{"id":37654,"date":"2025-11-18T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/37654\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:35:08","slug":"after-200-years-jefferson-university-now-has-a-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/37654\/","title":{"rendered":"After 200 years, Jefferson University now has a song"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Last year, when Thomas Jefferson University celebrated its bicentennial, university officials realized they had gone 200 years without an alma mater, a song to express pride in the institution.\n<\/p>\n

Today, they rectify that absence with \u201cJefferson How We Adore Thee.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Jefferson, how we adore thee
Forging knowledge with industry
Through years of collaboration,
All in all, we\u2019re shining through.\n <\/p>\n

The song was written by one of Jefferson\u2019s employees, Elizabeth Avril Barden, who works in customer service for Jefferson Health Plans.\n<\/p>\n

Barden, 32, said she has been singing since she was a toddler and has been writing songs for years, although none of her songs have gone public until now. She sings the Jefferson alma mater on a recording that will be presented during a Jefferson gala event Tuesday evening.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, music is connection,\u201d she said. \u201cI can have a conversation, but sometimes I don\u2019t always have the words. But I can sing it to you and you can feel what I\u2019m feeling.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

With vision, care and purpose
We\u2019ve evolved with much to give.
So very grateful for this moment,
Shape the world in which we live.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cElizabeth really captured the essence of the Jefferson community,\u201d said university president Susan Aldridge<\/a>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier that we finally have an alma mater which captures who we are as a university as we venture into our third century.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Barden is the daughter of Haitian pastors who immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, to preach non-denominationally. Describing herself as a \u201cPK,\u201d or Pastor\u2019s Kid, she said music was part of her weekly chores.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how it is if you\u2019re a PK, if you\u2019re a PK out there: We do everything,\u201d Barden said. \u201cWe have to sing, just help in any capacity.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Barden first entered Jefferson as an undergraduate student studying health care management and is now going for her master\u2019s in social service at Bryn Mawr College while holding down a remote job at Jefferson as a customer experience specialist. She plans to return to Jefferson as a student again.\n<\/p>\n

She brings music into everything she does.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of members call me distraught because they may not understand what their plan entails, what doctor they can go to. Simplicity is always key,\u201d Barden said. \u201cBeing able to help them and direct them is good. It might be their birthday when I call them. I\u2019ll sing them \u2018Happy Birthday.\u2019 I want people to feel, like, \u2018We appreciate you.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

This is Jefferson, strong and true,
Where innovation leads us through.
Together we achieve our best
As we prepare for what\u2019s next.\n<\/p>\n

As any alma mater, \u201cJefferson How We Adore Thee\u201d is a booster song, designed to instill pride and loyalty in its staff and students. Barden may be the embodiment of institutional pride. She plans to re-enroll at Jefferson once she finishes at Bryn Mawr to pursue another master\u2019s degree in public health.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we pivot? That\u2019s the beautiful thing about Jefferson, they\u2019re always pivoting,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019ve been able to stand for 200 years. You don\u2019t just stand for 200 years without knowing how to roll with the punches and change with the times.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23109,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-37654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-jefferson-university","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}