Graduate School

An M.B.A. from the Wharton School wasn't exactly chopped liver before Thomas P. Gerrity became the school's dean in 1990. But since Gerrity took over, a Wharton degree has definitely become the creme de la creme. This week, Wharton was named the country's top graduate business school in a Business Week survey of former students and corporate recruiters - the school's second straight first-place finish in the poll. Earlier this year, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education called Wharton the best business school for African Americans.

There is a graduation scheduled for tonight at Gotwals Elementary School in Norristown, and the graduates will include entire families. Ten Norristown families that participated in the FAST (Families and Schools Together) program have completed activities designed to strengthen the family and reduce family stress. The program is an intervention and prevention program that teaches communication skills to families with children ages 5 to 9. Involvement in the schools is encouraged.

It's easy to get lost in the global village. That's why Georgia Bennett has been able to build a business by giving people directions to the right schoolhouse door. Her West Chester consulting firm, Bennett Educational Resources, provides information on education to corporations and their employees moving to and from the United States. The company might help a U.S. family find a program abroad for a special- needs child, or help a foreign transferee's spouse apply to U.S. graduate schools.

At Academy Park High School's graduation last night, every senior's head was bowed as the Rev. John Fitzgibbons of the Holy Spirit Church in Sharon Hill asked God: "Take special care of Laurie Barker and Jon Mohan. May they be happy smiling down upon us in heaven. " There were some smiles, but mostly somber stares on the graduates' faces on a steamy athletic field outside the high school. Many were finding it hard to confront the deaths of two teens from Academy Park - 15-year-old Laurie Barker and Jonathan Mohan, 19, of Collingdale, who had graduated last year.

Preston Bodison was a junior at St. Joseph's University in 1990, and contemplating his future. Like a lot of his classmates, he was considering graduate school but - to put it frankly - "I didn't think I had the smarts; I mean, I'm average," he said. Then, he was invited to attend a three-day seminar on graduate school opportunities for African American and Hispanic students, sponsored by State Sen. Chaka Fattah. At the end of the three days, Bodison was not only planning to pursue a master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania; he also was determined to earn a doctoral degree in psychology at Temple University.

It's quiet, too quiet in the ceramic-tiled office where Michael A. Nutter has resumed studies in the obscure institution he calls USC, the University of the Street Corner. His bouquet of congratulatory silver balloons is deflating. The jangling telephones are falling mute. Just 11 days ago the 35-year-old city councilman was celebrating the triumph of his freshman term, savoring Council's successful override of the mayor's veto of a politically sensitive police advisory board. This week, the routine and his constituents brought him down from the gilded gold ceilings of City Council chambers to the hard and familiar corner of neighborhood politics: What's the Wynnefield Democratic councilman's urban policy for city dwellers who permit their lawns to grow shaggy and untamed?

Members of the Black Horse Pike Regional School District said last night they would reconsider a policy that would allow student-led prayers at graduation ceremonies at its two high schools. Student-led prayers are scheduled for June 28 graduation ceremonies at both Triton Regional and Highland Regional High Schools. School district officials, after hearing from both sides of the emotionally-charged issue, announced that they would review the policy at a meeting June 24, just days before the ceremonies.

Ted Staub graduated from college more than 20 years ago, taught for a while and then got into the home-remodeling business. But in August, when the recession forced his Philadelphia-area construction company to shut its doors, Staub returned to school. He enrolled as a full- time graduate student at Pennsylvania State University's Great Valley campus in Malvern. "I wanted to do something I liked, but I also wanted to make sure I'd be employable when I got out of school," said Staub, 46, who is studying for a master's degree - and eyeing a doctorate - in industrial engineering.

For a few thrilling minutes during January's playoff game, Eagles cornerback Ben Smith tasted the glory he had dreamed about in his first season as a pro football player. His well-leveraged tackle of the Washington Redskins' Earnest Byner had lifted the running back's legs skyward and sent the football squirting out onto the turf. Smith had scooped it up deftly and dodged his way downfield 95 yards for a touchdown. The exhilarated Veterans Stadium crowd stood and screamed as one. It was the kind of big play that then-coach Buddy Ryan had in mind when he drafted Smith in the first round last year, and it couldn't have come at a better time . . . Then the moment was gone.

Joe Woolley, the Eagles' director of player personnel, said the NFL rejected a club request to allow No. 1 pick Antone Davis to remain in Philadelphia after this weekend's minicamp. In an agreement this year with the College Football Association and the NCAA, NFL rules prohibit draft picks from reporting, full time, to their respective teams before June 1. The NFL, Woolley said, makes no exceptions for players such as Davis and No. 5 pick Craig Erickson, who already have graduated.