Unusual Combinations: Elizabeth Weiss Ozorak

By Josh Tysiachney

That may look like a toaster oven in Elizabeth Weiss Ozorak's office, but it's not.

It's actually an oven for baking polymer clay, one of the many artistic mediums the Allegheny psychology professor enjoys working in. "I've never met the art or craft I didn't like," says Ozorak, who also paints with water colors and makes beads, earrings, and ceramics. "I actually keep colored pencils and drawing paper in my office in case I get an inspiration that I just need to deal with."

A quick glance into ozorak's Carnegie Hall workspace reveals her astounding array of interests and talents. Covering the walls are paper snowflakes she has made with kirigami, a variation of the ancient Japanese art of origami. Under a table rest sewing machines destined for a fiber arts outreach program she's coordinating. Medals won in ice skating and ice dancing competitions dangle from a shelf above her desk.

"I've always identified myself as a dancer," says ozorak, who is accomplished in tap, ballroom, latin dance, and Scottish highland and country dance. She also plays piano in the Music Makars, a band dedicated to performing Scottish dance music that includes her husband and son. With six albums to its name, the group has played in locations across the U.S., including the legendary Casino Ballroom on California's Catalina Island.

"And, oh yeah, I'm a psychologist," says Ozorak with a hint of laughter." I remember in college the most frustrating thing was when I realized that I was going to graduate without being able to take all of the classes I wanted to take." Even in her graduate work at Harvard, she managed to pursue her interests in both psychology and religion.

In her nearly twenty years at Allegheny, Ozorak has shown just how valuable innovative collaborations and combinations can be. With the help of colleagues from across campus, she spearheaded the creation of the College's Interdisciplinary Values, Ethics, and Social Action (VESA) program. VESA students couple coursework in the humanities and social sciences with service leadership positions in the community.

"I'm a great believer in first-person experience," says Ozorak. "For many students it brings ideas alive in a special way. It gives them a sense of ownership and motivates them because they know their work has real consequences. And it gets them beyond sound bite understanding of complex issues like poverty."

Hands-on experience is a hallmark of Ozorak's courses, including her seminar on food, society, and hunger. Students develop writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills by working on projects with individuals from a local bakery, the Meadville Market House, and a soup kitchen.

"My mid-term exam for that course is a brunch," she says. "I bring the food--a lot of times students don't eat breakfast before the exam. So they get to have something to eat, and then they have to write about what I brought. The essays are really interesting and it allows them to showcase their strengths."

Ozorak tested her own strength with a research project focused on Christian pilgrimage in the British Isles. In all she went on six pilgrimages in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales, walking more than a hundred miles in a week on two of the pilgrimages.

As a participant-observer, Ozorak spoke with fellow pilgrims about their motivations for making the journey. The expectation, she explains, is that people will undergo some sort of transformation on pilgrimage. She discovered, in many cases, the experience also helps individuals construct a narrative to explain a change they're already going through or are on the verge of making.

Nevertheless, Ozorak, a lay minister in the Episcopal Church, believes that something can indeed touch people during a pilgrimage. Standing near a waterfall in Ireland, she gained an important insight of her own.

"Watching the water thunder down over the rocks, I thought, 'That's what work should feel like,'" she says. "It's not an effort because you're going the direction that you need to go and that makes you very powerful."

In the pilgrimage that has been her career at Allegheny, it's clear that Ozorak has traveled in the right direction, with a strong current of creativity at her back.