winter 2009
emma willard school
Arbiter of Art The Guggenheim’s Nancy Spector ’77 shakes up the world of contemporary art.
That Magic Moment Ellen Friedlander ’78 has lived in Hong Kong since 1995, where she is a mother and part-time commercial photographer. The image below is a view from the Star Ferry in Hong Kong. Of her work, Friedlander says, “There is virtually no cropping in my images nor manipulation. Taken from old masters such as Cartier-Bresson, I prefer to capture a moment that transcends time. Whether it is portraits of people, landscapes, or cityscapes, what makes an image special to me is that moment when light, shape, and subject become magic.”
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.
Rachel Morton
Trudy E. Hall
Editor rachel@rachelmorton.com
Head of School Trudy J. Hanmer
Susan H. Geary
Web and Production Manager Class Notes Editor sgeary@emmawillard.org Jill Smith
Class Notes Coordinator jsmith@emmawillard.org 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
Associate Head of School Larry Lichtenstein
Director of Advancement Christine R. Hoek
Director of Strategic Initiatives Molly Price
Bidwell ID
Design www.bidwellid.com
Director of Alumnae Relations
emma willard school winter 2009 volume 66, no. 2
features
18 Arbiter of Art
Guggenheim Curator Nancy Spector ’77 presents to a sometimes skeptical public the best of contemporary art.
24 Revelations
Stiletto heels sinking in the snow, flights cancelled, a fire drill and temporary retreat to the tunnels—this year Revelers surmounted a series of setbacks to a stellar success.
26 It Takes a Village
Ugandan widows and their community get a new start with loans and business advice from Deborah Smith ’70 and her friends.
departments
On the cover Nancy Spector ’77 in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, where she is the chief curator. Photo by Bob Handelman.
02 Headlines
12 Written Word
The necessity of creative thinking.
A short story by Coleman Hough ’78.
04 Letters
14 Click
Gay Grossman and her extraordinary daughter, Lilly.
16 Spoken Word
06 Emma Everywhere Kirsten Gillibrand ’84 takes Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat; Greg Mortenson visits Troy to speak about educating girls in Pakistan; a special spot at the Inauguration.
10 Action
Printed on 100% recycled paper that is manufactured entirely with nonpolluting, wind-generated energy.
Stationed in Iraq, Captain Rebekah L. Strock ’01 made a difficult decision: not to divulge her Judaism.
History teacher Alan Berry ponders the “S” word. No, not that one.
30 Connections Alumnae together again.
32 Class Notes 35 Memorial List 80 Women’s Work Kate Allen ’94 is a carpenter working in Antarctica.
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headlines
By Trudy E. Hall, Head of School
Inspiration I am tired of talking about “these uncertain economic times.” Every headline announcing another financial upset sears me with outrage that drains my positive energy. Enough already. I am on the search for fresh inspiration. Have you ever been in one of those small groups with a well-meaning facilitator doing her best to create a moment of reflection? Imagine the scene with me. It is a circle, comfortable chairs or beanbags; the lights are low—perhaps there are candles about; there may even be nondescript, yet oddly comforting, instrumental music playing in the background. And the soft spoken facilitator, always dressed in loose clothing, says in a voice that is easy on the ears, “I want you to think about what inspires you, something you feel comfortable sharing.” Surprisingly, such moments, designed to foster imaginaSweat beads gently tive thoughts, shut me down cold. Nothing whirs. No images float to form as I imagine the surface. Sweat beads gently form as I imagine what in blazes I will share when it is my turn to speak. My point is that no one can force us to be inspired. There is no guaranteed font of inspiration or setting in which inspired thoughts are assured; nothing uniform about the process or the outcomes. There is only one truth in the midst of the search: the search itself is imperative and ongoing. Whether one finds inspiration in being out in nature, wandering around art galleries, driving along a country road on a Harley, sipping wine in front of a roaring fire, or some equally delicious delight; one must search. Always. To find inspiration, it helps to be curious. It is not a coincidence that
what in blazes I will share when it is my turn to speak.
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this is also a quality for success at Emma. The adaptive reuse construction recently completed on campus is the finest example around of an instance in which challenging the obvious led to an unconventional, yet extraordinary, outcome. It turns out that closing the tunnels has enabled us to create new, visible, community bonds. Who knew? For although the phrase “out of the box thinking” has become hackneyed of late, the concept is more in vogue and necessary than ever. We truly are living in unusual times, inventing strategies for survival as we go. Innovative thinking has become more essential than ever as the world places unexpected challenges in our path. The recipes for fresh inspiration require that we take “the comfortable” and add “jazz” to ensure the spicy mix necessary for the flow of good thinking. When I was younger, I remember lying on my back on the lawn under the midnight sky to watch the power of the universe twinkle overhead. It was heady stuff to imagine my place in that amazing, vast space. Sad though it is to admit, if I did that today, I would most likely be dead asleep before I could locate the Big Dipper. While I have had to discover new sources of “jazz,” I have never had to search far. What inspires me? A conversation with a smart person on a topic about which I know nothing. A passionate argument with an individual who sincerely cares about the topic of the debate. A dialogue with someone with whom I have nothing in common. My exchanges with all of you. Your lives, stories, questions—even your criticisms make me think differently. Thinking differently awakens the possible in me. What are you doing to awaken the possible in you in “these uncertain times”? (Email me at head_of_school@emmawillard.org.)
scholarships matter
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Skip Major ’84 College BA, Carleton College MFA, Cornell University Profession Writer Hometown Milwaukee, WI Current residence New York, NY
What we got. Why we give. Didn’t know what to expect. I had no concept of what a boarding school was— the night before I left I had a dream about Marilyn Monroe, green lawns, and jail. Okay to be smart. I had a friend who said the first time she met me she had come from a school where she always had to hide being smart. She walked down the hall and I was in my room, using a huge vocabulary which I was proud of, and then I told her The Catcher in the Rye was my bible, and she said she thought that things were going to be better for her because it was okay to be smart and spirited and have passionate opinions.
My own life to steer. There was this sense that I could and should do whatever I wanted to do with my life. There was a lot of hard work and big expectations, but it was made clear to us that if we really wanted something, we would be supported. I always regard it as a place where my soul came alive—this was from the beauty of the buildings and feeling as if I had my own life to steer. Teachers who changed my life. Mrs. Easterling, my medieval history teacher, brought a dead world alive for me. Mrs. Simms, my English teacher, became a lifelong friend. I
loved having Mr. Easterling and Ms. Bridges as basketball coaches—they both taught me how you have to play on, improvise, stay sharp, in essence, show up. Almost tear-inducing to recall. The huge harvest moon that settled over the Berkshires one night, when Twelve Tones had an after study hall rehearsal and they decided they’d go outside and sing to the big old moon—I remember walking, listening to their sweet voices and seeing the enormous orb on the horizon and I thought, Valhalla, Camelot, there will never be anything better than this.
Kids with different lives. I know that from the outside a boarding school may seem like a hothouse of privilege but I had a good friend tell me, “Until I came here I never made friends with kids who have different circumstances than mine.” She told me she came to understand and appreciate the struggles that other people go through. Diversity = Success. A dear friend told me that a recent study of companies that charted their financial success found that there was a direct correlation between having a diverse workforce and increased earnings. Dealing with social and economic diversity is essential to success and having a full life.
“ I always regard it as a place where my soul came alive.”
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letters
Readers respond to the story in the last issue of Emma about Gay Johnson Grossman ’84 and her extraordinary efforts to provide an ordinary life for her daughter, Lilly. Plus some more comments about the new look of the magazine.
Inspirational story Thank you for writing the article about Lilly Grossman and her family. During our years together at Emma Willard, I always admired Gay’s strength of character. Now, many years later, I continue to be inspired by the life she has created in spite of obstacles and setbacks. Gay, Steve, and Lilly Grossman constantly remind me to live each moment in life to its fullest. I will look forward to more articles of this type about E.W. alumnae. Pamela Judge Wilson ’84 New York, NY
Realistic glimpse into a life As a friend of Gay Grossman, I really enjoyed the last issue of the magazine. I thought the story, “Extraordinary Measures” was accurate, touching, and inspirational. The author and the photographer did a wonderful job capturing a realistic glimpse into the lives of the Grossmans. With all of the experiences that we go through every day, it takes stories like this to realize that successes, challenges, and joy are as varied as each of us. I really appreciate that Emma Willard has pursued the introduction of a personal approach to topics covered in the Bulletin. Starting with the covers and the captivating titles,
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I feel more compelled to open it and read through the in-depth stories. It's the strength in knowledge, in support, and in friendships—many of which are founded on the common bond of Emma Willard—that allows each of us to do what we do. Laura Rodormer ’86 San Francisco, CA
Humbled by the story I am humbled and awed by the Lilly Grossman story. As for Trudy Hall’s column celebrating the ordinary, it reminds me of the following, attributed to William Ellery Channing: “To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common—this is my symphony.” Anne deprez ’73 Shelbyville, IN
Story reflects Emma values The cover story of the 2008 fall issue of the Emma magazine is a tribute not only to a truly inspiring family, but also to the endorsement by Emma Willard of the extraordinary significance of this story. In a world
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Your body, your health What do you like about your body? What do you hate? How has your health affected your body and body image? Emma magazine is planning an issue devoted to your body, body image, and health. Send your stories to the editor: Email: rachel@rachelmorton.com
where success is often measured by degrees, titles, and salaries it is reassuring to have Emma Willard honor the choice and commitment to devote one’s life to a child with special needs. This is an incredible example of selfless devotion, compassion, patience, understanding, perseverance, and optimism. Are these not the values underlying all the teachings of Emma Willard? Thank you to Gay for the courage to share such a personal story in order for readers to have a better understanding of this disabling disease, and to Rachel Morton for her sensitive and eloquent telling of the story. Carolyn Estabrook Frye ’62 Norwich, VT
Magazine needs improvement My copy of the fall 2008 Emma just arrived. While I enjoyed the Class Notes, I feel let down by your scanty coverage of Reunion 2008. I would like to see many more photos, articles about specific Reunion events, plus interviews. Please don’t tell me to go to some
computer on-line-place for this information! Like a great many EWS alumnae, I have no computer, so I do rely on Emma for my connections to our fine school. And because I live so far away, I often can’t attend reunions…. It really doesn’t matter how beautiful your publication looks at first glance, if so much space inside is wasted. An example, the “Extraordinary Measures” article on page 16 runs for eight full pages and you could have done it in four, easily, without sacrificing anything. You really can improve. Barbara Baird Zeman ’68 U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach, Germany
Recycled paper appreciated Just a quick note to say that the new look of Emma magazine is great, and I appreciate the effort to use 100% post-consumer recycled paper and renewable energy. Dr. Karen Holl ’85 Santa Cruz, CA
Terrific new magazine What a fantastic job you all have done—the latest edition of Emma is marvelous, wonderful articles. The layout and “new look” are terrific. Good for you! Dorothy Sturges ’53 Sonoita, AZ
Don’t be a stranger!
Gay, Steve, and Lilly Grossman
constantly remind me to live each moment in life to its fullest.
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
Winter 2009
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emma everywhere
Gillibrand takes Clinton’s Senate seat After weighing several other candidates for junior senator from New York—including Caroline Kennedy and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo—Governor Paterson appointed Kirsten Rutnik Gillibrand ’84.
Gillibrand is viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party with a bright political future. She succeeds Hillary Clinton, who resigned after she was named Secretary of State in the Obama administration. The appointment is temporary; a special election will be held in 2010 for the balance of Clinton’s term, which ends in 2012. Gillibrand’s political rise has been swift and smooth. In 2007, she snatched a long-held Republican congressional seat away from an entrenched incumbent, and then at the next election soundly defeated a challenger.
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After graduating magna cum laude from Dartmouth, Gillibrand got her law degree from UCLA School of Law. She then practiced law for several years. But politics were always in her sights. She was born into a politically connected family. Her father, Douglas Rutnik, is a Republican lobbyist, and her grandmother, Dorothea Noonan, was a women’s rights activist who founded the Albany Democratic Women’s Club. Gillibrand served as top aid to HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo during the Clinton administration; she is founder and former chair of
the Women’s Leadership Forum Network; and she received candidate training from EMILY’s List, one of the nation’s largest political action committees and financial resources for women candidates. While a student at Emma Willard, Gillibrand was a classroom leader and an outstanding athlete. She managed the school newspaper and served as a student council representative and yearbook photographer. As a senior, she was inducted into the Cum Laude Society, the school’s highest academic distinction.
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Rita Spellman-Parks ’79 (middle center) and her family witnessed the Inauguration from the historic mansion where three generation of ancestors were enslaved.
Rita Spellman-Parks ’79 and her family were invited to watch the Inauguration from Arlington House, an historic building in Washington with ties to both Robert E. Lee and George Washington. Rita’s husband had ancestors who worked as slaves in the 1802 house built by George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted grandson of George Washington. On Inauguration Day, the Parks and others could see the Capitol building in the distance as they watched Obama take his oath on a nearby television. “It was quite powerful to be part of the Inauguration,” says Rita, “with so much history around us.” Rita explains that her husband’s great-grandfather, James Parks, was the groundskeeper at the 1802 home, and when Arlington House was converted into a Field Hospital during the Civil War, he supervised burials. His son, James Parks, was born in Arlington House in 1843 and continued to live and work there until his death in 1929. “He received the first presidential exemption to be buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors,” Rita writes. “He also was the first African American to be buried in the main section of the cemetery, thus being the first to integrate the cemetery.”
“ Once I let silence be in the classroom, it was extraordinary who I heard from.” — Paul Lamar, former chair of the English department, spoke at a forum on The Dodge Study. This 1981 ground-breaking study on the moral decision-making of adolescent girls was reconsidered at Emma this winter as part of a faculty forum.
emma everywhere
Front seat at Inauguration
“ Until the girls are educated a society won’t change.” Greg Mortenson is celebrated around the world for his best–selling book, Three Cups of Tea, which documents his work building schools in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan. Emma Willard is bringing Mortenson to Troy, April 13, where he is speaking at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), an event made possible through the generosity of Lisa Allen LeFort ’72 and Jack LeFort and Anne F. Collins ’56. It all began for Greg Mortenson in a tiny remote settlement in the Himalayas. Exhausted and disoriented after a failed ascent up K2, he wandered into an impoverished Pakistani village. The villagers nursed him back to health, and while recovering he saw that the children had no school, no supplies, and no teacher. They sat outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. When he left, he vowed that he would return to build them a school. That promise grew into an international humanitarian campaign, and Mortenson has dedicated his life to promoting education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“You can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity,” he has written, “but until the girls are educated a society won’t change.” He believes that girls’ education is the top priority if one is to promote economic development, peace, and prosperity in a country. As of 2008, Mortenson had established over 78 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. Humanitarian work comes naturally to Mortenson, who though born in Minnesota in 1957, grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His father co-founded Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and his mother founded the International School Moshi. His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping in Pakistan, and escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education. Emma Willard is hosting Greg Mortenson, who will speak on April 13 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. For more information go to www.emmawillard.org/mortenson
Image courtesy of Greg Mortenson. Central Asia Institute
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Photo by Linda Maier
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On Ice The morning of December 11, the storm began in earnest. And as advertised, it was a bad one. But the campus was braced. And ready. The last bad ice storm had been in 1987, and Emma was hit hard. Power was out for days and students had to be sent home. Lesson learned. Emma Willard installed a back-up generator. So when at midnight, after a day of rain and sleet, the power failed, not only on campus but in the whole city of Troy, Emma was ready. That back-up generator kicked on and a few buildings of the campus—Sage and Kellas—had heat and lights. Ian Smith, director of facilities, describes the scene that night: “I live on campus and could hear trees breaking and branches coming down all night. Next morning it was a mess. Power lines were down on campus, pulled down by fallen branches weighted down by ice.” Power was out for four days.
India Project
Enhances History and Art Courses
Last summer, 16 teachers were chosen from the United States to participate in the Fulbright-Hays program. Director of Curriculum Allyson Montana was one of them. Fulbrights in India are offered on a regular basis by the Department of Education because of the belief that American students do not learn enough about India in the social studies classroom. “In fact, I heard recently that the average American history student reads two paragraphs pertaining to India in their entire high school career,”
says Montana. “Of course, this does not, nor ever did it ever, apply to Emma students!” She spent five weeks traveling around India and Sri Lanka to learn about Indian culture, government, and education. She visited schools, cultural sites, homes, and government buildings. Each Fulbright participant was responsible for completing a project geared to the needs of their school. Montana’s project, “A Visual Vocabulary of India: Teaching Hinduism through Symbolism in Indian Art,” may be used in a variety of courses like Ancient and Medieval History, Rise of the Modern World, and AP Art History.
Winter 2009
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action By Captain Rebekah L. Strock ’01
Jewish in Iraq I initially saw my deployment to Iraq as a great opportunity to enact change. What I failed to realize is that a war zone is not a place to lightly gamble one’s life, even in service of high-minded ideals.
Captain Rebekah L. Strock ’01, Eighth Army Provost Marshal Operations Officer.
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What I realized about myself is that I am not the good person I thought I was, and that when pushed to extremes, the ugly truth rears its head: survival rules. The animal instinct of survival, from which I fancied myself so far removed, is really only a breath away. During the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jews around the world read about exalted heroes who sacrificed themselves rather than disavow God. The story of Masada resonates with similar powerful emotion, a story in which hundreds of Jews killed themselves when trapped defending a plateau during an uprising against a Roman decree to kill and enslave the rebellious Jews, rather than become slaves and grant the Roman army victory. Even the Hanukkah story of the Macabees defending their right to live and practice freely as Jews is one of defending God and religion with one’s life, despite dire odds. Yet, Judaism values life above all else. According to our scholars and sages, saving a life is the one thing that can justify breaking almost any law or prohibition. But what about protecting your own life? It certainly does not have the luster of selflessness, sacrifice, or honor, yet without your own life you cannot serve any further change in the world, be it selfless or self-serving. And at what point will God forgive disavowing a Jewish identity in exchange for protection of that very life, bestowed by the same power? In Iraq, the enemies of America hate Americans. These extremists particularly hate American troops who embody America in person, and I am certain that many were affronted by the necessity to follow the direction of Americans in roles of power, particularly women. Those factors alone made me an excellent target for potential attack as a leader of Military Police troops training Iraqi policemen in Baghdad. Before arriving in Iraq, I would have liked to think that I would take heroic chances against any odds, but when it came down to it, I found that I was not willing to risk becoming an even greater target by advertising my Judaism. This
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was a great source of internal Before arriving in Iraq, I would have liked conflict for me. I wanted to see to think that I would take heroic chances, myself as an emissary of peace; I wanted to feel that I could bridge but when it came down to it, I found that some small part of the misunderstanding and the hatred—even if it was only individual-to-individual—during my personal interactions with the local populace. I was living with my life in daily jeopardy, unable to share my beliefs, my religion with enemies or friends. Even to my interpreters, with whom I had many discussions of philosophy and religion, I could and anything else, rather than Catholic, Protestant, not reveal my true identity though I am certain many Christian, Jewish, etc. It could also be attributed to of them must have guessed it. When it came up in con- a necessary safety precaution to protect my life, conversation in an unsecure location with local nationals stantly at risk of becoming a greater target. But the of uncertain loyalties present, I determined that I could hardest attribution to acknowledge, and the deepest not mention it again to anyone outside of my unit, and truth, is that my response was driven by a fear that that I must further cover my identity. I could not conquer. Because of this decision, I felt personally and spirituThis Passover, I am blessed to be living in Seoul, ally incomplete; I felt unable to make even a small con- South Korea—a country of relative (if not complete) tribution to fight the stereotypes that even today hold peace. Here, we are lucky to have a congregation, a sway in many Iraqi communities. Rabbi, and a traditional celebration with all the trapWorst yet, while the easiest way to avoid unmasking pings. I can buy matzoh and macaroons on the military my identity was to avoid the topic of religion, many installation, and am able to celebrate the holiday more of the locals were bound to ask questions. I often or less as I would in the States. I can even share my tried to change the subject or answer in a very general celebration with locals and Americans, which gives me fashion, but on one occasion I was directly asked and peace of mind. pressed to answer, and I felt forced to answer a lie— But far from home is still not quite the same as sharthat I was a Christian like all of the other soldiers ing a holiday with family and friends and with Mom’s they knew. home cooking. While most Jews traditionally declare, It was a simple, easy lie to tell. Although I am sure “Next Year in Jerusalem!” in hopes of celebrating in the it was not a convincing one due to my hesitation and Holy Land, for me that phrase has evolved to “Next stammering, it did accomplish the goal of ending the Year at home!” where I can openly celebrate, in peace, conversation. the holiday of freedom and new beginnings. It is easy to attribute my intentional misinformation to forming a simplified and therefore understandable These views are those of the author and in no answer, since most of them spoke little English and may way reflect those of the US Army or affiliated only have recognized the distinction between Muslim organizations.
I was not willing to risk becoming an even greater target by advertising my Judaism.
Winter 2009
written word By Coleman Hough ’78
I always knew I’d be dead
I used to think I would die on my tenth birthday. It was an unusually warm day when it came. November 7, election day. Nixon was running against Humphrey. My parents were having a party—though not for me. Paper-mache donkeys and elephants hung like mistletoe above every doorway. emma
Yuko Shimizu
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My father had been puffed up that fall—a Republican, poking my mother—and she, like a thorny angry fish, would bite—snap her jaws and thrash violently on his line. I knew their game. It was election day and the day of my death. I was not afraid. The coast guard had posted a gale warning. No big deal. The winds always came and howled. All bark— no bite. We were daredevils—my whole family: Democrat mother, Republican father, sassy-pants sister, and me. Just before a storm we walked at the edge of wind on the battery—a high wall around our town that kept the sea out. High wire dancers, we—balancing—getting soaked—hollering death away with whoops and yips and twirls. My father gave us each a poncho that filled up with danger and made us look like fallen balloons.
My birthday. Election day.
The day I fell into a wild wild welcoming sea. No one knew I was going to die that day. The house was quiet. Election day. I imagined the elephants and donkeys casting their morning shadows on that giant poster of Nixon and his clown-wide smile. Humphrey had a bend to his brow. He looked worried. I must have fallen back to sleep because I woke up to singing—my whole family still in robes, gathered around the foot of my bed singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY. My cousin was visiting. He was five. It was his first time alone with the high-flying Houghs but he joined right in. My father plumped my pillows and served me breakfast on a tray. His voice boomed above the rest and then he said, ‘We’re going sailing sweetie, eat your eggs.” “Today? It’s November.” “Your birthday treat,” chirped my mother. Drowning. I imagined it. The ease of it, weightless. “Drink your O.J.” My mother blended it with banana. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it made me
nauseous. She continued, “Get dressed. Be quick. We’ll meet downstairs and go.” I was slow. My family was perky. My mother drove fast. My father ate fast. My sister ran fast. I couldn’t think of anything I did fast. Maybe I would have a slow death. “Hurry up,” clapped my mother. “We need to be back here by 4. We have to vote and get ready for the party.” My mother gave directions at home. On the boat, she was silent. My dad was captain and I was his boat slave. He would shout, “Coming about—hard a lee—run up the sail. Good job.” And then he’d sit back—tilt his face to the sun—drink an ice cold beer that would drip into his beard. That day we ignored the gale warning flag—we always did. A red triangle flapping at half mast. My sister seemed worried. I wondered if she knew about my death—sensed it. “Let’s drop anchor and eat.” Mother was licking the side of a bowl of potato salad, sorting through forks and plates. I can’t remember now if we ever ate that day— ever felt the cold weight of a plastic plate in our laps— pulled the sog of fried chicken skin, teeth searching for meat and bone. It came so fast. The storm. The gale. I pointed to the sky. Look, Dad. A pencil shading the horizon—darkness—sheets of rain—topple twisting high flying chaos. Mom took my sister and cousin underneath where they sang hymns and prayed. I had followed them but my father grabbed my ankle—“Take down the sail.” And I did. I walked fearlessly to the front of the boat as if that was what I was always meant to do. My birthday. Election day. The day I fell into a wild wild welcoming sea. Coleman Hough wrote the screenplays for Full Frontal and Bubble, both directed by Steven Soderbergh. She also wrote a script for HBO about the life of Katharine Graham, which is scheduled for production in ’09. Her short play, Glancing at the War, was included in Theatre of Note’s late night series last spring, and her plays The Diagnosis and Dressed for Dinner were produced by Padua Playwrights. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she teaches screenwriting at USC in the MPW program.
Winter 2009
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click
“ L aughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
—Victor Borge
Fall 2008
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spoken word By ALAN BERRY
The “S” Words When I think about the student community of Emma, the “s” word that immediately springs to mind is SCREAMING. Though I really do think it is great that students love to scream, the three “s” words I’d like to focus on today may seem rather counter to the Emma screaming phenomenon. These words are silence, solitude, and stillness. When you hear them, many of you may immediately think they have something to do with the spiritual life and indeed, they do. All of the world’s great religious traditions have found the disciplines of silence, solitude, and stillness to be very helpful. It is my strong conviction, however, that these “s” words have a great deal to offer each one of us, religious or not. All of us have an inner life. We all have a thought life. At times we all carry on an inner conversation. I believe that we owe it to ourselves to cultivate our inner lives, and in particular, to seek to bring a greater measure of quiet and stillness into them. I need to hear and apply this message in my own life. I don’t want hurry, noise, and frantic activity to have the final say in my life. I also don’t want worry and anxiety for myself, for those I love, and for the world situation to gain the upper hand in my inner life. Permit me to share several favorite quotes. The first is from Alan Tory, a 20th-century English immigrant to Australia. There is a contemplative in all of us, almost strangled but still alive, who craves quiet enjoyment of the Now, and longs to touch the seamless garment of silence which makes whole.
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Anne Morrow Lindberg, wife of Charles Lindberg writes in her book, Gift From the Sea: It is a difficult lesson to learn today, to leave one’s friends and family and deliberately practice the art of solitude for an hour or a day or a week. For me, the break is most difficult… And yet, once it is done, I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before! Some of you are undoubtedly thinking, “Nice try, Mr. Berry, but finding an hour in my Emma schedule to ‘practice the art of solitude’ just ain’t gonna happen!” Believe me, I understand, but I do have a couple of possible suggestions to consider. For starters, frequently heed the advice of Trudy Hall: “STOP, and take a deep
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breath.” Second, find five to ten minutes a day to sit quietly and find two favorite spots to sit—one outdoors for good weather and one indoors. I have found my special Emma bench in a quiet corner of campus, that I have never seen another person use. During good weather, I try to go there for a 10-minute sit right before or after my lunch.
I don’t want hurry, noise, and frantic activity to
have the final say in my life.
A number of years ago I decided to take a day, go into the woods, and see if I could sit in one spot all morning and afternoon. I found a nice comfy flat rock and sat down.After a couple hours I was getting rather smug—thinking I was pretty impressive with this solitude business. Then I noticed that I was surrounded by piles and piles of little pieces of broken twigs. Apparently, I had been subconsciously picking up one twig after another and systematically destroying them. So much for inner stillness. Anyway, I guess it is good to have some humility when experimenting with such things. Finally, a quote from Catherine de Hueck Doherty, a 20th-century Russian immigrant to Canada. In her book Poustinia she writes: Stand still, and allow the strange deadly restlessness of our tragic age to fall away, like the worn out dusty cloak
that it is—a cloak that was once considered beautiful. his restlessness was considered the magic carpet to tomorrow, but now in reality we see it for what it is: a turning away from oneself, a turning from that journey inward that we all must undertake.” My 2009 hope for all of us is for a greater measure of quiet and stillness in our inner beings. Alan Berry teaches in the mathematics department at Emma WIllard. He gave this talk as a Monday Morning inspirational speech at Morning Reports.
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Nancy Spector ’77 presents to the public what she discerns to be the best contemporary art in the world. And sometimes the public can’t
Left: Bob Handelman; right: Courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum
believe its eyes. Pinocchio is floating face down in a pool of water. He’s bigger than life and has obviously strayed far from the Wonderful World of Disney and entered a bleaker realm—Hitchcock perhaps. Since this is the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, not a back lot at Disneyland, visitors who confront this tableau as they enter the museum’s impressive rotunda might ask themselves: What exactly is this? Art?
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Well, it’s Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture, Daddy Daddy (2008) and it set the tone for an experimental show curated by Nancy Spector ’77 called theanyspacewhatever, that had people talking and puzzling in the fall during its 2 ½-month run at the museum. Spector was showcasing works from a group of young experimental artists who emerged in the 1990s. Thay were associated with an artistic movement called Relational Aesthetics that upended the conventions of museums and galleries by working more conceptually using film and performance, light and sound. Their art has come to encompass work that ranges from a sustainable agriculture project in rural Thailand to a revolving hotel room in a museum. They are redefining the way art is experienced. Collaboration and interaction are key. In fact, the artists collaborated with Spector on the concept and staging of the show—one made a glittering marquee on the façade of the Guggenheim, another created elegant and intriguing “signage” for the show, and another, using light, built a stunning faux starry skylight in the dome of the museum.
unsettling, like “There is something you should know” and “It’s not you, it’s me.” One area was empty of obvious art, yet an audio streamed sounds of a rainstorm—Dominique Gonzalez Foerster’s work. Carsten Holler’s Revolving Hotel Room, consisted of a fully outfitted hotel room on four slow-turning discs. The public could reserve a night in that bed, where they got to enjoy the Guggenheim in private and spend the night on the floor of the museum. It sold out immediately. On the upper level, visitors could relax in comfortable bean-bag chairs in front of a TV screen and sip a hot drink from an espresso bar. This wasn’t just the museum providing refreshment, it was Douglas Gordon and Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Cinema Liberté projecting films that had been banned in the United States. So this is art? Yes, absolutely, says Spector. She is in a position to know. As Chief Curator at the Guggenheim, Spector presents new artists to the public and builds the museum’s collection. She has worked at the
Left to right: Maurizio Cattelan’s Daddy, Daddy; Liam Gillick’s elegant signage; a film display from Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle.
Jorge Pardo interrupted a visitor’s pace by creating a maze-like series of perforated cardboard screens on one of the spiraling ramps of the rotunda that served as a display system for prints made by the participating artists. Douglas Gordon painted phrases directly onto the museum’s walls that ranged from innocuous to slightly
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Guggenheim for more than 20 years and is one of the most respected and powerful voices in the contemporary art world. When Spector speaks, the art world listens. And what they’ve heard, and seen, and read from Spector has literally changed the face of contemporary art.
Courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum
“ I feel it is part of my job to stretch the limits of the institution. To introduce art that hasn’t been seen in a context like this.”
“I feel it is part of my job to stretch the limits of the institution,” she says, “to introduce art that hasn’t been seen in a context like this.” As Spector builds the museum’s collections and discovers and presents new artists, she identifies for the public what contemporary art is. And sometimes the world can’t believe its eyes. THE JUXTAPOSITION of this daring, avant-garde show that challenges assumptions and raises hackles, with the quiet, unassuming woman who created it was apparent to Emma alumnae who took a special insiders’ tour of the Guggenheim one day this fall, with Spector as guide. In a soft voice that could barely be heard above the din erupting from the lobby (though the museum was closed, a design magazine was holding an award ceremony downstairs), Spector explained to the group the ideas behind some of the artworks and the show. Small and serious, her personality is more hard-working academic than gregarious cultural trendsetter. Scholarship and writing are central to her job and she has written, edited, and contributed to 36 books already, with more on the horizon. “As a curator you want to keep your intellectual life protected—having time to read, to look at art. It’s a difficult balance, trying to find the time to write and do more introspective work.” Genevieve Hendricks ’97, one of the alumnae along for the tour, is a doctoral candidate in art history at
NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. She admires Spector’s work enormously and has read much of her writing, which she says is characterized by its “keen and elegant insights into contemporary art.” Lauren Kelly ’01, also an experienced art viewer—her parents own a gallery in Chelsea—admired this exhibit and understood its challenge. “This is not a typical exhibition that people
are used to seeing, and I hate to use the cliché, but it makes people think outside the box in regards to what constitutes art.” One of a curator’s main responsibilities is to educate, to explain art to the public. Especially when the art is new or difficult, a viewer may need the curator’s illuminating commentary to gain an understanding of the artist’s work. In the case of the suicidal Pinocchio, Spector cites the moment in the fairy tale when Pinocchio, after saving his father from the belly of the whale, drowns in the ocean before he is resurrected by the blue fairy for his courage and devotion. The title Daddy Daddy, though playful, resonates with a sense of loss and spirituality, echoing Christ’s plea in the Bible, “Father, father, why hast thou forsaken me?” “If an object or a performance causes you to ask questions about what it is or how you should perceive it, then you have already entered the territory of art. If it gives you pause, it’s doing its job. Art should be a momentary respite, or distraction, from the every day world. That’s what I look for.” Spector’s capacity to see and interpret art was nurtured early on by her parents. The family spent a year living in Europe in 1970, and Spector says they took her to every museum and church. “Being able to see the Pietà without any barriers. To walk up to the Parthenon and pick up stones. To see the Mona Lisa. I didn’t realize then what a valuable experience that was. I do now.” She continued with her creative explorations at Emma Willard, where she got involved with theater. Then later at Sarah Lawrence she danced and studied philosophy. After a master’s in art history from Williams, she worked toward her Ph.D. at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts and CUNY’s graduate center. She began working at the Guggenheim while she was still a graduate student. She’s been there, for the most part, ever since. So if there’s one place that Nancy Spector feels totally at home, it is here, in this architectural gem on Fifth Avenue, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. As head curator, she works with the director overseeing the acquisition and exhibition program for not only the New York Guggenheim, but also the Guggenheim programs in Bilbao and Berlin. She supervises 15 curators, helping guide other exhibitions as well as her own. And she helps the Guggenheim collection grow by identifying works of art that she believes the museum should own. One can’t overstate the big voice this small woman has in the world of art. Here at the Guggenheim, which is one of the most prestigious art institutions in one of the capitals of culture, Nancy Spector reigns supreme.
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22 scene, it was a shocker. Spector worked with Matthew Barney for eight years to bring the show to fruition. The development of a major show at the Guggenheim commonly takes many years. The curator works with the artist to not only plan the show itself, but to understand the work and its significance, and to engage in the long process of research and writing that underpins the exhibition. “I approached Matthew to do a full museum show when I had seen the first two installments of his fivepart film cycle. Since he was only beginning the series, it was a projection on my part and a leap of faith on the museum’s part to commit to an exhibition.” That Spector committed to the potential of this artist’s as yet unfinished work, is testament to her fearlessness and vision. It’s a risky business to identify an artist who has not yet achieved celebrity or even major recognition and present him or her to the world as a great new voice in art. But Spector has done this time and again—with Barney, with Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and with others.
“ The art world is an enormously social place, almost to the point of absurdity.” Spector works hard to keep weekends free for her family— she has two daughters, ages 8 and 5, with her architect husband Michael Gabellini. But just the weekday obligations can be staggering. At the close of her recent exhibition, Spector hosted a 24-hour program on the subject of time. It began at 6:00 p.m. and went all night long and through the next day. She introduced nearly every speaker. One of Spector’s biggest successes was the 2002 show of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, a work that completely engulfed the museum with films, sculpture, photographs, and installations, all part of Barney’s ambitious vision. Wax and petroleum jelly dripped down the Guggenheim’s spiral ramps. Hendricks says that Spector’s vision “opened my eyes to the lush, exotic, and erratic world of Matthew Barney in a show that has come to be viewed as one of the museum’s finest.” For those, like Hendricks, who were knowledgeable about the new wave in contemporary art, the show was a thrill. To those new to the art
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Much less spectacular than the Barney show, but even more meaningful for Spector is her experience with the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a Cuban-born, Puerto Rican-raised, New York conceptual artist who died of AIDS at age 38 in January 1996. “The exhibition I did in 1995 with Felix GonzalezTorres was, for me, the most fundamental curatorial experience. I learned much of my practice from him,” she said. She describes one of his works, called Untitled (Lover Boy) that was composed of a pile of wrapped candies, the ideal weight of which equaled the combined weights of the artist and his lover. Viewers were encouraged to take a candy, and the pile of candy would diminish. “This is about generosity and disappearance,” she says. “His partner died of AIDS before he made the work. Once you know this, the work becomes a lamentation, a form of cultural activism. Art can, in a quiet and subtle way, be political and poetic.” It can be a challenge to explain how a pile of candy can be seen as art, but Spector did just that through her monograph on Gonzalez-Torres’ work. Her decision to show Gonzalez-Torres’ work at the 2007 Venice Biennale as the sole artist representing the U.S. was regarded as controversial and an important signifier of his importance in the art world.
Courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum
Nancy Spector and her husband at the Guggenheim International Gala.
“Having grown up inside the institution, it feels so natural to be doing what I do. I love this place and am deeply devoted to its future.” She relishes the quiet parts of the job—seeing new art and talking to artists, doing research, writing. But the high-rolling, social part of being in the art elite brings its own set of duties and obligations. “The art world is an enormously social place,” she says, “almost to the point of absurdity.” Every art show has an opening and everyone wants Spector there. Spector also advises museum-affiliated collectors in their own art acquisitions. In addition to the openings at other museums and galleries, there are the social events organized by the Guggenheim that help cultivate the donors, who in turn support the institution. For these occasions, the bookish scholar transforms herself and Spector is positively glamorous when she appears in photos on the web and in celebrity pages and art magazines.
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Visitors could spend the night at the Guggenheim in Carsten Holler’s Revolving Hotel Room.
“We’re an educational institution ultimately,” she says. “If two or three people are opened up to a new experience, if they can realize a pile of candy can be appreciated as a work of art, that’s an enormous success in my opinion.” Spector admits that reaction to theanyspacewhatever, was mixed, as expected. “I think it speaks to a younger generation. It’s been wonderful to see the museum filled with so many young people.” Young people may be more able to think outside the old art box, to see museums as “lounge-type, performance-type spaces, and to appreciate quiet work, almost invisible work.” Spector believes that what we think is art depends upon what our culture and our values have taught us. And to get beyond that takes effort. It also takes time. We can see that clearly if we look to the past. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim was completed in 1959 to a chorus of disdain and derision. Critics complained the white spiral building stuck out like a sore thumb among the classical box-style buildings along 5th Avenue. Now it is universally regarded as an architectural masterpiece. The same can be said about the public reception to new works by Picasso or Kandinsky in their time. That even smart art appreciators might have some trouble discerning this new art is something Spector had brought home to her recently when she took her daughter to a gallery. “My girls are art savvy,” she says. “We saw some rags on the floor, and my daughter asked, ‘Mommy is that part of the installation?’ It wasn’t. They were just rags on the floor.”
A light sculpture by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
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feature
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Neither Storm Nor Sleet Nor Fire Drill Shall Keep the Show from Going On
Mark Van Warner
REVELATIONS On Thursday evening, December 18, the hall was filled with a by Trudy HALL crowd of 300 alumnae and guest, all invited for a sneak preview and dress rehearsal of the 93rd Revels. But just as the heralds began to sing their carol, the fire alarm sounded! What to do? Seniors in Revels costumes in lab theatre could not be sent to the chapel with the underclasswomen or the secrets of Revels would be revealed a day too early. And what about the guests who were not used to fire drill procedures? As luck would have it, a senior spray painting in the basement of Kiggins had set off the alarm quite by accident, but the fire marshals insisted a full evacuation was in order. Out we all tromped into the chilly night, with seniors in their costumes huddled on the front circle while the audience struck out for the chapel until the drill was completed. We reassembled 20 minutes later, the heralds resumed their carol and once again, it appeared we were back on track. On Friday the weather forecast was grim. And it lived up to the predictions. By mid-afternoon we had a choice: Open the tunnels so the girls could prance through in Revels finery, or run the risk of Emma girls in stiletto heels traipsing through a foot of newly fallen snow. It was an easy call; the tunnels were opened with great care. Interestingly, since no current student had been in the tunnels (they have been closed for four years), we had to put guides at both ends to show them the way! That night, we had some unexpected sleepovers. Over 40 of the many young alums who returned with good cheer for this annual tradition settled into the dorms following the performance as road conditions were abysmal. And the drama was not over yet. Saturday dawned with more weather alerts, snow, cancelled flights, and delays, but the show must go on. Many parents and grandparents missed the finale, and a number of seniors were stranded on campus given the winter weather. As the week concluded, with winter white all around, there was great pride in this class that had succeeded through inconvenience and calamity to present the 93rd Revels with the requisite zest and spirit.
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With loans and business advice, Deborah Smith ’70, and friends are transforming a Ugandan village and the women who call it home. By Amy Souza
It Takes a Village Alice Monje lives with her husband and eight children in a five-room house in Buyobo, Uganda. Daily life in this village in the eastern part of the country is difficult. People grow their own food and must gather potable water at least twice a day. Most households have a child sick with malaria, and few have money to buy the drugs that treat the disease. Here, as in much of Uganda, many women are widowed and children orphaned due to AIDS. While young men often head to cities searching for work, the women must stay behind to care for the children. Some women, like Monje, have entrepreneurial desires and ambitions for bettering their lives. What they lack, however, is capital.
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“The women don’t have collateral,” says Deborah Smith ’70, who has an MBA in finance and works as a financial planner in northern Virginia. “They don’t even have an address. They live ‘near the tree,’ and they can move.” Smith learned about the Ugandan women from her college roommate, Robyn Nietert, who was already working with June Kyakobye, a friend from church, to set up a health program in Buyobo, where some of Kyakobye’s relatives still live. The three women and some other friends from suburban Washington, DC, decided to help the women get on their feet financially by offering them loans to start businesses. This meant the funders needed start-up capital themselves, so they threw a fund-raiser potluck dinner, solicited funds on a website, and talked to friends and colleagues. Soon, the Women’s Microfinance Initiative was born. In one year, the group raised $58,000 (more than double its goal), made 160 loans of between $50 and $150, and helped borrowers establish a banana resale operation, a small café, and a tailoring shop, to name a few. In January 2008, Monje borrowed $50 to raise chickens. After discovering the birds were susceptible to disease she switched to turkeys, and in just one year has doubled the size of her poultry house and expanded into growing and selling eggplants (a local delicacy). With her profits, Monje has outfitted four of her school-aged children with uniforms necessary for them to attend classes and purchased something she’s never owned before: furniture. The new bed, chairs, and sofa set are luxuries Monje never could have afforded before, but the physical items tell only part of this success story. “To see the changes in these women in one year— their demeanor, carriage, confidence—is remarkable,” Nietert said. “Economists don’t take into account the changes in a person who starts a business. You can’t project that with a computer model.” For the first loan round in 2008, Smith prepared training materials; Nietert and fellow WMI board member June Kyakobye traveled to Buyobo. Upon arrival they were greeted by village residents, the widows association, and members of the local government. Nietert passed around photos of WMI board members (all women) and told the gathered crowd about each one. For two days, Nietert, her daughter, and Kyakobye worked with the women to develop business plans and trained them on basics like marketing, operations, and recordkeeping. Each borrower received a calculator and notebook with which to track expenses and earnings. Once the loans had been made, the first 20 recipients formed an impromptu conga line in celebration. No faceless bank transaction, this. One of WMI’s founding philosophies is that, as women, they want to help other women—a sentiment that resonates with Smith. While at Emma, she says
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For the first loan round in 2008, the Ugandan women were trained in marketing, operations, and recordkeeping.
there was much made of women’s empowerment, and at the time, she didn’t pay it much heed. “When I was there it was just like, oh God,” she recalled her youthful reaction to women’s lib. “But in retrospect I find it very interesting.” “I don’t think there’s really a level playing field,” Smith said. “What attracted me to WMI and the way
How You Can Help Some microfinancers, such as MicroPlace, allow you to make a return on your investment by paying you interest. Others, like Kiva, return your money to you, without interest, when the borrower pays back a loan. With the Women’s Microfinance Initiative, however, money you donate is just that: a donation. One hundred percent of your contribution goes to loans and in-country program expenses because all U.S. costs—including board members’ and interns’ time—are provided pro bono. All loan interest goes back into the coffers to fund additional loans. So where will your donation go?
we designed the program is to give women the basic tools they need, both in terms of training and financial opportunity, and to let them run with it.” The women did have a lot to learn about business, however, including basic ideas that Americans take for granted.
a backstop. Every time they get a little bit of money, someone gets malaria. It’s a fragile existence, and that’s why saving is so important.” While well-known microfinance organizations, such as Kiva, work with individuals, WMI’s approach focuses on the village as a whole. Borrowers are divided into small groups, and each woman cross-guarantees the others’ loans. Despite fairly high interest rates (10% over six months), not one woman has defaulted. Formal training on business concepts certainly helps, but so, too, do the mandatory borrower meetings held weekly and what Smith calls the collective obligation each woman feels to their fellow borrowers. Years ago, Smith worked for a neighborhood revitalization organization and witnessed the benefits of working at the community level. People are motivated to improve the collective, thus they band together to help one another. As one person succeeds, so too does the neighborhood or village. WMI has expanded into 15 villages surrounding Buyobo. Word of the group spread quickly last year, and women kept knocking on Wolimbwa’s door to ask how they could get a loan, too. Nietert recently returned from Uganda, where she made 40 new loans and 60 loans to previous borrowers. With their hard work and dedication, the women are proving one of Deborah Smith’s beliefs. “I’ve found so often if you just give a person an opportunity, that’s all they need to make a success of themselves,” Smith said.
Once the loans had been made, the first 20 recipients formed an impromptu conga line in celebration. Consider profit, for example—in a village where often the most cash someone has at one time equals about a dollar, the concept simply did not exist. In addition, WMI is teaching the women about the importance of saving money. The group’s incountry program manager, Olive Wolimbwa—also head of the local widows association—has started a communal savings account at a bank in Mbale, about 10 miles away, and keeps track of each person’s money within the account. “Part of building human capacity is not just the loans or giving people tools, it’s preventing crises that can throw someone into a downward spiral,” Nietert said. “We want to draw a line in the sand, give them
Solar Panels: WMI recently partnered with PostBank Uganda on a joint loan program to allow women to buy solar panels for their homes. WMI will loan down payment money and also provide loan guarantees and oversee the purchase and installation process. Transition to Bank Loans: In 2009, WMI plans to make 160 new and 240 follow-up loans to borrowers in eastern Uganda, and will work to transition their most seasoned
borrowers to traditional banks that can provide larger loans. Office equipment: Shipping items to Uganda can be expensive, so WMI will determine those costs before accepting large items. Picture Books: WMI is collecting for a lending library of books, especially picture books, written in English, that can help both women and children improve their speaking and reading skills.
Calculators: WMI provides each borrower with a small notebook and calculator, and will accept donations of new items. WMI is a collaborative effort and welcomes the ideas, advice, and assistance of others with experience in microfinance, or international development—especially in the areas of health care and innovative technology. You can find the Women’s Microfinance Initiative online at wmionline.org.
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connections
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A Link or a Lifeline: EmmaLink Serves Young Alumnae
For more information on EmmaLink, please contact the Alumnae Relations Office at alumnae@ emmawillard.org or (518) 833-1787.
For a third year, the Alumnae Association Council has offered graduating seniors a bridge from their Emma years to college by linking them with alumnae who live nearby. The chief goal of EmmaLink is to make the transition from secondary school to college as smooth and pleasant as possible, but the AAC also hopes the program will help newly-minted alumnae to keep touch with Mt. Ida as well. Thus far, about ten students from each of the classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008 asked to have an alumnae contact in her college area. EmmaLink doesn’t prescribe how often alumnae should be in touch. For some, it may mean just an initial call in the fall to welcome a young alum and offer local knowledge about restaurants, arts events, or whatever might make a college student’s life easier. Or, it could be an offer to meet for coffee or join a family dinner. Betsy Johnson ’73 signed on to EmmaLink in 2006. Wisa Kitichaiwat ’06, who came to Emma from Bangkok, Thailand, was starting her undergraduate career at Williams College. “I’d meet her at a coffee shop for the first couple of years, just to check in with her and see how she was doing. One time, she and her Thai friends—not all of them at Williams— came to our house and cooked a Thai dinner for us. It was an incredible spread, and Wisa was incredibly hungry for some Thai food. It was great that they could get together and share something from home with each other…and with us!” Betsy reports that the dinner was a great way to expose her teenage sons to another culture. Having someone to call has been a big help to Wisa. When she needed some extra hands and muscle to move into her dorm room this past fall, Betsy got the call and rose to the occasion. There were some nice surprises, too. “I think she really missed Emma, so we even went to Revels together once,” Betsy chuckles, sounding delighted to share the quintessential Emma experience with Wisa.
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01 Z oe Foss ’05, Jenn Ulicnik, Kelly McDonald ’05, Maureen Harrison, and Sarah Fuhrman ’08 at a Young Alumnae Social in Boston 02 Carla Sabloff Smith ’74, William Smith,
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Beverly Burke Gunther ’60 in October at Mt. Ida: History in the Making in Washington, DC, featuring Associate Head of School Trudy Hanmer P’05.
03 Jane Phelan ’03, Jamila Best ’06, and Fae Jencks ’06 at the DC event 04 Susan Williams O’Sullivan ’65 and Linda Remington Dietel ’48, P’76,’81 at the DC event. 05 The Boston Emmies alumnae club gathered for a brunch at Bonnie Scott Jelinek ’63’s home in Wellesley. Pictured here: Deborah Frease Geraghty ’88, Bonnie Scott Jelinek ’63, Ann Beach ’76, P’05,’09,’12, and Susie Hunter ’68
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06 Following a tour of theanyspacewhatever at the Guggenheim Museum in December, Ruth Scott Eyre ’44 hosted a reception for alumnae and parents. Shanti Nagel ’98, Francesca Periconi ’98, Genevieve Hendricks ’97, and Marlena McNamee ’98.
07 Shown here: Ellen Phillips Wales ’61,
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Ruth Scott Eyre ’44, Camille Didier P’11, and Margaret Allen ’86 at the reception in New York in December.
08 In November, alumnae and parents gathered over tea in Chicago to hear Associate Head of School Trudy Hanmer read from the first chapter of her book on the history of Emma Willard School. Judith Wilkinson ’56, Dede Poppen Zwilling ’56, and Martha Glick McAllister ’56 09 Shown here: Michelle Gonzalez ’01 and Jamie Adkins Baxter ’61 at the Chicago event
10 Suzanne Longley ’94, Christine Acker
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Haight ’66, P’88, Edith Haight Stewart ’88, and Eve Gibson Pytel ’94 at the Chicago event
11 The LA Emmies alumnae club gathered to discuss Three Cups of Tea over tea at Sue Blackwell McNamara’s ’57 home in Los Angeles in November.
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women’s work Dreaming of Avocados Kate Allen ’94 I Carpenter, South Pole Station, Antarctica I got burned out on teaching environmental education for the Appalachian Mountain Club of New Hampshire, so moved into helping them maintain a series of backcountry hiker huts. There is a long history of folks from that region going down to the Ice. Work in Antarctica often attracts seasonal workers, people used to winter weather, working outdoors, trail crew types. I had a couple of friends who had been down and got a contact name from them. This is a common Antarctic story, most people down here found out by word of mouth. Winter population is 50–60 people. Summer we have around 250 people; it’s about 4:1 men-women during the summer. No airplanes arrive from mid-February until mid-October. All supplies arrive by plane and must arrive during those four summer months (October to midFebruary). Our lives run on the fuel from the planes. It is generally woman-friendly in the construction trades here. I have worked in some more traditional construction jobs in the States and have felt like my gender was an issue. Never the case here. I have my own tiny bedroom in Summer Camp, a cluster of military Quonset huts for summer residents. Since I have returned for six summers, mine sports some more personal touches—a little window, a real wall to the hallway instead of the basic canvas curtain, a little table where I can put my laptop and watch movies in bed.
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I spent a winter here in 2005. It was amazing, but difficult. The sun sets in March, and we don’t see it again until September. Strange things happen to people’s spirits. Sleeplessness is common, irritability is to be taken lightly. I knew I would see the Southern Lights, but had no idea the frequency, variety, or grand scale in which they would occur. I walked outside daily in the winter, one of the few to do that. I came to recognize the boot prints of those few other people. Since we all wear issued extreme cold weather gear, folks all look similar when outdoors. However, most develop a surprisingly keen ability to recognize each other by our walk from very, very far away. I spent my birthday here during my winter. It was heartwarming to see what friends came up with for gifts when shopping wasn’t an option. I received a knitted hat, a song written and performed for me and about me, and a six-pack of the rationed beer (rationed b/c we didn’t have very much on station). The lunch cook made my favorite, mac and cheese, even baking a portion just for me since he knew that the crusty topping was my favorite. The Science Carpenter Shop, where I work, supports the carpentry needs of the science groups. For example, we would install a domed window and heated compartment in the roof of a building to house a camera that looks at meteor trails. We do a lot of prep for the small, movable buildings the scientists take to their specific site. I got a building ready to be pulled five miles to a seismic station. Freshies, or fruits and vegetables, are a rare treat. Though the food is very good here, when I think about the end of my season here, I dream of avocados and tomatoes.
Kaitlin ’09 Her contribution to Emma Willard Gives to others
Serves as a proctor in Cluett because she enjoys supporting her fellow students; leads Interact, a group devoted to volunteering in the local community
Represents her peers
School Council representative for proctors, and student representative to the Curriculum Committee
Represents Emma Willard to the world
Volunteers for the Admissions Office’s open houses; raises gifts for the Annual Fund as a student phonathon caller; moderated the 2008 symposium, Women, Power, and Possibility; competes on the volleyball and quiz teams.
Your contribution to the world Hailing from Lewistown, Montana (pop. 5,900) and heading to Barnard College, New York City (pop. 8+ million) this fall, Kaitlin aspires to become an attorney and use her legal skills in the political arena. Profoundly impacted by the first presidential election in which she could vote, Kaitlin dreams of returning to Montana someday to represent the voices of underserved populations. Your gift this year allows girls like Kaitlin to attend Emma Willard. Your support ensures that in places large and small, the world will benefit from the voices of smart, capable women.
your gift + her education =
a world of change Emma Willard Magazine Spring/Summer 2008
emma willard school 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180
SAVE THE DATE
Reunion 2009 October 9-11 Look for your invitation in late May with all the details of the weekend’s activities. Classes of 1934, 1939, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004 If you’d like to volunteer for reunion, please call or email the Alumnae Relations Office at 866-833-1814 or alumnae@emmawillard.org.