Winter 2007
Alumnae friends never let go of the laurel chain Francesca Cook ’86 (left) and Kayla Jackson ’86
10 16
A Fresh Take
20
A Dream Fulfilled
22
A Midcourse Correction
O n t h e C o ve r : L i k e m a n y a l u m n a e , K ay l a Jac k s o n ’ 8 6 h a s m a d e i t a p r i o r i t y to s tay i n to u c h w i t h h e r c o l l e g e f r i e n d s , i ncludi ng Francesca Cook ’86. P h ot o b y S c ot t S u c h m a n
features 10 Friends Forever?
Alumnae Friends Never Let Go of the Laurel Chain By M a i l e M a rt í n e z ’ 03
Many MHC students form friendships that really do last a lifetime. Here’s a look at how and why alumnae overcome the challenges of staying in touch with college friends after graduation.
16 A Fresh Take
Jessica Croll ’08 Turns Her Lens on Humanity Around the World By Em i ly H a r r i s o n W e i r
Jessica Croll ’08 aims to use photography to raise awareness of social issues, and her striking images— from poor families on Antigua to refugees in West Bank settlements—freeze moments in time worth thinking about.
20 She Has a Dream
Gloria Johnson-Powell ’58 Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize of Racial Equality By S u s a n R . B u s h e y ’ 9 6
No less a personage than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told Gloria Johnson-Powell ’58 to stay in medical school because “one of these days we’re going to need you.” Decades later, she’s still fighting for the rights of racial minorities, most recently by studying racial disparities in health.
22 Midcourse Correction
How to Get Back to Work (or Back to Better Work) at Midcareer By K a r a C . B a s k i n ’ 0 0
Gone are the days of the one-job career. But reentering the workforce after an extended absence, or segueing from one field to another, requires confidence, creativity, and careful planning. Here’s how.
departments 2 Viewpoints
Comments on widowhood, “common read” choice, Peter Viereck’s legacy, and other topics
4 Campus Currents
MHC’s prowess in producing serious scientists continues, local food gets a place on students’ plates, wireless access comes to dorms, what the class of ’06 is up to, and more campus news
26 Alumnae Matters
Reunion format to change in 2008, Alumnae in Action has successful first year, Asian/Asian American student/alumnae conference, European alumnae symposium planned, and alumnae clubs’ news
32 Off the Shelf
Books by alumnae and professors on Caravaggio, geology, kids’ books, career leadership, women finding their voices, poetry, female sleuths, and other topics
36 Class Notes
News of your classmates, and miniprofiles
76 Bulletin Board
Announcements and educational travel opportunities
78 Last Look By M i e k e H . B o m a n n
In the second part of our “Making Money Work” series, an alumna financial expert discusses increasing your financial understanding, planning for unexpected financial changes, and what differences being a woman may make in managing money.
Volume 90 • Number 4 • Winter 2007 Managing Director of Print and Online Magazines Emily Harrison Weir Staff Writer Mieke H. Bomann Class Notes Editor Erica C. Winter ’92 Editorial Assistant Meg Massey ’08 Designer James Baker Design Quarterly Committee: Linda Giannasi O’Connell ’69, chair; Kara Baskin ’00, Susan R. Bushey ’96, Maya Kukes ’95, Marissa Saltzman ’07, Julie L. Sell ’83, Mary Graham Davis ’65, ex officio with vote; W. Rochelle Calhoun ’83, ex officio without vote Quarterly Deadines: Material is due February 1 for the spring issue, May 15 for the summer issue, August 15 for the fall issue, and November 15 for the winter issue. Ideas expressed in the Quarterly are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of either the Alumnae Association or the College. Published in the spring, summer, fall, and winter and copyrighted 2007 by the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at South Hadley, MA 01075 and additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Lane Press, Burlington, Vermont.
G i r l i n a Ta o s P u e b l o G a l l e r y , b y J e s s i c a C r o l l ’ 0 8
The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College serves a worldwide network of diverse individuals, cultivates and celebrates vibrant connections among all alumnae, fosters lifelong learning in the liberal arts tradition, and facilitates opportunities for alumnae to advance the goals and values of the College. Comments concerning the Quarterly should be sent to Alumnae Quarterly, Alumnae Association, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 010751486; tel. 413-538-2301; fax 413-538-2254; e-mail: eweir@mtholyoke.edu. (413-538-3094, ecwinter@mtholyoke.edu for class notes.) Send address changes to Alumnae Information Services (same address; 413-538-2303; ais@mtholyoke. edu). Call 413-538-2300 with general questions regarding the Alumnae Association, or visit www. alumnae.mtholyoke.edu. POSTMASTER: (ISSN 0027-2493) (USPS 365280) Please send form 3579 to Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 01075-1486.
www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu
viewpoints
Common Read Each year I eagerly anticipate the college’s “common read” choice for the incoming first-year students. I still resonate with T. T. Williams’s moving thoughts in Refuge and am still discouraged by issues raised in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Although I admire Paul Farmer and enjoy T. Kidder’s writing, I do wonder why the college broke with the recent pattern, in my memory, of selecting a book by a woman. Isn’t the choice of a book for an incoming class of a college that decided to remain all-women an ideal opportunity to select a woman author for a common read? Mary Baldridge Remensnyder ’54 Exeter, NH
Widowhood The piece [fall 2006] on being widowed was welcome and long overdue. While focused primarily on the jolt of loss and the grieving period, it did touch upon the growth and development of one’s self as a person that can happen in the aftermath. However, the piece seemed to suggest that what comes after is necessarily second best to what came before.
But perhaps those charming butterflies in the illustrations said it better. Butterflies have always symbolized a moving from one state of being to another. This has traditionally been seen as referring to one who has passed, but it also applies to the one who remains. Widowhood is one of those life passages that can bring us what we allow it to. One may not wish to move from caterpillar to butterfly, but the freedom to be more of who one always had the potential to be can be seen as a possibility and a gift. I have been there. I lost my first husband after a long and loving marriage, and came upon the opportunity to test myself in different circumstances. I have been in a rewarding second marriage for ten years. My point is not that one should look for a new partner, but that one should be open to all possibilities, especially the possibility that a new phase of life can bring unforeseen rewards. May we all have the courage to find our wings! Diane Finn ShermanLevine ’50 Princeton, NJ
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Female President What a beautiful and vibrant photo of Joanne Creighton! [fall 2006] And what a change from the frumpy Roswell G. Ham we endured when I was in college! Let’s hope Mount Holyoke always has a female president! Janet L. Brown ’50 Chestnut Hill, MA
College Connections From Mountain Day and Christmas vespers to Italian studies in Bologna and Irish literature in Dublin, Mount Holyoke has truly built connections for our daughters as expressed by President Creighton [summer 2006]. Since 1998, our family has had the genuine privilege of being associated with this brilliantly dynamic school. Kate’s (’03) earlydecision acceptance in the waning days of that year’s fall began our connection and Kara’s (’07) fastapproaching final semester in South Hadley will bring about the bittersweet end to this rousing relationship. The college’s teaching of true literacy, with the goals to write clearly; argue coherently; speak gracefully; read to comprehend; judge the merits of an argument, and
appreciate complexities of thought and shades of feeling, is an indispensable guide for negotiating one’s way in the world. Mount Holyoke has been a bountiful mother who has cherished and challenged our daughters to enrich their lives while at the same time fervently encouraging them to have a constructive influence on those around them. Knowledge is indeed the singular recipe by which we nurture ourselves and our community, and this remarkable institution puts on a delightful feast! Edward R. Dalton Parent, Art Advisory Board fellow Framingham, MA
How to Say Holyoke Re: “Scrambled Pronunciation” in fall Viewpoints: Bravo, bravo, bravo !!! It is “whole yoke” !!! I face the same namechallenge with my first name, Stevia. This, too, should be pronounced with two syllables (“Steveya”). While most of my friends use the nickname, “Stevie” (which my mother deplored, quietly and not), some newer ones use my given name, most often with three syllables; I cringe. Ever since MHC years, I explain the “Steveya” and add, “It’s the same principle as the name of
my alma mater, Mount Hol-yoke.” Ah, well: my eastern relatives “get it,” for both. Hopefully MHC will do a better drilling job, lest a “sacred tree” (holy oak) replaces “a complete egg” (whole yoke) in present and future generations. Horrors!
I live near the town of Mount Holly. Then the tree reference brought to mind Elms College in Chicopee. It took me another moment to realize that the court reporter was referring to my alma mater. As Homer Simpson would say, “Doh!”
Stevia Warren Sargent Lesher ’55 Littleton, CO
Melissa R. Vance ‘84 Moorestown, N.J.
I was amused by the [fall 2006] letter regarding the pronunciation of Mount Holyoke. Just that day, I was reading a transcript of a hearing in which the expert had attended an Ivy League medical school, and “Mount Holly Oak” College. I was initially puzzled as
AA Renovations It is wonderful that the Alumnae Association office has had a renovation. It is the face of the association on campus, and as such should be a welcoming and gracious place. Mention was made [fall 2006] of the glorious stained glass windows.
Peter Viereck’s Legacy Renowned friends and literary colleagues gathered in November at Mount Holyoke to celebrate the life of poet Peter Viereck, who died in May 2006. Here, an alumna recalls a memorable professor. A piece on his legacy will appear in the next Quarterly. By the time I knew (of) him He was the beloved Crazy professor, storming the campus In open galoshes, open raincoat, wraparound Sunglasses even in the rain— So open, and yet so closed By the time I knew (of) him He was sneaking rolls into his coat pockets In the dining halls, blessed By the indulgent glances Of those young enough to be
Traver Artisans were Ann “Thomps” Thompson ’58 and her late husband, Ted. The first window created was Pegasus. It was a commission from the class of 1958 to honor our twenty-fifth reunion in 1983. The others were commissions from succeeding twenty-fifth reunion classes. I believe that the arched wood frames were the actual windows that were in place in the former association office in Dwight. [They are.] When the move was made to Mary Woolley, many of us wondered what would become of these treasures. Congratulations on the new look! Anne Ensworth Whitney ’58 South Dartmouth, MA
His great-grand-daughters By the time I knew (of) him He was the beloved Subject of rumor, the dangerous Author—he was George, from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”— He had had fallings-out, he had Eye injuries from The War, he Was a brilliant lunatic, he was Unapproachable By the time I knew (of) him I was unnerved— I took his class pass/fail— I did no work, but simply Enjoyed his presence He revenged my spinelessness He gave me an “A” Laura Nixon Dawson ’87 Brooklyn, NY
viewpoints
“ The college’s teaching of true literacy, with the goals to write clearly; argue coherently; speak gracefully; read to comprehend; judge the merits of an argument, and appreciate complexities of thought and shades of feeling, is an indispensable guide for negotiating one’s way in the world.”
We welcome letters reflecting the varying viewpoints of the Mount Holyoke community. Letters should be no more than 300 words, and we reserve the right to edit them for accuracy and clarity, and to meet space needs. Letters must be signed. Letters addressing topics discussed in the previous Quarterly are given priority. On any given topic, we will print letters that address it, and then in the next issue, letters that respond to the first letters. After that, we will move on to new topics. Send your thoughts, with your full name and class, to Mieke Bomann, Alumnae Quarterly, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486. Send emails to mbomann@ mtholyoke.edu.
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly
Wi n t e r 2 0 0 7
campuscurrents
Fall’s “gracious dinner” is just one manifestation of Dining Services’ quest to increase MHC’s use of locally grown food. Hadley asparagus or peppers, and top it off with an Amherst apple or ice cream churned in Greenfield.
Deerfield honey. Hadley tomatoes. Amherst apples. No longer the mealtime fare of a few local purists, area produce is often being served in college dining halls. Even as MHC thinks more and more globally, the food students eat is getting increasingly local. Although the amount of food MHC buys locally changes with the growing season and the availability of specific items from area vendors, student dining centers routinely serve locally grown products on a daily basis. For instance, a student might spread honey from South Deerfield on her morning toast, make a sandwich at lunch with Springfield hummus and sprouts, accompany a dinner entrée with
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
On September 28, Dining Services showcased its local/sustainable agriculture efforts by offering a “gracious dinner” in which almost everything served was grown or produced locally. From creamy pumpkin soup to the mixed berry pie, every bite was fresh from a source somewhere in the Pioneer Valley or Connecticut River Valley. With a menu that combined student preferences with local availability, the dinner featured, as main courses, free-range roast turkey with gravy, homemade stuffing and cranberry orange chutney, grilled barramundi (a fish native to Australia, but farm-raised locally) with artichoke tapenade; and vegan tomatoes stuffed with tofu and veggies. Side dishes included homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing and dinner rolls made with bread from the campus bakery’s ovens, butternut squash, green beans, and deviled eggs. For dessert, there were Cape Cod cranapple bars, blueberry/raspberry pie, and Bart’s ice cream.
Student requests prompted Dining Services’ efforts to increase the amount of local food served, and student reactions to September’s locally grown dinner were enthusiastic. “The food is delicious; there is no comparison,” said Becca Fabian ’07 after enjoying her dinner in Prospect Hall. MHC’s local-buying effort is only one aspect of a broader environmental and sustainable initiative begun on campus about two years ago. It also encompasses robust composting and recycling programs, use of fair-trade coffee, and waste-reduction practices. Buying locally isn’t as easy as it might seem, especially in New England. According to Dale Hennessey, director of Dining Services, the Northeast’s short growing season and small, spread-out farms mean that availability of local products can be dicey—and more expensive. “We want to buy local, but we must balance that with budget realities,” Hennessey explains. “It’s great that Dining Services is taking such a lead in promoting both healthy food choices and environmental sustainability,” says Lauret Savoy, director of MHC’s Center for the Environment. “Their responsible food buying and composting practices now pay closer attention to our ‘foodsheds’—the sources of our food and the destination of our food wastes.” E.H.W.
Fred Leblanc
Think Globally, Eat Locally
Today’s students are a technologically adept—and demanding—bunch, and colleges nationwide are in a sort of permanent arms race to match, if not better, each other’s computing capabilities. Mount Holyoke is no different and will soon be able to offer what technologists call a state-of-the-practice Internet environment as well as centralized wireless access in all residence halls.
MHC Science Alumnae Earn More Doctorates Than Other College Peers Mount Holyoke continues to lead the way in educating women in science. According to a National Science Foundation survey, the college ranked first among all liberal arts colleges in graduating women who went on to receive US doctorates in the life sciences (356) and in the physical sciences (109) from 1966 to 2004. This puts the school in the top 2 percent of all colleges and universities graduating women scientists— including major research universities with at least double MHC’s enrollment and faculty. Among all colleges and universities, Mount Holyoke ranks eighth (tied with Stanford and Wellesley) in the number of female graduates who earned U.S. doctorates in physics from 1966 to 2004; ninth in chemistry; and sixteenth in biology. Mount Holyoke also is a leader in educating international and minority students in the sciences. From 2000 to 2004, the college graduated more female non-US citizens who went on to receive US doctorates in the physical and life sciences than any other college or university. Twenty-three alumnae received US doctorates in life or physical sciences, compared with twenty-one women from the University of California-Berkeley, nineteen from Harvard University, and seventeen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among elite liberal arts colleges, Mount Holyoke ranks first in graduating minority women who went on to receive US doctorates (twenty-two total) in life and physical sciences from 2000 to 2004. Not surprisingly, science students at Mount Holyoke work side by side with accomplished faculty. Since 2000, members of the science faculty have been awarded more National Science Foundation grant money ($8.1 million) than any other leading liberal arts college, which translates into unique research opportunities for students. The science faculty mirrors the college’s diverse student population: of fifty-one full-time science faculty members, 57 percent are women, and 22 percent are individuals of color. Allison Gillis
campuscurrents
Technology Upgrades Include Wireless Access in Residence Halls
A fiber-optic loop linking Five College consortium members, including Mount Holyoke and in the works for the last five years, is nearing completion. Designed to increase bandwidth to the Internet for better access, faster connections to intensive applications, and increased traffic, the $3.3 million loop required negotiating with nearly a dozen towns to lay fiftythree miles of conduit and fiber runs. It ultimately will reduce Internet operating costs for the five institutions and is scheduled to be fully operational in early 2007. Wireless Internet access, popularized by the coffee giant Starbucks and de rigueur at campuses everywhere, enables a computer user to hook up to the Internet without plugging into a wall socket. Currently available in several public places on campus but lacking integrated structure, wireless access administered through a central server will be available in all residence halls by the end of summer 2007, says Scott Coopee, director of infrastructure, systems, and support for the office of Library, Information, and Technology Services. M.H.B.
Junk food isn’t cheap. Vending machines are hugely inefficient, energy-wise. By getting rid of the unpopular ones, and installing motion sensors on the rest to shut them down when no one’s using them, the college will save $10,000 annually—and twentyseven tons of CO2.
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
campuscurrents Mount Blog: A Window Into Campus Life Whether it’s a firstie making sense of campus life or a pennywise student jubilant over the low cost of a grilled cheese at Blanchard, Mount Blog, the Alumnae Association’s new Web log, offers fun and insightful snippets of campus life. The new feature, which you may access by going to alumnae.mtholyoke.edu and clicking on “Experience Virtual Café” and then “Mount Blog,” also offers comments by staff members and discussion opportunities about interesting books and new technology. Come take a look, comment on the blogs that interest you, and read what others think, too.
21 Number of alumnae who currently serve overseas with the Peace Corps, representing the greatest number of graduates from any single women’s college.
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
College in Midst of Self-Study for Reaccreditation Mount Holyoke is up for reaccreditation in 2007, a two-year process that involves a massive self-study along with a review of its performance by its peers. Fully confident of receiving a passing mark from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the regional accrediting body relevant to MHC, the college is also using the effort to measure its progress in achieving the goals of its own long-range Plan for 2010, as well as to respond to the growing demand for accountability in higher education nationwide. The first step of the process is the self-study, which usually results in 100 pages of evidence that the college is doing what, in fact, it says its does, according to Sally Sutherland, associate dean of faculty. Next October, a visiting team of academics and senior administrators will spend three to four days at the college, matching up MHC’s own assessment of its strengths and weaknesses with firsthand investigation by the team. Ten years ago, when the process was last completed, the issues worrying the college were finances, admissions, and faculty workload. This time round, Sutherland said, a major focus will be the academic program and student learning, with lots of attention again to finances and admissions. M.H.B.
Literary colleagues and friends of Peter Viereck came to campus in November to honor the recently deceased professor and poet in a series of panel discussions celebrating his art and scholarship. The next Quarterly will include a piece on Viereck’s legacy. Speaking of poetry, The Poetry Bus Tour, sponsored by Wave Books and carrying a rotating group of 200-plus poets to fifty venues across North America in fifty days, made a stop at MHC in September.
Learning by Doing: Science Comes Full Circle
Jane Chung ’07, Cathy Johnson FP’06, Alicia Hunsaker ’07, and biology professor Rachel Fink (left to right) sport their Mosier Science Buddies T-shirts at the South Hadley elementary school.
25 Mount Holyoke’s ranking in the women’s academic category for student golfers interested in academics first, golf second, according to Golf Digest’s annual College Golf Guide.
Rachel Fink has carried her “Tupperware tide pool” through the hallways of Mosier Elementary School in South Hadley at least half a dozen times. Curious to know what’s in her dripping buckets, the children respond enthusiastically when she has them sit in a circle on the floor, puts some sea creature in a dish, and pulls out the video microscopy cart.
campuscurrents
B r ainsto r ms
Having a camera attached to a microscope allows all the kids to see what’s on the stage of the microscope by projecting an image onto a television screen—and revealing the wonders of, say, the tiny beating heart of a fish embryo. That kind of “wow, look at this” factor stimulates the kids’ “true passion for scientific inquiry,” Fink relates. It was experiences like this that moved Fink, a professor of biology at MHC and the mother of two students at Mosier, to establish the Mosier Science Buddies program two years ago. It brings MHC science undergraduates interested in sharing inquiry-based learning—read: making science fun—into the local school. The educational value of the Science Buddies program works both ways, she underscores. If you have to effectively explain a difficult concept to an eight-year-old, you better have a good understanding of it yourself. Sharing scientific knowledge, learning to think on your feet, and recognizing the importance of community outreach are all evident in the program. Alicia Hunsaker ’07 is a two-year veteran of the program. A biology and politics double major, she joined Science Buddies not because she wants to teach when she graduates —she plans to get advanced degrees in law and public health and then focus on a career in bioethics—but to make science accessible to young children. “Lots of little kids fear math and science, and the kids respond well to having someone my age who really likes science. I had someone like that in my elementary school. She just made things so much fun.” Even as her own children have moved on to middle school, Fink says she hopes to leave a legacy of greater engagement between the college and Mosier. “I would like to give these [MHC] students opportunities to become confident in their ability to do science by helping teach science.” M.H.B.
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
campuscurrents S tudent E dge
Computer Science, Far From Dead, Wants You! Lisa Ballesteros, MHC associate professor of computer science, last summer was one of about 100 academics to attend the Google Faculty Summit in Mountain View, California. Among other issues, the two-day summit addressed the ways in which Google, one of the most popular search engines on the Internet, and academic institutions can work together to increase enrollment diversity in computer science and other technical fields. Although the number of technical jobs is increasing nationally, computer science departments across American institutions have seen a drop in enrollments of more than 60 percent since 2000, according to the Computing Research Association. More worrisome, women and minorities are grossly underrepresented nationally in computer science and engineering, and enrollment by women has dropped more than 90 percent since its peak in the early 1980s. Several factors likely influence the decline, said Ballesteros, including lack of computing courses in secondary school, the notion that female students struggle with a lack of confidence over their performance in computing courses, the collapse of the dot-com boom, and the perception that opportunities in computing are vanishing. Too, there is the unfortunate stereotype of the computer scientist as a Dilbert-esque character isolated in a cubicle. The reality is that the number of technology jobs is increasing, particularly in areas of innovation and analysis. At Mount Holyoke, roughly ten students graduate with computing degrees each year. “We are working to … more clearly articulate what makes computing an exciting field to be in,” Ballesteros says. M.H.B.
The Cutting Edge of Social Security Unlike many of her senior friends who are “freaking out” about finding jobs after graduation, Margaret “Jo” Jensen ’08 has a solid understanding of her value in an economic system that rewards drive, self-knowledge, and a spirit of confidence. Jensen, who this year is president of the Student Government Association, has spent a good part of her college years mastering the ins and outs of public Jo Jensen ’08 policy in Washington. D.C., especially as it relates to Social Security. A policy and economics major, she first became fascinated with the troubled national retirement program while taking a tax-policy class. After several rounds as a summer intern for various congressmen in Washington, D.C., she learned about the nascent group Students for Saving Social Security (www.secureourfuture. org). The appeal was instant. “We’re really on the cutting edge here,” says Jensen of the group. “I had the opportunity to have my two cents and give my generation a voice. We’re in new territory.” Indeed, her passion for the issue led to a remarkable string of promotions within the nonprofit, so that by fall of her junior year, which she took off to remain working in D.C., Jensen had risen to acting national director, a paid position. The satisfaction of working with donors, making hiring decisions, collaborating with White House staffers to organize presidential events, and seeing the student group grow to 4,500 members in just one year makes her current scramble to make up the credits she lost that term easier to swallow. ( Jo insists she will graduate with her class in 2007; as we go to press, the college lists her graduation year as 2008.) “After talking to members of Congress and being on television (CSPAN), I’m definitely more confident. I’ve learned to value all the things that everyone brings to the table,” she adds. Her campus leadership duties this year don’t stop with the presidential gavel. She is also head of the campus College Republicans, executive director of the Massachusetts College Republicans, and founder of the student Conservative Women’s Caucus. She credits Mount Holyoke for being a good breeding ground for women leaders and credits her mother, the first woman dean of the Coast Guard Academy, for providing an early role model. “I don’t think you can do everything,” she muses about the juggling act women perform with work and parenthood. “It just depends on finding a balance.” M.H.B.
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
B y the N umbe r s The fall sports season got under way with several early accomplishments. The riding team, last year’s national champions, proved they’re still the team to beat with a decisive victory at the Preseason Tournament of Champions in Virginia. Four riders placed first in their events, and senior Nathalie Cooper earned champion honors in the Medal Class. The Lyons then sailed into their regular season with a victory at the Smith College Horse Show Emily Groth ’07 on October 7. Volleyball senior Emily Groth set two MHC career records early on, breaking the all-time kills mark on September 12 (set by Naomi Tuffour ’02 with 744 kills) and smashing the all-time service aces record on October 8 (set by Carla Rauseo ’00 with 187 aces). Tennis clinched third place in the final NEWMAC standings with a win over Clark on October 14. Tennis duo Aleksandra Mihailovic ’07 and Meaghan Sloane ’08 have had great success at the third doubles duo, dropping only one NEWMAC match all season. The crew team’s Varsity-4 boat got off to a speedy start, placing second among Division III competition at the Head of the Housatonic on October 7. The V-4 placed thirteen seconds behind Coast Guard and well ahead of seven other boats. Bridget Gunn, sports information director
What Happened to
2006 Grads? A whopping 94 percent of respondents in the class of 2006 were satisfied with their MHC education, and most hoped to be working right after graduation, according to the results of the annual senior survey, administered during graduation rehearsal and released in fall. Eighty-eight percent of graduating seniors responded.
72 18 1o
Who’s Going Where
campuscurrents
F a l l S ports H i g h l i g hts
percent hoped to be employed
percent planned on graduate or professional school
percent were volunteering or traveling
57 47 40 28 15 13 11
Academic Highlights
percent did independent study or research
Incoming Students Lend a Hand Locally This past fall, more than 400 new students explored the Pioneer Valley by participating in Second Saturday, an annual daylong program of recreational activities and community-service projects led by upper-class students, faculty, staff, and alumnae.
percent completed internships domestically
Making quilts for HIV/AIDS newborns in Ashfield, repairing the MHC Outing Club’s cabin, and harvesting fall crops at the Food Bank Farm in Hadley were a few of the twenty-nine activities offered.
percent studied abroad
B ottom photo : F red L e B lanc
top photo : J ohn R isle y
percent worked on a faculty member’s research
percent studied off-campus domestically
Hannah Smith ’10 brings new luster to an old engine at the Old Firehouse Museum in South Hadley.
percent completed internships abroad
percent published or presented a paper off-campus
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
Friends Forever? Alumnae Who Never Let Go of the Laurel Chain
hree months before graduating last May, Amy Cavanaugh ’06 read in class notes about a group of alumnae remarkably like her own friends. A moving tribute by friends of the late Carolyn Captain Johnson ’66 made her wonder, “Am I going to be in contact with my Mount Holyoke friends forever? Are we all going to stay in touch?” Amy arranged for the two groups of friends to meet during her graduation (and their reunion) weekend. Despite the forty-year age difference between them, the women discovered they share common ground in having formed intimate friendships at Mount Holyoke and in their commitment to make those friendships last. The older “sisterhood of twelve” has stayed close over the decades despite moves, career changes, and developing families. Johnson’s passing made them “weaker by one, but also stronger because of our determination to remain closer than ever as the years go by,” wrote Carolyn’s friends in class notes.
10
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
C o u r t e s y o f S u s a n S wa n t o n / J am e s L a t h r o p
B y Mai le Martí nez ’03
Lois Wray Flynn ’32 (left) and Margaret Stallman Ruth ’32 are shown here in the early days of their seventy-sevenyear friendship.
11
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
Staying in Touch Though the tight-knit 1966 group is remarkable in its staying power and closeness, it is not at all unique among Mount Holyoke alumnae. Lois Wray Flynn ’32 and Margaret Stallman Ruth ’32 met their first year at college, when both lived in South Rockefeller. Although Flynn was given a single room among seniors on the third floor, she reached out to her freshman classmates on the fourth floor, Ruth recalls. Their friendship, started that year, lasted seventy-seven years, until Flynn’s death this past October. In recent years, the nonagenarian friends lived two miles away from each other in Rochester, New York, retirement communities. Ruth and Flynn visited at alumnae club teas and attended several reunions together, including their sixty-fifth. Until Flynn’s death, the alums kept in touch through Flynn’s niece, who read the Quarterly aloud to her aunt and gave her news of Ruth and other classmates.
Dana Bayliss Whedon ’95 is emphatic about the significant role that alumnae friends have played in her adult life. “They have been with me through everything. We’ve all been in each others’ weddings; they’ve come to every important event in my life,” she says. Whedon moved to Atlanta, Georgia, after graduating, partly to be closer to Traci Goodman Gravelle ’95 and Susannah Scott ’94, whom she met “within the first three days of being at Mount Holyoke, working in the kitchen doing dishes.” Though Gravelle and Scott moved away, leaving Whedon in Atlanta (Scott has since moved back), Mount Holyoke traditions have
12
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
B. Amy Cavanaugh ’06 (fourth from left) and classmates sport red gifts from their new friends in the class of 1966.
C.
Stacy-Colleen Nameth ’94, Aimee Letson ’93, and Nadene Tabari Bradburn ’94, with Aimee’s daughter and Nadene’s sons
t o p p h o t o : K e n n e t h C . C a v a n a u gh
hough Jackson’s friends have scattered up and down the eastern seaboard, they continue to have an impact on her life. While looking for her first postcollege job, she says, “I gravitated toward cities where I knew there would be clusters of my friends.” Ultimately settling in the Washington, DC, area, she lived with Francesca Cook ’86 for several years. Cook and Jackson now work near each other, and often see Jackson’s first-year roommate, Heather Morgan ’86. Jackson has enjoyed watching these friendships evolve as she and her friends attended graduate school, got married, changed careers, and had children. “Just knowing that everybody was in a new phase, starting over or doing something new—but [that] we were all doing it together—made it less daunting, less scary somehow,” she says. Over the years, the topics of the conversations among her friends have changed from academic stress to career angst to family advice, “but they’re no less frequent.” Jackson adds, “These are my travel buddies; we still try to toss off the mantle of adulthood and just really have a good time.”
“Sisterhoods” from two generations gathered in May to celebrate the importance of MHC friendships.
B o t t o m p h o t o : c o u r t e s y o f S t ac y - C o ll e e n Nam e t h
On graduation day in 1986, Kayla Jackson recalls, “I burst into tears walking across the stage upon realizing I wasn’t going to see these people every day, and they weren’t going to be living downstairs or just a four-digit phone call away. This was in the days before e-mail, and so I really realized what it meant not to have that network around me so closely.” Jackson has made it a priority to maintain ties with her alumnae friends, many of whom she met doing groan-inducing work-study tasks her first year: “It was lovely to bond over our hatred of waitressing and dishwashing,” she says.
helped keep them close over the years and distance. They call to wish each other a happy Mountain Day, and they have shared Thanksgiving dinner at Whedon’s parents’ house in Pennsylvania—a tradition begun their first year at Mount Holyoke. “For two years after we graduated they still came to my house for Thanksgiving, even though they weren’t [living] near there anymore,” Whedon recalls. She values her friendships above other Mount Holyoke benefits. “I’ve been friends with these girls for fourteen years—that’s the longest I’ve been friends with anybody—and they still come when I need them. I had a baby, they came. I had a wedding, they [came] no matter where they were; Susannah flew in from Ireland for Traci’s wedding.”
Jen Mele ’93 (left) and Amy Coyle ‘97 didn’t know one another at MHC, but became good friends after graduation.
Even alumnae who do not see one another frequently report a special intimacy with their Mount Holyoke friends. Leigh Denault ’01 speaks fondly of the friendships that have seen her through difficult times, including serious illness: “My friends from Mount Holyoke were incredibly supportive, visiting me in the hospital, calling from all over the country and sending me tons of e-mails. I never felt as though I was going through the experience alone.” Denault and husband Robert are now based in England, and her research has taken her to India. Still, she reflects, “Even though I don’t see my friends from Mount Holyoke as much as I would like, especially now that we are living overseas, there is a sort of instant closeness whenever and wherever we can manage to meet. Even if we can only see each other once a year it feels as if we are picking up a conversation after a brief interruption.”
Challenges Although many alumnae enjoy lasting friendships formed at Mount Holyoke, some admit challenges to postgraduation camaraderie. Claire McClain ’03 and Amy Bernhardt ’03 moved to Maine after marrying in 2004. “Meeting new people has been so hard after MHC,” McClain confesses, “I got really spoiled living within walking distance of so many smart, fun, like-minded women. Now, I feel like my options are very limited.” Though McClain exchanges e-mails and phone calls with friends from Mount Holyoke, distance and financial constraints get in the way. “Both Amy and I have such small incomes that it is really hard to do things with friends, such as go out to dinner with local acquaintances or fly to visit old friends.”
B o t t o m p h o t o : s c o t t s u chma n
Traci Goodman Gravelle (left) and Dana Bayliss Whedon (with Dana’s daughter Maddy) at their 10th reunion in 2005
Francesca Cook ’86 (left) and Kayla Jackson ’86, former roommates, now work near one another.
Changing priorities after graduation also have an impact on alumnae friendships. After graduating in art history, Alanna Minta Jordan ’02 moved to Paris to be with her French boyfriend, and to pursue museum and gallery work. Focusing intensely on her career and her relationship bumped friendships down the priority list. Initially Jordan worked at a boutique, where she spent most of the day interacting with others. “When I first got here, I felt like I didn’t need as many friendships as I do now,” she admits. “Spending my day talking and socializing, sometimes I just wanted to go home and hang out with my boyfriend.” But her attitude toward friendships changed after taking a position at the Fondation Cartier, a contemporary art center. “I have a job that’s more isolated, with less contact with other people. Now that I have my professional life more on the upswing, I need to pay attention to my personal life.” Jordan would like to reach out to potential friends, but work remains her priority. Such responsibilities can drain energy alumnae might like to devote to friendships. Jordan says, “It’s a question of getting out there [to socialize] and not falling asleep because I’m so tired.” And even if an alum has the energy to form new friendships, Kris Woolery ’96 says, “it’s really hard to find the quality of relationships that I had with the women I met at Mount Holyoke.” Woolery feels lucky to have stumbled upon a new group of friends while doing graduate work at the University of California at Davis. She tapped into a community of queer people of color who supported her through the difficult process of “coming out” to her parents. These new friends were there for her when her MHC friends were no longer living conveniently down the hall, available for late-night crisis interventions. Woolery remains close with her friends from college and graduate school, but she has not been as successful in cultivating a similar community since relocating to the Washington, DC, area four years ago. She says, “It was actually one of my New Year’s resolutions to change that!”
13
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
14
p a u l s ch n ai t t ach e r
Web Extra: For more alumnae comments on their MHC friendships, please see alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/friends.
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Overcoming the Challenges Stacy-Colleen Nameth ’94, a licensed clinical social worker, points out that many college friendships arise from a need for “social support” during difficult times. Mount Holyoke’s rigorous academics and sometimes overwhelming array of activities can create “a stressful situation, where you really need help coping,” she says. For Nameth, the stress came when she transferred to Mount Holyoke junior year. “It was really strange because most people had already begun friendships,” she says. “So I ended up walking around my dorm. I knocked on people’s doors and introduced myself. It was kind of cheesy, but I really had no idea how to start meeting people!” Her method worked; Nameth bonded with Aimee Letson ’93, Tiffany Brown ’95, Nadene Tabari Bradburn ’94, and Jennifer Schwartz ’94, among others. They gave her the social support she needed at the time, and have continued to do so since. Nameth revels in the latest incarnation of her friendships: “It’s so great to see my friends’ kids. It’s incredible to see mini versions of people that I went to college with. We were all kids together, and now it’s crazy to see a new generation of my own friends.” After graduation, in the absence of MHC’s social supports, many alumnae reach out into the community. Some of Whedon’s closest post–Mount Holyoke friendships arose from her “desperation” to connect with other young mothers during her first pregnancy. “I needed to seek out people who I could ask questions of, who were going through it with me,” Whedon says, “so I joined an exercise class for moms.”
Until Flynn’s death this October, Lois Wray Flynn ’32 and Margaret Stallman Ruth ’32 kept in touch through Flynn’s niece, who read the Quarterly aloud to her aunt and gave her news of Ruth and other classmates.
Jen Mele ’93 was worried about her social life declining after moving to a suburban area. “So I requested a list of grads ten years out and invited them to a ‘young alum brunch’ at my house,” Mele says. “One of them, Amy Coyle ’97, became one of my closest friends, even though I moved to Boston a year later. Although we were not at MHC at the same time, that shared experience helps to bond us. We talk by phone almost daily, know each other’s families well (her mom is like a second mom to me), take vacations together, and have supported each other through difficult times.” Claire McClain and Amy Bernhardt started attending the Unitarian Universalist Church when they lived in western Maine, and McClain says it “has been a real haven.” They drive an hour each way to attend services, but make that sacrifice to connect with “like-minded, progressive-minded people” in the church community. Woolery has pushed herself to find new friends: “I had to change my rituals. I had to take risks, to do things like going to the hip-hop theater festival, and just being out there and meeting other people.” However, she agrees with alumnae who say that nothing can replace Mount Holyoke friendships. “I think they’re my closest friends because they experienced my personal development. They met me as a teenager, and together we grew into the women we are today. We shared ideas, dialogued about theories that were being introduced to us, we were active on campus … we lived out our lives and witnessed that for each other.” Amy Cavanaugh ’06, impressed by the forty-year friendships she observed among the 1966 alumnae, vows to keep her MHC friends close in spirit if not in person. “To maintain friendships, you need to be willing to make the effort,” she says. They’re not going to maintain themselves. You have to call someone, send an email, or plan a reunion. But with my friends, just a little bit of effort has just gone such a long way.” ❐ While completing a master’s in European literature and culture at the University of Cambridge, England, Maile Martínez ’03 stayed in touch with her MHC friends on MySpace.com.
15
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
A Fresh Take
B y E m i l y H a r r i s o n We i r
M
ost people visiting the Caribbean island of Antigua gravitate toward beaches, not gritty social conditions. Not Jessica Croll ’08. Last January, Jessica found her way to the Antiguan town of Parham —“a village where chemicals and sludge from the tourist hotels run down the streets where the kids play.” Camera in hand, she spoke and played with local children, documenting both their individual stories and the larger saga of how tourism affects Antiguans.
16
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Pa r h a m B o y s i n t h e R a i n ( s h o t J a n ua r y 2 0 0 6 i n A n t i g ua ) b y J e s s i c a C r o l l
Jessica Croll ’08 Turns Her Lens on Humanity Around the World
17
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
“If I could design my own job, I would use photography to raise awareness of social issues,” she says. Croll took another step in that direction after Vincent Ferraro’s MHC course in world politics got her very interested in what is going on in the Middle East. While traveling with Thomas Shaw, the Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, Croll photographed the West Bank and lived with a Palestinian family. Despite machine guns on every roof, piles of rotting garbage, and other Jessica Croll daily challenges, Croll calls her time there “one of the best experiences of my life.” Croll later exhibited these photos in western Massachusetts galleries and coffee shops. “I’ve always admired people from other cultures, and am envious of people with such rich cultures that are so mysterious to me,” Croll explains. While still in high school, she lived with Native Americans in the Taos Pueblo, as part of a National Geographic-sponsored photography program. This summer she plans to work in New York with photographer Steve McCurry, famed for his haunting National Geographic cover shot of an Afghan girl. Though Croll’s artistic medium is a silent one, talking is key to her photographic endeavors. “I talk to everyone,” Croll admits. Being a young woman, she says, lets her ask questions without intimidating anyone. Still, she says, her curiosity sometimes worries her parents. For example, some might have shied away from the subject of her portrait Motorcycle Grandpa, a man with unkempt hair and a forbidding glare. But Croll engaged him in conversation because he smelled like linseed oil, which she associated with oil painting. The man, a former college professor, and Croll later discussed painting perspective over lemonade in his studio. “I am attracted to people different from myself. I am still defining my own beliefs, and the more I learn, the more it helps me,” she explains.
P h o t o o f jessica C r o ll : M andy C arnley
Thanks to her parents’ encouragement, Croll picked up her first camera about three years ago. Although fairly new to this art form, Croll grew up with “lots of art in my home and going to museums all the time,” and has made her own art since childhood.
18
As a high school senior, Croll took a course that required her to interview women’s college students and alumnae. Suddenly, the selfdescribed shy person became less reserved. “I learned that one of the best ways to get people talking is to say, ‘I’m in a class; tell me about yourself.’ They’ll tell you their story.” Croll still finds the camera a useful way to get to know people. For her, the photos are more a means to that end than an aesthetic goal in themselves. Croll’s genuine interest in people seems to help others open up and share their lives with her, and that same honesty shows in her photos. “Gaining someone’s trust,” Croll says, “is the best gift one can be given.” ❐
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
A.
B.
C.
E.
D.
Photos by Jessica Croll, clockwise from upper left: A. Boy with Gun (January 2006, West Bank settlement of shepherds);
B. Female Model; C. Motorcycle Grandpa; D. Mackenzie and Red Leaves; E. Shepherd’s Daughter (January 2006, Lajee refugee camp, West Bank)
19
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
She has a
dream Gloria Johnson-Powell ’58 Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize of racial equality By S u s a n B u s h e y ’ 9 6
20
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Following dreams was part of Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell’s life even before birth. Her dreams began with her mother’s hope that Gloria would attend Mount Holyoke, and they have yet to finish. From her home in Roxbury, Massachusetts, it was off to Mount Holyoke in 1954, then to medical school, marching for civil rights, and getting advice from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; moving to Africa, then to the University of Minnesota, to UCLA, and on to tenure at Harvard; and now heading an NIH-funded comprehensive center on minority health and health disparities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Gloria’s mother worked for a family whose daughter looked at Mount Holyoke. Upon seeing the campus, her mother fell in love. “If I had not gone to Mount Holyoke College, where people were so accepting of who I was, I would [not be] where I am today. I have had lifelong friends and it is the college that my mother had hoped she could go to, even though she knew she couldn’t, but hoped I could go to. It was her dream. It was my dream. You just don’t get so many dreams to come true. I’ve been very blessed,” she said. Along the way, Johnson-Powell—a child psychiatrist and pediatrician who became one of the first African American women tenured at Harvard—received a piece of advice that she’ll never forget. It was from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a meeting of students organizing and marching for civil rights in the 1960s. “Dr. King was in Nashville … We told him we needed to continue the freedom rides so the world would know we wouldn’t be deterred by violence. I told Dr. King I would leave medical school to recruit more students. Dr. King banged his hand on the table, pointed his finger at me, and said, ‘You will stay in school because one of these days we’re going to need you,’” she explained. “He knew … and he was determined I should not give up the dream.”
B r e n t nicas t r o
Forty years later, there is still a need to fight for the rights of minorities, and JohnsonPowell is still fighting.
THE ROAD TO RESEARCH Johnson-Powell ended up at the University of Wisconsin by pure luck. She was on sabbatical from Harvard and received an offer to be the dean responsible for recruiting minorities. “I said, ‘I think I might know how to do that,’” she recalls. That was in 2000. Her plan to achieve this goal was to open the Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare. Under the auspices of this newly formed center, Johnson-Powell and her staff could apply for federal grants and begin attracting more diverse faculty and students to campus. Their first application—to study cardiovascular issues—was rejected, but their second—to study maternal/child health disparities—was funded. The grant came from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities at the NIH. The center was created by legislation signed by former President Bill Clinton in 2000. “He enacted a minority health and health disparity act, which said there would be a new center at the NIH to address these issues. It was called the first civil-rights legislation for the twenty-first century. If we hadn’t had the civil rights of the ’60s … we would not have looked at health disparities … among minorities,” she said. Johnson-Powell says her current work hits home because of the minority ties and the civil-rights ties. “It’s civil-rights legislation and it seemed to me something I wanted to be a part of,” she said.
THE CENTER The center addresses disparities in health and health outcomes. Focusing on maternal and child health disparities in particular, the center explores health differences between white and nonwhite mothers and children, and what can be done to reduce or eliminate the disparities. “We have many, many challenges,” said the doctor. “First, you have to focus your interventions in the area with the largest number of minorities. That put us in Milwaukee,” she said, noting it is the fourth-poorest city in the country. With Milwaukee as the main focus, Johnson-Powell and partners in the state department of health and family services are implementing a nurse home-visit program.
“We’re looking at the six ZIP codes with the largest infant-mortality rates. … It’s been a really challenging effort,” she said, but the program has seen some success meeting its initial goals. Four faculty in UW health sciences are conducting research in minority health disparities, and there are partnerships with all University of Wisconsin schools. “We’re trying to make this a center without walls … When you are doing maternal/family/children’s health, it has to be multidisciplinary,” she said. Though the center’s focus is on African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Southeast Asians, Johnson-Powell said that a large population of poor whites could be included too. “It has just been incredible,” she said, noting how word is spreading about the center. “The phone has been ringing off the hook. Students come to see us to work in the community. I don’t think I thought this would have gone this far when I came in 2000. I just knew I knew how to get minorities together,” she said.
FAMILY TIES With such a strong dream of attending Mount Holyoke, Johnson-Powell’s mother helped propel her through life. What did Johnson-Powell pass on to her two daughters—one is married to an architect in Germany and the other is in Iraq coordinating the new constitution’s development—and son, who is getting a degree in political science “to write some fiery books”? “We wanted them to have an allegiance to something above and beyond where they live,” she said. “We taught them to say, ‘I am not made for one corner of the earth. The whole earth is my native land.’ It’s a really hard world and we’re very proud of them.” With the inspiration of her mother, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Mount Holyoke, Johnson-Powell achieved every early dream and then some. “How in the world did all of this happen to a welfare child with a … mother trying to raise her five children alone in Roxbury?” Johnson-Powell sometimes asks herself. “I will [remember to] the very moment that I die that the Lord has been incredibly generous to me.” ❐ Susan Bushey ’96 is editor of the Lexington Minuteman and the Burlington Union.
21
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
22
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Meredith Minkin ’95
5.
Midcourse Correction How to Get Back to Work (or Back to Better Work) at Midcareer
By K a ra C . B a s k i n ’ 0 0 In the old days, nine-to-five was usually cut and dried. You toiled at one job until retirement, earned a potluck farewell fiesta and, if you were lucky, got a shiny new watch. Not anymore. Careers are fluid. People take time off to have children (or they decide they can’t bear to watch one more episode of Blue’s Clues and run for the résumé paper). Art history majors become doctors; lawyers become chefs; stay-at-home moms launch their own companies. Switching paths doesn’t imply a dilettante streak or a lack of work ethic; it happens all the time—up to fifteen times in the course of a lifetime, according to some estimates. But just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s easy; reentering the workforce after an extended absence, or segueing from one field to another, requires confidence, creativity, and most of all, careful planning. San Diego-based executive coach Alandria G. Saifer ’90 knows firsthand that many people wake up one day realizing they’ve outgrown their jobs. In a world where instant gratification is often the norm and risk taking is a sign of courage, it’s tempting to simply quit in search of your destiny. (Life is short, right?) While it’s important to follow your dreams, Saifer encourages pairing passion
with practicality. “The advice that I give my clients is to figure out where their passion lies while they still have a well-paying job, even if they’re not happy in it,” she says. “As all job hunters know, it is much easier to get a job when you already have a job. In this way, they can ease into a transition—take classes, write a business plan, interview, whatever needs to happen to be ready for the next role—while still earning an income. I’m currently working with one client who is an engineer but dreams of becoming a fitness instructor for the aging population. She took classes, got certified, and is now teaching part-time at her job site. When she’s ready, she’ll be able to make an easy transition to a full-time fitness instructor with experience, and a decently padded bank account.” Often, what propels people from one job to another is plain old ennui. When boredom strikes—but direct deposit is still in effect— it’s time to start pounding the pavement for greener pastures. Jennifer Banks Rocha ’94 put these lessons to good use as she segued out of a job as project manager at MassTech Collaborative, based in Westboro, Massachusetts. Although she enjoyed the work, she’d been there for more than six years and craved fresh challenges. “I think I had the
(premature) seven-year itch,” she laughs. “And I knew that if I didn’t make the change now, I’d never do it. But I was shy about pursuing it—was I ready to take this kind of risk in my mid-thirties?” It took her two months to make a move. In addition to discussing options with her husband, she phoned Cori Ashworth at Mount Holyoke’s Career Development Center for some objective advice. “Having an impartial third party really helped,” she says. “But most of all, I determined I was 100 percent committed to leaving my job. If you want to leave, make sure you don’t have a doubt,” she urges. Confident in her choice, she left the comfort of her old position and easily made the transition to the Nano Science and Technology Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she currently works as a publications director. “I’d been watching their company for a couple years, and they’d been watching my work,” she says. “I got the job through connections. I didn’t answer an ad. Networking was important.” But what if you’ve given up all hope of finding your dream job, don’t have any connections, and are clawing the walls of your cubicle, desperate to escape—to anywhere? It’s still vital
23
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
to bide your time and perform your tasks with grace, says Saifer. Difficult, perhaps, but worth it in the long run. “There’s a panic that can set in where someone feels that they just have to ‘get out of here,’ and they take the first thing that comes along in order to escape instead of planning for a transition that makes sense,” Saifer says. “You have to think about both where you are going and where you are leaving. I always coach my clients to ‘leave on a high note’: Finish what they started, identify a successor, and make sure that all of their work is transitioned to a new person before they depart. In this way, no matter how much they hated the job, at least they are proud of the work that they did while they were there and can feel good about their departure.” No matter how grueling a job, always leave on good terms, she advises. You never know when you might need that serpentine boss for a reference.
Get Back on Track Returning to the working world after an extended hiatus requires equal savvy—plus, sometimes, an enterprising spirit. Julie Doyle-Madrid ’98 was working in the HIV-prevention and services field before taking time off to have her son, Will, now 2½. Doyle-Madrid faced a common dilemma: reconciling professional ambition with maternal instinct—not to mention a desire for grown-up companionship and more money. But, with her partner working full-time, she also didn’t want to compromise time with their son. “This time in his life is too important to miss,” she says. “He needs that one-onone attention. But I missed the intellectual stimulation of talking to adults.” So last November, she and a job-seeking friend launched their own business, Houston-based Trifecta Consultants, drawing on Doyle-Madrid’s previous relationships with nonprofits in grant writing and fund development. DoyleMadrid works from home three days a week, from 8:30 until 2:30, while her son is in school. It’s during this precious time, she says, that she abandons “mommy mode.” “It’s all about having a routine, finding a ritual,” she explains. “I never come downstairs until I’ve showered. I make coffee, sit at my computer for a half-hour, give myself some time to check e-mail.” Doyle-Madrid doesn’t advertise
24
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
that she works from home or part-time. But clients who are aware of her situation take her just as seriously as they would were she in an office, as long as she gets her work done. “It’s all about time management,” she says. Gianna Pedace Allentuck ’93’s career has been a study in time management—and transitions. After graduating from college, she “flitted around” before settling into a nannying position for three years. Eventually, the kids got older and it was time to move on. Not sure what came next, Allentuck signed on with a staffing agency and landed at a pharmaceutical law firm. Though it wasn’t her dream job, she made the most of the position. Starting as a secretary, she eventually became a manager. But, six years later, something was missing. She longed to work with kids again. Married by this time and with a baby, Sontino, on the way, Allentuck enrolled in Johns Hopkins University’s counseling program. She completed it while working and parenting an infant. “Don’t be afraid to take longer than the norm,” she advises. “I only started with one class, whereas most people took three or four. As Mount Holyoke women, it’s sometimes hard for us to slow down and take our time, but it really helps.” After completing her program—and giving birth to a second child, Cecilia—Allentuck applied for a position as a school counselor in Loudon County, Virginia. Although her pharmaceutical law background was unconventional, Allentuck says she was one of the most sought-after candidates. This was thanks to a solid game plan. Not only did she prepare a traditional cover letter and résumé, she also went a step further, writing a personal statement explaining her career shifts and her commitment to the counseling field. “In this world of being bombarded by résumés, it was a way to stand out,” she says. With the statement, she turned a potential liability (little applicable experience) into an asset. “I’d been in the corporate world—been
there, done that,” Allentuck says. “And, even though I had a secure job, I made the leap to this new field, took the steps to get there. I used it as a way to show I was committed. I wouldn’t be doing this unless I truly wanted to.” And, when interviewers asked about her two young children, Allentuck immediately deflected any red flags by explaining that her son was in school and her daughter was enrolled in a stable day-care program. Plus, she had the encouragement of her husband. “It’s important to show you have support,” she says. Allentuck landed the job, but family circumstances forced her to resign shortly thereafter. She and her family are now in the process of relocating to Massachusetts to be closer to her parents. This means the job search will begin once more—and, unfortunately, the state requires a licensing exam for counselors. Allentuck now hopes to work in the juvenile-probation field, and she’s approaching the search optimistically. “Don’t be ashamed to network!” she urges. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Make a list of every person you know. I’ve asked plenty of alums for help in the past—people I’d consider a big deal—and they were nice as nice could be.” In her current search, Allentuck sought out a former high school classmate who works in the probation field. “He said, ‘Why are you calling me? You were always so smart!’” she laughs. “I said, ‘Because you’re successful in your profession, and I need help!’” Allentuck’s pluck paid off—he’s now assisting her in locating an internship. Pinpointing a fulfilling job (or plodding toward one) is time-consuming and taxing. But, with planning and instinct, it can also prove uniquely fulfilling, especially with an open-minded attitude. “The most dramatic experience came with a finance manager I worked with several years ago,” Saifer recalls. “She realized that she would be much happier leaving Texas … and opening a dressmaking shop. Most of my clients find much subtler differences between their current role and their ideal role. But there’s always a chance for a surprise.” ❐ Kara C. Baskin is assistant editor at The New Republic and development editor at the Gail Ross Literary Agency. She has changed jobs four times since MHC graduation in 2000.
1.
Identify your values and the skills that you want to build upon. You will represent yourself best if you are grounded in selfknowledge.
2.
Personal values often guide choices at midlife, and employers are catching on to this. Many talented people with great transferable skills can enter a new segment of the workforce this way.
3.
Don’t worry about being perceived as overqualified because you’re older. Simply identify why you want to make a change for yourself, explain that this life decision is important to you, and emphasize the set of skills you plan to apply to your new job.
4.
Keep your knowledge current about what is happening technologically in the field you hope to enter, and in the world generally.
5.
Be passionate about the work, the organization, and your contribution. There is nothing like it to open doors!
8 Tips for Midcareer
Growth
6.
If you took time off to raise kids, address the concerns employers may have about this. You might say, “I made a decision to stay at home for family commitments, but those are now completed and I am excited about the next step in my career.” The employer wants to know—generally—what you did, why, and that the commitment is taken care of and you are free to be a steady, reliable contributor to the organization.
7.
Present yourself well. Dress sharply. Image matters!
8.
If you’re older, make sure to be active and energized. Employers often fear that midlifers will not have the stamina, energy, and open attitude to work well in a fastpaced environment.
P aul S c h n a i t t ac h e r
Cori Ashworth, alumnae career and professional consultant at the Alumnae Association, offers these tips for rejoining the workforce or switching careers. Her services are available to all alumnae. Contact her at 413-538-2080 or cashwort@mtholyoke.edu for details.
25
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
alumnaematters
A Fusion of Cultures and Identities 26
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
M
ore than one hundred alumnae, students, and faculty members attended the fourth triennial Asian/Asian American Alumnae and Student Conference in November sponsored by the MHC Alumnae Association and various other offices on campus. The conference, “Facing East, Facing West: From the Gates of Mount Holyoke to a Global Citizenship,” explored both the idea of global citizenship and the multifaceted relationships between Asians and Asian Americans.
A cultural fusion of food and fun was one of the highlights of the weekend gathering, which featured a lavish buffet of Chinese, Indian, and Korean food on Saturday evening as well as student performances by Jhumka, Bhangra, and KASA, and Miki Yamashita ’06, who wrote and performed the one-woman comedy The Geisha Next Door.
Pa u l S c h n a i t ta c h e r
Among the conference performers was Jhumka, the first competitive dance team of its kind at MHC. Jhumka’s style fuses South Asian classical, pop, film, and folk styles with ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and other western genres. The jhumka is a traditional ornament worn by women on the subcontinent as a symbol of femininity, maidenhood, and grace. The team ultimately hopes to enter intercollegiate competitions.
New Reunion Format in 2008
Opening speaker Sonali Gulati ’96, originally from New Delhi, India, spoke personally about becoming an artist and filmmaker, her struggles in identifying as lesbian, and the difficulties of knowing two homes—India and the United States. “Mount Holyoke is where I started my journey,” she said. Her talk, “Disembodied and Outsourced: Reconfiguring South Asian Identity,” included the screening of her short poetic film, Sum Total, and her award-winning documentary, Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night. Both offered fresh, insightful perspectives.
Beginning in 2008, Reunion I, which will continue to be held during commencement weekend, will welcome the second reunion class up to and including the twenty-fifth reunion class, and the seventieth and seventyfifth reunion classes. Reunion II will continue to be held the weekend following commencement and will welcome the thirtieth through the sixty-fifth reunion classes.
Many other events offered students a chance to explore topics of both academic and personal interest. Mariya Filipova ’07, an economics and international relations major, found the faculty panel on America’s relations with Asia to be particularly enlightening. “I have an academic interest in the region,” she said. “The professors [Kavita Khory ’84, associate professor of politics; Jonathan Lipman, professor of Asian studies and history; Stacey Philbrick Yadav, visiting instructor in politics; and Vikash Yadav, visiting assistant professor of politics] were fascinating.” But Filipova enjoyed the conference for other reasons, too. “I have a lot of friends who come from that region. We talk on a more personal level about this.” The conference offered an array of activities, including an intergenerational discussion between alums and students about global citizenship, a presentation about multicultural and transnational identity, networking and mentoring sessions, and the keynote address by Angela Oh, a highpowered attorney and an ordained Buddhist priest, on Saturday evening. Oh stressed the importance of developing one’s inner strength to negotiate the tough realities of life.
J . J o h n so n
The festive, multicultural celebration that followed was imbued for some with a new depth of meaning, a sentiment that was shared over engaging conversation, food, and laughter. Shoshana Walter ’07
In response to extensive alumnae feedback, the Alumnae Association will institute a new reunion format tailored to the individual needs and preferences of alumnae of varying generations.
Why the change? About two years ago, we noticed a trend in your feedback: older classes and younger classes were asking for different and specific programming during their reunions. So we formed the Reunion Ad Hoc Committee, a group of dedicated alumnae volunteers and association staff members spanning the generations. During their year and a half of meetings, the committee attended reunions and examined every aspect of reunion programming; researched reunion programming at similar institutions; created and distributed a reunion survey to a wide range of alumnae (approximately 3,000); advertised in the Quarterly for alumnae feedback on reunions; Wish You Were Here? collected and analyzed It’s not too late to book a weekend in beautiful survey results and South Hadley for Reunion 2007! You’ll find historic reunion evaluations; accommodations and meals you don’t have to cook, as and prepared a formal friends from around the globe gather May 25–27 and committee report, with June 1–3. Check your mailboxes for details or visit the recommendations, for the Association’s Web site at www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu. Alumnae Association and its board, as well as for See you soon! senior staff and trustees of the college.
alumnaematters
Throughout the weekend, conference workshops focused on assimilation, global citizenship, and biracialism and explored the complex intersections of culture and identity that are so much a part of life for many Mount Holyoke students and alumnae.
The results of the survey were emphatically clear and the recommendations unanimous. We “split” reunions according to generational preferences (although the loyalty classes will continue to attend Reunion I). Programming for both weekends will feature age-specific and general offerings. Reunion I, which is primarily directed at the younger classes, will be career oriented, and offer family and children’s programming. Reunion II will celebrate the fiftieth-class reunion, and focus on topics such as retirement, downsizing, and the issues of aging. Both weekends will feature back-to-class sessions. It’s quite a change, but the things you’ve always loved about reunion will remain—including lots of time to enjoy the beautiful Mount Holyoke campus and your classmates. For more information, or to get answers to any questions you may have about reunion, please contact Joni Haas Zubi, associate director of classes and reunion, at jhaas@mtholyoke.edu.
27
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
You can organize a food drive through your club, or you may want to organize a mini-reunion for your class—volunteering at a shelter, donating time at a community farm—as your food service activity. The Alumnae Association will provide resources and free promotional support for these events. At your request, we will also provide a free “action kit” containing custom-designed water bottles or bandannas as a gift for volunteers. After the event, photos and descriptions of Alumnae in Action events around the world will be posted on the Association Web site. For further information, please visit our Web site, www. alumnae.mtholyoke.edu, or contact Krysia L. Villón, assistant director of clubs, at 413-538-2738 or Leanna James Blackwell, director of communications, at 413-538-2652.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Piedmont (N.C.) was one of the first to hold a community-service event under the Alumnae in Action program, which has since expanded to other alumnae groups nationwide.
Alumnae in Action Spurs Service Projects Nationwide
In the fall, following the inspiring lead of the San Diego Club, Alumnae in Action focused on hunger in alumnae home communities. Locally, the Alumnae Association worked with interested classes, clubs, and affiliate groups in the greater Pioneer Valley on a comprehensive volunteer project for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The Food Bank is one of more than 200 certified food banks affiliated with America’s Second Harvest, a national network of food banks and food rescue programs. Each year, the Food Bank distributes more than six million pounds of food to agencies to help feed people in need. Plans for the local Alumnae in Action food service project included collecting and donating food to the organization’s Fresh Food Project, gathering one autumn weekend to work at the Food Bank Farm, and volunteering in the office.
28
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Alumnae Loyalty Award Winners
The winners of the first Alumnae Loyalty Awards and Young Alumnae Loyalty Awards were, from left, Susan Ham Heldman ’76, Julianne Trabucchi Puckett ’91, Elizabeth M. Margolis ’96, Christine L. Roch ’96, Lori Hiratani Rough ’81, and Mary Dethloff Dryselius ’66. Winners not pictured are Leslie Yun-Ting Fu ’97, Louise Whittemore Hine ’51, and Verity A. Chegar ’00.
Share Your Inside Information; Contribute to “I-Witness”
A new feature of the Alumnae Association’s e-newsletter, “Laurel Chain,” encourages alumnae to share their experiences of breaking news around the world. Initially called “Dispatches,” the column, now called “I-Witness,” is intended to provide e-newsletter readers with witness an insider’s look at national and international news stories.
I
If you are directly witnessing breaking news—either as a traveler or as a resident of an affected area—please share your experiences by e-mailing Leanna James Blackwell, director of communications, at ljblackw@mtholyoke.edu. We are interested in brief journalistic accounts, opinion pieces, and personal reflections. Plans for the column include a message board or blog linked to “I-Witness,” which will allow alumnae to respond to the featured articles.
Top l e f t : Co u r t e sy of A i l i P e t e r s e n ’ 0 2 • bo t t om : L i s a c l a r k • Top r i g h t : f r e d l e b l a n c
The Mount Holyoke ideal of community service is alive and well, judging from the success of the events held during Alumnae in Action’s inaugural year. Clubs in Michigan, North Carolina, and Massachusetts (including those in Boston and Holyoke) gathered for daylong environmental service projects in their communities. Activities ranged from clearing riverbanks to planting school vegetable gardens to volunteering at a botanical reserve. Last summer, the MHC San Diego Club organized a “Meals on Wheels” Alumnae in Action event, home-delivering meals to housebound seniors in the greater San Diego area.
Am e r i c a n F o r e i g n po l i c y
Winter Lyon Lecture
Alumnae Association Board of Directors
The diverse threats facing the United States and their impact on foreign policy was the subject of a talk given by Vincent A. Ferraro, professor of politics, during the winter Lyon Lecture Series. His talk, “Problems of American Foreign Policy,” was delivered to alumnae clubs in Seattle and San Francisco. Ferraro, who joined the MHC faculty in 1976 and is a specialist in international relations and American foreign policy, Vincent Ferraro considered how the tactics of terror pose seemingly intractable security issues, the fact that traditional alliances supporting America are being strained by policy disagreements, and how China and India are complicating efforts to build a consistent and coherent foreign policy. He also addressed globalization, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the growing global environmental crisis that are all straining American capabilities in maintaining global stability. The Lyon Lecture Series, established in 2002, aims to bring the intellectual life of the college to alumnae and groups outside the campus gates. Sponsored by the Alumnae Association, the college, and the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, the series will travel to New York City in the spring. Check our Web site http://www. alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/lyonlectures, for details.
*President
Mary Graham Davis ’65 *Vice President
Kayla R. Jackson ’86 *Clerk
Sandra A. Mallalieu ’91 *Treasurer
Patricia Steeves O’Neil ’85 Alumnae Quarterly
Linda Giannasi O’Connell ’69 Alumnae Trustee
Deborah A. Northcross ’73 Alumnae Relations
Cynthia L. Reed ’80 Classes and Reunions
Maureen E. Kuhn ’78 Clubs
Lily Klebanoff Blake ’64
Geneva the Site of 2007 European Reunion/Symposium It is a nation whose trains run on time and whose watches make sure individuals do, too. Its chocolate confections are renowned and its banking industry second to none. Switzerland also is home to one of the most stunning landscapes in the world, and is the birthplace of the international humanitarian aid movement.
v i n c e n t f e r r a r o by f r e d l e b l a n c
Geneva, home to the United Nations’ European headquarters, chocolate, and sculptural cows, will host MHC’s next European Reunion/Symposium.
It is in this diverse and magnificent nation that alumnae living in Europe will gather for the triennial European Reunion/Symposium October 5–7, 2007, in Geneva. The weekend will feature discussions and workshops focusing on environmental sustainability, the changing face of humanitarianism, and new ways of learning.
In addition to the educational opportunities, the symposium offers elegant dinners, entertainment, and a chance to explore Geneva. But it is also an opportunity to gather with a cadre of individuals of common experience, that of having attended MHC. “If I could choose one thing I find most important about the European Reunion/Symposiums, it is that each of us attending … comes away with a renewed feeling of love for and pride in our alma mater,” said Claire Burgoyne Brouwer ’57, who lives in the Netherlands. For more information about this unique event, contact christine.bruno@ch.pwc.com or check the calendar section of our Web site, www. alumnae.mtholyoke.edu.
Directors-at-Large
Maureen McHale Hood ’87 (others TBA) Nominating Chair
Catherine C. Burke ’78 Young Alumnae Representative
Lisa M. Utzinger ’02 Executive Director
*W. Rochelle Calhoun ’83 ex officio without vote *Executive Committee The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Inc.
50 College St. South Hadley, MA 01075-1486 413-538-2300 www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu
29
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
The Mount Holyoke Club of New York attended
“An Uncommon Woman: A Celebration of Wendy Wasserstein in Music” in fall at the Glimmerglass Opera and also held a young alumnae bowling night.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Northern New Jersey hosted a fall supper that included a talk by Leslie Ann Miller ’73 on her “Vision for Mount Holyoke.” She is chair of the MHC Board of Trustees.
The Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club of New Haven has been holding book
club meetings on the first Wednesday evening of every month. They read a wide variety of genres.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Dallas-Fort Worth held a
book discussion in November about Daphne DuMaurier’s My Cousin Rachel, the group’s first foray into mystery.
included a talk by Cathryn Mercier ’81, titled “Presumed Innocent: the Changing Image of the Child in Picture Books.”
hosted a fall event at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Center at Crawford Notch. Rebecca Brown ’81 presented a lecture, “Corsets to Crampons: Pioneering Women Mountaineers,” which was followed by lunch and a behind-the-scenes “green tour.”
that featured a talk by Edwina Cruise, professor of Russian, titled “Mrs. Plumm and Me.”
The Mount Holyoke Club of Southwest Florida
The Mount Holyoke Club of Britain’s annual meeting in
sponsored a luncheon at the Sarasota Yacht Club that included a talk by Mount Holyoke sociology professor Eleanor Townsley, “The Memory and Promise of Mount Holyoke: Social Capital, Women’s Colleges, and the Public Sphere.”
The Mount Holyoke Club of the Peninsula took part
in a day of volunteering in October with Women Build, a home-building project sponsored by the Silicon Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Members helped construct a house for a family with a child with cerebral palsy.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Cape Cod sponsored a luncheon at the Scargo Café in Dennis in October that
The Mount Holyoke Club of Piedmont North Carolina held a luncheon
October in London included guest speaker Julie Sell ’83, a writer for The Economist, who gave members an inside look at the magazine.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Detroit celebrated autumn
with a gathering at the Franklin Cider Mill.
The Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club of Hartford held its annual
Mary Lyon Dinner and annual meeting at the Pond House Café in West Hartford. The evening included a talk titled “Psyches, Sirens, and Shoppers: Representing Women in American Art” by Marianne Doezema, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
Elvis the Duck Has Left the Pond
Elvis at home on the farm
He sported a fashionable pouf hairdo and had a decidedly dominant personality. Particularly fond of dinner rolls, he was a mover and shaker when it came to breadcrumbs. The duck known as Elvis, who entertained students and staff with his wiggly antics on Lower Lake in the mid-1990s, died in September on a farm where he lived in semiretirement for nine years. At his death, Elvis, thought to be a wild-domestic duck mix, was estimated to be twelve years old. “He was my special little guy,” said Sherry Himmerlstein, the veterinarian who took Elvis home in 1997 after amputating part of a shredded
30
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
The Mount Holyoke Club of San Antonio took a guided tour of the San Antonio Botanical Garden in October, followed by lunch at the garden’s Carriage House. It was a great way to “enjoy the great outdoors like we did on Mountain Day,” exclaimed one participant.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Boston had an
exciting fall. In addition to cheering on the Lyons at the Head of the Charles Regatta and a night of wine tasting, the club also held a Mount Holyoke Alumnae Pub Nite at an Irish pub in Cambridge to welcome the class of 2006.
The Mount Holyoke Club of Bridgeport hosted a
dinner in November that included a talk by Mount Holyoke biology professor Curtis Smith titled “Are We the Seed of Abraham?”
The Alumnae Association supports more than 100 clubs and informal groups around the world. Contact Assistant Director of Clubs Krysia Villón ’96 at kvillon@mtholyoke. edu or 413-538-2738 with clubrelated questions, ideas, comments, and brief overviews of activities for possible inclusion in this section.
foot that had sent a life-threatening infection creeping toward his hip. Weak and thin after surgery, Elvis was transported to a large, fenced-in area attached to a converted barn at Dr. Himmerlstein’s farm, complete with a pool and six female companions. Taking his new habitat very much in stride, Elvis fathered a flock of “pouf-headed” sons and daughters and went on to outlive all of his children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, Himmerlstein said. Rescued and delivered to the Spruce Hill Veterinary Clinic in Springfield by an alert head resident at Prospect in the summer of 1997, Elvis became the subject of a two-part series in the Mount Holyoke News, investigating his disappearance. “He was the only duck who could stand up to the geese,” noted a senior admirer at the time. Himmerlstein added that during the near decade he spent on her farm, Elvis was unquestionably “king of the flock.” M.H.B.
s h e r r y h i mm e r l s t e i n
Clubs Corner
The Mount Holyoke Club of New Hampshire
Fiscal Year July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006
The fiscal year 2006 Alumnae Association audit was completed by Moriarty & Primack, P.C., certified public accountants, One Monarch Place, Springfield, MA 01144. Its financial statements are in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and have been found to be in good order. A copy of the annual report is available for your review in the Alumnae Association office in Mary E. Woolley Hall. A synopsis of the financial statements follows. Questions may be directed to Stephanie Gray Gonthier, director of finance (413-538-2736; sgonthie@mtholyoke.edu). Fiscal year 2006 was another strong financial year, during which the association met its budgeted goals. It was also a year for investment, both in the association’s Web site, one of the key components in the service delivery system, and in the database that supports all association work. The accomplishments of FY2006 leave the association financially stronger and better able to serve its constituents. Nonoperating Revenues
Statement of Financial Position Assets
$3,863,030
Liabilities and Net Assets Total Liabilities
$196,607
Net Assets
3,666,423
Total Liabilities and Net Assets
$3,863,030
The statement of financial position reports the association’s assets, liabilities, and net assets for the year. Total assets increased $578,895 (18%) during fiscal year 2006. The Founder’s Fund, the association’s long-term investments, increased $479,199 on addition of investment income, currentyear gifts, and unrealized gains. Liabilities increased $77,817 related to a temporary increase in accounts payable. Net assets increased $501,078, up 16%. Statement of Activities Operating Revenues and Support Contributions from MHC
$1,746,428
Alumnae Association Support and Revenue
366,742
Founder’s Fund Donations
42,880
Total Operating Revenues and Support
$2,156,050
Operating Expenses Administration
$802,387
Programs/Conferences
435,194
Quarterly
378,269
Information Services
246,101
Communications
165,097
Committees
55,802
Depreciation
8,957
Total Operating Expenses
$2,091,807
Founder’s Fund Interest And Unrealized Gain
436,835
Total Nonoperating Revenues
$436,835
Change in Net Assets
$501,078
Net Assets, 7/1/05
$3,165,345
Net Assets, 6/30/06
$3,666,423
The Statement of Activities presents the Association’s revenues and expenses for 2005–06, and reports the change in net assets over the year. Total revenues increased by $147,068, with increases in Founder’s Fund interest and unrealized gain of $122,256 and contributions from MHC of $112,028 offsetting a decrease in Founder’s Fund donations of $85,743 and Association support and revenue of $1,473. Contributions from MHC in FY06 consist of funds received from Mount Holyoke College per the July 1, 2002, joint agreement between the Trustees of Mount Holyoke College and the Board of Directors of the Alumnae Association, as well as additional grant funding to support preprofessional mentoring. Association support and revenue comprise reunion revenues, conference/program fees, Quarterly donations, and advertising fees. Total operating expenses increased $238,506 from the previous period, primarily due to increased spending on technology, marketing, and salaries and benefits. During FY06, 57 active alumnae clubs held over 300 different events around the world; 115 volunteers attended the annual volunteer training workshops; 975 contacts were made through LifeNet, our mentorship program; 169 first-years and alumnae attended our first-years’ panel and group discussion; 190 seniors, faculty, and alumnae attended Senior Fair; and over 500 seniors and faculty enjoyed Strawberries and Champagne. The Black Alumnae Conference brought together 184 alumnae, students, and guests. Reunions in 2006 brought 1,646 alumnae and guests back to campus, including 842 enrollments for Back-to-Class sessions. Our career consultant served over 1,000 alumnae nationwide. The number of registered users for our online community reached 7,200 in FY06. The Quarterly reached 33,000 alumnae, students, faculty, staff, and friends
alumnaematters
Alumnae Association Treasurer’s Report
of MHC. The Alumnae Association collaborated with the Weissman Center to produce the Lyon Lecture Series, holding five events attended by 160 alumnae, guests, and potential students around the country.
Founder’s Fund The long-term financial assets of the Alumnae Association are held in the Founder’s Fund, which consists primarily of alumnae gifts, bequests, investment income, and unrealized gain. The Founder’s Fund is invested with the MHC endowment, pursuant to the June 1990 agreement between the association and the college. The Alumnae Association’s Investment Subcommittee, reporting to the Finance Committee, oversees the management and performance of all Alumnae Association investments. Alumnae donated $42,880 (128 contributions) to the Founder’s Fund in FY06, down from $124,433 in FY05 (69 contributions). FY05 gifts included a sizable bequest; excluding this, the average contribution decreased from $399 to $282 (29%), but the number of contributions increased 91%. As part of its effort to increase the Founder’s Fund, the association contributed $102,539 of investment income to the fund. The Founder’s Fund had a June 30, 2006, value of $3,378,235, compared with a market value of $2,899,036 in the prior year. The Founder’s Fund has grown 256% since FY2000, strengthening the financial position of the association. Alumnae Scholar Program The Alumnae Scholar Program has been supported by the generous donations of clubs and individual alumnae throughout the world since 1971. Fiscal year 2006 contributions were $55,745. Since inception, contributions exceed $2,763,599.
Patricia Steeves O’Neil ’85 Alumnae Association Treasurer
31
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
offtheshelf Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology Edited by Lauret E. Savoy, Eldridge M. Moores, and Judith E. Moores (Trinity University Press) How do we understand the natural forces that literally shape our world? As we consider the effects of devastating incidents such as the tsunami in Asia, Hurricane Katrina, and the Pakistan earthquake, Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology helps to put these natural forces into the context of the earth’s larger history. The editors offer a rich collection of works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that pay tribute to the powerful geological features that make up our earth. Bedrock was also featured in a Wall Street Journal list as one of the five best science books. Lauret E. Savoy is professor of geology and environmental studies at Mount Holyoke and the coeditor, with Alison Hawthorne Deming, of The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World, and the coauthor, with Gary Griggs and Kiki Patsch, of Living with the Changing California Coast.
Curves and Angles: Poems By Brad Leithauser (Knopf ) In this collection, his first book of poetry since Darlington’s Fall, a novel in verse, Brad Leithauser takes the reader on a bracing poetic journey. Curves and Angles wanders from the balmy waters of the South Pacific to the crystalline waters of the Arctic. The work is unified throughout by an embracing love of the natural world in all its states, whether lush or spare, crowded or solitary, curved or angled. Brad Leithauser is professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and the author of five previous books of poetry, five novels, a book of essays, and a novel in verse.
32
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Caravaggio: The Art of Realism By John Varriano (The Pennsylvania State University Press) The dramatic realism of Caravaggio’s art has fascinated viewers since the seventeenth century. Yet no prior monograph presents the thorough investigation of Caravaggio’s realism ventured in John Varriano’s book. Forgoing the “life and works” format of most earlier monographs, Varriano concentrates on uncovering the principles and practices, the intellect and the imagination, that guided Caravaggio’s eye and brush as he made some of the most controversial paintings in the history of art. John Varriano is Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke. He is the author of Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture and Rome: A Literary Companion, as well as numerous articles and exhibition catalogues on early modern Italian art.
Toxic Tide By Catherine A. Hosmer ’49 (iUniverse) The setting is Florida’s Gulf Coast, where Professor Amos Frost and his son, Windy, discover strange, injured fish in the waters surrounding their boat. Puzzled by their find, they are even more astonished when hungry sharks devour both the fish and a nearby fisherman in a frantic feeding frenzy. Amos sets out on a dangerous course to determine what caused the damage to the fish and who is responsible. Catherine Farmer Hosmer is a pilot and the author of several works of fiction, including Conversations With Jean and Rabble’s Curse.
offtheshelf
Little Rabbit Talks on the Phone and Other Children’s Poems from the Chinese Translated by Frederica Hamburger Gries ’59 (Trafford Publishing) Little Rabbit Talks on the Phone is a children’s book suitable for elementary/junior high Chinese language classes as supplemental material. The poems are translated into English but also present the original Chinese characters. The book is a collection of moral lessons or observations using the characteristics of animals in simple poems, which are language lessons as well. Readers interested in a better understanding of Chinese culture will find it valuable. Frederica Hamburger Gries ’59 spent more than twenty years in Asia, where she learned Mandarin Chinese. While the family was in Beijing, two of her children attended a government-run school, convincing Gries that language training is an easy addition to the many skills a child acquires.
A Writer’s Voice: Collected Work of the Twentieth-Century Biologist and Conservationist Joseph P. Linduska Edited by Louise E. Dove ’58 (University of Delaware Press) A Writer’s Voice preserves some of the best work of Joseph P. Linduska (1913–93), a research biologist, environmental conservationist, and award-winning writer. More than 100 of the
popular essays he wrote from 1986 to 1993 for the Kent County News of Chestertown, Maryland, are included. His unique perspective on twentieth-century natural resource management included his research in the 1940s for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the biological effects of DDT, which became the foundation of Rachel Carson’s landmark book, Silent Spring, a decade later. Louise Engel Dove earned degrees in zoology from Mount Holyoke and the University of California, Berkeley, and was employed in the biological and environmental sciences for many years. She was editor of Living Resources of the Delaware Estuary.
What Managers Say, What Employees Hear: Connecting with Your Front Line (So They’ll Connect with Customers) Edited by Regina Fazio Maruca ’84 (Praeger Publishers) In retail stores, on shop floors, and in offices around the country, a refrain of disillusionment and distrust is being sung, and its negative effects on corporate performance are profound. What Managers Say, What Employees Hear reveals the roots and effects of these problems, and presents practical insights for bridging the gaps between management and employees—and improving everyone’s performance in the process.
The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea By Anne Sibley O’Brien ’75 (Charlesbridge Publishing) This graphic-style novel tells the story of legendary Hong Kil Dong, who in fifteenth century Korea was said to have led a band of commoners dedicated to fighting injustice and championing the poor. Using a Korean painting technique she learned there during her junior year abroad, the author places her illustrations within narrative boxes, enabling readers to read between the frames and use their imagination to fill in the narrative. Anne Sibley O’Brien is a writer, illustrator, and performer who grew up in South Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries. She has illustrated more than twenty picture books, and lives in Maine.
Making Your Company Human: Inspiring Others to Reach Their Potential By Le Herron with Sherry Christie ’68 (LSK Books) Years of mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, downsizing, reengineering, offshoring, and other revenue-driven practices have left once-loyal workers feeling confused, betrayed, and angry. In this climate, how can leaders create the kind of organization that people enjoy working for—one that turns them on and inspires them to use their talents to the fullest? This is the mission of Making Your Com-
pany Human: Inspiring Others to Reach Their Potential. In contrast to the “me-first” CEO mentality behind so many of today’s scandals, this business handbook takes the view that a leader’s most important job is making it possible for other people to do their best work. Sherry Christie is a former advertising executive who has coauthored three books, including The Advisor’s Guide to Money Psychology: Taking the Fear out of Financial Decision-Making, and Money Shy to Money Sure: A Woman’s Road Map to Financial Well-Being.
A Dangerous Thing: A Memoir of Learning and Teaching By Betty Krasne ’55 (BookSurge) Education for women is exterior decoration. Good taste is what matters in a woman. For generations, that was the family message and these were the lessons Betty Krasne learned at home. Then her family sent her to a progressive school, setting off a lifelong battle about what a woman could make of her life. A Dangerous Thing tells the story of that struggle. Betty Krasne is a writer and professor of literature at Mercy College. She is the author of short stories, poems, articles, and, under the name Betty K. Levine, novels for young readers.
33
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons Sally MacEwen ’70 (The Edwin Mellen Press) The superhero sits at the intersection of ideology and desire, the person an audience looks to in a crisis, an icon against which any particular heroic representation is judged. By relating ancient Greek narratives to modern superhero films, Sally MacEwen’s Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons sheds new light on the superheroic ideal of a fifth-century Athenian and shows that there is no universal hero, only one who reflects the audience’s self-image. Sally McVaugh MacEwen ’70 is associate professor of classical languages and literatures at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Her work has covered Clytemnestra, pedagogy, and diversity in classics.
Death By Committee By Carole Bernstein Shmurak ’65 (Pemberton Mysteries) Faculty squabbling at a large state university turns deadly when professor of education Susan Lombardi joins a committee to make a tenure decision about Abby Gillette, a controversial faculty member. After one colleague is hospitalized following a suspicious fire and another is found dead in Abby’s office, Susan must try to figure out who is doing what to whom—without becoming the next victim. Carole Bernstein Shmurak is professor emeritus at Central Connecticut State University and the author of nine books, including Deadmistress, her first mystery featuring professor/sleuth Susan Lombardi.
34
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Your Leadership Legacy: Why Looking Toward the Future Will Make You a Better Leader Today Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca ’84 (Harvard Business School Press) You should wait until late in your career to worry about your legacy, right? Not according to Robert Galford and Regina Maruca. They argue that thinking about your legacy now makes you a better leader today, no matter how far you are from your retirement. Based on in-depth stories of top leaders who have shaped successful careers, Your Leadership Legacy explores the art of “legacy thinking” and the ways it can exert a positive effect on your work immediately. Regina Fazio Maruca ’84 is a writer and editor specializing in leadership, marketing, and organizational issues. She is also a principal at the Center for Executive Development in Boston and a former senior editor of the Harvard Business Review.
Joining In: Exploring the History of Voluntary Organizations By Karen J. Blair ’71 (Krieger Publishing) Students, scholars, and genealogists interested in the wide range of voluntary organizations throughout American history may gain considerable guidance from this practical volume. Outlining the history of the eight main voluntary club categories—including service, recreational, fraternal, and political—Blair offers bibliographies on each that include scholarly works and club or association histories by participants. Joining In will be of use to any researcher interested in groups (mainstream
and fringe) and records that offer useful insights and accurate information. Karen J. Blair is a professor of history at Central Washington University and the foremost historian of post–Civil War American women’s voluntary organizations.
Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America’s Republic By Mary Bremer Kelley ’65 (University of North Carolina Press) Education was decisive in recasting women’s subjectivity and the reality of their collective experience in postRevolutionary and antebellum America. At the nearly 400 female academies and seminaries established in the North and South during this period, students were schooled in a curriculum that was at least the match of the contemporary male colleges. Learning to Stand and Speak describes the significant transformation in individual and social identities fostered by these schools and richly evokes women’s voices as they embraced learning, spoke to intellectual aspirations, and enacted education’s impact on their lives. Mary Bremer Kelley is Ruth Bordin Collegiate Professor of History, American Culture, and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. Her other books include Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in NineteenthCentury America.
Are we reaching you? If you’re not receiving our monthly e-newsletter the Laurel Chain, it’s not for lack of trying. Send us your current e-mail address* and see what you’ve been missing.
What’s in it for you? • A free e-newsletter with alumnae and campus news—plus updates about great new services for alumnae • Information about alumnae events—like Lyon Lectures, Speakers Bureau, and Alumnae in Action—in your home area • An effortless way to stay connected to MHC and your classmates Please send your current e-mail address to ais@mtholyoke.edu, call 413-538-2303, or visit our Web site at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/sharenews *Did you know you can customize your e-mail preferences? You can opt in (or opt out of) Alumnae Association mailings, so you receive only those you want. Check your settings at www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/go/email Note: The Alumnae Association never shares e-mail addresses with outside organizations.
bulletinboard announcements Five-Colleges Book Sale in N.H. The forty-seventh annual Five-Colleges Book Sale will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22, 2007, at Lebanon, N.H., High School. Each year scholarship funds have been raised for students from New Hampshire and Vermont through this sale. Last year, each college (including MHC) received $12,500. Alumnae and friends of Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley, and Simmons gather to prepare thousands of volumes starting in late February. Your help, through book donations, collecting and transporting books to the sorting site, or sorting and pricing, is most welcome. Alumnae also serve as cashiers and helpers at the sale. It’s a great opportunity to refresh your reading material. For further information, please contact Martha Smead Doolittle ’59 (603-469-3359) or J. L. Tonner ’62 (603-526-6858). Be sure to visit www. fivecollegesbooksale.org for updates and books to be sold.
The SummerMath Program Each July, fifty to sixty high school women from across the country come to Mount Holyoke College for four weeks
to open their minds to mathematics, computer programming, and a college environment. Do you have a daughter or friend of high school age who would like to spend a month with a diverse group of academically motivated students at Mount Holyoke? Please visit www.mtholyoke.edu/ proj/summermath to lean more, or contact the directors, Charlene and James Morrow at 413-538-2608 or summermath@ mtholyoke.edu. The 2007 program will be held July 1–28.
The SEARCH Program
During their fortieth reunion this May, the class of 1967 will host a cocktail reception in recognition of Professor Leonard DeLonga, an art professor 1964–91. Anyone influenced by Professor DeLonga is invited to participate. The event (5 pm on May 25 at MHC’s Art Museum) will feature the annual senior class art exhibit and a digital display of alumnae art. Leonard DeLonga was an inspiration to so many of us. We invite his former students to submit digital images of their art as well as personal reflections of how he inspired and influenced them. The reflections will be collected in a program to be made available to all attendees.
Nominations Sought for Take the Lead
MHC Class and Club Products
Again this year, alumnae are encouraged to nominate bright, idealistic high school sophomores for Take the Lead, a highly competitive leadership program. For nomination forms, visit www.mtholyoke. edu/takethelead or call 413-538-3500. Nominations are due April 10 and the
Bulletin Board carries announcements of services and events sponsored by the Alumnae Association, alumnae clubs, and college-related organizations for the benefit of MHC. Announcements are free, but space is limited. Club and class products, which benefit classes, clubs, and/or the Alumnae Association’s Alumnae Scholar Fund, are included each fall. Productsmay be seen at www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu, or a listing may be requested by calling 413-538-2300.
deadlines: Material is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Sometimes the column is filled
before the deadlines below, so submit items early. WINTER ISSUE: (received in early February) November 15; SPRING ISSUE: (received in early May) February 15; SUMMER ISSUE: (received in early August) May 15; FALL ISSUE: (received in early November) August 1
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
Art, and Memories of Professor Leonard DeLonga, Sought
MHC is recruiting students for Summer Explorations and Research Collaborations for High School Girls (SEARCH), a fourweek program on campus. We encourage girls who have a sense of curiosity and adventure about mathematics to apply. Students will explore exciting topics outside the usual high school curriculum. Do you have a daughter or friend who would like to find out what is exciting about mathematics? Please visit www. mtholyoke.edu/proj/search to learn more or contact the directors, Charlene and James Morrow, at 413-538-2608 or search@ mtholyoke.edu. The 2007 program will be held July 1–28.
contact:
76
2007 Take the Lead program is scheduled for September 27–30.
Judith Wood Peck ’67 is organizing this event. Please send her your memories of Leonard as a teacher and let her know if you have digital images to include in the alumnae art video. Submissions are due February 15. Contact Judy at 212-7171619 or Judith@pecksonline.net. Include your name, class, and telephone number.
Lots of MHC-related class and club products are for sale. For details and photos of many items, please visit alumnae. mtholyoke.edu/shop/alumgifts.php or phone the Alumnae Association at 413538-2300 to request a printed copy of the information.
Applying to medical school? MHC alumnae who think they may apply to medical school during 2007 are very strongly urged to contact the Career Development Center by Feb. 15 (or ASAP) for crucial information. Help us to help you put together the best possible application! Call 413-538-2080 or email David Gardner, Ph.D, at dgardner@ mtholyoke.edu.
sponsored by the Alumnae Association Gardens of the Caribbean
Celtic Lands
February 25–March 5—Accompanied by Professor of Spanish Dorothy Mosby and horticulturalist Anna Pavord
August 10–20
Aboard the elegant yacht Sea Cloud II, we journey from Barbados to the sister islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the “Spice Island” Grenada, tiny Bequia, sophisticated Martinique, lush Dominica, and the archipelago Iles des Saintes and Antigua. Our focus is the islands’ lush botanic gardens, pristine beaches, and azure-blue waters.
Cruise for ten nights aboard the deluxe Andrea from the beaches of Normandy and historic Mont-StMichel in France across the English Channel to magical Cornwall and on to Cork, Dublin, and North Wales. We then visit Scotland’s Iona, Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides, and Kirkney in the Orkney Islands. There is an optional two-night stay in Edinburgh following the trip.
Village Life in Holland
Village Life
and Belgium
Along the Seine
April 6–14
October 5–13
This seven-night, round-trip cruise departs Amsterdam aboard the MS Amadeus Royal with stops in historic Delft, the windmill town of Kinderdijk, and the medieval town of Middelburg, then moves on to the Belgian treasures of Bruges and Antwerp before returning to Amsterdam via Gouda and the flower fields of Keukenhof.
Enjoy a memorable seven-night cruise along the Seine River combining the scenic countryside of Normandy with its great historic and artistic heritage. We embark on the MV Cezanne in Paris and visit Rouen, the D-Day landing beaches, Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny, and the Maison van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise.
bulletinboard
Educational Travel Opportunities
Trinidad Botanical Gardens (Caribbean trip)
Aegean Odyssey:
Santorini (Aegean Odyssey trip)
The Greek Isles and Turkey
The Janet Tuttle
July 8–18—Accompanied by Professor Faith Dillon Hentschel ’65, a professor of classical archaeology and art history
Alumnae and Student
On this trip, we travel aboard the elegant Sea Cloud from Athens to Istanbul. We focus on the Acropolis and Piraeus in Athens before sailing for beautiful Santorini, the important archaeological site of Delos, and Patmos, once home of St. John the Evangelist. In Turkey, we visit the ancient sites of Ephesus and Pergamum. There is an optional two-night stay in Istanbul at the end of the trip.
Join with Mount Holyoke students and alumnae in our Habitat for Humanity Global Village program in Costa Rica. We will work side by side for one week on a housing construction project in Costa Rica. Moderate physical activity, rustic living, and extensive walking will be required.
Ser vice Travel Program
Costa Rica, March 18–25
Trip Full
INTERESTED? For more information on Association-sponsored travel, please contact W. Rochelle Calhoun ’83, Alumnae Association executive director, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486; 413-538-2300. Or check www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu for details about these and future trips. Cork, Ireland (Celtic Lands trip)
77
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly W i n t e r 2 0 0 7
lastlook
Making
Money Work By Mi e k e H . B o m a n n
78
J o e L aw t o n
In part two of our series on making your money work harder, we consider the financial situations of three hardworking alumnae, Sue Hershner Chehrenegar ’73, Suzanne Lufkin Weiss ’77, and Maria-Stella Fountoulakis ’99 (shown here), and offer the insights of a fourth, financial adviser Beth Fisher Cutler ’82.
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
lastlook
L
Planning for Unexpected Financial Challenges ife is beautiful and complicated and expensive. Few journey through it without experiencing some sort of financial challenge, but many of us are ill prepared to handle it. Sue Hershner Chehrenegar ’73 wishes someone had suggested an emergency savings account to her a long time ago. In 2003, the unexpected side effects of a chronic medical condition forced her into early retirement after a successful career in biomedical research. Fortunately, her husband could pick up some of the slack, but Chehrenegar, now a freelance writer, has taken a considerable cut in pay.
F
“I was made to believe that I would just be working and tried to live my life as normal,” she explains. “Nobody suggested I should have money saved if I had to retire [early].” The unexpected financial challenges of illness, losing a job, or getting divorced are by no means unusual, says Beth Fisher Cutler ’82, a financial adviser with UBS Financial Services in Greenwich, Connecticut. The only way to withstand them, she adds, is to have a plan. Step one is stashing away enough readily available cash to live—without an income—for at least three months. Suzanne Lufkin Weiss ’77 wishes she had reached out to a financial planner years ago during her divorce. Currently a real-estate broker in Bath, Maine, she would love to get her teaching credential but is
put on hold, and then see if she can find work for a large organization that will offer her a retirement and healthcare package. “What this is all about is life planning,” says Cutler. “People should be thinking about it with some regularity, and keeping in mind the worstcase scenario regardless of how much they’re making and how well life is going.”
Beth Cutler ’82
raising three teenagers. Taking time off to go back to school seems financially impossible to her. “Not too many part-time careers favor single mothers,” Cutler agrees. The best plan for Weiss, she says, may be to finish a master’s in arts administration that she’s
Financial advisers can help you create a financial plan. They work in different ways— some charge a flat fee, others a percentage of your assets— and you should interview contenders before choosing. “Ask as many questions as you want,” she says. And be sure to check the financial health of the outfit you’ve selected. You want it to be around “for a long time and making wise decisions.”
Passion, Risk, and Understanding the Financial World ind your passion. It’s an admonition that’s tossed around regularly in these days of personal trainers, life coaches, and a resurgent stock market. Stories abound of accountants abandoning their ledgers to open scuba-diving businesses in the Antilles, and of architects closing up shop to climb the world’s highest peaks. These folks always seem to have a bundle in the bank
and not a worry in the world. But what about the rest of us, who also want to fulfill our true potential but either haven’t a clue what that might be or have been chastened by circumstance or tradition to be happy with what we’re doing because who knows what life will deliver tomorrow? The answer depends on whom you ask. Maria Stella Fountoulakis ’99 has decided that despite the considerable risks of moving from job to job until she finds what suits her best, it’s worth it. A women’s studies
major at MHC, the social services worker-turned elementary school teacherturned waitress and actress has been fine-tuning her life plan since graduation, and she isn’t done yet. “I feel like this is an opportunity for me to be a self-made person,” she says of her varied professional endeavors. Beth Fisher Cutler ’82 sympathizes with the desire to find a suitable profession but takes a more pragmatic approach overall. A financial adviser for UBS Financial Services, Cutler points out
that in a world of escalating costs, it’s important to mesh passion with compensation and to find a job with a company-matched retirement plan and health insurance at the outset of a career, if possible. “Looking at annuity and insurance timetables, women will live twenty years longer than men,” she notes. “You have to do as much planning from the beginning as possible. The first job you [take] often sets the direction for the rest of your career.” Fountoulakis, who is
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly
Wi n t e r 2 0 0 7
79
considering a master’s degree in social work, is certainly aware of the importance of financial planning and eager to better understand the principles of investing. She routinely watches the progress of her shares in the Vanguard Energy mutual fund, which her parents gave her after graduation, and she has gone online to educate herself about the stock market. But she says the language of business and finance is lost on her.
That’s not unusual, says Cutler. She recommends that Fountoulakis look for inperson seminars for women on investing and financial independence. The Alumnae Association has offered several in its Back to Class program during reunion, she points out. “Women enjoy hearing other women’s questions,” which spur even more questions, Cutler adds. Fountoulakis also needs to network, says Cutler. She should talk to everyone she knows about finding
an adviser, and swap stories about sources of financial information. An excellent resource, she says, is LifeNet, the Alumnae Association’s online networking site, where graduates can connect with women who are financial professionals and/or are interested in money issues. As for figuring out how to finance her continuing education, Cutler suggests Fountoulakis talk to an adviser about her liquidity needs, her timeline, and building a balanced portfolio.
Woman to Woman: the Feminization of Money As a recent article in Wealth Manager magazine pointed out, women take a different approach to managing money than men do. Financial experts have learned that just as women are generally more relationship oriented than their male peers, they also favor wealth managers who check their pontification skills at the door, listen to their individual goals and timetables, and willingly translate sometimes-indecipherable “business-speak” into proper English. Beth Cutler ’82 understands this. As a UBS Financial Services adviser, Cutler has many female clients, and her approach is educational and supportive. “I find that … males seem to be more data oriented,” she says. “Women think of money as a means to their ends. Empowering women with financial information is my goal,” she adds. Developing trust is essential, Cutler says, as is empathy. And that takes time. “When I plan my first meeting, I allocate two hours,” she explains. “My colleagues think that’s crazy, but when I go to a doctor I don’t want to be rushed. I want to have the full-length conversation. You are planning for your life and have to sit next to somebody who has allocated enough time.” The bottom line, Cutler says, is that wealth managers need to find out what their clients need and understand, and then speak thoughtfully to those issues. ❐ Beth Cutler may be reached at beth.cutler@ubs.com.
80
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
I never miss an opportunity to return to campus (eight reunions and counting; many class-agent-training and reunionplanning weekends). The campus is a bit different each time as buildings are added, updated, or restored, but enough of the old familiar remains that I have no difficulty regaining my bearings. That is, I think, the essence of Mount Holyoke, alma mater: her heart is ageless even as her physical self changes with the times, and she always welcomes her daughters home for a visit.
Fred LeBlanc
Eloise Prescott Killeffer ’68