fall 2008
emma willard school
An Ordinar y
Life for Lilly
In many of Ernestine Ruben’s ’XX images from China, she combines painting, drawing, and digital imaging: “I have been able to inject my ideals and emotions into the ‘reality’ of the camera. My hand has added calligraphic gestures, fresh breezes, and vibrations of plants and birds. While composing and decomposing landscapes, I have brought alive my lifelong study of art history while reflecting on some of the history and challenges in the arts of China.” Ernestine Ruben is scheduled to have a show at Princeton University in December, at the Bernstein Gallery, the Woodrow Wilson School.
Emma, the Bulletin of Emma Willard School, is published by the Communications Office three times each year for alumnae, parents, grandparents, and friends of Emma Willard School. The mission of Emma is to capture the school’s remarkable history, values, and culture through accurate and objective coverage that adheres to the highest journalistic and literary standards. Please forward address changes to: Emma Willard School 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, New York 12180 518.833.1787 alumnae@emmawillard.org or visit www.emmawillard.org/alumnae
Rachel Morton
Trudy E. Hall
Consulting Editor
Head of School
Susan H. Geary
Trudy J. Hanmer
Web and Production Manager Class Notes Editor sgeary@emmawillard.org Jill Smith
Associate Head of School Larry Lichtenstein
Director of Advancement
Class Notes Coordinator jsmith@emmawillard.org
Christine R. Hoek
Bidwell ID
Molly Price
Design www.bidwellid.com
Director of Strategic Initiatives Director of Alumnae Relations
Printed on 100% recycled paper that is manufactured entirely with nonpolluting, wind-generated energy and is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
emma willard school fall 2008 volume 66, no. 2
features
16 Extraordinary Measures
Helping her daughter live the life of an ordinary 11-year-old is now the life goal of Gay Johnson Grossman ’84. It’s a 24/7, lifetime commitment. Gay has no complaints.
Girls, Nine Stories, 24 Nine One School
Girls from around the world have met this fall on campus. They are all Davis Scholars, and this innovative program is betting they will join a cadre of future global leaders.
departments 02 Headlines
Being ordinary may be the biggest success of all.
03 Letters 05 Emma Everywhere On the cover
Lilly Grossman, daughter of Gay Johnson Grossman ’84, has mitochondrial disease. She is living an ordinary life due to her parents’ extraordinary efforts.
14 Action
A Reunion Weekend symposium, Women, Power, and Possibility, shows how you can get philanthropic by getting online.
Obama (and Fae), new girls on campus, the new Fitness Center, summers that changed lives.
30 Connections
10 Outlook
News from alumnae.
12 Spoken Word
Words shape our perceptions of ourselves.
Reunion and alumnae award winners.
33 Class Notes
35 Memorial List 79 Tribute
To Irene Mennen Hunter ’35
80 Back in the Day Venerable maple had to come down.
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02
headlines
By Trudy E. Hall, Head of School
Ordinary Women: Extraordinary Lives This fall I started my tenth year as head of school at Emma Willard. During that delicious decade, I have heard countless compelling stories about alumnae, many of whom I would describe as powerful, successful, extraordinary. But if I did a Google search on any of their names, very little would turn up; they haven’t broken the glass ceiling, amassed significant wealth, or penned a great novel. Yet they live lives of substance, courage, and compassion. Their stories are inspirational, their lives a testimony to competence. They get up every morning, put one foot ahead of the other, and face the day with chins thrust forward. They are extraordinarily ordinary. You know these women, too. They are your classmates, your Emma friends, and the women whom in you see in the “everydayness” of your life. They are the women who get Their stories things done, who juggle the competing priorities of the personal and thrill us because professional that fill women’s lives to overflowing. Their stories thrill us because they are real; they are filled they are filled with diapers and carpools, illness with diapers and and triumph, pluck and luck. Their stories give us hope as they remind carpools, illness us that even we, as ordinary women, and triumph… have a bit of the extraordinary within us. These are the women who are “just like us,” and in being “just like us” they provide the nudge we need to search deep for the strength to address the personal challenges in our own lives. Earlier this fall, Emma Willard School hosted a panel entitled Women, Power, and Possibility. Seven articulate young women who have tackled thorny societal problems—poverty, illiteracy, human
they are real;
emma
trafficking, and more—sat on the stage sharing how they found the inspiration day after day to nurture their fledgling organizations despite lack of experience and funds. It was in turns humbling and awesome. They helped me understand a vital truth: We define success for ourselves. No one else gets to do it for us. It has taken me half a century to realize that simply being “ordinary” is the greatest success of all. To be “ordinary” is to strive daily, to fail once in a while, to find delight in the midst of challenge. To be “ordinary” is to search for balance, find time to celebrate life, and accept when you are having a bad day. To be “ordinary” is, all things considered, quite difficult. So, I ask you, isn’t it about time that we celebrated the power inherent in being ordinary women, the power that all of us have and use in our daily lives? We are raising families, going back to school, managing crises, sustaining relationships, and building lives with the tools we have at hand. We work countless hours per week in and out of the home. We care for aging parents and children with special needs. We are active volunteers and enthusiastic cheerleaders for numerous good causes. What we do is never-ending. What we do calls forth the extraordinary in each of us every day of our lives, even when we do not feel up to the challenge. Our world depends on insightful, proactive, thinking women who believe that, in simply being ordinary, they can make a difference in arenas both great and small. The power of being ordinary is inspirational, contagious, real. It is my power; it is your power; it is our power. Collectively, just imagine what gets done because we are all, each of us, extraordinarily ordinary. Keep talking to me. (You can email me at head_of_ school@emmawillard.org.)
letters
03
Lots of comments about the new look for Emma Magazine, plus reactions to our feature stories about retiring faculty member Jack Easterling, photographer Jessica Todd Harper ’93, and “The Girls That Got Away”—a piece about scholarship aid. New paper enhanced Harper photos
Harper amazing
I think the Emma magazine for spring/summer 2008 is great. Good format, interesting content, and I actually prefer the recycled paper. I think Jessica Todd Harper’s photos look better on the new paper than they would on the slicker, older version. (I hope she feels the same.) All the articles are interesting, but including “The Girls That Got Away” was brilliant. Keep up the good work.
Just wanted to congratulate you on the new look of the Emma publication. It’s a fresh, clean look, and I love it. I have only begun to look through it, and I caught a glimpse of the article about Jessica Todd Harper. She is an amazing young woman, and I am not surprised to hear that she is charming the critics.
Jane Fox Neighbors ’51 P’72,’73 Ridgewood, CT
Visual sensation Visually, the spring/summer Emma is absolutely sensational. The artwork, the layout, and the feel of the magazine are all great. I’ve only read up through page 9, so I can’t speak to all the substance, but so far it is very, very good. Really a huge improvement that was worth the wait. Kudos to all. Wendy Pestel Lehmann ’64 EWS Board Chair Penfield, NY
Enjoyed format We enjoyed the new format of the Emma bulletin so much this season. Thanks so much! Keep up the good work.
Janice Dachille, parent Rae Erin Dachille ’95 Saratoga Springs, NY
First-rate From paper stock to articles to general tone and manner, all first-rate. Great work. Congrats to all. Mike McKenna EWS Trustee Vice President of Communications Middlebury College
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reluctant icon
The artwork, the layout, and the feel of the magazine
are all great.
Debra Ulmer parent Bivina Ulmer ’98 Chatham, NY
Fall 2008
4 letters
Wonderful Easterling Had a quiet moment before the day gets off to a full gallop to read the spring/summer edition of Emma. Beautifully done. Inviting articles, green reminders, solid content which is not the least bit boring. What a wonderful person your Jack Easterling is! And clever, clever to identify the girls you’ve lost and won. Hats off to all involved.
REVELS CD + / %,
Meg Moulton, Executive Director National Coalition of Girls Schools
Put me on mailing list Would it be possible to place me on the mailing list for your magazine? Nat [Conard, former EWS dean of academics] really enjoyed the latest issue in particular, and thought we should see how well it looked—and he doesn’t want to give up his copy! I’d love to receive the most recent issue and future ones, if that’s possible. Melanie P. Hoffmann Director of Development The Pingry School, Martinsville, NJ
Cover art by Mark Van Wormer
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Michaela
A self-described “Latina who lives in one of the poorest rural counties in the State of New York,� Michaela learned at a tender age what it was like to be different. A fan of Shakespeare and Jane Austen—and biology and “hard core rock bands�—she struggled to find her identity. Her “loud, vibrant� Spanish home culture beckoned but so did the desire “to be accepted� by those in school. Chosen as the 8th Grader of the Year, Michaela is bright, self-motivated, and “tackles challenges head on.� Her English teacher believes “she would thrive if surrounded by others with such ability.� Interested in the sciences, Michaela plays violin and enjoys ballet, jazz, and modern dance. She’s a member of a traveling dance team. Her guidance counselor defines her as a “girl who has a great deal of self-respect� which shows “in the way she presents herself and her classroom assignments.� Michaela also applied to Phillips Exeter.
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MONEY is the only reason these great girls won’t be coming to Emma this fall *O UIF JOUFSFTU PG DPOGJEFOUJBMJUZ OBNFT IBWF CFFO DIBOHFE
Dianne
Dianne “loves to box� and finds that boxing helps her maintain focus on her goals. An 8th grader from New York City by way of Ecuador, she aspires to be a surgeon and envisioned Emma Willard’s “academically challenging environment� as the route to that dream. Described by her humanities teacher as “a deft leader in the classroom,� Dianne’s writing reflects a “profound understanding� of the content. Her math teacher declares her “one of the most impressive students I have taught in my 10 years of teaching math.� “Second to none� is how her Spanish teacher describes her determination to succeed. Gifted, meticulous, independent, analytical, and extraordinary are only a handful of the adjectives used in her letters of reference. Miss Porter’s, Dana Hall, or Westover is likely to benefit from our inability to offer her aid.
Alison
Described by her English teacher as “nothing short of a star,� this 9th grader from Connecticut landed a leading role in the school play, serves as captain for both her baseball and volleyball teams, writes “with power and poignancy,� and is “wise beyond her years.� Her classroom performance is exceptional, and her references describe her as among the top few students they have ever taught. Her personal insights reveal a keen sense of self, her activities and interests are varied and impressive, and this description in particular suggests how strong a fit Emma would be: “She will take a string of a thought from the previous night’s reading and run with it until the class is talking about something else entirely—and the voyage is always worth it.� We lost Alison to Miss Porter’s, which “offered an exceptional amount of financial aid.�
'"$6-5: &9$&--&/$&
Relive the memories of Emma Willard School’s most beloved tradition with a CD of songs from Revels, featuring recordings from 1974, 2001, and 2006.
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Spring/Summer 2008
Scholarship article inspired My headmaster, Mike Teitelman, gave me a copy of the spring/summer ’08 edition of Emma. First allow me to congratulate you, the alumnae office, and the communications office on a great magazine—great production values, compelling writing, and sustainable design. Mike and I were discussing the companion articles, “The Girls That Got Away� and the “The Girls We Got.� These articles have inspired a lot of productive conversation on our campus about our scholarship program. I would appreciate the chance to visit with you by phone to learn more about Emma Willard’s. Malcolm Aste Director of Scholarship and Endowment Giving The Bishop’s School, La Jolla, CA
CDs cost $15 each, and proceeds will provide scholarship support to Emma Willard students. Made possible by generous support from the Fae MacChesney Page ’38 and Dennett Page ’69 Alumnae Association Fund at Emma Willard School.
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Order yours today by calling Jill Smith at 866-833-1814 (toll-free). Also available from the school store online at www.emmawillard.org/ programs/bookstore.
Don’t be a stranger! We want to hear from you. Write or email us with your opinions about the magazine—its new look and the stories contained within it. Write to: E mma Magazine 285 Pawling Ave Troy, NY 12180 Email: alumnae@emmawillard.org
e mma everywhere
Obama and I New Girls New Fitness Center My Summer Abroad
06 07 08 09
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emma everywhere
Me. And Obama, In German
Fae Jencks never expected to be on the cover of a German magazine. Especially with the president of the United States.
emma
Fae Jencks ’06 has never been to Germany. She doesn’t speak German. Yet there she was, on the cover of a German magazine in May. And standing with the now-president of the United States. “I was quite surprised,” she says. “It’s very bizarre to know that people across the ocean have read about you, but to not be entirely sure what exactly they’ve read.” A junior at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Fae is a political communication major and was very active in the Obama campaign. When a group of about 10 foreign journalists came to GW last spring to cover student activism, it was natural they’d want to speak to Fae. She was one of the co-founders of GW’s chapter of Students for Barack Obama and spent her free time in 2007 working for the campaign in her home state of New Hampshire. When the magazine came out, Fae was shocked to see that she was the focus of the article, and had to ask friends to translate it for her. “I received a couple of Facebook messages from German students who had read the article and just wanted to say ‘hi’.” The photo, taken in August of 2007 by Fae’s mother, Dennett Page ’69, shows her daughter with Barack Obama at a small event in their hometown of Portsmouth, N.H. Fae says, “As an intern in New Hampshire, I was able to meet Senator Obama quite a few times. When you meet him or hear him speak in person, you’re struck by his sincerity. You can tell that he really believes in what he says and is serious about ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.”
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311 219 92 21 26 17% 21% 48% $22,000 students
boarders
day students
countries
states
students of color
international students
receive an average scholarship of
We welcome
• A welder • A photo stylist • A fashion designer • A bamboo stick brush painter • A Web designer
They are artistic • One is a member of the Manchester Ballet • Half play instruments • They dance (jazz, hip-hop, ballet, ballroom, and Irish) • Two are seasoned actors • Vocalists abound
They are competitors • In synchronized swimming (Empire Games) • In riding (3rd place “eventing” equestrian, 1st in the Northeast) • In geography (winner of the National Geographic Bee) • In computer drawing (2nd place at the National Science and Technology Festival)
They volunteer • Knitting and sewing for those in need of warm clothing • Tutoring for inner-city children • Serving and cooking at soup kitchens • Working at African orphanages
They come from afar • Representing 21 countries like Bolivia, Botswana, Korea, Croatia, Saudia Arabia, Vietnam, and many others
They keep the tradition • One is a 4th-generation Emma student • One is a 3rd-generation Emma student • We have 7 new sets of sisters
Fall 2008
emma everywhere
Emma By The Numbers: New Girls on Campus
Empty Bowls
Feeding the hungry is the object of an annual Troy fundraiser, which supports local food pantries and soup kitchens. Emma girls made ceramic bowls and volunteered their services. Attendees bought a bowl and enjoyed soup donated by local restaurants. This year’s Empty Bowls Project raised over $21,000.
Fit for a queen An anonymous donation of over $38,000 has resulted in a sparkling upgrade for the Fitness Center. Students and faculty are “raving about” eight brand-new topof-the-line Cybex Eagle weight machines and six new weighted balls. Coming soon: a Cybex Cage and a Cybex adjustable incline bench.
Gift named for classmate on 60th Reunion Florence Vester ’48 couldn’t have been happier when she came to Emma in 1947 from Holland. As her roommate Mary Newton remembers, “She was delighted and somewhat overwhelmed by the seeming luxury of American lives. A frequent word used by her was a breathless “wonderful!” and “Can I really have two?” Her delight at Emma Willard was in stark contrast to what she and her family had left behind in Holland. “World War II was a terrible experience in Holland,” she writes. “The lack of food, the demolishment of houses by bombardments, friends and relatives being deported to concentration campus and killed.” Her classmates from the class of 1948 have paid a tribute to
emma
Above Florence Vester Kruyt ’48 escaped the Nazis in World War II and came to the U.S. with her family. Below Florence today with Emma students.
“Florrie”—the first international student to attend EW after World War II—by naming their 60th Reunion gift in her honor. This gift is a first in other ways. The class of 1948 will be the first alumnae to partner with the Davis Scholars program, helping to underwrite an international student. And the first class of Davis Scholars has arrived on campus this fall (see page 24). Florence recalls “with gratitude” her year at Emma Willard. “It was a wonderful experience that had had a profound, lasting influence on my life.” Now she and her classmates hope to provide such a life-changing experience for other foreign students through the Florence Vester Kruyt ’48 Scholarship.
Fitness photo: Kristin V. Rehder
emma everywhere
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For two months this summer, Jordan Rich ’09 lived in Tacuary, Paraguay, where she taught health and environmental classes in the two localschools and did various community service projects. Living with a host family, she got a lot of experience of the day-to-day life in the small country town. “I loved milking the cows with my host mother, drinking maté (a te-like drink) in the morning, learning Guarani (the native language of most of the local people), playing soccer with a ball lit on fire (pelota ta’ta), and just sitting and talking to people about the world.” Jordan traveled with Amigos de las Américas, an organization that does service projects in South and Central America. While in Paraguay, she also painted a mural with the kids, distributed toothbrushes in the community, and bought and installed a motor for the town well and built a cement cage to protect it.
emma everywhere
My life-changing summer Oh, the places they’ve been Liz Wells ’10 spent a transformative month in Peru hiking around Machu Picchu, doing community service at a theater in Lima, and staying with a family in a tiny village. With 10 American kids like herself, Meryl Lindsay ’12 spent a month exploring Scotland through the Experiment in International Living. Anoushka Millear ’10 worked with children in an orphanage in Cambodia. Sun Jung Park ’09 volunteered at the Korean Children’s Hospital working with disabled kids and adults. Jaylan Elrahman ’11 attended the Ambassadors Abroad program through LeadAmerica and learned about global leadership and the history and culture of Europe. Jordan Rich in Paraguay, where she taught children and did community service projects.
“I learned that doing community service gives you far more than you can give the people you are there to ‘help.’ I was shown so much generosity and kindness in Paraguay that I know no matter how many well motors I might have installed, I could never repay my Paraguayan friends for what they gave me.” She returned speaking much better Spanish, and a little bit of Guarani, and with a lot more perspective on life.
Marisa Butners ’09 interned in Latvia and took part in the Comenius project, “Young Europeans Crossing Borders.” Jee Yoon Bang ’10 had a dental internship in Korea. Colleen Kilbourne ’10 took part in a cultural and language immersion program in France.
The day I got home and looked in the mirror in the airport, I wasn’t the same person I had been 30 days before, looking in the same mirror in the same bathroom in the same airport . — Liz Wells ’10
Fall 2008
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Fall 2008
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spoken word The Power of Words (Or Even Just Looks) By Bob Naeher
I was walking down a street in Albany on a beautiful summer day. The sun was shining, birds were singing, I had just enjoyed a terrific lunch, and I still had a bit of the runner’s high left from an early morning run. I had on my “Life is
History teacher Bob Naeher says words affect perceptions.
emma
And then a car slowed down and three teenage female heads leaned out. Now, many older people don’t understand and are uncertain of how to react to teens. Some are even fearful. But I, who spend my days with teens, know they are idealistic, intellectually open and vibrant, insightful and perceptive, and honest and straightforward. It is for all this and more that I respect and love working with teenagers. All of this was vaguely in my mind as the girls shouted, “HEY, GRANDPA!” and burst into laughter. I saw the driver, a woman my age, look a bit embarrassed as the car pulled away. Not thinking of myself as the grandfatherly type, I looked around to see whom they were talking to, but the only other person in sight was another young woman trying not to laugh. Ouch. I felt a little different through the rest of the afternoon. My knees creaked, the bounce was replaced by stiffness, and my energy and enthusiasm were gone. I began to feel like the worst stereotype of what I’d been called. Was I growing hair in my ears? Seeing my glum face when I got home, my wife asked what happened. “Some girls called me grandpa.” When I gave her the details, she said she knew exactly what happened. “The driver was the mom of one of the girls and she was checking you out,” my wife wisely said. “The girls caught her, and they busted on her by calling you grandpa.” I was instantly struck by the brilliance of her insight. Far from being a doddering figure, I was “check-out-able.” Well, maybe not, but it felt better to think that. And with that
Kristin V. Rehder
Good” cap, and there was a bounce in my step.
13 spoken word
readjustment of perception, the bounce returned to my step, and I went back to my normal summer routines of cycling, kayaking, and in general pretending that I’m not getting that much older. What this experience brought, aside from a renewed appreciation for my wife’s wisdom, was a greater awareness of the power of others’ words to shape our perceptions of ourselves. In writing a dissertation on Puritan prayer, I was impressed by the Puritans’ recognition of the power of our speech to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world. Puritans, in praying extemporaneously (i.e., choosing their own words rather than reading from a prayer book), engaged, I had argued, in what noted Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt has called “self-fashioning.” These girls’ words demonstrated, additionally, the power of our words not only to shape our perceptions, but to shape others’ perceptions as well. And it is not only words that can shape perceptions. My brother is a well-respected administrator at an independent school in Connecticut. Several years ago he became utterly infatuated with a younger woman, and, to make a long story short, they now have a regular Monday date and spend a couple of hours over lunch. He simply glows when describing the fun he has with her, and it is clear how she makes him feel. His wife, I should add, knows all about this. As I hear my brother talk of this woman, I am struck by how much we can impact others’ feelings and perceptions of themselves not only with our words, but by our very attitude toward them. This other woman is actually a young girl, whom we’ll call Ann, and she cannot speak. She is my brother’s niece, and she has Niemann-Pick disease, a rare disease in which an enzyme deficiency causes cell death, neurological problems, and organ failure, and which has left her, at the age of six, incapable of doing much except breathing. She needs constant care and attention, and has already outlived her doctors’ predictions of her lifespan. My brother, seeing the strain that caring for Ann has put on her mother, takes Ann out to lunch each week, giving his sister-in-law a couple of hours to clean and take care of things she can’t do while caring for her daughter. My brother takes Ann to the mall or
He can’t help but be built up by seeing, in her eyes, what she sees him to be —
a really cool uncle! a park, pushes her around in her stroller, feeds her while he eats a sandwich, and in general enjoys looking in her eyes and seeing her pleasure in simple distractions and in being with him. Now, this puts my brother in a good light, which is not my intent. He’s my younger brother, after all, the same guy who was such a royal pain in the neck when we were kids. But he’s grown up to be a pretty decent guy, and he saw an opportunity to help someone and acted. He also found that he gets way more than he gives, and I’m interested in how that works. He gets reflected back to him, in Ann’s eyes, some pretty special things like love and affection. He can’t help but be built up by seeing, in her eyes, what she sees him to be—a really cool uncle who does cool things with her. If she can communicate all of that so powerfully, with her extreme physical limitations, what potential communicative, and shaping, power might we have? Here’s a shirt I’ll be wearing the rest of the day. It reads, “persevere,” on the front, and on the back, “be determined, be stubborn, endure, hang on, hold fast, keep at it, stick to it, pursue, persist, press on, get it done.” Ann’s mom designed this shirt, and it summarizes her attitude about fighting this disease. It is now sold on the Web Site of the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation to raise awareness and funds for research. Robert J. Naeher is chair of the history and social sciences department. He gave this talk as a Monday morning inspirational speech during morning reports.
Fall 2008
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action Social Action Gets Personal By Leah Friedman ’02
I live on Facebook. Say about that what you will, but I’m hardly alone. Head to the Emma Willard School Alums group and you’ll find over 700 graduates who’ve gathered there.
Ashley Shuyler, of AfricAid, and Lindsay Hyde, of Strong Women, Strong Girls.
emma
“But what’s it for?” my mom has asked me half a dozen times. I’ve never been able to take the easy way out and say it’s for professional networking. I’d stumble over explanations. “It’s for procrastination.” “It’s for snarky stalking.” “It’s to connect with my fellow crypto-hipster indie music fans.” So it was a relief to head up to the Women, Power, and Possibility symposium sponsored by my alma mater on Reunion Weekend and discover that social networking has the ability to do more than simply put more sarcasm into the cyberether. Emma Willard, always on the lookout for the teachable moment, gathered together seven women who had managed to turn the often-acidic environment online into a force for one-on-one outreach. Each had taken a personal desire to help others and turned it into a viable, vibrant organization. And each had found a means to use the Web in order to further her own cause. For instance, Sierra Murdoch ’05, a senior at Middlebury College, believes that climate change is the issue of her generation. So, among numerous other environmental actions, she cofounded 350.org, where browsers can easily “Take Action” on her organization’s Web site by choosing among a myriad of programs that allow the individual user to organize events at the local level to educate about climate change. Or the organization founded by Neelam Mehta ’93’, Click-Aid, allows businesses to donate unwanted computer technology to underdeveloped nations. Kiva, cofounded by Jessica Jackley Flannery, perhaps exemplifies this best. Kiva.org, billed as the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending Web site, lets people like you and me read about specific entrepreneurs in the developing world who need funds to start a business or buy business-related items. Browsers can then loan—not donate—money in whatever amount they choose. This is called microfinancing and it’s an important new movement in the world of philanthropy. Microfinancing allows individuals in developing nations to take out loans of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in order to fund what will ultimately become self-sustaining business initiatives. What is extraordinary about Flannery’s organization (and, it became clear, about each of the organizations founded by the other six women) is that power is no longer necessarily solely in the hands of the millionaire philanthropist.
15 action
In every case, a program exists to empower individuals to empower other individuals. “We don’t so much train as enable,” explained Lindsay Hyde, founder of Strong Women, Strong Girls. Power and possibility are nearly synonymous when individuals are given the correct tools. I, like those alums I encountered from the Class of 2003, there for their fifth reunion, and like the students currently enrolled at EWS, grew up in the age of Facebook. The question of whether that makes us the most isolated or hyperconnected generation I’ll leave up to the dot-com philosophers. But what this symposium made clear is that something new is happening online. It’s as though someone took our beloved Facebook and turned it into a force for good and not just the greatest time-waster in the history of technology. These seven women helped build programs that, ultimately, allow you to connect to those you are helping or those things you are helping to change. It’s as though, in the era of the 12-hour news cycle and My Super Sweet 16, we’ve been given a reason to pay attention to something. Why? Because instead of passively donating, the new philanthropists are realizing what can be accomplished by one person being put in contact with others through nonprofit networking. Ultimately, what must drive these evolving organizations is the knowledge that the users can actually see what effects their contributions have on individuals. The 21st-century version of philanthropy offers more than the promise of a tax deduction. Case in point, those who benefit from Kiva.org will post journals discussing how they’re using the money. In fact, several of the women talked about how it was this sort of personal touch that prompted them to go into nonprofit work. What was certainly apparent was the degree to which the concept of social networking has facilitated these programs. Consider Kiva.org, or the grassroots campaign section of the Web site for The Polaris Project, Katherine Chon’s anti-sex-trafficking group. There’s the collaborative nature of both Strong Women, Strong Girls and AfricAid (women empowering women). Click-Aid’s function is to provide other organizations the means to allow effective reuse of their technology.
In the Running raises the profile of seven smaller organizations that need the coverage. In 2006, Time magazine determined “You” to be the Person of the Year. It was mostly considered a copout. Ridiculous, even! But maybe the editors weren’t so far off. Take away the narcissistic and somewhat navalgazing aspect of social networking and you have the
…the new face of philanthropy is
realizing what can be accomplished by one person being put in contact with others through nonprofit networking.
basis for Women, Power, and Possibility. The individual has power. The individual creates possibility. Perhaps that was the teachable moment—the idea that to Do Good, you don’t have to act on a global scale. Instead, do what makes sense to your heart. Or, as Ms. Flannery said, “Don’t be afraid to be scrappy.” Leah Friedman is based in Philadelphia and works as an international reporter for TV Guide and tvguide.com.
Learn more
See a video of the Symposium: www.lpmedia.net/emmastream/
Read more about the speakers at: www.emmawillard.org/symposium/
Fall 2008
emma
17
by rachel morton
extraordinary measures FOR AN ORDINARY LIFE
Max S. Gerber
Lilly Grossman, daughter of Gay Johnson Grossman ’84 and her husband Steve, is in many ways a typical 11-year-old girl. She likes baby dolls and ballet. She is passionate about pink. She adores Hannah Montana and Abercrombie and is beginning to find boys interesting. She sometimes thinks her parents are clueless, and she likes to tease her dad. With her long wavy blonde hair, big smile, and a twinkle in her eye, Lilly is her parents’ pride and joy.
Fall 2008
18 She was in the Honors Choir, and last year when the choir trooped over to a television studio to film its holiday concert, Lilly was part of the action. This was an exciting afternoon for most of the kids, but for Lilly Grossman the drama extended beyond the musical score and the thrill of being on television. Lilly has mitochondrial disease, a rare and often disabling illness that can make summoning the energy to do something like stand and sing nearly impossible. That day her mother watched in dread as the hot television lights blared down on the children. Heat affects Lilly immediately and drastically, sapping her strength and muscular control. As Gay feared, Lilly keeled over sideways into a bank of poinsettias. Gay rushed up to lift her daughter offstage and cool her down, glad that Lilly had seized her chance in the limelight even if it didn’t start well. Being an advocate for Lilly is now Gay’s primary job. Every day, all day and sometimes long into the night, she takes extraordinary measures so her daughter can have an ordinary life. A child with a chronic debilitating illness would be a huge challenge to any parent, but Gay and Steve Grossman have met this challenge with determination and grace. Gay herself is surprised at how her priorities changed when the extent of Lilly’s needs became evident. But rather than plunge into a depression or become paralyzed with the weight of her responsibilities, Gay found that caring for Lilly has given her life purpose and meaning and strengthened the bonds in her marriage. This is a busy family. In addition to supporting Lilly’s participation in school and extra-curricular activities, Gay also works full-time designing high-end writing paper for her company, Letters From Lilly, Ltd. Her
can severely affect a child’s body and mind. Some kids can’t walk or talk. Some need to use feeding tubes or oxygen. Some, Gay says grimly, “are severely compromised in all their critical body systems. We’re lucky. Lilly’s bright, she’s funny. She can tell me she loves me.” Gay and Steve are now veterans, having been inexperiencned parents themselves 11 years ago, when they first noticed that Lilly was not progressing in the same way other children her age were. They began taking her to doctors and hospitals in what seemed like a never-ending process of trying to find out what was wrong. One day, Gay’s best friend arrived at the hospital to keep her company. “It is so heartbreaking,” this friend told Gay, “to walk through these hallways and see these parents and the sick children.” Then she looked at Gay and said, “Oh my god, you’re one of them.” “It’s a new club,” says Gay. “The club of parents with sick children. Sometimes you’re in clubs you don’t want to be in.” Membership in this club has changed their lives totally. Gay and Steve moved from Cleveland to San Diego, away from all their family and friends, to be in a place that is better for Lilly. Cleveland’s temperatures were too extreme, the icy sidewalks unnavigable for a little girl with a walker. And the hospital at UCSD in San Diego is one of the world centers for mitochondrial disease research. They have changed jobs—both Gay and Steve developed home-based businesses. And they’ve both turned their acute intellects toward understanding this rare disease and learning how they can best help their little girl participate in life to the fullest. This has involved a fair amount of advocacy, educating themselves and others, and a stubborn insistence that opportunity not be denied Lilly because of her disability. Gay developed this determination during the years it took her to get a diagnosis for Lilly, years when no one in the medical establisment could find anything wrong with her daughter. The disease began slowly for Lilly. Gay did not begin to get concerned about her daughter’s progress until she was nine years old. Doctors thought she was just slow at reaching those physical milestones—pulling herself up, sitting, walking. But a mother knows, and as the months wore on, Gay became more and more convinced that Lilly had a serious health problem. But though she might have been developing slowly, Lilly was a pretty little girl with cognitive acuity and
“All of us who are parents wonder how we would do, when presented with a situation like that. You never know until you are there.” husband Steve sells document-management software for the pharmacy industry. And they are both active in school and community and very involved with the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, giving support and advice to parents of children who have been diagnosed with this immunological disease that
emma
Max S. Gerber
Lilly loves a trip to the mall as much as any other pre-teen girl. It just takes more time and effort to get her there safely. And though she adores new clothes, trying on clothing is physically draining.
no obvious illness, so doctor after doctor told Gay there was nothing wrong. One doctor suggested that perhaps the problem was Gay’s, and he requested that the next time she came to see him, she should bring her husband. Gay and Steve eventually got a diagnosis when Lilly was three years old at the internationally renowned Cleveland Clinic. Though Gay still harbors bitterness toward some of the doctors and hospitals she took Lilly to before the Cleveland Clinic, she has moved on. She has more important things to do. If there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that in her life there is no time for complaining. She has a role model here. It’s her delightful, funny, intelligent daughter Lilly. If Lilly isn’t complaining, stuck in a wheelchair, unable to join her friends in the simplest physical activities, then Gay feels she certainly has nothing to complain about. Gay and Steve’s attitude as parents is remarkable, even humbling, to their family and friends. “The most overwhelming thing is just how incredibly they have risen to the task that was placed in front of them,” says sister-in-law Dana Grossman, who is married to
Steve’s brother, Dan. “They grew up far, far faster than anyone ought to, or usually has to. All of us who are parents wonder how we would do, when presented with a situation like that. And I suppose there may be more challenging situations, but this is right up there. You never know until you are there.” Gay has also been surprised and grateful at the generosity and goodness that people have shown her and Lilly. Just when she thinks she is going to have to “strangle someone” who might be about to prevent Lilly from participating in some activity, that person shows an open heart and includes Lilly with warmth and love. That afternoon when the choir was being filmed, Gay assumed that Lilly’s performance was over, but the music director surprised Gay by declaring that until Lilly recovered and returned, the show would not go on. Or, take the American Girl Fashion Show. Even though fashion shows are not exactly what Gay might have dreamed of as an activity for her daughter, when Lilly said she wanted to participate, Gay made sure she got the chance to try out. The officials declared
Fall 2008
20 that if Lilly could walk and smile, she was in, even if walking entailed a pink walker. Officials placed themselves strategically along the stage in case Lilly faltered, and Gay watched from backstage and thought she’d throw up from anxiety, imagining her daughter pitching forward off the stage into the audience. But everything went well and Lilly had her day in the sun. Though Gay experiences numerous stomach-churning moments, she certainly doesn’t appear to be an overanxious mother. Quite the contrary. Dana observes: “Lilly falls down, and instead of pity and rushing to help her, it’s, ‘Hop up, dust yourself off. You’re tough.’ They have done such a fabulous job with her.” “We’re pretty strict,” says Gay. “I don’t want her to think she’s getting special treatment. So there’s a fine line. Sometimes she’s being a preteen, a pain, not wanting to do homework. Other times I know she’s hit the wall and she’s had enough.” Mitochondrial Disease is a genetically transmitted illness that can have a wide variety of symptoms. It affects the mitochondria, which function in every cell in our body, and affect how energy is created and used. It can manifest itself in numerous ways—it can be mild and treatable, or cause serious physical and mental disabilities. It is a progressive disease, and there is no
cure, though for some people treatments can be helpful. Most children seriously affected by the disease won’t live beyond adolescence. In Lilly’s case, she tires easily and has little muscle strength or stamina. Walking, talking, eating, even breathing and sitting take a lot out of her. She has tremors at night that leave her screaming with pain from muscle cramps. She can’t hold a pencil, so she uses a computer to do her schoolwork. She uses a walker to get around and increasingly needs a wheelchair. Temperature affects her drastically. She overheats easily and her body just “wilts,” like a flower out of water. When Lilly is depleted, she can’t hold her head up, and she can’t speak without superhuman effort. She needs immediate attention to replenish her energy and restore her equilibrium. What she eats has a huge effect on Lilly’s condition. Over years of trial and error, Gay and Steve have found foods that Lilly can tolerate. They include organic fruits and vegetables, bison meat, goat milk, oat flour, and organic honey. Minor variations from these specific foods can cause a severe reaction. Even changing the brand of a specific product can affect Lilly for hours or even days. And she has to eat an enormous amount of food just to have enough energy for daily living. At 65 pounds,
Laura DeCapua
Lilly dances with her dad at the wedding of her cousin in September. She was a flower girl at the ceremony.
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“Sometimes those kinds of things, when they land on you, they tear relationships apart. I think it has absolutely made theirs.”
Lilly is “a little slip of a girl,” says Dana, who describes a recent dinner she had with the family, where Lilly ate a heaping plateful of several bison burgers, a big portion of potatoes, and a pile of green beans. “She wolfed it down,” says Dana. “Then she said she was still hungry, so Steve made her some scrambled eggs, which she finished, then wanted more. So her father made her a big bowl of oatmeal. “It’s just incredible to see her eating these massive quantities of the most healthy stuff. And then seeing how hard it is for her to summon energy to do the things the rest of us take for granted.” Yet in most ways she is a normal pre-adolescent girl. She has a cell phone and texts her friends. She likes to go to the beach, where her dad helps her ride the waves on a boogie board with him. Lilly is smart and does well in the public school, where she is in a regular classroom, though Gay says, “The adjustments we make to make that happen are huge.” Because she can’t use a pencil or pen, Lilly uses a computer with special software. An aide meets her at the curb every day and helps her set up her computer and papers at her desk, then steps to the side of room, ready if Lilly needs her again. The aide scans in her homework so Lilly can keep up with the class, doing exactly what they are doing, but in a different medium. Once a month her life comes to a screeching halt, when Lilly has to go to the hospital for a two-day intravenous procedure. She gets an infusion of human immunoglobulin, or IVIg, which helps her marshal enough energy to keep living that ordinary life. Lilly hates these infusions. What 11-year-old could bear sitting in a hospital for two days being hooked to a machine? “These are not happy days,” Gay says simply. “She cries, she’s a puddle. But if she doesn’t have the infusion, I am carrying her everywhere. I have to feed her and bathe her. She gets very stiff. If she has her infusion, she helps me move her around, and she can get her legs in the car.” At a recent infusion, Lilly, depressed and exhausted from the procedure, turned to her mother and said, “I quit.” “You can’t quit!” Gay told her daughter. “There is no quitting.” Gay understands and is humbled by her daughter’s spirit. “I don’t know if I could do what Lilly does. Have the smile, the energy, the gumption. She has this unbelievable sense of humor, this desire to be a part of the world, even though it’s so hard for her. I can go out with my girlfriends and get away from it all. But Lilly has to deal with this all the time. Everything is hard.”
When you ask her how she manages, Gay will say it’s just her life. It’s all she knows. “I go to the infusion center and think, ‘This is my world. This is normal for me.’ And that’s when it scares you. But it’s not like I have a healthy kid so I know it any other way. “This is going to be our life forever. So the question is, what can we do to make our life better? We can work on our marriage. We’re a team,” she says. “I couldn’t do this without Steve.” When she was a student, Gay says, there was a prevailing philosophy that a woman could do it all, by herself, in the face of any challenge or danger. “I’m not just this extraordinary woman doing this by myself,” says Gay. “Emma tries to teach you you can do anything, but I couldn’t do this by myself. My husband is part of my team. We need to rely on other people for help.” Though Gay has found support in unexpected places, she’s been saddened by some of her friends’ and sometimes even her family’s inability to understand the constraints of their life. They often don’t realize how hard it is for Lilly to do something without serious effort or accommodation on their parts. “I guess it just happens when you cannot participate in the same family activities—skiing, sports, camping —you kind of fall off their radar screen and lose touch. Having a kid with special needs often magnifies the distance that evolves. “That’s the biggest disappointment from the whole experience,” she says. “We often don’t quite fit into the pretty picture of what is supposed to be going on.” But she has friends—very good friends, including a handful of dear friends from Emma. And there’s Steve’s family. And there’s her marriage—she and Steve will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in June. “They have a great marriage,” Dana Grossman observes. “One zigs and the other zags. They both have a lovely relationship with Lilly and with each other. Sometimes those kinds of things, when they land on you, they tear relationships apart. I think it has absolutely made theirs.”
Fall 2008
22 “I don’t have time to squabble with Steve about things,” says Gay. “No time for being selfish. When our friends get divorced and they have three healthy children, we say, ‘What was so tough for them? They don’t even know what tough is.’” TWO days after Lilly’s September infusion, the Grossmans traveled to Vermont. Traveling, which takes them far from their food sources and support system, is not something Gay and Steve do frequently. The few times they’ve tried to fly with Lilly have resulted in exhaustion and sometimes illness for Lilly, and damage to both the walker and the wheelchair. So it would take a very special circumstance to get this family back on a plane. The circumstance this fall was a wedding. And Lilly was intent on going because she had been invited to be a flower girl, something she’d wanted to do, like forever! Whenever Lilly really wants to do something, Gay does everything within her power to make it happen.
They did a number of trial runs, and on all but one, Lilly fell. They came up with a plan that Steve would sit in the last row, Gay in the first row, and they would place other people along the aisle who would jump up and pull Lilly to her feet if she fell. Gay and Steve fed Lilly her special food (driven in from Boston by the bride’s sister) so she’d be full of energy when it was her turn to walk down the aisle. On her pink walker was a bouquet of Gerbera daisies and mums, pink Gerbera daisies—a special request by the bride, who knows how much Lilly loves pink. Though they’d prepared for weeks for this trip, and had practiced and planned for any eventuality, Gay was still anxious. “Yes, I was nervous. I got nervous because I wanted Lilly to succeed. I wanted her to walk down the aisle and smile and have fun. I wanted her to remember doing it just as she would want to— on her feet. “I couldn’t see her from the front row. I watched the expressions on the faces across the aisle and I knew she was doing okay because they were all smiling. Then I saw her come down the last few rows, beaming. She did it. Of course she did it.” That night, after the cake was cut and Lilly had a few dances with her dad, Gay and Steve untied the bouquet from Lilly’s walker and put it on her nightstand in the cabin. “Lilly went to sleep knowing that she had been a flower girl.” Gay’s life is a far cry from what she imagined for herself as a girl at Emma, or even at 30, when she had Lilly. “My life was planned. We knew we’d have two or three kids. My house was decorated. My china pattern was complete. Everything was just the way it should be. And then I got pregnant, and what I thought was my perfect world came shattering down.” Would she have been happier than she is now, in this mythical perfect life? She can’t even imagine it. “Was I ever that shallow,” she wonders, to think that a nice home and healthy children are the necessary prerequisites to a happy life? Because she is happy every day that she helps create a happy day for Lilly. Every night when Lilly can go to sleep thinking happy thoughts is a night that Gay and Steve Grossman go to bed happy themselves. It’s as simple as that.
She and Steve are determined to give Lilly as normal a life as possible. “We don’t want to look back and say, ‘If only we had done this.’ Having her do these things, it’s more important than that she could get sick.” The wedding was important not only because Lilly wanted to be a flower girl. She and the bride-to-be, her cousin Joanna, had something in common. Both were battling immune system diseases. Joanna’s was much less severe, and with treatments she was living an ordinary life. But it was a bond between them, and Lilly was determined to be present. When Gay arrived at the wedding site in Vermont, the first thing she noticed wasn’t beautiful Lake Fairlee, or the mountain views, or the fields of September asters and goldenrod. “Honestly, the first thing I noticed was the lawn sloping down to where the ceremony would take place. How would Lilly maneuver that? Grass is tricky enough, let alone on a slope.”
emma
Max S. Gerber
Every night when Lilly can go to sleep thinking happy thoughts is a night that Gay and Steve Grossman go to bed happy themselves.
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Fall 2008
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Nine Girls Nine Stories One School Emma welcomes the Davis Scholars, the youngest participants in an innovative educational experiment that aims to do nothing less than change the world. The first class of Davis Scholars arrived at Emma in September from Bolivia, Botswana, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam as well as the United States. They came as part of a ground-breaking pilot program, created and supported by Shelby Collum Davis and his wife, Gale Lansing Davis, class of 1963. The program was already in existence at a number of colleges and universities across the nation, but this year, the Davis Foundation decided to include a select few secondary schools. Emma Willard is the only girls school among that group. The Davis family wants to create a cadre of future leaders, Americans and non-Americans alike, whose shared perspectives and global experiences will prepare them to collaborate effectively in a demanding, increasingly interdependent world. The awards are need-based, and each successful candidate will have her full need met by grants from the Davis Foundation and from Emma Willard. Upon graduation from Emma Willard, Davis Scholars are eligible for continued scholarship support at any of the 89 colleges and universities participating in the Davis United World College Scholars Program, which now host more than 1,400 students from 131 countries. In their own words, here are some of the goals, talents, and desires of these nine young women. emma
25 feature
Falll 2008
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“Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor. An epidemiologist— you can treat people as well as search for medicines.” —Oema Rambharose
Quianna Smith
Meryll Castro
Oema Rambharose
Washington State
Saudi Arabia
Born in Suriname, moved to Schenectady
n I want to become a pediatrician. n I do see myself as leading and being an example for my little sisters. n Mom told me to meet as many people and learn as much as I could, but also have fun. n I study Chinese. I like the Chinese characters; they’re really pretty. I want to go to China. n I love working with chemicals and doing mixtures. I loved bio. n I never would go to the mountains and hike, camp outside, play soccer with my friends, so I get to experience something different in a different cultural setting. n I miss my mommy’s cooking. n I shop for shoes to relax. I used to have like 40 pairs. Most are not suitable for the wintertime out here.
nB oth my parents are from the Philippines. I have five siblings. n I speak Arabic, French, and Tagalog. n I’m interested in medicine— particularly cardiology. n I just like the heart above all other body parts because it has mystery to it. It pumps; it’s a muscle; it’s intense. It’s the vessel that gives you adrenalin, gives blood. n My favorite book in the world: Little Women. I’ve read it like five times. I never get tired of it. You always find something new there. You’re like, “Wow, I never saw that before.” n I miss baking with Mom. I miss the smell of the kitchen. I miss Filipino food. n My favorite music is classic rock, Beatles, Rolling Stones. In the car, my dad always, always plays the Beatles. He has every single record.
emma
nM y mom is from Ghana, and Dad is from Suriname. Dad’s a mechanic. I have five siblings. n Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor. An epidemiologist— you can treat people as well as search for medicines. n I love to learn different languages. And I like math and chemistry. n I speak Dutch, Hindustani, and Talki-Talki, which is the language created from all the languages together. n In 20 years I’ll be practicing medicine, but who knows where? I like to travel and learn about other cultures, so it could be anywhere. n I miss our food. It’s kind of Indian—pepper, curry, spicy food. Mom brought food, and I shared it with my hallmates. n My favorite book is Go Ask Alice. It was really eye-opening.
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“I want to be a novelist. I’m always writing, yet can’t seem to finish anything!” –JaQuess Wynn
JaQuess Wynn
Makeda Morrison
Ngoc Minh Nguyen
Albany
Born in Alabama, moved to Atlanta
Vietnam
n I want to be a novelist. I’m always writing, yet can’t seem to finish anything! Mostly fantasy, sci fi, teenage fiction. I sometimes write poems. n Culinary arts is my fallback; I love cooking. n I read a lot. I read Reservation Blues. Before that, The Once and Future King. I love the Harry Potter series. n I’ve wanted to go to Japan forever. I’m particularly interested in the early 19th century to early 20th century—the time of Geishas and when General Perry came over and started trade with them. n I’m trying to teach myself Japanese. n I want to have three kids, one of my own and two adopted so I’m not forgetting about people who don’t have any homes. That’s just sad, and the world shouldn’t be that way.
n I want to be an obstetrician. I think that babies are beautiful, and birth is one of the most beautiful things that happens. n I really want to travel the world. Maybe go around the world delivering babies! n I try to be color-blind. And if I experience some kind of racism, I just turn the other cheek. n My mother says remember where you came from. n I met a few new friends and we were playing hide-and-seek in the little playground. One of my friends rolled down the hill. It was the purest fun that I’ve had. You don’t have to do wrong to have fun. n It’s noticeably harder here than at my other school. But I like it a lot. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity so I can be challenged, and I’ve gotten it here.
n My dad passed a few years ago. He always wanted me to go to the States to study. It was his wish. n I can see myself as a businesswoman, or doing public relations. I do want to travel, but I think Vietnam has a lot of opportunity. n At home, we have to learn 11 compulsory subjects. School day starts at 7, ends at 5. n There are more discussions here. Class is very active. n I like to listen to R&B music by artists like Yiruma and Dan Gibson. Dan Gibson’s music is taken from nature, is very interesting. n I speak Vietnamese and English; I’m taking Chinese.
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“I’d like to help my government communicate with people from other nations.” —Refilwe Moahi
Karmela Padavic
Michelle Echenique
Refilwe Moahi
Croatia
Bolivia
Botswana
n I want to be a scientist, a theoretical physicist. n Theoretical physics has answers to everything—to the way our world functions, the beginning of the universe. The fate of the universe. n There’s always something to look into, like how to connect the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics. n I feel better when I’m working; some obligations are good to have. n I’m reading a book about chaos theory, by James Gleick. n I’m into metal. I love Iron Maiden. My dad was a metalhead when he was my age. n My parents encourage me to be myself and try and fulfill myself. n This was a great choice for me to come here. I was raised to want more, so my parents were prepared for it. n My parents know what they can expect from me. And there is mutual trust, so they know I wouldn’t make a bad choice.
n I want to help people, especially from my country or South America. n I’m excited and happy to be at Emma Willard. I like the school and classes. n I’m so far from my family, but right now I don’t miss them! n I love that everything has a time here. Everything is on time. It’s very different in Bolivia! n I really like history and math. It’s just one week, but I am learning a lot. n In a couple of months my roommate is going to be my sister! We get along really well. We help each other, or we just laugh and talk. n I love ballet and I’m taking ballet lessons. I’m going to take sports, soccer and yoga. n My life at Emma? It’s like a dream. A dream.
n I’m interested in working for the UN—maybe in economics or international relations. n I speak Setswana and English. I’ve always loved languages. My favorite subject is French. I’d like to learn Chinese. n I’d like to help my government communicate with people from other nations. I’d also love to work in France. n People are a lot friendlier here. A lot more talkative. I really like it because you can get to know people better. n At home I did ballet and drama, school productions. Recently we did Seraphine—a South African musical about apartheid. n I’m a Motswanan, but I’d also like to learn about other cultures and countries. I’m interested in the rest of the world.
emma
$75m
29 GOAL
Campaign Progress Report $62.4m
With gifts and pledges totaling more than $62 million, the Emma Willard Idea campaign is making good progress on two of its goals: increased support for faculty compensation so that Emma can recruit and retain the best teachers, and a more robust unrestricted endowment so that we have the agility to meet our most pressing needs at any point in time.
What needs the most help? Emma Willard’s scholarship resources, where contributions thus far total less than half of the $20 million goal for this vital priority.
The economic downturn makes gifts to scholarships more important than ever. Like other independent schools, we anticipate increased financial need not only on the part of students applying for admission, but also from parents challenged to keep their children enrolled.
This year 48% of the student body is receiving scholarship assistance. This is a larger percentage than at most independent schools, and it reflects Emma’s historic commitment to ensuring socioeconomic diversity.
But Emma Willard’s average scholarship award is far smaller than those of our peer schools.
Average boarding scholarship, 2008-2009 Andover $33,100 Taft $32,000 Exeter $31,227 Emma Willard $25,794
Stronger scholarship resources are essential to Emma’s ability to compete for the best students. They also allow students to learn alongside classmates whose backgrounds and perspectives differ from their own—key to preparing the next generation of Emma women to make a difference in an interdependent world.
For all these reasons, scholarship assistance is the prime focus of the Emma Willard Idea Campaign, including the Annual Fund. This year, every gift to the Annual Fund supports scholarships and provides a girl with the transforming power of an Emma education.
—Larry Lichtenstein, Director of Advancement
This year, every gift to the Annual Fund is a gift to scholarships and provides a deserving girl with the transforming power of an Emma education. Fall 2008
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connections Coming Together Reunion 2008 One of the most inspiring parts of serving as the Alumnae Association Council (AAC) President is presenting the Distinguished Alumnae Awards at Reunion each year. As if you needed further proof, Emma Willard alumnae are an impressive group. This year’s winners all excel in their professions, and what a diverse group they are this year: a scientist and businesswoman, a minister and therapist, a doctor and advocate, a fundraiser and entrepreneur, and a financial advisor and deeply dedicated volunteer for Emma Willard. Isn’t it interesting how these women can’t be categorized by one label or another? They lead multidimensional lives, making choices each day about where to apply their energy and talent. Like Gay Johnson Grossman ’84, my classmate and good friend profiled in this issue, EW alums live lives of accomplishment, too often not celebrated with awards or public recognition. As Trudy notes in her letter, there are so many of these amazing women in our midst. I think of the alumna from the class of 1990 who home-schools her kids while running a farm with her husband, or the alumna from the class of 1969 who is dean of a community college in the small town where she grew up in Iowa, one of the only options for higher education in the region. Equally impressive is the alumna from the class of 1994 who is a welder, building satellite towers all over the world on construction sites where she is nearly always the only woman, or the women who serve with me on the AAC. They donate their time and energy to Emma Willard, coming back to campus three weekends each year to help reconnect alumnae to the school and to each other, run the DAA program, oversee regional clubs in many parts of the country, and connect recent graduates to older alumnae. These, too, are Emma Willard women making a difference! Erin Crotty ’84 President, Alumnae Association Council
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01 K atie Carella ’98 toasts Jack Easterling
02 Head of School Trudy Hall speaks with Trix Tolles Smalley ’58 at dinner Friday night
03 Biddy Harte Owens ’68
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talking with Holly Ford Ridgway ’68 and principal emeritus Bill Dietel
04 Sara Johnson Meyers ’73 05 L iz Toohey ’03 and Linda Glazer Toohey ’66 with the inaugural Maddie Levitt Scholar Natasha Kappaya ’10
06 The Class of ’73 in their parade finery
07 Heather Wells ’88, Emily Cross ’88, and Wendy Jenkins ’88
08 The Class of ’63: This was a class!
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09 Ardelle Fenn Darling ’58, Sara Lubin Schupf ’58, and Peg Doud Christie ’58 accept the award for highest reunion giving participation
10 The Class of ’03 after the memorial chapel service
11 The Class of ’83 at dinner 12 T he Class of ’48 at the awards ceremony
12 Fall 2008
2008 Distinguished Alumnae Awards
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Deborah Frease Geraghty ’88 Described by friends and colleagues as upbeat, compassionate, curious, enthusiastic, persevering, driven, thoughtful, and, oh yes, energetic, Deborah Frease Geraghty is a young leader in science and business. Following college, Deb earned a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology and an M.B.A., both with honors. She worked two years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry before becoming a director of the biotech consulting firm where she is now vice president, managing a majority of the company’s consulting projects. In addition, Deb enthusiastically serves Emma Willard as national co-chair of the Annual Fund, board member, and reunion gift chair. Despite all this responsibility, she maintains the qualities captured in her Emma Willard college recommendation: “Hard-working, yet full of fun, a twin, but an individual, a scholar, and a committed school citizen.” Accomplished Alumna Vanessa George ’83 Vanessa George possesses a limitless view of the future coupled with a deep sense of compassion that inspires all who know her. As she put it, she has spent the last several years following her “dream of helping to improve the lives of women.” Toward this end, she helped build the Women of Color Action Network (WCAN) and joined the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Center for Gender Equity, where she expanded programs focused on women of color and launched professional development and networking programs for women in the community. She now serves as director of development for the UCSF Medical Center. In addition, Vanessa has started a side business helping other African-American women become entrepreneurs and last year launched the Kayla A. George Dare to Dream Fund for Girls at Emma Willard after being featured in Money Magazine. This fund will help African-American girls benefit from an Emma Willard education. Life Achievement Bonnie Scott Jelinek ’63 At Emma Willard, Bonnie Scott Jelinek learned that “I could do anything I wanted to do professionally, as a woman, in spite of overwhelming odds.” She has lived out that lesson in the years since graduating from Lake Forest College and Yale Divinity School, pursuing a career in Christian ministry at a time when the field was just opening up to women. Bonnie was one of the first women to be ordained into a Protestant denomination in the state of Connecticut in 1977. A group of women held picket signs around the church, saying: “Put back on your apron,” but she persevered with a belief in her calling and
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a deep desire to make a difference in her world, both as a minister and later as a therapist. Her ability to touch lives is an example of the power of one individual to make a difference; Bonnie possesses an exuberance that infects everyone with whom she interacts. One of her congregants described Bonnie as spinning “a web of love and support for everyone she comes in contact with on a personal, professional, and community level.” Humanitarian Barbara Nabrit-Stephens ’68 Barbara Nabrit-Stephens’s college recommendation from Emma Willard stated that she had “both the drive and the capability to make a place in the world, and to achieve much for both the world and herself.” In the years since, she has achieved much for the poor and those without access to medical care, both as a pediatrician and professor of medicine, and as an advocate for improved healthcare policy for those who rarely have a voice in the process. Barbara chaired the Pediatric Section of the National Medical Association, guiding the development of the strategic plan, which focuses on health disparities in minority children and families. She continues to advocate on behalf of children as a member of the National Children’s Study Advisory Board and the National Medical Association, and as a Fellow of the Academy of Pediatrics. Equally important, she has lived a personal life of civic engagement as a role model and community leader. Service to Emma Willard Ellen Braestrup Strickler ’53 Classmates, a former board chair, a former campaign chair, and a former head of school all wrote to support Ellen Braestrup Strickler’s nomination, illustrating the depth of her contribution to Emma Willard. She has been a board member, committee chair, fundraiser, leader, and event host many times since her graduation. Ellen brought a deep understanding of the independent school world to the board of trustees. In 10 years as a trustee she vigorously advocated endowment growth, urging the board to consider a broader range of investments to create an optimal asset allocation model. She chaired the investment committee masterfully, deftly balancing the risks and rewards in the near term with a vigilant eye to the long term and formalizing the investment advisory structure to expand the range of the school’s money managers. To this day, Ellen’s investment philosophy echoes in the minds of board members when they discuss prudent use of the endowment. Her keen mind for complex fiscal and investment issues has helped ensure that Emma Willard continues to be financially secure now and into the future.
back in the day
Edith Hammond ’09
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A venerable old tree, one of two red maples that grew at the far end of the playing fields, was cut down this fall. Estimated to be about 150-years-old, it had become dangerous due to interior rot. Though most of the wood was unusable, Ken McGivern, assistant director of facilities, hand-carved a Native America-style flute out of one of its branches, and it was on display Reunion Weekend. Edith Hammond ’09 took this photo her freshman year because she remembered her mother (XX Hammond ’74) telling her how fond she was of the tree. “I suppose you could have called it foreshadowing because I knew then that I needed to get a sentimental photo of this tree that meant so much to her and probably the rest of the Emma Willard community. Over the course of my career at Emma, I also came to love that tree for its shade and its presence across the playing field.”
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Carol Hillman Van Dyke ’74 Age: 52 Profession: Innkeeper, Golden Eagle Resort, Stowe, Vermont Her passion: Endurance sports. Carol has hiked all 111 northeast mountains over 4,000 feet; competed in numerous triathlons, marathons, half-marathons, and canoe races; finished a bicycle century ride (100 miles) this summer; and is on the New England Masters Nordic Ski Team. Memories of Emma: “We were blessed with a phenomenal faculty. Teachers like Mr. Locke, Mr. Pasanen, Mr. Easterling, Mme. Dispas and Ms. Prescott totally changed my perspective.” How Emma Willard impacts her life today: “It is amazing to me how the core of what I am
took seed at Emma Willard. What I learned in those years continues to serve me almost every day— in my job, in my volunteer endeavors, and in my efforts to pass on to my children what I think is important.” Why she supports Emma Willard: “I’m grateful to Emma for nurturing my abilities and giving me the power of knowledge. It’s important to me that Emma continues to be the unique place it was while I was a student; a place that encouraged broad-minded, expansive thinking.” Why a charitable bequest: “With the financial priority of three college educations, I don’t have the discretionary income to make the gift I would like. By adding the school as a beneficiary in my will, I can make a modest gift and honor a place that means so much to me.”
Interested in Learning more about charitable bequests? For further information and sample language that will help you include Emma Willard in your will, contact Michele Susko, director of planned giving, at (518) 833-1788 or msusko@emmawillard.org
Carol enjoying the trip down Mount Rainier in Washington State.
Emma Willard Magazine Spring/Summer 2008
Your Gift + Her Education = A World Of Change Danielle ’11 is one of over 300 incredible girls that make Emma Willard the special place it is. Each girl brings unique strengths, talents, and interests to Mount Ida and shares them with contagious enthusiasm. In the absence of scholarship support that allows nearly half our students to study here, Emma Willard would be a very different place. Your gifts to the Annual Fund this year will be directed to scholarship support. Please give generously and help sustain the cultural, religious, political, and social diversity that distinguishes Emma Willard. To learn more about Danielle, please go to www.emmawillard.org/giving/annual_giving.
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