Torchbearers

Torchbearers

Lida Orzeck ’68 and Aliza Amsellem ’20 at the Summer Research Institute’s capstone event, the Lida Orzeck ’68 Poster Session

PHOTO CREDITS: (OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT): ASIYA KHAKI ’09, ALIYA SCHNEIDER ’20

A Seat at the Table

Lida Orzeck ’68 grows her “scholarship fam”

Since starting her scholarship fund in 2003, Lida Orzeck ’68, founder and CEO of the lingerie company Hanky Panky, has played a critical role in the education and lives of numerous Barnard students. Her mentorship has been far-reaching and enduring, culminating in meaningful relationships with scholarship recipients, such as the one she’s fostered with recent graduate Aliza Amsellem ’20. While we weren’t able to come together for this year’s annual Torchbearers Celebration — at which Orzeck was to be the honorary speaker — due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were fortunate to catch up with Orzeck and Amsellem. The two women filled us in on their close friendship and how the scholarship aid has created a sense of community while championing the next generation of strong Barnard women.

Lida, what inspired you to become a financial aid donor?

Lida Orzeck: I was a Brooklyn kid who was raised with an orientation towards equity and fairness. Orzeck family lore involved my father’s work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs after he received his medical degree in the late 1930s. Newly married, my parents relocated to Neah Bay, Washington, where my dad provided the only professional health care within a 200-mile radius from his base on the Makah Reservation. I always had a sense of a larger, more inclusive universe, of which I felt my family was a piece.

But during my young adulthood, academia occupied my attention, and then for several decades, my intense focus on building and running my company drove my daily life. When I finally stopped, looked up, and took a breath, I knew I had to act on issues that were most troubling to me — the multidimensional inequities in our society. The success of Hanky Panky allowed me to act financially on my philanthropic instincts, and over the next few years I was able to grow the fund, culminating in supporting an actual Barnard student in 2008. Since then, five students have received support from the Lida Orzeck ’68 Scholarship Fund, but I believe that it is I who has received the most benefit from this arrangement.

I love the family feeling that my scholarship has spawned. As my community of sponsored students grows, each year at the Barnard Annual Gala, we test the seat limit at the table.

Lida and Aliza, when did you first meet, and what has been so unique about this relationship? How has it evolved over time?

Lida Orzeck: We met at the Torchbearers Celebration in 2018, and what makes my relationship with Aliza unique is that Aliza is Aliza! Her interests and talents run the gamut from the arts to the sciences, so getting to know her has been fun, entertaining, and uniquely enriching. She is a visual artist, an a cappella singer, a dentist-to-be, and she volunteers and mentors in her own right. Whew! It has been an enormous pleasure for me to build a relationship with Aliza and become even a small part of her fascinating life.

Aliza Amsellem: I distinctly remember how incredibly nervous I was to meet the woman whose generosity has made my experience at Barnard a reality. But the minute I met Lida, that nervousness dissipated. I was immediately comforted by her warm and enthusiastic disposition. Throughout the entire night, we learned about each other — about our passions, interests, families, goals, and of course, the ultimate link: our experiences as Barnard women. Though Lida and I had our Barnard careers years apart, our connection with each other and to this school continues to flourish. To this day, Lida and I remain present in each other’s lives. From meeting for Sunday brunch to updating each other on current happenings, I am confident that our friendship will last a lifetime. Now that I have graduated from Barnard, I am excited to update Lida with my future academic and career accomplishments in the field of dentistry.

As a recipient, Aliza, what has been so impactful about receiving scholarship support and Lida’s mentorship? Lida, what do you hope Aliza and other scholarship recipients take away from their Barnard experience, especially as they prepare for their next chapter after graduation?

Aliza Amsellem: Something very special about Lida is that she not only connects with people, but she also has a knack for connecting people with each other. Every year, Lida generously invites all of her previous and current Barnard scholarship recipients — who I have dubbed my “scholarship fam” — to the Barnard Annual Gala. It is incredible to sit at a table with Barnard students and alumnae of all different ages and to hear about how each one of them is making a unique impact on this world. We reflect upon how Barnard has changed over the years but agree that the important things, like the warm and supportive community, have persisted. I am incredibly grateful to Lida for bringing me into our little intergenerational Barnard family, and I cannot wait to continue developing our friendship.

If there is one thing that I have learned from Lida and my wonderful scholarship family, it’s that my journey with Barnard by no means ends when I graduate. I look up to Lida immensely for the work she has done to become successful, and I am grateful every day for her generosity to Barnard. I look forward to doing Lida and Barnard proud as I embark on this next leg of my journey.

Lida Orzeck: Our country has such deeply ingrained, foundational problems around inequitable financial access and social mobility. Scholarship aid alone will not solve historically rooted unfairness, but recruiting a more economically diverse student body is still crucial. This country — this planet — needs as much brainpower as it can foster, and the talent is out there. Not to mention it’s simply wrong that one’s ability to get a top-tier college education can be determined by one’s ability to pay for it. It is my belief that those of us who are fortunate enough to have the financial capability have an actual responsibility to be generously philanthropic. I have chosen Barnard not simply because I was a student here but because my overall engagement with the College has convinced me that the academics, the values, the community, the faculty, and the leadership have earned and deserve my personal and financial support.

Encouraging our talented, deserving young women is essential to improving our future. I hope all scholarship recipients share this orientation and act on it as they can, when they are able. B

Reunion

A ‘Virtual’ Success

Reunion Reimagined brings alumnae around the world together online for an eventfilled week

by Merri Rosenberg ’78

“I know this isn’t the Reunion you all expected,” said Rona Wilk ’91, chair of the AABC Reunion Committee. “I know this isn’t the Reunion you wanted. It is the Reunion we have, to celebrate the amazing milestone classes and gather together the global community that is Barnard. Barnard strong means helping each other through this.”

With the College practicing social distancing due to COVID-19, about 600 alumnae from 17 countries came together online for Reunion Reimagined (June 1-5). From Zoom webinars and cocktail hours to academic presentations and conversations, the community recognized both the current moment and Barnard’s enduring legacy of connection.

“The prospect of a virtual Reunion was a type of special we hadn’t anticipated,” said Jo Ann Engelhardt ’75. “I feel it was a success. It brought me closer to my classmates and the entire Barnard community, and I didn’t even have to take a plane or book a hotel.”

Classmates who had passed away since the last milestone Reunion were remembered during the online memorial service. “Connecting with other people enables transcendence,” said the Rev. Dr. Anna (Keller) Pearson ’85. “Compassion engenders trust, which pulls us towards heaven, however we may conceive it. This is made more clear by the quarantine crisis, rather than less.”

The weekend’s activities honored the need to connect, celebrate, and reflect, and touched on the year’s challenges and political events as well. “With everything going on in the country and the world, it’s more important than ever to gather,” said President Sian Leah Beilock in her State of the College address. “This hasn’t been an easy year for Barnard and the world. Barnard denounces in the strongest possible terms anti-Black violence and rhetoric and calls on all of us to be our best selves.”

Alumnae were invited to attend a series of workshops and lectures, many pertaining to the current pandemic and political climate, including the “Conversation on Women and Power,” hosted by the Alumnae of Color Dinner Committee. The event featured Allegra “Happy” Haynes ’75, executive director of Denver Parks & Recreation and a 2020 Distinguished Alumna award recipient, and Ariana González Stokas, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“Periods of dislocation are when women make the greatest strides towards opportunity,” said Haynes. “We need to see our collective grief and rage channeled as women leaders toward constructive change.”

To tackle issues around the economy, some sessions offered alumnae guidance about careers and finances. In the “Financial Planning During a Crisis” webinar, Cinneah El-Amin ’16, creator of the lifestyle blog Flynanced, provided strategies on how alumnae at all stages of life could become debt-free and build wealth. “It’s about how to have your money align with your values,” she said. “We all have personal finance journeys we’re on. Personal finance is personal and political.”

Similarly, in “Career Path Check-in: Pivoting During a Crisis,” Christine Valenza Shin ’84, Beyond Barnard senior associate director of advising and programs, urged alumnae to practice confidence during times of uncertainty. “Every career transition is an opportunity to assess and

(This page): Marilyn Flitterman ’50; (opposite page, clockwise from top left): Class of 1960; Patricia Carchi-Merrick, director of Alumnae Relations; Nia Ashley ’16, program coordinator for the Shange Magic Project; Kim F. Hall, Lucyle Hook Professor of English and professor of Africana studies; Allegra “Happy” Haynes ’75; Class of 2005

explore what you really want to be doing next, even in an environment like this.”

Another major focus at Reunion Reimagined was to highlight Barnard’s distinctive history and contributions to society at large. “Preserving Barnard History,” a conversation between Wilk and College archivist Martha Tenney, explored why the archives matter.

“It’s not just about the past but how we can imagine a future,” said Tenney. “There’s a reparative framework, where we actively confront the histories of people who’ve been excluded.”

President emerita and anthropology professor emerita Judith Shapiro joined professor of history Mark C. Carnes, as well as some members of the Class of 2000, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Carnes’ signature course, Reacting to the Past. The class, which uses role-playing games to explore pivotal moments in history, has since been adopted by more than 500 colleges and universities.

“[The course was about] solving problems together,” said Carnes. “What happened in that class changed my life and changed our education.”

The “Over the Rainbow” seminar — celebrating the legacy of the groundbreaking choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, by Ntozake Shange ’70 — was led by Kim F. Hall, Lucyle Hook Professor of English and professor of Africana studies; Monica Miller, associate professor of English and Africana studies; and Nia Ashley ’16, program coordinator for the Shange Magic Project. Sponsored by a grant from the Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Shange Magic Project created an installation that featured excerpts from Shange’s work on walls around the Milstein Center.

“Ntozake broke through,” Hall said. “She speaks to the soul of colored women and what it means to be a Black woman.” To close out the week of online events, the Moth storytelling event returned for a milestone 15th year in a row, hosted for the second time by writer-comedian JiJi Lee ’01 and introduced by Cyndi Stivers ’78. The four alumnae storytellers — Agathe Nadai ’55, Vivien Li ’75, Sonia Taitz ’75, and Kieren van den Blink ’95 — reflected on a pivotal experience at Barnard that transformed their lives.

“Barnard formed me with its supportive, collaborative environment,” said Taitz. “It’s where I came to life. It’s the shining confidence this College gave me and all of us.”

For anyone who was unable to join Reunion Reimagined or would like to revisit any of the virtual programs, they are available at reunion.barnard.edu. B

ALUMS ON REUNION REIMAGINED

“The current situation called for innovation in the way we could engage with one another, and our virtual Reunion was just what we all needed. … Celebrating our 55th Reunion at the virtual Happy Hour was delightful! Not only did it provide an opportunity to socialize with classmates, it also forced some to become more facile with technology. That’s a plus for a class that went through college using manual typewriters! In the intimacy of our Happy Hour breakout rooms, it appeared that no one’s life turned out exactly as anticipated, not even for the most ardent planner. The common thread of these chats was that we received an amazing education at Barnard, made friends that remain so to this day, and are proud of being a Barnard woman.” —Susan Rudolph ’65

“While I was disappointed to not be able to join the Class of 2010 on Barnard’s campus for our 10th Reunion, I appreciate the programming that the College provided for all alumnae. In particular, I most enjoyed the Financial Education workshop, offering concrete takeaways that I can implement in my personal life, and the Moth program, which featured diverse speakers with interesting and heartfelt Barnard stories. … Reunion Reimagined offered a great opportunity to connect with alumnae globally who may not have been able to participate otherwise.” —Marci Leveillee ’10