UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 31, Page 4
May 14, 1992
Returning adult student discovers the possibilities

     Once returning adult student Marguerite Gerum learned English two
years ago, she took the University by storm. Today, the native of
France is a Dean's Scholar in the College of Arts and Science, a
part-time receptionist and a potential master's degree candidate.
     "In America, there are more possibilities to do things," she
said.
     Less than five years ago, Gerum and her husband, a Delaware
native she met on a communal farm, were running an organic dairy farm
in the mountains of Alsace-Lorraine. The couple produced chemical-free
cheese to sell to hotels.
     Gerum also was taking government-sponsored classes in accounting,
statistics and other aspects of small business management. Eventually,
she and her fellow students, mostly other rural women, coordinated
their own program with the help of a $20,000 government grant.
     They hired a teacher and explored small business management,
mixed with a bit of psychoanalysis. In addition to discussing
economics, the group members analyzed their family relationships and
themselves. Gerum said her experience in the program showed her the
value of team work and revealed the "person inside ."
     While her educational experiences flourished, life on the farm
had become too "physically hard." In 1987, the couple sold the farm
and Gerum's husband returned to Delaware to see his seven brothers and
sisters, with Gerum joining him and her daughter a year later. During
that year, she worked for the government, preparing unemployed people
for the job market through courses in "interpersonal verbal
communication" and reading and writing improvement.
     "It was a good moment to think of myself," she said of the
separation from her family. The time alone made her realize she needed
to start making a change in her life. When she left France, she took
nothing with her but her books, clothes, artwork and diaries. "The
most important thing I brought over is myself," she said.
     Although Gerum "barely knew" her husband's family, she found them
to be very supportive. They lived with his parents while he worked as
a carpenter.
     Eventually, Gerum enrolled in the University's English Language
Institute (ELI). Her goal "was to get integrated," and she took full
advantage of the University's resources.
     A work-study assignment in the Women's Studies Interdisciplinary
Program Office as a receptionist helped ease her sense of isolation,
she said. "There, I would be first a woman, then a foreigner."
     Gerum is working to obtain a bachelor's degree in French, and has
already earned 30 credits toward a master's degree in French language
and literature. Additionally, she plans to graduate with minors in
fine arts and in women's studies.
     In her spare time, she tutors high school and college students in
French through the University's Academic Services Center.
     "I do a lot because I get energy from what I do," she explained.
     Gerum received her latest burst of energy when she was named one
of four Dean's Scholars in the College of Arts and Science chosen this
year. The Dean's Scholar program, which allows students to design
their curriculum, gave Gerum the freedom to study literary theory and
criticism. Her proposal, titled. "Literature and Psychoanalysis,"
focuses on language and gender in the works of medieval and
contemporary French female authors.
     Gerum's interest in psychoanalysis is not a recent discovery.
Even as a young woman, working as a clerk in Rouen's city hall, she
frequently attended group seminars on the theories of Freud.
     As a member of the American Association of Counseling and
Development, Gerum has combined psychotherapy with another passion,
her love of art and she works in art therapy with abused children at
the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis.
     Gerum said that because of her uncle, a painter, she has been
drawing since she "was a little kid," and she has encouraged her
daughter, Almandine, to express herself freely on blank paper instead
of with pre-drawn designs.
     Looking back on what she has accomplished since coming to
America, Gerum said: "Each person should work at themselves. I get the
positive out of everything."
     -Casye Launer