A Publication for Alumnae and Friends of Meredith College
Summer 2016, Volume 41, Number 2
M A G A Z I N E
CONGRATULATIONS
CLASS OF 2016 Meredith’s newest graduates are going strong
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Meredith Magazine Volume 41, Number 2 Summer 2016 Executive Editor Kristi Eaves-McLennan, ’14, MBA Managing Editors Melyssa Allen Karen T. Dunton
CONTENTS FEATURES 16 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS POISED FOR GROWTH New programs, partnerships set school up for big changes
21 DREAM BIG. MAKE MISTAKES. HAVE COURAGE.
Assistant Editor Gaye Hill Writers Emily Parker Suzanne Stanard
Lessons from Meredith entrepreneurs and how the business school is preparing the next generation
28 MILLENNIALS How one Meredith researcher is shaping the way we talk about (and to) the most misunderstood generation
Art Director Vanessa Harris Designer Margaret McIver, ’09
32 LIVING STRONG How focusing on your strengths can help you have a more effective and fullfilling life
Alumnae Connection Editors Hilary Allen, ’01 Alexis Trell, ’15 Contributing Writers Sarah Lindenfeld Hall Wendy Jones Cammey Cole Manning Taylor Moore, ’17 Lillian Redding, ’16 Betty Webb, ’67 Photographers Darek Carter Scott Elmquist, STYLE Weekly Christopher Ferrer Peter Finger Gary Knight Brian Lynn Charlotte McKinney Susan Murray Caleigh Thomas, ’16 Michael Zirkle Meredith College Faculty & Staff
Meredith Magazine exists to serve the Meredith community by providing readers with insight and information about the news, activities, events, programs, plans, and people of the College. Meredith Magazine is published three times a year by the Meredith College Department of Marketing. Questions or comments may be submitted to marketing@meredith.edu. © 2016 Meredith College. The Meredith name and word mark are registered trademarks of Meredith College and may not be used without permission. All rights reserved. 16-080
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NEWS 2
Faculty Distinguished Lecture Focuses on Food Production
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Meredith Student Chosen for Fulbright Program
12 Meredith Celebrates 125 Years of Going Strong 14 The Big Three: Drs. Johnson, Rose, and Knight
IN EVERY ISSUE 1
Meredith Campus News
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Letter from the President
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Meredith Experts in the News
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Strong Stories
11 Newsmakers 36 Beyond Strong | The Campaign for Meredith 40 Alumnae Connection On the Cover: Meredith College held commencement exercises on May 7, 2016, celebrating the accomplishments of the Class of 2016. The College conferred 490 degrees during the ceremony. Read more about commencement on page 8.
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NEWS In February 2016, Meredith College marked 125 years since its charter was granted in 1891. A week of special events brought the campus community together to celebrate this milestone for Meredith, which is now one of the largest women’s colleges in the United States. Read more about Meredith College’s 125th anniversary on page 12. Watch the marker unveiling at youtube.com/meredithcollege.
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Faculty Distinguished Lecture Focuses on Food Production By Melyssa Allen
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ssociate Professor of Biological Sciences Karthik Aghoram explored sustainable food production in the 2016 Faculty Distinguished Lecture, which he titled “Less Land. More Food. No Fights.” The lecture was held on March 15, which Aghoram noted was National Agriculture Day. Aghoram said 2016 is also 150 years since the publication of Gregor Mendel’s landmark work, Experiments on Plant Hybridization. Aghoram shared a brief overview of the pioneers of plant hybridization, which started with “deliberate, methodical plant breeding” that allowed food production to increase. The first generation of genetically engineered (GE) crops were disease resistant, herbicide tolerant, and insect resistant – all “farmer friendly traits.” “GE has allowed for more food production using less land. Sixty-eight percent less land is used to produce the same amount of food,” Aghoram said. “In 1840, 70 percent of the American workforce worked on farms. Now less than two percent do.”
The second generation of GE crops are emphasizing consumer needs, such as decreasing vitamin deficiencies, and creating non-browning fruits and vegetables to reduce food waste. Aghoram acknowledged that every new technology brings controversy. The harmonious approach he proposed focuses on the common goals of less land, more food, agreeing that farmer profit and sustainability are
“We need to include science and values; scientists, farmers, and the public must work together on these common goals.” – Karthik Aghoram important, and considering environmental stewardship and social justice. “We need to include science and values; scientists, farmers, and the public must work together on these common goals,” said Aghoram, who interviewed a variety of experts, including organic farmers, scientists, and aca-
demics in related fields, while preparing for his lecture. “By working together, scientists can benefit farmers while considering consumer needs and values,” said Aghoram. “A combination of good agronomic practices and genetically improved seed can equal safe, scientific agriculture. There’s no reason these two concepts should be incompatible.” Aghoram has been a member of the Meredith College faculty since 2005. His areas of research include cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology with an emphasis on plants. Aghoram holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Bangalore University in India. He earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Florida State University and completed his post-doctoral training in crop science at North Carolina State University. The Faculty Distinguished Lecture was designed to represent a significant achievement of research by a faculty member. The first lecture was presented in 1964 by Professor of English Norma Rose.
Watch The Meredith Minute featuring Associate Professor Karthik Aghoram at youtube.com/meredithcollege.
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CSA Day Spotlights Student Success By Suzanne Stanard
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mmigration. Aquatic biodiversity. Sports photography. These were just a few of the myriad research topics covered at Meredith College’s 2016 Celebrating Student Achievement (CSA) Day. More than 120 undergraduate students participated in the annual event, which is designed to highlight the breadth and depth of undergraduate research taking place at the College. In addition to student research presentations, CSA day also features performances, creative projects, and other activities that showcase student success. “CSA Day is an opportunity to see the hard work students and their faculty mentors have put into research,” said Provost Matthew Poslusny during his remarks at the morning
poster session. He likened faculty research mentors to Olympic coaches, saying faculty work tirelessly with their students. For the students, participating in CSA Day is a chance to share the fruits of their labor and gain valuable presentation experience. A number of the student researchers, like Kerrigan Gudger, ’16, were delivering talks on their senior thesis projects. “CSA Day gives us a great platform to share what we’ve learned at Meredith College and to demonstrate all that’s possible with a Meredith education,” Gudger said. Chloe Locklear, ’19, said that the event also provides new students an opportunity to learn about the different departments and areas of study at Meredith.
“There’s such diversity in the community that’s apparent through CSA day,” Locklear said. “I think that’s really cool. As an honors student I’ll be doing an honors thesis. I’m excited to do my own research and am getting some ideas for that, today, too.” Paul Winterhoff, professor of human environmental sciences and director of general education and undergraduate research, is one of the organizers of the event. He declared the day to be a success. “The student presenters are skillful, expressive, they make eye contact, and they know the content. I also love our variety at CSA Day. It’s good research, on topics that are immediate and relevant to people right now,” Winterhoff said.
Watch highlights of Celebrating Student Achievement Day at youtube.com/meredithcollege.
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Meredith Student Chosen for Fulbright Program By Melyssa Allen
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atelyn Smith, ’16, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for 2016-17. The grant will support her participation in Fulbright’s nine-month English Teaching Assistantship program in Mexico. At Meredith, Smith majored in Spanish and international studies, and completed minors in religious and ethical studies and biology. “I chose to apply for the Fulbright over other programs because of its mission to form bonds of peace and understanding between countries through cultural exchange,” Smith said. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. After completing the Fulbright, Smith will begin a master’s degree in Spanish at NC State University as she works toward her goal of becoming a Spanish professor. Her Fulbright experience will bolster her teaching credentials. “I’m looking forward to the cultural exchange and also gaining
experience in a classroom in another country so I can really have a diverse lesson plan portfolio when I come back and be able to connect with different students,” Smith said. Smith is appreciative of the support she has received from Meredith College. “Sometimes I try to imagine if I would have gone to another university, if I would be the student I am today, and overall the woman that I am today,” Smith said. “I don’t think I would be. Meredith has really strengthened me, and given me all the tools I need in life.” The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The program operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Award-Winning Geneticist and Autism Researcher Visits Meredith By Gaye Hill
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hen autism researcher and geneticist Pam Feliciano described the state of autism research to a full auditorium at Meredith College on February 2, 2016, her tone was optimistic. “There is a lot of hope for the future. I think science can bring us better treatments – it’s just not sustainable not to. Everyone knows someone with autism – it’s not a rare disorder. The impact on society is great,” said Feliciano. Feliciano, whose son was diagnosed with autism on July 27, 2007, traced her own journey from that day, which she called Diagnosis Day, to her present role as senior scientist at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. When she first heard her son’s diagnosis, Feliciano understandably had many questions
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– to which there were few answers. She has spent much of her career pursuing those answers. Because of her background, she’s focused particularly on identifying genetic factors behind the disorder. Autism has both a strong genetic component as well as environmental risk factors. The Simons Foundation is seeking to both understand what causes autism and develop more effective treatments. Feliciano closed her lecture by describing a
research initiative at the Simons Foundation called SPARK, a project to collect genetic samples from 50,000 families for scientists to analyze. When asked how being a parent of a child with autism has affected her work, she replied that her son energizes her efforts. “It provides a really strong motivation every day and gives me a deep sense of satisfaction – I love going to work.” In addition to her lecture, Feliciano also interacted with students in smaller, more intimate settings. While on campus, she visited the life span developmental psychology class of Olivia McElvaney, ’18, whose older sister has autism. “She helped me understand why my sister is the way she is,” said McElvaney. “When we have specialists come to class like Dr. Feliciano, it sparks ideas among students for research and conversation.”
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Preparing Our Students to Become Engaged Citizens
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hether we focus on the top-ofmind issues or the behaviors and personalities of the candidates, the current political season has been a headscratcher for many of us – regardless of which candidates we support. While all votes matter and many issues are not particularly gender-sensitive, we also acknowledge that women voters may have a significant effect on the outcome of this year’s elections. Consequently, Meredith’s students have been encouraged to engage fully in political activity; after all, candidates and their decisions will profoundly affect our students and every aspect of their futures. Our students engage in political activity in many ways – from participating in The Meredith College Poll, a unique political polling mechanism designed to gauge the attitudes and concerns of North Carolina voters, as well as their take on women-focused issues, to working on political campaigns, to urging voter registration. In fact, this participation is one of many ways that students weigh their classroom lessons against their experience, one of the most successful techniques for promoting deep learning. As a result of students’ engagement and the impact of their votes, Meredith holds a unique opportunity to provide a forum for competing political perspectives. As part of our commitment to intellectual inquiry where ideas are tested without fear of reprisal, ideas and possibly candidates themselves are going to be discussed and perhaps even hosted on our campus. Whether or not we agree with a candidate’s take on the issues, it is our responsibility as educators to help students develop their intellectual powers of asking good questions, weighing the pros and cons of any given perspective, and reaching and defending their conclusions. We encourage students to ask
Students conducting The Meredith College Poll.
not only what a candidate believes, but also why, leading them to understand the candidate’s motivations, experiences, and data. They ask not only what a candidate intends to do, but also how, leading to clarity about processes, funding, and even authority to act. And they ask not only about the candidate’s priorities, but also who benefits from those priorities and who is harmed by them. As a not-for-profit organization, Meredith College cannot take a stand for a particular candidate or political issue outside our educational mission. We can and must, however, provide opportunities for our students to learn and, ultimately, to play an important role in shaping our communities – locally, statewide, and nationally – by learning and
engaging in the political process. As part of our educational mission, we open our doors for these conversations, trusting our faculty and staff to honor the integrity of the intellectual process that requires us to weigh contrary ideas and speakers. To do otherwise would be negligent of our responsibilities, untrusting of our community, dismissive of our mission, and a betrayal of one of our most cherished values: academic freedom.
Jo Allen, ’80, President
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How Mathematics Impacts Your Health By Cammey Cole Manning
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hen you were sitting in a mathematics class, did you ever wonder if math really affects your life? In fact, mathematics plays an integral part in your daily life – often in surprising ways. To take one specific example, mathematical modeling and statistical analysis are critical in the health care and pharmaceutical fields. From time to time, all of us are sick and need to take medication. In this era of antibiotic resistance, getting the correct dosage is particularly important – but how are dosage levels determined to ensure you get the amount you really need? Mathematicians work on a specific type of models called Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models that help determine appropriate dosing. These models investigate the uptake, distribution, and elimination of a drug in the body. PBPK modeling incorporates known physiological parameters such as body weight, body height, organ volumes, and blood flow rates in particular tissues. These models can take into account information about the excretion, via urine and feces, of the drug as well as the metabolism of the drug. The antibiotic ertapenem is used to treat a wide range of infections and is usually administered intravenously to individuals who are hospitalized because of an infection. The advantage of this drug is that it only has to be administered once a day. But because of the way it is absorbed, the amount of fat in the
body can influence how the drug binds, how quickly the drug passes through the body, and thus how effective the drug is. Work is now being done to see if body height and weight, which determine the body mass index (BMI) for an individual, should play a role in the antibiotic dosage because
BMI can affect the absorption and excretion of a drug. This work (more mathematics!) could lead to even more effective dosing of the drug, which could significantly impact your health. The next time you reach for a medication, remember the significant role that mathematics plays in your health.
Cammey Cole Manning, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics at Meredith College. She has been actively involved in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). Additionally, she has been involved for over a decade with programs, particularly those for undergraduate and graduate students, at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI). She continues to be active in research, most recently coauthoring “A Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Model for the Antibiotic Ertapenem” in the Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering journal.
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By the Numbers: Make It Count for Meredith
$283,052 Total raised in just 24 hours, more than doubling the initial $125,000 goal.
24-HOUR GIVING DAY As part of the 125th anniversary celebration, Meredith held its first 24-
119 FIRST TIME DONORS
Hour Giving Day on February 23, 2016. Supporters were encouraged to Make It Count for Meredith, and the day was a
1,791 Make It Count for Meredith Donors
resounding success, as these numbers show. Read more about Meredith’s Beyond Strong campaign on page 36.
989 #MakeItCount4MC mentions on social media
Meredith Experts in the News Meredith faculty and staff served as experts in a wide variety of news outlets, including USA Today, Forbes, The News & Observer, and The North State Journal.
“The longevity of Meredith speaks to our reputation for excellence that has never wavered. I think it speaks to the power of our faculty and staff to invest not only their teaching and knowledge... in our students, but the true shaping and guiding and coaching of women to recognize their power and to make good decisions.” — President Jo Allen, in a News & Observer article about Meredith College turning 125.
“It’s difficult for a school system to recruit teachers into schools if they’re listed as D or F. I didn’t want a D or F on my report card. Why would I run to a school that’s been rated D or F?” — Professor of Education Wetonah Parker, in a News & Observer story about issues affecting teacher recruitment and retention. Parker was speaking on a panel during an event hosted by Cooperating Raleigh Colleges.
“So maybe it isn’t shocking at all
a dusty old coat.”
“Strong women have self-confidence. It is not enough to tell women they can be anything they want to be, you have to provide support, education, and a consistent message that the more she does, the more likely she is to succeed.”
— Assistant Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo, in a USA Today opinion piece “Why Millennials Love Bernie Sanders,” published in February 2016.
— President Jo Allen, in an article about Meredith College and the success of programs including StrongPoints®, in the North State Journal, a new statewide newspaper.
that Sanders is so popular with millennials. He’s talking about a revolution while all of the other candidates seem to be trying to force them into
“Did we keep the container of egg salad within the ‘safe’ temperature zone, or did we drive around running errands before we got the groceries put up? Did we leave the container on the counter just in case we wanted to make another sandwich? Lots of accountability checks for the consumer …. [It’s] much easier just to look at the date and toss it.” — Associate Professor of Nutrition Susan Fisher, in a Forbes.com story about food expiration dates. S ummer 2016 | M E RE D I T H M A G A Z I N E
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Meredith College Holds 2016 Commencement
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eredith College’s 2016 Commencement, held on May 7, featured themes of strength, perseverance, and success. The commencement address was given by NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan, who urged graduates to remember the values instilled in them by Meredith College — personal development, responsible global citizenship, and relevance. Speaking of her own career and those of other pioneering women like mathematician Ada Lovelace, chemist Rosalind Franklin, and cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock, Stofan told the graduates to be inspired by women who have made significant contributions to the sciences and the world. “These stories teach us that in spite of adversity and challenges, we must remain strong,” Stofan said. “Although things may not always go as planned, don’t stop setting goals and believing in yourself.” Stofan closed by encouraging Meredith graduates to remember their values and their role models when facing roadblocks to success.
“You are not going to have all the answers; you may not have everyone’s support; but you have what it takes to be relevant and make a significant change in the world.” During the ceremony, President Jo Allen, ’80, announced that the College was bestowing an honorary doctorate, its highest academic honor, on Stofan. Meredith College commencements close with a special tradition during which the new graduates hold candles, which symbolize the education they have received as light they are taking into the world. “We charge you now to take the Meredith light into the world,” said Allen. “As you have gained confidence, knowledge, courage, and strength, we charge you now to put those qualities to work to improve our world.”
About the Graduates Approximately 490 degrees were conferred by Meredith College during the ceremony. The College conferred Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Music, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees upon graduates of the un-
dergraduate program, as well as master’s degrees in business, education and nutrition. These include degrees completed in August 2015, December 2015 and May 2016. Undergraduate programs at Meredith are for women only, while graduate programs are coeducational.
Success After Meredith Meredith 2016 graduates have been hired by companies and organizations including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, the Interfaith Youth Core, IBM, Cisco Systems, Student Action with Farmworkers, Metabolon, Wake County Public Schools, Level 5 Designs, MA Allen Interiors, and the American Dance Festival. Others will pursue graduate degrees at universities including UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State University, Auburn University, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Texas School of Public Health, Campbell School of Law, Appalachian State University, the Southern College of Optometry, and the College of Charleston.
Watch a video of Commencement and see Strong Story videos featuring members of the Class of 2016 at youtube.com/meredithcollege.
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STRONG STORIES
A strong student accepts challenges head-on By Gaye Hill
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tudying abroad is often described by college students as a life-changing experience. For Meredith Hovis, ’16, the time she spent in Costa Rica was truly transformative. It helped her to discover a love of research, master the Spanish language, and prepare for the next phase of her education: a graduate program in environmental policy at NC State. A double major in Spanish and environmental studies, Meredith had always been open-minded and loved meeting new people. She originally planned to pursue Spanish as a minor, and when she decided to study abroad, she intended to go to an American university where her classes would be in English. But her Spanish professors encouraged her to push herself, so instead she attended Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica where she was the only Englishspeaking student in her classes. “That’s where I really learned to speak Spanish. I didn’t want to talk, and I was scared people would make fun of me. And my professors didn’t go easy on me – they called on me in class and asked for my perspective being from a different country.” Soon Meredith found herself thriving. When her semester was over, she wasn’t ready to leave Costa Rica. So she applied for a competitive summer research position and
“I realize now what I’m capable of.” – Meredith Hovis, ’16 was one of only four U.S. students selected. She spent the summer studying leaf cutter ants and doing research in the rain forest as part of a diverse team of students and faculty. When she returned to Meredith, she wanted
MEREDITH HOVIS, ’16
to use the skills and knowledge she had developed in Costa Rica, so she worked with faculty to research carbon in the soil found in the forest on campus and in the nearby Prairie Ridge Eco Station. Complicating Meredith’s decision to attend graduate school were two job offers in her field. One, as resident naturalist in a cloud forest in Costa Rica, tugged at her desire to remain in a country she’s come to view as a second home. The second was the result of an internship she held with Environment North Carolina – and in that case she compromised
by agreeing to work as a canvasing director for three months before entering her graduate program in the fall. For this strong student, her Meredith experiences have added up to huge gains in confidence – and a clear sense of what she wants for her future. “I realize now what I’m capable of. Before I studied abroad, I needed more confirmation from others, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after graduation,” said Meredith. “But the challenges are what have made me stronger and more independent.”
Find more stories like this one at meredith.edu/goingstrong including a video featuring Meredith Hovis. Learn more about Meredith’s environmental sustainability and Spanish majors at meredith.edu/majors. S ummer 2016 | M E RE D I T H M A G A Z I N E
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Student Group Supports Raleigh Girls By Gaye Hill
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eredith students and alumnae know the power of sisterhood. Now, through a program initiated by former College Chaplain Stacy Pardue, Meredith students are connecting with a group of young girls in Raleigh. Nearly every week, 12 girls ranging in age from nine to 14 come by bus to campus where they spend time with Meredith mentors. Known best by its shorthand name “Triple S,” which stands for Sisters Supporting Sisters, the program is a collaboration with the local nonprofit Loaves and Fishes. It provides practical support in the form of homework assistance; even more important, it gives the young girls access to a community of women who are passionate about education and are invested in their mentees’ success. Homework help is a regular part of the programming. Activities for the remaining time together have ranged from making pizza and worry dolls to putting on a fashion show and learning salsa dancing. Some weeks Meredith students conduct workshops that are designed to strengthen the young participants’ self-esteem and confidence; such workshops have focused on topics including healthy body image and positive friendship dynamics.
“There’s something about sisterhood and women that is just powerful.” – Dana Wright
Eiman Ali, ’17, is a biology major and chair of the Triple S team. She enjoys participating each week and planning the activities. “My favorite part is having fun with the girls and getting to know them better,” said Ali.
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Another biology major, Asha Tuli, ’17, said she likes seeing the girls gradually open up. “There are shy ones in the beginning and then they get used to us as we spend time together,” said Tuli. Ten-year-old Niyira said her favorite activities were the fashion show, scavenger hunt, and making pillows. She also likes coming to Meredith’s campus. “I just like being here. I like to see what’s going on – to get ready to go to college and see what it’s going to be like.” Dana Wright, family support director for Loaves and Fishes, agrees that the program offers a valuable perspective for the young participants. “It’s empowering for them. There are a lot of issues that young girls face, and sometimes you feel like you’re in it all by yourself. But when you come together as a group and talk about it, you realize that you’re more alike than you are different,” said Wright. When asked what they liked best, not surprisingly the girls focused on the fun activities. “I liked the fashion show,” said Amari, age 11. “They didn’t have us act any particular way or tell us to be something we’re not. They just let us be ourselves.” Another participant, Danai, age 11, was
too shy to talk but shared her thoughts in a note. “I like Meredith because they do things that the younger kids and the older kids might like. So that was cool.” Elizabeth Riley, ’19, is a child development major who has a lot of experience working with young children. She’s used that knowledge to connect with her mentee. “We get to invest in these girls long term. At the beginning of the year I was assigned to a student and we’ve become really close. She seems to trust me and shares a lot with me,” said Riley. Wright said she hopes the mentor program will continue for a long time to come. “There’s something about sisterhood and women that is just powerful,” said Wright.
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Newsmakers Meredith Autism Program Director Kathryn Dove was one of 21 health professionals honored with The Triangle Business Journal’s 2016 Health Care Hero Award. Dove was nominated for the award by a parent of one of the children who participates in Meredith’s program, and was selected from more than 100 nominees. Winners include doctors, nurses, volunteers, and administrators. Instructor of Mathematics Julie Kolb was recently elected president of the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCCTM), the state’s professional organization for all who teach mathematics. Kolb has been a member of NCCTM since 1985 and has served as secondary vice president, eastern region president, secretary, and parliamentarian. Before joining Meredith’s faculty, Kolb taught secondary mathematics in the Wake County School System for more than 30 years. Assistant Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo was elected vice president of the North Carolina Political Science Association at its recent conference in Research Triangle Park. She will serve as vice president during the 2016-17 academic year. In 2017-18 she will serve as president elect and she will assume the presidency of the association in 2018-19. Instructor of English Jason Newport has been awarded a 2016-17 Fulbright to teach and conduct creative-writing research for one semester at the University of Pécs in southern Hungary. Stations, a short film by Professor of Art Jane Terry was named an official selection of the New York City Independent Film Festival, held April 27-May 1, 2016. The festival’s mission is to “showcase the best independent films, from all around the world, to the public and the entertainment industry in New York City.” Terry’s film is supported in part by a grant from the Tree of Life Foundation.
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Track and Field Completes First Season as Meredith’s Eighth Varsity Sport By Wendy Jones
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eredith College’s newest varsity sport competed this spring for the first time. The College announced the addition of track and field as its eighth varsity sport in August 2014 to allow time to recruit and plan for competition to begin in Spring 2016. The team launch was supported by a gift from alumna and Board of Trustees member Ann Lowery, ’74. With a new coaching staff on board this year, new recruits to lead, and a challenging schedule in place, Meredith built a foundation for another strong sports program. Under the direction of Head Coach Leslie Payne, the Avenging Angels opened the season successfully at Berry College in Rome, Ga., in March. Meredith won their duals meet and posted a sixth-place overall finish out of a dozen teams and more than 600 student-athletes. “This season has surpassed all my expectations,” said Payne. “We have competed well in every meet, and everyone has worked incredibly hard to improve their performances.” Of the 20-member Avenging Angels roster, seven also competed in cross country and one in soccer. Follow the Avenging Angels at goavengingangels.com
Sand Mandala Ceremony Held at Meredith For three days in February, the Cate Student Center was the site for the ritual construction of a Buddhist Sand Mandala, allowing the Meredith community to witness a special Tibetan tradition. Geshe Sangpo from Raleigh’s Kadampa Center built the Green Tara mandala. A closing ceremony was held on February 11, during which the mandala was dismantled. Small portions of it were distributed to those in attendance as physical representations of blessings, before the remaining grains were returned to nature.
Watch a timelapse of the mandala construction at youtube.com/ meredithcollege.
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Meredith Celebrates 125 Years of Going Strong
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ighlights of Meredith College’s 125th anniversary, February 22-27, included a poetry contest, a Meredithfocused exhibit at the City of Raleigh Museum, and the unveiling of a new historical marker on campus. The week culminated with campus-wide celebrations of Meredith’s 125 years of Going Strong and the announcement of the goal for Beyond Strong | The Campaign for Meredith.
Poet and English faculty member Robert Rubin reads his poem, The Girls, which won the Meredith College 125 Poetry Contest. Rubin read his work during one of the anniversary events.
The $75 million campaign goal for Beyond Strong | The Campaign for Meredith was announced publicly for the first time. Alumnae and other Meredith community members celebrated what will be the largest campaign in the College’s history.
Josephine Cooper, ’67, Beyond Strong campaign co-chair, announced the campaign goal, and shared that the College had already raised over $55 million.
Through We CAN Do It, a canned food drive, the College collected more than 1,125 food items for the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina.
A new historical marker sits at the front of campus, and proclaims the College’s place in North Carolina history.
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The 125th anniversary fell during an Alice in Wonderland year, so it was appropriate for Alice and her friends to make a special appearance for the Mad Hatter’s Tea, held in Belk Dining Hall. The party featured an Alice-themed menu, including a giant, multi-tiered cake, tea, finger sandwiches, and other treats. Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane (right) presents President Jo Allen, ’80, with the City’s official proclamation in honor of Meredith College. The State of North Carolina also sent a proclamation for the occasion.
February 27, the official date Meredith’s charter was granted in 1891, included a campus open house, with trolley rides to the City of Raleigh Museum, an alumnae artist exhibit, and a display of a time capsule created by students for the anniversary.
The City of Raleigh Museum featured an “Angels in the City of Oaks: 125 Years of Meredith College History” exhibition for the month of February. Visitors enjoyed a visual journey through 125 years of Meredith College history through artifacts that told the story of the College and the women who have attended the institution since its founding in Raleigh.
Students, faculty, and staff got into the spirit during a Throwback Thursday lip sync competition.
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THE BIG THREE: Drs. Johnson, Rose, and Knight In honor of Meredith College’s 125th anniversary, the Department of English hosted a talk by Professor Emerita Betty Webb,’67, who shared her personal reflections on Mary Lynch Johnson, Ione Knight, and Norma Rose, three legendary professors of English. This feature includes excerpts from the speech that Webb presented on February 22, 2016, in Jones Chapel.
to admire more than I can say but also to love.
Mary Lynch Johnson
As a very fresh freshman in 1963, I approached the English registration desk in the old gym and said, “I want Dr. Johnson, Dr. Rose, or Dr. Knight for English 101.” When Dr. Johnson said she was putting me in Mrs. Greenwood’s class, I inquired, “Is there no room in a class taught by you or Rose or Knight?” Dr. Johnson looked up, surprised, and said, “Oh. You said you wanted one of those professors. I misunderstood. I have been sitting here all day listening to students say that they wanted anyone but Drs. Johnson, Rose and Knight.” She put me in her own noon Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (yes, Saturday) class. The Big Three were really, really tough but excellent, according to my Meredith Big Sis. I was too naïve to be daunted. Since I entered junior high, I had hidden novels behind my textbooks, reading them during my other classes. The chance to be an English major, to read novels for four years – I could think of nothing more delicious. Little did I know then about the Meredith Department of English curriculum. The fact that the study of Old English was required of majors should have clued me in. What I am going to talk about today is my Big Three, speaking of them not just in terms of what they meant to the College – their contributions to Meredith are widely known – but what they meant to me. I hope most of all that my recollections will do honor to these three women – Meredith alums themselves – women I came not only
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In my six hours of required freshman English with Dr. Johnson, I read only one novel. Essays were the thing – Carlyle, Ruskin, Bacon, Dequincy, Hazlitt – and, of course, we read Homer’s Odyssey. Although I was grateful some years later, I confess that for being required to read Carlyle at 18, when I wanted to read Austen and Bronte, my gratitude was grudging. In addition to reading essays, we, of course, had to write them – seven essays a week – if we studied on Sunday. MLJ, as we called her behind her back, sometimes selected one of my daily essays to read as an example to the class. I could, in fact, write. I could not, however, spell, and I had a lot to learn about punctuation. In the midst of reading aloud my essay to the class, she would suddenly frown, cluck, pull her pencil from behind her ear, and circle a previously undiscovered error. Dr. Johnson loved words and used them exquisitely. Her dissertation had been a dictionary of Modern English words and their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. She was fascinated by etymology, and captivated us with the sad story of the word hussy, which was derived from the noble Anglo Saxon word huswif, or housewife, connoting thrift and industry, a word that had, alas, fallen on hard times over the centuries. It was quite clear to all of us that the subtext of this word study was that reputations lost could not be regained and that we were not under any circumstances to lose ours. Dr. Johnson was also delightfully witty. She said the reason she preferred cats was that dogs were always on the wrong side of the door. Teaching the first day after a holiday, she declared, was like pushing a baby carriage uphill in a down draft with the brake on. She
also used her wizardry with words to teach moral lessons. She told us somberly and regularly that if we cheated while at Meredith, even if we were not found out, written on our diploma “in letters invisible to the world, but visible always to us, would be the word fraud.” When the student in front of me in Dr. Knight’s 221 lifted up her test paper to stack her pages and I saw an ID answer that I had not yet gotten to, I decided to leave mine blank, certain that otherwise the word “fraud” would pulsate on my diploma in perpetuity, like Poe’s tell-tale heart – because Dr. Johnson had said it would. After she retired, she continued to teach enrichment courses to a loyal following in continuing ed. On more than one occasion I got to hear her referred to, in her presence, as “sweet.” I always looked at her immediately to see her reaction and was surprised to find none. “Sweet” was exactly the kind of word she would hate. Could she be mellowing?, I allowed myself to wonder. Perhaps she was indeed becoming sweet, she who had terrified and inspired in equal measure generations of Meredith women. I think she was.
Ione Kemp Knight During my sophomore year I took my next six required hours of English with Dr. Knight, Dr. Johnson’s former student and her devotee. Kempsie, as we liked to call her when we were sure she could not hear us, was not sweet at all and did not aspire to be. She was, in fact, ferocious. Tall, with bright blue eyes that never blinked, she galloped across the campus. If you were helping her with an errand, you galloped too. She had, after all, been the president of the Meredith Athletic Association when she was a student here, something we learned from combing the annual from her senior year. She had double-majored in math and been in both Kappa Nu Sigma and Silver Shield – impressive. Far more interesting to us,
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however, was that in one photo she is clearly wearing nail polish. Could it be that she was a real person in those days, we wondered – maybe even a bit vain and frivolous, like us? It was hard – no, impossible – to believe it – but there was the evidence. In the classroom she was beyond awesome. When I was department head, I found a student sitting in the hall listening to her class through the door. I assumed that the student was tardy and feared entering the class late, so offered to run interference for her, opening the door and negotiating with IKK to let her in. The student explained she was not a current student but one from the previous year. She just wanted to hear Dr. Knight teach again her favorite lesson but did not want to disturb her. Having been Dr. Knight’s student, I was not surprised. We were sure she had memorized more literature than we would ever manage to read. Often in a lit class she would get so excited about the passage under examination that she would leave the podium but continue to recite the lines. When she would eventually come to the end of what she knew by heart, she would blink herself awake and dash back to the podium. By sharing with us openly her love for language, for literature, she taught us what would otherwise be unteachable – to feel it, as Wordsworth says, in the blood and along the heart. “Together these three taught over 125 years, shaping not only the lives of their students but also the core values of this fine institution.” – Betty Webb
At that time, however, we were convinced that she did not care two figs about what we “felt,” for she regularly gave us to know that we felt too much and thought too little. Determined to train our minds and discipline our characters, she piled tons and tons of work on us. And she was cunning. When we were reading The Canterbury Tales my junior year, she told us that she was not going to assign The Miller’s Tale since it was shockingly bawdy. Of course we read it immediately plus the assigned tales, none of us complaining. She knew exactly what she was doing. I visited Dr. Knight to read what I was planning to say about her [in this talk]. Though she can no longer see and her hearing
is impaired, her mind is as sharp as always. She assured me that she still believed in the therapeutic value of fresh air and wanted me to tell you that she wished she could be here today to see her former students among you. If you will not tell her I said so, I must say that at 93, while she is as punctilious as always, she is also quite sweet.
Norma Rose It was not until my junior year that I took a class with Dr. Norma Rose, or Nhaw-Ma or Rose Bud or Rose Red or just Red, as she was called in the dorms. She was always sweet – not to her Meredith students, of course, but to the children she taught in the Beginner Sunday School class at First Baptist Church. To her Meredith students she was formidable, always demanding excellence, always shocked when it did not appear. She demanded of it of herself as well as of us. Her perfect Palmer penmanship said it all. Anything worth doing, she thought, was worth doing well. Laughing was something Dr. Rose loved to do, sometimes surprising those who had previously seen only her serious side. Though she possessed a keen wit, she loved broad comedy most, as all of her Shakespeare students soon came to know. Dr. Rose was the most consistently splendid classroom teacher of the Big Three. While both Dr. Johnson and Dr. Knight could occasionally get distracted, forgetting to make an assignment or collect a paper, return papers late, or get off the subject, Dr. Rose could not. Though she taught 18th century, Milton, and occasionally Browning, Shakespeare was her man. None who studied Henry, IV, Part I with her could forget her swaggering, belly-slapping depiction of Falstaff. Equally memorable was her one-woman rendition of The Comedy of Errors, as she managed to seem, without moving more than a yard, to disappear off one side of the stage—only to reappear at once as another character on the other side, delighting herself and us in this comedy of disguise and mistaken identity. Though she was one of the most erudite people I have ever known, her intellect delighted in the
fully human, not in the arid or abstract. If teaching Meredith students was Dr. Rose’s vocation, teaching Sunday School to children at First Baptist was her recreation. Once she delivered a delightful chapel talk to Meredith students about her experiences with the 5-year-olds, exposing all to a gentler side than was normally on view on campus. As one of her freshmen exited, she passed me without so much as a sidelong glance, and said, “I’ll be in your office this afternoon to see if I can transfer out of my English 111 class with Dr. Rose and into that Sunday School class. I think I could do a lot better there.” I replied to her that any student that quick on her feet could, with effort, excel in 111. I thought to myself, pridefully, I confess, that there was a bit of Dr. Rose in my response.
Conclusion And perhaps that is why we are all here today, is it not? There is just a bit of one of these women, or if we were lucky, all three, in each of us – whether we were fortunate enough to have been taught by them or only heard stories about them. Together these three taught over 125 years, shaping not only the lives of their students but also the core values of this fine institution. I think that what we might best do, in conclusion, is to pause to claim and celebrate that important role the Big Three played in our lives as well as that of Meredith and to take away renewed inspiration from them. In an age of getting and spending, they stand out as examples of dedication to excellence and principled living. In an age of compromise, they show us that it is possible to live with unbending spines. In an age of feeling, they stand out as firm exemplars for the therapeutic value of clear thinking. In an age of political correctness and pussyfooting, they remind us it is possible to take our cues from St. Paul and speak the truth with love. And last but certainly not least, in an era of Facebooking and tweeting and Instagramming, we can be sure that they are still standing fast for the value of logical thesis statements, strong topic sentences, compelling examples, and impeccable editing. Watch the full speech at youtube.com/meredithcollege.
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SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
POISED FOR
GROWTH New programs, partnerships set school up for big changes By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall
lobal. High-tech. Fast-paced. That’s the world that Meredith’s School of Business is sending graduates into – a place where leadership and teamwork go hand-in-hand with cultural awareness and the ability to quickly adjust. The faculty, staff, and leaders inside Harris Hall are adapting to this new world, too, adding curriculum and reaching out halfway around the world to build a school that satisfies the needs of students today – and the future. As other women’s colleges have struggled or gone co-ed, Meredith’s leaders are seizing the opportunity to build on a program that has a long history of developing successful business professionals. The School of Business has been consistently popular with Meredith students. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recently re-accredited Meredith, a status that only 5 percent of business programs around the world have achieved. The work to boost the school’s offerings and opportunities already is paying off. This year, 220 undergraduate students are enrolled in the school, up from 152 last year. After eight years of declining enrollment at the graduate level, the number of students in the MBA program grew for the first time this year to 86, up from 68 last year. Application numbers for next fall indicate continued growth. “We’re just one piece of the overall strategy at Meredith,” said Kristie Ogilvie, who became the School of Business dean in July 2015. “I’m so excited about the potential of where we are going. Everybody is doing great things here.”
G
Multi-Pronged Approach The growth plan is multi-pronged. The goal, Ogilvie said, is to add new programs that will attract more students, but also cast a wider net to build a larger and more diverse student body. “We’ve really been looking at market forces,” Ogilvie said, “talking with employers and recent graduates.” That feedback included calls for coursework that reflects the modern business world where social media is king, complex government rules require more oversight, and new management skills are vital. Starting in the fall, undergraduate students will have the option to choose a concentration in marketing with a focus on social media and data analytics. The new spotlight on digital marketing reflects a shift in the field where online platforms now offer a myriad of new opportunities to promote products and services. The concentration will be housed in the School of Business, but Ogilvie expects it will draw students from across campus. Already, faculty in other departments are eager for their students to take the classes, she said.
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New MBA Concentrations At the graduate level, the School of Business is offering new courses for students interested in two sought-after topics — human resource management and project management. Since summer 2015, students earning their master’s degree in business administration have been able to add a concentration in human resource management. The graduate concentration includes courses on compliance, compensation, and talent management, said Kristy Dixon, an assistant professor and faculty adviser for the school’s award-winning undergraduate chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management. Meredith added a human resources concentration at the undergraduate level a few years ago. Companies are growing, Dixon said, and so are the rules and regulations that they need to meet. Business leaders are boosting their human resources staffs and also hiring outside consultants to do the work. Employment of human resource managers will grow 9 percent through 2024, faster than the average rate for all other jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The knowledge is needed — either from a consulting side or hiring individuals,” Dixon said.
“We’re just one piece of the overall strategy at Meredith. I’m so excited about the potential of where we are going. Everybody is doing great things here.” —Dean Kristie Ogilvie
Existing MBA students already are clamoring to sign up for the new project management concentration, which will begin this fall. The tightly packed program will delve into topics such as supply chain management and logistics. Ying Liao, associate professor, has been working with the North Carolina chapter of the Project Management Institute, an international group that connects project managers. The North Carolina chapter is one of the largest in the world — thanks, in part, to the high demand for project managers
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in RTP, said Liao, who takes Meredith students to chapter meetings each year. “We have a very strong and growing demand for the subject,” she said.
Student Body Grows As new programs begin, so do efforts to build a student body that reflects the modern workforce — a mix of new and experienced employees from around the world. Until now, Meredith’s MBA program was primarily open to working professionals. Starting this fall, the program, which is co-ed like all graduate programs, will accept “emerging leaders” – students who have just completed an undergraduate program or who have only a few years of work experience. Applicants must have a strong undergraduate record of academics and leadership. Experience from at least one internship is recommended. Ogilvie said classes with freshly minted college graduates and experienced professionals will be a valuable part of the Meredith MBA. They’ll be able to learn from each other. “That’s what you see in the workplace,” she said. “You see somebody with a lot of technical skills who’s 22 and somebody who is 50 with not as many technical skills, but is vice president of a major organization.”
China to Meredith Ogilvie also is developing strategic partnerships with colleges and universities
in other countries to build a strong base of international students — an area where the School of Business has lagged behind other MBA programs. The average MBA program has about 44 percent international students, Ogilvie said. Right now, Meredith’s MBA program has just one international student. The first stop is Guangzhou in south China. Meredith recently signed articulation agreements with Sun YatSen University, one of the top schools in China, and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, a highly rated program where all courses are taught in English in its MBA program. Sun Yat-Sen already has partnerships with schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and Oxford University in England. As soon as this fall, students from Sun Yat-Sen and Guangdong could arrive at Meredith for graduate study. “We’ll get a couple of international students, we hope, next year,” Ogilvie said. “If they have a really good experience, we can draw from that pipeline.” The partnerships come thanks to connections that Meredith business professors —Liao and Associate Professor Bing Yu —have in China. Both are Chinese natives. “All of the conversations started from personal connections, which is a pretty typical model in China,” said Liao, who calls Guangzhou her hometown. “It
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becomes your personal network and then your business network.” The alliances with Sun Yat-Sen and Guangdong could be just the beginning. Ogilvie has her eyes on a women’s university in Guangzhou. She traveled to China in January to recruit new students. “Now, many other Chinese universities have contacted us,” Yu said. “They expressed interest in collaborating with us. We are working with a couple of them and maybe another one or two articulation agreements will come out this summer.” And Ogilvie is working on other opportunities. She recently hosted visits from deans representing schools in Poland and France. Eventually, as that pipeline of new students grows, Ogilvie hopes the student body changes from just working professionals to working professionals filling half of the seats and an even mix of emerging leaders and international students filling up the other half. “It’s going to be, quite honestly, a lot more work for our professors,” Ogilvie said. “They are going to have to serve three different types of students. But they are excited about it.”
Meredith to China The partnerships also could mean new opportunities for Meredith students to study abroad. Since 2008, Meredith has sent a group of students and faculty
members for two weeks every other year to China, a program that also is paired with classes on international business and Chinese culture and commerce in Raleigh. This summer, 12 Meredith students have signed up to take the classes and go on the trip, which mixes business visits with sightseeing in Shanghai and Beijing. All of the students on the trip this year will receive financial aid through Meredith to help cover their costs. Liao, along with business professor Rebecca Oatsvall, leads the trips. Liao said future trips could eventually include south China where they might meet up with students to collaborate on projects or research. Other opportunities could unfold in the future. “It really gets you out of your comfort zone,” said Liao of the trips abroad. “It shows you are flexible, you are able to handle uncertainty, and that is very important in business today. Things change so quickly. You must be able to adapt.” The experience has opened doors for students such as Cody Jeffery, who graduated in December 2015 with majors in business administration and minors in economics and professional writing and communications. When Jeffery interviewed for her current job as an operations analyst at Credit Suisse in Research Triangle Park, the very first question was about her trip to China in 2014 with Meredith.
“It was certainly helpful in the interview process,” said Jeffery, who now works with teams in Poland. “It gave me an edge to talk about something different.”
Impactful Gifts Scholarships through Meredith made it possible for Jeffery to travel to China. Other donations are making a big difference, too, as the School of Business maps out future plans. Thanks to an endowment from the Broyhill Family Foundation, business students and faculty are getting new opportunities to grow. “I’ve been asked, ‘How is my gift impactful?’” Ogilvie said. “The Broyhill grant is a great example.” Through the new Broyhill Business Fellows Program, selected students with strong grades and proven leadership skills take part in corporate visits, interact with business leaders, get one-on-one career coaching, and attend seminars. Jennifer Coples, a Broyhill Fellow who graduated in May 2016 with a double major in business administration and fashion merchandising and a minor in marketing, took away important lessons on how to succeed as a woman in a male-dominated field. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” said Coples, “and don’t be afraid to be an alpha female.” Broyhill Fellow Zainabu Otieno, a double major in accounting and economics with a minor in finance who graduated in May
“It really gets you out of your comfort zone. It shows you are flexible, you are able to handle uncertainty, and that is very important in business today.” — Ying Liao, Associate Professor of Business
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THE FUTURE There’s more in store for Harris Hall — a student-run investment fund, thanks to a $300,000 endowment; new programs in entrepreneurship and family business; even a Shark Tank-like competition. Five years from now, Ogilvie hopes the MBA program will have grown to serve more than 200 students each year. She’d like to see a day when most Meredith undergraduate students are planning at least a minor in a business subject. Regardless of how it grows or
2016, expects to stay in touch with her mentor long after she leaves Meredith. “She’s somebody I constantly talk to,” said Otieno, who has landed a job as an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York. “She’s someone who will be instrumental in my career.” Meredith received another gift from the Broyhill foundation to support research and teaching opportunities for faculty members. An increased emphasis on research is critical to maintain AACSB accreditation. With money from the grant, Liao is boosting her knowledge and teaching skills in project management as Meredith prepares to offer the new concentration. Another grant will support Liao and colleague Associate Professor Jane Barnes as they travel to a conference to get feedback on a project they are working on about knowledge management and product innovation. Dixon used her grant to help take 13 students to Atlanta for the Society for Human Resource Management’s Case Competition. Yu won a research grant for his work on a project on corporate social responsibility. “I’m really excited about it,” Yu said. “This gives a lot of support for faculty members to conduct research.”
Corporate Help The planned growth can’t come without continued support from corporate partners, who provide internships, which Meredith students are required to complete for graduation, and expertise on panels and at special events.
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Firms such as Credit Suisse, Alfred Williams & Co., and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) offer internships to Meredith students. In many cases, companies end up extending job offers to interns. “We focus our placement efforts on the value both sides can bring each other,” Ogilvie said.
changes, leaders intend for the School of Business to maintain its close-knit atmosphere. At the graduate level, the average class size is just 15 students. Each faculty member works with 10 to 15 students. “That high touch is exactly what our true mission is,” Ogilvie said. “I
“If I had one chair available, I would sit a Meredith student in that chair.”
don’t think we’ll ever move away
—Thomas Colclough, Raleigh EEOC
too.
from that, nor do I want to.” Faculty and students are excited “[Dean Ogilvie] has done a great
At the EEOC office in Raleigh, Thomas Colclough, deputy district director, said he is still in touch with Meredith interns who came through as long as 20 years ago. “If I had one chair available,” Colclough said, “I would sit a Meredith student in that chair.” “They are technically competent and … they’ve done research in the laws that we enforce,” he said. “It makes it a lot easier to involve them in our processes. As a result, they take on greater responsibilities and they take them on quickly.” As Meredith builds its student population, those alliances will be even more critical for faculty and staff to maintain and build. “We have more internships than we have students, but that won’t always be the case,” Ogilvie said. “That’s why corporate partnerships are so important to us.”
job,” Dixon said. “She’s made a lot of changes in the short amount of time she’s been here. We want to keep growing. And we always want to keep getting better.” As Otieno heads to New York to launch her career, she looks back with some nostalgia at Meredith where so much change is ahead. “They have really exciting things planned for the future. And they are getting a lot of student involvement,” she said.
“Meredith, just being a women’s college, has helped me a lot. I’m not just graduating with accounting and economics degrees. I’m walking out a woman leader.” — Zainabu Otieno, ’16
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DREAM BIG. MAKE MISTAKES. HAVE COURAGE. Lessons from Meredith entrepreneurs and how the School of Business is preparing the next generation By Suzanne Stanard
Starting your own business is no small feat. Take it from the entrepreneurs featured on the following pages. These women – four Meredith alumnae and one MBA student – have vastly different careers, but they all seem to agree on one thing: Despite the challenges that entrepreneurship may present, taking the leap can be the best decision of your life.
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CAMDEN WATTS, ’03 Latta Films, TriFilm Society Knee-deep in production on her first film, struggling with an overwhelming workload, failing equipment, and mounting fear about how she’d make ends meet, Camden Watts faced a choice: walk away from her dream, or continue moving forward. She opted for the latter – with gusto – not only recommitting to her project, but also resolving in that very moment to help others who might face similar circumstances. That was 2008. Today, Watts owns a production company, has created four films – including the acclaimed featurelength documentary Brewconomy – and operates the TriFilm Society, the organization she founded in 2009 to support her fellow filmmakers. “There are so many challenges with starting one business, much less two at the same time,” Watts said. “The lack of resources has been the number one challenge. Everything I’ve done so far has been a bootstrapped, grassroots effort. It’s taught me so much about staying connected to the people I serve, creatively working within constraints, and doing the very best I can with what I’ve got.” Watts and her work have been featured in Trianglearea media, and she has given talks to audiences at Meredith, the Triangle AdFed, and N.C. State University. She plans to start work on two more films in 2016. “I’ve had some really low, dark moments,” Watts said. “They taught me that a life in filmmaking is something I want more than almost anything else, including my next meal.” At Meredith, she majored in studio art, with a minor in professional communications and a concentration in graphic design. Watts said she relies on her Meredith experience every day. “What’s been especially wonderful is the postgraduation support,” she said. “Now that I’m moving confidently in the direction of my dreams, I feel incredibly supported by the Meredith College faculty, staff, and alumnae.” Watts wholeheartedly encourages others to follow in her footsteps. “Chasing your dreams isn’t easy but it’s worth every effort. Leading a life that you really love – to the point where you’re obnoxiously happy – is something that the world needs to see.”
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CATHI BERT-ROUSSEL The Triangle Dog LLC Cathi Bert-Roussel takes very seriously her company’s mission of “helping you create a better life for your dog.” In fact, the owner and editor-in-chief of The Triangle Dog magazine wants her readers to help improve the lives of all dogs in North Carolina. Through the pages of the magazine – which is available in print and online – as well as an active Facebook community of more than 3,000 followers, Bert-Roussel offers resources for dog owners on everything from nutrition to grooming, creates connections for pet adoption, and advocates for animal welfare. “It is very rewarding to hear how much people appreciate your product,” she said. “I am also proud that The Triangle Dog magazine is a fundraising partner for local organizations that help homeless pets. We often donate our issue covers to various nonprofits to auction off during their annual fundraising events.” After a career in corporate finance with companies like RedHat and Burt’s Bees, Bert-Roussel took the helm of The Triangle Dog LLC in December 2014. Among the challenges of small-business ownership, she said, is time-management. “It is incredibly time consuming to manage a growing business,” she said. “There will be times when you have to make trade-offs and deal with the consequences later.” As an MBA student at Meredith (to graduate in December 2016), Bert-Roussel has been able to apply her classroom knowledge to her real-world work. A big believer in the value of learning from others, she advises aspiring entrepreneurs to spend time with people already established in their industries. “Before starting your own business, consider working, even for free, for another successful business person who is already in your desired field,” she said. “Learn as much as you can from someone else’s mistakes and successes.” Also important, she said, is not to be afraid of making mistakes. “In the early years, you will make many,” she said. “But rather than letting it defeat you, look at them as valuable learning experiences. You will learn more from your mistakes than your victories.”
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ALLISON PAPPAS, ’14 Windstar Stables Horses have been a big part of Allison Pappas’ life for as long as she can remember. In fact, her first equine encounter came when she was just two weeks old. She got her first pony by age two and has lived and breathed this world ever since. Even so, turning her passion into a career required a big leap of faith – and a bit of a detour. After Pappas graduated from Meredith, she worked as a courthouse adoption clerk, but continued teaching and training horses on the side. Within a year, though, she mustered the courage to strike out on her own. “The hardest part for me was actually telling my parents that I wanted to work with horses for a living,” she said. “My parents are so very supportive of me in all ways, but it was definitely hard to take that leap away from a guaranteed paycheck and into my own business. I was so afraid of failing.” In August 2015, Pappas opened Windstar Stables, a 20-acre farm nestled in the bucolic outskirts of Chapel Hill, N.C. There she trains and boards horses for a growing clientele. “The best part is definitely seeing my vision actually coming to life,” she said. “I started with just my own horses here, and now I have 18. The first month that I had a stack of board checks to deposit in the bank, I really couldn’t believe I had made it happen. Just to hear my boarders and visitors say how much they love the farm is fantastic.” She advises those wanting to start their own businesses to “follow your heart and jump in.” “It was stressful for me having to get a loan to start this business with the possibility of failing, but at the end of the day it’s so worth the risk.” Having earned a bachelor’s degree in social work with minors in business administration and ethics and public interest at Meredith, Pappas said the College’s supportive environment played a big role in her decision to become an entrepreneur. “While I could have made it in the horse world without a degree, my time in college had such a huge impact on me as a person. I’m not even sure I would’ve had the courage to start my own business without my experiences at Meredith.”
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ASHLEY CARTER, ’08 FabEllis.com FabEllis.com is more than just a blog. It’s a lifestyle brand through which creator and publisher Ashley (Ellis) Carter, ’08, advocates for natural beauty, educates her readers on everything from skincare to fashion, and promotes women’s empowerment. Since launching the site in 2010, Carter has amassed a loyal – and growing – following. At press time, she had 9,200 Instagram followers, 4,600 Facebook followers, and 3,000 Twitter followers. (Her social media handle, by the way, is @iamfabellis). She shares her expertise and builds community by hosting and participating in networking events and beauty expos throughout North Carolina. Through partnerships with brands and collaborations with other lifestyle experts and bloggers, Carter has grown her website into a thriving business. “I have really enjoyed seeing the impact of my personal passion of encouraging and uplifting women,” Carter said. “There is no better feeling than someone saying how much you’ve helped them. Also, working with amazing brands has been a dream come true.” She addresses each post to her “Beauties,” and writes with warmth and honesty about everything from the importance of her faith in her life to how to apply eyeshadow. She also advocates for affordable beauty and regularly features budget-friendly products on her site. Carter credits her Meredith experience with laying the foundation she needed to start her own business. A communications major with a minor in professional writing, she said, “Meredith taught me to be confident in myself.” “At Meredith, I felt like I could do anything I set my mind to. Being around women, hearing their stories, and having so many become my friends made me want to build a business that encourages and empowers women daily.” Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs? “Do your research and go for it,” she said. “A lot of times we wait for everything to be perfect before beginning, but there will never be a completely perfect moment. Go for it, and be prepared to learn and grow in the process.”
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LYNN AUCLAIR, ’09 Deep River Brewing Company Opening Johnston County’s first legal brewery couldn’t have been further from Lynn Auclair’s mind as she muddled through a corporate job in the early years of her career. That is, until the day she and her husband, Paul, realized two very important things: They had always wanted to be entrepreneurs, and they loved brewing their own beer. Together they wrote a business plan, left their corporate jobs, and as Auclair said, “the rest is history.” Deep River Brewing Company, located in downtown Clayton, N.C., opened its doors in April 2013 to a soldout grand opening party and has been growing rapidly ever since. Getting started wasn’t easy. “Most banks did not want to work with us since we had no business sales history and no commercial brewing experience,” she said. “We were considered risky even though the existing brewing market was extremely strong.” For Auclair, earning an MBA at Meredith helped turn her dream into reality. “My Meredith experience was invaluable, especially when it came to writing my business plan,” she said. “Having the accounting, law/liability, and business leader knowledge also was a life saver. I refer back to the things my professors taught me on a daily basis.” Auclair is responsible for the brewery’s marketing, HR, and general management, while her husband employs his engineering background to concoct Deep River’s custom brews, often sourcing locally-grown ingredients. Her favorite thing about owning her own business? “Getting up in the morning and enjoying going to work is the best part, plus I get to share the business with my husband,” she said. “The main reason we opened the brewery is so we could enjoy what we do and feel more satisfied with the path we are taking in our lives. Drinking beer at the end of the day is a plus!” If you want to start a business, she said, always follow your heart. “Don’t let anything get in your way of pursuing happiness even if it seems scary, stressful, or you have people in your ear telling you that you are crazy to take such a risk. All jobs are stressful, but if you enjoy what you do, it’s worth it.”
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How Meredith Prepares Entrepreneurs “There’s a nice marriage here in the School of Business between being innovative and being entrepreneurial,” said Kristie Ogilvie, who became dean of the school in July 2015. “I think that our curriculum has been on the leading edge, and now we have an opportunity to take it to the next level.” Two new gifts are designed to bolster the school’s entrepreneurial programming: a $250,000 gift from the Clark family represented by Rogers Clark, two term Board of Trustee member, and Heather Clark Warren, ’93, to launch a family business and entrepreneurship program, and a $25,000 gift from George and Ann (’75) Gibbs to support an entrepreneurship week with guest speakers, panel discussions, and workshops. A new faculty member – Nathan Woolard – joins the school this fall to teach entrepreneurship courses and start developing a strategic plan for integrating entrepreneurship and family business into the school’s offerings. “Developing the curriculum first is critical,” Ogilvie said. “We want it to have a community tie and a professional development component. The process will take about a year.” The second piece of the school’s strategy – hosting a Shark Tank-like event – is not only a good way to engage students who are aspiring entrepreneurs, but also could be an effective vehicle for community involvement, Ogilvie said. “I’ve had a lot of success with events like
this in my previous positions,” she said. “In fact, at Emporia [State University], out of the 30 applicants in our competition, six launched businesses in the community that year. We had tremendous community support for our program, and I think that makes a big difference.” Community connections are so important to Ogilvie that she set a goal to have 100 meetings with members of the local business community during her first year. At press time, she had just completed all 100 meetings. “This is a community that understands it’s growing,” she said. “And the only way it’s going to be able to attract and retain really good businesses is through engagement. We’re lucky to be based in a community that already gets that.” Why is a focus on entrepreneurship so important? “Eighty percent of economic development in the U.S. is small business,” Ogilvie said. Assistant professor Kristy Dixon agrees, saying that training entrepreneurs is more important than ever. “A lot of our students are coming from families who own businesses,” she said. “I always tell them to work somewhere else first, before you work for your family. I think it’s important to gain that outside perspective and learn from someone who not only understands the theory but also has been in the trenches.” Dixon, who teaches HR courses in addition to serving as president of her family’s business,
Advice from Dean Kristie Ogilvie “Never think ‘no’ because ‘no’ is in a box. You need to think ‘yes,’ and ‘how can we make it happen?’ Now at the end of the day, it might ultimately be a ‘no,’ or it might be a ‘no’ to exactly what you were hoping at the beginning, but if you can think outside the box enough to say ‘this is going to happen, we just have to figure out how,’ it may evolve. But if you start with ‘no,’ it puts you in a space that you’re never going to be innovative enough. You also have to establish networks, leverage networks, and provide value to those networks. Above all, the most important piece is to persevere. You’re going to have good times and bad times, and perseverance is critical.”
is a great example of a successful family business owner, and someone who Meredith students are lucky to learn from, Ogilvie said. Dixon commutes daily between Meredith’s campus – where she teaches, manages the school’s internship program, and advises more than 40 students – to her office at McLaurin Parking Company, the business her father started in 1947. She has an equal share in the operation with three of her siblings.
“You’ve got to be a risktaker and not be afraid to take on a challenge. You’ll learn more from your mistakes than you’ll ever learn from doing things right …” – Kristy Dixon
“I always knew I would be in business,” said Dixon, who earned her MBA at Meredith. “We all grew up working … that’s just what we were taught to do. Every day I share stories with my students about what it’s like to run a business.” While Ogilvie is excited about the school’s plans for the upcoming year, she also has her sights set on long-term goals for entrepreneurship programming. “I really believe that family business could be our niche … that we could have that distinct imprint in Raleigh,” she said. “I want the Chamber to say, ‘If you’re in family business, go to Meredith.’” Achieving these goals will require relationships beyond the walls of the School of Business, Ogilvie said. “I would love to have engagement on a variety of fronts, especially here on campus among our different disciplines, and with our alumnae and the local business community,” she said. “We will only be successful if we engage everyone.” Read about two other Meredith entrepreneurs, the owners of Southern Sugar Bakery, on page 47.
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MILLENNIALS How one Meredith researcher is shaping the way we talk about (and to) the most misunderstood generation By Suzanne Stanard quick Google search on millennials reveals that they are the most-watched generation in history. The avalanche of headlines also brings to light many critics who blast millennials for being narcissistic, lazy, irresponsible, and entitled. But Meredith Professor Deborah Tippett disagrees. In fact, she believes that millennials not only possess admirable core values, but also that they’ll employ those beliefs to make the world a better place. Tippett, professor of human environmental sciences who served as longtime department head, has conducted years of research to make a new case for this oft-maligned generation.
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GENERATION
YEARS
POPULATION
G.I.
1901-1924
74.4 million
Silent
1925-1942
54.9 million
Baby Boomers
1943-1960
78.7 million
Gen X
1961-1981
93 million
Millennials
1982-2002
100.2 million
Z Generation
2003-
Source: Howe, N. & Strauss, W. (2000). Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, Vintage.
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Why Make the Case? “Because millennials are an international phenomenon, the largest generation, the most diverse, and the most connected,” she said. “Millennials are going to be our leaders. They are going to change the world.” Tippett’s studies on the millennial generation – defined by researchers William Strauss and Neil Howe as those born between 1982 and 2002 – began in 2008 with her Faculty Distinguished Lecture on the topic. “I became very interested in millennials because I had noticed that this cohort is exceptionally different from previous generations,” said Tippett, who teaches in family studies and development. “There’s a lot written about how the cohort in which you grew up and were raised influences your life decisions. It’s fascinating.” And much of what Tippett has discovered through her research – as well as her personal experience on a college campus – debunks millennial stereotypes. “What I’ve tried to do is present a very holistic overview of what the researchers are saying,” Tippett said. “I really do see both the good and the bad. I happen to think there’s more good than bad.” For starters, she has found that millennials are much more aware of the world than previous generations, and one in five has immigrant parents. With that expanded worldview, Tippett said, comes a deep concern for those in need and a strong desire to make the world a better place. “I had one student who spent a summer working in an AIDS hospital in the largest slum in Nairobi, Africa,” Tippett said. “She was living in the slums, helping these babies with AIDS, and she was only 20 years old. I remember thinking, how did she get the confidence to do that?” Another one of Tippett’s students spent her summers in Uganda working in an orphanage. A child development major, this particular student documented the children’s health and development through a blog that now
serves as a valuable resource for the parents who ended up adopting those children. “This is the first generation that is actually, in large numbers, studying abroad, doing mission work, wanting to make their mark,” Tippett said. “While millennials are more connected through technology, they are also more connected through travel, service, and knowledge.” Tippett was asked once by a reporter for her thoughts on a negative study that declared millennials to be overly confident and narcissistic. The crux of her response? That very confidence allows them to do amazing things. “Some people stereotype millennials as narcissistic because it’s the easy thing to do,” she said. “But I’ve found the opposite to be true, and not just here at Meredith. Millennials are a very kind, caring generation.”
“Millennials are going to be our leaders. They are going to change the world.” – Deborah Tippett
Her research shows that millennials are more tolerant of diversity, they care about justice and problems faced by society, and they are engaged in civic activity at school, work, and in their communities. Tippett said she has learned much from the work of psychologist and author Martin Seligman, who believes that when you use your strengths in service of others, you’ll have a meaningful life. “That is what I really want to help our students with,” she said. “They want to have meaningful lives, so how do we take it to the next level? It’s not just about getting a job or being a good leader, but how do you do those things to serve other people? Then I really do think millennials can change the world.”
Family Ties
millennials are so different is that they experienced 9/11 as young people, according to Tippett. The events of that day – and their myriad repercussions – generated within millennials an increased need to stay in touch, especially with their parents, and to have cell phones. The sale of cell phones was actually on the decline before 9/11, Tippett said. “Millennials are very close to their parents,” she said. “One student told me that she talked to or texted her mother every hour about what she did in class, what she ate for lunch, and what she was thinking about. They want to be in constant contact with their parents.” The phenomenon goes both ways. “Parents are definitely more involved in college,” Tippett said. “They’re more likely to want to talk and negotiate and tell their child’s point of view, and as a department head, I’ll see them come in if they think their child has been treated unjustly. In previous generations, college students would have been embarrassed if their parents interfered.” This sort of extreme parental attention in which millennials are constantly validated and having their needs met can make entry into college difficult because it sets up unrealistic expectations, Tippett said. “I think when this generation comes to college, it can be a really hard reality,” she said. “College campuses are trying to be more responsive to the millennial generation and to help these students recognize that they are capable and can do better.” At Meredith, Tippett leads the Strengths Initiative to support the College’s StrongPoints® program. All new students at Meredith are assessed through the Clifton Strengths Finder™ model which reveals for
StrongPoints® All new students are assessed through the Clifton Strengths Finder™ model which reveals for each of them a set of five signature strengths.
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each of them a set of five signature strengths. Throughout their college careers, students learn ways to maximize and apply those strengths. “When I first heard about the strengths approach, my response was, they already think they’re strong enough. Why would we want to add to that?” Tippett said. “And now I’ve come full circle because I believe that when students have an honest conversation with an adult who’s important to them about how to use these signature talent themes to grow into strengths, to be the best person you can be, it’s very effective.” Just as millennials value their families of origin, they place primary importance on building their own families. “This generation has consistently said that raising a family is their most important value, whereas in past years, it may have been success at work or making a lot of money.” While millennials are eager to marry, they’re in no rush. The average age for first marriages continues to rise, Tippett said, indicating many things: deliberate and optimistic thought about the future and a desire to travel and have other adventures before settling down. Students are also more cautious about marriage and want to make sure that they are making a good decision.
Digital Natives Millennials have never lived in a world without computers.
1 in 3 1 in 3 American workers today are millennials. In 2015 they surpassed Generation X to become the largest share of the American workforce. — Pew Research Center Study
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“Technology is like electricity was to our generation. We always had it,” said Tippett. They experienced the digital revolution during their formative years, and as a result, research indicates that their preferred methods of communication are text message and social media – almost always with mobile devices. Multi-tasking is a way of life for millennials, she said. They get bored easily and may appear rude to others. On the web, they operate at “twitch speed,” bouncing from site to site, expecting instant results and service any hour of the day. “I do think the lack of face-to-face contact may stunt interpersonal skills,” Tippett said. “I always tell students never resign or break up on a text message or email. You don’t want to burn bridges.” As a teacher, she has witnessed students’ obsession with technology firsthand. “I’ve had to set rules in my classroom on the proper use of technology,” she said. “If we’re having discussions, their laptops must be closed and phones put away. There are other times when we use technology for research and
sharing data.” Once, while observing a class being taught by one of her colleagues, Tippett sat beside a student who clicked through 27 different applications on her computer, oblivious to the instruction taking place in the room or the fact that a department head was watching her. Tippett also is concerned about the distorted body images promoted by social media. “We live in a selfie world,” she said. “And I think the reliance on social media and reality TV and the obsession with appearance and consumption can have dangerous consequences.” Other issues of concern for Tippett are “cut-and-paste” plagiarism, a dearth of critical thinking skills, a false sense of security (and related lack of concern for privacy), cyberbullying, and the insistent need for validation through social media “likes” and comments. Despite all this, she said, technology has proven to have vast positive impact on millennials, enabling them to communicate, make important connections, pursue opportunities, and expand their global awareness.
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Also significant, Tippett said, is the fact that technology has been credited with saving lives. “Millennials are considered to be healthier and commit fewer suicides than prior generations,” Tippett said. “When I’ve worked with the Raleigh Police Leadership Institute, the officers have told me is that it’s not that they don’t attempt suicide, it’s that they’re not successful because they might post something on Facebook or text it, and first responders can track them down through that technology.”
The Cheapest Generation Millennials are on the cusp of becoming the largest spending population in the world. According to a recent article in Forbes, it’s estimated they’ll be spending $200 billion annually by 2017 and $10 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers, in the U.S. alone. The business world is paying attention, Tippett said, and the concept of millennials as consumers dominates current headlines about the generation. “Millennials are being called the cheapest generation, but it’s because they’re not buying the big-ticket items that previous generations did,” she said. “They’re funding their own
$ Millennials will be spending $200 billion annually by 2017 and $10 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers.
passions, using crowd-sourcing technology to make their dreams a reality.” According to a March 2016 Washington Post article, new studies show that not only are millennials carrying less debt than they did in previous years, but also they are saving more aggressively than they have in the past (sometimes more than their older counterparts). “Millennials are much more likely to live with groups of friends, to live in town, and to use public transportation,” she said. “They’re more interested in having experiences, so they’re spending money paying a lot back to debt, but they’re also going to places like Africa to do service work. Millennials are very intentional about what they do and how they spend their money.”
Millennials in the Workplace More than one in three American workers today are millennials, and in 2015 they surpassed Generation X to become the largest share of the American workforce, according to a Pew Research Center study. Millennials get a bad rap for being difficult to manage and unmotivated, but Tippett said it’s because they have to believe in what they’re doing. “To me, millennials care deeply about their communities and making a difference, about changing the world,” Tippett said. “And as a result, they’re not interested in working for an organization or being part of a group that is not addressing that.” As she travels to speak about millennials
to organizations all over the U.S. and abroad, Tippett also makes a point to talk to millennials. “I’m finding this research that talks about issues and problems they’re having as professionals, so I thought why don’t I just go to the millennials and tell them?” Tippett said. “I thought if they could know what is being said about them, and if they could gain that extra edge, they could be successful in the workplace.” In a presentation titled “How to Stand Out as a Millennial,” Tippett shares important advice. And her audiences listen. Her nuggets of wisdom focus on leadership, communication, critical thinking, gratitude, and pursuing dreams.
“They’re funding their own passions, using crowdsourcing technology to make their dreams a reality. ” – Deborah Tippett “Because millennials are going to be our leaders, and because they are so different, with their technology, their knowledge of the world, and their respect of diversity, they’re going to change the way our world works,” Tippett said. “They’re going to change the way offices are run, the way schools are run, and they are going to change government at some point. I do think it’s exciting. “My favorite quote is by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: ‘The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason to hope.’ That’s what I believe about millennials.”
30 YEARS OLD Median marriage age of millennials.
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LIVING STRONG How focusing on your strengths can help you have a more effective and fulfilling life By Gaye Hill
here’s a lot of talk these days at Meredith about going strong. But what does it really mean to go – or even better, to live – strong? And how is Meredith helping students, alumnae, and other women in our community learn to do so? To find out, Meredith Magazine staff spoke with Candice Webb, certified strengths trainer and director of StrongPoints®, Meredith’s signature personal coaching and advising program.
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MM: How would someone know what her
strengths are? CW: At Meredith, we use the Clifton StrengthsFinder, an assessment tool developed by Gallup that’s based on significant longitudinal research. By taking the StrengthsFinder questionnaire, you identify your five top strengths from a potential of 34. Most people operate within their top ten strengths over the course of their life, so if you were to take the assessment again in a
few years, a few of them would still remain in the top 5, but there would also be a few that would cycle into the top five that weren’t there before – and more than likely they were in your top ten all along. Some have asked why we have students focus on strengths so much when they’re going to change. The research would say they won’t change as much as you think because it’s assessing how you naturally think, feel, and behave – whether you’re 18 or 48. There are other assessments that can be used; career planning has a number of them, but they don’t necessarily focus on strengths. So when we’re talking specifically about strengths, we’re talking about StrengthsFinder. And, when we talk to students, we always encourage them to make decisions based on their strengths, skills, abilities, and values. It’s never just about your strengths. MM: What does it mean to make the most
of and build on your strengths – how does that happen? CW: I think it’s important to clarify what we mean by strengths identification and
strengths development. In strengths language, we often say you should “name, claim, and aim” your strengths as a way to differentiate between identifying your strengths and being intentional about developing them. There is a process, and it requires effort in order to develop your strengths. First you have to identify what they are. Sometimes you know what you are inherently good at, but sometimes it’s hard to articulate, so I think the StrengthsFinder is very helpful. It gives you language to identify your strengths and helps you name strengths that might not even have occurred to you. Then it becomes your responsibility to do some reflection. Do I have any examples from my life that can validate, yes, these are my strengths? That’s the claiming part. Once you’ve done that, it becomes a matter of using this knowledge. How can I be intentional about pointing my strengths at something – that’s the “aiming” piece. I think the hardest part of the process is becoming comfortable with your top strengths. To be able to say this is true to who I am, and I can talk about it in a way that seems authentic.
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MM: Are your strengths generally things
you’ve always been good at? CW: Often we think about skills and competencies – what do you do well. I’m a good speaker or I’m good with people, those kind of things. But the strengths we’re talking about go deeper than that. It’s asking you to think about how you go about your life. How do you think? How do you naturally behave? It’s about natural tendencies and inclinations that you then can apply to skills and competencies. MM: Which also helps to explain why
strengths are so widely applicable. CW: Exactly. That’s why we can talk about living strong – because your strengths can be applied so broadly. If they were competencies, they might only apply to certain parts of your life, but if you make the effort you can apply your strengths in any role or setting. MM: Are some strengths easier to apply than others? CW: With some of the relationship-building strengths, you can easily see how they might apply in various ways. Even some of the executing strengths, which speak to how you go about getting things done. Some people have more difficulty with the strategic thinking strengths – ones that focus on how you think about the future or how you analyze information. It can be more difficult to apply those strengths outside of the work environment. Even then, once we dig in a little more, it becomes easier. For example, one of the strengths is input. It’s all about gathering
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information. People often think about input in terms of work or job functions, but I have a colleague who has input as one of her strengths and uses it in relationships. She gathers information about people and it helps her understand them. MM: What’s an example of how you use one of your strengths? CW: One of my strengths is developer, which is all about helping people reach their potential. I can think about tons of ways that I do that in my work with students but also as a supervisor – we’re always having conversa-
“When I use StrengthsFinder with my MBA students, it helps them identify those areas where they are most competent in order to build their confidence. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, it is much more encouraging to know how we can use our strengths in our careers and in our life to pursue our passions and to grow as professionals.” – Karen Mishra Assistant Professor of Business
tions about what are you learning? How will this help you get to your next step of your career? When I think about my son, it totally informs the way that I parent him. I’m looking for the things that he’s interested in and how I can help him get better at what he’s doing. He loves to sing, so I’m always giving him opportunities to sing, and we listen to music together. I want him to develop that potential that he has. It affects the way that I interact with people – peers, people that I supervise, my son. I’m living with that strength. MM: Isn’t it dangerous to ignore your areas
of weakness? CW: You need to be careful that your strengths don’t become an excuse for poor behavior or decision making. But it’s really not about ignoring your weaknesses. You need to know what your gaps are so you can apply your strengths toward those gaps. You still get the task done, but you do it your way. Also, sometimes knowing where your gaps are gives you an opportunity to build partnerships. If you know there’s a certain function of your position that you just don’t do well, it’s a good opportunity for you to partner with people who do those things well so that between the two of you, you can be successful. And in a team setting, you can be intentional about pulling on that strength when you see that’s what the group needs. MM: As women, are we inclined to focus on our weaknesses rather than our strengths? CW: In my experience, as women in the South
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not only do we focus on our weaknesses, we are reluctant to play up our strengths. We’re taught to be modest. I don’t know if that’s a gender thing or a culture thing – we have both of those influences here at Meredith. I think that’s one reason why strengths work is such a good fit here, because it gives us the language and the permission to talk about our
“Parents can build strength in their kids by focusing on what psychologist Carol Dweck refers to as ‘growth mindset,’ the idea that our talents and abilities are not fixed; they are strengths we develop through persistence and hardwork. Parents can help kids develop growth mindset by focusing on process more than product. Research shows us that kids who are praised for their work ethic, rather than the end product, are more likely to persist in the presence of obstacles – the very definition of strength.” – Cynthia Edwards Professor of Psychology
strengths. Everybody’s doing it, so it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging. We’re all having this conversation, and that makes it okay. And once you start, you feel good about doing it. MM: At its heart, is focusing on your strengths really about embracing who you are? CW: Absolutely! It’s about knowing what’s important to you, knowing what value you bring to any environment, and becoming comfortable with that and owning it. One of the most powerful things about strengthsbased living is that not only does it help you identify your areas of strength, it also gives you permission to go out and be that. If you’re an achiever, then good! Go out and achieve. Be the best achiever that you can be, because if you do that, if you do what’s natural to you, you’re going to enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to be more engaged. Some of the Gallup research suggests you may even have a higher quality of life because you’re not fighting against yourself. Also, strengths can help you reframe something you may not have always liked about yourself. All of a sudden you’re like Oh! That’s something that is true of me and here’s why it’s a good thing and here’s how to use it. Some of the women who have attended our Stronger U workshops, the strengths-based personal and professional development program for women we offer here at Meredith, have said, yes this is true but I never thought of it as a positive characteristic. Command is a strength that often challenges women – it’s all about being willing to stand up, make decisions, and
be in charge, and women sometimes feel if they do that people are going to think they’re bossy. By seeing it as a strength you get to take it back. You just have to make sure you are applying it in positive and appropriate ways. MM: How unique are a person’s strengths? CW: Well, they’re unique in the way that you apply them, and they’re unique in the way that you own them. And, of course, we can also talk about our strengths in the context of all the other factors that influence who we are and how we live our lives. It’s just very empowering – and at Meredith we’re all about helping women get their feet under them and go out into the world.
Want to learn more about your strengths and how to apply them in your life? Stronger U, Meredith’s personal and professional development program, is designed to help you do just that. To request more information or suggest a topic for a workshop, email StrongerU@meredith.edu. You can also identify your top five strengths by purchasing the StrengthsFinder book and taking the online assessment.
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CAMPUS
NEWS
BEYOND STRONG The Campaign for Meredith
Meredith Announces $75 Million Campaign Goal
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eredith College capped off the 125 anniversary celebration in February by announcing plans to raise $75 million through its Beyond Strong fundraising campaign. This campaign will ensure a strong future for the Southeast’s largest private women’s college. As the campaign enters its public phase, the College has raised over $55 million, surpassing the previous campaign’s total by more than $13 million. “Meredith College will continue to evolve as she always has, with a clear sense of moral purpose, within a culture of collegi-
ality and community, and with a confident spirit of Going Strong,” President Allen said at the Friday campus celebration. “As we launch the public phase of this campaign, I thank [supporters] not only for being with us today, but for being with us. For 125 years, and the next 125 years, your dedication and generosity will not only keep us Going Strong, but move us Beyond Strong.” Beyond Strong | The Campaign for Meredith supports six priorities identified through the College’s strategic plan: educational excellence, optimal enrollment, enhanced
financial strength, cutting edge facilities and technology, greater visibility, and enhanced quality of life. Jo Cooper, ’67, and Ann Lowery, ’74, are the Campaign co-chairs and along with honorary co-chairs Judy Woodruff, ’68, and Temple Sloan, Jr., are guiding the committee to make a lasting impact on Meredith College by giving their time and resources. “I feel very strongly that because of the education I received at Meredith, I’ve been able to achieve substantial accomplishments in my life, and part of giving back to
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Meredith is delivering both time as well as resources to the college,” says Cooper. “All of us who came to Meredith or have some affinity with Meredith really should be thinking that a part of our responsibility is giving back to the College.” Lowery has worked her entire career in fundraising and truly understands the impact a gift can make on an institution. “Give a gift that you can be proud of, because a wise man and trustee in one of the colleges I worked for once told me that if you give a gift that you’re proud of, not only does the college benefit, but you benefit as well,” says Lowery. “If we’re going to sustain Meredith College for the future, and the value of our degree is dependent on the success of Meredith today, we need to look at it as an investment in our degree and attracting the kind of students that we want to be leaders in our communities.” The celebration continued on Saturday
evening with a gala at The Pavilions at the Angus Barn. Donors had the opportunity to hear President Jo Allen speak about the past, present, and future of Meredith College and the impact of the campaign so far. “The mission is clear and the message is true: We are strong, but we must move Beyond Strong and thus, our Campaign for Meredith is a comprehensive campaign to raise funds for programs, buildings, and special initiatives at Meredith,” said President Allen. “Ultimately this campaign means that we will be able to continue and even expand the important work we do of educating strong women to become even stronger.” The Beyond Strong campaign video was shown to the crowd of 600 at the Friday celebration and 400 donors at the gala on Saturday night. The video captures what sets a Meredith education apart, and powerfully reminds alumnae and friends
How to Make a Gift How can you make a difference and go Beyond Strong? There are any number of ways you can support Meredith. Make a gift that addresses the most pressing needs of the College. Select another, more specific, way to make an immediate impact on the College. Or make a long-term, endowed gift. Learn more at meredith.edu/ beyondstrong/impact.
of the reasons they want to continue their commitment to Meredith College today. View the video at meredith.edu/ beyondstrong.
Meredith Raises Over $280,000 in 24 Hours
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eredith College held its first 24-Hour Giving Day on February 23, 2016, as part of a weeklong celebration of the College’s 125th anniversary. A total of 1,791 donors contributed $283,052 during the Make It Count for Meredith event. The response was so great that in less than 12 hours the initial goal of $125,000 was reached and new goal of $250,000 was set by President Jo Allen. Make It Count for Meredith was driven by social media and alumnae volunteers who spread the word. By the end of the challenge, 91 percent of gifts came from alumnae. Donors were able to designate where they wanted their gifts to make a difference. The gifts will support financial assistance, scholarships, study abroad, academic programs, athletics, and the College’s greatest needs. Throughout the day, matching gift challenges from Meredith parents and alumnae were met and continued the momentum of giving. Various live feeds of special events kept the social media audience engaged and allowed donors to share why they believed others should also make it count for Meredith. More than 130 alumnae were advocates and helped drive the campaign on
social media and secure gifts. The goal of $250,000 was met by 8 p.m. while Meredith Fund phone-a-thon students were calling to thank donors for their gifts. With four hours remaining in the day, an additional $27,621 was raised to push the Giving Day to 226 percent of the initial goal.
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BEYOND STRONG The Campaign for Meredith
Thank a Donor Day Highlights Philanthropy
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eredith College held its second annual Thank a Donor Day on February 24, 2016, sponsored by the 1891 Club, a student alumnae association. The goal of the day is to help students and the campus community understand the importance of philanthropy. A thank-you card signing in the Cate Center attracted approximately 100 students who signed over 300 cards. Signs were also posted around campus, so students could see how donors contribute to Meredith. In addition, treat bags were taken by 1891 Club members to say thank you to faculty and staff offices with 100 percent giving participation. In fact, 71 percent of faculty and staff gave to the Beyond Strong | Campaign for Meredith in 2015-16. The timing was perfect for Thank a Donor Day, after the overwhelming response from Make It Count for Meredith Giving Day just one day before.
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“I see students looking at the donor signs and it is so rewarding to see the moment when they realize the wonderful gifts given for all of us. It makes a difference in their thoughts about philanthropy,” said Halie Sue Clifton, ’11, assistant director of The Meredith Fund. “We also enjoy getting to highlight our wonderful donors.” The 1891 Club started in 2014 and has already grown to 371 student members. The members promote involvement with alumnae through networking and programming, philanthropy on campus, and educating students on the importance of giving. Signs placed around campus highlighted donor gifts and the Beyond Strong | Campaign for Meredith priorities. The College thanks all the donors for making a difference in the lives of students and the campus community. To read a list of all the gifts, visit meredith.edu/thankadonor.
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Meredith Receives $95,000 Grant to Support Undergraduate Research
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new initiative funded by a $95,000 grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund will support undergraduate research and mentorship at Meredith College. Meredith will partner with Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy for this project. The Academy, a single-gender public magnet school located near Meredith, will select eight students who will benefit from early exposure to academic research in a college setting, while fulfilling internship requirements of their early college program in partnership with Saint Augustine’s University. The partnership also will provide leadership and mentoring opportunities for 15 junior and senior Meredith College students from multiple disciplines. The academic experience will better prepare them for success in future graduate work
and research in their respective fields. It will also give the students an opportunity to serve as mentors to college-bound young women. For more than 30 years, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund has funded more than $1 million in initiatives at Meredith College including Teaching Fellows, Meredith’s adult education program, general education, and energy management initiatives. Support for the new program aligns with the duPont Fund’s support of providing young people access to opportunities that will prepare them for success. “This partnership could be a model for other schools,” says Cindy Godwin, ’74, associate vice president of advancement for Meredith College. “This funding is a strong indicator of the confidence that the Jessie Ball duPont Fund has in Meredith College and their ability to create with us.”
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ALUMNAE CONNECTION Class notes and news for Meredith Alumnae 1938 Mary Wyche Mintz turned 98 in May and has written a book, History of Lake Waccamaw Presbyterian Church.
1947 Nancy Resch Clemmons has been married for 68 years. She and her husband have two children, five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Besides her husband’s Alzheimer’s, they are in relatively good health and remain active in their local Baptist church. She has gone on 16 mission trips since she retired from teaching, and her mission now is taking care of her husband. She recently visited her former suitemate, Gerry Bostic Edwards, in Raleigh and talked on the phone with her former roommate, Nancy Dickens Howard. Nancy Gates Dale and her husband were married for 60 years before he passed away in 2008. They have two sons, two daughters, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. She lives across the street from her daughter and is doing pretty well. Christine Kornegay Graham has been living at Westminster Canterbury Richmond since 2013 and still enjoys playing the piano. Her husband of 61 years passed away in 2011 after a brief illness. All three of their children live in the Richmond area and visit her regularly. Glenda Norman Strole reports that she has been very blessed throughout her life. She and her husband married in 1947 and had a son and two daughters. They now have eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband managed his father’s dairy farm, and she taught for eight years. After they sold the dairy farm, they built a cabin in Banner Elk where they enjoyed
every season. Following her husband’s death, Strole returned to a retirement home in Elkin. In 2013, she moved to a retirement village in Winston-Salem to be near her daughter.
1951 LeGrace Gupton Benson has been elected president of the Haitian Studies Association, an international scholarly organization dedicated to the study of all aspects of Haiti from colonial era to the present. Her book, Arts and Religions of Haiti: How the Sun Illuminates Under Cover of Darkness, is published by Ian Randle Publishers. Since 1994 she has also served as associate editor of the Journal of Haitian Studies.
1958 Several members of the Meredith Class of 1958 get together for lunch every few months in Raleigh. The Lunch Bunch meets at a restaurant to renew friendships and talk about their shared experiences at Meredith. If you would like to be included at the next lunch let Susan Grigg know at (919) 870-8345. Shirley Strother Taylor visited Glenda Eddins Temple in Southport, N.C. They had a fun time chatting away!
1961 Gayle Kelly Garrison’s grandson graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in electrical engineering in May. She was sorry to miss her class’s 55th reunion. She still lives in California but moved to a smaller home in Concord two years ago. Although she retired from the public library, she says she still reads way too many books.
Phyllis Green Liner continues to follow her passion in music by singing in her church choir, and attends concerts of all genres, art exhibits, and theatre. She also attends numerous lectures that her area Lifetime Learning Institute provides. One series of lectures that she continues to enjoy is given by National Park Service Rangers. She feels very fortunate to live in Northern Virginia near D.C. where so many cultural activities are available. Mary Carol Warwick is a featured composer on a new CD release: An Aids Quilt Songbook: Sing For Hope. The CD was recorded in New York in 2015 and features famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, among other well-known and esteemed performers. Her bilingual opera for children, Cinderella In Spain, will be given 40 performances by Seattle Opera beginning in January 2017, and was featured in Robeson County, N.C., for two performances in May 15. Warwick was commissioned by The White Oak Trio (Piano, Violin and Cello) to write a work that premiered in Houston in April 2016. Her song cycle based on the poems of breast cancer survivors and their family members has had two New York performances, the latest being on November 8, 2015. Warwick was also commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to write five songs based on the stories of veterans; these songs have had several performances in Houston. Warwick lost her husband of 33 years in 2014, and after a year of not writing any music at all, has begun to write again. Nancy Turner White has been happily living for the past three years in a retirement community near Chapel Hill. One of her granddaughters is working in Houston, and her two grandsons are freshmen in college.
Compiled by the Office of Alumnae Relations from November 2015 – March 18, 2016. Information may be edited for space limitations and content restrictions. Submit class notes to your class agent, online at meredith.edu/alumnae, by email at alumnae@meredith.edu, by fax (919) 760-2818, or by phone to the Office of Alumnae Relations at (919) 760-8548. Deadline for the Fall 2016 issue is July 28, 2016. Submissions received after this date will appear in the Spring 2017 issue.
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1963 Mary Fran Carver Perkinson reports that she enjoyed the annual Christmas luncheon with a group of alumnae in the Triangle-Triad area. In March, she was delighted to be invited to join her class’s little sisters, the Class of 1965, as they honored their classmate, Verona Chow Hung with a luncheon and the signing of an endowment established by the class and from which scholarships will be awarded to international students. The oldest of Perkinson’s six grandchildren graduated from UNC and has spent the past year working and living in Prague, Czech Republic. Another granddaughter is still trying to make her college decision and Meredith is one of her finalists.
1965 Many members of the Class of 1965 attended a special luncheon in March to celebrate the signing of the scholarship given for their class gift at their fiftieth reunion in May 2015. The scholarship was given in honor of class member Verona Chow, Meredith’s first international student, who said the event will be forever imprinted in her heart and mind. To have a scholarship named after her is beyond her wildest dreams. She would like to thank those who made it happen. Polly Finan Laubinger and Glenda Brown Worley enjoyed a five day trip to New Orleans in early December 2015. Future adventures are being planned. Becky Parker Shue and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August 2015. They celebrated with their whole family. Carol Andrews Southerland took advantage of the Meredith tickets to The Lion King at DPAC recently. Her son and 4-year-old granddaughter joined her from Virginia. Her granddaughter loved it but refused to clap for the hyenas. Southerland reports that the Class of ’65 enjoyed having Anne Pepper Poole join them at their scholarship luncheon for the first time since they graduated 50 years ago.
1968 Cornelia Scott Cree worked as a missionary in China and has a book coming out on Kindle in the near future. Frances Hayes Swanson and Clara Safrit Wade were at Meredith’s 125 Year Gala with their community boyfriend from their college days, Tom Griffin. His wife, Teese, went too. A great time was had by all.
Get Your Passports Ready for the Meredith Travels Program Meredith’s 2017 offerings include trips to Cuba, France, and Canada. Cuba: People-to-People Cultural Discovery, March 11-19, 2017 We have had so many requests for this trip that when given the opportunity to reserve the maximum 20 guest spaces, we jumped on it. Travel by our own private coach will take us from the streets of picturesque Havana to golden beaches and back, passing through an agricultural landscape in the Vinales Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In accordance with State Department policy, only people-to-people visits from the U.S. are allowed at this point. This is a very special time to visit Cuba, and we hope you will join us for this moving, personal journey. Departure to Cuba will be through Miami. Since the number of spaces on this trip is smaller than usual, reserve your space early!
Cruising from Paris to the French Riviera, June 15-17, 2017 In response to frequent requests, we are offering the first river cruise in our travel program. We have selected Grand Circle, the cruise line voted World’s Best River Cruise line by Conde Nast Traveler four years in a row. The cruise will take place on a boutique river boat that accommodates only 46 guests – and at least half will be your old – and new – Meredith friends. It represents a wonderful value when compared to many other cruise lines. Our itinerary will begin in Paris and end in Nice – with the possibility of a three-day extended stay on the beautiful French Riviera.
Fall Color in Canada: The Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, September 2017 Just in time for peak fall color, this custom tour to the Maritime Provinces will take us from the sophistication of Charlottetown and Halifax to the stunning, isolated beauty of the Cabot Trail in far northeastern Nova Scotia. We will have experiences that encompass the Native America, Celtic, English, Colonial French, and French Acadian past and present. This cultural immersion will, of course, be accompanied by appropriate food, music, and story-telling traditions. Look for more information, including specific dates, in the near future. For updates on the Meredith Travels Program, visit meredith.edu/alumnae/ travel or contact Denise Parker, associate director of alumnae relations, at dpparker@meredith.edu or (919) 760-8051.
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1970 [ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]
FRAN BOLIN, ’98 Connecting Inmates With Their Loved Ones By Taylor Lynn Moore, ’17 Fran Bolin, ’98, knows that when women and men are incarcerated, they are not the only ones who suffer. She has been helping families with loved ones in prison – who are sometimes facing life sentences – stay connected by offering moral support, transportation, and other services. Because of her hard work as executive director of the nonprofit organization Assisting Families with Inmates, Bolin was honored with a “40 Under 40 Award” by Style Weekly magazine in Richmond, Va., in October 2015. “I am so thankful for the award and the exposure it has brought to the organization and issues that absolutely deserve to have attention,” Bolin said. Bolin has been with the organization since 2001. “It’s expanded into three parttime workers, three students working on their masters’ degrees in social work at Virginia Commonwealth University, and more than 100 volunteers,” she said. A big part of her group’s tasks is to help family members of inmates visit and communicate through live video conversations over the internet. “I feel fortunate to be able to do this job as each day is interesting and no one day is ever the same,” Bolin said. “I fully believe in the mission of the organization and am so thankful to be a part of a place that truly helps families impacted by the incarceration of a loved one.” Bolin grew up in Midlothian, Va., and graduated from Meredith College in 1998. She later earned her graduate degree in social work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is active in her community and serves on the Board of Directors for Huguenot Little League as a fundraising and special events volunteer. She also has three children, and her husband, John Absher, serves as a firefighter and part-time deputy sheriff. She said her time at Meredith helped shape the path she’s chosen. “Meredith was a place where I experienced what it means to be a caring, accepting, responsible, productive part of my community,” Bolin said. “And a big part of that is about giving back.”
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Several members of the Class of 1970 who live in and around the Raleigh area meet regularly for dinner out and catching up. They call themselves the Raleigh Crew. Recently, they met at Firebirds Restaurant in North Hills for an evening of fun. Around the table were Cathy Moran Winstead, Sue Cook, Nancy Williams Prevatte, Emma Ruth Bartholomew Stewart, Phyllis Jeffries Culbreth, Vicki Davis, Cindy Griffith McEnery, Donna Burgess Lupo, and Janet Morris Belvin (who was down for the weekend from the northern Virginia area.) They finished the evening by serenading the restaurant patrons with a kazoo concert featuring a performance of Cigareets and Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women, the signature song of the Bathtub Ring. Janet Morris Belvin volunteers in the pediatric wing of Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg, Va. There she uses her years of experience as a grandmother of eight to rock, diaper, and feed babies, plan craft activities for sick children, and help the nursing staff in any way possible. Paula Tudor Gilbert and Emma Ruth Bartholomew Stewart were elected as their class’s giving chairmen and they want to thank classmates for their support of the class’s Golden Anniversary initiative for 2020 on this past Giving Day. Chery Heedick and Karen Watson Watts have started playing bridge at the Charlotte Bridge Association’s bridge center. Watts reports that it is a far cry from playing on the floor between the beds in our dorm rooms. Cindy Griffith McEnery has taken up photography since retirement. Two of her photographs will be included in the next Colonial Williamsburg calendar. Ann McCarty Poates reports that she and her suitemates have stayed close ever since their days at Meredith. Cullen Sessoms came up to Richmond from Chapel Hill the second week in March for a visit. Poates says that Sarah Jo Cherry Bryce lives less than three miles from her so they were able to have quite a reunion. Mary Anne Westphal went to Cuba in March on a Friendly Planet tour, which introduced her to the communities, education, people, and life of Cuba. She then returned home to attend fundraising events in Gainesville for The Girls Place which supports primarily low income children and gives them a place to go after school. She is also involved as a board member for Stop Children’s Cancer. She also attended a fundraiser for the Gainesville Fisher House, which provides for families of veterans who are being treated at the VA Hospital. She also attended the Rotary Wild Game Feast. This year the funds were given to the Food Bank. And finally, in June she travelled to Delaware
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to attend a 50th high school reunion. She’s off to Colorado in September for a car rally.
1971 Patsy Johnson Gilliland works as a private voice teacher and director of the Tar River Children’s Chorus in Rocky Mount, N.C. She helped establish the Tar River Orchestra and Chorus as a founding board member in 1984 and has led the Children’s Chorus for almost 23 years.
1972 Sandra Clemmons Buller has remarried and is now residing in Florida with her new hubby. Margaret Person Currin was counting the days to her May 2016 retirement. She plans to sit back and enjoy life as it comes! Meredith Elam Muse had the opportunity to reconnect with Susan Smith Basmith in Greenville, S.C., while on a business trip with her husband. They enjoyed a leisurely lunch and a great deal of catching up. Cindy Beal Richardson’s Meredith suite has established an annual tradition of meeting at Harriet Cline Wilson’s mountain home for a long weekend. Other Angels in attendance include Lydia Senter Langdon, Sheila Strider Morgan, and Kathy Watkins Moore. The tradition of sisterhood continues as Richardson’s daughter (also a Meredith grad) has begun the annual reunion with her suitemates.
1973 Bobbie Heilman Murphy’s father, Bruce Heilman, rode his Harley to California and back again this year to celebrate his 90th birthday. Beginning at the end of April, he was on the road for about four weeks. The American Legion had riders in each state to ride through the states with him. In July (his actual birthday is July 16), Bobbie and her siblings are going with him to spend some time in Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., where they lived growing up. There is a Facebook page started by one of last year’s riders called Heilman’s Heros. If you are so inclined, like the page. Bobbie and her husband welcomed another grandchild, a little girl, in May.
1976 Jackie Owen Stallings’ son works as a neurosurgical P.A. in Columbia, S.C. He married a lovely surgical PA in Greenville, S.C., on December 19. The previous weekend, her daughter received her master’s degree in ecohydrology from the University of Idaho; and is a water/wetland scientist position in the Jackson Hole, Wyo., area. Stalling and
her husband are fortunate to be retired and to have such fun places to go visit! Susan Goodwin Thornbrough and her husband have been married almost 42 years and are still staying very active with their church and family. Their daughter works as a CPA and their son as a pharmacist; both are married and great parents. Their fourth grandchild was born in September, a healthy girl.
1977 Barbara Wiggins Fleming enjoyed an annual beach trip with Meredith friends Jennie Lynch Mays, Gale Amon Lewis, Nancy Morgan Rodgers, and Susan Roberts King. They try to get together once or twice a year and have been since graduation!
1983
1993 Martha Parrott Aycock completed her Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI) designation in 2015. Mitchell Brown has been promoted to the rank of professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. She also serves as the director of their Ph.D. program in public administration and public policy. Amy Alderman Griffin is now working as a support specialist with Paychex. She has been with Paychex for more than 18 years. Katharine Vail LeHew is now the vice president of healthcare partnerships with Accumen Inc., a healthcare transformation company. She resides in Richmond, Va., and covers health systems on the east coast. Dawn Wilson Smith has a new job as financial service representative with the State Employees’ Credit Union.
After spending more than 25 years with Bank of America and three years with CapGemini, Kim Metts Beal recently joined Grant Thornton as director of marketing operations. Grant Thornton is one of the world’s leading organizations of independent audit, tax, and advisory firms. Kim Cozart reports that since her last reunion, she has retired, had brain surgery, and moved back to the Raleigh area. Whew, what a retirement!
1996
1986
Lori Miller Buckheister was named vice president of development at Georgia Gwinnett College.
Elizabeth Paris Floyd works as CFO of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. Mary Beth Weaver has been appointed as Cadence Group’s director of services for Washington, D.C.
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1987 Marnie Stone Marlette works as High Point University’s full-time medical director of the on-campus student health center. She previously designed, opened, and ran her own practice in Clemmons, N.C.
1994 Tracy Humphrey Stroud was recently named a partner in Colombo Kitchin Attorneys. She practices in the areas of employment law, contract disputes, and commercial litigation, estate and trust disputes, family law, and real estate litigation.
Heather Wilkin Black recently joined United Way of North Carolina as the NC 2-1-1 Statewide Strategy Director. NC 2-1-1 is a statewide information and referral line that links citizens to health and human services resources. She is excited to utilize her project management and strategic planning skills in her new role. Jennifer Sterling Snodgrass was named faculty of distinction at Appalachian State University.
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1998
Deanna Harris is the library media coordinator at East Cary Middle School. She is enjoying tracking out this year with her daughter instead of working 12 months! She looks forward to spending time at Meredith functions and events and to trips with classmates. Tammy Holder was nominated by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts for the 2016 Tony Educator Award for Excellence in Theater Education. She also had the privilege to recently represent the Broward Center in Washington D.C., at the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education 2016 Annual Meeting.
Elizabeth Bass Daughtry merged her practice with Piedmont Foot and Ankle Clinic out of Cary, N.C. in June 2015. She continues to practice in Dunn.
2000 Joanna Estes Freitag published the N.C. Adoption Search Guidebook: Tracing Your Roots When You Were Born and Adopted in N.C. in 2015. It won Amazon’s Editors Best Picks of the Month over the summer. Mary Ann Nilsson (M.M.) won the Kosempa Scholarship, which is given twice yearly to independent music teachers who are members of S ummer 2016 | M E R E D I T H M A G A Z I N E
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ALUMNAE CONNECTION the Durham Teachers Music Association. The funds will go to help her further her studies on piano and toward refining her piano program dealing with the music of Women Classical Composers. She hopes to perform this piano concert throughout the spring.
2001 Rebecca Watson Autry moved to Barre, Vt., for her husband’s new job at Faith Community Church. Emily Lucas is now working as Wake County’s deputy finance director.
2002 Erin Rhew Scott is working as the operations manager at BookFish Books. She has published a trilogy, The Fulfillment Series, and is working on an adult historical fiction novel called Restore to Me. Jennifer Crocker Bakane completed a Master of Arts Development and Program Management from the University of Denver and now lives in San Francisco. She began working for the San Francisco Ballet in July 2015.
2004 Amanda Smith Browning was named the Guilford County Schools 2015-16 Middle School Teacher of the Year. She also received her Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) in physical education from East Carolina University. Browning is a National Board Certified Healthful Living teacher at Northern Guilford Middle School in Greensboro, N.C. Courtney Harris Currin is now the principal of Butner-Stem Elementary School. Staci Hester was named WRAL’s Teacher of the Week in January. She teaches second grade at Lacy Elementary. Whitney Pence Rodgers joined Cresa Carolinas in November 2015 as their vice president of project management.
2005 Kendra Keech Alexander is a gift and estate planning officer in university advancement at East Carolina University. Melissa Pendergraft McMurry is an independent consultant for Jamberry. Leslie van den Berg teaches first grade at Concordia International School Shanghai.
is a support representative for Classical Conversations, a classical, Christian homeschool organization that equips and encourages families on their homeschool journey.
2008 Courtney Godwin moved to Atlanta in November 2015 and is an interior designer at Beth Webb Interiors. Melissa Staley Harvey and her husband live in downtown Raleigh. She works as a care coordinator with Alliance Behavioral Healthcare. Brooke Johnson graduated from Miller Motte with her esthetics license in July 2015. She now works at the Skin Center of the Triangle as a medical esthetician. She has enjoyed being the makeup artist for many of the Meredith College alumnae weddings. Laura Marshall Robinson graduated summa cum laude on May 14, 2016, from Saint Louis University, in Saint Louis, Mo., with a Master of Arts in student personnel administration.
2009 Maggie Bizzell was recently accepted into the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, online program, where she will earn her Master of Science in communications. She previously earned her MPA from East Carolina University. Elizabeth Pace Riddick Davis graduated with her MBA from Averett University in May 2015. She works at Chowan University as the director of annual fund.
2015 Ashley Thomas is the operations and members relations manager at N.C. Soybean Producers Association.
MARRIAGES 1988 Sharon Woodlief to David Lee Britt, 12/13/15.
1991 Debbie Dunn to Harry Tueting, 03/05/16.
1996 Suzanne Crawford to Don Kozak, 10/10/15.
1998 Elizabeth Bass to Michael Daughtry, 04/25/15.
2002 Erin Rhew to Louis “Jay” Scott III, 11/07/14.
2003 Shannon O’Berry to John Rich, 09/26/15.
2004 Kelly Rhodes to Clyde Adams, 11/21/15.
2008 Melissa Staley to Gerald Harvey, 07/26/15. Kaitlin Briggs to John Stammetti, 01/16/16. Ashley Vaughan to James Kauling, 10/24/15.
2009 Elizabeth Pace Riddick to David Earl Davis, Jr., 05/16/15. Rebecca Buchanan to Joseph Leahy, 05/02/15.
2010
2010
Kala Stanton to Luke MacDowall, 10/25/15.
Sherri Alston began working for Vance-Granville Community College as an academic and career coach in April. Shanika Adams Kidd was recognized as Teacher of the Week for Person County Schools in March.
2011 Samantha Bryant to Robert Anderson, 10/24/15.
2012 Linley Evans to Brandon Coggins, 06/20/15.
2013
2012
Elizabeth Mills to Stewart Grantham, 11/14/15.
Lauren Casteen is one of only 103 teachers from around the nation to be chosen for the 2016 cohort of the Stanford University Hollyhock Fellowship. She teaches World History and Teacher Cadet at Smithfield-Selma High School in Smithfield, N.C.
2014 Maggie Reilly to Seth Crawford, 09/06/15.
2015 Dena Turnage to Luke Blizzard, 11/21/15. Mariah Ambrose to Garrett Poole, 08/29/15.
2006
2014
NEW ARRIVALS
Yanely Tomas Gerew was Teacher of the Year for the 2015-16 school year for her school, Briarcliff Elementary, in Wake County. Christy Adkins Steel
Victoria Garrard was accepted into Southern New Hampshire University’s graduate level chapter of the Sigma Alpha Pi honor society.
Jennifer Stables Cole, a daughter, Kaylynn Elizabeth, 01/05/16. Suzanne Doughtie Drake, a son,
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Keegan Burgess, 12/15/15. Holly Carpenter Morgan, a son, Joseph Marbrey, 10/10/15. Jennifer Allen Owings, a daughter, Winston “Winnie” Williams, 07/23/15.
1998 Hettie Nelms Faulkner, a daughter, Anna Elizabeth, 08/30/15. Kelly Conkling Scott, a daughter, Anna Kate, 02/01/16. Hollie Johnson Torrey, a daughter, Madison Virginia, 07/25/15.
[ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]
MARY LOUISE OTT SPAIN & JEAN DAVIS NEWELL Meet Double Trouble
2000 Kendra Wooley Cranford, a daughter, Anna Kathleen, 11/14/15. Ashlynn Browning Greene, a son, Henry Edwards, 05/14/15. Maxine Ellis Zanfardino, a daughter, Liliana Alaine, 02/10/16.
2001 Elizabeth Jackson Fazenbaker, a daughter, Madeline Grace, 11/28/15. Kara Long Hergenrader, a daughter, Emma Gray, 11/25/15. Betsy Rhame-Minor, a daughter, Elizabeth Hazel, 01/11/16.
By Emily Parker Mary Louise Ott Spain, ’43, and Jean Davis Newell, ’46, began chatting while standing in line for a ferry on lecturer Elliot Engel’s organized trip to Scotland in 1998. They have been the
2002
best of friends since that day.
Anna Inman McCullohs, a son, Benjamin Ellis, 12/18/15. Suzanne Parker Miller, a daughter, Salem Elizabeth, 03/28/15. Amy Erbeznik Perry, a daughter, Charlotte Leigh, 05/01/14.
For two people who did not
2003
year, and Spain has spent every Thanksgiving and Christmas with Newell and her
Sejal Patel, a son, Rohan Mehul, 05/18/15. Renee Bass Schreibman, a daughter, Sadie Pearl, 11/26/15.
family since 2005. Since 1998, they have visited over 18 countries, including Italy,
2004 Blair Briggs Roberts, a son, William Scott, 02/14/16.
2005 Margaret Hudson Cameron, a son, Tucker Gray, 02/19/16. Sarah Wilson Collins, a daughter, Eller Elizabeth, 11/19/15. Amanda Hatfield Moore, a daughter, Lydia Hatfield, 11/15/15. Catherine Maher Taggart, a son, Declan Christian, 12/11/15.
2006 Sarah Lynn Joyner Davis, a daughter, Sadie Leigh, 08/30/15. Kelly Eckman Duncan, a son, Jackson Chase, 09/07/15. Kristin Langevin List, a daughter, Ava Madison, 01/31/16. Michelle Dillman Little, a daughter, Elliotte Grace, 01/17/15. Holly Beamon Narron, a son, Wesley Carson, 07/20/15. Christy Adkins Steel, a daughter, Caroline Campbell, 06/08/15.
2007 Jessica Pike Currin, a daughter, Elizabeth Belle, 11/26/15.
2008 Ashley Munoz Holland, a daughter, Athena Grey, 09/24/15. Kate Robinson Newkirk, a daughter, Olivia Wallace, 02/05/16. Rebecca Allen Poole, a son, James Dylan, 02/03/16.
know each other in college,
Pictured left to right Mary Louise Ott Spain, ’43, and Jean Davis Newell, ’46.
their story illustrates the bond that Meredith women can form long after graduation. Their instantaneous friendship has led them to travel together at least once per
Egypt, and South Africa. Many know these ladies as “Double Trouble”, but how did they get the nickname? In 2007, Spain and Newell were invited to attend the Golden Oak 50th reunion at the Massey House. It was a cold and windy night. Once inside they went to the library where Newell got on her hands and knees to start the gas logs. Tracy Rose, a catering employee, brought them hot tea, a plate of food, and said, “You know you girls are a lot of trouble. In fact, you are double trouble.” The name has stuck with them for the last nine years, and in the fall of 2015 anonymous donors, who would only identify themselves as their Meredith fan club, gave a bench in honor of their powerful friendship. “They are the royal women of Meredith,” says Erin Cleghorn, director of The Meredith Fund. “They were absolutely speechless when I called to tell them about the bench and so humbled.” Spain and Newell are pleased that the bench given in their honor will be seen and used by students, faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends of the College. “I want people who see the name Double Trouble etched on the name plate to know friendships made because of Meredith College are lasting if you want them to be,” says Spain. The bench can be found on campus between the Alumnae House and Jones Chapel. Newell says, “There is something about being a Meredith woman. Something special. I want people to know our bond happened many years after we walked the campus grounds as students, and we are so pleased our story of friendship will have a permanent place on campus.”
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ALUMNAE CONNECTION
2009
1954
Meredith Moore Stokes, a son, Graham Thomas, 01/16/16.
Cornelia Edwards Borror, 12/23/15. Ann Quay Gardner, 02/12/16.
2010
1955
Fallen Yeager King, a son, Joseph Battle, 08/05/15. Lesley Bass Matthis, a son, Avett Adams, 08/16/15. Mallory Booker Tillotson, a son, Drake Booker, 11/22/15.
Nannette Sylvester Anthony, 09/29/14. Leah Scarborough Barton, 01/28/16. Rebekah Upchurch Way, 02/24/16.
1956
Vickie Tart Burlington in the death of her husband. Dava Drew Jarman in the death of her mother.
2014
Violet Overton Lacy, 01/14/16.
1970
Brandi Poole, a daughter, Ella Grace, 03/14/16.
1958
Janice Burns Dunning in the death of her husband.
2015
Lee Pass Henry, 03/09/16.
1973
Chelsea Tucker Parker, a son, Levi Thomas, 11/28/15.
1959
Nancy Fay Holden Hall, 01/25/16. Joyce Clark Whitmore, 06/15/15.
Judy Suich Dennis in the death of her mother. Claire Goodwin in the death of her father. Gloria Drew Kroenke in the death of her mother. Debbie Martin in the death of her uncle. Gwen Noble in the death of her uncle.
Annie Bradsher Comer, 12/16/15.
1965
1975
1939
Nell Cox Paul, 09/10/15.
Annie Cowand Salter, 01/15/16.
1974
Kathy Fuller Stokes in the death of her father. Ann Williams in the death of her mother.
1943
Meredith Keever, 03/15/16.
Willie Barger Gates, 01/12/16.
1989
1944
Catherine Gamwell Cambra, 02/01/16.
Julia Hoover Farrar, 02/12/16. Ann Kramer Hillier, 03/14/16. Mary Margaret Silver Peterson, 02/11/16.
SYMPATHY
1977
1947
Anne Edge Dale in the death of her mother. Mary Don Tallman Olds in the death of her husband.
Carolyn Holland King, 02/22/16.
1962
DEATHS 1938
1945 Rebecca Lassiter Copeland, 08/23/15. Mary Catherine McIntyre Rodgers, 02/22/16.
Dot Loftin Goodwin in the death of her husband. Christine Kornegay Graham in the death of her husband.
1947
1948
Martha Hamrick Howerton, 01/25/16. Helen Wallis Rusher, 01/31/16.
Lillian Phillips Lovelace in the death of her husband. Ann Wallis Stephenson in the death of her sister.
1948
1953
Mary West Boykin, 10/25/15. Helen Finch Roberts, 02/23/16. Sarah Lewis Wright, 03/09/16.
Nancy Jo Wallis Fleming in the death of her sister.
1954
1949
Carolyn Hall Borden in the death of her husband.
Helen Virginia Carr Bigham, 11/09/14. Elsie Corbett Hatch, 02/10/16. Jennie Newbold Lee, 02/29/16. Mary Lou Culler Metcalfe, 12/02/15. Frances Hollis Wilson, 12/22/15.
1955
1951
Frances Carr Kratt in the death of her sister. Ophelia McLean McCallum in the death of her son.
1958
Jessie Sapp Edwards, 12/04/15.
Anita Farris Ratchford in the death of her husband. Shirley Strother Taylor in the death of her husband.
1952
1960
Mary Evelyn Brown Wells, 11/25/15.
Susan Sanderlin Antoniewiez in the death of her husband.
1953 Betsy Long Clark, 12/15/15. Bess Francis Zulch, 12/18/15.
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1965 Nell Shelton Meece in the death of her mother. Sherron Boyd Moore in the death of her husband.
Penny Pittard Rogers in the death of her granddaughter.
1966 Madelyn Langdon Kalkhurst in the deaths of her mother and father.
1968
1976 Rebecca Askew in the death of her father. Amy Garber Byrd in the death of her mother. Susan Goodwin Thornbrough in the death of her father.
1978 Rebecca Copeland Scarboro in the death of her mother.
1979 Cindy Whitenack Jenkins in the death of her brother.
1980 Gloria Boyd Johnson in the death of her mother.
1982 Elizabeth Moss Adamson in the death of her father. Dawn Wells Cottle in the death of her mother. Kelley Stone Garris in the death of her father.
1983 Rebecca Hall Clark in the death of her aunt. Mary Stone Deakle in the death of her father. Nancy Mullinax Stamper in the death of her father.
1984 Tomilynn Mutschler Harris in the death of her father.
1985 Kathryn Langley Anderson in the death of her father.
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1986 Donna Martin Pilkington in the death of her uncle.
[ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]
1987 Nan Henry Keel in the death of her mother. Cheryl Whitt Perry in the death of her father. Ann Barnes Walker in the death of her father.
CHRISTIN KUBASKO & ANGIE DANIELS TUCKER
1989 Edy Speight Abshire in the death of her mother.
Strong Has Never Been Sweeter
1990 Mary Bigham Hoffman in the death of her mother.
By Lillian Redding, ’16
1991
Christin Kubasko, ’10, and Angie Daniels Tucker, ’02, have become full time cookie creators and entrepreneurs; however, they had no plans for their sweet success when they attended Meredith College. They now own and operate Southern Sugar Bakery in Raleigh, N.C. Southern Sugar Bakery is a small confectionery that started in Tucker’s personal kitchen in February 2013. The operation moved to a commercial space in August 2015 where the two alumnae create personalized, custom cookies and cookie cakes. Pictured left to right Angie Daniels Tucker, ’02, and Christin Kubasko, ’10. Customers place orders for events ranging from bridal showers to birthdays. “People just came. It’s been a blessing,” Kubasko said about their success. After leaving Meredith, Tucker became a high school counselor, while Kubasko continued her education at Appalachian State University. The two met in a Bible study group in 2005 and became fast friends. Kubasko went on to follow Tucker’s path into high school counseling. During that time, Kubasko began making small batches of cookies as a hobby – baking one or two dozen at a time and selling them to friends for events. This hobby ended up expanding to the point that Kubasko asked Tucker for assistance. But making dozens of cookies every week and working full-time as counselors became exhausting. They were faced with a decision. “It was either stick with a stable job, with benefits and a guaranteed paycheck, or go with this opportunity that was presented to us,” Kubasko said. “We chose to follow our faith, and where God wanted us to go because we knew He wouldn’t take us where we couldn’t succeed.” Their choice, and success, has landed them in multiple publications, such as Raleigh Magazine and Our State magazine. It also grew into a booming business that was spotlighted in a segment on the TODAY Show, where they baked cookies with host Matt Lauer. They launched their website just days before appearing on the show. After the segment aired, their voicemail and email inboxes became flooded, and their social media network exploded. “As for the future? We have no idea,” Tucker said. “We’re along for the ride, and we’ll continue to dream. We can’t thank our friends, family, and Meredith enough for helping us get this far.”
Sheila Butler in the death of her husband.
1994 Blythe Taylor in the death of her grandmother.
1994 Missy White Wells in the death of her mother-in-law.
1995 Rene Cloer Gaskins in the death of her mother. Allison Sindelir in the death of her father.
1999 Anna Taylor Freeman in the death of her grandmother.
2000 Jenna Burlington Fitch in the death of her father. Michelle Priddy Stancil in the death of her brother.
2001 Cassie Mozingo in the death of her dog.
2003 Erin Taylor Rice in the death of her grandmother. Renee Bass Schreibman in the death of her fatherin-law.
2004 Blair Briggs Roberts in the death of her grandmother.
2005 Courtney Morris Newberry in the deaths of her grandmother and grandfather.
2008 Heidi Allen in the death of her husband.
2015 Laura Hager in the death of her mother. Catherine Perry in the death of her grandfather.
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ALUMNAE CONNECTION
Alumnae Honored During Reunion Weekend By Emily Parker
T
he Meredith Alumnae Association presented the 2016 alumnae awards during the College’s annual reunion weekend. The Alumnae Association presented the Distinguished Alumna award to the late Freda Hartness Wilkins, ’64, the Recent Graduate Award to Anna Echols, ’06, and the Career Achievement Award to Mary Carol Warwick, ’61. Three philanthropy awards were also presented to recognize alumnae for their support of Meredith College. Elaine Powell McLeod, ’81, received the Reunion Philanthropy Award, and the Speight family and Beth Hines Crews, ’81, received the Meredith Philanthropy Awards.
Awardees pictured left to right Mary Carol Warwick, ’61, Lucien Wilkins, Beth Hines Crews,’81, Chris Speight Brown,’76, Elaine Powell McLeod, ’81, and Anna Echols,’06.
designs were featured in The Knot Magazine and brides.com. Echols has provided many cakes and cookies for Meredith events, and is the sole creator of every cake for the North Carolina Azalea Festival.
Freda Hartness Wilkins, ’64 Distinguished Alumna Award
Mary Carol Warwick, ’61
Freda Hartness Wilkins, ’64, was an accomplished musician, master gardener, author, and photographer who used her camera as an instrument to capture beautiful things in nature and share them with the world. Wilkins owned her own studio for over 30 years. Wilkins photographed the Meredith Iris which is on permanent display in Belk Dining Hall and was placed on special notecards. Her photography was also selected for the Class of 1964 50th reunion memory book in 2014.
Career Achievement Award
Anna Echols, ’06 Recent Graduate Award Anna Echols, ’06, is an entrepreneur who uses her creative spirit to sweeten your taste buds by making cakes and treats in her store One Belle Bakery in Wilmington, N.C., that she opened in 2011. Echols moved to Orlando, Fla., shortly after graduating from Meredith to attend Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Art. In 2009, she competed on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off. While living in Florida and working for Party Flavors Custom Cakes her cake
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Mary Carol Warwick, ’61, is a prolific composer and librettist whose works have been widely performed in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Republic of Singapore. She is a composer of both instrumental and vocal music and is equally at home in the genres of opera, and musical theater. Warwick is the protégé of opera composer Carlisle Floyd. She has written nine operas for children commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, and many instrumental works for chamber and full orchestra pieces. NASA also commissioned her to write a wake-up call for Space Shuttle Mission STS-33.
Elaine Powell McLeod, ’81 Reunion Philanthropy Award Elaine Powell McLeod, ’81, recently established a scholarship endowment for students with financial need. McLeod said her gift was in appreciation of the mission of the College, her positive experience as a member of her class, and the lifelong friendships made at Meredith. She majored in home economics and is a member of the Onyx Society, the Iris
Society – President’s Circle, and the Stringfield Society.
The Speight Family Meredith Philanthropy Award The Speight Family, led by daughter Chris Speight Brown, ’76, established the Mary Estes Speight Endowment. Brown enlisted her sister, Elizabeth Speight Cooley, and her brother, Robert (Bobby) W. Speight, Jr., to make this gift in honor of their mother, Mary Estes Speight, ’53, for whom education was a priority. This endowment will provide scholarships for eligible students following their freshman year, to bridge the gap for students and/or their families after exhausting other financial resources.
Beth Hines Crews, ’81 Meredith Philanthropy Award Beth Hines Crews, ’81, has a passion for Meredith and a love of plants and flowers, which inspired her to make gifts, both current and planned, to support the campus grounds. Crews majored in business and her career includes time in the banking industry with Wachovia and in multiple areas of human resources with Nortel. Crews said she feels incredibly fortunate to have received a stellar education at Meredith, where she made lifelong friends. To read more about the award recipients, visit meredith.edu/alumnaeawards.
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BEYOND STRONG The Campaign for Meredith
Beyond Strong | The Campaign for Meredith
CAMPAIGN GOAL: $75 MILLION At our strongest, Meredith will continue to grow and shape the lives of our students and our entire community. We know this future is possible because we are already seeing benefits of our disciplined implementation of our strategic plan and the related contributions to our campaign, Beyond Strong. We are currently in our largest fund-raising year in College history. Keep the momentum going and help sustain Meredith for a bright future.
Learn more at meredith.edu/beyondstrong and make a gift today.
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Department of Marketing 3800 Hillsborough Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27607-5298
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Raleigh, NC Permit No. 369
meredith.edu
SFI-01042
WE KNOW WHAT
STRONG LOOKS LIKE. For nearly a decade, Meredith has singled out a woman each year to honor as a “Woman of Achievement.” This year, as the College celebrates the 125th anniversary of our founding, we recognize a group of women who have worked in occupations ranging from executive directors to entrepreneurs, physicians to teachers, designers to corporate vice presidents. They have served in the Peace Corps and Americorps. They are mothers, grandmothers, and greatgrandmothers. They have won Tonys and Emmys, and have been inducted into multiple Halls of Fame. They have been elected to the N.C. Senate and House and the N.C. Supreme Court. They are employed around the world and have worked at SAS, Disney World, Lenovo, Credit Suisse, the Pentagon, and the White House. This year, the Women of Achievement are the Alumnae of Meredith College. You live your lives with strength, and honor, and passion. You serve – and lead – our communities, organizations, and families with all the creativity, intellect, courage, and high standards that your education instilled. We honor you for all the things you are, and all of the ways you continue to go strong. Adapted from address by President Allen during the 125 Celebration
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