Harry and Virginia Sweely
Harry D. Sweely and Virginia Schell were high school sweethearts who met when in eleventh grade. Each saw the tremendous value of higher education and aspired to be elementary school teachers. Shippensburg State Teachers College offered the opportunity to earn an undergraduate degree in teaching at the elementary education level.
Virginia "Ginny" Schell Sweely completed her undergraduate degree at Shippensburg State Teachers College in 1955. She taught second grade from 1955 to 1957 in South Middleton Township/Boiling Springs. She then accepted a position with the West Shore School District. From 1966 to 1970, Ginny pursued a master's degree in counseling, which she was awarded 1970. Ginny then accepted a counseling position with the Shippensburg Area School District and served at eight elementary schools. She also ran a tutoring program at Shippensburg State College. Thereafter, she served as a junior high school counselor at Shippensburg Area School District. She retired in 1992 after a 25-year career in education.
Following high school, Harry Sweely served two years in the military. He enrolled at Shippensburg State Teachers College and earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education in 1958. He went on to complete a master’s degree in education in the summer of 1960, and earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1968. Harry taught elementary students for four years in the Camp Hill School District. In 1965, he then returned to Shippensburg to teach at the Rowland Lab School. The President of the College, Dr. Ralph Heiges, asked Harry to serve as Director of the Lab School. During his four-year tenure in this position, Harry convinced the senior administration of the College to preserve the Lab School for future generations of students learning to become teachers.
Scholarships associated with Harry and Virginia Sweely