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Volume 5, Number 1 - Fall 2006
Board Chair's Work Feeds
Mind & Soul
talking with Anne Seltzer
When Anne Seltzer was thinking of retiring from the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, where she had worked for 25 years as a teacher and administrator, a friend offered advice: You should do something for your body, something for your soul and something for your mind.
Running fulfilled the first requirement. People & Stories/ Gente y Cuentos came to satisfy the second, and the third.
At first, Seltzer thought she’d become a program coordinator. But after completing the training in 2004, she was asked to join the board. “What appealed to me was that People & Stories wasn’t a casual book discussion. It dealt with very good literature and went beyond just a superficial level.”
Seltzer didn’t retire, though she did leave the Peddie School; she formed her own company, Anne Seltzer Development Strategies, to work with independent schools and other non-profit boards. Meanwhile, she plunged into the work of People & Stories.
“For me, the real pleasure comes in working with the people and working for a mission I think is important. I have delighted in wonderful new friendships, and I like the fact that the board is seriously interested in literature.”
While she never did facilitate a group, Seltzer has participated in several sessions, including the new Crossing Borders program, which brings together urban and suburban residents. That model “has the ability to turn all of your perceptions on their heads,” she said.
When she attended a session held at Trenton’s Project Fatherhood, the group was reading, “Marriage Is a Private Affair,” Chinua Achebe’s story of a man who flouts cultural tradition and family expectations by marrying a woman outside the tribe. During the discussion, “it was the young Trenton people who defended arranged marriages, while the more liberal, older, suburban women like me were quite appalled that they were so supportive of the idea.
“In that particular case, the ‘crossing borders’ aspect of the program is revelatory. You’re dealing with a short story that works on so many levels and means so many different things to different people.”
Seltzer, 64, a fourth-generation classics major who headed the Peddie School’s English department for ten years, has always loved reading. She recalls her grandmother grilling teenaged suitors, when they arrived for dates with Seltzer, by asking, “Do you take Greek or Latin?”
“Both my parents were constant readers. That’s what we did in the evenings.” Today, Seltzer and her husband, Mitch, sometimes read the same book so they can discuss it. They have a son who is enrolled in architecture school, a daughter who is a classical violinist and an eight-month-old granddaughter, Penelope, who already owns an impressive collection of children’s books.
As board chair, Seltzer envisions a decisive period of growth for People & Stories. “We need to think about how the organization is going to grow, how much growth is good, and how we will get to the next stage of maturity. We all feel that we’re ready to take the next step.”