Campus News
November 27th, 2023
Bender to be final JCLS presenter of 2023
Former County Teacher of the Year presenting 'Eliza Swan: Educator and Activist'
Lisa Bender portrayed Eliza Swan, a 19th-century educator and activist, last summer in a Victorian Chautauqua at Mountain Lake Park. Bender will discuss Swan’s life and legacy on Wednesday, December 6th at 6 p.m. in the recital hall of the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College. This will be the final Joan Crawford Lecture Series presentation of 2023.
Lisa Bender, a former Garrett County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, will be the final Joan Crawford Lecture Series presenter of 2023.
Bender will present Eliza Swan: Educator and Activist on Wednesday, December 6th at 6 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College. Bender portrayed Swan – who lived in Mountain Lake Park during the late-19th-century Chautauqua period – last summer in a Victorian Chautauqua event in Mountain Lake Park.
“As an educator myself, I felt compelled to portray Eliza Swan for Victorian Chautauqua Days so that more people could hear her incredible story,” said Bender.
Bender’s connection to Swan began when she discovered that a summer cottage her family purchased in Mountain Lake Park 52 years ago was originally a school seminary founded by Swan.
Bender, who had a 30-year teaching career, was a finalist for Maryland State Teacher of the Year in 2007. She taught business education at Southern High, working in tandem with local stock broker Rob Sharps to bring the Stock Market Game to her classes.
Bender was named an “Unsung Hero of the Classroom” by ING and also won a National Leavey Award for Free Enterprise Education from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge and Farmers Insurance.
Bender presently works as an education and marketing specialist for Take Charge Today, a personal finance program that develops financial literacy curriculum and trains teachers nationwide.
Joan Crawford Lecture Series presentations are free and open to the public.
