Barnard Magazine Spring 2024

SPRING 2024

THE ATHLETICS ISSUE

NATIONAL CHAMPION FENCER

ANNE CEBULA ’20 IS HEADING TO THE PARIS OLYMPICS

BOXER ZINNAT FERDOUS ’16 HAS HER EYE ON BANGLADESH’S FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL

THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM’S RECORD-BREAKING SEASON OF FIRSTS

USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics — a dream long in the making

On Point by Nicole Anderson ’12JRN National champion fencer Anne Cebula ’20 is on her way to represent the

PHOTO BY LAURA BARISONZI

Features Departments

20

The Good Fight by Gabriel Baumgaertner ’21JRN

Boxer Zinnat Ferdous ’16 is aiming for Bangladesh’s first Olympic medal

Hoops Hype by Anne Stein ’90JRN

In a season filled with successes, Barnard studentathletes played a key role on the Columbia women’s basketball team

2 Contributors & More

3 From President Rosenbury

4 From the Editor

5 Dispatches

Headlines | R&D Science Center Update; TEDx Comes to Campus; Nancy Friday Papers to Barnard’s Archives; Ruth Levy Gottesman ’52 Donates $1 Billion; Meet Barnard’s New Provost

11 Discourses

Read Watch Listen | Bookshelf; Anna Quindlen's After Annie audiobook; Ana Cruz Kayne ’06; Alicia Hall Moran ’95

Strides in STEM | Leading in Artificial Intelligence

Advocacy & Community | Shelby Semmes ’06

38 Off the Field | Dr. Merle Myerson ’78; Alexandra “Ola” Weber ’24

41 Noteworthy

Perspectives | Sarah B. Miller ’98

Q&Author | Sigrid Nunez ’72

AABC Pages | From the AABC President; Millie's Friends; Meet Mike Farley; President's Welcome Tour; Pass the Torch: Mentorship Spotlight Class Notes

Alumna Profile | Ariane Greep ’82

Passion Project | Mia Katigbak ’76

In Memoriam

Obituary | Marilyn Forman Spiera ’59

Last Image

Crossword

On the Cover

Photograph of Zinnat Ferdous ’16 by James Farrell

Back Cover

Photograph of Anne Cebula ’20 by Laura Barisonzi

PHOTO BY JAMES FARRELL

Contributors

Laura Barisonzi (“On Point,” p. 28) is a photographer and director who lives in New York City. She graduated from Brown University and has been lucky enough to be a professional photographer for the past 18 years. She started as a painter but now brings her love of color and composition to her professional photo and video work, in which she often focuses on athletes and other inspiring portrait subjects. She has photographed for a wide range of clients, including Adidas, the NFL, UPS, and Comcast, as well as many higher education institutions.

James Farrell (“The Good Fight,” p. 20) is an action photographer who specializes in capturing the pulse of movement and emotion. With a passion for adventure sports, he has mastered the art of freezing adrenaline-fueled moments. Originally from northern Michigan, Farrell is now based in New York City. His clients have included Nike, Athleta, Peloton, Men’s Fitness, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Runner's World, Bicycling magazine, and ESPN.

Anne Stein ’90JRN (“Hoops Hype,” p. 32) is a Chicago-based journalist, former bike racer, and triathlon coach specializing in sports features, health and wellness news, and profiles. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, her work has appeared on the ESPN website and in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, People, Christian Science Monitor, and Bicycling magazine, among other publications. She covered the Chicago Bulls for two decades —unfortunately not the Michael Jordan years — before discovering women’s college basketball, thanks to the 2023 women’s NCAA national championship battle between Iowa (Caitlin Clark) and LSU (Angel Reese). Today she splits her time between writing and teaching Zen-based mixed martial arts. (www.annestein.net)

DID YOU MISS?

Gabriel Baumgaertner ’21JRN (“The Good Fight,” p. 20) is a writer and researcher living in Washington, D.C. He received his M.A. at Columbia Journalism School (Business and Economics) in 2021. His work has appeared in Bloomberg, The Guardian, AARP Magazine, and Sports Illustrated

Here are the top performing stories online from our Winter issue:

“Object Lesson”: Barnard curators discuss the objects that inspire them barnardbold.net/curators

“Radio Days”: In a new book, Brooke Wentz ’82 unearths rare interviews with musical luminaries barnardbold.net/radiodays

“Music as Ministry”: Award-winning producer Ebonie Smith ’07 remixes the music business barnardbold.net/musicasministry

CORRECTION

In “Bookshelf” (Winter 2024), we misspelled the name of the editor of Yankee Stadium, 19232008: America’s First Modern Ballpark. It is Tara Krieger ’04. We regret the error.

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nicole Anderson ’12JRN

CREATIVE DIRECTOR David Hopson

MANAGING EDITOR Tom Stoelker ’10JRN

COPY EDITOR Molly Frances

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Lisa Buonaiuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS N. Jamiyla Chisholm, Kira Goldenberg ’07

WRITERS Marie DeNoia Aronsohn, Mary Cunningham, Isabella Pechaty ’23, Preetica Pooni

ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF BARNARD COLLEGE

PRESIDENT & ALUMNAE TRUSTEE Sooji Park ’90

ALUMNAE RELATIONS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Karen A. Sendler

ENROLLMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

Jennifer G. Fondiller ’88, P’19

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Quenta P. Vettel, APR

DEVELOPMENT

VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNAE RELATIONS

Michael Farley

PRESIDENT, BARNARD COLLEGE

Laura Rosenbury

Spring 2024, Vol. CXIII, No. 2. Barnard Magazine (ISSN 1071-6513) is published quarterly by the Communications Department of Barnard College.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices.

Postmaster: Send change of address form to: Alumnae Records, Barnard College, Box AS, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6598

EDITORIAL OFFICE

Barnard Magazine, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6598 | Phone: 212-854-0085

Email: magazine@barnard.edu

Opinions expressed are those of contributors or the editor and do not represent official positions of Barnard College or the Alumnae Association of Barnard College. Letters to the editor (200 words maximum) and unsolicited articles and/or photographs will be published at the discretion of the editor and will be edited for length and clarity.

For alumnae-related inquiries, call Alumnae Relations at 212-854-2005 or email alumnaerelations@barnard.edu.

To change your address, write to: Alumnae Records, Barnard College, Box AS, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6598 Phone: 646-745-8344 | Email: DevOps@barnard.edu

From President Rosenbury

The Power of Community

As this semester comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the past academic year — my first as president of Barnard College. It has been a great privilege to lead this incredible institution. I am grateful for the support, the ingenuity, and the fierce passion of our entire community. Together, we’ve accomplished a great deal, from mapping out our “Bold History, Fearless Future” vision to doubling down on our commitment to access, which will pave the way for our first-ever loan forgiveness plan in the fall of 2024.

We’ve experienced some joyous moments. We’ve cheered on the Columbia Lions women’s basketball team as they vied for the championship title of the Ivy League Tournament. And I say with pride that four Barnard student-athletes were an integral part of the team’s success. We stood together on Futter Field and watched the solar eclipse. We raised $3.4 million for financial aid at Barnard’s 2024 Annual Gala, while honoring two remarkable women — Helene D. Gayle ’76, M.D., MPH, and Francine A. LeFrak — who are leaders in public health and wellness.

But I know this has also been a profoundly difficult time. The conflict in the Middle East has left so many of us reeling, sowing division and causing pain within our community and around the world. Yet amid this disagreement, we also share much common ground. At Barnard, we are all committed to participating “together in intellectual risk-taking and discovery,” as our mission statement asserts. Sometimes this collaboration is uncomfortable, but it leads to better understanding of one another, and that understanding is crucial as we all seek to make a difference in this world.

For our entire community to thrive and reach their potential, we have to champion wellness in all its aspects: the life of the mind, mental and physical well-being, financial fluency, and a sense of belonging. This is key to our “Communities of Care,” a foundation of the College’s vision for the future. With the Francine LeFrak Foundation Center for WellBeing, we have made important strides in uplifting wellness at Barnard. But there’s still more work to do.

For us to fulfill our mission to nurture leaders of the future, we must continue to build our resources and programming and further invest in our infrastructure and technology. Over the winter, we announced a fundraising campaign to grow our endowment to $1 billion by 2030. Michael A. Farley, our new Vice President of Development and Alumnae Relations [see page 48], will play a critical role in helping us to achieve this ambitious goal. Mike joined us in early April from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, where together we raised critical funding for the school. I know that Mike will bring the same enthusiasm, commitment, and expertise to Barnard’s fundraising efforts.

Commencement and Reunion are just around the corner. I look forward to celebrating the incredible achievements of the Class of 2024. The students who make up this class have shown such resilience and fortitude from the moment they started at Barnard at the height of the pandemic in 2020. I am so proud of our graduating seniors for all they’ve accomplished, and I know that they will flourish and lead in their next endeavors. I am also excited to welcome alumnae back to campus for a fun weekend of connecting with fellow classmates, friends, and the College. These occasions are so meaningful because they bring us together and give us the chance to feel the power of our strong, caring, and talented community. B

Making Strides

When we first met, my non-sports-spectating husband was surprised to learn that I’ve long been an avid NCAA basketball fan. Every year, I gear up to watch March Madness. It started in eighth grade when a few close friends introduced me to the tournament. I filled out a bracket, made some totally uninformed but lucky choices, and won — much to the chagrin of my more knowledgeable friends. I never did win again, but no matter, what really got me hooked was the element of unpredictability. While there are certainly teams that tend to dominate, you can never anticipate the upsets. The underdog can always make the next round or come out on top. Every game offers a potential plot twist.

This year, I found myself glued to the women’s NCAA basketball tournament. I didn’t only watch the games, I consumed articles on players like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, LSU’s Angel Reese, and of course, Columbia’s Abbey Hsu. These stories weren’t designed for stats-oriented sports fans — which I am definitely not — but for readers who are interested in understanding people at their core and how sports have played an essential role in their personal narratives. What were their motivations? The obstacles they had to overcome? The lessons they came away with?

Our Athletics Issue intends to do just that — tell the stories of our student and alumnae athletes. And the timing worked out well. This year, the Columbia Lions women’s basketball team had a record-breaking season. With four Barnard players on the roster, they won their second straight Ivy League regular season title and made it to “the Big Dance,” the NCAA Tournament. Writer Anne Stein details how Barnard players — thanks to the ColumbiaBarnard Athletic Consortium — have helped to make the Lions such a powerhouse team.

With just a few months until the Olympic Games in Paris, we share the journeys of two alumnae athletes who’ve been working hard for their chance to compete on this international stage — coincidence or not, both of them happen to be New Yorkers, one raised in Queens and the other in Brooklyn.

Bangladeshi American boxer Zinnat Ferdous ’16, who graces our cover, discovered the sport after college, and in just a short time, has already made a name for herself in the boxing world. In addition to her full-time job at Google, Ferdous is training for upcoming matches in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. We also spoke with national champion fencer Anne Cebula ’20 about fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to the Olympics. In March, Cebula was selected to the U.S. Olympic Team in women’s epee.

For both athletes, it wasn’t an easy or straight path to their success. It has taken intense training, dedication, and dogged persistence to arrive at this moment. They’ve had to advocate for themselves, convince family members, and commit time and money to their training and pursuits.

The stories in this issue are about defying expectations and taking risks, whether it’s being a first-generation American woman boxer vying for Bangladesh’s first Olympic medal or a young fencer who fought tooth and nail to be the best in her sport, despite financial hurdles and a global pandemic. These are stories about the human experience, albeit awe-inspiring and extraordinary. I’ll definitely be tuning into the Olympics and rooting the athletes on.

Nicole Anderson ’12JRN, Editor-in-Chief

Musings. Insights.

The Women’s 3V8 Crew team arrives at the dock after winning their race at the St. Joseph’s Invitational in New Jersey’s Overpeck Park on April 6.

PHOTO BY TOM STOELKER

A Bold Transformation

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center is poised to be a hub of scientific discovery and knowledge when completed in 2026

When Barnard announced its Year of Science in the fall of 2021, fundraising was already underway to transform Altschul Hall, the school’s current science hub, into a state-of-the-art center for scientific education and research. Then, in March 2022, Diana T. Vagelos ’55 and her husband, P. Roy Vagelos, M.D. ’54, pledged $55 million toward that end, the largest single donor gift the school had ever received. The rest is history.

Upon completion, the structure’s footprint will increase by 20%, morphing from 143,000 square feet to 169,000 square feet, with research lab spaces nearly doubled. Perhaps most significantly, all of Barnard’s experimental sciences will be housed in one edifice, constructed with both inclusive design principles and high-reaching sustainability goals top of mind.

The architecture firm behind the center, Perkins & Will, is targeting LEED Gold certification, and the building will be all electric, a significant step toward improved energy efficiency. “With advanced research labs, teaching labs, and community spaces that engage the campus, the project will be the first net-zeroready operational carbon, all-electric academic science building in New York City,” notes Emily Grandstaff-Rice, the Perkins & Will project manager.

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center (R&D Science Center) is currently undergoing a series of surveys and probes to evaluate the existing building, with construction set to begin in May 2024 and completion slated for the summer of 2026.

“All the science faculty are deeply involved in the planning for the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center — from details down to what size drawers they

want in their lab to larger building issues,” says Dina Merrer, chemistry professor and Dean of Science Education and Infrastructure.

A committee composed of faculty representatives from each of the science departments involved — Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Neuroscience & Behavior, Physics & Astronomy — has been meeting weekly for more than two years to discuss all aspects of the project. By July, Altschul Hall will be emptied, with many of Barnard’s science courses and research efforts relocating to various locations on the Columbia campus.

The ambitious undertaking, which has a $250 million budget, will see the future-proofing of a structure that will allow for more efficient use of space and increased flexibility. In addition to becoming fully electric, the R&D Science Center will maximize the material reuse of Altschul Hall to set a precedent for climate-smart architecture in an urban context.

“Having the confidence that our new building will support whatever contemporary equipment we bring into it will be significant,” says Merrer.

As President Laura Rosenbury ushers the College into a new era, several of her priorities — from “investing in infrastructures of excellence” to growing Barnard’s endowment to $1 billion by 2030 and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 — dovetail seamlessly with the creation of the R&D Science Center, a building that has the potential to empower many an aspiring scientist.

Bridget Moriarity

TEDx Comes to Campus Barnard Speaking Fellows bring the locally organized affiliate of TED Talks to Barnard

On February 15, the Barnard Speaking Fellows held their first-ever TEDxBarnardCollege event on campus, featuring nine talks delivered by students and one alum. While varied in topic, all the speeches included a call to action, from reckoning with the history of gentrification and climate vulnerability in Harlem to shifting one’s attitudes toward first-generation, low-income (FLI) students.

“We were highlighting the fact that student speech can be a tool for meaningful change and advocacy both on campus and in the wider community,” says Abby Bonat ’25, one of the Speaking Fellows who helped organize the event.

Olivia Bobrownicki ’24, whose talk illuminated some of the more covert ways society caters to men, discussed how the majority of medications are never tested on women. “Think back to the last time you took a medication. When you looked at the bottle, did you see a different dose based on your height, your weight, or your sex?” Bobrownicki asked her classmates. “Chances are you didn’t because we live in a society where we treat all bodies like the average male.”

Olaedo Udensi ’26 shared the power that comes with reclaiming your identity. At age 11, Udensi left Nigeria for boarding school in the U.K. After dealing with a litany of incorrect pronunciations, she began using her childhood nickname: “I renamed myself Ola to make sure that I didn’t stand out any more than I already had.” Her message to her peers was one near and dear to her own experience: Don’t let the fear of society dictate how you present yourself to the world. “What I hope we can all recognize is that every person, regardless of their name, deserves to showcase their complex identities without having to think about how palatable they are,” she said.

The event, organized by the Speaking Fellows Program, drew around 100 in-person attendees as well as additional viewers tuned in via Zoom. In handing over the stage to their peers, the Speaking Fellows were making the point that everyone has something to say — and there’s no one right way to say it. The program’s motto — “Say what you mean” — served as their guiding principle.

“In offering students a platform, we were quite

literally allowing them the space to say what they mean,” says Anusha Merchant ’25, one of the organizers.

Another motivation for the event was to get the Speaking Fellows Program — what Merchant calls an “underutilized resource” on campus — on more people’s radar.

Operating against the backdrop of an increasingly interconnected world, the Speaking Fellows are helping students develop their verbal and nonverbal communication so that they can effectively voice their thoughts when the right moment arrives, whether in the classroom or elsewhere. The space allows students to practice their speaking style and receive constructive feedback from peers without judgment. As explained on the program’s web page, “Authenticity and ethos matter more than any form of rhetorical device.”

Given TEDxBarnardCollege’s success, the Speaking Fellows plan to turn it into an annual tradition. As Merchant explains, the event — and the Speaking Fellows program — is more vital now than ever before. “The most important thing we should be using is our voice, given the consequences of the world that we live in,” she says. “So we wanted to kind of amplify and echo that resource.” —Mary Cunningham

Left to right: Speaking Fellows Abby Bonat ’25, Anusha Merchant ’25, and Hanna Bloomquist ’25

“WE ARE BUILDING COLLECTIONS THAT DOCUMENT NOT ONLY THE HISTORY OF BARNARD AS AN INSTITUTION ... BUT ALSO BROADER FEMINIST HISTORIES.”

A Growing Feminist Archive Acquisitions from outside the College community reveal a burgeoning reputation

This past summer, staff from the Barnard Archives completed processing the Nancy Friday Papers, a gift from the late author and pop psychologist (at left), who believed that “wild, delicious, wonderful sex” could sit “alongside good manners.” While the donation complements the archives’ existing materials on women’s sexuality, it also represents an uptick in donations from people outside of the College community who are beginning to recognize its well-established feminist focus, says Martha Tenney, director of Archives and Special Collections.

“We are building collections that document not only the history of Barnard as an institution and the people who have come into contact with the institution but also broader feminist histories,” says Tenney.

These broader feminist histories contain several niche areas, including archives on sex-positive feminist thought that the Friday papers complement. For example, the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) produced the 1982 Scholar & Feminist Conference on Sexuality, which is often cited as a high-water mark of the “feminist sex wars” of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when anti-pornography feminists crossed intellectual swords with sex-positive thinkers like Friday, who died in 2017.

Tenney says that the archives’ focus has increasingly homed in on “feminist worldmaking,” activism, organizing, and art making, as well as addressing “archival silences and gaps” within its overall feminist collection. To that end, the team seeks out voices and experiences that might not otherwise find their way into an academic setting.

One example — another recently acquired collection — came from the Coalition for Women Prisoners and was facilitated by BCRW. That donation provides materials on anti-carceral organizing and the experiences of incarcerated women throughout New York State.

“I think this collection has the power to contextualize … this moment in the prisonindustrial complex and the growth of incarceration in the United States and in New York State,” says Tenney. “But it also has the ability to serve as a resource for people who are currently organizing and are looking at strategy.”

It’s no coincidence that, as the collection has grown, so too has its reputation as a safe haven for sensitive material at a time when school boards nationwide are attempting — often successfully — to ban books. Tenney pointed to the Sabra Moore NYC Women’s Art Movement Collection and the Dianne Smith Papers documenting the New York art scene from the 1970s through the 2020s as other “outside” donations to the Barnard Archives that buck the trend away from freedom of expression. Moore organized antiwar protests and worked in New York City’s first legal abortion clinic. Smith, an artist based out of Harlem, has shown her work primarily in nonprofit and Black-owned spaces. Her papers include a prototype of a Black Lives Matter mural from 2020.

“Feminist scholarship doesn’t necessarily just mean the study of the history of feminism, it means thinking about any area of study using a feminist lens,” Tenney says of the artists’ papers. —Tom Stoelker

Ruth Levy Gottesman ’52 Donates $1 Billion to Medical School in the Bronx

By any standard, the $1 billion donation that Ruth Levy Gottesman ’52 gave to Albert Einstein College of Medicine on February 26 is record-shattering. It’s the largest gift given to any medical school in the nation and ensures that no medical student at Einstein will have to pay tuition — ever. Gottesman, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Teachers College at Columbia, taught at Einstein for more than 50 years before retiring as clinical professor emerita of pediatrics; she is currently chair of the board of trustees. The fortune came from her late husband, David Gottesman, an early investor in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. In a self-effacing and gracious gesture, she stipulated that the school retain the Einstein name. Gottesman delivered the good news to the diverse student body herself, which prompted raucous cheers, tears, and stunned looks of disbelief. —Tom Stoelker

Introducing Barnard’s New Provost and Dean of the Faculty

Rebecca L. Walkowitz, a distinguished scholar of language and literature, will join the College on June 1

Scholar and teacher Rebecca L. Walkowitz, who is currently the Dean of Humanities and distinguished professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University’s School of Arts and Sciences, has been named Barnard’s new Provost and Dean of the Faculty.

On June 1, Walkowitz will succeed Linda A. Bell, who has served as Provost and Dean of the Faculty since 2012 and will remain a member of Barnard’s faculty. Walkowitz’s appointment resulted from a comprehensive national search process that began last fall following Bell’s decision to step down from her administrative role.

“Barnard College is thrilled to welcome Rebecca, and her passion for crossdisciplinary teaching and research, to our tight-knit community,” says President Laura Rosenbury. “Rebecca’s academic leadership will ensure that Barnard remains one of the most dynamic colleges in the world.”

“I am enormously excited to join the Barnard community,” says Walkowitz. “I am looking forward to working with President Rosenbury, faculty, and staff to identify and nourish new areas of interdisciplinary collaboration, to expand access and success for all members of the College, and to articulate the ongoing impact of the liberal arts and sciences on our local, national, and global communities.”

—N. Jamiyla Chisholm

To read the full announcement, visit barnardbold.net/rebeccawalkowitz

Ready...Set...

RACE TO

REUNION!

2024 RACE TO REUNION GIVING CHALLENGE

Reunion is a wonderful time to share your Barnard spirit by paying it forward to current students, and the Race to Reunion Giving Challenge is the perfect opportunity to increase the impact of your gift in support of Barnard’s Annual Fund. We invite you to select a designation or direct your gift to where Barnard needs it most, in honor of your Reunion.

This year, Race to Reunion is taking a dynamic new form: We’re thrilled to introduce an interactive social fundraising platform designed to make the act of giving fun, collective, and meaningful.

The Race to Reunion Giving Challenge will now include:

MATCHES AND CHALLENGES LEADERBOARDS

Our new platform features leaderboards that place milestone reunion classes in a spirited competition to see who can rally the most donors and dollars for the Race to Reunion Giving Challenge!

Help your class to move up the Race to Reunion leaderboards by setting up a match or challenge for others to participate in with incentivizing goals that help unlock lead donor funds when achieved.

SOCIAL SHARING

Give a gift and then spread the word to your network on social media! Share your Barnard pride, upload a video message for support, and inspire others to join by celebrating progress during the challenge!

BECOME AN ADVOCATE!

Sign up today to access your milestone reunion class-specific landing page and start spreading the word, checking your class’s progress, and celebrating with fellow alums!

Visit our.barnard.edu/reunion-giving to get started!

Discourses

Ideas. Perspectives. A closer look.

Guest artist Yaching Cheung performs in ECHO, part of the Movement Lab’s Artificial environments/ environmental Intelligence (Ae/eI) Festival.

PHOTO BY CARRIE GLASSER

Bookshelf

by Isabella Pechaty ’23

FICTION

A Second Chance for Yesterday by R.A. Sinn (Rachel Hope Cleves ’97 and Aram Sinnreich)

Historian Rachel Hope Cleves and futurist Aram Sinnreich are a sibling writer duo collaborating under the pseudonym R.A. Sinn. In their dystopian science fiction novel, overworked programmer Nev Bourne gets caught up in her own time-travel tech and is sent back through time, one day at a time, in a story of second chances and queer love. (Simon & Schuster)

NONFICTION

Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon ’96

As a Barnard student in the ’90s, Scanlon underwent a difficult transition to adulthood while grieving the loss of her mother. With authenticity and care, Scanlon uses a blend of memoir and literary criticism to unpack her attempt to take her own life while a student and her subsequent years in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She mines the “madwoman” trope — in the writings of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and others — and describes how it can help us with understanding both personal discovery and institutional failures. (Penguin Random House)

The Times That Try Men’s Souls by Joyce Lee (Sitrin) Malcolm ’63 Malcolm tracks the toll of the American Revolutionary War on some of the era’s prominent families and shows how an “ideological” war leaves a unique kind of damage on relationships beyond the battlefield. Malcolm offers a new way to look at this moment in American history by tracing how the revolution tore at the burgeoning nation’s social fabric, leading to unrest and eventual violence in civil society. (Simon & Schuster)

Scattered and Fugitive Things by Laura

E. Helton

’00

The early 20th-century work of archiving Black American history was nothing short of revolutionary, conducted in a time when the nation didn’t conceive of it as a worthy discipline. Helton follows its major contributors — the librarians, curators,

and historians — who took great risks to preserve “archival material” and in doing so stimulated new conversations about Black culture. Helton explains how archival work, rather than being fixed in the past, can be a source of resistance and possibility and an important avenue for change. (Columbia University Press)

Toni Morrison and the Geopoetics of Place, Race, and Be/longing by Marilyn Sanders Mobley ’74 Mobley provides new lenses for readers to view the famed works of Toni Morrison, approaches that engage with the interdisciplinary expanse of Morrison’s rich prose. Her novels dialogue with history, politics, and culture to create “spaces” for readers to better interact with her layered narratives. (Temple University Press)

István Szabó: Filmmaker of Existential Choices by Susan Rubin Suleiman ’60

István Szabó, an internationally renowned Hungarian filmmaker, made his mark on the world through a provocative cinematic style, receiving an Academy Award for his 1981 film Mephisto. Suleiman’s book examines his style through the fraught political context of the mid20th century and shows how Szabó navigated ideas like authoritarianism and antisemitism, nationhood and personhood, and seeking or giving up on community, through his art. (Bloomsbury Academic)

Art of Japan: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art by Felice Fischer ’64 and Kyoko Kinoshita Fischer and fellow curator Kinoshita present a selection of pieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Japanese art collection, from the Neolithic through the present day. From ceramics to calligraphy, the collection has a legacy that hearkens back to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. The new book acts as a historical guide to Japanese art and its broader cultural significance. (Philadelphia Museum of Art) B

Reading Anna

The

audiobook recording session for Anna Quindlen’s After Annie brought together the talents of three Barnard alums

For a few days in December, three Barnard alums brought their unique gifts together in a Los Angeles studio for a kind of accidental collaboration between alumnae spanning generations. Anna Quindlen ’74, the acclaimed and decorated writer, didn’t realize it at the time, but her latest novel became an audiobook at the hands of two Barnard alums.

Actor Gilli Messer ’10 narrated the book, and audiobook producer Molly Lo Ray ’17 produced the recording. Quindlen’s novel After Annie, which came out in February, follows Annie’s husband, oldest child, and best friend as they grapple with her sudden death. Lo Ray read it months earlier in preparation for producing

the recording.

“This one stopped me in my tracks,” says Lo Ray, who produced the audio version of Quindlen’s book on writing, Write for Your Life, and jumped at the chance to work with Quindlen yet again, especially on this novel. “The writing is gorgeous; the characters are so real. It was definitely far and away the most moving book I worked on last year,” says Lo Ray.

It was Lo Ray’s idea to contact Messer to narrate the novel. The two had worked together in the past. Once they discovered they’d both attended Barnard, they reveled in the connection.

“There’s such a sense of warmth,” says Lo Ray. “It’s amazing.”

As Lo Ray read Quindlen’s manuscript, she could already hear Messer’s voice telling the story. “She is such a brilliant narrator. There’s a coolness to her narration, a detachment, but at the same time, her voice has love in it. It was the perfect tone for the book.” Lo Ray reached out to Quindlen, offering her the audition tapes of a few narrators, hoping she’d choose Messer. “I didn’t lead her towards Gilli, but immediately she wrote me back and said, ‘It’s got to be her,’” recalls Lo Ray.

Making the recording was a labor of love for Messer and Lo Ray. Messer, who began narrating audiobooks several years ago, said when Penguin Random House Audio approached her about performing the narration, she was thrilled to be working with Lo Ray again. When she found out she’d be recording Quindlen’s new novel, she was beside herself: “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, [she’s] iconic.’ I was freaking out.”

The novel is drawing rave reviews from top media outlets. For Messer, the beauty of the work made it difficult to record at times. “I literally would have to stop all the time because I would just be crying. It’s so sad, so good, but amazing. So moving. The director would have to pause and give me a hug. I don’t know how [Quindlen] does that,” says Messer. When Quindlen found out both Lo Ray and Messer were Barnard alums, she was surprised, but then again, she wasn’t.

“On the one hand, I’m thunderstruck,” says Quindlen. “I had no idea when I listened to Gilli’s tape, and concluded that she was perfect for this, that she was a Barnard woman. Add Molly, and it seems uncanny. And yet, how many times has this happened to me? I’m interviewing a smart judge or a wonderful doctor, and after a while, it emerges: We all went to Barnard. The College produces women who do great things.” — Marie DeNoia Aronsohn

‘A

In

U.N. Inside of Me’

writing scripts or acting on screen, Ana Cruz Kayne ’06 draws from her multicultural background

Film and television actor Ana Cruz Kayne ’06 may be increasingly recognizable since her recent stint playing Supreme Court Justice Barbie in the 2023 movie. But she has been acting since early in her Connecticut childhood, a penchant that continued straight through her time at Barnard.

“When I was maybe 6 or 7, my mom had my oldest brother in some community theatre production of The King and I, and she just pushed me up on the stage” during auditions, Kayne recalls. “I loved it. I loved all aspects of it, and I think it was very suited to my personality as I continued to grow up.”

That personality was forged in a uniquely multicultural household. Her father is an endocrinologist of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. He and her mom — a Catholic first-generation immigrant from the Philippines — met as college undergraduates. Kayne and her two older brothers grew up steeped in both sets of traditions. Her eldest brother, Michael Cruz Kayne — now a writer at The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — was bar mitzvahed atop the ancient mountain fortress Masada in Israel. Kayne herself has fond memories of visiting Lourdes, France, one of Catholicism’s most prominent pilgrimage sites, with her grandmother.

“There’s no mentorship for what it means to grow up with such a diverse background,” she says. “It’s like a U.N. inside of me.”

Kayne’s close-knit family survived a series of tragedies that she was able to process through her acting. Shortly before her King and I audition, the family home burned down, Kayne said, uprooting them for the months it took to rebuild. A few years later, her middle brother was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. The bone cancer “was basically the star of our family show until I left for college,” Kayne says. (He survived the ordeal.) Acting “took me out of the immediacy of my brother’s illness, of moving houses. It was this constant thing that as a child felt uniquely for me.”

At Barnard, where Kayne majored in psychology and Italian literature, she continued to act in at least one production every semester. She appeared alongside Barbie co-star Kate McKinnon CC’06 in a Barnard Theatre Department production of Caryl Churchill’s play The Skriker and with Barbie director Greta Gerwig ’06 in the King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe’s 2004 production of The Tempest.

“It was fun and weird and great,” reminisced Gerwig, who emailed her memories the morning after attending the Oscars. “I just always knew she [Kayne] was terrific. She had such command of the language but made it seem easy and effortless and funny.” The friends first worked together professionally on Gerwig’s 2019 remake of Little Women, in which Kayne, true to form, played an actor in a Shakespeare play.

“I had wanted to find something bigger that we could do, and the wildness of Barbie, with its ‘multiplicity of Barbie,’ felt like the perfect fit,” Gerwig says.

That deliberately expansive redefinition of Barbie — historically the buxom blonde target of endless feminist critiques — gave Kayne the opportunity to showcase her culture. In the film’s final scene, Kayne wears a terno, a traditional Filipina dress with

distinctly structured butterfly sleeves.

“To get to sit there as a Filipino and say, ‘No, I’m representing a very specific nation, a very specific culture,’ it just means everything to me,” she told Vogue Philippines. “It was a triumph for me in my journey as an artist,” she later added.

Post-Barbie, Kayne’s star has continued to rise; she played an attorney in the Netflix miniseries Painkiller, and she is writing several scripts that draw on her self-described “multi-culti” upbringing.

But that all came later. Before Barbie ’s worldwide release. And before the film gained a larger sociocultural significance and earned $1.4 billion at the box office, making an irrefutable argument for more investment in movies by and about women. Back in 2022, it was a few gals reuniting in London on the pinkest movie set that ever existed.

“When I saw Kate [McKinnon] come in, it was like you see water in the desert,” Kayne says. “You show up vulnerable and hope everyone loves you, and then you see someone you’ve known since you were a child. It’s so special to have had these long histories with these incredible artists.”

The feelings were mutual.

“Having her on set nearly every day as one of the Barbies was perfectly dreamy,” Gerwig said. “She was the person I’ve always known her to be — wildly talented, uproariously funny, deeply kind, and willing to try anything. It’s all I could ever want from an actor, and I am very blessed that she is also my best friend of 20-plus years.”

Kira Goldenberg ’07

Opera on Ice

Mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran ’95 combines her unique talents for a performance like no other

In mid-March, mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran ’95 took center stage to sing a song from the musical The Wiz. The twist? She did so while gliding across the ice. The performance took place at the annual ice show hosted by the nonprofit Figure Skating in Harlem, which is the first of its kind to combine access to figure skating with education and leadership development for girls of color.

Moran Hall, a celebrated opera singer, premiered her first skating show in 2016 at National Sawdust, a women-led venue in Brooklyn, but the world of cold-weather athletics and singing are not new for Hall Moran, who practiced both, albeit separately, throughout her high school years in Stamford, Connecticut. She was a member of an off-campus synchronized ice skating team and performed with her school’s advanced chamber ensemble, the Westhill Chamber Singers. Hall Moran went on to earn two bachelor’s degrees: one in music from Barnard and another, after graduation, in classical vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music.

Since graduating from Barnard, Hall Moran has shown how best to make use of her creative time, from her 2012 Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess to collaborations with artists like Carrie Mae Weems — not to mention her performance in Breaking Ice, which is about the U.S. figure skater Debi Thomas’ rivalry with East Germany’s Katarina Witt.

This spring, Moran was recognized by Figure Skating in Harlem for her work as a volunteer skating instructor. “I feel a sense of responsibility and excitement about keeping two trains running,” says the singer and figure skater. “If you’re a Black woman and you say that you sing, nobody’s shocked; there’s no resistance.” But say that you’re a Black woman who sings beautifully while ice skating, and people pay attention.

Whether she is performing off the ice or performing on skates with a musical quartet backing her up, Hall Moran has places to go and audiences who can’t wait to see what’s next. —N. Jamiyla Chisholm

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Kayne (left) and Greta Gerwig ’06 in the 2005 Barnard Theatre Department production Xandra: Compelled to Speak PHOTO COURTESY OF BARNARD ARCHIVES

and far-reaching. After parsing a variety of definitions, the group conceded that artificial intelligence means different things to different people. A chemist might see AI one way, while an artist might see it another way. Likewise, faculty, students, and staff hold different views depending on their department or discipline.

AI isn’t coming; it’s here. And while not everyone on campus is using the technology, conversations grappling with the meaning and challenges of AI are being held in offices, classrooms, labs, and studios. Barnard’s faculty, staff, and students are delving deep on task forces, through research, and in publications — often breaking ground and leading other institutions of higher ed to take notice.

“We’re going to have to think about how artificial intelligence [and] the speed of innovation affects our curriculum, our teaching methods, but also how all of us do our work,” said President Laura Rosenbury in a recent town hall.

While there’s much to learn and understand about this formidable technology, the Barnard community has been quick not only to engage with it but to innovate.

for Pedagogy, as faculty grading papers started to suspect that students were drawing on the technology. Professors began knocking on Wright’s door looking for guidance. Wright and her team got to work. By mid-January 2023, the Center had published recommendations on the College website under the heading “Generative AI and the College Classroom” — making Barnard one of the first institutions of higher ed to do so.

Wright says they weren’t operating in a silo on campus. Not long after the guidelines were published, several staff and faculty members formed the AI Operations Group, which meets weekly to discuss the ever-changing AI landscape. In addition to Wright, the cohort includes Melanie Hibbert, director of Instructional Media and Technology

If one is to engage, then it should be done competently, carefully, with transparency and training, says Melanie Hibbert, who recently submitted a paper, “A Framework for AI Literacy,” for review to the higher-ed tech journal Educause Hibbert and her co-authors, Wright and IMATS colleagues Elana Altman and Tristan Shippen, prioritize the framework in four levels: Understand AI, Use & Apply AI, Analyze & Evaluate AI, and Create AI.

According to the paper, understanding involves basic terms and concepts around AI, such as machine learning, large language models (LLMs), and neural networks. When using the technology, one should be able employ the tools toward desired responses. “This has been a particular focus at Barnard, including handson labs, or real-time, collaborative prompt engineering to demonstrate how to use these tools,” the authors say. When analyzing and evaluating the work, users should pay attention to “outcomes, biases, ethics, and other topics beyond the prompt window.” The authors note that while Barnard has provided workshops at the Computational Science Center for users to begin creating with AI, this is an area that’s still evolving.

made using AI algorithms treat people fairly and equitably.

Cooley says that users should always be aware of where large language models and visual images are taken from. For example, Wright notes that many images and texts draw from the public domain databases populated with male painters, male photographers, and male writers.

“We are a feminist College, and we are letting you know that there’s a century of male-dominated scholarship and textual repositories that take away our voices,” she says.

Victoria Swann says her primary ethical concern centers on the commercialization of the science.

“The danger is not, you know, the Terminator is Continued on page 76

Promised Land

Conservationist Shelby Semmes ’06 is working to protect forested areas to build a livable future for all

by Natalie Schachar

’12

A key part of the work that Shelby Semmes ’06 does as the New England vice president of Trust for Public Land — an organization dedicated to creating parks and protecting the outdoors — is to identify areas of privately held land that would benefit from public ownership or conservation status. So when an industrial timber company put 31,367 acres up for sale in the Katahdin region of Maine in late 2022, Semmes and her colleagues knew they had to act fast.

Situated near the base of Mount Katahdin, the forested land is home to 4,000 acres of wetlands and 53 miles of streams, as well as an aquatic and wildlife habitat that includes moose, bear, Canada lynx, salmon, and wood turtles. It also abuts the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, a giant swath of acreage along the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

And significantly, the property is the ancestral land of the Penobscot Nation — an area sacred to the tribe’s community and culture.

“We bought it thinking about who was best fit to take it long term,” says Semmes.

In November 2023, Trust for Public Land announced a plan to “return nearly 30,000 acres of land taken from the Penobscot Nation in the 19th

BY

PHOTO

STEPHANIE DIX

century,” representing the largest land return between a nonprofit and a tribal nation in the United States.

The organization comes to this project with years of experience restoring tribal and Indigenous lands across the U.S., from California to Hawaii.

“Part of the problem we’re working to address is that Indigenous people in the U.S. steward and maintain only 2% of their ancestral lands, and in Maine, that’s even lower,” says Semmes.

Studies have found that Indigenous-protected areas often function as well as, or even better than, those managed by government agencies or established conservation groups.

“We’re hoping to have a historically significant partnership to restore the land to not only Penobscot management but their natural resource expertise and knowledge,” Semmes says. As legal stewards of the land, the Penobscot Nation will be the decision-makers on all conservation and land-use matters, from overseeing the protection of wildlife to mitigating the effects of climate change.

When the land transfer is completed, Semmes says, “it will be a true highlight of my career that has sincere roots in my time at Barnard.”

Her interest in environmental conservation, however, started even before college, when she spent summers and long weekends visiting the White Mountain National Forest, where her family owned a homestead perched near the Sandwich Range. On the edge of the wilderness, Semmes would roam unsupervised in the woods for hours at a time — paddling in a pond, exploring brooks and wetlands, and discovering frogs.

“I don’t think I realized how unusual it was to have such a deep understanding and exposure and access to a national forest,” Semmes says.

But it wasn’t until her time at Barnard that her love for and connection to the outdoors blossomed into her life’s purpose. At Barnard, Semmes studied anthropology with a minor in economics. She took courses with anthropology professor Paige West, who was then focused on studying the flaws of fortress conservation, a model based on the idea that biodiversity is best protected through ecosystems that function in isolation, away from human disturbance.

Public Land are currently working with tribe leaders to establish public roads to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument to further enhance access for the Maine communities of Millinocket, East Millinocket, Medway, and others. “We hope that it will create a right of way or the road will become a part of the national monument to allow visitors access,” explains Semmes.

They also hope to ensure trail connections, which bring an economic boost to surrounding communities through associated tourism. But there is still a long road ahead. Trust for Public Land and the Penobscot Nation are currently fundraising in an effort to reach their goal of $32 million to transfer the property to the Nation.

“We’re $6 million into this, and we’re looking at

“Part of the problem we’re working to address is that Indigenous people in the U.S. steward and maintain only 2% of their ancestral lands, and in Maine, that’s even lower,” says Semmes.

It was West’s scholarship, Semmes says, that helped inspire her to pursue environmental work. “I wanted to think about natural resources and communities who benefit from them — not only recreationally but for their livelihoods.”

After pursuing a master’s in forestry from the Yale School of the Environment, Semmes got a job at Trust for Public Land, which, she says, takes a people-centric approach to land conservation. “The idea that lands are managed through participatory and, in many cases, public governance models felt very aligned with me in terms of the conservation work I wanted to be doing,” she says. “That stuck with me.”

After more than a decade of doing conservation work, Semmes has quite a few professional milestones under her belt. She has helped to protect the biggest patch of unconserved private land in the Green Mountain National Forest, established community forests for rural development through participatory management processes, and addressed the outdoor equity gap in Boston and other cities.

As part of the land transfer with the Penobscot Nation, Semmes and Trust for

the role of private philanthropy and public grants,” Semmes says.

Likewise, the vision to make roadways available will rely on enactment of new federal legislation to authorize the National Park Service to acquire property interests on the roads and associated lands.

The challenges for conservationists like Semmes are great. By the end of 2060, New England states are projected to lose 1.2 million acres of forested land and 17% of their carbon storage capacity — partly as a result of low-cost subdivision and land development.

For Semmes, however, the uphill battle only solidifies her belief that her work is more important than ever.

“Investments in land conservation are part of how a life well lived is accomplished,” she says. “By having people embrace and experience that reality, we’ll have a better chance.” B

THE GOOD FIGHT

Boxer Zinnat Ferdous ’16 is aiming for Bangladesh’s first Olympic medal

by Gabriel Baumgaertner

’21JRN | Photos by James Farrell

Zinnat Ferdous ’16 was not dreaming of becoming an Olympian in early 2017. All she wanted was to get her boyfriend, Edmund, a nice gift for his birthday.

She chuckled when Edmund shadowboxed at stoplights, in the bathroom, and “anytime there was a void.” Until she watched him pound a heavy bag during a visit to the gym, she had no idea she had been dating an amateur boxer for the past few months. So when one of his friends told her that a world championship fight was coming to Madison Square Garden, she splurged on two tickets about a dozen rows from the ring.

Seeing two elite fighters battle on the world’s grandest stage, she says, was intoxicating. This wasn’t just two people pummeling one another, she thought. This was a strategy game.

Seven years after that fight — and just four years after punching a bag for the first time — Ferdous is looking to qualify for the Paris Olympics as a member of the Bangladesh national team. She would be the first woman boxer to represent a country of over 170 million and the most populous country to never win an Olympic medal. And she’ll do it while managing a $70 million advertising program at her full-time job at Google.

“My friends and family would like to describe me as an extreme person,” Ferdous says. “I think when I take a liking to anything that I do, I really go in and I get the job done.”

For an athlete to qualify for the Olympics usually means a lifetime of training. Some athletes are able to try other sports to keep their dreams alive. Qualifying for the Olympics when you’ve never played an organized sport is highly unusual, if not unprecedented.

But it’s within reach for the 30-year-old Ferdous, the daughter of two Bangladesh natives who settled in Astoria, Queens, in the late 1980s. Since partaking in her first boxing match

in November 2021, Ferdous has medaled in six amateur tournaments and defeated some of the top-ranked American boxers in her weight category. She became the first woman boxer to represent Bangladesh on the international stage at the Asian Games last October and will travel to Thailand at the end of May for her last chance to qualify.

In under three years, Ferdous has logged 30 bouts in rings from Toledo, Ohio, to the Dominican Republic and Russia. Her trainer, Colin Morgan, can’t remember such a grueling schedule in his four-decade career.

“I would prefer if she gets some rest, but I don’t think that’s possible in New York City,” Morgan says. “You’ve got to work, then you’ve got to train, and you’ve got to go home and work again and then come back to the gym.”

Ferdous grew up around a lot of boys — a brother, and male cousins who lived just blocks away — and gravitated toward physical sports, but her household had a strict curfew well before sundown and emphasized academics, not recreational sports.

“When I brought home a 90,” Ferdous says, “they asked where the 100 was.”

Still, Ferdous always loved a challenge, and she found plenty once she arrived at Barnard. She immediately sensed the rigor of the school’s academic environment by witnessing the study habits of her freshman roommate, who had aspirations of being a doctor. After graduating with a psychology degree, Ferdous dabbled in the worlds of fashion (an internship at Marc Jacobs) and finance before choosing the world of tech sales.

To excel in this field requires lots of cold calling, engaging even the fussiest and most indecisive clients, and executing sales under pressure. Some projects require swagger, others

“I think I quickly realized there’s not many people that have my profile,” Ferdous says.

“I would say the primary ethnic groups for females [in boxing] tend to be white, Black, Hispanic. And then there’s this Bengali Muslim, firstgeneration American girl that comes on the scene, and they’re like, ‘Who is this?’”

persistence. All of them call for confidence and preparation, lessons Ferdous would take to the ring when she’d begin her boxing career five years later.

“I believe that performance starts the second your ring walk starts,” Ferdous says.

In 2019, Edmund introduced Ferdous to his longtime trainer, Danny Nicholas, who quipped, “I don’t train cardio boxers. So if you’re interested in fighting, let me know.” By now, boxing was a shared obsession between them, and Ferdous understood why her boyfriend — soon to become her husband — kept training even though he hadn’t fought competitively in years. Being a fighter meant early wake-ups for training and long sessions dedicated to minute details of footwork and punch delivery. The physical demands were grueling, but the payoff was addicting. The tactical side of boxing was like learning to play chess, except a wrong move meant getting hit in the face.

Her older brother loved that she had found a new passion. Her parents were concerned that the amount of time she was dedicating to this hobby would interfere with her work at Google.

“I would tell them I was going to train and gradually let them know details but not let them know about fighting,” Ferdous says. “I’d prime them in conversations and tell them, ‘I’m thinking about fighting.’ They were completely against it.”

Under Nicholas’s tutelage, Ferdous learned how to train like a fighter, but her progress was derailed by the pandemic and a foot injury. Once Ferdous returned from surgery and the city reopened, Nicholas took her to train at Bout Fight Club in lower Manhattan, where she met Morgan.

In the summer of 2021, Morgan watched Ferdous spar with a woman several inches taller and about 40 pounds heavier than her. “She doesn’t really know how to punch yet,” Morgan thought to himself. “But that other girl isn’t hitting her either.”

“This girl was trying some really big punches [on Zinnat],” Morgan says. “And [Zinnat] just makes sure she isn’t getting hit. … Her defensive skills were already really good. She just needed somebody to teach her some offense, and she could turn into something really special.”

After seeing her spar, Morgan huddled with Nicholas and then approached Ferdous: If you train with me, he told her, I can get you to the 2024 Olympics.

“In my head, I’m like, ‘All right, I don’t know who this guy is,’” Ferdous says. “And so I quickly went back home and looked him up.”

She found a trainer with over 40 years of experience who has trained multiple professional world champions and several amateur gold medalists. Still, the most decorated women fighters in the world had logged dozens of competitive fights or had been raised in the sport since they were young. Ferdous had little formal training, no official fights, and no competitive athletic background to speak of.

To be ready for a competitive fight — much less dream of qualifying for the Olympics — Ferdous would need to dedicate several hours of training a day to achieve and maintain proper fitness, on top of mastering the technical instruction that could get tedious. And all of it would have to be done outside of her job at Google, where she had recently been promoted.

As Ferdous puts it, she had to scratch the itch. She wanted to compete.

“I think I quickly realized there’s not many people that have my profile,” Ferdous says. “I would say the primary ethnic groups for females [in boxing] tend to be white, Black, Hispanic. And then there’s this Bengali Muslim, first-generation American girl that comes on the scene, and they’re like, ‘Who is this?’”

Since starting to train with Morgan in late 2021, Ferdous’s weekday evenings and weekend afternoons have been spent in a gym sandwiched between a law firm and a chiropractor’s office on the second floor of a lower Manhattan office building.

Over three hours, Ferdous will work with various punching bags: heavy bags that stand 5 feet tall and weigh around 50 pounds to practice power punches and speed bags shaped like raindrops that weigh just 8 ounces for quick hits. That comes after about 15 minutes of jumping rope to warm up and perfect the lateral bounce required to glide across the ring.

Then it’s time to shadowbox. She works the forms of her jab (quick, straight strikes), hooks (quick, rounded punches), and uppercuts (long and powerful U-shaped blows). In between the ropes, Morgan offers focused instruction on minute details. During one session, he guides Ferdous and a few fighters on proper pivot form to assure that the fighter is ideally positioned to evade an opponent’s punch and ready to throw one. After that, Ferdous won’t just spar with her female teammates, she’ll do two three-minute rounds with a male teammate who is undefeated in 15 professional fights. Once the sparring ends, Ferdous hits the ground to do around 30 minutes of calisthenics. Ferdous never sits or stands still for more than a few seconds throughout the entire session.

“It’s like climbing stairs one at a time, you can’t just try to jump from the bottom and go to the top,” Morgan says about Ferdous. “But at the same time, I’m doing [training] at a fast rate because there’s not much time [to qualify for the Olympics].”

Focused training will build technical proficiency and stamina, but it doesn’t teach you how to handle prefight nerves or how to recover after getting hit in the face. So Ferdous scheduled her first fight in November 2021 at a charity event called Haymakers for Hope. Her parents remained resistant to how much time she spent in the ring, but she convinced them to attend after raising over $30,000 to commemorate her aunt who died of stomach cancer.

Even before the fight began, her mother grew emotional, and when Ferdous won by unanimous decision, she shed tears of pride, Ferdous says. When she invited them to watch her fight at Madison Square Garden as part of the New York City Golden Gloves tournament, her father pulled her aside and told her, “I thought you looked like Muhammad Ali out there.”

“Sometimes they’ll still ask me when I am going to stop with this stuff,” Ferdous says. “But I think they understand now that this is more than a hobby. It’s a passion. And they see me representing Bangladesh.”

By spring 2023, Ferdous thought she was going for a chance to represent the United States, but Morgan lobbied for her to get dual citizenship with Bangladesh since she was a firstgeneration immigrant. She leveraged the cold-calling skills she refined at her first tech sales job to connect with a former Google colleague named Bickey Russell, a former cricket player with friends who were connected to the Bangladesh Olympic Association. By July, she was

flying with Morgan to meet the association in Dhaka, where security guards picked them up. “It felt like I had already won a gold medal,” Ferdous jokes.

The federation welcomed Ferdous but wanted to see her train and fight before officially granting her the opportunity to represent the country. She arrived at the Muhammad Ali Boxing Stadium in Dhaka, where only male fighters trained. After watching her sparring sessions with two male fighters and exhibition bouts with two female athletes, the federation wanted Ferdous’s citizenship expedited so she could qualify for the upcoming Asian Games.

Since then, Ferdous has adjusted to the unexpected media scrutiny that comes with becoming an Olympic hopeful in a country with no history of success. When her status as a Bangladeshi athlete was confirmed, outlets swarmed her with interview requests and buzzed that this might be the person to get the country an Olympic medal.

But when Ferdous lost to the eventual bronze medalist at the Asian Games in September, the questions were harsh and direct from the couple dozen Bangladeshi reporters in attendance.

“I was just mobbed with questions like, ‘What could you have done better?’ ‘Why did you lose?’” Ferdous says. “These were harsh questions, and you have to hold your composure. I never thought about training or preparing for that.”

She asked Inam Ahmed, the chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board and a mentor since Ferdous joined the national team, how it was possible to handle such intense media scrutiny if she didn’t win every fight. He explained that Bangladesh is in its infancy of understanding how to follow sports. As the sports industry grows, he told her, they will come to realize that wins and losses are part of the athlete’s journey.

Even with the pressure building before her final chance to qualify in May, Ferdous marvels at how her life — and perspective — have changed since she chose to pursue boxing not even five years ago.

“I remember after one of the training sessions in Bangladesh, this little girl came up to me and said, ‘I never knew girls can punch like that; I thought only men can,’” Ferdous says. “And I think that one instance showed me that what I’m doing — it’s kind of more than just me, right?” B

National champion fencer Anne Cebula ’20 is on her way to represent the USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics — a dream long in the making

by Nicole Anderson ’12JRN | photos by Laura Barisonzi

Some people need time to figure out what they want to do. They meander and dabble until they land on something. But for Anne Cebula ’20, there was no equivocation, no trial and error. She knew her calling from the moment she watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics at just 10 years old from her home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

“I saw fencing for the first time, and I just fell in love. This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she recalls. “And I remember I saw it, and I said, ‘Well, I want to do that. And I want to do that there.’”

In March, USA Fencing announced that Cebula had been selected to the U.S. Olympic Team in women’s epee. This summer, she will head to the 2024 Paris Olympics — a goal she has worked tirelessly to achieve since she first discovered the sport on the international stage 16 years ago.

It isn’t, however, a surprise that she made the cut. She has been breaking records and winning championships since she became part of the Columbia Lions fencing team. Cebula — who is currently ranked No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 27 in the world in epee — was a member of the World Championship Epee Team in 2023 and took gold in the individual North American Cup in October.

As a Barnard undergrad, Cebula contributed to the overall success of the Lions. She won the NCAA Individual Epee Championship in 2019, making her the first Barnard student-athlete to win an individual NCAA title in any sport. She was also the first women’s epeeist to take home the NCAA crown for the Lions. Cebula earned All-America honors twice during her career and helped the team win an Ivy League Women’s Championship and the NCAA combined title in 2019.

Despite her impressive track record, Cebula is unusually self-effacing. Michael Aufrichtig, head coach of the Lions fencing team, credits this humility for helping to shape her into the competitive athlete she is today. “I’m not sure if Anne ever realized how good she actually is … and that’s not a weakness,” says Aufrichtig. “But I saw some quote [that said], ‘Even those who are the best are always training like they’re not’ … and that drove her even more.”

‘GIRL

WITH THE FENCING BAG’

The 2008 Beijing Olympics marked a turning point for Cebula. She became laser focused on learning how to fence. The spectacle of the event might have been what initially drew her in, but it was the art of the sport — the physicality, the technical skill, and what she describes as the “opera”-like emotion — that made her want to pursue fencing. “It’s dangerous, but there’s a ballet aspect involved. It is super athletic.”

After some research, Cebula told her parents about a club and a summer program where she could learn. These were all expensive options, and her parents weren’t convinced that it wasn’t just a passing phase, so they told her to wait. Years later, when it came time for Cebula to choose a high school, the decision was a no-brainer. She opted for Brooklyn Technical High School because it had great academics and “they had a free fencing club, and I was like, ‘This is it. I need to do this,’” she says. “‘I’m gonna be captain by the time I graduate.’”

Cebula emailed the coach the first day of high school, and he told her to come on by. There was a mix of levels, she says, and the coach deliberately didn’t open the equipment closet until late spring. Without the allure of using weapons, the group thinned out over time. “All he did was make us do footwork, footwork, footwork,” she says. “It was like, ‘Oh, you want to fence? You have to wait.’ I waited.”

By the end of the year, 10 people were left on the team — including Cebula. During the summer, she attended a fencing-focused day camp where she had the chance to compete in a small tournament. She won, earning her coach’s high

praise and her parents’ support. She continued to participate in local competitions and build her skills. But she wasn’t able to compete in national tournaments due to the high costs, which put her at a disadvantage for college recruiting. By the time she was ready to apply to schools, coaches told her it wouldn’t be possible without a national ranking. So when Fordham University offered her a good financial package, she accepted — even though the school didn’t have a fencing program — with a plan to transfer out.

“And I was like, I’m gonna fence for one more year. If I can’t transfer out to Barnard, my dream school, then I’ll quit fencing,” Cebula says. “And so at Fordham, I was just the girl with the fencing bag.”

COMPETITIVE EDGE

Cebula first crossed paths with Coach Aufrichtig around 2016 at a tournament where Cebula, competing for the Fencers Club, went up against New York Athletic Club, a highly competitive fencing program that produces Olympic medalists and national champions and where Aufrichtig is chairman.

“So we’re going against the Fencers Club with some very strong women epee, and there’s this tall, skinny young girl, who happened to be Anne Cebula, and we’re like, ‘We don’t even know who she is, but we got to beat her, right?’” he recalls. “And Anne beat us … so after that, we invited her to come train with us at the New York Athletic Club.”

Aufrichtig saw Cebula’s potential. But she hadn’t previously been on his radar for recruiting. Then one day, he got an email from her that she was applying to transfer to Barnard. “I ran over to Barnard. …

I didn’t have any more recruiting spots, but I just wanted to put in a good word. Of course, she had great grades and did well at Fordham,” he says.

At Barnard, Cebula, a neuroscience and behavior major, split her time between labs and practice, coursework and competitions. It could be hectic, but she was thrilled to have a place as a walk-on on the team. “It was nuts, because I don’t think people realize how prestigious or high level this team is — like, I had teammates who were [trying to qualify] for the Olympics at 18 or 19 years old,” she says.

Outside of college, fencing is an individual sport, and being on a team drove her to work even harder. “It helped that I was a transfer because I didn’t understand the gravity. I was just kind of like, ‘I get to go to NCAA and I can’t let my team down. I need to win as much as possible.’ I was just so happy to be a part of the team.”

Throughout her career, Cebula has specialized in epee, which is one of three disciplines in modern fencing that are differentiated by the weapon. (In addition to epee, there’s foil and sabre.) Each uses a different blade and has different rules. With epee, the target area covers the entire body from the mask down to the feet. “There’s a lot more cardio, which is why everyone kind of has a distance-runner build,” says Cebula, who fits that description at 5 feet, 11 inches.

Although her height is certainly an asset, it is Cebula’s mental fortitude and technical precision that has made her into such a powerful athlete.

“I will say that the way she fences is very on point…. She is able to put blinders on and really focus on each touch very intentionally,” says Aufrichtig. “One big aspect of fencing is you have to be present in the moment — and that is definitely one of her strengths.”

“I’m either going to the Olympics or not, but I’m retiring after this,” she says.

Competing at such a high level requires a large financial commitment, from training to travel and entry fees. In some countries, fencing programs are government funded, but not in the U.S. Cash prizes for tournaments are modest (and often nonexistent) compared with major sports like tennis. Cebula hopes that after she retires, she can help “make fencing more accessible” and increase its visibility.

“A big chunk of my journey and story is I put it off because I couldn’t do it [financially],” she says.

OLYMPICS AND BEYOND

Cebula’s senior year — and season — came to an abrupt close when COVID hit. Upon graduating, she mapped out a four-year plan to get to the Olympics. But seeing how quickly things can get upended, she wanted to balance out the training with other goals. During this period, she completed a remote postbaccalaureate program for medical school and worked as an administrative assistant for Dr. Lorraine Chrisomalis-Valasiadis ’83, an OB/GYN. She also signed with Elite Model Management and worked in New York, Paris, and London.

Meanwhile, Cebula kept training and competing. Her ranking improved. “Every tournament, I was kind of learning more and more about myself — how to be an international athlete. So things like how to adjust to the time zone really quickly, how to adjust if you get sick from food poisoning, how to pack,” says Cebula. “So that kind of felt like my training-wheels period.”

Gradually, Cebula ramped up training to five or six days a week. To get into optimal shape, she has worked with coach Sergey Danilov as well as a personal trainer. When the Olympic qualification process began, she decided, "I am all in.”

So when Cebula set her sights on being an Olympian, she knew the 2024 Olympic Games was her chance. In March, she got news that she’d qualified. “Twenty percent of me was overjoyed, and 80% of me is like, ‘All right, get back in the hamster wheel, we’ve got a tournament,’” she says.

Cebula says that when it comes to bouts, she relies on muscle memory. Some countries have certain fencing styles, but it comes down to feeling out competitors. Even with the stresses of competing, she finds joy in the whole process. Today, she feels “more motivated than ever.”

“I’m going harder in my trainings because I want to end on a good note,” she says. “I mean, the note is going to be good anyway because we’re ending it there.” B

On a late night in mid-March in Blacksburg, Virginia, the starting five lineup of the 2023-24 Columbia women’s basketball team stepped onto the court at Virginia Tech to play the first Division I NCAA Tournament game in program history. The women pushed Vanderbilt to the limit, but in the end they came up heartbreakingly short, 72-68. Though the Lions’ March Madness debut didn’t go as hoped, it was a massive step forward for Columbia women’s sports — as well as for the Barnard student-athletes.

HOOPS HYPE

In a season filled with successes, Barnard student-athletes played a key role on the Columbia women’s basketball team

by Anne Stein

’90JRN

For 38 years, Columbia women’s basketball has been a member of the Ivy League, but it wasn’t until the March 2016 arrival of head coach Megan Griffith ’07CC that the team embarked on what’s become a record-setting journey of firsts: In 2023, they won their first Ivy League regular season title (which was repeated in 2024), and this year, Abbey Hsu — Ivy League Player of the Year and thirdround draft pick for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun — became Columbia basketball’s all-time leading scorer. The team fought all the way to the WNIT Championship finals last year, and this season they made it to “the Big Dance,” the NCAA Tournament.

Griffith, a two-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, and her staff have rebuilt the team by instilling a new philosophy, scheduling games against tougher opponents, and recruiting in areas nationally and internationally where they’d rarely gone before.

A former assistant coach for a highly successful Princeton squad, Griffith is now the program’s winningest head coach, with a 122-83 record prior

Clockwise from top left: Head coach Megan Griffith; Nicole Stephens; Habti Calvo; supportive fans; a huddle during the Princeton game

to the NCAA Tournament game. She was a superachieving player too, serving as Columbia women’s basketball captain for three seasons and twice earning All-Ivy League honors.

“Columbia is my home,” said Griffith, a day before the team’s NCAA tourney game. “I grew up there. I walked on campus in 2003, and here we are, 21 years later, with the dreams that I had as a player coming true now as a coach.”

But it’s not just Columbia students who’ve been along for the ride. Barnard is the only women’s college in the nation that offers students the opportunity to play Division I sports, and since Griffith and associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Tyler Cordell arrived, they have put an emphasis on recruiting Barnard student-athletes.

This year’s squad has the most Barnard students ever, with senior Nicole Stephens and first-year players Habti Calvo, Blau Tor, and Emily Montes. The women are there because of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, a unique arrangement allowing Barnard students to compete with Columbia undergraduates in NCAA Division I athletics.

“When I was a student-athlete here, we always had Barnard student-athletes on our teams,” says Griffith, “and when I came back it was only Columbia College students, so that was super intriguing to me. I was like, ‘What happened?’”

Along with recruiting internationally (in addition to Spain’s Calvo and Tor, Australian sisters Fliss and Kitty Henderson and the U.K.’s Susie Rafiu are on the squad), Cordell was tasked early on with finding talented basketball players who were interested in Barnard.

“The diversity on our campus and having the multiple undergraduate college experiences available is really a great asset,” Griffith explains. “So we leaned into that hard and created more financial aid opportunities for athletes and students in general, and that was a big part of how we could grow that part.”

The connection between the coaches and Barnard has grown stronger in recent years. “The people are amazing, the support there is fantastic, and the relationships we have from all parts of the College are great,” Griffith says.

Nicole Stephens was Cordell’s first Barnard recruit, with both hailing from the same hometown in Ohio. Stephens played in all 30 games this season, averaging nearly 20 minutes a game off the bench and helping lead the team.

“If there’s a player on the court who has my brain, it would be her, and to have that advantage is huge,”

says Griffith. “Nic brings tremendous leadership from that standpoint, and she’s also got a great ‘take care of the young kids’ mindset. She makes sure the young players get their reps in and has been a great mentor to the team.”

Stephens has a phenomenal basketball mind, Cordell says. While injured last season, Stephens worked with coaches and led from the bench, game planning, scouting opponents, and communicating with teammates. “I joke that we gave her a clipboard and she just ran with it,” says Cordell.

The chance to play D1 sports and attend Barnard has been the best of both worlds, says Stephens, a sociology major who’d like to coach basketball after graduation. “When I came here on my first visit, I didn’t know much about Barnard. But I really loved the campus, and I talked to the coaches and met Barnard staff and fell in love with the people and the tight-knit community. It’s been great experiencing D1 basketball and academically being involved in smaller classrooms and getting to know my professors.”

Stephens has seen the team grow over three seasons as they’ve absorbed Griffith’s philosophy, called EDGE (Energy, Discipline, Grit, Excellence). “It gets taught from day one, to play with that edge on our shoulders and to practice that way every day, too,” she says. “Coach G is very intense and very loving at the same time. If you mess up or fail, you have all of your teammates and full coaches’ support to help pick you up.”

When Griffith and staff first took over, the players told them they wanted stability and consistent messaging. For eight years, the staff has honed in on that message. “Columbia EDGE is the theme,” says Griffith. “I believe you need edges in life to get ahead, and we talk a lot about having an edge. Over the eight years, we’ve fine-tuned the messaging and gotten people to believe in it.”

In addition to the EDGE theme and playing tougher opponents, the staff has focused on two other critical areas: One was recruiting internationally and regionally in areas the team hadn’t recruited from before, emphasizing the vast opportunities New York City offers to students, and the other was building authentic relationships among coaches, the recruits, and their families.

“As coaches, we love the relationship piece,” Cordell explains. “We’re not waiting until we get this roster of kids and figuring out how to love and teach and coach them, but we’re really diving into the recruiting side and figuring out what’s important to them and their parents and how we fit into that, and

Opposite page, from left:

Habti Calvo and Blau Tor

PHOTOS BY DOROTHY HONG

does that work with our program and university and our goals.”

Two international recruits are first-year players Habti Calvo and Blau Tor, who both played for Spain’s U18 national team. Tor and her parents, who hail from Barcelona, were especially interested in Barnard’s science programs. The two recruits were also drawn to the College’s smaller class sizes and a curriculum more tailored to women and leadership.

“There’s something about international players that I love,” Griffith says. “They play for their country, and doing that brings a whole different level of meaning to playing the sport. It’s a business trip for them. They bring a level of seriousness every day. They’re here on a mission, not just to play basketball, so I really appreciate that element they’ve brought to our team.”

For the two Spanish athletes, Barnard’s been a welcoming home. “It’s a very nice community — we almost know everyone here,” says Calvo, who’s from Madrid. “It’s like a small family.”

And the team has been just as welcoming. “Everyone was very involved in getting me to be part of the team as soon as possible,” she says. “They [the more senior players] are pushing us, and I feel very lucky for having this opportunity to learn from all of our players.”

Though the two played limited minutes this year, says Cordell, “I see both of them being extremely big parts of what we’re doing next year and playing larger roles as they continue to develop in the program.”

For first-year player Emily Montes, who committed as a high school junior and is Calvo’s roommate, it was important to find the right cultural fit, and that included the intimate classroom setting. Originally, Montes was focused on Columbia, but when Cordell introduced Barnard as an option to her and her family, “They were like, ‘Yes! This is an environment she could thrive in,’” Cordell says.

“She came from a small high school outside Miami, and this was that next step where she’d be in an academic environment and have relationships with her professors, and her dean will be available for questions,” explains Cordell.

Despite a torn ACL suffered during the pre-season that prevented her from playing, Montes is happy with her decision: “Barnard gave me the ability to have a different experience when it comes to college. I’d never been to an all-girls school before. And honestly, every day I come on campus I’m reminded why I made the right decision. The vibe from Columbia and Barnard are completely different.

Stephens has seen the team grow over three seasons as they’ve absorbed [Coach] Griffith’s philosophy, called EDGE (Energy, Discipline, Grit, Excellence). “It gets taught from day one, to play with that edge on our shoulders and to practice that way every day, too.”

And I feel I get a good mix of both because I play on the Columbia College campus and go to school at Barnard.”

The coaches have given her opportunities to learn and participate as she recovers. “I’m still shooting around and starting to work out again,” she says. “I game plan with some of the coaches and sit on the bench and learn the plays that way. I’m at every game and practice, and with the coaches I’m getting a different perspective.”

Looking into the future, Griffith and her staff will continue to maintain the history of the ColumbiaBarnard Athletic Consortium by trying to add one or two Barnard student-athletes each year to the roster. And at the press conference held after their NCAA Tournament loss, Griffith made it clear that the team will keep building on their success.

“Just like last year when we graduated seven seniors and lost all of our scoring and rebounding, everybody said, ‘Meg, how are you going to do it?’ And I just said, ‘We’re going to do it.’

“We recruit with the best of them,” Griffith added. “And we make sure that we develop our players, and I can tell you that we are going to develop every single one of those players that’s sitting in that locker room right now, and we are going to go out and get some great players as well to play alongside them.” B

Opposite page, from left: Nicole Stephens and Emily Montes PHOTOS BY DOROTHY HONG

The Pre-Med Track

Dr. Merle Myerson ’78 reflects on how Barnard athletics steered her toward medicine

Barnard’s first gift to me was admission to the College. At the time, I could only dream of how I might contribute to society. Perhaps Barnard recognized a potential in me that I too might realize.

The gifts kept coming. I learned from the best of educators and from smart, vibrant classmates. I could make mistakes and learn from my mistakes. And we had fun — remember the pub in John Jay Hall?

But there was another gift that, to me, was among the best: athletics.

I had always wanted to be a competitive athlete. But this was still in the early days of Title IX, with far fewer opportunities for women. In 1975, in response to student lobbying, athletic director Marian Rosenwasser started an intercollegiate athletic program with three teams: basketball, volleyball, and swimming/diving. Track and field, my sport, was added later.

We were quite the ragtag group. No indoor track? No problem. We had Riverside Park. No fancy van or bus? The subway took us straight to Baker Field. Fancy warmup suits? Nope, just sweatshirts and pants. Our teams and coaches only knew “can do.” I became captain of the track and field team, and we were off and running.

At the time, little did I realize how athletics would influence my life plan. I remember sitting in my Plimpton dorm room, looking out at West 121st Street, and contemplating what I would or could do with my career to make the world a better place.

From track and field, I saw how the human body performed at its very best. I

also understood that health could be fragile, leaving the body unable to walk, let alone run. Treating — and better yet preventing — disease was the bottom line. I decided I would become a physician. The only problem was that as a liberal arts major, I was about as far from being a pre-med student as one could be. I also had a rough time with math and science. And I was a bad test-taker. Not a good recipe for successful admission to medical school.

I took my “never give up” attitude from track and applied it to my quest to become a physician. It was going to be tough, but hey, no one could tell me not to try. Barnard was there with me through the journey, Dean Esther Rowland and her team always urging me on. I graduated from Barnard and started taking the prerequisites. I began work on a doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in exercise physiology at Teachers College. This training would fit in with my career goals to improve health by emphasizing wellness.

I made it to med school and kept raising the bar. I was accepted into a top internal medicine residency at Duke University. Then it was back to Columbia for my cardiology fellowship and post-docs in lipid research and preventive cardiology.

I kept the promise to myself that my work would help make a difference, not only helping patients one by one but on a wider scale as a leader in my field. I stayed in academic medicine, where I could teach, mentor, and do research.

I look back with appreciation for what Barnard gave me. I look back with deep gratitude for their support of my dream to become a physician and for giving me the opportunity to be a varsity athlete. I do feel that being a competitive athlete made a difference. It helped me become the person I wanted to be, in so many ways. Would I have made it to med school regardless of being on track? I don’t know. But I do know that my life was richer for having been on the team.

In addition to her medical practice, Merle Myerson ’78 writes on contemporary health issues. She is chair of the Women’s Health Group of the National Lipid Association, focusing on issues of relevance to women in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Team Spirit

After a career-ending injury, soccer player

Alexandra “Ola” Weber

’24 says that some of her greatest lessons were learned off the field

To earn a spot on a Division I athletics team is no small feat. Getting that jersey number means dedicated playing time against top competitors: It’s skilled athleticism meets real-world rewards.

Holding one of these coveted positions was a welcome challenge for Alexandra “Ola” Weber ’24, an economics major from New Jersey. In her sophomore year, she joined the Columbia Lions women’s soccer team as a midfielder.

Weber comes from a tight-knit family with a passion for athletics. Her early love of competition first brought her to soccer, but it was the dogged spirit of the sport’s players that got her to stay. “I love being around people who are gritty, who are hardworking and determined,” she says. “That’s what I love about the sport — you push yourself to the point where you really test yourself.”

Weber’s appreciation for risk-taking in sports also attracted her to acting, which she studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts her freshman year, along with classes at Stern School of Business. When the pandemic hit, Weber transferred to Barnard, having previously connected with Columbia’s coaches. One of her first introductions to the College would be through her new soccer team during summer preseason training. By the time the semester started, Weber says, she entered Barnard with 30 built-in best friends.

Competition seems inevitable in sports, but even during grueling fitness tests and practice sessions, Weber says, soccer made her team closer — and into better performers. She consistently scored higher when training with her teammates rather than alone.

“One thing that matters a lot is whether [a] group is competitive or cooperative,” says Barnard assistant professor of psychology Kate Turetsky, whose research focuses on group processes and social ecology. “If … there are opportunities to work together and to succeed together, then that can lead people to connect in a more healthy way.”

But only a few months into playing for Barnard, an unfamiliar pain in Weber’s ankle began to raise alarms. An MRI revealed that overexertion had damaged cartilage and caused bone grinding in her joint. In spite of surgery and rehabilitation, the verdict was clear by Weber’s junior year: Playing soccer was now out of the question.

“My whole life I equated hard work with results,” Weber says, “but there are things that are out of our

control, and it’s really uncomfortable to sit with that.” She grieved this sudden change with the help of her family and plenty of pizza.

Weber says that in these circumstances, head coach Tracy Bartholomew would have been well within her rights to give away her spot. But the coach’s response was firm: On the field or not, Weber was a member of the team.

The high pressure of athletics or academics can make it easy to value an individual in a group by their accomplishments. But a team, she says, is there to help maintain perspective and gratitude when the uncontrollable happens. Even while holding space for the disappointment, Weber says, the support of her coaches and family helped her realize what she valued most about the sport. “For someone who had a career-ending injury, there’s no reason why I would stay … if I didn’t adore the team and the coaches,” Weber says.

What’s next? After graduation, Weber plans to go into investment banking, expanding on her interest in team dynamics in Goldman Sachs’s mergers and acquisitions department. But her relationship with Barnard athletics isn’t over — she fully expects to stay connected to the soccer team.

“It’s important to be honest with yourself and say, ‘I’ve seen how good relationships and friendships can be,’” Weber says, “and it’s important to keep that as a constant in your life.” —Isabella Pechaty ’23

Alexandra “Ola” Weber ’24 (second from right) and teammates

BARNARD REUNION

Where Barnard Memories Meet Meaningful Giving Smart Ways to Give for Your Reunion

Barnard Reunion, May 30–June 1, 2024, promises a splendid opportunity to stroll down the memory lanes of our beloved campus, rekindle old friendships, and celebrate the enduring legacy of a Barnard education.

Explore the many ways you can give back in honor of your Reunion year beyond the customary avenues of credit card or check donations. There are many planned and tax-smart giving options that may help you achieve both your charitable and financial goals, including:

Donating appreciated stock Putting Barnard in your will

Making a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA

Making a grant from your donor-advised fund

Directing assets to Barnard via your will, trust, retirement fund, or life insurance

For more information on planned or tax-smart Reunion giving, please visit our.barnard.edu/reunion-giving or contact:

JiHae Munro Senior Director, Planned Giving 212.853.8313 | jmunro@barnard.edu

Establishing a charitable gift annuity

Alison White, MS Director, Planned Giving 212.853.8314 | aiwhite@barnard.edu

Noteworthy

Connecting alumnae. Celebrating community.

BY

PHOTO

ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ

Striving for More Equitable Birth Control

How physician Sarah B. Miller ’98, the founder of a vasectomy clinic, is changing the “burden” of contraception — with some humor

by Kira Goldenberg ’07

Sarah B. Miller ’98 has a unique skill: She doesn’t just perform vasectomies, she makes them enjoyable for her patients.

“I’ve been collecting dad jokes as a vasectomy provider,” says Miller, a Bostonbased physician. “I had a patient say, ‘Thanks, that was fun,’ and I was like, ‘Oh no, now I have to hold myself to a new standard.’”

Miller is the founder and clinician at Northeast Vasectomy and Family Planning, a clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts, dedicated to no-scalpel vasectomies, which is an outpatient, pain-free version of the procedure that blocks sperm supply from semen in people with penises.

In a “traditional” procedure, physicians — mostly urologists, rather than primary care or family medicine doctors — use a scalpel to make a couple small holes in the scrotum to access the vas deferens, which transports sperm from the testicles to the body to mix with the semen, which exits through the urethra. The no-scalpel version — which Miller learned during her medical training by apprenticing with experts in multiple far-flung locations such as the Philippines and Quebec City in Canada — uses a holder and a spreader for access instead, minimizing infection risk and healing time.

She became passionate about the method during a residency in urban family planning at Beth Israel in New York City, which she undertook as a fledgling family medicine doctor.

“Most people were doctors for obstetrics and gynecology at the point I was going through this training,” she says, so “vasectomies and services and options for people with testes were not something that we were commonly trained for or that we were set up to be able to provide. I can’t be a family doctor who takes care of everyone regardless of gender, and a family planning specialist, and not be able to provide this service that exists for people with testes,” she says.

As reproductive health becomes an increasingly polarized and contentious topic in the United States, Miller is focused on expanding access to this less discussed side of family planning. But her approach is becoming increasingly mainstream: Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022, more men are seeking vasectomies as a family planning method.

It’s a trend Miller supports. “The reality is that in places where vasectomy is easy to access, affordable, and is done a lot, it becomes more and more popular,” she says. According to a 2020 data brief by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5.6% of contraceptive use in 2017-2019 was “male sterilization.”

Sterilization in women was three times more common, at 18.1%, despite being a higher-risk procedure that costs more money. “That ratio, all other things being considered, should probably be reversed,” Miller says.

Miller began her medical career focused on family medicine more generally.

It’s an approach to primary care that takes the whole person, including children, into account. Picture the neighborhood doctor, who knew everything about everyone, in an old-timey film. But “always interested in filling in holes in needs that weren’t being met in medicine,” she quickly gravitated toward family planning more specifically.

“Ninety-eight percent of people need or want to use birth control for any number of reasons,” she says, making it a part of “basic healthcare” often overlooked in primary care clinics. After her Beth Israel residency, she completed a fellowship, also focused on family planning, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center. “Then I spent the next 10 years of my life working to integrate vasectomy services as well as abortion services and miscarriage management into the primary care setting,” she says.

Miller worked in community health centers and Planned Parenthood clinics, mostly in New York, where she lived after her Barnard days until five years ago, when she moved back home to Massachusetts and launched her own clinic.

She now works at Northeast Vasectomy about half the time and the other half at a nearby urgent care clinic and in New York as the director of vasectomy services for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. She also did a regular cadence of work at an abortion clinic in Alabama until the dissolution of federal abortion protections made the procedure virtually inaccessible there. “There’s a chunk of my heart in Alabama,” Miller says.

None of this journey seemed foregone during Miller’s time at Barnard, where she majored in English with a film concentration. “I thought I was going to be a filmmaker and a potter,” she says. She spent the first four years after graduation living a standard artsy life, sharing a loft in Bed-Stuy with fellow alumnae. Then suddenly, whether it was a fortuitous glance at an ad for post-baccalaureate classes on the subway or an urge to give back after her experience traveling internationally, she decided she was changing course.

“I just made a decision, then I woke up 11 years later and I was a doctor” is how Miller describes the pivot. However she got there, her focus on increasing equity in family planning comes at a vital moment in U.S. history.

“On the one hand, I really want people with testicles to be able to access birth control themselves,” she says. “On the other hand, I want to remove some of the contraceptive burden and pregnancy burden that has been placed on people with uteruses.” B

‘The House of

Fiction Has

Many Rooms’

Elizabeth Benedict ’76 speaks with fellow writer and alum Sigrid Nunez ’72 about the bestselling author’s latest novel and what drives her to write

In 2018, Sigrid Nunez ’72 published her seventh novel, The Friend, catapulting her from esteemed literary writer to National Book Award winner and international bestseller — in her 60s.

She is currently promoting her latest, The Vulnerables (2023), as the movie version of The Friend, starring Naomi Watts and a dog named Bing, is in production. Along with What Are You Going Through (2020), the three novels are connected by the intimacy of the narrator’s voice and her crackling sensibility: a New York writer confronting external dilemmas — often involving an animal that needs care — while plumbing her rich inner life. The narrator ricochets from literary insights and anecdotes to finely wrought memories and trenchant observations about writing, love, and loss, wickedly funny one minute and heart-stopping the next.

In 2006, I reviewed her Barnard-inspired novel, The Last of Her Kind, for The New York Times, and we met soon after. Her contribution to my 2009 anthology, Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives, inspired her 2011 memoir, Sempre Susan, about the celebrated writer and critic Susan Sontag.

Sigrid and I recently conducted an interview about writing, teaching, and a Barnard professor who influenced both of us.

Elizabeth Benedict: We both studied with Elizabeth Hardwick at Barnard. What were her most valuable lessons to you? What are your lessons to students?

Sigrid Nunez: Hardwick’s most valuable lessons to me came not from taking class with her but from reading her work: the beautiful sentences, the incisive criticism, the virtuosic gift of observation. Since she believed that writing cannot be taught, she put disappointingly little effort into discussing our manuscripts, but I found her passion for literature and the life of the mind inspiring. I was also grateful to learn from her never to be satisfied with any writing that hasn’t gone through multiple drafts. As a teacher, I’ve tried to pass that same lesson on to my students as well as to convince them that they’ll learn far more from reading other writers than from any workshop and that they should read as much as possible. I think what can be taught about writing is largely editorial. You try to show what works and what doesn’t work in a story, and why. You try to teach students the difference between a good sentence and a bad sentence. You want them to see that the way a person writes is as important as whatever they may write about. But you don’t tell them what they should write about; that has to come from them.

EB: I love The Vulnerables. Broadly, it’s about a writer who goes on long walks every day during the pandemic, attends a funeral, and takes care of a pet macaw. Like the narrators

in the other recent novels, she reminds me of you. Yet even with all these similarities, it’s a novel. What makes it a novel?

SN: The Vulnerables is an invented prose narrative of book length that deals with imaginary characters and events. This fits the definition of a novel. It is true that the book contains some material that is not fictional, also that there are strong similarities between the narrator and the author. But this does not make the book either a memoir or a work of autofiction. Most of my writing falls outside traditional categories. But the house of fiction has many rooms, and there is more than one kind of novel.

EB: What compels you to write?

SN: Writing is something I’ve always wanted to do, something that, in spite of being often frustratingly difficult, comes naturally to me and gives me enormous pleasure. When I’m writing, I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and I never feel estranged from myself, as I can sometimes feel when I’m engaged in some other activity. Also, there is a certain kind of thinking that happens only when you’re struggling to put things into words. The thinking that I have to do when writing helps me to understand many things — about myself, my life, my past, as well as about other people and life in general.

EB: What’s life like between books for you? Are you yearning for time to begin your next project?

SN: In the past, it usually hasn’t taken me long, once I’ve finished a book, to begin a new one. But this time it’s been different. That’s because, with The Vulnerables, I found myself writing the final volume of what has turned out to be a kind of trilogy — though I never planned for it to happen that way. What Are You Going Through came out of The Friend and The Vulnerables came out of What Are You Going Through. I’m not inspired to make it a tetralogy, though, and at the moment I have no idea what kind of book I want to write next.

EB: Your early ambition was to be a dancer, and you didn’t begin publishing books until you were 44. What wisdom or reassurance can you offer writers whose work isn’t yet being recognized or published?

SN: I could never honestly reassure a struggling writer that, if they just keep at it, publication or recognition will come. Because that simply is not true. I kept writing because I really wanted to, not because I believed it would all turn out well in the end. It could just as easily have not turned out well. Literary success is so unpredictable, dependent on so many forces outside the writer’s control. What keeps you writing has to be more than the hope of worldly reward. The practice itself has to do something for you, something important and valuable. B

Elizabeth Benedict ’76 is the author of five novels and the recent memoir Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own. Her anthology, Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession, was selected for the Barnard Book Award for several years.

Life Lessons

Dear Brave, Bold, Beautiful Barnard Family,

Life lessons are everywhere if we choose to see them. Earlier this spring, I went for a beautiful pre-dawn run along the Mississippi River. Then I hit a dip in the cobblestone and fell big time — my shoulder, knees, and knuckles were all scraped up. It hurt, I was embarrassed, and I replayed the fall in my head, again and again.

I want to encourage you, my Barnard friends who are in a transition period either personally and/or professionally: We all fall down sometimes — what we do after is what’s important. So as your AABC president, I want you to know that I’m here to support you and to champion your success — let’s all go crush it! And remember, our community is over 38,000 strong. You are not alone: Our network of alums is filled with more than classmates; we are friends and resources to one another.

As we celebrate the many beginnings, endings, and transitions that this season brings, I’m looking forward to staying connected with you, my Barnard family! Summer unofficially kicks off with Reunion 2024. It’s the perfect opportunity to connect with hundreds of alums across generations, to cultivate inspiring moments, and to engage with the College and one another.

Barnard|Next, a newly launched lifelong learning initiative from Beyond Barnard, draws from the best of Barnard, offering alums the opportunity to network and dialogue around critical topics. Learn more: Barnard.edu/next

Finally, I want to extend a warm welcome to our newest alumnae, the Class of 2024, as well as to the new group of women who are preparing to begin their remarkable Barnard journey. In the coming months, alums across the U.S. and around the world will gather with incoming students for the beautiful Summer Send-Off tradition. I’m hoping to attend as many as possible, and I hope to see you there! There is no better time than the present to get engaged/reengaged with Barnard. Reach out to your local alumnae club to welcome the newest members of our brave, bold community!

I’m excited to share so many opportunities for this beloved community — from those who are just entering it to those who have been a part of it for many decades — to come together, learn from one another, support one another, and flourish.

I’m grateful for each of you! I want to see you! Sending a virtual hug until we meet in person or online. Live and lead with purpose. We are #BetterTogether.

With gratitude,

Sooji Park ’90 AABC President, Alumnae Trustee

MILLIE’S

WELCOME TO MILLIE’S FRIENDS, a place for showing off Barnard babies of both the human and furry kind. We received submissions of children and grandchildren displaying their Barnard pride from coast to coast of the U.S. and are pleased to share them here!

Do you have a Barnard baby? Send a picture of your child or pet showing their Barnard pride to milliesfriends@barnard.edu and they could be featured in the fall edition of Barnard Magazine. Be sure to include your name, location, and graduation year, as well as the child’s or pet’s full name. And photos of human and furry kids are always welcome on Instagram: @barnardalumnae

Top row, from left: Griffin Farrell of Harrington Park, N.J., son of Lea Farrell ’13; Sidney Holbrook Momo of Rogers, Ark., and Camila Ann Momo of Atlanta, granddaughters of Jane (Tobey) Momo ’73 and Larry Momo (CC’73); Frederica Kelly Rodriguez and Nicholas Frome Kelly (CC’09) of Boston, granddaughter and son of Katherine (Frome) Paget ’67

Bottom row, from left: Elizabeth Ilene Hassett of Swampscott, Mass., granddaughter of Ilene Karpf ’73; Cora Steffens of New York City and her proud mom Anna Steffens ’10; Esther Rose Jensen of Oakland, Calif., granddaughter of Ruth Julius Several ’72; Felix Love of the San Francisco Bay Area, daughter of Krischelle (Qua) Love ’05

Meet Mike Farley, Barnard’s New Vice President of Development and Alumnae Relations

Dear Friends,

I’m happy to take this opportunity to introduce myself to many of you for the first time. Since joining the Office of Development and Alumnae Relations in April, I’ve enjoyed meeting with Barnard’s Board of Trustees, alumnae, parents, and friends, and I look forward to getting to know faculty, staff, and students across the College. In addition to the Barnard events I had the chance to participate in throughout California, I am excited to celebrate the Class of 2024 at Barnard’s 132nd Commencement and take part in my first Barnard Reunion, a signature weekend of events that welcomes alumnae back to campus for milestone anniversaries. I can’t think of two greater opportunities for me to experience all that Barnard means to our growing alumnae network.

The dedication, joy, and support inherent in this community sets Barnard apart from its peers. On campus, students continue a cherished tradition of peer advising and mentorship — a culture of care reinforced by the faculty’s commitment to teaching and guided research. As alumnae, Barnard graduates enrich their surrounding communities and continue to give back to the College through gifts of their time, mentorship, and financial investment in the future of the College. Barnard women are deeply engaged with one another, demonstrating a level of commitment that impacts every aspect of student and alumnae experiences. This distinctiveness drew me to Barnard, and I’m so proud to be part of the team focused on the resources necessary to sustain the College’s defining qualities.

For the past six years, working as the Executive Director of Development & Alumni Affairs at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, I partnered with Dean Laura Rosenbury — now Barnard’s ninth president — to complete a transformative fundraising campaign that also inspired record alumni engagement. Here at Barnard, I’m eager to work alongside President Rosenbury to advance her bold and fearless vision for the College’s future.

There’s so much to look forward to. Today, more young women than ever before envision themselves at Barnard, and the College’s applicants are increasingly more accomplished, determined, and diverse. On campus, the Francine LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being is preparing to open its physical spaces, and plans to renovate Barnard’s science facilities and develop the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center are well underway. Looking further ahead, we’ve set an ambitious goal of increasing Barnard’s endowment to $1 billion — an achievement that will give the College the strength, flexibility, and security necessary to meet the needs of generations of future students.

Barnard has arrived at a remarkable place in its history, and I’m deeply honored to be part of the College’s future. I’m excited to get to know all of you, and together, we can reach — and surpass — our boldest aspirations.

I’m grateful for your warm welcome to Barnard, and I thank you for everything you do for the College and our community.

Sincerely, Mike

Presidential Welcome Tour

Since last fall, hundreds of parents, alumnae, and incoming students have welcomed President Laura Rosenbury to cities across the United States as part of her cross-country journey to meet with members of our community. These events — in Washington, D.C., Boston, Miami, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — offered an exciting opportunity for us to bring campus to you, while gaining a unique look into life after Barnard in the regions where you live and work.

President Rosenbury spoke with attendees about her initial months in her role leading Barnard forward into its next chapter, and she also shared her five signature priorities, recognizing our Bold History and Fearless Future.

For upcoming opportunities to connect with alumnae, visit the alumnae events listing at our.barnard.edu/events

PASS THE TORCH Mentorship Spotlight

Mentorship is a long-standing tradition at Barnard. In our community, remarkable people dedicate themselves to guiding, inspiring, and empowering the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and innovators. These mentors, the unsung heroines of our community, exemplify the spirit of Barnard by fostering an environment where every student’s potential can be fully realized.

Pass the torch to future generations by providing funding for everything that creates the Barnard experience, including vital resources like financial aid, lab equipment, student-faculty research collaborations, and so much more.

Powerful transformations occur when Barnard students have opportunities, access, and mentorship.

barnard.edu/gift

ANNA QUINDLEN ’74

Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen ’74 is a firm believer in the enduring effects of mentorship. “I don’t think I could have had the professional life I’ve had without the teachers and classmates I had at Barnard. At the College, it was clear — our opinions were not only accepted, they were required,” reflects Quindlen. Her wide-ranging engagement with Barnard’s community continues to demonstrate her unwavering belief in the power of mentorship.

DR. IRIS BERKE ’66

The Barnard faculty’s long-standing commitment to teaching and mentorship has inspired generations to pay it forward. While studying at Barnard, Dr. Iris Berke ’66 found a mentor in Professor Patricia (Pat) Graham, who led Barnard’s Education Program during the 1960s and later became dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education — the first woman at Harvard University to be named dean of a whole faculty. “Pat Graham is a wonderful teacher, mentor, and friend,” reflects Dr. Berke. “She influenced me to become a lifelong educator and practitioner.” Dr. Berke is proud to continue Professor Graham’s legacy. “She has taught me so many lessons over our nearly 60-year relationship, not the least being how important it is to support those coming along after you — particularly young women.”

The Ripple Effect

Every act of mentorship enriches the Barnard community. Our students are committed to continuing Barnard’s tradition of mentorship — both at the College and beyond the campus gates. From launching extracurricular programs to volunteering for community nonprofits, Barnard students find ways to enrich the lives of those around them.

RAVEN ROTHKOPF ’24

Co-creator of the CS@BC Mentorship Program, which pairs prospective and recently declared computer science majors with senior mentors

“ I attribute much of my success to being able to fall back on a community of peers and mentors at Barnard. Over the past two years, I have personally witnessed the impact of CS@BC’s initiatives, resulting in strengthened connections among students, heightened engagement in department events, and a more inclusive environment for computer science students at Barnard.”

“LILY KUHN ’25

A mentor through the nonprofit Matriculate, which guides students through the admissions process

Being involved in Matriculate was important to me and helped me become the mentor I really needed when I was that age. I have the privilege of making a difference in kids’ lives and helping them through truly difficult times; at the end, we both get to come out wiser and having accomplished something together. I’m really proud of the kids I’ve worked with!”

“JOYCE JIANG ’24

A mentor through Jumpstarting Aspiring Developers and Entrepreneurs (JADE), a technology immersion program for underrepresented firstyear students at Columbia and Barnard

From being a participant my first year to teaching web development my sophomore year, and finally being a program coordinator my senior year, I treasure the cycle of empowerment and opportunity in the tech landscape for those without previous exposure. This program shows how transformative student-run initiatives are, and I value being able to create more tech opportunities for first-generation, low-income college students — like my mentors did for me.”

“

GABRIELA OGANDO ’27

A mentor through the Global STEM Program by AFS and the University of Pennsylvania

My experience as a mentor and alumna of the Global STEM Program by AFS and the University of Pennsylvania — an all-girls academic and cultural exchange — inspired my dedication to mentoring others, particularly within all-women spaces. It allowed me to learn from and empower other bold women while fostering mutual growth and collaboration. Mentoring isn’t just an activity, it’s a commitment I hold dear and continue to embrace in my daily life.”

Meat of the Matter

Marilyn Forman Spiera ’59, famed Peter Luger restaurateur, preserved family traditions

by Tanisia Morris

In New York’s wholesale meat markets, Marilyn Forman Spiera ’59 was a familiar figure. Dressed in a white butcher’s coat with a meat marker in hand, she would parse through hanging beef carcasses to handpick the best cuts for her family’s legendary Williamsburg-based steakhouse, Peter Luger. In keeping with the Forman family tradition, she branded the meat with Peter Luger’s custom stamp once she made her selection — much like her late mother, Marsha Forman, who was tasked with the job when her husband, Sol Forman, bought the eatery at an auction in 1950.

Marsha Forman spent two years learning how to select the finest beef from a retired USDA grader. She’d later teach her daughters Marilyn Forman Spiera, who passed away at age 85 this past December, and Amy Forman Rubenstein ’60, who still goes to the market every week to make selections for the restaurant.

“Peter Luger Steak House owes much of its success to the women who have run it,” says Marilyn’s daughter, Jody Spiera Storch ’92, who notes that in the male-dominated industry, the “fearless,” “opinionated,” and “quick-witted” Marilyn “earned everybody’s respect by virtue of her grit, her knowledge, and her overriding sense of compassion for all.”

According to Storch, her mother and aunt served at the helm of Peter Luger for more than five decades. Marilyn woke up at 5 a.m. every weekday to handle scheduling and didn’t rest until sales figures came in for the night. Weekends

provided a welcome moment of respite. “She loved a beer and a cigar after dinner, and Ring Dings, always,” says Marilyn’s sister, Elissa Forman Cullman ’68, who works in interior design.

Managing the famed restaurant was just one of the professional hats Marilyn wore. She also oversaw the medical practice of her late husband, Harry Spiera, an internationally recognized rheumatologist, and she was known to do “intense research” before every business decision.

“Setting out to purchase an X-ray machine for her husband’s office, she studied the various options so carefully that the salesman was cowed, concluding that she knew more about the machines than he did!” recalls Cullman. She adds that her sister’s education at Barnard as an economics major likely played a role in her well-rounded know-how. She graduated with departmental honors and strongly encouraged Storch and her sister Penny Forman Turtel ’82 — and niece Roni Rubenstein ’82 — to attend. (Marilyn’s cousins Ronnie Kaye ’64 and Jane Sloyer ’70 cheered them on as well.)

Despite her strong work ethic, business wasn’t Marilyn’s main priority. After her parents retired from running the restaurant, she cared for them in their senior years in Brooklyn. (Marsha Forman passed away in 1998, and Sol Forman died three years later.) Family was always at the center of everything her sister did, says Cullman, even when she didn’t intend it to be.

“One of my special memories relates to how Marilyn loved to fix single people up,” Cullman recalls. “She would make lists of potentials and then introduce her candidates. Driving to the office one day, she thought she had the very best idea, but after parking her car, she realized she was thinking of … a brother and sister! That situation always made her chuckle.”

The mother of three also made it her duty to end every busy work week with a family dinner, which included multiple generations of Formans.

“The extended family would get together, and the location would rotate at either my parents’, my aunt’s, or my grandparents’,” says Storch. “We continue this tradition to this day, and we are so lucky to see the family grow and continue to be so close.” B `

BY

PHOTO

MICHAEL BERMAN

Last Image

Megan Tighe ’23

Dream Portrait 1 11 x 14 inches | Graphite on paper

Barnard Big Sub

by Rebecca Goldstein ’07

Whac-a-___ (arcade game)

53 Author unknown, briefly 54 Roku TV brand

56 Barnard Alumnae: Advocates for ___ and Justice

57 Nail polish brand with a “Cactus What You Preach” hue

Rebecca Goldstein ’07 is a scientist and crossword constructor who lives in the Bay Area with her wife. She was named 2023 Constructor of the Year at the annual ORCAS awards.

Barnard | Next

Lifelong Learning and Community

Launching this fall

On campus on weekdays, weeknights, weekends, and online

Learn more at barnard.edu/next or write to barnardnext@barnard.edu.

Curious what Barnard students of today are learning? Want to reconnect with the intellectual community at the College? Learn more about Barnard|Next: Lifelong Learning and Community at Barnard College, featuring multiple ways to engage this fall:

Explorers Series

• Contemporary topics inciting deep conversations central to the role of women in technology, democracy, the arts and literature, and more

• Three Saturday afternoons of plenaries and faculty-led academic sessions

• Distinguished alumnae talks

• Networking and community building

Enrichers Series

• Delve into contemporary art, New York City, graphic novels, American politics, and artificial intelligence and ethics

• Six in-depth faculty-led academic sessions

• Bespoke visits in New York City

• Conversations with field experts and practitioners