winter 2011
emma willard school
Currents of Controversy
Carol Collier ’69 steers a course for the Delaware River
“Rosa with Bus” (private collection) is a painting by Baret Boisson ’81 from her Great Americans series. Boisson didn’t pick up a paintbrush until she was 30 years old and now paints full time. She has done portraits for Sumner Redstone, Tom Cruise, and Jimmy Fallon, among others. For information about commissions and reproductions, visit baretboisson.com.
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
Editor rachel@rachelmorton.com Susan H. Geary
Web and Production Manager Class Notes Editor sgeary@emmawillard.org Kelly A. Finnegan
Director of Alumnae Relations kfinnegan@emmawillard.org
emma willard school winter 2011
features
10 Recipe for Reinvention
Flora Lazar ’74 took a radical turn away from her successful career in public policy and education. She returned to her first love, pastry, and a new career was born.
16 Eye On the World
Students in photography classes see the world with fresh eyes, and some have even gone on to professional careers.
24 Watching Over the Water
Carol Russell Collier ’69 is charged with protecting a vital watershed from the potential hazards of a new drilling process for gas called fracking.
Jill Smith
Class Notes Coordinator jsmith@emmawillard.org Bidwell ID
Design www.bidwellid.com Trudy E. Hall
Head of School Please forward address changes to: Emma Willard School 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180 518.833.1787 alumnae@emmawillard.org or visit www.emmawillard.org/alumnae
On the cover Carol Russell Collier ’69, executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, has the fate of the river in her hands. Photo by Cardoni. Printed on 100% recycled paper that is manufactured entirely with nonpolluting, wind-generated energy.
departments 02 Headlines
30 Connections
Finding ourselves means finding our unique talents and applying them to the world’s needs.
Alumnae together again.
32 Class Notes
03 Emma Everywhere
37 Memorial List
Emma named first Fair Trade high school. Senator Gillibrand makes history.
80 Women’s Work
06 Click 08 Action Annalise Kjolhede ’06 started a microfarm that supplies food to her university’s dining services.
In a colorful life lived by and on the sea, Julie Pyle Nicholson ’46 pioneered the yacht charter business.
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By Trudy E. Hall, Head of School
Finding Ourselves “I have gone to find myself. If I get back before I return, keep me here.” The sign on the restaurant wall caught my attention. Actually, it made me smile. Then I couldn’t help but ponder: who among us isn’t working on the project of “finding ourselves”? Over the decades phrases such as “searching for purpose” and “finding life’s meaning” have found their way into many book titles and those books overflow the self-help section of your neighborhood bookstore. I wonder, do you suppose we even know what it means to find ourselves? And would we know what to do with ourselves if we found us? (That phrase has potential to be its own restaurant wall sign.) Grenville Kleiser, an author and instructor at Yale Divinity School in center is a the early 20th century, believed that “down deep in every human heart is a hidden longing, impulse, and ambition to do something fine and enduring.” Those of us privileged to be educators see that search for purpose played out in conversations with earnest young adults attempting to choose from an array of personal passions, convinced that a “wrong” choice this early in their life might have serious consequences for their long-term fulfillment—as if there were only one path for finding oneself. Those of us wearing more years know better. However, and often most frustratingly, our wisdom on the topic cannot be shared, but must instead be earned through life experience. What I know is that discovering your purpose or finding yourself is not an end point. It isn’t a destination. “Finding yourself ” is code language for discovering your uniqueness. And that is only one part of a forever evolving
A life without
these questions at the
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two-part question. While it is heavenly to know what your unique set of gifts is, the larger, more difficult question is what you are doing with that self-awareness on a daily basis. How does it inform how you spend your considerable energy? How does it help you create meaningful relationships? How does it help you shape your life goals? Dare I ask; how does it help you make the world better? I struggle with these questions just like most of you do. I am out in the real world searching for myself on most days. (Probably why it is hard to get an appointment with me.) What is critical is that we keep struggling. A life without these questions at the center is a life out of focus, a life disengaged from meaning. There can still be satisfaction and success in such a life, but I doubt there will be much true happiness. You know that, right? The moments of true happiness are uniquely ours. They happen when we know we are right where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing— applying our talent to the world’s needs. When, for the moment only, we have found ourselves. It is a natural high that defies the power of adjectives. Those moments are made possible by relentlessly pursuing the most important and most difficult questions life asks: Why am I here? And what can I do with that awareness? Next time you find yourself out looking for yourself, smile, as I did when I found that sign on the restaurant wall. Know that you are doing just what you should be doing to ensure a meaningful life. Whoever penned that clever sign provided me with just the inspiration I needed to search a little harder this year, with a little more intention. Here’s hoping you find yourself many times over in the months ahead.
emma everywhere
Drew Angerer/The New York Times/Redux
“ I f you care about our military readiness, then you will repeal this corrosive policy.” Senator Kirsten Rutnik Gillibrand ’84, junior Democratic senator from New York, was a major player in creating landmark legislation in the final days of the last congressional session. Her work in pushing Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was noted in a front page article in the New York Times: “…her efforts have won grudging admiration from critics, adulation from national liberals and gay rights groups, and accolades from New York politicians across the political spectrum.”
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Green Plate Special Emma Willard becomes first Fair Trade high school in the nation Eating used to be so simple. You were hungry, you found something to eat, you ate it. No soul searching about where it was produced, whether it was safe to eat, if the farm hands were well treated, whether too much energy was used to bring it to your neighborhood. But things have changed. As Michael Pollan has so well illustrated in his book Omnivore’s Dilemma, nature and culture intersect on our plate. And we are scrutinizing that plate with an increasingly critical eye. At Emma Willard, a student group called Slavery No More has been studying the source of some of the food offered on campus. After visits to campus from Ben E. Skinner, who told of female slavery around the world, and author Azar Nafisi, who spoke of personal freedom in Iran, they asked the school to support a food policy that protected workers and their communities. With the help of faculty advisor Mark Van Wormer, they took a major step: they sought, and received, Fair Trade designation for Emma Willard, which makes Emma the first high school in the nation to receive such recognition. “The decision to become a Fair Trade school was common sense,” said Natalia Choi ’11, cofounder of Slavery No More. “Did we want to be a school that exploited or supported people? Fair trade empowers people and communities.”
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What this means is that Emma Willard now chooses to buy food with a Fair Trade designation when at all possible. These Fair Trade offerings currently include ethically grown and harvested coffee, tea, sugar, rice, ice cream, and chocolate, and jewelry and woven goods. Fair Trade foods come from businesses that use environmentally friendly practices and where workers have safe labor conditions and are paid at least a minimum price for their crop. In addition, Fair Trade standards ensure that growers and producers receive community development funds for projects that provide access to education, health care, clean water, and more. With consumer support, Fair Trade organizations campaign actively to change the rules of conventional international trade that may even rely upon child and slave labor. As a Fair Trade institution, Emma Willard lives its core values of meaningful choice, ethical decision making, and women’s perspectives by working with its contracted food services and school store to implement and maintain Fair Trade options in the school’s dining facilities, at catered events, and in its offices and store. “This accomplishment is precisely what comes of empowering young women to pursue their passion and commitment to making the world turn better,” said Trudy Hall, head of school. “Our young women put their education to work on behalf of those whose voices need to be heard; they are living the mission of this school, serving and shaping their world.”
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Stealing from Picasso Sixty students in grades 4 through 12 responded to a challenge issued by the Times Union and The Clark Institute: create selfportraits by stealing ideas from Pablo Picasso. Emma freshman Julia Vining was the winner in the high school category. Julia looked at a lot of Picassos before she began her portrait. “He had a lot of bold outlines,” she said. She decided to use that technique to “make it pop.” “Her self-portrait pops off the page,” judges wrote, “with a black background and heavy border around rich blocks of color, giving the shapes clean lines. Of note are the simplicity of lines for the nose and mouth.”
Photo courtesy of Times Union
Sarah Epstein ’12 has been riding horses as long as she can remember. It is her first love and passion. She loves the relationships she builds with her horses and the feeling of galloping across an open field. During the year, when she lives at Emma, she looks forward to weekends when she can go home and ride or just hang around the barn. This past summer, Sarah competed with her Irish Sport Horse, Insynch, and they swept three major horse triathlon competitions. She also competed in a new event where, in addition to the regular dressage and show jumping, the cross-country phase included roads and tracks plus steeplechase—“literally a gallop and jump.” “This phase was new for me but by far my favorite,” says Epstein. “I thought it was really cool how fast my horse and I could really go! In crew at EWS we row a 1500-meter in about seven minutes. On my horse I galloped that distance in two and a half minutes! Horses are remarkable creatures.” Sarah is not alone in her equine success. Kailin Baechle ’14 won the 13-Year-Old Equitation World Championship in Louisville, KY, over the summer.
emma everywhere
Jump to Victory
Artist in Residence Kendra Stearns O’Donnell ’60 completed a one-week residency at Emma Willard, working on a series of oil paintings inspired by photographs she uncovered in the archives. O’Donnell, in addition to being principal emerita of Phillips Exeter Academy and an EWS honorary trustee, has painted all her life. While in residence, O’Donnell painted in a studio located in an art classroom so students could observe her at work.
She says she appreciated breaking the customary isolation of a studio artist. “I enjoyed the interchange with students enormously,” O’Donnell said, and added that she enjoyed getting to know the entire faculty. “I felt part of the whole community of painters and artists at Emma Willard.” O’Donnell’s work was shown in the Dietel Art Gallery in the fall, and her work can now be seen at McGowan Fine Art Gallery in Concord, NH.
Cassandra, oil on paper
Winter 2011
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click
“ A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” From As You Like It, by William Shakespeare
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action By kim asch
Back to the Garden Despite a summer’s worth of dirt stains in the creases of her fingers, aching muscles, and ruined jeans, Annalise Kjolhede ’06 is more enthusiastic than ever about her entrepreneurial experiment in
After graduating in May with a degree in environmental science, she and a classmate broke ground on a campus microfarm with the goal of selling Swiss chard, rosemary, tomatoes, and other fresh produce to the dining services department for use in student meals. They both landed prestigious scholarships to pursue the nonprofit venture while taking related course work during a fifth year at the university. “Our overall goal is to get people “ Our overall goal questioning where their food comes is to get people from, even down to the vegetables in their salad,” said Kjolhede (pronounced coal-heed). “The microfarm serves as an outdoor laboratory where students can where their food make connections with what they’ve learned in ecology and biology classes. comes from.” And it gets them thinking about the social and environmental ramifications of their food choices, like how much the person who picked their tomato was paid or how much fuel it took to transport a tomato from California to their plate.” Hauling wheelbarrows full of topsoil and stooping for long periods to dig out rocks and pull weeds taught Kjolhede and a steady supply of student volunteers about the enormous effort that goes into growing good food. “There were definitely times when I thought, this is really kind of a drag,” she said. “But what I kept thinking about is how food prices are often artificially low in the US and what kind of stresses that puts on
questioning
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the environment and society. I always talked myself through it.” Much of the toughest work involved with getting the enterprise up and running required heavy-duty brain power rather than brawn. The two women spent a semester writing a business plan and attending two to three meetings per week with various campus entities, from the sustainability council to the university’s horticulturalist, who helped them find a suitable location. The pair was successful in convincing the university’s facilities department to install irrigation lines, erect a fence to keep out the deer, and till the soil around the site. They met with the executive chef to discuss the kinds of vegetables and herbs that would best meet his needs. And the women raised $2,000 in start-up funding and materials, such as tools, seeds, transplants, and topsoil. “We’ve had other students talk about the possibility of starting a farm, but these are the first two who came up with a strong plan,” said Dining Services Director Cameron Schauf. “Every time they encountered red tape or problems, they just saw that as something to be solved, which made them fun to work with.” Kjolhede had every intention of pursuing a career in medicine when she graduated from Emma Willard. It
Adam Fenster
gardening at the University of Rochester.
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Annalise Kjolhede ’06 started a microfarm that provides vegetables to her alma mater, the University of Rochester.
made sense, since both her parents are pediatricians and her older sister, also an Emma alumna, is a nurse. But in her sophomore year at Rochester, she realized that what really excited her was sustainable development. Nevertheless, her father—an avid gardener for years—remains a role model. “I would take my cell phone out in the garden so that when I came across an issue I could call him. He took to answering, ‘Kjolhede gardening hotline,’” she said with a laugh. “A lot of what I’ve learned so far is how much I still don’t know about gardening.” But she’s learning, and relishing memories of early victories, like the flavor of a juicy just-picked tomato warmed by the sun or a successful local foods event hosted by dining services that featured her produce. “I guess it all tastes even better when it’s a product of your blood, sweat, and tears,” she said.
In the grand scheme, Kjolhede said, encouraging everyone to grow their own food is probably not the answer. “I just don’t think it’s possible for a lot of us, and I don’t think a decentralized food system would be efficient,” she explained. “But on the other end of the spectrum, too much of our food comes from megafarms. We need to find something of a middle ground for our food system.” On a frigid day in early December, nothing was growing in the 48' by 48' garden plot covered by a blanket of snow. “We are still composting though— that’s going to be excellent topsoil and nutrients for our garden next spring,” said Kjolhede. She and her project partner plan to redouble their efforts next growing season, then turn the microfarm over to other students when their scholarship year is over. “I’m enjoying the winter right now,” she said.
Winter 2011
Flora ≤azar
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builds a new life, one confection at a time
ecipe for einvention The week before Thanksgiving, the Green City Market in Chicago is bursting with the fruits of a bountiful summer. The fall chill has forced the farmers and vendors inside a big heated tent, but it hasn’t diminished the high spirits of the shoppers or the abundance of produce and other goods available for sale.
by rachel morton emma
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Lazar’s pâte de fruit—tender and glittering fruit gels in flavors like apple, raspberry, pear, plum, and blueberry.
www.emmawillard.org
12 Farmers’ markets that support and promote local, sustainable agricultural practices are becoming more commonplace, but this year-round bazaar is more hard core. Here, every bit of produce, meat, cheese, and prepared food for sale must have been grown or produced within a 300-mile radius of Chicago (special dispensation is given to sugar necessary for the prepared foods). Among the tables heaped with fragrant apples and multicolored carrots, waxy turnips and ruffled kale, microgreens and rustic artisan breads is Flora Lazar’s confectionary table, looking like a jewel in a jungle of plenty. Behind the table is Lazar herself, a small woman bundled in a bulky, tan parka, her long dark hair pulled back from her face. Lazar’s husband, Lee Greenhouse, is helping her hand out samples, talk to customers, and greet old friends, and at times the table is surrounded by a veritable mob of customers eyeing, tasting, touching, and admiring. Oh, and buying. What they are buying is Flora Confections & Pastries—handmade, locally sourced confections (candies, pastries, confitures) made in the French tradition by Flora Lazar ’74, a Harvard grad with a PhD who spent 25 years as an education reformer before she decided it was time to reinvent herself as a confectioner. Her simple, succulent delectables have become a sensation at high-end groceries, online, and, of course, at the market. At center stage are her pâte de fruit—tender and glittering fruit gels in flavors like apple, raspberry, pear, plum, and blueberry. Next to them are nougats, based on the traditional French recipe but with Lazar’s own special twist. And then there are the fruit caramels, raspberry and passion fruit (though the passion fruit caramel can’t be sold at the Green City Market because the ingredients can’t be found locally). The deep rich colors of the pâte de fruit snag shoppers, who slow down and admire these little beauties, elegantly packaged and sparkling in the light. Lazar offers everyone tastes. One man closes his eyes and emits a little moan. A child asks for seconds. Then thirds. Lazar makes these traditional French candies with fruit from local orchards and farms. She purees the fruit, adds some pectin and clear glucose, cooks it, pours it into a mold, cools it, and then cuts it with a contraption called a guitar that looks like a huge egg slicer. And voila! Heaven in a square. If it sounds easy, it’s not. Lazar’s kitchen space in a community kitchen in the Ukrainian Village section of town resembles a science lab, with its stark metal surfaces and antiseptic cleanliness. She cleans all her utensils and instruments before she begins her day’s cooking. Then she cleans them again after she’s done.
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She measures ingredients on a Salter scale, adding grains or removing grains to get an exact weight. The glucose, she explains, keeps things from crystallizing. She is on top of every molecule. “If one undissolved sugar molecule meets up with another,” she says, “it will bond and you’ll have a crunchy rather than a lovely smooth chewy consistency.” Smoothness reigns. Rigor and discipline are part of her makeup and one reason why she has always taken to pastry making. “I like rules, and pastry is about rules,” she says. “I like the order, the organization.” She is a traditionalist. “It’s hard to break me of my ways. I was trained by super-classicists, very French.” But in spite of that she has made some innovations. For example, she’s added her own twist on the traditional French pâte de fruit, developing a new line called aigre-doux (sour-sweet), pairing strawberries with just a hint of balsamic vinegar, blueberries with just a twist of jalapeño pepper, and peaches with a dash of Riesling wine. And to bring her French nougat to the market, it was necessary to swap out some of the ingredients. Pistachios were not available locally, so she added Michigan sour cherries in their stead and came up with a wildly successful product. “There is room for creativity and inspiration,” she says, “but there is a foundation in everything, and if you don’t honor that foundation, you are sunk.”
Flora Lazar acquired that foundation in classic French pastry studying at the French Pastry School in Chicago— arguably the best pastry school in the country. But it was a long and winding road that took her there. For the first 25 years of her working life, after a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Columbia, Lazar worked as an advocate for educational reform, influencing public policy through her work in innovative programs, and through her writing and research. After many years in New York City, she was recruited to the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall, where she joined a prestigious research group working on child and family policy and welfare reform. “My proudest accomplishment,” says Lazar, “is that I helped to elevate the public visibility of the issue of youth who age out of the foster system. A lot of states have reexamined their policies as a result of our work.” She was proud of the work she’d done at Chapin Hall, but as she neared her 50th birthday, she began to think about a change.
Flora offers everyone tastes.One man closes his eyes and emits a little moan. A child asks for seconds.Then thirds. “I had spent decades of my life trying to reduce suffering,” says Lazar. “This was kind of the next level. Now I want to create pleasure.” The pleasure she had in mind was the culinary kind. Pastry to be exact. As far back as she could remember, she’d always loved baking. In seventh grade home economics class she learned how to make coffee cake, then her best friend taught her how to make bread and quiche, “and it was off to the races from there,” she says. When she was 11, her family took a trip to Europe. They drove from the south of France up to Paris, and Flora was struck by the good food, and especially by the “refinement, the graciousness” of the European style of dining. “We sat at table for hours. It opened my eyes to a style of living.” During her years at Harvard, she worked through the pastry recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook. She lived quite near Child and even bumped into her occasionally, once summoning up the courage to ask her how best to cut the delicate Tarte Pithivier that she had made from Child’s cookbook. So this midlife career switch was as much a return to roots as it was a reinvention. Lazar enrolled in the French Pastry School, which offered a six-month program—a boot camp for pastry chefs. Though she was among the oldest students in her class, her age and experience brought some benefits. They also brought limitations. She found herself exhausted by the 10-hour days and the relentless need to juggle multiple recipes and procedures. “It took every molecule and then some,” she says. “I didn’t have the bandwidth to remember everything. After six hours I was saturated.” Also, she couldn’t get the same sort of experience the younger students could. “I couldn’t work in a restaurant until two in the morning. Couldn’t work all weekend. Couldn’t live with the ‘jump how high’ mentality. It’s an unforgiving business,” she says. In spite of the hardships, she loved her time at school, which she describes as a “great human adventure.” And she loved her teachers and began to see in them something that resonated strongly with her years of researching and promoting education reform and public policy for child welfare.
She was awed by their professionalism and their skills and was struck by the fact that these pastry arts were a highly regarded vocation in Europe, coming from the tradition of the masons and the guilds. It was how craftspeople were trained, with hands-on apprenticeships. Students who chose this path gained a skill, a certificate, an entrée into a job, and a sense of accomplishment. Lazar reflected on the dropout rate in the US, on the growing numbers of youth who were rudderless, without a skill or a direction in life. “I’d done education reform. I was interested in how and why young people don’t succeed in traditional settings. My question was, was this the kind of institution that could provide a North Star of sorts? Growing up, my parents always said, ‘Hitch your wagon to a star.’ For many kids, there was no star.” It seemed to her that this kind of vocational training, whether it be for pastry, for auto mechanics, or for carpentry, could be a great option for young people. “There should be a richer array of alternatives,” she says.
The achievements of the best French pastry chefs in the world are evaluated and rewarded every four years in a prestigious competition called the MOF—Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (Best Craftsmen of France). This high-profile event (the president of France awards the MOF collar to the winning chefs) captured Lazar’s interest because one of the founders of the French Pastry School, Sébastien Canonne, had competed for, and won, the MOF in 2004. And the other school founder, Jacquy Pfeiffer, was in training for it when she was a student there. As she watched Pfeiffer train for the event, much as an athlete trains for the Olympics, she was struck not only by the exceptional skill and artistry he brought to his craft, but also by how this event symbolized the rewards and professionalism of the apprentice system. She thought at first about writing an article about the competition, but when, one day, she was talking to an old friend about it, he wondered whether it would
Winter 2011
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Jessica Tampas ’81
actually be a good film. That old friend was filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, who made The War Room and the Bob Dylan documentary, Don’t Look Back. Lazar encouraged Pennebaker and his wife, Chris Hegedus, also a filmmaker, to come to Chicago and see for themselves whether there was a film in this pastry competition. They were convinced, and Kings of Pastry was born. As producer, Lazar orchestrated all the permissions from the government of France, and with her fluency in French, she served as intermediary for the filmmakers. She went to France with the filmmakers and documented the three-day competition, where her teacher Pfeiffer competed against 15 other distinguished chefs for the title of best pastry chef in the world. It’s a surprisingly suspenseful and emotional film. Racing against the clock, the cooks must create a range of pastries and confections organized around a theme—that year, marriage. Pfeiffer had to make 45 different recipes to complete his program, including a towering free-form sugar sculpture. It isn’t giving away too much to say that sculptures topple and tears are shed. “When Jacquy didn’t win, it was crushing. But his not having gotten it allowed us to tell the bigger story about the pursuit of excellence,” Lazar admits. When you don’t get what you want and you walk away with grace and determination, it says more about the fabric of who you are.”
When she began this great adventure, Lazar imagined she’d have a tart shop—“three tables, six tarts. Simple. Beautiful.” But when she discussed it with Pfeiffer, he said, “You have to be out in front, communicating the value of the product. You have to be open six days a week. Do you want that?” She knew that no, she didn’t want that. “Lifestyle was an issue for me,” she says. “Family is my top priority.” She didn’t want to be wedded to a store six days a week. She wanted to have time to write—she has been writing a food column for Huffington Post. And she wanted to be able to pursue other ideas as they emerged—Kings of Pastry, for example, and other films. So it was kismet when, on a trip to the farmers’ market soon after she finished her pastry course, she suggested to a berry farmer that he really ought to have some “value-added” products on his table—jams and muffins for example—and he told her that if she made them, she could have a corner of his table to sell them. The next season she had her own table and had created a line of traditional French confections, all locally sourced.
“ I like rules + pastry is about rules.”
The rest is Flora history—Internet sales, sales to Zingermans and other nationally renowned grocers, and of course the Green City Market, right in her home neighborhood of Lincoln Park. She is here at the market every Saturday, surrounded by friends. On one side is Nancy Silver, owner of Snookelfritz, who makes ice cream and today is offering flavors like roasted delicata squash and sweet corn and maple. On the other side is Jessica Volpe of Pasta Puttana, whose water chestnut pasta has already sold out. Across from her is Three Sisters Farm, and behind them is Hoosier Mama, a pie company. If it sounds like a sisterhood, it is. And it’s one of the things Lazar loves about the market—the friendships, the camaraderie. One of her best friends and market buddies is Judy Schad, an artisan cheese maker who has been operating Capriole Cheese since 1988. She and Schad are pairing their products—cheese and fruit confections—giving shoppers a taste of how Europeans like to end their meals. Today at Schad’s table, there is a pairing of one of her semihard goat cheeses, Mont St. Francis, with Lazar’s double honey confiture. Lazar is offering one of Schad’s softer, younger cheeses, the Wabash cannonball, with her blueberry pâte de fruit. Tasters are mostly swooning, sucking on little plastic spoons. One man is muttering to himself, “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.” Many are buying the fruit confections and then heading off to Schad’s cheese table across the tent. This kind of partnership is what makes it all fun for Lazar. She admires Schad, who, she says, is “one of the mothers of the American artisan cheese movement.” Lazar appreciates that Schad, like she herself, brings a sort of literate perspective to the endeavor. “Judy was an ABD in comparative literature,” says Lazar. “A lot of us have had other lives, and we appreciate that people bring those lives to what we do.” Lazar is reading a book called Shop Class as Soul Craft, and she explains that the author is a political philosopher who found his whole intellectual endeavor kind of soulless and left to start a motorcycle repair business.“He describes the pleasure he got from creating something real rather than living entirely in the realm of abstractions.” Clearly this speaks to her, to her past life and to her current incarnation, where her hands and her mind are deep into fruit and chocolate and nougat and the immediate sensory realm of delighting the eye and the palate.
Winter 2011
by Rachel MOrton
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eye on the world
“ What can you tell about this woman?� asks Mark Van Wormer of the students in Photo I. They are contemplating a well-known portrait by Dorothea Lange of a migrant woman with her children.
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Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
in photo class students develop a new way of seeing
Mark Van Wormer
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“ I like the balance of doing our own personal photography and seeing examples of photos from history.” Angelina Doherty ’11 emma
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Mark Van Wormer
This is one of four photography classes Van Wormer is teaching at Emma Willard, and it is fully enrolled, as they all are and have been since he started teaching photography here in 1979. “Her kids need her and love her,” observes one girl of the two young children nestled next to their mother. “She looks worried,” adds another. “What is she worried about?” asks Van Wormer. “She won’t be able to provide for her children.” They all think this woman is probably a lot younger than she looks. Van Wormer agrees. “The light is soft,” he says, “but not so soft it disguises the telltale signs of a hard life.” Next they study a portrait of a battered woman from a book, Women, with photographs by Annie Leibowitz and text by Susan Sontag. “Tell me about this,” he says. And students began murmuring among themselves; they are clearly affected by the image. “Sad,” says one girl. Several agree that the shadows accentuate the bruises on the woman’s face. “The way she takes up the entire frame—it’s a heavy, dominating feeling,” observes one student, and Van Wormer agrees. “Yes, it feels tight,” he says. “Like a mug shot. Isolating her face like that strips away all her identity, doesn’t it? It leaves her with the identity of a victim of domestic violence.” Issues of light and composition, as well as body language and environment, are coming into play as students discuss examples of how master photographers like Lange,
Annie Leibowitz, Alfred Steiglitz, and others have created great and memorable portraits. The students, who are shooting portraits for a class assignment, are grappling with many of these same issues themselves. In this class, students not only examine the artistic and creative elements of portraiture, but also must master the technical aspects of photography. They have learned how to operate a 35-mm SLR camera and how to process their film in a darkroom. “It’s still like magic to see the picture develop,” says Morgan Mills ’13. Even Van Wormer, after 36 years developing his own photographs, says he still avidly watches his images emerge from the chemical bath. “It’s a thrill that never ceases,” says Angelina Doherty ’11. “I thought that feeling would go away from the first few weeks, but it hasn’t. I’m always in awe.” The atmosphere in the darkroom as the students print their negatives is one of excitement and anticipation. Did they set the aperture correctly? Did they use the right filter? Did the dodging and burning techniques work like they hoped? Julia Alencar ’11 emerges from the spacious darkroom into the lab, holding up her print with tongs and announcing happily, “It worked!”
Mark Van Wormer and Jaye Melino ’12 Photo by Kristin V. Rehder
With advice from Van Wormer, she had returned to the darkroom and adjusted the filter and print time to bring out the contrast on a shot that at first was printing uniformly gray. “When I look at it coming to life,” says Jaye Melino ’12 of the photograph she took that day, “I feel so proud that I am the one who took that photo. Especially when Mr. Van Wormer likes it.” And he does often like what he sees coming out of the darkroom, and coming out of the class. He likes that students tell him the class has made them see things they never would have seen before. Or, as Antong Liu ’12 puts it, “I feel like I have one more pair of eyes.” “There is always going to be magic in the darkroom that simply doesn’t happen with a digital camera,” Van Wormer says. “One of the things that excites me is that they will be taking pictures for the rest of their lives. And will be looking at photographs for the rest of their lives. So if I can open their lives to something they might not otherwise have noticed, I feel a great deal of accomplishment.”
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Photo I: student work
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Jaye Melino ’12
Cleo Smits ’11
“ I took a lot of photos of my grandparents. While I was not necessarily trying to accomplish something poignant, the photos came out with a deeper meaning that I didn’t expect.” JAYE MELINO ’12
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“ On the top of my bureau, I had a mask that peeks out from behind a large picture frame and around it are wooden puppets that I made at summer camp when I was little. They rest up against a mirror, and I liked the play of the blurry reflection.” Morgan Mills ’13
Morgan MIlls ’13
Anika Bernard ’12
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Photo II: AlumnAE work
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Sierra Murdoch ’05
Sierra Murdoch ’05
Mark taught me to see my home in a new way. Behind the lens, Troy’s grit turned into a sad sort of beauty. Empty fields became canvases for shadow and light. Expressions I hadn’t noticed before emerged on my subjects’ faces. Once, Mark pointed to a photograph on my contact sheet. “Try that one,” I remember him saying, and when I pulled it from the developer, I understood why. On one side of a couch slumped my sleeping grandmother—on the other, my young cousin staring quizzically at her face. This was the kind of composition and relationship, Mark said, that made a photo work. I still remember that when I go to shoot. In the photograph below, “Protest,” a mother breaks down on the sidewalk during a march on the White House.
Abigail Feldman ’93
Mark Van Wormer was my first photography teacher. He was the one who taught me the importance of having a solid basis for photography, something I have carried with me for the past 20 years of being a photographer. Know your camera, how to develop and print, how to make a great composition, and shoot what you love. I also never felt that anyone had to hold back on content, which in high school is pretty amazing. I not only studied with Mark every semester until graduation, but I did work-study with him, and he was my academic advisor. I would not be the person I am today without his guidance and friendship. I also may have not been a photographer, which I cannot even fathom! I am so grateful that Emma Willard had such an extensive photography program, and I would definitely encourage students today to study with Mark Van Wormer.
Abigail Feldman ’93
Jessica Todd Harper ’93
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“ Know your camera, how to develop and print, how to make a great composition, and shoot what you love.” abigail Feldman ’93
Jessica Todd Harper ’93
I never went a semester without taking a photography class or an independent study. I also took a lot of painting and drawing. The arts were a big draw for me in coming to Emma. Mr. Van Wormer was very encouraging and helpful during this nascent time. There were a few of us that were very serious about photography—we took photography workshops in the summer, we were photo editors for Gargoyle, editors for Triangle when we became seniors—photography was always in our lives. We were very lucky, and Mr. Van Wormer was a huge part of that good fortune. I think we all felt very inspired and excited to be at Emma at the time. It was a special time—every assignment was a discovery, and it seemed like art mattered a tremendous amount. I was so driven that perhaps I might have ended up being a photographer as an adult anyway, but certainly Emma Willard was the perfect place for me to figure that out. And Mr. Van Wormer was a terrific mentor.
Winter 2011
By Kim Asch
In the biggest challenge of her career, Carol Russell Collier ’69 is protecting a vital resource against the dangers of natural gas drilling.
Watching over the
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photo: Cardoni
To frack or not to frack—Carol Russell Collier ’69 is trying to balance the interests of big business, property owners, and the environment.
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Carol Collier is trying very hard these days to behave like a duck. “Be calm on the surface, but paddle like crazy underneath,” she explains. “That’s my motto.” Throughout her 30 years in land-use planning and water management, Collier has cultivated an unflappable leadership style, staying focused on the science and considering all points of view when faced with the kinds of controversies that inevitably arise when you’re trying to balance the interests of big business, property owners, and the environment. But lately she’s been paddling more furiously than ever as she confronts what she candidly describes as “the biggest challenge of my career,” which pits the value of one natural resource against another. At issue is an emerging industry that has the potential to tap into a treasure trove of natural gas in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. The gas is trapped more than a mile underground between tightly packed, fine-grained sedimentary rock called the Marcellus shale formation. Until recently, the technology didn’t exist to extract it. Now a powerful method called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” promises to supply the Northeast corridor between Washington and New York City with many, many years of fuel that is cleaner than oil or coal, while bringing jobs and other economic benefits to the region. The problem? This new industry proposes to set up shop within the watershed of the Delaware River, a vital waterway that spans four states, supplying
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drinking water to over 15 million people—including Philadelphia and half of the population of New York City—and supporting agriculture, industry, and recreation. The Delaware is the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi and is federally designated as a Wild and Scenic River. The collective impact of up to 10,000 natural gas wells on the river basin could be disastrous. The fracking technique uses large amounts of water and involves the use of chemicals that can contaminate waterways. Whether, and under what guidelines, to allow the drilling to proceed is the gazillion-dollar question that consumes Collier. As executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), she is charged with ensuring the long-term health of the 13,500-square-mile river basin, in terms of both water quality and quantity. The commission was formed in 1961 by a rare compact between Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and the federal government and has regulatory authority to manage the basin’s water resources. “Water doesn’t respect political boundaries, so we really need to work together in order to manage on the water’s terms. That’s what the DRBC is all about,” Collier says. Collier is the first woman and only the third person to serve as director. She reports to the commission’s five members, who are the governors of the basin states and
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People are angry. They want answers immediately. “Don’t frack with our future” is a rallying cry.
the commander of the North Atlantic Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers representing the president. Still, it is Collier’s job to guide the decision making. In May, the commission imposed a moratorium on drilling until it could craft and adopt sound regulations. “We’re not saying no to drilling,” Collier says. “What we’re saying is we understand drilling has value but we need to do it smartly. There is too much at stake.” The clock is ticking as pressure mounts from folks on both sides of the fracking issue. “I do wake up sometimes with those 3 a.m. sweats,” says Collier, who turned 60 a couple of weeks before Christmas but didn’t take time from work to celebrate. Landowners with millions of dollars to be made by leasing their property to the industry and then collecting royalties on the gas that comes up are eager to move forward. Other watershed residents decry the impending change in aesthetics as forests are cleared to make room for drill pads, roads, gas pipes, and cheap motels to accommodate an influx of workers. Many worry about diminished quality of their drinking water. Concerns are fueled in part by Gasland, a Sundance award-winning documentary made by Josh Fox, a resident of northeastern Pennyslvania who turned down an energy company’s offer of $100,000 to lease his 19.5 acres of land. Fox launched his own investigation into
“ We’re not saying no to drilling. What we’re saying is we understand drilling has value but we need to do it smartly.” the consequences of natural gas drilling, sussing out stories of ruined water wells in other parts of Pennsylvania and then heading west to Wyoming and Colorado, where fracking has been under way for years. The film’s allegations about fracking’s many evils are certainly inflammatory, from the chronic illnesses he reports are caused by polluted drinking water to the flames flaring from people’s kitchen faucets in areas where drinking water is tainted with methane. People are angry. They want answers immediately. “Don’t frack with our future” is a rallying cry. Somehow, in the midst of all the heated public meetings and phone calls, Collier stays calm like a duck. She exudes a sturdiness that comes from weathering actual storms out on the open water during her many years of sailing and kayaking. Steadfast in her commitment to
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come up with regulations that are based on good science and sound policy, not politics or emotion, she tries not to take criticism personally. Still, she says with a laugh, “In restaurants, I make sure I sit with my back to the wall.” So where does Collier go to escape all the worry over the long-term health of the waters in her care? The water, of course. Both she and husband Rick earned their captain’s licenses and share a lifelong passion for boating—they often kayak down the Delaware and get away on weekends to the sailboat they dock on the Chesapeake Bay. “We do share in the skippering responsibility and respect each other’s abilities to handle rough weather,”
“ Her position is one of the most powerful, if not
the most powerful, water resources regulatory positions east of the Mississippi, short of the federal government.”
Jan Bowers Rick says. “When it’s white-knuckle conditions, you really have to work together. That’s an important part of our relationship.” Collier grew up by the shore in New Jersey and has always been a “water rat.” She met Rick while taking sailing lessons during a break from Emma. “It was a summer romance that lasted,” she says, noting their 37-year marriage. Collier went on to study at Smith, arriving on campus her freshman year in time for the first-ever Earth Day. “It just changed my whole direction. I went to all the lectures and the movies and thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve got to do something to make a difference.’” At both Emma and Smith, she embraced the notion that as a self-reliant woman she could achieve anything. But when she graduated in 1973 with a fresh degree
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in environmental biology, there were no paying jobs in her field. “It was more like, ‘go volunteer at your local nature center,’” she recalls. Collier got a job as a research assistant at the vet school at the University of Pennsylvania. It didn’t pay much, and she wasn’t interested in that kind of backroom, white-coat research long term, but she did get to take two free courses a semester. “I was able to take a course in limnology, which is the study of aquatic systems, and that’s when I found out you could actually make a career of something you love and get paid for it,” she says. Ruth Patrick at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia—who recently turned 103—was an important early mentor. “Having gone to Emma and then a women’s college, it was very impressive to me to find someone who had been able to make a definitive career back in the 1940s. It showed me you can find your way to do the things you want to do.” She and Rick both entered Penn’s graduate program in regional planning studying under Ian McHarg, and earned their degrees at the same time. “Ruth Patrick really instilled in us that everything is best when directed by good science. That’s something Carol has carried consistently to all of her jobs,” Rick says. Collier interned at a private engineering firm and stayed on for 19 years, during which time she gave birth to both of their sons, now 29 and 26. She eventually worked her way up the ladder to become vice president and program director for environmental planning, science, and risk. It was difficult to hold a full-time job and be a mom, she says, but teamwork with Rick made it possible. “It is so rewarding to see that both sons have followed careers in fields that they love,” says Collier. Chris (Dartmouth ’03) is using music and the arts to build stronger communities; Andrew (Cornell ’07) followed the science path and is advising companies on becoming more sustainable and green. In 1995, the public sector came calling, and Collier went to work for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, overseeing a staff of 244 as director of the southeast region. Less than two years into the job, she was tapped by then-Governor Tom Ridge to head his 21st Century Environment Commission to establish the Commonwealth’s environmental priorities for the next 100 years. A self-described “D” in an “R” administration, Collier was delighted, if surprised, to
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be asked to lead the effort as executive director of the 40-member commission. “The governor essentially gave us a blank sheet with no strings attached, no effort to guide our work according to his agenda. I thought that was extremely impressive,” she says. Under Collier’s leadership the group delivered a document within the 14-month deadline that continues to be used as a reference 12 years later. The opening at the helm of the Delaware River Basin Commission came just as Collier was completing work on the governor’s project in 1998. The commissioners were looking for someone to take the DRBC in a new direction. “When I came to this office, it was dominated by dark walnut paneling and a big old desk and smelled like cigar smoke,” she says. “I’ve been told by the commissioners at the time that the reason I got hired was I was a biologist and planner, and I was a woman. This place had been 90 percent engineers with the attitude that the governors are our bosses, we don’t need to tell the public what we’re doing, and we certainly don’t need to ask their opinion. So this was a move to open up the windows, so to speak.” Jan Bowers, a colleague who heads a local water resource authority in nearby Chester County, PA, remembers her reaction when she learned that Collier would be the DRBC’s new chief. “This position is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, water resources regulatory positions east of the Mississippi, short of the federal government,” she says. “It was very encouraging to me to see that opportunities are available to women in our field who have the capability to take advantage of them.” In Collier’s dozen years on the job, the DRBC has become much more transparent after making major changes to the Web site, forming advisory committees, stepping up educational outreach, etc. “Our ears are open wider,” Collier says. Of course, that means there’s much more noise to deal with when contentious issues arise. And there’s none more contentious than fracking. After many months of research and deliberation, the DRBC released in December a thorough 83-page proposal for comprehensive rules regarding natural gas drilling in the watershed. The moratorium will stay in place until the rules are finalized after a 90-day public comment period, public hearings, and probable changes to the draft. Collier
This new industry proposes to set up shop within the watershed of the Delaware River, a vital waterway that spans four states, supplying drinking water to over fifteen million people.
expects thousands of people to turn out for meetings to discuss the regulations. Despite the inherent stress, Collier says she wouldn’t want to be anyplace else right now. “The opportunity to do this right and make a difference for a watershed of this scale with all the different aspects and values to fifteen million people—it’s totally exciting, but quite humbling that I’m here.” Colleagues and other insiders in the field of environmental planning and resource management are also glad someone of Collier’s caliber is in such a prominent leadership role on this issue. “She’s exactly the right person to be in that position right now,” says Robert Giegengack, a former Penn professor who continues to be a mentor of Collier’s. “Her integrity is the highest,” he says. “People know not to fool with her. And, boy, does she have the best interest of the watershed at heart.”
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connections Alumnae Relations Director Hired Kelly A. Finnegan began work in September as the new director of alumnae relations. Finnegan comes to Emma from the Ayco Company, a financial counseling and education services firm, where she was a project manager. Finnegan was impressed by the school and by its mission, she says. And coming to Emma was an easy choice because the position suited her to a tee. “It provided an opportunity to use all my experience and skills in one place—event planning, project management, and relationship building.” She’s been on board since September and already has been struck by “the energy, the passion, and the commitment” she sees in the faculty, the students, and the administration. And as for the alumnae,” she says, “I’ve never seen a more dynamic, enthusiastic, and passionate group. It’s not about whether they can donate their time or money or energy. It’s about how they can best do that.” She has lots of plans for the future, including creating a more meaningful Web presence, and looks forward to meeting many in the extended Emma community.
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01 Members of the Class of 1961 gathered for a group lunch in New York City on September 25. L-R: Helen Pettit, Mary Lake Polan, Rosie Case Clark, Michael Gage, Jamie Adkins Baxter, Vicky Thompson Winterer, Barbara Mahony Kent, Mandy Cluett Fry, and Jeanie Stoner DeLucia.
02 Attending the panel discussion with young alumnae held in October at Wellesley College Club, L-R: Paula Brody ’68, Claudia Thompson ’71, and Head of School Trudy Hall. 03 In January seminar instructor Pam Skripak ’80 (right) and Head of School Trudy Hall traveled to Jordan to visit the King’s Academy. They visited the Roman ruins in Jerash and had tea with Aida Khadder Zahran ’61 (left) in Amman. Trudy Hall is the second head of school to visit an alumna in Jordan as Miss Wellington was the first, when she took a cruise to the Holy Land in the late 1950s. 04 Harpsichordist Ruth McKay ’80 and Director of Vocal Music Debra SpiroAllen at the 18th-century instrumental and vocal music performance by the exciting La Donna Musicale on campus on October 17. 05 San Francisco Bay Area alumnae gathered in July at Meadowood in California’s Napa Valley for a croquet event. The group was welcomed by Meadowood’s croquet pro, Mike Lufkin, who shared the basics of the game, as well as a bit of strategy. Alumnae geared up in their whites and took to the courts, L-R: Lise Pfau Ciolino ’81, Valerie Gonyea ’82, Beth Wellington ’81, Mike Lufkin, Marcy Taylor Pattinson ’64, and Laura Rodormer ’86.
06 Cape Cod area alumnae gathered
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at the home of Bonnie Scott Jelinek ’63 for a holiday wine and cheese party. L-R: Dick Jelinek, Michael Knowles, Susan Doyle Knowles ’61, Bonnie Scott Jelinek ’63, Sister Anne Furst ’56, Sister Susannah Hill (guest), M. Barbara Greenwood ’66, Barbara Harris (guest), Sally Munson Bohman ’79, Jack Bohman. Also in attendance: Winifred Merrill Fitzgerald ’43.
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women’s work Nautical Pioneer Julie Pyle Nicholson ’46 Owner of Nicholson Yacht Charters, Inc. It all started in St. Margaret’s School when I was six years old. Sir Wilfred Grenfell came to lecture on being a missionary in Newfoundland. “Can I join the mission?” I asked. “Yes,” said Sir Wilfred. “Apply when you’re older.”
Rodney was invited by Clare Boothe Luce to captain a boat and sail it down to the Caribbean. He asked me to be a cook. Halfway to Bermuda he proposed. I was too seasick to say no. Okay, I never did say no. I was 23 and got married at 24.
When I finally applied to the Grenfell Association, they accepted me. However, they didn’t ask if I could type. My first day I was asked to type out a list. “Oh no! You can’t type?” So they sent me down the coast doing an inventory of who lived where and what size and shape the children were. I went from house to house, living with the people, eating “bubble and squeak”—boiled codfish over hardtack that had been softened by soaking it in water. I must have been 17 or 18 at the time.
Back then there were no charter boats. We started the whole business. The Mollihawk was the first charter boat. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We had only two boats at the time. The company has grown tremendously, and now we have yachts all over the world. Charter fees range from $4,000 per week to $485,000 per week.
I applied to go around the world on an 18-month voyage aboard the 96-ft brigantine, Yankee. I was one of only four girls on board. The rest were 19 handsome Princeton, Harvard, and Yale types—they were like my brothers. There was no EPERB or satellite navigation in those days. At one point we were in the South China Sea in a typhoon. The boat was extremely stout and safe, the captain a superb sailor, and I had no fear, only a colossal sense of wonder at the purple lightning and mountainous waves. In Antigua, we were at Mill Reef Club, an exclusive club on one end of the island. At a dance, I spotted a handsome Englishman talking to my skipper. He was Rodney Nicholson, whose family owned the 73-ft schooner, Mollihawk, which was to become the pioneer yacht in the charter business.
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High-end tri-deck motor yachts can have Jacuzzis, elevators, helipads. Some are over 250 feet long and can have a crew of 26, including a top-notch chef. It’s the high end of holiday making. But we have modestly priced family yachts as well, sail and power operated by darling crew. Levi Strauss was one of our first clients. We’ve worked with such people as David Letterman and Victor Borge. Bill Buckley, Ted Koppel, C. S. Forester. We’ve worked with movie stars and US senators—we even chartered a large motor to Hubert Humphrey when he was vice president. The CIA and FBI descended on us like swarming locust to make sure he would be safe! I’m probably getting too old to be out there now— I’m 83. But it’s been a wonderful life. Stop chartering? Never! I love it too much.
HELP US KEEP
Kristin V. Rehder
BreakingBarriers
If you could help fill the demand for women trained in science and technology, would you?
In an era when women have made tremendous strides in nearly every other human endeavor, women remain grossly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (so-called STEM) fields.
girls’ schools break barriers. Emma
When you support a student at Emma, you change the face of science and technology. You change the future for your student, for those around her, and those who will follow. You change the future for everyone touched by her genius and hard work.
The world needs to know:
Willard graduates are six times more likely than the national average for girls (and more likely than boys), to pursue a college major in science or math. In fact, Emma girls are plunging into real-life STEM experiences as high school students.
Your gift is leadership, your gift is example, your gift is empowerment. Make your gift today and blaze
the trail.
Find out more about empowering women at www.emmawillard.org
Emma Willard School. Empower a Girl. Transform the World.
emma willard school 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180
Classes of 1931, 1936, 1941, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006
SAVE THE DATE
Reunion 2011
If you’d like to volunteer for reunion, please call or email the Alumnae Relations Office at 866.833.1814 toll-free or alumnae@emmawillard.org. Look for your invitation in March with all the details of the weekend’s activities.
Kristin V. Rehder
June 10–12