Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine | Vol. 77, No. 1 | Winter 2006 by Sweet Briar College

A L U M N A E

M A G A Z I N E

Eminent Physicist Brian Greene Kicks Off Homecoming 2005: Focus on the Sciences

VOLUME 77 Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu NUMBER 1 WINTER 2006

Winter 2006 • 53

perspective FROM THE PRESIDENT’S

Our Campaign For Her World, announced in October 2002 with a goal of $102 million, is the most ambitious fundraising effort in Sweet Briar’s history. When we began, that seemed like an impossibility! But as of this writing, I’m excited to announce that we have already raised more than $100 million, and our goal is clearly in sight.

I’ve been looking forward to writing this letter for months, for this is a golden opportunity to talk with you about how our capital campaign—coming to a resounding close this summer—is making a dramatic impact on every aspect of Sweet Briar. Over the last three years, you have read and heard about so many new things going on. We’ve told you about the historic preservation of our beautiful campus from residence halls to classrooms, the library, and even Sweet Briar House. We’ve shared the excitement about new facilities from the multi-faceted Student Commons to the transformation of our beloved dairy barns into a new home for visual arts; the Train Station and old Water Plant into state-of-the-art facilities for Environmental Sciences—and much, much more. As every issue of the Alumnae Magazine reveals, there have been impressive changes in our educational program as well. In the last several years you have heard about new Masters level programs in Education, new major programs such as Business Management, and heightened focus on internships, career development and international study, just to name a few. This issue focuses on the sciences, from Engineering—one of only two such programs in the nation at women’s colleges—to Physics, Biology and Chemistry, all highlighted in our first

Homecoming celebration this past September. Our Campaign For Her World, announced in October 2002 with a goal of $102 million, is the most ambitious fundraising effort in Sweet Briar’s history. When we began, that seemed like an impossibility! But as of this writing, I’m excited to announce that we have already raised more than $100 million, and our goal is clearly in sight. Achieving it means that we will not only have impacted all of the areas outlined above, but increased the funds we have for scholarships and faculty salaries. And we will have amassed significant seed money for our two remaining major projects: the expansion and updating of Cochran Library and the transformation of our 1931 Daisy Williams Gymnasium into a larger 21st century athletic and wellness facility. Best of all, one of Sweet Briar’s wonderful alumnae, who insists on remaining anonymous, has issued an astonishing challenge. When we meet our $102 million goal by June 30, she will provide an additional $2 million gift in cash, to insure that we complete this campaign in true Sweet Briar style. Needless to say, this is a challenge we can all get behind! Every single gift to the College, through the Annual Fund as well as gifts to the endowment, capital projects and planned gifts, will count toward meeting this

goal. Please be as generous as you can with this year’s Annual Fund gift—your golden opportunity to be a part of this historic philanthropic effort. On behalf of all of our students today and into the future, heartfelt thanks to each of you who have already made a gift to Our Campaign For Her World. And to everyone who will contribute in the next few months, thanks to you as well. Make plans now for our Homecoming 2006, September 21–24, when we will celebrate two things: the success of this transformational campaign, and you—women who go out and make a difference.

contents

Brian Greene at Book Signing following his lecture.

Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine Winter 2006 Vol. 77, No. 1 INSIDE FRONT COVER: A Message from President Muhlenfeld

SWEET BRIAR ALUMNAE MAGAZINE POLICY One of the objectives of the magazine is to present interesting, thought-provoking material. Publication of material does not indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint by the magazine, the Alumnae Association, or Sweet Briar College. The Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine reserves the right to edit and, when necessary, revise all material that it accepts for publication. Contact us any time! Boxwood Alumnae House, Box E, Sweet Briar, VA 24595; (434) 381-6131; FAX 434-381-6132; E-Mail: 1) (Ofﬁce) alumnae@sbc.edu; 2) (Magazine) sbcmagazine@sbc.edu Alumnae Association Web site address: http://www.alumnae.sbc.edu Sweet Briar Web site address: www.sbc.edu THE ALUMNAE OFFICE STAFF Louise Swiecki Zingaro ’80 Director, Alumnae Association Managing Editor, Alumnae Magazine Melissa Coffey ’98 Assistant Director, Tour Coordinator Melissa Gentry Witherow ’80 Assistant Director, Reunion Program Kristin Dane Ewing Assistant Director, Assistant Editor & Class Notes Editor, Alumnae Magazine Bonnie Seitz ’01 Assistant Director, Alumnae Computer Services Sandra Maddox, AH ’59 Assistant to the Director Nancy Godwin Baldwin ’57 Editor, Alumnae Magazine Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine Production Graphic design by The Design Group, Lynchburg, VA. Printed by Seckman Printing, Forest, VA.

HOMECOMING SWEET BRIAR STYLE

2005 Distinguished Alumna Award: Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64

Founders’ Day

CELEBRATING THE SCIENCES AT SWEET BRIAR

Physics Department Now Officially The Department Of Physics And Engineering

Engineering At Sweet Briar: Designing Her World, Designing Our World

Department Of Biology: Spanning The Entire Field

The Department Of Mathematical Sciences: A Department To Be Modeled

Psychology: A Number Of Exciting Changes

The Environmental Sciences Program At Sweet Briar

News From The Department of Chemistry

Myth vs. Reality: Giving to Sweet Briar College

Time to Recognize the Role of Athletics in the History of Sweet Briar College

“An American Girl in an English World”: Maria Kitchin ’04

In The Spotlight

Bulletin Board

In Memoriam

Recent Deaths

Transitions

Class Notes

Letters and E-mails

INSIDE BACK COVER: “In the Sweet Briar Tradition” BACK COVER: Sweet Briar Alumnae Travel COVER: Photo of Brian Greene presenting lecture. Cover Photo

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

David Abrams. Winter 2006 • 1

Homecoming… Class Officers Workshop: Miriam Washabaugh Meglen ’71 makes a point

Brian Greene chats with students before his lecture; far left: Dr. Cathy Gutierrez, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs

Class Officers Workshop: Amanda Young Watts ’05 listens

Student Panel at luncheon honoring Williams Associates & Silver Rose Society members: L-r: Brittany Lambert ’06; Erica Kennedy ’07; Hank Yochum

Dr. Rebecca Amber’s Alumnae College presentation at the Boathouse: “If a Stream is Damned, Does it Go to Hell? Environmental Effects of the Sweet Briar Dam” Luncheon honoring Williams Associates & Silver Rose Society members: Student Panel led by Dr. Hank Yochum (Physics) L-r: Carlina Muglia ’07; Christina Johnson ’08 2 • Winter 2006

…Sweet Briar Style Varsity Soccer Game vs. Emory and Henry: #10 Whitney Shaffer ’08; back to ball: Erin Coyne ’08

An Unforgettable Weekend September 22-25, 2005 ANN MACDONALD CARTER ’97 FORMER ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION, DIRECTOR OF ALUMNAE COLLEGE PROGRAMS, HOMECOMING COORDINATOR

It was “The Best Of Times”: school spirit, smiling faces, celebrations, and so much more! The College literally resounded with activity as the Alumnae Association hosted SBC’s first Homecoming Weekend. Those four days the campus was alive with crowds of alumnae, students, parents, friends, faculty and staff flowing from event to event in steady streams. The series of meetings, presentations and gettogethers traditionally offered by Alumnae Council was indeed expanded. The Alumnae Office partnered with academic and administrative departments to offer many activities, seeking to provide “something for everyone”. ALL alumnae (not just current volunteers for the College) were welcomed back to campus to experience a showcasing of the SBC community and to reconnect.

Box Lunch Picnic at the Boathouse Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Winter 2006 • 3

homecoming

T Assistant Professor of Physics Hank Yochum welcomes guests to Guion Open House with Power Point Presentation

Eden Zuckerman Brown ’88 & husband Bill visit Biology Professor Robin Davies in the Bio Lab

L-r: Anne Bentzen (daughter of Anne Stuckle Houston ’46); Mollie Johnson Nelson ’64 at the Nature Center Dedication

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Rob Alexander welcomes all to Nature Center Dedication

4 • Winter 2006

The academic focus of Homecoming 2005 was “The Sciences at Sweet Briar College,” featuring faculty and students from the sciences. Dr. Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists and author of the national bestsellers The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (10 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, inspiring The Washington Post to describe him as “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today”), gave a standing-room-only lecture and book signing at the Murchison Lane Auditorium in Babcock Fine Arts Center on Thursday evening, following a special dinner with students, faculty, and alumnae. Alumnae College lectures over the weekend featured SBC science faculty: Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Ambers; Professor of Chemistry Robert Granger; and Professor of Physics Scott Hyman. Science faculty later joined alumnae and friends of the College at a luncheon honoring members of the Indiana Fletcher Williams Associates and the Silver Rose Society; President Muhlenfeld gave an update on the College, and a panel discussion by students in the sciences was led by Assistant Professor of Physics Hank Yochum. Friday evening offered a gala Open House in Guion Science Building hosted by the science faculty, beginning with an all-inclusive Power Point presentation by Dr. Yochum, “Life in Guion, An Introduction to the Sciences at Sweet Briar” in Guion’s Heuer Auditorium. Following this presentation, guests explored the science labs and classrooms, talking with professors before gathering at Babcock to enjoy the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra Concert. The Nature Center was dedicated on Saturday after a box lunch picnic at the Boathouse, and was followed by the Engineering program’s Cardboard Boat Regatta at Sweet Briar Lake. A highlight of Homecoming was Founders’ Day Convocation, where the 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award was presented to Program Director for General Dynamics Corporation Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64, who gave the Founders’ Day Address, “A Lady Engineer’s Perspective on Leadership.” Twelve of Jo Ann’s classmates were present to applaud her! A special part of Convocation was the induction of the newest member of the Keystone Society (recognizing those whose cumulative gifts to the College total $1 million or more), Evelyn Lorraine Haire Stanley ’91. The Development Office scheduled important training sessions for Reunion Giving, Boxwood Circle Giving, and Young Alumnae Giving program volunteers; Kathleen Kavanagh ’74, Senior Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, Inc., conducted special sessions, advising “Stop Asking for Money (Start Talking About Giving).” The Alumnae Association offered Class Officers, Club Officers and Representatives, and Alumnae Admissions Representatives (AARs) a variety of helpful training workshops, and the Alumnae Association Board, the Friends of Athletics Steering Committee, and the Visiting Committee on the Riding Program held their fall meetings during this busy time. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

homecoming The Alumnae Office worked closely with Co-Curricular Life on a wide variety of events for students. Co-Curricular Life hosted a dessert reception for the student body prior to the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra Concert. The Career Services Center arranged a valuable career networking session for interested students, where they could meet casually with alumnae over Saturday brunch to discuss professional goals and plans. Renee Modzelewski ’06 was the first Homecoming Intern, supervised by the Alumnae Office and Co-Curricular Life’s Student Activities Office. As chair of the Campus Events Organization (CEO) and a member of SGA, Renee worked diligently on many Homecoming projects. In addition to numerous daily duties, she was responsible for the marketing, planning, and execution of special evening events for students (a DJ party, Karaoke, an illusionist performance). She also assisted with the Cardboard Boat Regatta. The Alumnae Association Board’s Student Relations Committee (SRC) was a strong presence before and during Homecoming; the committee’s support was essential to getting students involved and excited about the weekend. Committee members assisted with many “behind the scenes” tasks, from inflating balloons with helium to marketing Homecoming events. Dressed in special SRC t-shirts listing Homecoming activities, they manned tables at the athletic events to give out game-time snacks, SBC megaphones and pink and green pom-poms to spectators. Saturday evening they officiated at an alumnae/student discussion: “Sweet Briar Past and Present: Athletics, Clubs, History, and Traditions,” a huge hit with the large audience (a capacity crowd for Le Bistro). Prior to Homecoming the committee helped with the Alumnae Association-hosted dinners and open houses for each set of student “sister classes” (FirstYears/Juniors; Sophomores/Seniors) at The Farm House, campus home of Louise Swiecki Zingaro ’80, director of the Alumnae Association. Louise and Linda DeVogt ’86, president of the Alumnae Association, highlighted Homecoming and other Association events and programs. During Fall Term, more than 350 students took part in three dinners and three open houses. The Homecoming spotlight also shined brightly on Sweet Briar athletics: the Department of Physical Education and Athletics scheduled home games for Varsity Field Hockey and Varsity Soccer on Saturday afternoon, and worked with the Alumnae Office to host Alumnae/Student Field Hockey and Lacrosse Games. Spectators showed lots of Sweet Briar spirit as they cheered for the players. The Friends of Athletics enjoyed a special Saturday evening cocktails/dinner gathering at the Elston Inn. Associate Professor of Physical Education and Athletics Jennifer Crispen spoke on “Sweet Briar Athletics: Connecting the Past with the Future.” Save the dates for Homecoming 2006, September 21-24. It promises another whirlwind schedule of activities to enrich the spirit and challenge the mind. The 2006 focus will be “Women Who Go Out and Make a Difference,” and the success of Our Campaign For Her World will be celebrated. Plan now to come home to SBC. We’re waiting for you! Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Kathleen Kavanagh ’74 Presentation

Members of the Student Relations Committee offer goodies to games’ spectators, L-r: Susan O’Brien ’06; Kristin Chapdelaine ’08; Jennifer Milby ’08

Friends of Athletics cocktail/dinner gathering, L-r: Madge Hall Vosteen ’85; Jenn Wiley ’06; Professor Jennifer Crispen

Winter 2006 • 5

S AV E T H E D A T E S F O R

Hello, Sweet Briar Alumnae, This fall the first-ever Sweet Briar Homecoming was a great success. Okay, so SBC doesn’t have a football team but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate coming “home” to Sweet Briar. Thursday night Brian Greene, Physicist and String Theorist, presented a lecture. I was a bit worried about it being over my head; String Theory is not a common topic of discussion with co-workers or neighbors. Dr. Greene did a great job of presenting the relationship of “Space and Time” from Newton, Einstein, to the current String Theory. In the process of learning something new, everyone in the audience laughed a lot. Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64, Program Director for General Dynamics Corporation, received the 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award during Founders’ Day Convocation. Jo Ann gave a wonderful talk on key leadership qualities. I can’t wait to post her list on my cube at work. Friday evening we were entertained by the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra. The performance was under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Green; he is also SBC’s dean of the College and professor of music. Dr. Nicholas P. Ross, assistant professor of music, joined the orchestra on piano. The concert concluded with the world premier of Dr. Green’s own Symphony No. 7. Did you know there is a creek on campus called Williams Creek? I missed out on that during my time at SBC. On Saturday at the Boathouse, Dr. Rebecca Ambers, assistant professor of Environmental Sciences presented “If a Stream is Dammed, Does It Go to Hell? Environmental Effects of the Sweet Briar Dam.” She described student research, under the direction of many professors, to study the lake, dam and the two creeks. Following Dr. Ambers’ talk was the dedication of the new Nature Center (formally the water treatment plant). Next was the Engineering program’s Cardboard Boat Regatta. Four teams of Sweet Briar students assembled cardboard boats made with only 20 pounds of cardboard and 50 feet of duct tape. We had a great time cheering them on. Only one boat sank; its crew swam back to the dock with determination to complete the race one way or another. Sweet Briar Varsity Soccer vs. Emory & Henry College was the “big homecoming game.” With a lot of pink and green we cheered for the Lady Vixens. One thing the other team figured out was that the women of SBC, current students and alumnae, are not quiet! As you might tell, I had a great time back at SBC for Homecoming. Put September 21–24, 2006 on your schedule for next year. I hope to see many of you there.

Homecoming 2006, September 21–24.

The Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra performed for an enthusiastic audience

Dean Green sings National Anthem to begin games

Vikki Schroeder ’87 Alumnae Association Board Region VII Chair

Game watchers! Alumnae-Student Field Hockey Game, L-r: Rebecca Olander ’09; Julie Drake ’06; Maria Kitchin ’04

6 • Winter 2006

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

It promises another whirlwind schedule of activities to enrich the spirit and challenge the mind. The 2006 focus will be “Women Who Go Out and Make a Difference,” and the success of Our Campaign For Her World will be celebrated. Plan now to come home to SBC. We’re waiting for you!

Cardboard Boat Regatta!

Crowd watches Regatta

Class of ’76 held a mini-Reunion!

Renee Modzelewski ’06, Homecoming Intern

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Winter 2006 • 7

founders’ day

2005 Distinguished Alumna Award To Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64 INTRODUCTION OF HONOREE AT FOUNDERS’ DAY CONVOCATION, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005

BY ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT LINDA DEVOGT ’86

As a graduate student, she was the first woman to obtain a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering.

It is my great privilege, as President of the Alumnae Association, to introduce Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer of the Class of 1964, recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award, one of the highest honors Sweet Briar College can bestow. A physics major at Sweet Briar, as a student Jo Ann was very visible: Treasurer and Vice President of the Student Government Association; Head of InterClub Council; Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities; May Day Committee Head; Orientation Committee; Sweet Briar News; Freshman Honors; © David Abrams

Founders’ Day Presidential Party 1st row: President Muhlenfeld; Distinguished Alumna Honoree Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer; Alumnae Association President Linda DeVogt Top row: Dean Jonathan Green; Chaplain Guy Brewer

8 • Winter 2006

Young Republicans Club; Lake Council; Lectures and Concerts Committee; Bum Chums; Senior Show cast; Senior Advisor. During the summer after her junior year, she attended the Summer Institute of Space Physics at Columbia University. In 1963– 64, her senior year, she received Academic Honors, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated from Sweet Briar cum laude. As a graduate student, she was the first woman to obtain a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering. She is a member of the engineering honor society, Sigma Xi. Jo Ann was first an aerospace engineer with Martin Marietta Corporation in Orlando, Florida, then with Lockheed Martin Corporation in Burlington, Vermont where she was a member of the Lockheed Martin Management Club. Currently she is Director of Naval Defense System programs for General Dynamics Corporation in Burlington. Here today to celebrate Jo Ann’s award are many family members and friends: Jo Ann’s parents, Hartley and Mabel Soderquist; her sister, Susan DiBianca, her nephew, Hartley DiBianca; Elliott Whitton; and many proud 1964 classmates. Jo Ann, all of us are so proud of you for your remarkable achievements at Sweet Briar, at UVA, and in the field of Engineering! This spring, the Board of the Sweet Briar Alumnae Association passed a Resolution honoring Jo Ann. It is a pleasure to present her with a framed copy of this, along with her award pendant. I now cede the podium to Jo Ann, who will deliver the Founders’ Day address, “A Lady Engineer’s Perspective on Leadership.”

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

founders’ day RECIPIENTS OF THE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA AWARD

JO ANN SODERQUIST KRAMER ’64 ACCEPTS THE 2005 DISTINGUISHED

The Distinguished Alumna Award, established in 1988, recognizes alumnae who have brought distinction to themselves and to Sweet Briar College through their outstanding accomplishments in a volunteer or professional capacity.

A Lady Engineer’s Perspective on Leadership

1988 Dorothy Rouse-Bottom ’49 Diana Muldaur Dozier ’60 Karin Lawson ’74 1989 Hallam Hurt ’67 1990 Virginia Upchurch Collier ’72 Katherine Upchurch Takvorian ’72 1991 Ann Henderson Bannard ’49 Sadie Gwin Allen Blackburn ’45 1992 Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp ’68 1993 Molly Haskell Sarris ’61 1994 Anna Chao Pai ’57 1995 Joan Vail Thorne ’51 1996 Beryl Bergquist Farris ’71 1997 Georgene M. Vairo ’72 1998 Katharine Crommelin Milton ’62 1999 Patricia Traugott Rouse ’48 2000 Connie Burwell White ’34 2001 Joanne Holbrook Patton ’52 2002 Nella Gray Barkley ’55 2003 Elizabeth Morton Forsyth ’36*

2005 Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64 *DECEASED

THE LEADERSHIP MESSAGE For many of us who grew up in industry as individual performers, particularly as engineers, and most particularly as women in the heavily male dominated, leading edge technology defense and space business, it can be difficult to make the transition from individual contributor to a leader of others. I quickly realized that most people just don’t do things the same way I do … maybe they don’t do something as well as I would, maybe they do it better. I quickly was reminded “there can be more than one right answer”. One of the most difficult things for me to accept was that being a leader meant I must be willing to accept the outcome and output of those I led as if they were my own. I had to be willing to accept the consequences of their performance without excuse. I had to learn that I always must be willing to set aside my wishes for the good of the group and for the good of the corporation for which I worked. I learned I must give credit to others when things went well and take the blame when things went badly. As a leader in a company or corporation or institution, your role at work is an extension of the objectives of that company or corporation or institution. You must never forget that you are paid to do what is best to achieve the company’s objectives, not your own. Your ability to marshal the resources that lead you to accomplish company objectives is the quantitative measure of your business success. Your ability to use those skills outside of work—with your family, with the community, in athletic pursuits and other endeavors—tends to be an indicator of your personal success. Over the years I have spent time now and then, assessing the attributes of those I most admire in business, and I have compiled a list of Leadership Attributes that I most value. There is no particular significance to the order.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

I direct these thoughts most especially to those of you who are Sweet Briar girls today, you who will leave this place and become teachers, social workers, lawyers, artists, historians, doctors, and yes, engineers…and then leaders in your workplaces and communities. Be honest and do what’s right

Nothing is more important than personal integrity and ethical behavior. I am not just talking about doing what is legal. In all the gray areas, I am talking about doing the right thing, the kind of thing you’d be glad to tell your children about and actions you wouldn’t mind seeing on the front page of the Washington Post. You never get a second chance to be trusted and respected. Cut to the “chase”

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution

2004 Anne Litle Poulet ’64

ALUMNA AWARD AND DELIVERS THE FOUNDERS’ DAY ADDRESS,

Winter 2006 • 9

founders’ day everybody can understand. Effective leaders understand the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. They articulate vivid, overarching goals and values, which they use to drive daily behaviors and choices among competing alternatives. Their visions and priorities are lean and compelling, not cluttered and buzzword laden. Their decisions are crisp and clear, not tentative and ambiguous. They convey an unwavering firmness and consistency in their actions, which are aligned with the picture of the future they paint. The result:

clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership, and integrity in organization. Speak well and write well

I am reminded of a true story of a fiveyear-old approaching a company executive at a party, asking her what she did at her job. Rather than describe herself as the leader or CEO, she told the child that she was like the captain of a ship. The child interrupted with some impatience and said, “No, I don’t understand what you mean. Tell me what you do every day.”

THANK YOU’S TO: Linda DeVogt, President, Alumnae Association Louise Swiecki Zingaro, Director, Alumnae Association Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, President, Sweet Briar College Classmates from Class of ’64

Be passionate about everything you do

RECOGNITIONS: Elliott is here. Thank you for coming. My sister Susan and her son Hartley are here. Susan and I are two of the luckiest girls in the world. Our parents are here today, our mother who is 91 years old, and our father who is 93 years old. My father taught me how to throw a baseball…like a boy. My mother was a teacher…she drilled me on arithmetic with those addition and multiplication flash cards.

REMINISCING: I was fortunate to have many good teachers…I remember my grade school teachers…Mrs. Bowman, Miss Bradford, Miss Quillen, Miss Heasley, Miss Perry, Mrs. Greenawalt. I remember my 8th grade English teacher, Miss Morrissey. Everyone was scared to death of her. She taught me grammar, and how to diagram sentences. I didn’t think I ever needed another English teacher, but I got four more of them in high school. They taught me how to write. Then in the fall of 1960 I came to Sweet Briar, and I had to take English. I can’t believe I typed all those long English papers on a manual Remington typewriter, always trying to figure out how many footnotes were going to fit on each page! I wound up choosing Physics as a major, mainly because of Professor Lily Rappaport. I was the only Physics major who graduated in 1964. (Tuck Mattern is one of our classmates here today. She also majored in Physics, but she was so smart she did it in 3 years!) Mrs. Rappaport was not just a fabulous teacher; she was a mentor and friend. For several years after graduating from Sweet Briar, I and my two young sons visited the Rappaports at their Ivy, VA home. She always made the boys peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I always had some of her and her husband Jacques’ home brewed beer. After graduation, V. M. Del Greco and I headed for Charlottesville, she in her little white Ford Falcon, me in my big black, fin-tailed Buick. V. M. to teach and go to graduate school, me to attend the graduate School of Engineering—all those boys and me. Sweet Briar had prepared us well…We thought we were really something when we moved into our brand new apartment on Stadium Road. The first time we turned the oven on, we burned up the instructions… The day of my master’s orals, Lily Rappaport came. I made it through that day. Professors that remain friends…speaks volumes about Sweet Briar. Sweet Briar prepared me well. 10 • Winter 2006

So the executive took another tack and told the child what she did in as clear a way as she could, verbally running through the events of a typical day, mentioning meetings and telephone calls, memos, letters, and one-on-one conversations in the hallways. The child stopped her again, this time with the satisfaction of understanding, and said, “Oh, what you do is talk. That is your job.” How simple and how true...In a large technology and defense corporation, or in any company or institution, a leader’s primary role is to talk to those around her as purposefully and effectively as she can. You are only as valuable as your ability to communicate information and your ideas. There are few things as important as speaking well and writing well.

Play as hard as you work and have fun at both. I am especially good at this! Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take time off when you’ve earned it...I recommend two weeks in Scotland and the English Yorkshire countryside. Spend time with your families. The corollary to this: “Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.” Seek people who have some balance in their lives, who are fun to hang out with, who like to laugh (at themselves, too) and who have some non-job priorities that they approach with the same passion as they do their work. Spare me the grim workaholic or the pompous, pretentious “professional.” Enthusiasm and optimism are contagious. So is the impact of cynicism and pessimism. Leaders who whine and blame engender those same behaviors among their colleagues. I will take the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day. Be available and accessible

Colin Powell has said, “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Leadership doesn’t happen when you come to work…it is a 24/7 kind of thing. A real leader makes sure she is always there for her people, and her boss, and ensures that she can always be reached. She leverages communication and computer tools to stay in touch when she is out of the office. You should never abuse the access to someone’s personal time but never hesitate to act or communicate when required. In this global economy, speed and access are essential because great ideas are worthless if they can’t be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Treat people fairly

People deserve to be treated with dignity and there is no excuse for discrimination based upon gender, race, religion, physical handicap or sexual orientation. It is important to get to know your people— personal relationships form the basis of business success. Do not tolerate mediocrity

Mediocrity is quite simply unacceptable. Holding yourself and your people accountable to a high standard of performance is not an option. There must be quick and clear consequences for those who don’t perform to the high standards that have been set. Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every day, and constantly challenge the way things have always been done. I well understand that being responsible sometimes means ticking people off. Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. Trying to get everyone to like you is itself a sign of mediocrity. By procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to upset anyone, and by treating everyone equally “nicely” regardless of their contributions, you ironically ensure that the only people you wind up angering are those who are the most creative and productive. Recognize that your organization’s success is your success

A leader is only as good as the weakest

Jo Ann and family. 1st row: Hartley Soderquist; Jo Ann; Mabel Soderquist. 2nd row: Hartley DiBianca; Susan DiBianca; Elliott Whitton

and assure you that these words and behaviors remain relevant today. (Grace Mary would be proud.)

link in her organization, and her performance will be judged accordingly. It is her job to educate and train her people and to get rid of those that “just don’t get it.” Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Neither do plans. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. In a brain-based economy, the best assets are people. Too often, people are assumed to be empty chess pieces to be moved around at will, which may explain why so many top managers immerse themselves in deal-making, restructuring and the latest management fad. Far better to dedicate yourself to the goal of creating an environment where the best, the brightest, and the most creative are attracted, retained and most importantly unleashed.

Trust and confidence must be the foundation of that relationship. A leader asks for help and advice when she needs it and isn’t afraid to raise problems and issues, but she is prepared to then find a solution to a problem herself.

Project a professional appearance

Give to others

Be well groomed, socially astute and appropriately attired. You are frequently someone’s first, and maybe only, impression of the company. In case any of you who are Sweet Briar girls in 2005 do not know the origin of the words, “Good Taste and Good Judgment,” I suggest you seek out the women from the Class of 1964. We will happily fill you in

Be active in your community and participate in organizations or causes that interest you—be generous with your financial resources and your time. This is good recognition for your company, and more importantly it is the right thing to do for others.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Be an interesting person

The most successful business people I know are the most well read, well informed and well traveled. They also tend to have hobbies and interests in which they frequently excel. Expanding your personal interests creates a broad perspective that enhances your job effectiveness and your life. Never surprise your boss

Winter 2006 • 11

founders’ day Only by being unselfish and giving to others can you find your true sense of self. And, of course include Sweet Briar on your list! Keep your ego in check

The best of leaders never put personal ambition or agenda ahead of their organizations’. If your organization does well, you do well. You should never let personal identity get confused with job assignment —for it might change tomorrow. Too often, change is stifled by people who cling to familiar turf and job descriptions. Real leaders understand that nowadays, everyone’s job is becoming obsolete. We need to obsolete our activities before someone else does. Effective leaders create a climate where people’s worth is determined by their willingness to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities, thus perpetually reinventing their jobs. The most important question in performance evaluation becomes not, “How well did you perform your job since the last time we met?” but, “How much did you change it?” Be technology savvy

plan than to implement a perfect plan when it is too late. It is true that you don’t know what you can get away with until you try. Good leaders realize if you ask enough people for permission, you will inevitably come up against someone who believes his job is to say “no.” So the moral is, don’t ask. Research reveals that less effective managers endorse the sentiment, “If I haven’t explicitly been told ‘yes,’ I can’t do it,” whereas the good ones believe, “If I haven’t explicitly been told ‘no,’ I can.” There is a world of difference between these two points of view. “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It is an excuse for inaction. It is a mind-set that assumes (or hopes) that

today’s realities will continue tomorrow in a tidy, linear and predictable fashion, which of course is pure fantasy. In this sort of culture, you won’t find people who proactively take steps to solve problems as they emerge. In these sorts of companies I wouldn’t invest. Encourage conflict

The best ideas frequently emerge from a good argument, but you need to encourage opposing positions and ensure that the conflict is constructive and focuses on the issues, not the people. Leadership does not emerge from blind obedience to anyone. If you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant. Good leadership encourages everyone’s evolution.

When my father turned 90 we had a several-day celebration. Susan and I gave our dad a computer for his 90th birthday, his first one, and he learned how to use it. He has an AOL account and he uses it! It is oh so important to stay abreast of technology developments—computer and communications tools are seemingly endless and ever changing. Leaders are expected to use them (no matter how high their position). I strive to learn about new techniques and use new tools and gadgets as they become available. I cannot afford to be viewed as a dinosaur by the youngest and brightest employees, or heaven forbid, by a newly graduated 21st century Sweet Briar woman! Embrace change and uncertainty and act quickly

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of the Sweet Briar College Alumnae Association, assembled on April 14, 2005, acknowledges with gratitude the honor and prestige that our 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award recipient, Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer of the Class of 1964, has brought to Sweet Briar College. Jo Ann has been recognized in the engineering world for her achievements and dedication. As the first woman to earn a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering, she wrote “Determination of Newton’s Gravitational Constant ‘G’ with Increased Precision, a Theoretical Analysis.” Her career has been marked with achievements including the publication of Configuration Identification, a textbook published by the Electronics Industries Association. She is a member of Sigma Xi, an engineering honors society. Since her graduation from Sweet Briar in 1964, Jo Ann has been a steadfast, involved alumna, committed to supporting the College in every way possible. She has served as Class Fund Agent, Class President, and Class Secretary. She was a member of her 25th Reunion Gifts Committee in 1989 and Co-Chair of the Reunion Gifts Committee for the 30th in 1994, the 35th in 1999 and the 40th in 2004. Her class has won the Nancy Dowd Burton Award for the largest Reunion Gift twice, for its 35th and 40th Reunions. In 1994-95, she was the National Reunion Giving Chair Elect and in 1995-96 was the National Reunion Giving Chair. She served as Co-Chair of the Boxwood Circle Committee in 1996-1998 and presently is a Committee member. Jo Ann is a member of the Silver Rose Society, which recognizes alumnae and friends of Sweet Briar who have made gifts to the College for 25 years or more, and of the Indiana Fletcher Williams Associates, having named Sweet Briar in her will. The Board of the Alumnae Association wishes to express its deepest appreciation to Jo Ann who, in addition to the demands of her professional career, has maintained a strong and supportive relationship with her alma mater. The Board does so by way of this Resolution to be recorded in the official Minutes and to be transmitted to her.

You have to be flexible, open-minded and cooperative…no matter what! You must use your best judgment and act quickly—it is better to move quickly on an imperfect

Linda DeVogt ’86 President, Sweet Briar Alumnae Association

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Louise Swiecki Zingaro ’80 Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu Director, Sweet Briar College Alumnae Association

founders’ day ’64 classmates celebrate Jo Ann 1st row: Virginia deBuys; Jo Ann; Nancy Gillies 2nd row: Lynne Smith Crow; Tuck Mattern Harvey; V. M. Del Greco Galgano; Sheila Carroll Cooprider; Claire Hughes Knapp Top row: Susan Glasgow Brown; Bebe Bolling Downs; Gail Rothrock Trozzo; Rosamond Sample Brown; Mollie Johnson Nelson

It is healthy to disagree—just make sure that you get angry and then get over it. And remember, the ultimate decision must be supported.

community, in athletic pursuits and other endeavors—tends to be an indicator of personal success. Lead by example

Be a nice person and be there for others

I am always amazed at the inherent goodness of those with whom I work. A good business relationship usually has a personal element to it. Don’t be afraid to be human. Support the company position

For a strong willed, independent woman, this can be tough. I often have to remind myself that I can always voice my opinion and objections up the organization, but not with those who work for me. It is unacceptable to editorialize or secondguess a company decision once it has been made. As a leader in a corporation, my role at work is an extension of the objectives of the corporation. I must never forget that I am paid to do what is best to achieve the company’s objectives, not my own. My ability to marshal the resources that I lead, to accomplish company objectives is the quantitative measure of my business success. The ability to use those skills outside of work—with family, with

To be a successful leader, you must lead by example—for you have no right to ask others to do something you would not do yourself. I have always had a rule that I will never ask anyone to work harder than I work myself, nor will I ask others to take risks that I am not willing to take with them. This rule has served me well. In closing

Leadership is a daunting responsibility —for leaders can be no more successful than the poorest performer they lead. It is a leader’s job to help look for the next right answer, to train her employees’ technique and to help them be in the place of most potential. Leadership is all about people —how you help them, talk to them and set an example. The best of leaders are the ones who help reframe problems into opportunities. Ultimately the essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of an organization and on the fate of its people.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

There have been so many examples of leadership we have seen and read about since Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29th—many of them everyday people doing extraordinary things...like the man in New Orleans who lived on his roof at night while helicopters dropped him supplies, and rowed around in his little rowboat by day, personally rescuing more than 500 people in those awful flood-filled days…or like the truckers who volunteered to drive some 65 donated tractor trailers, filled with supplies donated by thousands of Vermonters, from Vermont to the ravaged coast of Mississippi within a week of August 29th. You see, leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible. Management is an administrative task—leadership is a way of life. Thank you.

I have always had a rule that I will never ask anyone to work harder than I work myself, nor will I ask others to take risks that I am not willing to take with them.

Winter 2006 • 13

Founders’ Day

Clockwise from top: To Monument Hill, led by Bagpiper Lorraine Haire Stanley ’91, newest member of the Keystone Society (honoring those who have achieved a lifetime cumulative giving record of $1,000,000 or more in support of Sweet Briar College) was recognized during Founders’ Day Convocation Chaplain Brewer begins Monument Hill Service of Remembrance Founders’ Day Picnic, Student Commons Courtyard

14 • Winter 2006

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

celebrating the

sciences at sweet briar

PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING ENGINEERING BIOLOGY MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES PSYCHOLOGY ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE CHEMISTRY

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Winter 2006 • 15

celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

PHYSICS A

Physics Department Now Officially The Department Of Physics And Engineering DR. HANK M. YOCHUM, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

he Physics Department faculty and students have been doing some very exciting work in the last several years. In addition to our teaching and research projects we have instituted an Engineering Program and we are now officially the Department of Physics and Engineering (see “Engineering @ Sweet Briar” by Kurt Schulz for more information). This new program is partially funded with over $1 million dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation. We have also renovated one of our teaching labs and have made room for a student study and computer space, which the students have named the “Physics Lair.” This past year, there was quite a buzz in the department because of Professor Scott Hyman’s radio astronomy discovery. He discovered a new transient radio source toward the center of our galaxy with very interesting bursting properties and reported his findings in Nature (March 2005). Publishing in Nature is a significant scientific achievement and his discovery garnered attention from many news sources, including CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and Scientific American. This work was the byproduct of years of effort, and many undergraduate researchers have been involved in his search for transient radio emissions. Christina Johnson ’08 is currently working with Professor Hyman analyzing data. Future observations are planned to try to understand the unique nature of this object. Scott has received funding for his radio astronomy research from the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, and the Jeffress Memorial Trust, and was awarded several NASA grants to search for X-ray emission from the center of our galaxy; the Sweet Briar Faculty Fellowship; and the Sweet Briar Faculty Research Award. He and his students are leading a program to monitor the Galactic Center for bursting and transient radio sources. For those of you who have not been in the department for a while, Professor Hank Yochum has developed a new Laser and Optics Laboratory. The new research lab is equipped with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and optical parametric oscillator as well as detection equipment for doing photoluminescence spectroscopy. Several undergraduates have worked in the lab during the academic year and during the summer on a variety of projects studying defects in optical materials. The Jeffress Memorial Trust currently sponsors research in the Laser and Optics Lab. Last March, physics major Jenariel Kotonias ’06 presented her research results from the lab at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Los Angeles. Also in Los Angeles, Professor Yochum presented materials physics research that he is doing collaboratively with scientists at the Institute of Solid State Physics in Riga, Latvia. In December 2005 he was awarded a $10,000 grant renewal from the Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust to support his work on point defects in optical materials. 16 • Winter 2006

The Physics Department has also been active in working with area elementary and middle school math and science teachers. In the last two years, Professors Yochum and Jill Granger (Chemistry) have been awarded over $ 200,000 from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) to fund our teacher professional development workshops. These funds support weeklong summer workshops, academic year workshops, and academic year support for implementing inquiry-based math and science lessons. The department was very proud to initiate an award in honor of retired (2005) Whitney-Guion Professor of Physics George Lenz’s significant contributions to the department. This award is given to a senior physics major or minor who has shown dedication and success in the pursuit of learning physics and who excels in both theoretical and experimental physics, exemplifying Professor Lenz’s excitement for understanding physics. The 2005 winner of the award was Mariana Lazarova ’05. A plaque which now hangs in the department will name each year’s winner, who receives her own plaque and a small monetary award. We look forward to continuing to honor George Lenz by presenting this award for years to come. We are quite proud of what our students have done after graduation. This year, Mariana Lazorova ’05 decided to attend University of California–Riverside for graduate school in astronomy. Katie Kirkwood ’04, the daughter of SBC Professors of Mathematical Sciences Bessie and James Kirkwood, is at Yale University completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Cynthia Beller ’04 is at Harvard in their graduate program in biostatistics. Jenny Neurether ’03 is in the graduate physics program at University of California–Davis. Alexis Kovacs ’02 completed a master’s degree in physics at the University of Illinois and recently took a job teaching physics and chemistry at Jones College Prep in Chicago. Laurna Katz ’01 recently finished her master’s degree in physics at the University of Denver and is an adjunct professor in SBC’s Physics Department for Spring Semester 2006. Krista Schuler ’02 is a structural engineer at McCormac-Watkins Engineering, Hanover, PA. This list is certainly not exhaustive; we wish that space allowed including what all of our graduates are doing. To keep up with other exciting department news and to see pictures of the department, please check our Web site at http: // www.physics.sbc.edu. We’d love to hear from physics alumnae! In particular, we are trying to keep up with alumnae activities on our Web site, so please e-mail Hank Yochum, chairperson of the department, at hycohum@sbc.edu.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

AND ENGINEERING ACCOMPLISHMENTS Professor Hank Yochum was awarded a $10,000 grant renewal December 2005 from the Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust to support his work on point defects in optical materials. Professor Scott Hyman was awarded several NASA grants to search for X-ray emission from the center of our galaxy. He and his students are also leading a program to monitor the Galactic Center for bursting and transient radio sources.

Christina Johnson (’07) doing radio astronomy research, searching for radio transients

Christina Johnson (Physics ’07) was awarded the Jeffress Student Research Award, which provided her a research stipend for summer 2005. She participated in radio astronomy research with Professor Hyman.

Physics majors Cynthia Beller (’04), Caville Stanbury (’06), Prof. Yochum, Katie Kirkwood (’04), and Mariana Lazarova (’05) at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of Undergraduate Scholarship, hosted annually by the SBC Honors Program

Barbara Merk (’05) in the SBC Laser Lab, summer 2004

Krista Schuler (’02) is a structural engineer at McCormac-Watkins Engineering in Hanover, PA. Laurna Kaatz (’01) will be teaching a couple of physics courses at Sweet Briar in the Spring of 2006. Alexis Kovacs (’02) is now teaching physics and chemistry courses at Jones College Prep in Chicago.

Professors Yochum, Hyman, and Lenz, with Mariana Lazarova (Physics ’05) upon her receiving the inaugural George H. Lenz Excellence in Physics Award Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

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celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

Engineering At Sweet Briar: Designing Her World, Designing Our World DR. KURT C. SCHULZ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE ENGINEERING PROGRAM

hange…the ever-present reality of our world. As the world changes, so must we. Sweet Briar College recognizes this reality and has responded by creating an innovative new Engineering Program. A program closely integrated with the strengths of Sweet Briar, the humanities and the sciences. A professional program seeking accreditation that is grounded in engineering fundamentals and real-world relevance from internships to industry-based design projects. A creative program with design and hands-on experiences as centerpieces. A program with current-day relevance—a multicultural perspective including international experiences. A first-class program incorporating state-of-the-art instrumentation technology within an integrated engineering testing laboratory. A program that supports its students. A program that motivates and excels and guides and challenges and excites. In Sweet Briar’s Engineering Program, we recognize that our world is ever changing and plan to continue to change and grow with it. Continue to strive for excellence. Continue to innovate, transcend, and explore…ways to enhance engineering education. The Sweet Briar experience. An exceptional education, an extraordinary experience. With the broad objective of facilitating lasting societal change, the Sweet Briar Engineering Program is striving to increase the number of engineering graduates—and, more specifically, the

number of women graduates in engineering—an oft-referenced critical national and international need. By offering team-taught courses that are closely integrated with liberal arts, the program presents opportunities for all Sweet Briar students to develop technical skills and confidence—keys to employment and success in today’s competitive marketplace. Engineering students at Sweet Briar can choose their path— from options of a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Degree offering in Engineering Science and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Degree offering in Integrated Engineering and Management to an engineering minor and a dual-degree opportunity in conjunction with a choice of prominent research-one universities. We at Sweet Briar are confident that these new majors will prepare our students exceptionally well for professional careers in technologicaloriented companies or the pursuit of graduate studies in the field of their choice. Many opportunities, many possibilities. We at Sweet Briar are excited and proud to be at the cutting edge in the development and offering of a unique and innovative approach to engineering education. An approach in step with today’s changing world. An approach in step with today’s globalized world. An approach in step with the needs of modern industry. In step with the needs of modern society. In step with student needs…in step with your needs.

urt Schulz, Engineering Program Director and Associate Professor, and his course Designing Our World, received national attention in College Bound Teen’s

November/December 2005 issue. The magazine sent out a national inquiry for cool projects and assignments in college. Schulz’ Cardboard Boat Regatta fit the bill. Schulz asked the14 students in his introductory engineering course to build a boat, which had to be captained by two women, using only corrugated cardboard and 50 feet of duct tape. The students raced their creations in the lower lake on Sweet Briar’s campus during Homecoming 2005 to loud cheers from the audience. The first “Engineering Class”—the class of ’09—includes five women planning to pursue Bachelor of Science degrees in Engineering Science, and four are pursing Bachelor of Art degrees in Integrated Engineering and Management.

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FROM TOP: The Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta during Homecoming Weekend—alumnae and fans cheer on the winning team. They tried and tried and they tried and they tried…but just couldn’t make it to the finish line. Great drive, great attitude—first-year engineering students Sarah Smiley and Maddie Lyerly tow in their sunken vessel. A bit too high— engineering students Shelley Woody and Amanda Baker strive toward the finish line.

ENGINEERING RECENT ENGINEERING PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS The First “Engineering Class”—the Class of 2009 —Entered in the Fall of ’05— Eight Students Engineering Students are Guaranteed Paid Industrial Internships—In Conjunction with Region 2000, the Area’s Economic Development Partnership

ABOVE: Dr. Schulz working with firstyear engineering students Kaelyn Leake and Shelley Woody on using the band saw to build their catapult. RIGHT: Building catapults in the new Engineering Laboratory. “It worked last night, but every time we sprung the spring it sprang…”

Engineering Students are Guaranteed Experiences Abroad—Interdisciplinary Courses are Being Developed that Facilitate Going On-Site, Out of the U.S., to Implement Student Designs

BELOW: Preparing for the annual Parabolic Beanie Baby Launch Mechanism (PBBLM) competition— catapulting beanie babies over treacherous waterways and perilous mountains.

SHORT-TERM PROGRAM PLANS • Hire a Second Faculty Member—to Begin in the Fall of ’06—Expertise in Systems and Controls • Development of the Integrated Engineering Laboratory— Instrumentation Stations and Materials and Mechanics Test Equipment • Establishment of Partnership Ties to Local/Regional Industry—Foundation of Student Internships, Student Projects, Mentors, Jobs for Program Graduates, Program Funding • Implementation of a Set of Three Interdisciplinary Courses Focused on Developing Solutions to Developing World Needs and Going On-Site to Implement the Solutions

The Program Received a $400k STEP Grant from the National Science Foundation Focused on Recruiting Students into the New Program

We at Sweet Briar are confident that these new majors will prepare our students exceptionally well for professional careers in technological-oriented companies or the pursuit of graduate studies in the field of their choice.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

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celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

Department Of Biology: Spanning The Entire Field DR. ROBIN DAVIES, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

he study of living things on planet Earth is the raison d’etre of the Department of Biology. Our small department spans the entire field, from the study of the molecules of life, through cells, organ systems, organisms and ecosystems. Our research interests complement each other wonderfully, and our work is punctuated by numerous examples of collaboration. Courses offered by the department range from Cell and Molecular Biology and Scanning Electron Microscopy to The Plant Kingdom and Vertebrate Diversity to Ecology and Seminar in Conservation Biology. Our courses take advantage of our superb equipment holdings and our spectacular environment. For example, last year Visiting Assistant Professor Heather Griscom created an advanced course in Physiological Plant Ecology which combined field and laboratory investigations. Dr. Griscom received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2004 and is our sabbatical replacement for Dr. Linda Fink. Dr. Janet Steven joined the biology faculty this fall after completing a Ph.D. in Botany at the University of WisconsinMadison and postdoctoral research at Indiana University. She was attracted to Sweet Briar by the meaningful teaching opportunities and emphasis on academics provided by the College, as well as the many avenues of plant research made possible by the size of the campus. Currently, she is starting a research project on the evolution of flower types in Piedmont meadow-rue, a Virginia native plant. Drs. Fink and Steven are also planning a collaborative study on Japanese stiltgrass, an invasive plant on the Sweet Briar campus. While Dr. Fink investigates the spread of the weed, Dr. Steven will be studying the characteristics of the plant that make it a good invader. Japanese stiltgrass produces two kinds of flowers—some that are small and self-pollinate, and others that are large and disperse pollen between plants. “Japanese stiltgrass invades and outcompetes other plants in both sunny and shady conditions. The production of two different kinds of flowers may be giving stiltgrass an edge in both habitats,” said Dr. Steven. “Understanding reproduction in this species will allow us to design better management approaches.” Dr. Jeff Janovetz joined the department in 2002, upon completion of his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He brought an impressive collection of live vertebrate animals with him, including snakes, lizards, and tortoises. Dr. Janovetz says “The focus of my research is how the biological design of an organism influences its behavior and ability to perform ecological tasks such as capturing prey or escaping predators. My students and I study the anatomy of animals and use a high-speed camera to record the intricate movement of the skull and body that comprise each behavior. These data are combined with the ecological context of the behavior and the evolutionary relationships of the animals to test hypotheses of adaptation and general patterns in the sequence 20 • Winter 2006

and direction of evolutionary change in morphology and behavior. Current research projects focus on the feeding biology of piranhas and related fishes, the biomechanics of scale-feeding in fishes, the function of jaw protrusion in a local species of minnow, and prey capture in salamanders.” Dr. Linda Fink earned her Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Florida and is our ecologist and field biologist. She has research interests in three areas: arthropod behavior and ecology, invasive species, and ecology of our hardwood forests. Dr. Fink is currently spending a sabbatical year on charismatic insects that she has been studying for four, five and 25 years. Without teaching and committee responsibilities, she is able to carry out time-intensive experiments and prepare papers for publication. Over the summer she focused on silkmoth caterpillars at risk from an exotic parasite, following up on Kellogg, Fink and Brower (2003, Environmental Entomology 32: 1019-1027). In the fall she delved into the sex lives of walkingsticks, asking why both males and females mate repeatedly, protractedly, and with multiple partners. During the winter and spring she and Research Professor Lincoln Brower are asking why monarch butterflies are so restricted in their winter habitat. One billion monarchs, produced in a breeding range covering most of eastern North America, converge on a region in Mexico that extends only 60 by 70 miles, where they form dense colonies with a combined size of less than 75 acres. Their research team, including Sweet Briar students and scientists from Mexico, NASA and Lynchburg College, is combining laboratory physiology experiments, field explorations and microclimate measurements, and GIS analysis. They are supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Robin Davies came to Sweet Briar in 1988 from a position in the biotechnology industry. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University and is our cell and molecular biologist. Together with Dr. Rob Granger of the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Davies and her students have been pursuing cancer research in both human and animal tissue culture lines. Students utilize normal and malignant cultured cells to determine the anticancer activity of the novel compounds created by Dr. Granger and his students. They have identified several compounds which demonstrate selective toxicity for cancer cells and which are effective against tumor lines resistant to conventional chemotherapy agents. Dr. Davies also sponsors research in molecular biology, and is delighted to be working with Dr. Fink on her stick insect paternity investigations. Additionally, Dr. Davies collaborates with Dr. Raina Robeva and Dr. Jim Kirkwood of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and colleagues at the University of Virginia School of Medicine on biomathematics education. They offer a course, Topics in Biomathematics, at Sweet Briar and just submitted a book manuscript to their publishers. Dr. Davies is also interested Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

BIOLOGY in improving K-12 science education and participates in Dr. Jill Granger’s workshops for in-service teachers. The department offers the B.S., B.A., and minor in Biology and a joint B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with Chemistry. We are exceptionally proud of our graduates, who go on to fascinating careers in many fields. Our alumnae include veterinarians, field biologists, physicians, conservation biologists, nurses, physical therapists, and teachers at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. Alumnae are in graduate or professional programs at UVA, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the Universities of Tennessee, California-Davis, Oklahoma, Florida, and many more. Several are employed in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. A large concentration of Sweet Briar Biology graduates may be found pursuing biomedical research at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. We invite each of them to keep in touch and to let us know what they are doing, as hearing from alumnae makes our day!

Dr. Linda Fink’s Seminar in Conservation Biology met for the 1st time in spring 2005. Members of the inaugural class were (Standing, L-r:): Amanda Watts, Tamara Himelright Helton, Beth Goldring and Denise Uribe, all members of the class of 2005; Rebecca Penny ’08, Lauren Banks ’06, Dr. Fink; (Kneeling, L-r): Stephanie Scherer, Jenn Wiley, Abby Adams and Charlotte Formichella, all members of the class of 2006.

Our small department spans the entire field, from the study of the molecules of life, through cells, organ systems, organisms and ecosystems. Our research interests complement each other wonderfully, and our work is punctuated by numerous examples of collaboration.

Dr. Linda Fink has been doing research on the sex lives of walking sticks—asking why they mate repeatedly, protractedly, and with multiple partners. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

PHOTOS ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: This image, taken with Sweet Briar’s scanning electron microscope, shows the scales on a butterfly’s wing, and is representative of the kinds of images students obtain every semester using the instrument.

Shannon Smith ’99 learns about sea turtles while in Grenada.

Shannon Smith ’99 studied veterinary studies at N.C. State University. She has done veterinary work on lions, buffalo and antelope in South Africa; taken a sea turtle medicine course in Grenada; and traveled to Thailand to learn about elephant medicine.

Aboard the Ka’imimoana, Fionna Matheson ’98 makes an entry into the bridge weather log.

Fionna Matheson ’98 is a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps, stationed on the ship Ka’imimoana. She is at sea about 300 days a year, cruising from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. The ship maintains a buoy array in the equatorial Pacific that monitors oceanic and climatic data. NOAA Corps, the smallest of the uniformed services, has approximately 300 commissioned officers.

The football-shaped objects in this image are pollen grains. Pollen grains come in a surprising variety of shapes and textures and are frequently selected by first-year biology students for their first scanning electron microscopy projects. These mouse melanoma cells were grown in tissue culture and prepared for the electron microscope by Kristy Winstead Anderson ’98. Their rounded shape and irregular surface are characteristic of these aggressive malignant cells. The scanning electron microscope provides a window into the cellular structure of the living world. This close-up of the cut end of a woody twig shows the kind of detail visible using the instrument.

Sweet Briar’s Department of Biology owns and operates an Amray 1810 Scanning Electron Microscope, the successor to the original Cambridge Instruments microscope whose donation to the Department was arranged by Dr. Charlene Reed-Miller ’73. The scanning electron microscope is used by beginning biology students as well as pre-veterinary and pre-medical students in Biology 102, Introductory Biology Laboratory II. Advanced biology students use it to explore more extensively in Biology 350, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and in Independent Research, Biology 351.

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celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

MATHEM

The Department Of Mathematical Sciences: A Department To Be Modeled DR. STEPHEN R. WASSELL, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

he Department of Mathematical Sciences just recently underwent its 10-year external review in spring 2005, and passed with flying colors, prompting President Muhlenfeld to write: I must say it is a pleasure to read a thoughtful and authoritative review that is so positive. Your department is one I value and that has long seemed to me a model. It is wonderful to hear an outsider identify those elements of your interaction and partnership that make the department function as it does. Congratulations on having developed solid academic programs while maintaining your own scholarly interests. One of the facts in which the department takes pride is that, over the past five–10 years, approximately 10 percent of SBC students have graduated with a major in the Mathematical Sciences, about triple the national average. In fact, a large number of students who major within the department had not anticipated doing so in their first year, but a favorable experience in the introductory courses convinced them to pursue the subjects further. Perhaps the main reason for this success is the high amount of interaction and camaraderie that students in the department have with one another and with the faculty. Another strength is that for a small department, the faculty have an unusual breadth of expertise. All of them have Ph.D.s (in fact, one has doctorates in both mathematics and statistics!), and between them, they hold degrees in mathematics, statistics, computer science, physics, and architecture. Majors in the Department of Mathematical Sciences are typically very active in co-curricular life at Sweet Briar, and several of the student government officers in recent years have been math or computer science majors. Upon graduation, Mathematical Sciences majors are highly employable in a variety of fields, by top-notch organizations such as IBM, Northrop Grumman, the National Ground Intelligence Center, the National Security Agency, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SunTrust Bank, and the Joint Warfare Analysis Center, to name a few. Students who choose to pursue graduate school are also very successful. Some of the top graduate placements over the past eight years include programs in Biostatistics, Harvard University; Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University; Computer Science, Stanford University; Operations Research, College of William & Mary; and Accounting, University of North Carolina. Each faculty member in the department has maintained solid scholarly activities while devoting considerable time to both coursework and service to the College through SBC’s strong faculty governance system. Bob Chase’s primary research area recently has been with the Palm OS (the operating system for the Palm Pilot). Under the auspices of grants and contracts, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) as well as industry sources through the University of Virginia (UVA), he has been 22 • Winter 2006

working on implementation of patient survey administration, data collection, and analysis for research on Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and on ADHD. Pedagogically, in order to keep up with the rapidly changing field of Computer Science (CS), Bob has devoted considerable time to learning object-oriented programming as manifested by the C++ and Java languages, as well as to researching ways of teaching those languages. Bob has also spent several years developing expertise with the Unix operating system and learning and implementing services and tools provided by Unix, which is pertinent for both operating systems and computer networks, two core areas of CS. For the past few years Jim Kirkwood has been working with Raina Robeva, a departmental colleague, and Robin Davies, from SBC’s Department of Biology, on an exciting and innovative biomathematics initiative. Their first grant, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2001, entitled “Teaching Quantification Skills in the Biology and Mathematics Curricula,” focused on developing a new course for sophomore level students and a collection of stand-alone biomathematics modules that could be used as student projects and independent research in conventional biology and mathematics courses. This initiative is in collaboration with several faculty members from UVA’s Center for Biomathematical Technology, who have obtained an additional grant funded by NIH entitled “Computational Applications in Diabetes and Endocrinology.” The same trio of SBC professors, who act as undergraduate consultants for the NIH award, obtained a second NSF grant in 2003, entitled “Biomathematics: Developing a Textbook and Case Study Manual for Teaching Introductory Courses in Mathematical Biology.” Their textbook is now under contract by Academic Press. Finally, Jim has been involved for the past several years with in-service classes for area high school and middle school teachers, including handson, projects-oriented approaches to geometry and integration of computers into mathematics instruction. Bessie Kirkwood has been making the most of the expertise she developed in earning her Ph.D. in Statistics (in addition to her first Ph.D. in Mathematics). Her research activities complement the biomathematics initiative involving departmental colleagues Jim Kirkwood and Raina Robeva. Bessie received funding in 2004 from the NSF for a grant entitled “Biostatistics: A Second Statistics Course Preparing Undergraduates for Research.” She now teaches Biostatistics at SBC, a course that prepares students for graduate programs in life sciences and medicine, where they often are expected to arrive with research experience. This course is innovative because it covers modern computing-intensive statistical methods usually reserved for graduate-level studies. The course also completes the curriculum for a new minor in statistics and a second minor in biomathematics, which is still being developed. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

MATICAL SCIENCES Over the past five–10 years, approximately 10 percent of SBC students have graduated with a major in the Mathematical Sciences, about triple the national average.

L-r: Raina Robeva, Jim Kirkwood, Bessie Kirkwood, Bob Chase, Steve Wassell

Steve Wassell has been active on a number of fronts. During his first sabbatical he earned a master’s in CS from UVA in 1999, and he regularly teaches Algorithm Analysis as part of the department’s CS curriculum. Steve has been involved as well with SBC’s new Engineering Program, for which he has taken part in three NSF grants, most notably as the principal investigator for a 2004 grant entitled “Increasing the Number of Women in Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics: A Scholarship Program at an Undergraduate Women’s College.” Steve’s primary research area combines his undergraduate degree subject, architecture, with mathematics. His area of expertise is the mathematics found in the designs of Andrea Palladio, perhaps the most influential of the Italian Renaissance architects, if not of all time. (For example, Ralph Adams Cram’s design for SBC’s campus could certainly be called Palladian.) He is the co-author of a 2002 book entitled On Ratio and Proportion, a translation and commentary of Silvio Belli, Della proportione et proportionalità (Belli was a close friend and colleague of Palladio), as well as a book now under contract, Andrea Palladio’s Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese. Raina Robeva has truly been a leader in the biomathematics initiative, which at SBC grew out of a meeting prompted by a memo from Raina to the other Guion professors calling for interdisciplinary work. A quote from the recent 10-year departmental evaluation is in order: “It is noteworthy that Raina’s memo preceded the appearance in 2003 of BIO2010, Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists, published by the National Academy of Science, and the responding Mathematics & Biology 2010, Linking Undergraduate Disciplines published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). She was prescient in her initiative, and the benefits now accruing to the college are worth noting.” Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Topics in Biomathematics: Applying Mathematical Methods to the Life Sciences

owadays, virtually any advance in the life sciences requires sophisticated mathematical approaches. Characterization of biological systems has reached an unparalleled level of detail. To organize this information and arrive at a better fundamental understanding of life processes, it is imperative that powerful conceptual tools from mathematics be applied to the frontier problems in biology. Modeling of biological systems is evolving into an important partner of experimental work. As a result, there is a rapidly increasing demand for people with training in the field of computational and mathematical biology. To meet this national need, the department now offers a course, Topics in Biomathematics, that helps our students develop the skills crucial for applying mathematical methods to the life sciences. The course, developed by Raina Robeva and James Kirkwood, together with Robin Davies from the Department of Biology was created with funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in collaboration with faculty from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. A substantial portion of the course projects is based on ongoing faculty research and studies at UVA, thus providing opportunities for subsequent student internships. Separate NSF funding was awarded to the SBC faculty team for producing a textbook and a laboratory case studies manual for the course. Because the need for integrating mathematical and computational methods in the life sciences curricula is growing, Drs. Robeva and Davies have also become part of a consortium that in the past three years has offered professional development workshops for college and university faculty who wish to develop and teach courses in the field. The Mathematical Association of America, the NSF, and the National Computational Science Institute are sponsoring these activities and the Mathematical Sciences and Biology departments will jointly host the 2006 workshop in Mathematical and Computational Biology that will take place at Sweet Briar College.

Raina is the principal investigator on the 2001 and 2003 NSF grants cited above, and she and Robin Davies team-teach the course Topics in Biomathematics, which helps students develop the skills crucial for applying mathematical methods to the life sciences. Raina and Robin have also become part of a consortium that in the past three years has offered professional development workshops for college and university faculty who wish to develop and teach courses in the field. Over the past three years Raina Robeva has also collaborated with Tim Loboschefski from SBC’s Department of Psychology and faculty from UVA’s School of Medicine to create mathematical models for ADHD assessment based on demographic, psychometric and electro-encephalographic data. The results of her studies have been published in several journal articles and, this year, as a book chapter in Progress in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Research. Winter 2006 • 23

celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

Psychology: A Number Of Exciting Changes DR. TIMOTHY W. LOBOSCHEFSKI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

irst, warm greetings to our alums who have gone on to do some tremendous things since leaving the halls of Guion. As is true of the other sciences, Psychology has been going through a number of exciting changes since the last time you may have been on campus. Our faculty research projects have been supported by over $400,000 from state and national foundations; we are in the midst of discussions about adding a Neuroscience concentration option to our Bachelor of Science Degree; our students are actively engaged in both laboratory research and community outreach projects; and our majors continue to score high on national tests for undergraduate majors in Psychology. Research has become a way of life for our students, who are key partners in both their own and faculty research projects. For those who might not be familiar with the research conducted by our faculty: Dr. Brian Cusato heads up our animal research program and his work examines adaptive and ecologically relevant learning mechanisms in the sexual behavior systems of avian species. By understanding the relevant cues and outcomes of better mating strategies, scientists might be better equipped to help species at risk of extinction better repopulate. Students such as Carlina Muglia ’07 work on Dr. Cusato’s research as well as conducting their own projects with the animals. Dr. Susan Beers, our social/personality psychologist, is currently conducting research (with Brooke Middleton ’05 and Charis Lease-Trevathan ’06) examining how students’ spiritual and religious beliefs change over the course of their college years, and the possible negative effects brought out by an otherwise positive personal transformation. Finally, Dr. Tim Loboschefski, our developmental psychologist, has recently completed (with Dr. Raina Robeva, from SBC’s Mathematical Sciences program) a large-scale study of adult ADHD. In this work, they are attempting to develop a medically-based, objective tool to assist in the diagnosis of ADHD (using electroencephalographic [EEG] information). By having a more objective tool available at diagnosis, potential issues of misdiagnosis and overmedication might be better brought under control. Faculty research has been published in such journals as: Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback; Behavioral and Brain Sciences; Clinical Psychology Current Pediatric Review; Journal of Comparative Psychology; and Psychonomic Bulletin and Review in the last few years. Our classrooms have been just as active and diverse. Through Dr. Sandy Duis’ Counseling Skills course, students are taking their classroom experiences and applying their skills through a required outreach program targeting local service agencies. Each year, over 1000 hours of community service is accomplished through this and our field experience courses. For the animal lovers out there, Dr. Roberta Sadler and students in her Honors Seminar Animal Minds recently spent a day at the Riding Center 24 • Winter 2006

seeing applications of lessons on behavioral training and Natural Horsemanship procedures (species-typical learning procedures) in action. Not to slight humans however, she assures us that in her Behavioral Approaches to Human Problems class, the human animal is also appropriately dealt with. She has worked as well with Mary Gordon Seay ’04 on her Honors Thesis project on person perception and stereotyping. Dr. Melissa Burns-Cusato, our newest adjunct faculty member, has been an integral part of our push for Neuroscience in the major. Recent discoveries on the human genome and better brain imaging techniques have reignited the strong ties between the disciplines of Psychology and Biology and we hope to build on our strengths as a liberal arts college in building these connections into our curricula. Our students also continue to impress. As has been the case for the last five years, our senior majors in 2005 scored well above average on the nationally normed ACAT exam taken by all of our students as part of their Senior Seminar. Indeed, fully one-fourth of the class scored at or above the 90th percentile of Psychology majors in the country taking the test. Because of their high academic achievement and experiences at SBC, our students continue to place well as they progress toward graduate schools. For those that have decided to continue into postgraduate work after leaving SBC, over 90 percent of our recent majors have been placed in programs of their choice. Also among the many accomplishments achieved by our students, recent graduate Mindy Wolfrom ’05 proved that there are more than 25 hours in a day by working on the ADHD and animal research, while conducting her own Honors Thesis on factors underlying moral reasoning. She is currently enrolled in a graduate program in Philosophy to further her study in this area. Our students have been helped in their research by a dozen laptops, which the department purchased to assist in this endeavor, as well as providing funds for tests, software, and general lab equipment. The animal laboratory has also been spruced up with new caging and testing areas and a new HVAC system. On a sad note, Dr. Phyllis “Stevie” Stevens, who retired from the Department of Psychology in 1983 recently passed away. Our condolences go out to all of her family and friends. In recognition of her many contributions to the department and SBC, we are upgrading and rededicating the Psychology Student Lounge area in her honor. To keep up with what is going on in the department, please check out our Web site at http://www.psychology.sbc.edu. To contact us, or for a quick link to some of our research pages, please go to http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/faculty.htm. We have been trying our best to keep up with our alums…please e-mail us and let us know what is going on in your lives. Nothing says “Psychology” like students holding rats… enjoy these recent photos from the Animal Learning class. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

PSYCHOLOGY A

s would be expected in a field as broad as Psychology, our majors follow their own self-defined pathways after graduation. As an example, here is just a small sense of the VAST diversity of our alums: Susan Bobb ’00 Psycholinguistics program Melissa Bellan ’00 Law School Nothing says “Psychology” like students holding rats

As has been the case for the last five years, our senior majors in 2005 scored well above average on the nationally normed ACAT exam taken by all of our students as part of their Senior Seminar. Indeed, fully one-fourth of the class scored at or above the 90th percentile of Psychology majors in the country taking the test.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Allison Clark Joe ’01 Clinical Psychology Emily Harris ’02 Experimental Psychology– Animal Learning & Behavior Anya Moon ’02 Counseling Psychology Chantel Yavari ’02 Educational Psychology Kassie Rentz Adams ’04 Nursing program Courtney Patti ’05 MSW program Heather Link ’05 Occupational Therapy program

Winter 2006 • 25

celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

ENVIRON

The Environmental Sciences Program At Sweet Briar

DR. DAVID R. ORVOS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

weet Briar’s Environmental Sciences Program dates from 2000. Environmental Sciences is an interdisciplinary program that concentrates on the biological, chemical, and geological aspects of the environment and uses the principles and practices of those disciplines to provide solutions for environmental problems. The two environmental sciences professors, Assistant Professor Dr. Rebecca Ambers and Associate Professor Dr. David Orvos, bring diverse backgrounds and varied experiences that help our students understand the complexities of the environment. Associate Professor Dr. Robert Alexander, an economist, complements the two science professors with his work that examines the role of economics in conservation. Environmental Science majors enjoy an excellent job market with graduates readily able to enter the work force or continue studies at the graduate level. Sweet Briar’s program is literally a hands-on one! Our students take several courses that contain a significant field component. Our laboratories are well equipped, thanks to SBC alumnae and the National Science Foundation. As part of their senior experience, students are required to conduct scientific research or participate in an internship. Many of our juniors and seniors have done investigations into such different issue as the effect of dams on streams, the presence and effects of emerging chemical contaminants in rivers, the impact of land use practices on watersheds, and the toxicity of mercury. SBC students don’t just “do projects” to keep themselves busy. Their research is often cutting edge and noteworthy. Two students conducting research in the program received a second place prize from among 150 contenders at the fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County in 2003. In April 2004, eight majors traveled to Memphis where they made four presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists. Other students have presented their results at the Geological Society of America meetings. The quality of student research on local watersheds was such that they were awarded a Tribute of Appreciation from the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 in October 2004! Some of our students choose internships where they work with environmental professionals. SBC students are in demand by state and local agencies that recognize the quality of an Environmental Science or Environmental Studies major. Students have interned with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and the Robert E. Lee Soil and Water Conservation District. Yet another distinctive feature of the program is the opportunity for international experience. Approximately half of all environmental majors study off-campus for a semester or an entire academic year. Students have taken courses and studied environmental issues in 26 • Winter 2006

such far-reaching places as Columbia, British Columbia, Australia, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Scotland, and Tanzania. Through the generosity of our alumnae, we are able to bring world-class scholars to campus and to take our students to professional scientific meetings where they get the opportunity to meet other scientists. Environmental students have had the opportunity to engage in discussions at Sweet Briar with such notable speakers as conservationist E.O. Wilson of Harvard; population expert Werner Fornos; and biologist Jane Goodall.

Professor Edward O. Wilson of Harvard with environmental majors, October 2004.

The focal point of all of the sciences at Sweet Briar is the intensive research experiences that faculty have with students. Environmental Sciences are no different. Professor Rebecca Ambers leads the Earth Sciences Laboratory in the old Sweet Briar Train Station (on campus across from Guion), and is developing a number of different research projects, both on- and off-campus. One aspect of her research involves the effects of historic land use practices on erosion, sedimentation, and stream geomorphology. A paper soon to be published in the scientific journal Catena describes the significance of deep gullies found on the east side of Monument Hill. Age dating of buried wood at the base of the hill and historical research enabled Dr. Ambers to construct a time line of land use and landscape response at the site. She is expanding this work to other areas on campus. The second major focus of Dr. Ambers’ research involves application of x-ray diffraction and clay mineralogy to problems in geomorphology. She recently purchased a state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction system and worked with Melanie Stine ’07 this past summer collecting stream bank clays at selected locations Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

NMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental science major Kathy Wilson (’06) retrieves a rainwater sample from a N-Con atmospheric sampler near the upper lake on campus. The N-Con sampler is made by a company owned by SBC alumna Martha Isdale Beach ’54 and her husband, Jack.

throughout central Virginia. The goal of this research is to determine the role of clay mineralogy in controlling stream bank erodibility. Professor David Orvos leads the Environmental Research Laboratory located in the old Water Plant building near the Boathouse on campus. This modern facility allows students to use a plethora of techniques to answer research questions about environmental issues. His laboratory has two areas of emphasis. The first is the study of the presence, effects, and potential ecological risk from small amounts of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in the environment. These substances are used by all of us in our daily lives and have been recently termed “emerging contaminants.” Sweet Briar students use sophisticated technology to look for small amounts of various pharmaceuticals compounds in different environmental matrices including water and wastewater. Results indicate that several of these compounds are ubiquitous in the environment and may lead to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. The second area of emphasis in the Orvos laboratory is watershed assessment and preservation. In partnership with the local soil and water conservation district, several teams of Sweet Briar students have studied the Buffalo River watershed since 2002. This watershed, which starts in the Blue Ridge Mountains, serves as the drinking water source for Amherst and Sweet Briar. Students have developed a geographical information system (GIS) analysis of the land use in the watershed and have monitored nutrients, sediment, and bacteria. While we may be new to the sciences at Sweet Briar, we hope you agree that we have come a long way and that our program is second to none. Please visit our website at http:// environment.sbc.edu for more information.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Environmental majors (left to right) Jennifer Bragg, Carrie Thomas, and Leah Reedy receive the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Tribute of Appreciation from Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R, 6th District VA) in October of 2004.

Environmental science majors at a professional scientific conference in Memphis, TN during April of 2004. These students made a total of four presentations at the Association of Southeastern Biologist’s conference.

SBC students don’t just “do projects” to keep themselves busy. Their research is often cutting edge and noteworthy. Two students conducting research in the program received a second place prize from among 150 contenders at the fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County in 2003.

Winter 2006 • 27

celebrating the sciences at sweet briar

News From The Department Of Chemistry DR. JILL N. GRANGER, PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY

SUMMER IN REVIEW Associate Professor John Beck acquired a collection of nearly 40 exotic plants from South America. These plants will become part of John’s research on identifying potentially new antibiotic/ antimicrobial active compounds. Professor Susan Piepho organized the National Convention of Iota Sigma Pi, the National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry. Nearly 50 delegates, representing ISP chapters around the country, were in attendance at the meeting held in the Sweet Briar College Elston Inn Conference Center. Members of the organization come from academia, industry, and government. Our Lynchburg area chapter received a national recognition of merit for our high level of chapter activity including our annual outreach program for Girl Scout Brownies in our local area. Professor Rob Granger and Associate Professor John Beck sponsored student researchers last summer. Working with John were Ashley Figueiredo ’08, Cherisse Hoover ’08, both sponsored by John’s grant from the Commonwealth Health Research Board, and Farzana Sekander ’07 supported by the SBC Honors Summer Research Program (HSRP). Working with Rob were Erika Kennedy ’07, HSRP, Jodie MacDonald ’07, and Brittany Schneider a high school scholar attending Rockdale County high school in Conyers, GA, who will be attending SBC next fall. John’s research group worked on natural products chemistry involving either isolation or synthesis of bioactive

molecules. Rob’s research group worked on novel platinum and palladium compounds. Lab Manager/Instructor in Chemistry Pam Simpson directed the third annual “Kids In College” program for Sweet Briar, a community outreach program that brought over 100 third through eighth grade students to campus to take a variety of classes. Professor Jill Granger and Assistant Professor Hank Yochum (Department of Physics) initiated a 2005-2006 program for teacher education in math and science, funded by a $142,000 grant from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia through the federal No Child Left Behind initiative. Sweet Briar’s grant, part of the “Title IIA, Improving Teacher Quality” legislation, provides ongoing opportunities for teacher education in math and science. The program kicked off with an intensive weeklong summer institute taught by Jill and Hank, along with Professors Bessie Kirkwood (Math), Robin Davies (Biology), and Linda Fink (Biology), and with Megan Murray (Albemarle County Schools) and Judy Strang (Pedlar River Institute). Workshops will continue to be offered throughout the 2005–2006 school year. The grant additionally provides for in-class support of the teacher participants through the availability of Instructional Support Specialist Andrea Orvos (Chemistry), who travels in the seven-county region providing teachers with on-site support in the classroom. Pam Simpson serves as the Project Assistant. Professor Jill Granger attended the Gordon Research Conference on Research and Practice in Chemistry Education held at Connecticut College, giving a presentation on the College’s new curriculum for teacher education in the sciences, the Science by Inquiry courses, including a summative review of the program as completed for the National Science Foundation. Professor John Beck went to the national meeting of the American Chemical Society to present three posters. The first poster was for research on Lomatium californicum; the second, presented by Suzy Harvey ’06 for work on Lemongrass, and the third was for the NSF Broader Impact Showcase (in which John received an award from the National Science Foundation) to highlight his work with our NMR in research and teaching. Dr. Shen-Chieh Chou, a postdoctoral research associate with Professor John Beck, presented a paper at the American Society of Pharmacognosy meeting in Oregon on his research with Lomatium californicum.

RECENT FACULTY PUBLICATIONS John Beck performed several reviews of manuscripts

for the journal Steroids, and two book reviews for the Journal of Natural Products. He also has one 28 • Winter 2006

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

CHEMISTRY manuscript accepted for publication (Complete Proton and Carbon Assignment of (+)-Catechin via One- and Two-Dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Analysis: A Hands-on Learning Experiment for UpperDivision Undergraduate Chemistry Students. Chou, S-C.; Mercier, J. E.; Wilson, K. A.; Beck, J. J. The Chemical Educator. Two additional manuscripts are currently under review: 1) Antibacterial Activity of Components from Lomatium californicum. Chou, S-C.; Everngam, M. C.; Sturtz, G.; Beck, J. J. Submitted to Phytotherapy Research; and 2) Herbal Extracts From Cortex moutan Exhibit Antioxidant Potential, Inhibit Cell-Induced Apoptosis, and Possess Antimicrobial Activities. Tsai, Y-H.; Heimbegner, J. L.; Beck, J. J.; Turner, J. E. Submitted to The Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

FALL SEMESTER ACTIVITIES Professor Rob Granger was on sabbatical leave this past fall, doing research at the University of Virginia in the lab of Dr. James Demas. Rob is continuing his work on the catalytic properties of novel platinum and palladium containing compounds. Professor Susan Piepho was busy this fall giving the Chemistry Department Web site a needed face-lift and updating all of the information there. She has been working closely with the College Relations Office Webmaster Chris Cohen to give the site a modern look, to add advanced features, and to match the Web page to the overall style of the College’s Web site. Professor Jill Granger served on a panel in the Women, Science, and Technology symposium at the annual meeting of the Women’s College Coalition held in Washington, D.C. in September 2005. As part of the symposium, Jill made comments regarding the subject of “Teaching Women and Overcoming Traditional Educational Barriers.” Five Sweet Briar students, Ashley Figueiredo ’08, Erika Kennedy ’07, Susie Harvey ’06, Farzana Sekander ’07, and Kimberly Wilson ’06, gave presentations at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of Undergraduate Scholarship (MARCUS), on chemistryrelated research. The conference, held at SBC, drew 85 student presenters from 17 colleges. Professor Jill Granger is working on a review of “Nucleic Acids” by Shawn Doonan, Royal Society Press, for the Journal of Natural Products. Adjunct Assistant Professor (Chemistry) Arlene VinionDubiel is writing a new Chemistry Placement test which will be given online to incoming students next summer. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Chemistry majors Lauren Martin (’06) and Jessica Mercier (’06) are shown taking advantage of the Department’s research-grade 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer to perform some of their research.

he NMR is used for the structure elucidation of complex organic molecules. Sweet Briar Chemistry majors incorporate the NMR into many of their classes, labs, and research projects. The NMR was made possible by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program. In addition to the various uses the NMR has for the class and lab setting, it has allowed cutting edge research to become more of a reality in the department, and has resulted in peerreviewed journal articles that feature Sweet Briar Chemistry majors as co-authors.

Lanthanum Chapter of Iota Sigma Pi: President Jill Granger, Treasurer Susan Piepho, and Vice-President Ann Fabirkiewicz

Winter 2006 • 29

Mythvs. Reality GIVING TO SBC

ALUMNAE LEADERS SHARE THEIR INSIGHTS BURWELL

HELLER

According to a recent survey of Sweet Briar alumnae loyalty is remarkably high, with 80 percent of all alumnae surveyed reporting they feel extremely favorable toward the College. Yet despite such strong loyalty, less than 50 percent of our alumnae support Sweet Briar financially. This article, the first in a series to address alumnae misconceptions about giving, features insights from leading alumnae volunteers. 30 • Winter 2006

The myth

WHAT ALUMNAE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT GIVING TO SWEET BRIAR:

• “I can’t afford to give a lot, and I don’t want to make an insignificant gift.” • “My classmates can afford to give much more than I can and I am sure that they all give, so Sweet Briar doesn’t need my gift.”

The reality

THE REAL SCOOP FROM ETHEL OGDEN BURWELL ’58, NATIONAL ANNUAL FUND CHAIR:

Believe it or not, not everyone gives to Sweet Briar, even in a Reunion year! We love Sweet Briar and assume that everyone who feels the same way gives to Sweet Briar. The truth is, even the most loyal alumnae often miss out on the joy of giving back to SBC financially.

The participation rate for Sweet Briar alumnae in the Annual Fund last year was 38 percent, which means that 62 percent of our alumnae did not participate and WE NEED YOU! Participation at every level is important because it is a tangible measure of how much we value Sweet Briar and her mission. It is also critical in attracting the best and brightest students since publications such as U.S. News & World Report count alumnae participation in their ratings. It is a fact that not all of us can afford to endow a scholarship or name a building, but that doesn’t mean that our gifts aren’t important. The total last year for Annual Fund gifts of $100 or less was $134,857. This is vital support for the College. For instance, $134,857 would underwrite the recruitment of ten top students who enroll ($30,000), and support 205 hours of classroom instruction ($54,735), and provide fifty students with a full year of financial aid through the work/study program

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

($50,000). At Sweet Briar, EVERY GIFT IS IMPORTANT. What matters is that you make Sweet Briar a giving priority and that you make your best gift, whatever that may be for you. Sweet Briar needs you every year and annual giving is a great way to participate in the success of the College. So don’t wait to win the lottery, don’t trust that your classmates are all making big gifts, and most importantly, don’t miss out on the joy of giving to Sweet Briar.

The myth

WHAT ALUMNAE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT LEADERSHIP GIVING:

• “At this time in my life, I can’t afford to give at a leadership level to Sweet Briar.” • “I have a lot of other charitable interests; it is hard to give a larger gift to SBC.”

The reality

SUGGESTED STRATEGIES FROM ROBIN RODGER HELLER ’76, BOXWOOD CIRCLE GIVING CHAIR:

Giving at a leadership level can be challenging with so many competing priorities. A great way to increase giving is to spread your gift out over several months. Make your pledge early using your credit card and simply instruct the College in the amount to charge and the number of months over which to spread the payment. It’s easy and it’s amazing how quickly the gift adds up. Another idea is to move Sweet Briar up on your priority list by finding something that you buy regularly and substitute giving to Sweet Briar instead. One alumna vowed to increase her gift from the Oak Society to the Boxwood Circle, but she was a single working mother with two children. Her solution was to give up one hardcover book each week and her café drinks. Instead, she

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

went to the used bookstore and made cocoa at home. The difference of $125 a month allowed her to direct that extra money to SBC and join the Boxwood Circle. She loves books, but she loves Sweet Briar even more! This is the last year of Our Campaign For Her World, and it is the perfect time to move Sweet Briar up on your list of giving priorities. Every gift to the Annual Fund counts toward this historic $102 million campaign. We have already raised over $100 million, but we need your help to reach the goal and your stretch gift could be the one that puts us over the top. Join the fun and be a part of SBC history.

Winter 2006 • 31

Time to Recognize the Role of Athletics in the History of Sweet Briar College JENNIFER L. CRISPEN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS

A You remember the girls who made sports look easy.

They could play all day, with passion and energy that were endless. It’s time to recognize their achievements, and the role of athletics in the history of Sweet Briar College. . NOTE: Until the new athletic facility is constructed and the Hall of Fame has a permanent home, plaques will be displayed in a temporary area in the current athletic facility. 32 • Winter 2006

At Homecoming 2006, we will induct a Charter Class into the Sweet Briar College Athletic Hall of Fame. Each year, the College will honor special achievement by alumnae who have been associated with athletics at the College. Athletic Director Kelly Morrison says, “This gives us the opportunity to celebrate the commitment, excellence, and contributions of some of our best athletes, teams, coaches and administrators. The induction of this charter class and the Hall of Fame is indicative of Sweet Briar’s commitment to athletics. It is time to honor those who have built the Sweet Briar athletic tradition.” In addition, we will be recognizing those individuals who, through coaching, participation, support, or interest have made outstanding contributions to Sweet Briar College athletics. These individuals have helped bring recognition, honor, distinction and excellence to Sweet Briar College and the intercollegiate athletics program. Any member of the Sweet Briar community may submit nominations. In fact, your input will be vital in the selection of our inductees. Hall of Fame information and nomination forms will be available on the Athletics and Alumnae Web sites, as well as in the Alumnae Magazine. A person will be considered eligible for nomination to the Sweet Briar College Athletic Hall of Fame if at the time of nomination she/he demonstrates achievement in a varsity sport, has given extraordinary service to Sweet Briar College Athletics, and/or has made significant contributions to Sweet Briar College Athletics. A Charter Hall of Fame Committee will select the Charter Class of the Sweet Briar College Athletic Hall of Fame, and will review and finalize the procedures for nomination, selection and induction. The Director of Athletics has appointed Jennifer Crispen as the Chair for 2005-2006. Charter Committee membership parallels that of the proposed permanent committee and will include the Director of Athletics, Director of the Alumnae Association, Office of Development Athletic Liaison, Faculty Athletics Representative, Sports Information Director, a Varsity Coach, a member of the Sweet Briar College Friends of Athletics, a Student Athletic Advisory Committee member, and two alumnae. No more than six (6) living former athletes and two (2) deceased former athletes will be included in the Charter Membership. In subsequent years, no more than four (4) living inductees and one (1) deceased inductee may be inducted, unless exceptional circumstances warrant otherwise. Each inductee will receive an appropriate award upon induction, and will have her/his name placed on a plaque and displayed at the College. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Criteria for nomination to the Sweet Briar College Athletic Hall of Fame Achievement in a Varsity Sport The candidate participated in a varsity sport at Sweet Briar College for at least three years and earned a baccalaureate degree from the College. Normally, there will be a lapse of ten years since the athlete last participated at Sweet Briar College. The Hall of Fame Committee has the authority to give earlier consideration in unusual, outstanding cases. The candidate must have made a positive impact to the team(s) for which she played, including demonstrated athletic achievement, exemplary leadership qualities and character, and/or a significant contribution to the community. Outstanding accomplishments after leaving Sweet Briar College will also be a factor in making the selections, but the primary emphasis should be on athletic accomplishments while at the College.

SBC ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME NOMINATION FORM Name of Nominee* _____________________________________________________________________________ If Nominee is an Alumna*: Class Year ________Academic Major _______________________________________ Sport or Team Affiliation(s)* ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ I am nominating in the category of (check)* Varsity sport Extraordinary service

Significant contributions

Describe the nominee’s demonstrated athletic achievements and honors (include date(s) received): _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Describe the nominee’s exemplary leadership qualities, sportsmanship, and character, and/or significant contribution(s) to the community: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ List nominee’s accomplishments at Regional/National/International level (include date(s) received):

Extraordinary Service to Sweet Briar College Athletics The candidate has made an outstanding contribution or offered extraordinary service to Sweet Briar College athletics as a student, coach, staff member, or administrator while at the College, or in subsequent years since leaving the College. There must be a lapse of five years of her/ his tenure as a coach/administrator at Sweet Briar College. The candidate has been, or is, an example of good character and citizenship.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Significant Contributions to Sweet Briar College Athletics The candidate may or may not be an alumna and has made outstanding contributions to Sweet Briar College in the area of athletics. Time lapse is relative, but the contributions must be of prominence and over a period of years. The candidate has been, or is, an example of good character and citizenship.

College Athletic Hall of Fame? (attach another sheet)*

Special Award A special “Athletic Hall of Fame Team” award may be presented to an entire team that has distinguished itself in Conference, District, or National competition. Criteria for selection will be decided by the Committee. Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Explain, specifically, how the nominee has brought distinction through athletics to the College and herself/himself: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ In 200 words or less, why is this nominee particularly worthy of consideration for induction to the Sweet Briar _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Nominator`s Name*: _______________________________________ E-mail* _______________________________ Phone (Office) _______________________________________ Phone (Home) _______________________________ Address ________________________________________________________________________________________ City ___________________________________________ State ____________________ Zip ___________________ Nominator`s affiliation with nominee: ________________________________________________________________

*Please include. Please return form by April 15th to Jennifer L. Crispen, Associate Professor of Physical Education Box 87, Sweet Briar, VA 24595 Winter 2006 • 33

American Girl IN AN English World MARIA KITCHIN ’04

TEACHING INTERN (HISTORY) AND COACH, THE NORFOLK ACADEMY MIDDLE SCHOOL

Where Americans would line up for a game on the field in our uniforms and cleats—they queue up for a fixture on the pitch in their proper games kit and boots. They run in their trainers (tennis shoes), swim in their costumes and hats (bathing suits and caps), and travel to fixtures (games) by coach (bus).

34 • Winter 2006

was an American girl in an English world and YES, the language was different. I ate porridge-oats for breakfast, fish and chips for lunch, and shepherd’s pie for dinner. Tea time was all the time—before, during, and after each meal. I learned to say “Where is the toilet?” (bathroom), “Still water, please” (not sparkling), “LuLu, put on your jumper (sweater) and trackie bums (athletic pants)”, “No thank you, I do not care for butter on my ____ and mayo sandwich” (insert any type of meat, fish or cheese—I don’t know why they put it on there!), “Oh, bless her!”(Bless her for having a cut on her finger, landing on the correct foot in her netball lesson, bringing chocolate to the P.E. office, or even putting Lottie’s pants (underwear) in the bin (trash)…they bless these kids for everything!). Potato chips became crisps, and French fries became chips. Yogurt was pronounced yah-gurt, and aluminum, aluminium. I am still not sure where the extra “i” comes from. Where Americans would line up for a game on the field in our uniforms and cleats—they queue up for a fixture on the pitch in their proper games kit and boots. They run in their trainers (tennis shoes), swim in their costumes and hats (bathing suits and caps), and travel to fixtures (games) by coach (bus). As you can see, my life, in addition to being five hours ahead of its normal schedule, went a bit pear shaped (that is Brit-speak for upside down). Despite all of this—well, more likely because of all of this—I really enjoyed my first job in the “real world.”

I was a lacrosse coach and house tutor at Bedford High School, about 50 miles north of London, a day and boarding school for girls aged seven–17. I had a one-year employment through the English Lacrosse Association to be the assistant Firsts (varsity) lacrosse coach and the head Seconds (junior varsity) lacrosse coach. I also taught P.E. classes, including some truly British games that I am just now understanding. I had administrative duties in the P.E. department. I lived and worked in one of four boarding houses with a family and 17 school girls from Russia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and England. For most of my life I have lived in a bubble; orange and blue for 12 years at the Norfolk Academy and pink and green at Sweet Briar College for four more. The bubble might have sheltered me a bit, but it also encouraged and supported me, and gave me enough confidence to travel to the “Mother Country” for this adventure. As a P.E. teacher and lacrosse coach I had the privilege of spending all day, every day, with girls aged seven–17, attempting to help them learn and enjoy sport and fitness. Back-to-back swimming, field hockey, lacrosse, and netball (a funny and traditional game that seems to be a cousin of basketball—although the net has no backboard and the girl with the ball can move only one foot) lessons engaged and ultimately exhausted my every emotion. Each time “Gemma” talked while I was talking or whined about running, or did the complete opposite of what I had asked—I silently apologized to all of my past coaches for doing the exact same thing. How could I really be mad when I had most

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

certainly done the same things myself?! Likewise, each time “Harry” thanked me or told me she had fun and could not wait for next week, I thanked my teachers and coaches for their knowledge, encouragement, and patience and for turning me on to the wonderful world of sports. So to all of my coaches of the past, including, Ruth Acra, Sharra Kelly, Mary Werkheiser and Jay Leach from Norfolk Academy, and Jennifer Crispen and Missy Ackerman from Sweet Briar, I say Sorry! And Thank You! I had many wonderful opportunities while in England. I went on a few field trips with different years (grades)—one to Kew Gardens and one to Ely Cathedral. It was interesting to see that while the girls were required to wear uniforms to school each day, they were allowed to dress down for field trips. The girls showed up in their “street clothes”—low cut jeans and shirts with multi-colored undergarments hanging out. I also enjoyed an outing to London, where I attended a Sweet Briar luncheon hosted by Sweet Briar College Board member Parker Harrell and his wife. It was good to have a “home” connection there. The generous holiday time is a major benefit of a job in the English education system! I really think that I went on holiday more than I actually worked (which might explain the almost non-existent pay cheque). For every five weeks of school, there is at least one week of holiday. I took as much advantage of this as I possibly could because I knew that I would probably never live “next door” to Europe again. I traveled to Barcelona, Lisbon, Lagos, Glasgow, Paris, Florence, Venice, and Amsterdam. I even sailed around the southern coast of Turkey. A few words of advice when traveling abroad: get a good map of the city, always carry a bottle of water (unless you want to spend your whole trip in the loo), and Hop-On-HopOff Bus tours are a great way to acquaint oneself with a city. I also had some great opportunities to experience traditional English activities and events. I went to a few local Rugby matches which were always entertaining even though I never fully understood all of the rules. I went to Manchester with

Maria Kitchin ’04

one of my lacrosse players and her parents to a FA Cup Football Match (Manchester United v. Middlesborough). It was quite an experience as the whole crowd was into the game, singing songs and chanting about every player. Aside from my frequent trips to London, which included hours spent in museums, parks, pubs and theaters, my major cultural experiences occurred in the summer at the end of my stay. First, I attended a 4th of July BBQ at the home of the American Ambassador—a beautiful house that backs up to Regents Park, a lovely venue. They served hot dogs and hamburgers, Outback Steakhouse, frozen yogurt, and Budweiser. It was a truly American cookout! I had the good fortune to go to Wimbledon twice. After years of watching this championship on TV, I finally lived out my dream. During the first week of play, I had tickets for Number One Court and soaked up the culture of lawn tennis, celebrities (including Federer, Becker, and Navritilova), and of course, rain. My second visit came on Men’s Final Sunday. I walked right up to the gate (no queue), paid £7, and sat on Henman Hill to watch Federer win on the big screen. Both days were quite memorable! My greatest English experience was going to the Royal Ascot Races in June. Although Ascot is under construction and the event was held in Leeds, it was still typically English. We arrived mid-day by coach (bus) in the rain. Since the Queen

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

was to make an appearance (and she did—I have a picture), all the ladies were asked to cover the crowns of their head with a hat. I chose a lovely black “hair piece” with feathers popping out every which way. Men were dressed to the nines—morning suits and tuxedos included—and all in attendance were ready for a big day. The rain eventually stopped, although not before the Queen in her purple suit with matching brolly (umbrella) and Prince Philip rode around the track. Bets were made, and champagne, Pimms, and laughs were had by all. I had a wonderful year in England, but it is nice to be home. All of my experiences, including the people I met, the friends I made, and the places I saw, have made me appreciate all of the opportunities that we as Americans have. It is important each day to take advantage of every opportunity we are given—only then can we fully grow and learn about ourselves and others. I do hope to return to England one day— whether it is to travel or live, or to engage in another event wearing my feathered hat!

Winter 2006 • 35

spotlight

The Aftermath of Katrina: Anne Butler’s ’65 Personal Account

ecently, Kay Knopf Kaplan ’65 visited Anne Butler ’65, proprietor of the Butler Greenwood Plantation (www.butlergreenwood.com) up the Mississippi River in historic St. Francisville. Kay graciously acknowledged all of the hard work her classmate is doing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Below is Butler’s account of the devastation. Butler Greenwood Plantation has 8 cottages, and in those we accommodated some 40 people, 6 dogs and 10 cats for nearly 6 weeks. We had evacuees from all over the affected area…the elderly artists who lost their home and art collection in Bay St. Louis, MS; the gentleman from Magazine Street in New Orleans whose house survived the hurricane, survived the floodwaters, survived the fires, and then had two loads of water mistakenly dropped through his roof by helicopters trying to extinguish blazes in neighboring houses; the couple from below New Orleans who had a small cottage reserved here and kept taking in displaced relatives until there were 8 guests and 4 cats in one room; the elderly lady who’d had heart surgery in New Orleans the week of Katrina, was evacuated to a triage center and sat on the sidewalk in her hospital gown in a wheelchair until someone located family friends staying with us, and she moved in here with 10 other guests and two Labrador retrievers, and said this was a healing place; the college dean worrying about his displaced students who immediately began volunteering to help with other evacuees in the area; the family group from Cameron Parish who got totally wiped out along the southwest LA coast in Hurricane Rita, grandparents, grown children, babies (one 2-weeks old); the young family whose children attended our local school while they were here. As these folks were able to begin creeping back and forth to try to clean up and see what could be salvaged, we lived through it all with them, and it was enough to break your heart. Each visitor had a story of tragedy and loss. For about a month after the initial 36 • Winter 2006

devastation, we were full of business people who couldn’t get a place to stay any closer to Baton Rouge than here. We are trying now to get back to our normal reservations and regular guests, but there simply are no tourists. Most of our tourists come through New Orleans, and they’re just not coming. But it’s been wonderful to see how generous and giving people have been in the face of such huge need. A New York Times reporter (Peter T. Kilborn, November 13, 2005) from the Washington bureau stayed here in the B&B and did a great story on how this community took care of nearly 1,000 evacuees for one solid month before we ever saw the Red Cross …it was individuals and churches and community groups who fed and clothed and housed all those desperate folks, and some are still here. I received in the mail from former B&B guests some huge checks for me to use as I saw the need, and that really helped. Just this week I got a call from a complete stranger in New York, a gentleman who said he’d read the article and liked our ability to cut through the bureaucratic tape, and he sent $1,000. I think I’m going to channel that money toward the Indian tribe down on the bayou

L–R: Anne Butler ’65, Kay Kaplan ’65

in south Louisiana, most of them shrimpers and oystermen who lost their boats and most lost their houses as well, and they were dirt-poor to begin with, so I know that money will mean a lot to them. We received donations from so many former guests and old friends, including from SBC Katy Regan ’65 and Ray Longstaff Earnest’s (’67) brother-in-law, and we were able to fill needs immediately for all the evacuees here and elsewhere in the coastal region. Don’t ask us what we think of FEMA! But life goes on, and this is still a wonderful part of the country, and we in the St. Francisville area are back to normal and welcoming visitors once again as we continue to help with the recovery in other parts of the state. St. Francisville is two hours upriver from New Orleans, and we were blessed to have only wind damage and power outages, no flooding. Farther south the scope of the devastation is staggering, 145 of New

…it’s been wonderful to see how generous and giving people have been in the face of such huge need.

Butler Greenwood Plantation Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

spotlight Orleans’ 181 square miles totally devastated by Katrina and the ensuing floods, more than 1,100 dead, 205,000 homes destroyed, 250,000 vehicles ruined and the city’s population down from 450,000-plus to 100,000. Damage from Rita along the coast was equally devastating. Besides the loss of life and property, consider the ongoing loss of livelihood, the shrimpers who lost their boats, the cattlemen whose animals drowned and whose pasturelands were contaminated with saltwater, and the loss of tourism (world-famous Oak Alley Plantation, as an example, laid off all but 16 of its 160 employees, and Laura Plantation laid off all of its workers and is continuing sporadic tours only through the graciousness of a couple of volunteers). Recovery will be a long time coming, that’s for sure, and we need continued support for our tourism industry; most of the state and Gulf region is accessible and open, and even in New Orleans more and more of the nice hotels are coming online.

Attending SBC: The Right Decision for Me Julia Schmitz ’03

Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham Member, SBC Board of Directors

n early August of 1998, I got my first glimpse of Sweet Briar College. College visits that take place during the summer usually lack a student’s perspective because there are no students around to talk to, but that was not the case at SBC. After receiving an excellent personalized tour of the campus—my parents and I went down to the lake and there we happened upon some students who took time from their swimming and relaxing to talk with us about Sweet Briar. My second glimpse of Sweet Briar was at the Fall Open House. One of the most memorable parts of this weekend was sitting in on the Biology Scanning Electron Microscope class with the late Dr. Joanne Rosinski. She not only let me observe a three–hour lab but also allowed me to take some pictures using what I considered to

be intimidating and expensive equipment. Other colleges I visited wouldn’t allow their own students to use this equipment until their junior or senior years, let alone allow a visitor. But SBC is different: the science department believes in training students on how to use the equipment from day one. This approach enables us to make our own conclusions based on the data we obtain. What made me pick SBC? Was it the conversation at the lake, the beautiful drive up to the campus, my overnight visit, or the fact that I felt at home the minute I stepped on campus? Whatever it was, probably a combination of all these things, attending SBC was the right decision for me. It helped me become the confident person I am today. When I started at SBC, I was a very quiet individual who worked hard as a member of clubs and committees, but who would never get up in front of a room full of people and talk. Through my various activities at SBC, my self-assurance has grown—I am still a quiet person at first glance, but now I can stand up in front of a room full of strangers and present my data with poise and confidence. What helped me change you might ask? It was primarily having a faculty that believes in its students and pushes them to do the very thing they wouldn’t normally do. In my tenure at SBC, I served as secretary for two clubs and the Student Government Association. After serving as secretary, I felt there was only one thing left to do —seek and serve in a higher position in the clubs. So I spent the next year serving as either the vice president or the president of various clubs. In my final year, I really wanted the opportunity to lead, so I ran for and was elected to the position of Inter-Club Council President—something I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing before experiencing SBC. I think this position really helped to make me more confident, as I had to enforce deadlines and also represent all of the clubs, groups, and organizations to the administration and at the Student Government Association meetings. Part of my responsibility was serving as a student representative on the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Board of Directors. Serving on the Board also helped me become more outgoing, as I had to voice the ideas and concerns of the students. I enjoyed my time on this committee during my senior year so much that I applied for the Young Alumna Trustee position on the Board of Directors. Ever since the Board elected me to this position in 2003, I have been representing young alums of SBC. I think I am in the minority when I can say I came to SBC knowing exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to go about attaining those goals. When I was in

Julia Schmitz ’03

ninth grade, my class took a field trip to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This field trip first sparked my interest in science, and I knew then that I wanted to do everything I could possibly do to pursue a career in the subject. While at SBC, I took all the classes required for me to complete my Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major. I also took advantage of as many research opportunities as possible—I knew that I wanted to enter graduate school after college and that a wealth of research experience would be beneficial. SBC is unique in the research opportunities it offers. You are not just a runner for the professor; you actually get to perform your own experiments and work together with your advisor to evaluate what your results mean and plan what the next steps for the experiment will be. This greatly prepared me for my future career as a scientist. I spent my first two summers of college working in the SBC Summer Research Winter 2006 • 37

spotlight Program under the direction of Dr. Robin Davies. My research dealt with testing novel platinum and palladium compounds on numerous normal and cancer cell lines. One of the goals of this research was to determine if the compounds had fewer adverse effects than did chemotherapy agents. During my third summer as a student at SBC, I was one of a few students selected to participate in the Student Summer Program at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. There, I was able to work with cutting edge techniques to optimize the printing of oligonucleotide arrays using normal and cancerous breast RNA. During my senior year, when I wasn’t busy hanging out with friends and working on my senior research project under the direction of Dr. Davies, I was applying to graduate schools and going on interviews. SBC helped prepare me for graduate school in so many ways—from practice interviews in the Career Center, to performing independent research in the lab, to presenting my research to others at conferences. After many interviews and acceptances, I elected to enroll in the Cell and Molecular Biology program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a feeder program for four departments—Microbiology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and Neurobiology. Since I had had so much research experience while at SBC, an experience that set me apart from other applicants, I was one of the few students in my incoming class who was accepted straight from college. The first year consisted of classes and rotating through three different labs to determine where I wanted to complete my thesis research. I selected the laboratory of Dr. Robin Lorenz for my thesis research, thus joining the department of Microbiology. My research here investigates the effect of Helicobacter felis infection on the mucous layer of the stomach. Helicobacter felis is the mouse homologue of Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that has been shown to cause ulcers and stomach cancer. As you can see, SBC has offered me so many great opportunities that have helped me thrive in my current pursuit of a doctoral degree, and I am forever thankful. 38 • Winter 2006

Dr. Diana Robin ’57

Diane Robin ’57

Awarded Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize

iana Robin, along with Margaret L. King, was recently awarded the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for A Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature by the Modern Language Association of America. Her award winning piece was a translation of Isotta Nogarola’s Complete Writings: Letterbook, Dialogue on Adam and Eve, Orations, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2004. The award committee commented that “Margaret L. King and Diana Robin have done a superb job in rendering Nogarola’s magnificient Letterbook, Dialogue on Adam and Eve, Orations and have offered a major work of scholarship by editing and annotating this collection of the Italian humanist’s essays and letters. Nogarola’s Latin shines through in all its elegant subordinate clauses, while the introductions and footnotes provide a valuable portrait of the intellectual furnishings of this influential early woman of letters.” Robin, a 1957 graduate of Sweet Briar, went on to receive her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She was a professor of Latin and Greek literature and Literary Theory for 24 years at the University of New Mexico where she also served as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature and chair of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies and is now a Professor of Classics Emerita. She recently moved to Chicago where she is a Scholar in Residence at the Newberry Library. Robin has previously published four books including: Letters and Orations by Cassandra Fedele (1999), Laura Cereta’s Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist (1997), Redirecting the Gaze: Gender, Theory, and Cinema in the Third World, and Filelfo in Milan: Writings, 1451-1477 (1991). Currently, she is under contract on three books: Renaissance Women: Salons, Books and Religious Reform in Sixteenth-Century Italy; a bilingual translation of Francesco

Filelfo’s Odes; and Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance. Robin took on the enormous task of publishing the first modern editions and translations of these three fifteenth-century Latin women writers because of her interest in fifteenth-century Renaissance Italian women writers. She comments that these writings, “represent a landmark in women’s history,” and portray the authors’ “daily lives, their struggles, loves, aspirations, the books they read, their beliefs and values, and their most intimate friendships; and they provide a rare picture of life in fifteenth-century Italy from a woman’s point of view.” Robin is thrilled to win the Scaglione Prize and feels that it is a tremendous acknowledgement of her and Margaret King’s work. It is awarded for a translation into English of a book-length work of literary history, criticism, theory or philology. The award is in memory of Aldo Scaglione’s wife, Jeanne Daman Scaglione, a Roman Catholic who rescued many Jewish men and children during the deportation of Jews in 1942. Robin acknowledges that she never would have won this award or even been able to write her book had it not been for the grants and sponsors of her research who include: the NEH Translation Grants (1993-95); the Rockefeller Fellowship for work at the Newberry Library (1998-99); the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Fellowship for work in Venice (1991); and the Rome Prize Mellon Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (1987-88). In addition to writing, Robin enjoys music including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Opera Theatre, the Lyric Opera and the Newberry Consort. She also enjoys theatre, novels, the New Yorker, the New York Times, crosscountry skiing, playing the harpsichord and piano (she was a music history major at SBC) and visiting her two children and four grandchildren in Minneapolis and Phoenix.

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

spotlight Dr. Susan Schmidt ’71

Chronicles Five-Month Expedition in Landfall along the Chesapeake: In the Wake of Captain John Smith

n 1608, John Smith overcame many obstacles during his discovery voyage on the Chesapeake Bay, including fierce thunderstorms, hostile Indians, scarce food, and sickness. While Susan Schmidt may not have encountered the same hazards as Smith during her voyage in 2002, she did imagine how he felt seeing the Bay’s wild shorelines. She has documented her own five-month expedition in her book, Landfall along the Chesapeake: In the Wake of Captain John Smith (Johns Hopkins University Press, March 2006). Schmidt and her Boykin spaniel, Molly Brown, set out in a 22-foot mini-cabin cruiser to observe how the Chesapeake has changed over the past 400 years since John Smith’s voyage. This research expedition was a natural task for her. She grew up sailing the Chesapeake with her father, and she has held a Captain’s license for 24 years. She has a doctorate in American literature and a masters degree in Environmental Sciences. She is a naturalist and nature writer. Before her doctorate, Schmidt worked on the ocean as captain and navigator, delivering sailboats to the islands, and on land, as a coastal scientist and editor. After teaching inland for 16 years as a college English and Environmental Studies professor, Schmidt felt sheer gratitude for the joy of living on the water for five months. Schmidt planned this journey for three reasons. First, as a natural historian and scientist, she wanted to chart the changes in the landscape since the period of European contact when Smith made landfall on the Chesapeake. In recent history, oysters have almost disappeared from the Bay, the bottom has become soft instead of hard, the fish too toxic to eat, and the Code Red air quality clogs the sky. Secondly, as a poet and naturalist, Schmidt wanted to see if the Bay was as beautiful as she remembered. She was a creative witness to the Bay’s beauty despite the decline in air and water quality since Smith’s discovery and since her own

childhood. On her trip and in her book, she wanted to encourage others, especially young people, to get wet and get involved. Finally, she embarked on this journey to find the farms where her ancestors had lived around the Bay for almost 400 years and to consider whether she could move back home. On the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, with her brother she climbed Pooles Island Lighthouse where their great-great-great-grandfather was lighthouse keeper. Three godchildren joined her for a week each on her otherwise solo voyage. Schmidt acknowledges people who helped with logistics on her Landfall expedition. Old and new friends she met along the shoreline were generous and hospitable. She docked at maritime museums, science labs, colleges, and schools. In May, to sell her new book, Schmidt will retrace her boat trip around the Chesapeake by land, lecturing about Jamestown history, ecological changes, current environmental challenges, and her expedition adventures. Schmidt’s fondest memory as a freshman at Sweet Briar is floating around the college lake reading in a rowboat every afternoon in the spring when she

was a lifeguard. “Even inland, I will find water and a boat,” she said. While she studied at Sweet Briar only one year, she developed close bonds with the land. Recently, she returned for two months as a resident writer at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. “The taste of air and the quality of light at sunset remind me I am a Virginian,” she said, “and Sweet Briar feels like home.” Landfall along the Chesapeake is Schmidt’s first published book; you can order it by calling 1-800-537-5487 or on the web at http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/titlepages/ 8900.html. You can find Schmidt’s spring lecture schedule in Virginia and Maryland at www.susanschmidt.net. Currently, Schmidt teaches creative and technical writing at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, NC. She is perhaps most proud she has raised $4 million for natural land protection and environmental education. In her free time, she rows a racing shell, gardens, kayaks, swims distance, and plays old-time bass fiddle.

“Even inland, I will find water and a boat…”

Susan Schmidt ’71

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Winter 2006 • 39

spotlight Kate McElhinney Montgomery’s (’77)

Film Debut: Christmas in the Clouds

magine visiting a resort where the vegetarian chef doesn’t want to cook meat, the maids need to bring their kids to work with them, the resident handyman is only interested in impressing ski bunnies, and the concierge regularly daydreams herself into the fantasy world of whatever Kate McElhinney Montgomery ’77 romance novel she happens to be reading. While it may not sound like a dream vacation, it is a part of Kate McElhinney Montgomery’s (’77) film debut. Montgomery’s film Christmas in the Clouds (www.christmasintheclouds.com) is the first romantic comedy set in Indian country. It tells “a charming tale of mistaken identity, tribal enterprise and true love.” The film was shot at Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort in Utah and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to standing ovations and extra screenings. Montgomery’s venture into the film business is her second career. She left a promising 10-year stint at the Wall Street Journal to spend more time with her children, and work part-time from her home producing television commercials and corporate films. She then moved on to screenwriting and feature film production. Montgomery, a history major at Sweet Briar, believes the knowledge she gained while at Sweet Briar has helped her to be successful. Learning about history helped her to better understand the nature of people. She’s always had a strong connection with Native American people and wanted to tell a story from their perspective, without falling back on stereotypes or iconic images of their past. Sweet Briar was a “safe environment” for Montgomery where she was able to discover who she was without being under the shadow of her two very talented older 40 • Winter 2006

brothers. During an intro survey course taught by the late Professor Lysbeth Muncy, she was inspired by the process of research and writing. Muncy encouraged her to switch from studio art to history after reading Montgomery’s essays. She also encouraged Montgomery to spend a year abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences she had while in college. Montgomery’s work at the Journal involved “think outside the box” marketing, and she’s applied that to her film as well. Instead of spending a lot of money on traditional advertising, Christmas in the Clouds is doing grassroots promotion and helping to sponsor school fundraisers all around the country to build word of mouth promotion for the film. In this way, Montgomery has not only been able to promote her movie but reconnect with SBC alumnae, including some who have provided additional support and promotion. While the movie has taken a large amount of Montgomery’s time, she makes sure to spend time with her husband and two children as well. They enjoy music, movies, surfing, camping, sailing, hiking and just hanging out together and having dinner parties with close friends. (She states, “My kids and their friends would all love “Aints & Asses” as they keep coming up with funny skits and entertaining us that way!”) The film has opened to rave reviews. Roger Ebert states, “Kate Montgomery, the writer-director, has such affection for these characters that we can feel it through the screen; they’re not simply pawns in the plot, we sense; they represent something she wants to say about the Native Americans she knows.” Montgomery wants her audience to know that it is dangerous to tell an entire group of people they were only fascinating many years ago. In this movie, she shows contemporary Native Americans from a realistic view, highlighting their great sense of humor. She says creating this film has been challenging on many levels—particularly when it came to getting funding for the film as a first time director. It’s also been very satisfying and inspiring—working

with an amazing cast and crew, getting invited by Robert Redford to shoot at Sundance, getting the opportunity to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, not to mention the rave reviews at the festival. She admits there were obstacles in getting the film produced. Because there were no huge names in the movie, the big studios all passed, claiming they “just didn’t know how to market the movie.” Montgomery, however, believed audiences would enjoy seeing a movie with a different set of faces. Christmas in the Clouds has been an official selection at many festivals around the country and won many accolades including: Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival; Audience Award for Best Feature Film, Austin Film Festival; Best Native Film, Sante Fe Film Festival; and Honorable Mention for Best Feature Film at the exclusive Lake Placid Forum. The film is featured in the December issue of Oprah’s magazine, and was named the “must-see” holiday movie of the season. The film will be out on DVD and video in the fall of 2006, and a soundtrack CD is also slated for release. For more info go to www.christmasintheclouds.com.

Magda Salvesen ’65

Publishes Artists’ Estate: Reputations in Trust

ith the loss in 1992 of her husband, the artist Jon Schueler, Magda Salvesen ’65 discovered that her “widows work” of having total responsibility for the remaining oils and works on paper was somewhat different from her previous role as helpmate. As she slowly adapted to her new role and thought about her goals, she realized that interviewing other inheritors would throw light on the complexity and individuality of each estate. She began interviewing other artists’ widows, companions, and children. Their narratives formed the material for Artists’ Estate: Reputations in Trust (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

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spotlight When reflecting on these interviews Salvesen comments, “There was something enormously special about doing many of the interviews in the very place where the artist we were talking about had lived and worked. The paintings or sculpture, the work tables and tools, formed natural links with the past for Magda Salvesen ’65 the widows, companions or children. The role of advocacy for the estate had often begun in their lives many years previously.” The book provides not only insightful interviews but also factual biographies on the artists’ life and pictures of their work. According to Diane Cousineau, co-editor of Artists’ Estate, the book helps readers “understand the commitment that impelled many of these women to support, often financially as well as emotionally, their husbands’ utter dedication to art.” Salvesen also directed and produced the video Jon Schueler: A Life in Paint (1999) and edited, with Diane Cousineau, The Sound of Sleat: A Painter’s Life by Jon Schueler. She was also the consultant editor for Jon Schueler: To the North (2002). Salvesen spent a year at Sweet Briar as the 1964 scholarship student from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland —which she graduated from in 1966. While at Sweet Briar, she enjoyed taking numerous classes that were not offered at the University of St. Andrews including American literature, Chinese history and 20th century poetry. Perhaps the most valuable course she took was the late Professor Eleanor Barton’s art history course which Salvesen feels gave her a very useful foundation for her later specialization in graduate school. She gained an M.A. in art history from the Courtauld Institute, University of London and then worked for the Scottish Arts Council in Edinburgh. Most recently, she has taught courses on garden history at the New York Botanical Garden, art history courses at the New School University, and has just signed on to teach a course

at the Bard Graduate Center on “The 18th-Century British Garden.” Salvesen also gives gallery talks and lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere. She lives in New York and is curator of the Jon Schueler estate, but goes to Britain every summer to visit her brothers and sisters and their families as well as to gather research on local gardens and houses for her lectures.

Ellen Apperson Brown ’72: Appointed Director of the Reynolds Homestead

”A

t long last, my education and my administrative experience are matched to the perfect job,” exclaims Ellen Apperson Brown ’72 as she describes her new position as director of the Reynolds Homestead in Critz, Virginia. Brown feels this job “will allow me to blend my scholarly interests—writing and historical research—with my enthusiasm for volunteerism, fund-raising, education and community development.” Brown’s new appointment will require her to perform many duties including program development, grant writing, budget preparation, marketing, staff development, supervision and strategic planning. The Reynolds Homestead is the birthplace and boyhood home of tobacco manufacturer R.J. Reynolds. As a continuing education center and outreach facility operated by Virginia Tech, the Reynolds Homestead offers a wide variety of programs and classes for all ages and interests. The Center has been in operation for about 25 years and has become a busy hub of activity, with attendance at various events last year approaching 32,000. Brown hopes to generate new sources of revenue for the facility and to stimulate tourism and economic development. She is also looking forward to developing exhibits and interpretive materials based upon the Reynolds family and the historic Rock Spring Plantation. After graduating from Sweet Briar as a music major in 1972, Brown went to

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Austria to take her first German course at a summer school on the Wolfgangsee. She returned home for a short period of time but soon found herself back in Austria as a Fulbright Assistant teacher in the Austrian schools. She received her M.A. in teaching German from the University of Virginia in 1977. She embarked on a career of philanthropy when she became the first board president of the Free Clinic of Central Virginia in 1987. Brown went on to work for Sarah’s Circle, a non-profit serving the low-income elderly in Adams Morgan (Washington DC), and later served as director of a mealson-wheels program in Hendersonville, NC. She chose to continue her pursuit of higher education, receiving master’s degrees from UNC-Asheville and Virginia Tech. Before Ellen Apperson Brown ’72 her most recent appointment, Brown worked as director of the Radford Heritage Foundation and Glencoe Museum, tripling visitor attendance and membership, and increasing annual contributions by 400 percent. Brown treasures her vocal training at Sweet Briar. Her fondest SBC memory is of singing with the Sweet Tones, “especially on the last morning before Christmas break, when we got up at the crack of dawn and awakened everyone with ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ and ‘Lulay, Thou Little Tiny Child.’” The professor who helped her most at Sweet Briar was the late Ralph Aiken, her freshman English professor. She says, “He helped me discover the wisdom and truth expressed in so many of the great novels and plays, and I’ve been turning to books for inspiration ever since.” Brown enjoys her role as parent of two children and has now taken on the status of grandparent, too. Her daughter, Kate Brown Walters (24), gave birth to a little boy, Asher, in September, and graduated from UNC-Asheville in December (2005). Her son, David (23), graduated from Warren Wilson College last May. Winter 2006 • 41

spotlight Katherine Barrett Baker ’83

Publishes her Grandmother’s “Forget-Me-Not” Book

atherine Barrett Baker ’83 received one of the best birthday presents of her life on her 29th birthday. Her father gave her an Autograph Book of her grandmother’s, “Carrie” Schaefer. The book was a “Forget-Me-Not” book and her grandmother had received it in 1905 when she was 14 years old from her mother, Minnie Hannah Schaefer. “ForgetMe-Not” books are similar to today’s class yearbook. For Baker, this book helped her to relax and remember what was truly important in life. Soon after she had received the book from her father he passed away and she also inherited a large photograph book. This helped to inspire Baker to publish her grandmother’s “Forget-Me-Not” book to help others during Katherine Barrett hard times as it had Baker ’83 helped her. Baker learned many things as she began the long process of getting her book published including the “publisher’s equation” which is: “10% writing and 90% marketing.” She explains that the book is much more than an autograph book. It is also the story of three siblings and it helps the reader remember the importance of friends, family and the celebrations of life. According to Baker, “The most exciting aspect in compiling this collection has been getting to know the main character, my grandmother. Her friends and family ‘autographed’ all the thoughtful poems, clever quips, lovely rhymes, verses and songs to her. As a collection, along with the photographs, they paint a picture of her life.” Baker used her families’ photograph book, compiled of photographs from 1895 to the 1940’s and matched up the people in the photographs with the signatures in the “Forget-Me-Not” book. The photographs are from New York City, 42 • Winter 2006

Central Park, Grant’s Tomb, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and surrounding communities, Pelham Bay, Rockaway Park, Waterloo, Mohawk Lake and Cayuga Lake. The wedding announcements and obituaries of the three Schaefer siblings are also included. Garland Pollard, Editor for Virginia Living Magazine, exclaims, “What a fantastic idea for a book, and a terrific window into old New York. Not only does it entertain with views and words, it brings back to life dozens of folks forgotten by history.” Baker graduated from Sweet Briar in 1983. She feels that Sweet Briar gave her the opportunities and the self-confidence to go out for positions in new areas she had not previously explored. She truly enjoyed her involvement in Student Government, the golf team, and Sweet Tones. Currently, Baker is married and works as the Director of the Sabot School of Etiquette. She considers etiquette to be about the little things. “The little miracles in life that make each of us feel special. Simple, every day miracles in life can be found if one can relax and open up one’s heart and mind.” She specializes in table manners for children of all ages and in the future hopes to incorporate the passion of etiquette into children’s books. To order Katherine’s book, go to amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. You may also order by contacting Katherine at 804-784-2033.

Torrey Ford Shallcross ’05

Coordinates Nationally Televised Conference

t seems impossible to turn on the news today without hearing frightening stories of possible pandemics such as the avian flu or troublesome information about bioterrorism. Most of us put this information in the back of our minds and hope it doesn’t affect us. Torrey Ford Shallcross, however, deals with these issues every day of her life. Shallcross is the program coordinator for the Biotechnology and Public Policy Division at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is responsible for conference planning

(organizing speakers, venues on Capitol Hill, research), knowing current Torrey Ford Shallcross ’05 trends in biotechnology worldwide, handling the press, the budget, updating the Web site, keeping up relations with both the House and Senate Biotechnology Caucuses, S&T Committee and Health Committee, and raising the visibility of her division on Capitol Hill. In September, Shallcross organized a conference at the Russell Senate Office Building. The conference was covered by both CNN and Fox News and discussed the current state of research concerning the avian flu, what prophylactic and therapeutic treatments have been developed or are in the process of development, and what strategies are being utilized nationally and internationally to manage both annual and possible global pandemic influenza outbreaks. Shallcross is organizing another conference focused on the looming avian flu pandemic in February after the Senate votes on the appropriation of funding as per the National Plan. It will be co-chaired by both the House and the Senate Biotech Caucuses and will be held at the Capitol. The focus of the conference will be on global and national preparedness, continuity of business plans, the epidemiology of the virus and its mutation process, as well as vaccine production. This conference will be covered by news sources such as CNN and Fox News as well as CSPAN, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to these conferences, Shallcross is planning conferences on such topics as diseases/pathogens, pandemics and new emerging IDs, bioterrorism, antibiotic resistance, and the loss of vaccine manufacturing capacity. Her position has enabled her to attend several different meetings including the Council on Foreign Relations, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, The National Academies, The Institutes of Medicine and the OECD. She has been able to meet many different individuals including Ambassador Zhou from China, John Negroponte,

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

spotlight Madeline Albright, Anthony Fauci, George Soros, The Honorable Joseph Biden, Tom Clancy, The Honorable Theodore Sorensen, The Honorable John Ashcroft, The Honorable Chuck Hagel, Trent Lott, Francis Fukuyama and John Marburger. After September 11th, Shallcross decided to become an international relations major at Sweet Briar. While at SBC she did an internship with the Government and International Relations department and that reinforced her commitment to the field and led her to her current position at the international think tank: The Center for Strategic International Studies. At SBC, she learned to be independently minded and strong willed, which has benefited her at her current position.

Seven Sweet Briar Alumnae Participate in Panel on Natural Sciences and Environmental Careers Kristin Dane Ewing, Assistant Editor, Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine

“O

h, if you only knew then what you know now”… Seven Sweet Briar College alumnae sat on a 16- person panel during the Fifth Annual Natural Sciences and Environmental Careers Event on November 30th, 2005. These alumnae shared knowledge they’ve learned since graduating with current Sweet Briar students. Alumnae participating in the event included Jody Booze-Daniels ’79, Anne Marie Clark ’03, Brandi Whitley Hilder ’99, Catherine Holswade ’01, Kathleen Kilpatrick ’74 and Shannon O’Neill ’02, whose careers range from zoologist to cell biology lab specialist to state historic preservation officer to Ph.D. scientist. The alumnae noted that Sweet Briar provided them with a solid science background and a good work ethic. They also emphasized how important skills such as writing and communicating are in any career, and commented that Sweet Briar, by providing a liberal arts background, prepared them in these areas. However, most importantly, Sweet Briar gave all of the alumnae the confidence they needed to

L-r: Catherine Holswade ’01 and Brandi Whitley Hilder ’99

L-r: Shannon O’Neill ’02 and Anne Marie Clark ’03

be successful in their careers. Not only did current Sweet Briar students have the opportunity to hear about different careers in the Natural Sciences and Environment, they had the opportunity to network for possible volunteer, internship and job opportunities. Wayne Stark, SBC Director of Career Services, began these Career Events five years ago and typically hosts five or six a year. The events have focused on different professional areas including education, the humanities, fine arts, equine, commerce, media/communication and public relations. Over the course of these events, more than 60 alumnae have returned to campus. Other participants include faculty, leaders in the field, SBC administrators, and recruiters. Occasionally current students who recently finished a great internship attend to share their experiences. Catherine Holswade ’01 After graduation, Catherine Holswade ’01 began working as a Zoologist/Animal Keeper for Maymont in Richmond, Virginia. At Maymont, she is part of a team of five zoologists and is responsible for the general care of over 80 species of mammals, birds of prey, reptiles and amphibians. She cleans, feeds and medicates all of these animals. She also manages the enrichment programs for the animals and works directly with the birds of prey. Holswade feels that Sweet Briar helped her discover what type of career she

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

wanted. The Animal Behavior course she took directly linked to what she is currently doing, and she credits her internship at Maymont for her current career. After her internship, she continued to work at Maymont part-time during the summer while still in school and full-time after graduation. In addition, Holswade credits her professors at Sweet Briar for much of her success. She stated, “Drs. Fink, Davies and Simpson were fountains of knowledge and great teachers from whom I learned a tremendous amount.” The hands-on science department and the small classes at Sweet Briar encouraged Holswade to feel important, to participate and to go to her professors with questions. Brandi Whitley Hilder ’99 The research Brandi Whitley Hilder ’99 did at Sweet Briar prepared her for her graduate program and current career as an integrated drug development scientist at Cato Research. Hilder had the opportunity to pursue her own research while writing her honors dissertation at Sweet Briar. She believes Sweet Briar’s science department differs from that of many other schools because of the opportunities it provides for research throughout one’s undergraduate studies. Her personal research experience helped her to develop writing and public speaking skills as well as the confidence to work with a lot of advanced equipment that students usually don’t encounter until graduate school. She states, “Drs. Davies and Granger instilled in me confidence to go on to graduate school, and that confidence remains today in everything I do.” After Sweet Briar, Hilder went to the University of North Carolina to receive her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular pathology. She currently works at Cato Research where she is responsible for authoring regulatory documents for submission to the FDA, protocols and study reports for clinical trials, and for managing clinical trials. Recently, she has written the safety section of a New Drug Application for a treatment for a neurological condition, a Phase I clinical protocol for an inhaled drug to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and has managed four ongoing clinical trials for a drug to treat advanced cancers. Winter 2006 • 43

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Q & A with Bonnie Seitz about New Banner Self Service program Recently you received a letter announcing that Sweet Briar College is implementing some new technology upgrades that will increase your ability to communicate with us and with your fellow alumnae. As your letter indicated, the new service is called Banner Self Service. It is a password-protected and secure Web site for alumnae of Sweet Briar College. Among other features, it has an online alumnae directory, called “Find a Classmate.” Using the provided Username and Password you received in your letter, you will be able to log in at any time to update your personal information or search for contact information on alumnae friends. Listed below are some supplemental questions and answers to the letter you received. If you have additional questions please contact Bonnie Seitz by phone at 434-381-6417 or by e-mail at sietz@sbc.edu.

What are the advantages of Banner Self Service? The best thing about Banner Self Service is its accessibility. Alumnae can look up information about a fellow alumna at any time and any place- as long as they have access to the Internet. Alumnae will no longer have to depend on calling the Alumnae Office or looking at an outdated directory to find fellow alums. Alumnae can also update their information at any time and place.

Can I still call the Alumnae Office to find alumnae or to update my information? Yes. Everyone in the Alumnae Office is still more than willing to help you in any way they can. Also, while Banner Self Service is a relatively easy program to maneuver, it is still new and will take some time to learn how to

use. The Alumnae Office will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the service.

What if I don’t know the full name of someone I am trying to find? You can look someone up in Banner Self Service by their first name, last name, maiden name and/or class year. Therefore, even if you don’t know an exact name you will, more than likely, be able to find who you want to find.

What other things will I be able to do with Banner Self Service? In the near future you will be able to post and read class notes. This system will not replace the class notes in the Alumnae Magazine but be a supplement to them. Posting class notes online will allow the

information to stay more current and help class secretaries do their job. Also, soon the Alumnae Office will be able to post surveys on Banner Self Service, making it quick and easy for the office to obtain information from different groups of people. .

Why is my information displayed in Banner Self Service without my permission?

It has always been the policy of the Alumnae Office to provide information on alumnae to fellow alumnae if requested. An individual’s information would not be provided if requested not to be shared. The same procedure will be followed for Banner Self Service. If you do not wish your information to be published you may go into Banner Self Service and remove what information you would like to keep confidential.

Reunion 2006

features “all 1’s and 6’s.” Reunion will be held on May 26-28. You should have received your reservation brochure in early February. Please mail in your reservation or sign up online at http://www.sbc.edu/alumnae/reunion.html. Enjoy a weekend of fun reuniting with classmates, attending alumnae colleges and listening to Chairman of the Board, a gift of the class of 1981. 44 • Winter 2006

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Although Cram is better known for his work on New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine and college campuses such as West Point, Rice University and Princeton, Shand-Tucci begins his 523-page account of the architect’s later work with Sweet Briar.

Ralph Adams Cram Biography Calls Sweet Briar Campus Architect’s Most Significant Collegiate Work MICHELLE LURCH-SHAW, SBC STAFF WRITER, COLLEGE RELATIONS OFFICE

The life and work of Ralph Adams Cram, the principal architect of many of Sweet Briar’s buildings, is chronicled in a new book by historian Douglass Shand-Tucci titled Ralph Adams Cram: An Architect’s Four Quests—Medieval, Modernist, American, Ecumenical. The second of a two-volume biography on Cram, An Architect’s Four Quests tells the story of his later career (1900–1942) and some of his most important commissions, including Sweet Briar College. Although Cram is better known for his work on New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine and college campuses such as West Point, Rice University and Princeton, Shand-Tucci begins his 523-page account of the architect’s later work with Sweet Briar. It was Cram and his partner Bertram Goodhue’s “first significant collegiate work,” he notes. Cram is thought to have “warmed” to the Georgian style of the Sweet Briar project and the cause of women’s education, thanks to his wife, Bess, a

native Virginian. He had not been particularly enthusiastic about a previous Georgian-style project at Wheaton College, despite its positive impact on his firm. Cram himself explains in his memoirs: “Brought up within the narrow walls of the hard and dry Puritanism of New England Colonial…I really knew nothing, through personal contact, of the more ample, courteous and generally aristocratic Georgian that still exists south of Mason And Dixon’s Line.” “When, at long last, and chiefly in answer to domestic incitation,” he continued, “I got to know what Richmond, the James River region, Charleston…and the other survivals of a beautiful and spacious, but slaughtered past, had to offer as architectural evidence of a great culture, I found in myself a more friendly and generous attitude toward that style…” Shand-Tucci calls Sweet Briar Cram’s “undoubted masterwork.” And he says he is not alone, noting that scholars, architectural

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historians—even ones who were, according to the biographer, “no great admirers of Cram”—agree with this high opinion of the Sweet Briar commission. Author Thomas Gains in his 1991 book, The Campus as a Work of Art, surely startled more than a few people by including Sweet Briar among the top 50 most beautiful campuses in the country, Shand-Tucci writes. But, he says the best judgment on Sweet Briar comes from an anonymous report of the National Park Service, which called for the designation of the College as a historic district. Shand-Tucci closes his account of the Sweet Briar project and its significance to Cram and Goodhue, by concluding that the College’s master plan of 1902 was “a portent of things to come” for the partners. Ralph Adams Cram: An Architect’s Four Quests— Medieval, Modernist, American, Ecumenical includes more than 130 photographs and drawings. It can be read on its own or in conjunction with the biography’s first volume, Boston Bohemia, 1881–1900.

Looking to Buy or Sell Art? Check out Emily Reeh’s (’01) online art community, GlobalArtistry.com. Reeh says she created the site to “help the art student transition into a profitable artist by giving them a community from which they can learn from each other.” The site brings art from everywhere to everyone. Artists and anyone who has art to sell (even if they didn’t create it) can upload photos of works for sale and communicate directly with buyers and other artists via an anonymous e-mail system. Shoppers can search art work by a variety of means such as price range, color, material, category or look by artist name. GlobalArtistry.com offers artists a space on the Internet where collectively they get more traffic from interested art buyers. Many artists have a Web site, but people don’t know of these sites unless they have seen the artist in person. Reeh notes that “in addition to posting artwork, the site provides chat rooms, information on art events in their area, links to other art Web sites and tips to becoming their own boss.”

STUDENTS GET OPPORTUNITY TO SEE PRAGUE, KRAKOW AND BUDAPEST as a part of the history department’s Eastern European Study Abroad program. The program, led by Dr. John Ashbrook, will be a 23-day trip and includes such sights as the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Krakow’s market square and the Wieliczka Salt Mines. For more information about this program, go to their Web site at http://www.history.sbc.edu/ easterneurope.htm.

Winter 2006 • 45

in memoriam Phillip A. Sellers, 1921–2005

With sadness, we report the October 1st death of a great philanthropist and one of Sweet Briar’s most devoted former Board of Director’s members, Phillip A. Sellers. He was 84. Mr. Sellers served on the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors from 1987 to 1993. In his first term on the Board of Directors, he served as a member of the Planning Steering Committee and Chairman of the Facilities Committee. During his second term, he was a member of the Student Affairs, Development, and Executive committees, as well as Chairman of the Buildings and Grounds and Investments and Finance committees. He also served on the Campaign Leadership committee providing investment guidance and raising monies for The Campaign for Sweet Briar. In addition, Mr. Sellers had served as president or board chairman for many organizations over the years, including the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the Montgomery Rotary Club, the Committee of 100, Huntingdon College, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, the United Way, the Montgomery Area Council on Aging, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Association of Security Dealers’ 5th District Committee and the Alabama Archives and History Foundation. He won many accolades as a philanthropist including the Montgomery Advertiser’s Citizen of the Year for 1988, the YMCA’s Man of the Year in 2004 and the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association’s Citizen of the Year in 2005. Upon receiving the Montgomery Advertiser’s Citizen of the Year award he was quoted as saying, “We’re not put here to test the waters but to make waves. Each generation hopes for a better world for the next, but hoping alone won’t do it. It takes a little work, a little effort, but the rewards are invaluable.” Mr. Sellers was married for 49 years to the late Caroline Rudulph Sellers ’46. He is survived by two daughters, Susan Sellers Ewing ’71 of Richmond, VA, and Ellen Sellers McDowell ’77 of Dallas, TX; sons, Philip L. Sellers and Will Sellers, both living in Montgomery, AL; and four granddaughters Emily McDowell, Virginia McDowell, Mary Susan McDowell, and Katherine McDowell of Dallas, TX. Memorial gifts may be directed to the Julia Lightfoot Scholarship Fund at Huntingdon College, the St. John’s Episcopal Church Building Fund in Montgomery, AL, or the Phillip and Caroline Rudulph Sellers Art Fund at Sweet Briar College.

46 • Winter 2006

1921

1934

1924

Anna Kuss Miss Anna I. Kuss September 30, 2005

Gertrude Pauly Mrs. Gertrude Crawford 1993 Marie Brede Mrs. Charles V. Zimmerman December 14, 2005

1927

Martha Ambrose Mrs. James D. Nunnally September 30, 2002

1929

Virginia Campbell Mrs. N. B. Clinch, Jr. November 19, 2005

1930

Teresa Atkinson Mrs. John S. Greenfield July 27, 2005

1931

Nancy Hotchkiss Mrs. H. C. Boschen September 10, 2005

Victoria Parsons Mrs. Victoria P. Saunders November 25, 2005 Kate Strauss Mrs. Ulrich Solmssen August 29, 2005 Marjorie Van Evera Mrs. E. H. Lovelace May 19, 2005

1935

Ray Adler Mrs. H. Foster Cochran Date unknown

Meade Laird Mrs. M. L. Shackelford August 20, 2005

Anne Baker Mrs. Howard L. Gerhart October 23, 2005

Mary Robinson Mrs. Henry Oosting May 21, 2000

Anne Cockrill Mrs. Frank E. Wait Date unknown

Elizabeth Stribling Mrs. Kenneth A. Bell February 28, 2005

Elizabeth Fox Mrs. Warren D. Moon September 9, 2005

1933

Katherine James Mrs. John M. Hall August 15, 2005

Elizabeth Giesen Mrs. Robert W. Lindsay August 13, 2005 Sue Graves Mrs. William K. Stubbs August 6, 2005 Isabel Scott Mrs. Claude L. Bowen, Jr. June 29, 2005 Carroll Slater Mrs. Carroll W. Sifly September 24, 2005

Frances Meeks Mrs. Loren D. Ford November 24, 2005 Kathryn Steiner Mrs. Douglas Day July 16, 2005 Mary Templeton Miss Mary R. Templeton June 17, 2005 Harriet Williams Mrs. G. Dallas Rand July 31, 2005 Rebecca Young Mrs. James N. Frazer August 6, 2005

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

recent deaths 1936

1940

1947

1958

Mary Poindexter Mrs. Winborn B. Willingham August 22, 2005

Patricia Murrill Mrs. Marquette de Bary August 21, 2005

Evelyn Dudley Mrs. Evelyn Dudley Esbenshade August 30, 2005

1962

Anne Thomson Mrs. Witham Smith July 15, 2004

Louise Partrick Mrs. Francis Newton October 11, 2005

Maria Tucker Mrs. Edgar S. Bowerfind, Jr. January 16, 2006

Elizabeth Wall Mrs. Elizabeth W. Saunders November 2, 2005

Mary Lee Settle Mrs. William L. Tazewell September 27, 2005

1948

1937

1941

Mary Virginia Camp Mrs. Charles Lee Smith, Jr. January 12, 2006

Charlotte Knox Mrs. Perry M. Lane October 19, 2005

Nancy Cofer Mrs. George W. Stacey November 29, 2005

Ann Rowland Mrs. James R. Tuck November 15, 2005

Mary Somerville Mrs. William Brenza October 16, 2005

Catherine Vance Mrs. Michael K. Johns August 21, 2005

E. Jane Williams Miss E. Jane Williams August 22, 2005

Katharine Spaatz Mrs. Walter Bell February 25, 2005

1949

1938

1942

Anna-Mary Charles Mrs. Jackson L. Straub II January 2, 2006

Gertrude Alexanderson Mrs. Charles M. Young October 12, 2005

Virginia Cummings Mrs. August F. Davis November 4, 2005

Ethlyn Biedenharn Mrs. Nathan L. Swayze, Jr. Date unknown

Virginia Moomaw Mrs. William E. Hall September 5, 2005

Genevieve Marsh Mrs. W. Yule Fisher July 1, 2005

1944

Isabelle Ogilby Mrs. Isabelle Ogilby Barr June 18, 2005

1939

Mary Mahan Mrs. Orville R. Zimmerman March 29, 2004

Mary Henderson Mrs. O. Nelson Bryan, Jr. October 29, 2005

1950

Nancy Franklin Mrs. Charles H. Hall III December 12, 2005 Garland Hunter Mrs. Nicholas E. Davies November 17, 2005

Ruth Paley Mrs. Harrison Hogan September 10, 2005

Mary (Polly) Thomas Mrs. Howard Peck December 2, 2005

1945

1951

Sheilah Moore Mrs. Henry T. Rathbun January 10, 2005

Mary Daniels Mrs. John Lowry, Jr. November, 2005

1946

1952

Helen Marr Mrs. William K. Kurz December 1997

1955

Jane Lesh Mrs. George M. Gould August 4, 2005

Helen Graeff Mrs. Ray Ellerman August 8, 2005

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

Dianne Aubineau Dianne Aubineau May 18, 2005

Margaret (Peggy) Moore Mrs. Margaret M. Ripley September 21, 2005

Ann Clancy Mrs. William L. Cooke, Jr. December 27, 2005 Joline Street Mrs. J. P. Robinson II September 1, 2005

1968

Josephine Fox Ms. Morgan Fox September 27, 2005

1970

Linda Gould Mrs. Linda G. Capano October 22, 2005 Rebecca Nelson Ms. Rebecca L. Nelson November 17, 2005

1980

Martha “Marfy” Carey Miss Martha Carey September 9, 2005

1984

Melissa Darden Mrs. Melissa D. Odom July 26, 2005

1986

Melissa Ann Davison Miss Melissa Ann Davison December 17, 2005

1990

Thea Michelet Ms. Thea Cecilie Michelet August 2005

1991

Anne Arleigh Davis Mrs. Tom Cobbs December 3, 2005 If you wish to write to a member of the family of someone recently deceased, please contact the Alumnae Office for name and address.

Lenora Fiducia Mrs. Hans-Rudolf Hartmann January 13, 2006

Winter 2006 • 47

transitions

THE SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS New Members

David W. Breneman, Ph.D., Charlottesville, VA University of Colorado, B.A., 1963 University of California, Ph.D., Economics, 1970 University Professor and Dean, Newton and Rita Meyers Professor, Economics of Education, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

Ann Carter ’97 Leaves Alumnae House Louise Swiecki Zingaro ’80 Director, Alumnae Association

With mixed emotions I send word of Ann MacDonald Carter’s resignation. Ann and her husband Michael relocated to the Virginia Beach area where Michael accepted a promotion as Team Leader with his company, Progressive Insurance. Ann joined the staff in July, 1997 as Alumnae Programs Coordinator. In July, 1998 she was promoted to Assistant Director and in July, 2000, became Associate Director. She was a valuable member of the Alumnae Office team; almost every Alumnae Association program benefited from her excellent attention to detail and professionalism, including our Alumnae College program. Last fall, Ann successfully coordinated our very first Homecoming Weekend. We wish Ann and Michael the best of luck in their future endeavors.

48 • Winter 2006

Diane B. Dalton ’67, B.A., Milwaukee, WI Sweet Briar College, B.A. 1967 Case Western Reserve University, M.A., 1969 General Manager, Milwaukee Repertory Theater Jane E. Hager ’67, B.A., Lyndeborough, NH Sweet Briar College, A.B. 1967 CEO, President, Prescott Investment Corporation Denva E. Jackson ’05, B.A., Darlington, SC Sweet Briar College, B.A. 2005 Dennis K. Janiak, M.B.A., Altavista, VA Canisuis College, B.S., 1975 Canisuis College, M.B.A., 1979 Plant Manager, Abbott Laboratories

Breneman

Dalton

Jackson

Janiak

Retired from the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors, July 1, 2005

Michela English ’71 (Chairman), Washington, D.C. A. Marshall Acuff, Jr., Midlothian, VA Elaine L. Arozarena ’81, New York, NY Rebecca J. Cefaratti ’02, Buffalo, NY

Sweet Briar College Alumnae Magazine • www.alumnae.sbc.edu

tradition IN THE SWEET BRIAR

Ethel Ogden Burwell ’58

One of the first alumnae to support Our Campaign For Her World, Ethel Ogden Burwell ’58 made a pledge in 1999, laying the foundation for an internship that will create a resounding effect over generations: The Ethel Ogden Burwell Internship. Preference for this award goes to a student with an interest in Christian ministry or human services. A provision in Ethel’s will further enhances this internship fund.

Ethel graduated from Sweet Briar in 1958 with a degree in religion, and shortly thereafter married Armistead Burwell and moved to Indianapolis. The alumnae club there was an extension of Sweet Briar and compelled Ethel to want to give back to her alma mater. Armistead also has a deep fondness for Sweet Briar—after all, he spent quite a bit of time on campus while courting Ethel. Knowing Ethel’s desire to help Sweet Briar, Armistead surprised Ethel by arranging the groundwork for setting up this internship. Ethel explains why she chose this particular gift. “I believe strongly in this internship. It enriches the hands-on experience of the students, which is equally as important as the classroom life. This internship replaces a regular job and lets them do something in their area of interest while paying some of their expenses.” Ethel chose to major in religion because of inspiring mentors including Dean Hosken, associate professor of religion, and Ascension Church minister Richard Lee, the unofficial campus chaplain, and his wife, who was the niece of Meta Glass. They opened their Amherst home to students on Sunday nights for dinners of waffles and chicken hash. Although religion was not her vocation, it is a foundation for everything Ethel has done. “Especially in hard times, we need this kind of [spiritual] grounding,” Ethel explains. Kerri Faust ’06, of Franklin, Tennessee, recipient of the Burwell internship, agrees. “I have worked in the Chaplain’s office for the last three years, and have served as the Burwell Intern for the past two. During this time I have been able not only to express my vision for spiritually oriented programs on campus, but actually initiate, plan, and help carry them to fruition.” Kerri, who has a double major in psychology and business management, sums up the importance of the Burwell Internship to her life. “Because of my involvement with the Chaplain’s office and through community service, I know that I would like to work in the nonprofit sector. I find that serving others—while emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausting—offers innumerable benefits and irrepressible joy. This next chapter of my life is coming at me full force. However, I feel that my experiences at Sweet Briar have more than adequately prepared me for whatever may come next.”

Ethel Ogden Burwell ’58

Kerri Faust ’06

• National Chair SBC Annual Fund 2002–present • Junior Bench Giving Society • Indiana Fletcher Williams Associate • Outstanding Alumna 2003 • President of the Alumnae Association 1995–98 • Former Board of Directors • For Her World Campaign Steering Committee • Alumnae Board • FOCUS chair • Past President, Sweet Briar Alumnae Club of Detroit • Past Director of Admissions, University Liggett School

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sweet Spirit Habitat for Humanity Angel Tree Project Relay for Life Unsung Heroes Banquet Varsity Volleyball Club Tennis Team Campus Christian Fellowship QVs Earphones Co-Curricular Life Peer Communicator ARC tutor Psychology club Psychology honor society: PsiChi Study abroad semester (New Zealand)

Chaplain Guy Brewer is eloquent in his praise of Ethel’s dedication to Sweet Briar. “Do you remember this limerick?” he begins by asking. “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.” All of us have a physical shadow. Even more, we have the shadow of our personal influence on others. Ethel Ogden Burwell is a woman who casts a very long shadow. Through the Ethel Ogden Burwell Internship in the Chaplain’s Office, Ethel has provided seven different students internship opportunities in community service and faith-based organizations. Burwell Scholars have participated in experiences including Miriam’s House, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, and the Salvation Army. Briana Beckham ’04, a Burwell Scholar, initiated the Unsung Heroes Banquet to recognize hourly staff at Sweet Briar College. By engaging students in compassionate service, Ethel Ogden Burwell is helping to raise the next generation of servant leaders. And her shadow grows longer every day. To learn more about the personal, financial, and charitable advantages of making an estate gift or to request the Letter of Intent form, please contact The Office of Development at (434) 381-6161 or toll-free at 888-846-5722.

s w e e t b r i a r a l u m n a e t r av e l

upcoming

TOURS

Egypt

On the Sweet Briar tour, “New Year’s on the Nile,” December 26, 2005–January 6, 2006: At the Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt, in alphabetical order: J. Arias, A. Bartleson, C. DeGolia, V. Farrar, S. Glenn-Lee, C. Horne, H. Horne, A. Laing, S. Laing, T. Lee, E. Muhlenfeld, U. Pitha, P. Pitha-Rowe, S. Platt, C. Riggs, G. Riggs, R. Riggs, S. Riggs, A. Rowe, J. Rowe, J. Timberlake, S. Twining, L. Warren, M. Warren, H. Werner, S. Werner, L. Wollan

May 1–10, 2006 Alumni Campus Abroad: Ronda, Spain June 25–July 3, 2006 Alumni Campus Abroad: Scotland sold out

Egypt

In Petra, Jordan (from left to right) Ninie Laing ’57 and Ashlee Bartleson ’04

Anna Chao Pai `57

October 7–24, 2006 China’s Silk Road

Sicily

On the Sweet Briar tour, “Sicily During the Cultural Season,” February 26–March 7, 2005: At the Temple in Agrigento, in alphabetical order: R. Ascari, M. Coffey, B. Crane, L. Creal, N. Crowdus, A. Jenkins, A. Laing, S. Laing, A. LeClercq, F. LeClercq, K. Lord, C. Massey, E. Massey, G. MaxonStark, J. Moulton, M. Nelson, C. Ottaway, A. Pai, D. Pai, D. Paulus, R. Paulus, C. Perry, J. Perry, C. Reynolds, K. Reynolds, A. Rosselot, A. Rowe, J. Rowe, A. Russell, J. Seymour, E. Stark, M. Talman, B. Wilson, M. Wilson, W. Wilson, D. Zeidel

Poland

Germany

On the Sweet Briar tour, “Germany’s Legendary Holiday Markets,” November 28–December 6, 2005: Aboard the MS Swiss Pearl, in alphabetical order: R. Horwege, S. Horwege, R. Leuck, D. Musgrove, T. Neuse, J. Sullivan

Sweet Briar College Box E Sweet Briar, VA 24595 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

On the Sweet Briar tour, “Alumni Campus Abroad in Krakow,” June 22–30, 2005: In Zakopane, in alphabetical order: M. Baroni, S. Barnard, W. Barnard, R. Burt, C. Cansler, S. Cansler, B. Coleman, S. Coleman, N. Crowdus, W. Crowdus, C. DiIorio, R. DiIorio, M. Dunson, J. Goodridge, S. Greer, J. Guttry, L. Guttry, M. Kutz, E. Lisbon, M. Moore, C. Ottaway, H. Rangel, J. Rangel, V. Rangel, L. Shank, S. Sinkler, D. Wood, L. Zingaro

Non-Proﬁt Org. U.S. Postage

PAID

LYNCHBURG,VA Permit No. 132