration to her. "They did very well in school in the Cape Henlopen School District, and I am grateful to the teachers who encouraged them to excel. My children's example encouraged me to continue my own education," she says. Now grown, Howard Jr. is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania; Bryan is a human rights lawyer who recently received a prestigious grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and daughter Christy Lynn Taylor is a musician who has a successful studio in Lewes, Del. Stevenson retired from her job as budget analyst at the Dover base hospital in 1988, working as a clerk for the Superior Court in Georgetown and for the Department of Elections in Dover before resigning in 1990 because of health problems. But, she says, she was "addicted to being busy and working" and found an outlet in the MALS Program. "It's been a broadening experience for me personally. There were gaps in my education, and this was an opportunity to learn about different subjects, such as history, art history, philosophy and Native American culture. The courses have not been easy and the going is rough sometimes, but I am getting a lot from the MALS Program," she says. -Sue Swyers Moncure