mount holyoke alumnae quarterly fall 2013

fall 2013

Mount HolyokeAlumnae Quarterly

Embracing ChangeThree women unafraid to wow the world

MISCHIEF MANAGED

LYONS IN ABEAR MARKET

INSIDE THE MOUNT HOLYOKE COMMUNITY BOATHOUSE

SAYING NO TO MARRIAGE

IN THIS ISSUE

he opening of our academic year coincided with the launch of the College’s new charge—never fear / change—words that honor the historic legacy of Mount Holyoke women as changemakers. The never fear / change challenge calls on the College and all who are a part of our community to be self-aware, future-focused, and optimistic. As we all know, change is one of the constants in life, and we want our students to adapt to change with curiosity, confidence, and courage.

While we are looking forward, we are also celebrating those who give back. The Mount Holyoke Campaign surpassed its goal by raising a record-breaking $305.4 million. We thank you for your generosity. Alumnae show their devo-tion and commitment to the College in many ways, and your financial support allows us to open doors to future generations of engaged and ambitious women. During the final phase of the campaign, our focus was on securing funds that will give many students an extra boost. We hope to expand scholarship funds for academically talented students and provide paid internships—at least once during their undergraduate years—for each and every Mount Holyoke student.

As many of you know, internships that link curriculum to career are nothing new at Mount Holyoke. In fact, legendary political science pro-fessor Victoria Schuck created the Washington Internship Program in 1949. The program pro-vided students with an opportunity to work in Washington, DC, as summer assistants to mem-bers of Congress and administrators of federal agencies. The Washington Internship Program was the first of its kind and served as a model for similar college programs across the country. Our current curriculum-to-career initiatives build upon these valuable ideas. We consider internship opportunities as more than academic enrichment alone. They are also a promise—a promise to provide experiences for all students to engage in transformative learning both inside and outside the classroom.

Student internships, along with pre- and post-internship courses, are the centerpiece of a new curricular connection we are building called The Lynk. This initiative will include a first-year seminar with enhanced advising by faculty,

staff, and peer mentors; a sophomore experi-ence emphasizing professional development and preparation for choosing a major; and a senior capstone in which graduating seniors will serve as role models for first-year students, inspiring them to face the future with energy and imagination.

I am extremely grateful to the faculty and staff who have rolled up their sleeves to develop these new curricular pathways. We are confident they will foster the College’s mission to use liberal learning for purposeful engagement in the world. We also expect these innovations to contribute significantly to educating the next

generation of women leaders. The close of the 175th anniversary year of Mount Holyoke College made me understand more than ever what Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote, “I dwell in Possibility.” I am proud to be a member of this remarkable community, and I look forward as we embark on the next 175 years to discover the thrilling possibility of women’s education.

tWe hope to expand

scholarship funds

for academically

talented students

and provide paid

internships for each

and every Mount

Holyoke student.

— LYNN PASQUERELLA ’80

“

”

President’s Pen

Mic

hael

Mal

yszk

o

D E PARTM E NTS

16 Embracing ChangeMount Holyoke women lead in ways big and small

22 Mischief Managed175 years of Mount Holyoke women behaving badly

28 Lyons in a Bear Market

Uncommon women in business thrive against all odds

3 LYONS SHAREConversations on never fear / change, the V8s, and remembering your student PO box number

5 UNCOMMON GROUND Chihuly glass art installed, Eyitemi Popo ’12 launches digital magazine

Ten Minutes With: Programming pioneer Jean Sammet ’48

Insider’s View: Mount Holyoke Community Boathouse

Go Figure: MHC by the numbers

The Maven: Eleanor Hotchkiss Blayney ’73 on financial confidence

The Female Gaze: Luminarium Dance Company, photographer Marion Kalter ’72, authors Courtney E. McDermott ’05 and Liz Murphy Fenwick ’85

32 MoHOME MEMORIE SFaculty members rock Chapin at the 1984 faculty show

On Display: Titanic-era dress from Katharine Condon Foster ’14

Then and Now: Move-In Day

35 CONNE CTIONSBoston bowls, alumnae travel opportunities, Lily Klebanoff Blake ’64 connects with students on Wall Street

A Place of Our Own

38 CLASS NOTE SNews from your classmates

80 MY VOICECameron J. Steese ’07 on “Saying No (or Not Now) to Marriage”

ON THE COVERJennifer Rochlis Zumbado ’94 plans to journey into space one day. Photograph by John Dolan

ContentsFALL 2013 // VO LU M E 97 // N U M B ER 3

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FE ATU R E S

Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly ||| F A L L 2 0 1 3 1

alumnae.mtholyoke.edu2

Dear Alumnae,

It’s an understatement to say that Mount Holyoke is abuzz with activity these days. No sooner did the College wrap up its 175th anniversary than it launched a new campaign aimed at prospective students: never fear / change. In the meantime, the Alumnae Association continues to work hard to meet the present and future needs of all alumnae. Part of that effort includes making it easier for you to stay connected to one another and your alma mater.

For example, the Association launched an improved website last winter and has been growing its alumnae-focused social media efforts—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram—ever since. Now, we’re proud to have completed the first comprehensive overhaul of the Alumnae Quarterly magazine in more than a decade. A year in the making, the process of rethinking the magazine has been an extensive one with input from many alumnae along the way. In addition to offering a more intentional editorial mix of alumnae faces and voices and College news and nostalgia, we have also modernized the look and feel of the publication. We hope that you find your reading experience heightened and your love of Mount Holyoke strengthened as a result!

Tell us what you think: alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/quarterlysurvey.

Sincerely,

Susan Bushey Manning ’96 Chair, Quarterly Committee

Sandy Mallalieu ’91 Chair, Communications Committee

Carly Kite Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Alumnae Association

M OUNT H O LYO KE A LUM NA E QUA RT ER LYFall 2013 Volume 97 Number 3

EDITORIAL AND DESIGN TEAM

Carly Kite Senior Director of Marketing and Communications

Millie Rossman Creative Director

Taylor Scott Associate Director of Digital Communications

Lauren Kodiak Marketing and Communications Assistant

CONTRIBUTORS

Kimberlyn B. Fong ’15 Kris Halpin Olivia S. Lammel ’14 Camille C. Malonzo ’16 Stasia Walmsley Emily Harrison Weir

QUARTERLY COMMITTEE

Susan Bushey Manning ’96, chair Amy Cavanaugh ’06 Shawn Hartley Hancock ’80 Lauren D. Klein ’03 Olivia S. Lammel ’14, student rep. Shoshana Walter ’07 Eleanor Townsley, faculty rep.

The Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, Inc. 50 College Street South Hadley, MA 01075-1486 413-538-2300 [email protected]

ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PresidentCynthia L. Reed ’80Vice PresidentJulianne Trabucchi Puckett ’91

Treasurer and Chair, Finance CommitteeLynda Dean Alexander ’80

ClerkHilary M. Salmon ’03

Chair, Classes and Reunion Committee Danielle M. Germain ’93

Alumna TrusteeSuzanne A. George ’90

Chair, Nominating Committee V. Radley Emes ’00

Director-at-Large Joanna MacWilliams Jones ’67

Director-at-Large (Global Initiatives)Emily E. Renard ’02

Chair, Communications Committee Sandra A. Mallalieu ’91

Young Alumnae RepresentativeTamara J. Dews ’06

Chair, Clubs CommitteeElizabeth Redmond VanWinkle ’82

Chair, Volunteer Stewardship Committee Ellen L. Leggett ’75

Executive Director Jane E. Zachary, ex officio without vote

Ideas expressed in the Alumnae Quarterly do not necessarily reflect the views of Mount Holyoke College or the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College.

To update your information, contact Alumnae Information Services at [email protected] or 413-538-2303.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATIONThis information published as required by USPS

Publication title: Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly; ISSN publication number 0027-2493; USPS 365-280; published quarterly; subscriptions are free

Office of Publication: Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, 50 College St., S. Hadley, MA 01075-1486; Contact person: Carly Kite, 413-538-3094; Publisher and owner: Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College

Circulation (based on summer ’13 issue): Net press run: 32,903; Requested subscriptions: 32,903 + nonrequested (campus) distribution: 3,400

POSTMASTER (ISSN 0027-2493; USPS 365-280) Please send form 3579 to Alumnae Information Services Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association 50 College Street South Hadley, MA 01075-1486

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Join the Conversation

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f

Lyons ShareNEVER / FEAR CHANGEIn August, Mount Holyoke launched its new never fear / change campaign. Here’s what some of you had to say.

I was asked to assemble and moderate a panel for a national industry con-ference. While I’ve done something similar before, this will be a much larger group than I’ve ever presented to in the past. I asked for a few days to consider...and woke up this morning resolved to decline—too nerve-wracking/scary. Then I read your email. “Never fear.” I might not be perfect, but I can be prepared and I CAN do this! Thank you for reminding me what it means to be an Uncommon Woman.

—Joan A. Stack ’74

LET TE RS | E MAI L | FACE BOO K | T WIT TE R | I N STAG R AM | LI N KE D I N

“Right on, @mtholyoke:

never fear / change

is who we were/are.

#Women, leaders,

courageous, & onward.

#neverfearchangeJEN JACK GIESEKING ’99

” I don’t love

never fear / change

as I agree with

others that it seems

to present an either-

or (never fear OR

change), and also,

reading it, it doesn’t

exactly roll off the

mental tongue. CLARISSE M . HART ’03

”

“fOver Labor Day weekend five friends from the class of 2004 reconvened in South Hadley to celebrate the birthday of Kristina Pueschel Smith. From left to right: Kate Grote Hill, Hannah K. Bernhardt, Kristina Pueschel Smith, Sarah Wade Boatwright, and Laura “Jeannie” Curry.

Very trendy! However, invoking an unqualified call for “change” implies a rejection of our history and traditions. Yes, the future must welcome change, but we need also to have a decent re-spect for continuity with our past.

—Phyllis Altrogge ’57

What I absolutely love is the amount of conversation the new branding is evoking from the Mount Holyoke com-munity. (Which is, I think, the point of the “ / ”). No two Mount Holyoke women think the same (take me and my twin, for example), but we are able to have insightful conversations...This is one of the MANY reasons I love Mount Holyoke!

—Rebecca J. Markarian ’07

That the College administration is convinced Mount Holyoke needs to re-brand itself through such a campaign seems sad somehow, but a sign of the times. Let’s hope for great results.

—Beatrice Beach Szekely ’62

MODEL FOR MARY LYON?I was sorry to see the idea of an asylum as the model for Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke featured (“Tales of Early Mount Holyoke,” Summer 2013, p. 7). Research for a 2010 library exhibit focusing on foodways through the years led me to conclude that a far more appropriate model—if indeed Lyon needed or used a model for her new institution—might have been the Shaker communities all around her in early nineteenth-century New Eng-land... An often-seen archives photo of a “pie circle” at work in the Semi-nary kitchen in the late nineteenth century offers a tantalizing bit of visual evidence for the Shaker theory. It shows just a glimpse of a round oven apparently quite like the pie oven at Hancock Shaker Village.

—Sara Dalmas Jonsberg ’60

f



#3478 there is sparkly card on its way from Seattle!—Erin J. Wilson FP’10

I cannot believe I actually remember my PO box number. It’s been fourteen years and I just had to stop for ten seconds and the number came back to me. Great idea! I will write today!

—Adriana M. Nogueira de Andrade ’99

I don’t recall my number but I DO know I still have nightmares about for-getting my key and never being able to get my mail the entire year! This was “back in the day” before Blanchard was renovated and the PO was a tiny little room to the right of the book-store in the basement of Blanchard...

—Lisa Jarisch ’81

We had mailboxes???

—Lesley Merriman Lyman ’67

MORE THAN MUSIC

I strongly disagree with a note in the article stating “V8s open doors for other V8s,” implying that the group operates like an old girls club (“Sisters in Song,” Summer 2013, p. 24). Ten-year reunions aside, there is no stronger a connection between V8s alums and current V8s than between all alums and current students. As to the latter, the connection could be stronger.

This brings me to my main point in writing. I offer an invitation to cur-rent students to reach out to the MHC alumnae network. As a college student, I remember being very nervous to reach out to alums that I didn’t know. However, I can say now that most alums would be happy to talk with you and offer guid-ance, irrespective of whether you are an a cappella singer or not. Alumnae are available to be a resource for you, now and in the future.

—Elizabeth A. Youngblood ’05

Terrific article! (“Sisters in Song,” Summer 2013, p. 24) I loved listening to the V8s when I was a student. As an alumna of Glee Club and Choro Mount Holyoke, I can relate to much of the feel-ing expressed here. The thrill of being accepted into an exclusive singing group is the same, and I’m pretty sure singing and academics were tied for first place in my student career. Keep singing!

—Susan Larrick Meiselman ’79

Do you remember your mailbox number? If so, why not send a letter of encouragement to the current student using it?

fWE ASKED

Feeling the convocation energy

from the post-grad world,

wearing blue. @aamhc #mhc

#womenscollege #tradition #2012GENEVIEVE M . COE ‏’ 12

“”What was

your favorite way to spend

Mountain Day?

16%In bed, catching up

on sleep

2%In the library, catching

up on studies

80%Hiking the mountain

2%Hiking the mall

POLL

Watch a video of the lucky students who received mail from alumnae at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/pobox.

Tayl

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Ben

Barn

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Uncommon GroundN EWS | TE N M I N UTE S WITH | I N S I D E R ’ S VI EW | G O FI G U R E | TH E MAVE N | TH E FE MALE GA Z E

Ninety-eight-year-old Alumna Brings Chihuly to South HadleyIt’s hard to imagine that the atrium of the Mount Holyoke College library could be more beautiful. Yet in August, the installation of a sculpture created by Dale Chihuly—a leading force in the studio glass movement—created an even more striking experience at the entrance of the building.

Titled Clear and Gold Tower, the sculpture is made of more than 450 pieces of hand-blown clear glass that shimmer with twenty-four-karat gold, and stands twelve feet above the sixteenth-century Venetian wellhead. A member of Chihuly’s team, who visited the campus to find the perfect spot for the piece, was particularly interested in the well, as Chihuly has a decades-long history with the Venice glass scene and its master artists.

The donor, a ninety-eight-year- old alumna from the centennial class of 1937, wishes to remain anonymous because she says, “I’m not so special,” according to John Stomberg, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. The mystery donor visited Chihuly in his studio to commission the piece. “She’s fabulous,” Stomberg exclaims. “She’s such a wonderful woman. I wish she lived around here; I would spend more time with her.”

At the donor’s request, cham-pagne and chocolate were served at the sculpture’s dedication to the class of 1937 during Convocation on the third of September.—B Y L A U R E N Q U I R I C I F P ’ 1 4

A new glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly stands twelve feet tall in the library’s atrium.

Ben

Barn

hart

(2)


Convocation Launches Academic Year and New Branding Campaign Red, green, blue, purple, and yellow filled Gettell Amphitheater as students cheered this year’s speakers, welcomed the class of 2017, kicked off the 2013–2014 academic year, and celebrated Mount Holyoke’s new mantra—never fear / change.

The Liberal Arts Meet Practical Experience

Launched in 2006, the Campaign for Mount Holyoke came to a record-breaking close on June 30 with $305.4 million in gifts from approximately 26,000 alumnae, family, and friends. From scholarships to academic support to professor salaries, the many generous gifts help support all facets of the College. In addition, projects such as the construction of the community boathouse and Joanne V. Creighton Hall, as well as the renovation of the Kendall Sports and Dance Complex, were made

possible from funds raised during the campaign.

Co-chaired by Leslie Anne Miller ’73, chair emeritus of the board of trustees, and Barbara McClearn Baumann ’77, also a trustee emeritus, the campaign not only met but exceeded its $300 million goal. Miller and her husband, Richard Worley, made one of the largest gifts, which named the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and endowed a chair in environmental studies.

A Record-Breaking Close for the Campaign for Mount Holyoke

This fall the College launched a new initiative called The Lynk. Playing off our fearless founder’s name, the program is intended to help students connect their classroom experiences to the working world beyond the gates through four elements embedded within the undergraduate years: Goal Setting, Professional Development, Practical Experience, and The Launch. Alum-nae interested in getting involved in future pilot projects related to the effort should join the Career Network (alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/careernetwork) and the Alumnae Association’s LinkedIn group (alumn.ae/linkedin). In addition, alumnae and students are in-vited to participate in the monthly #MtHolyokeAtWork program, a virtual job shadow via Twitter that gives a glimpse into a day-in-the-life of alumnae working in different fields. See the lineup of alumnae tweeters at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/mtholyokeatwork.

Learn more at mtholyoke.edu/acad/lynk.

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Over the summer, all incoming first-year students read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by author Junot Díaz. Oscar, an “overweight ghetto nerd” living in the New Jersey suburbs, writes page after page of sci-fi and fantasy fiction, searches for true love, and fights the fukú, a curse that has plagued his family for generations.

Class of 2017 Common Read

In 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton founded the Women in Public Service Project (WPSP) as a joint enterprise between the State Department and the Seven Sisters Colleges—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley. The central mission of WPSP is to foster a world in which civic and political leadership is 50 percent female by 2050. Mount Holyoke has proudly supported the organization since its inception and is pleased to cohost “Reconstructing Societies in the Wake of Conflict: Transitional Justice and Economic Development,” a two-week institute that will bring together emerging women leaders working to rebuild communities after political violence.

The institute will be held next spring—from May 25 through June 6, 2014—on the campuses of Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, and will provide participants with the concrete tools and training necessary to increase the scope, efficacy, and visibility of their work. Early- and mid-career women from societies recovering from recent (within the last decade) conflict— with a preference for delegates from Asia—are invited to apply at smith.edu/wpsp.

The Mount Holyoke-Smith institute will be the third summer institute under the auspices of the WPSP. In July, an institute titled “Peacebuilding and Development” was held on the Bryn Mawr campus for delegates from postconflict countries that are now in a fragile state of peace. Among the speakers were Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor in the International Criminal Court; Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Banking; and Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office.

More information on the Mount Holyoke-Smith institute can be found at smith.edu/wpsp.

Mount Holyoke and Smith to host Women in Public Service Institute


As students arrived on campus in late August they were greeted with banners, signs, buttons, projections on the sides of buildings, T-shirts, even glowing reusable spoons (great for eating ice cream) bearing slogans that distilled the MHC experience into a few apt words:

n You don’t have to be perfect. Just prepared.n Go where no one else will go. Do what no one else will do.n They say Mary Lyon was a game-changer. She’d say, “This isn’t a game.” n Find it. Face it. Embrace it.

Students eagerly donned the T-shirts, nabbed signs for their dorm rooms, and even spontaneously chanted never fear / change, the slogan for the College’s new brand that pledges to provide students with a rigorous liberal arts education that will flex their minds while challenging them to not only embrace change, but to lead it. When asked what fears they would like to overcome or what aspects of the status quo they wanted to transform, students wrote answers on brightly colored pieces of ribbon that they then tied to the gates around Mary Lyon’s grave.

Convocation reinforced the concept with a rocking performance by Michelle Brooks-Thompson ’06, of The Voice fame, who sang “I Believe I Can Fly,” and inspiring speeches by President Pasquerella and the new dean of faculty, Sonya Stephens, among others. Stephens summed up the essence of the brand when she remarked, “May we all be challenged and changed by the ideas that we exchange with each other.”

Students Vow to Lead Change

Watch Michelle Brooks-Thompson ’06 perform atyoutube.com/ watch?v=QIwB1dt3lUA.

Students answered the questions “How do you want to challenge yourself this year?” and “What aspect of the status quo would you like to help change?” on ribbons tied around Mary Lyon’s grave.

Before the advent of the Internet, text messages, or Skype, trains helped connect America’s vastly differing regions. From whistle-stop campaigns to train-hopping to chugging through scenic landscapes, rail travel has had quite a romantic history, and now, with the help of the Millennial Trains Project (MTP), it has a promising future.

According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials (eighteen- to thirty-four-year-olds) are “confident, connected, and open to change.” The MTP brings together the enthusiastic pioneers and entrepreneurs of this generation for a two-week excursion on a vintage train. In order to climb aboard, one must first crowd-fund an individual project to be pursued during the journey. In addition to working on these projects, travelers participate in on-train seminars and workshops.

Last summer, independent recording artist and songwriter Alison Carney ’02 went

on MTP’s inaugural trip to “bring things back to basics.” Her project was called “Operation Musical Revolution,” and at each stop she not only created one new song, but also interviewed local policymakers, city builders, politicians, community members, artists, musicians, and homeless people about the connections they see between music, culture, and society. “The project morphed into an experience far beyond what I could’ve imagined,” says Carney, “and addressed how everyone from scientists to tech innovators to government organizations uses music to get their ideas to communities.”

Learn more about the Millennial Train Project at millennialtrain.co, and access Carney’s music for free at iamalisoncarney.com.


Civic hacker Jessica Klein ’02 was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change.

Jessica Klein ’02 Helps Rebuild Community through Civic HackingWhen Superstorm Sandy destroyed communities along the coastline of New York and New Jersey, Jessica Klein ’02 joined the scores of people who rushed to help first responders, family, and friends. Klein, a native of Rockaway Beach—a neighborhood in the borough of Queens—realized that more than on-the-ground assistance was needed to rebuild the community in which she grew up. An infrastructure of communication was key, and so, along with two friends, Klein cofounded RockawayHelp, an organization that uses local news and community-designed technologies to empower citizens of the affected area. Klein also organized the Rockaway Civic Hack Day, where designers, developers, and community members came together to build tools and apps for emergency preparedness and response.

In July, Klein was named a White House Champion of Change for her work not only with RockawayHelp, but also the Mozilla Open Badges project, which allows learners to earn credentials, or “badges,” for skills and expertise they can then display around the web. Champions of Change are Americans who are doing “extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” Learn more about RockawayHelp and Klein’s accomplishments at rockawayhelp.com and whitehouse.gov/championsofchange.

Revolution on the Rails

With a degree in international relations and digital media from MHC, Eyitemi Popo ’12 spends her days working for one of the foremost public relations firms in Lagos, Nigeria, and her nights coordinating the writing, art, and production of the stylish new digital magazine Ayiba, which strives to “inspire young Africans around the world to reconnect with the continent.”

Why digital instead of print? “I spent my time at Mount Holyoke taking as many Africa-related courses as I could,” Popo says. “Then, in my senior year, I began making documentaries for my digital media minor. When I graduated, I wanted to keep the storytelling aspect of my work alive, and I knew I wanted to do it in a way that integrated digital and social media. An online

magazine seemed like the perfect outlet.”

The first issue of the quarterly magazine contains articles on topics that range from the weighty—the persecution of witches and female genital mutilation—to the more lighthearted, such as recipes for Haitian-inspired corn or the profile of Maryam Garba, a hot young fashion designer. Learn more at issues.ayibamagazine.com.

Eyitemi Popo ’12 Launches Digital Magazine Ayiba

Alison Carney ’02 travels the country to find musical connection

THE MILLENNIAL TRAINS PROJECT


JEAN E. SAMMET ’48 majored in mathematics at Mount Holyoke and was a pioneer in developing and researching programming languages. She created FORMAC, the first widely used computer language for symbolic manipulation of mathematical formulas. Sammet has won numerous awards, most recently the Pioneer Award from the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Ben

Barn

hart

Jean SammetPROGRAMMING PIONEER

On being one of the very few women in a male- dominated industry:Sometimes the issue was just ignored—I was just another person. In fact, I had one boss who called a staff meeting and he started out by saying, “Gentlemen, let’s get started.” And he sorted of frowned and said, “No. Gentlemen and lady, let’s get started.” And then he said, “I don’t like that. Jean, from now on, you’re a man. So, gentlemen, let’s get started.” I thought that was funny. It didn’t bother me. I made up my mind early on that I was not going to be bothered by these things.

On quitting her job doing mathematical work involving submarines:I felt that I was not going to be able to advance because at that time women were not allowed on submarines. Although there was no need in the work I was doing to be on the submarine, somehow the fact that I knew I couldn’t get on it made me decide to take a chance on a programming offer.

On the process of becoming a programmer:It was very hard. There were no books, no manuals—I had to write the manual for the machine I was working on. Although there were a few professionals in the field at the time, I didn’t know any of them. There wasn’t anybody to talk to so I just taught myself. Sounds strange but it’s true.

On why she enjoys programming:It’s almost like a jigsaw puzzle. You’re putting together various pieces of code and you have to get everything to fit. When the program works, it’s an enormous sense of satisfaction. It’s a little bit hard to tell you why it’s so fun to do this, all I’m saying is that it is.

On what she thinks will be the technology of the future:I won’t be alive to see it, but there will be enormous advances in the use of robotics.

Watch more of the interview at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/jeansammet.

ten minutes w

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Jean Sammet returned to campus for her sixty-fifth reunion in May 2013.


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The boathouse is 1.5 miles from campus on an 8.5-acre,

College-owned parcel of environmentally preserved land.

The 4,750-square-foot, single-story, barn-style facility contains boat storage, two small bathrooms, and a warm-up/stretching area.

Crew began at Mount Holyoke in 1976 and has grown from a small club to one of the College’s largest varsity sports with approximately sixty-five rowers in the fall and forty-eight in the spring.

The College completed construction of the boathouse in April 2010. Previously, the crew program was housed next door at Brunelle’s Marina. In July, a devastating five-alarm fire destroyed the marina’s Dockside Restaurant and service center. Both are in the process of being rebuilt.

The boathouse is home to “Adaptive Rowing,” a program for the differently abled. It also provides access for the South Hadley Fire District #2 and the South Hadley Police Department.

The novice and varsity teams practice six days a week from 5:30 to 8:00 a.m. from September through October, and mid-February through early May.

The boathouse is built on a 100-year floodplain, or an area that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year. For this reason, the structure has a waterproof room that houses its electrical equipment and multiple louvers built into each side of the boathouse that allow water to flow through when raised.

The crew team owns approximately twenty boats, the largest of which cost $35,000. —B Y TAY L O R S C O T T


insid

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Inside the Mount Holyoke Community Boathouse

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17,000Number of works

of art from antiquity to the present in the permanent

collection of the MHC Art Museum

69 Number of rubber-matted horse stalls in the Mount Holyoke Equestrian Center

Total dollars awarded to recipients of Alumnae Association Fellowships in 2013

2N U M BER

OF DOR MS W I T H DU M BWA I T ER S:

SAFFORD HALL

BRIGHAM

HALL

and

448

Number of high schools from which

527 first-year students

came to MHC

1903BIRTH YEAR OF THE

oldest known living alumna, ANITA DON SCHUCK ’24

88Percentage of

graduates five years out of college who would recommend

Mount Holyoke to a high school

student

165 Pounds

of Indian dal served at

Blanchard during an average week. Dal is a preparation

of dried lentils, peas, or beans often eaten with

rice, and one of the most popular dishes at the

central dining location.

MHC by the Numbers

the maven


Finding Your Financial Confidence

THE MONEY MAVEN

Financial confidence could well be a final frontier for women, one we must broach and conquer.

Here are five steps to financial confidence, which surprisingly have nothing to do with finance-speak or how to compute rates of returns. They do, however, have a lot to do with knowing and appreciating yourself.

1. Know what you value What’s really important to you? Clarity about the answer becomes your anchor in seas of financial uncertainty or excess. When you face a financial choice, ask yourself how the choice might honor or undermine what you value. You’ll then be able to make a good financial decision.

2. Know your own valueIn this case, “value” pertains to your worth in the workplace. You may know the balance of your 401(k) or bank account down to the penny, but do you know what your human capital—the portfolio of your education, skills, and experience—is worth to an employer? Find out. Plenty of job search websites have this information. Network within your profession or go for some job interviews—even if you have a job—just to get some intelligence about what a position of a given description and responsibility is worth.

3. Speak upOnce you know your worth, ask for it. Don’t be afraid to negotiate. Your lifetime earnings

are critical to your financial success. Failing to ask for even as little as $5,000 more for a first job can cost you hundreds of thousands over a lifetime in earnings, retirement contributions, and even Social Security benefits.

4. Recognize that you don’t have to know everythingWomen are often cautious, careful learners, believing they must know everything in order to know anything. Relax: it’s impossible to know everything in a field as mutable and complicated as finance. There is even a Nobel Prize-winning theory that holds, in the case of investments and markets, that no one can be “first” or “smartest.” Therefore, it is foolish, if not expensive, to even try. In fact, it’s wise to ask lots of questions and not worry about appearing ignorant.

5. Find a good adviser who puts your interests firstAs with tip number three, spend some time on this one. Interview more than one candidate, and make sure the trust chemistry is there. Even if you’re smart about finances, getting competent advice gives you an edge of confidence in your financial decisions.

The results? Uncommon financial confidence for uncommon women. — BY ELEANOR HOTCHKISS BLAYNEY ’73

Eleanor Hotchkiss Blayney ’73 is the consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and author of Women’s Worth, a book about how women can make the most of their financial lives. Follow her on Twitter @EleanorBlayney.

Pitch us your area of expertise

at [email protected].

ARE YOU A MAVEN?

Luminarium Dance Company

PERFORMING ARTS

Luminarium Dance, the brainchild of Merli V. Guerra ’09 and Kimberleigh Allen Holman ’09, is more than a modern dance company. While Guerra and Holman use movement as the foundation for performances, they incorporate a variety of disciplines—film, lighting, music, and projection, among others—to create a singular artistic experience.

Yet, it’s not the performances themselves that set Luminarium apart from more traditional dance companies; out-of-the-box thinking applies to the way in which they create and produce shows as well. In August, Luminarium hosted its second annual 24-Hour Choreofest, in which six dance companies pick a random theme, create new choreography overnight, and perform it the next day.

Hailed as a “a true interdisciplinary gem” by the Somerville News, Luminarium has made quite a name for itself in the Boston performing arts scene, and was recently profiled as an “Unsung Hero” of the stage by the Improper Bostonian. In October, it was also honored with an invitation to perform at the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall as part of the center’s professional season. Visit luminariumdance.org for upcoming event information. —B Y TAY L O R S C O T T

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Cofounded by Merli V. Guerra ’09 and Kimberleigh Allen Holman ’09, Luminarium Dance Company is now in its third season.


Merli V. Guerra ’09 (top) and Kimberleigh Allen Holman ’09 (below)

“”

A true

interdisciplinary

gem.

Email your submission to

us at [email protected].

ARE YOU AN ARTIST?

Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly ||| F A L L 2 0 1 3

Marion Kalter ’72PHOTOGRAPHY

Born in Salzburg, raised in France, and educated in the United States and Italy, Marion Kalter ’72 began her career photographing powerful women in the arts and culture—Susan Sontag, Anaïs Nin, and Margaret Mead, to name a few. Yet, over the years, Kalter drew on her musical upbringing as inspiration and began specializing in photographs of legendary composers,

conductors, musicians, and singers. Well-known French composer and pianist Pierre Boulez describes Kalter’s work as rich and revealing, stating, “To browse thru [sic] the album of Marion Kalter is much more than to look at portraits…it is to enter in deep contact with the impenetrable world of music and musicians.” Visit marionkalter.com to view more of her work.

Artists and Thinkers Photographed by Marion KalterRoland Barthes Leonard BernsteinJohn CageJacques DerridaBo DiddleyPlacido DomingoDizzy GillespieYo Yo MaAnaïs NinLuciano PavarottiItzakh PerlmanYves Saint LaurentRavi ShankarSusan SontagAndy Warhol

Global Migration: Challenges in the Twenty-First Century Edited by Kavita R. Khory PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

While money, goods, and services easily cross international borders, human migration is subject to strong resistance. In this collection of essays based on the March 2010 McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives conference on the topic, distinguished scholars examine forced and voluntary migrations and how they intersect with global politics that span economic, environmental, human rights, and security issues.

Kavita R. Khory ’84 is a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke and has written on topics covering South Asian politics, foreign policy, and diaspora politics.

A Cornish AffairLiz FenwickORION Following her best-selling debut novel, The Cornish House, Liz Fenwick’s A Cornish Affair follows Jude Warren after she bolts from the church on her wedding day. Embarrassed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a cliff-top mansion in Cornwall. There, she takes on the job of cataloging the Trevillion family’s expansive library. During her work, she uncovers a family riddle that stems from a centuries-old tragedy and hints at lost treasure.

Liz Murphy Fenwick ’85 was born in Massachusetts and now lives in Dubai. This is her second novel.

How They Spend Their Sundays Courtney McDermottWHITEPOINT PRESS Set in Lesotho and South Africa, Courtney McDermott’s collection of short stories unveils an intimate and often surprising view of African life. The subject matter ranges from the stark reality of racism to the magical world of an undead garbageman; most of the tales take place on a Sunday.

Courtney E. McDermott ’05 earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame. This is her first book.

15

Anaïs Nin, 1975 Susan Sontag, 1979


CHALLENGING THE STAT U S QUO—facing, embracing, and leading

change—is in our collective DNA at Mount Holyoke, where women were

learning to devise their own destinies nearly a century before they even

had the right to vote.

Since the College’s founding, each generation of faculty, alumnae, and

students has made its mark, fearlessly working to create a world where

everyone has the opportunity to thrive. The kind of world Mary Lyon

envisioned.

Professor Audrey St. John is among our faculty’s gamechangers, inspiring

young women to break into the male-dominated field of computer science

and discover its limitless possibilities to transform every aspect of life.

NASA space scientist Jennifer Rochlis Zumbado ’94 has made a career

of pushing beyond her comfort zone and is opening new frontiers for the

rest of us. Student Raquel Silva ’14 of Brazil is a global force for social

activism and women’s rights.

These three revel in responsibility, are passionate about their commitments,

and are creative in how they get the job done. They—like so many of us who

change the world in ways big and small—exemplify the Mount Holyoke ideal.

Embracing ChangeMount Holyoke women lead in ways big and small

W R I T T E N B Y K I M A S C H

P H O T O G R A P H S B Y J O H N D O L A N

BY K I M A S C H P H O T O G RA P H S BY J O H N D O L A N

This is going to be hard, but it’ll be worth it.”

“

PROFESSOR AUDREY ST. JOHN


AUDR EY ST. J OHN used to share the same misconceptions about computer science that deter many young women from pursuing the major: It was too hard, nerdy, and isolating. When she overcame her hang-ups about programming, she discovered the truth about the limitless possibilities for computer science to transform every field, from entertain-ment to healthcare to economics.

Now Audrey, as her devoted students universally refer to the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science, is on a mission to empower Mount Holyoke students with the technical know-how—and confidence—to change the world.

The professor has found increasingly creative ways to attract students by making computer science more accessible to creative women who don’t fit the stereotype: less geek and more chic. Students in her first-year seminar called iDesign Studio explore and design wearable electronics. She is the advisor to the annual GameJam, which brings together students from the Five Colleges

with a local video game developer to produce original games. Her IHart (Interactive Hallways for attraction and retention to technology) project has resulted in such innovations as a playable piano poster, complete with audio. And then there’s the 3D printer she and students built.

Once captivated, students learn that writing code is not that difficult, St. John says. Of course, as the majors move on to higher-level courses and research projects, the challenges increase, and so do St. John’s expectations. “This is going to be hard, but it’ll be worth it,” she assures her students when assigning them a new set of problems or insisting they join her as copresenters at an academic conference. They never disappoint her. “Mount Holyoke students seem to trust that the things I’m forcing them to do may be uncomfortable but will help them achieve their long-term goals,” she says. “The only thing I have to be concerned about is letting them overwork themselves.”

Milka Doktorova ’10, who is in a tri-institutional PhD program in computational biology and medicine shared among Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, credits St. John with much of her current success. “She was a perfectionist and taught me how to think critically, pay attention to details, and do good work. She was very supportive and at the same time, kept pushing me forward.”

In the rapidly evolving field of computer science, St. John knows she can’t teach her students everything before they graduate—except for this: “I want my students to have the confidence, when they confront new material, to say, ‘I don’t know it, but I can learn it.’”

Mission Most PossibleThe year was 1983, and ten-year-old JENNIFER ROCHLIS ZUMBADO ’94 saw something on the television screen that seemed to broadcast her future: Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

Zumbado set her sights on the stars, and, having earned a PhD in aeronautics from MIT, her career has skyrocketed at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her work on a robot astronaut, the next generation of lunar and Martian rovers, and other telerobotics projects earned her a Director’s Innovation Award from the center. Her expertise in how humans function in space led to her current dual leadership positions as both the manager for NASA’s Human Research Program space human factors and habitability element and NASA’s Human Health and Performance Division lead for SpaceX in the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX is a private company competing against two other corporations, all under NASA’s aegis, to relaunch America’s human spaceflight activities.

“I’ve always been one to take opportunities when they come and not be afraid to stick my neck out,” says Zumbado, who has also persistently pursued her goal of going to space since she was in grad school. In 2004, she

I’ve always been one to take opportunities when they come and not be afraid to stick my neck out.”

“

JENNIFER ROCHLIS ZUMBADO ’94

Fearlessness Can Be Taught

RAQUEL SILVA ’14

I’ve never been afraid of asking questions.”

“


came very close as one of only twelve female finalists out of 3,000 seriously considered for the position of mission specialist for NASA’s 2004 astronaut class. In 2010, at age thirty-seven, she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Despite reassurance from her friend Wendy Woodward ’93, a radiation oncologist in Houston, that she would be okay, Zumbado recalls, “I was inconsolable.” She thought she would be disqualified from the following round of astronaut applications. But the next time, she was among 100 people interviewed out of 6,100 applicants.

In the end, it wasn’t her two surgeries and radiation treatment that kept her from making the final cut, but her lack of actual mission operations experience. “I was very much at peace with that decision because I’d done everything I could,” she says, adding that she still plans to pursue an opportunity to venture beyond planet Earth one day.

Zumbado’s commitment to mentoring young people seems as limitless as her talent and ambition. “Fail early and fail often,” she often tells students. “You learn from your mistakes; you learn how to get better.” She says her personal life motto is “The answer is always ‘no’ if you don’t ask” and adds, “My professors at Mount Holyoke would confirm this.”

When visiting schools to give talks and workshops, she makes a point never to wear the standard khakis and NASA polo, opting instead for business attire. “Stereotypes start early,” she explains, laughing about how kids always seem surprised to see a rocket scientist who wears makeup and stylishly long straight hair.

One particular presentation at an elementary school stays with her. The students treated her like a rock star, cheering and clamoring for her autograph. One eight-year-old girl gingerly approached her and confided, “I love robots, but I could never be as smart as you.” Zumbado leaned down, looked deeply into her eyes, and said, “I don’t know where you get your messages from, but I’m telling you, if you stay focused and work hard, you can do anything you want.”

Global Force for GoodRAQUEL SILVA ’14 was the first in her family to leave the country when she took off for Mount Holyoke, far from her home in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Both her parents died when she was a toddler, but she and her sister were lovingly raised by their maternal grandmother and three aunts to pursue their education, wherever it may take them. “They made us understand that we were lucky, even though this unfortunate thing had happened, because we had a family and a home and food, and lots of people didn’t have that,” she says.

In her hometown, Silva mentored younger children, spearheaded a recycling effort, and cheered up pediatric patients enduring stays in the hospital, learning that “even when you’re young and don’t have much, you still have so much to give.”

Since arriving at Mount Holyoke, she has metamorphosed into a strong advocate for women’s rights and social change who has traveled far beyond even her highest expectations. Silva—who is fluent in English and her native Portuguese and also speaks French—has traveled to England, France, and Switzerland. She spent most of this past July and August in Accra, Ghana, on an internship with the African Women’s Development Fund.

As a member of the British Council Global Changemakers Program, she made a presentation about the React and Change Youth for Empowerment Forum at the 2011 World Economic Forum annual meeting. She was Brazil’s delegate to the 2011 G(irls)20 Summit and was selected by the US State Department to personally introduce First Lady Michelle Obama when she visited her country.

“Public speaking always makes me nervous,” confides Silva, although she even gave a TEDx talk last year. She’s learned to push through her

fear, relying on strong preparation and practice sessions with an array of helpful professionals, including White House staff. “In these situations I have been fortunate to be surrounded by women, and that helps because women have that instant connection,” she adds.

Opportunities afforded her through Mount Holyoke, such as the summer internship in Ghana, have forced Silva to navigate new, often intimidating terrain. “I’ve never been afraid of asking questions,” she says, explaining her ability to adapt. At this point, Silva’s biggest fear is not living up to her own ambitions. That seems unlikely, given her determination and drive. “I want to do everything, and hug the world, and accomplish so much,” she affirms. “I have to remind myself to find a good balance and spend my time wisely.”

Watch the video at mtholyoke.edu/neverfearchange.

#neverfearchange Are you a changemaker? Do you know another MHC alumna who is? Of course you do! Let us know at [email protected].


175 YEARS OF MOUNT HOLYOKE WOMEN

BEHAVING BADLY

Except for defying the honor code or committing an actual crime,

Mount Holyoke women are free to behave pretty much as they choose these

days. But that wasn’t always the case; rules ruled in Mary Lyon’s Seminary.

And through the decades since, students have challenged—and sometimes

flouted—the constraints of their day. With help from the MHC staff at Archives

and Special Collections, and from Donna J. Albino ’83, we’re showcasing

some of Mount Holyoke’s most memorable pranks.

BY EMILY HARRISON WEIR


In the 1840s, Mary Lyon sent some of her students to the circus because she wanted them “to see the elephant and other rare specimens of animated nature,” but instructed them not to stay for the performance. Of course they stayed—with one senior even accepting an invitation from the stage to ride on the show elephant! Back on campus, juniors whispered in amazement—“How dare a senior set such an example?”—and expected suspension or expulsion to follow. But the audacious senior “never met with the slightest reproof” because, Amelia Stearns (1847) wrote, “Miss Lyon, wise as Solomon, knew when to keep silence and when to speak.”

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“At 3¾, I go to Section, where we give all our

accounts for the day, including Absence-Tardiness-

Communication-Breaking Silent Study hours-

Receiving Company in our rooms and ten

thousand other things… Unless we have a good

and reasonable excuse…they are recorded and a

black mark stands against our names.”

EMILY DICKINSON, class of 1849, in her journal

SECTION

Emily Dickinson

“”

AFTER HOURSAfter hours I climbed a ladder in

the dean’s office to a trap door in

the ceiling, then two more trap

doors to the six-foot clock face

with four bulbs that I covered

with red cellophane so the clock

shone red. It caused quite a stir.

FRANCES “FREDDIE” CHAMBERLIN CARTER ’46


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Seminary student Mary A. Reed wrote to her sister, in 1850: “There was quite an excitement here last week. Two young ladies (Miss Thorp and Miss Ruman) who room in the basement were found guilty of quite a crime. Miss Scott and Miss Allen missed from the bread-room at different times, cake and pies. At length some inquiry was made, but nothing could be ascertained concerning the matter… One day Miss Scott went in and said something about it to [Miss Ruman], but she denied it. She then went to her drawers and she found a loaf of cake. She made further search and found fifty pieces of cake. Miss Ruman then told her that she and Miss Thorp had taken at different times 39 pies, besides other food. Just think of it! I don’t know what Miss Whitman will do about it. She sent for them to come to her room and had a private interview. They appeared to feel dreadfully.”

Or maybe just sleep with the door closed? Mount

Holyoke Seminary students had no shortage of rules

to break between their waking hours of 4:45 a.m. and

9:15 p.m. Serious infractions such as “absence from

school exercise or church” and “tardiness to table”

were recorded on one’s permanent record and

announced at special weekly meetings of the entire

student body. A sampling of other transgressions:

• Spending time with others when it is not time for entering rooms

• Throwing things from the window

• Setting or lying upon the quilts

• Rising before the rising bell

• Lamps burning after retiring

• Calling at the rooms of those not able to go to the table

• Sleeping with door closed

• Taking tea without permission

• Riding without permission

• Speaking above a whisper in the wash room

Name

Date

Offence

Penalty

Clark, Helen

Nov. 13, 1927

Drove back from Amherst with men

friends, as they had missed the

car.

One week’s campusing, Nov

. 14 - 21

Judicial Board

M.H.R.


Form 301.4-33-5C

Annette,

week of Feb 12

Winfres Eausacc.

“

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Even the formidable figure of President Mary E. Woolley didn’t faze 1920s students testing society’s tentative acceptance of female smokers. When she decreed that anyone caught smoking would no longer be welcome at Mount Holyoke, students responded with “rather bored disgust…and they shrugged and went back in force to breaking the rules,” according to Girls Gone Wild, a master’s degree thesis by Adrienne Pruitt that focused on female undergrads’ rebellious behavior. By 1930, about one-third of students smoked on campus, and “tobacco plants…were thriving all around Mary Lyon’s tombstone,” Pruitt wrote.

NOT GOIN’ TO THE CHAPELAnnette Mowatt Ransom ’36 wrote, “An attempt has been made to

abolish required chapel as only about one-quarter of the college really

goes…[But] we still have chapel, one of the nuisances of my college

life.” She was fined for missing chapel, as well as for not attending

class meetings, putting an incorrect date on her registration forms,

and “damaging college property” with a thumbtack.

WHILE YOU WERE OUT A small group of us felt life in our

dorm was too staid and dull… We

crumpled each sheet of [news]paper

and tossed them into her room.

The room was filled to the ceiling.

We watched for her return and

reaction: disbelief. Then we went to

work again and helped clean up the

mess we created.

BARBARA “B OBBIE” VAUGHAN PARSHLEY ’53 on collecting newspapers for months to fill the room of an out-of-town classmate

”

Mount Holyoke College Community

Dear

The Judicial Board wishes to call your attention to

the fact that you have not attended Chapel the required

number of times during the past

Yours,

““

”


”

MH

C A

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and

Spec

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olle

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ns

BARING ALL

SMASHING PUMPKINSIt was so sad when that mostly rotten pumpkin ‘fell’

off the fire escape at Brigham and splattered all over

the feet of then-Dean of Students Renate Wilkins.

LISA POPIK COLL ’86

[We made] a mad dash over the fence for a bit of naked

dancing on our founder’s grave.

MARGARET STARK ’85, on a ritual with classmates

Sombrero, “First Cat” to then-President Elizabeth Topham Kennan ’60, was catnapped and held for ransom in Brigham Hall for several days by Betsy Shepard Reed ’94 until a deal could be brokered. “Our fee was a batch of Rice Krispie treats for M & Cs,” Reed says, adding that Marissa Ortiz-Mena ’95 lured the pet away from home and enlisted Reed as her accomplice. “Our ransom note was made of letters cut out from the newspaper and magazines. Our reply from the president’s office was painstakingly done the same way—which was both funny and a big relief, as I wasn’t sure until then if we’d be in trouble,” recalls Reed. “At one stage, I started feeling awful about keeping Sombrero incarcerated, so we decided to take him for a walk. We tied a string to his collar, and took him out the back door of Brigham, only to have to rush our entourage back indoors, as President Kennan was walking across Skinner Green.”

Frances Lester Warner’s 1937 book On a New England Campus related that new students were expected to wriggle through a model of a huge tortoise in Williston Hall whose shell “made a tunnel large enough so that a limber freshman could on a pinch wriggle through it, but not with ease.” Warner recalls emerging from the shell, head thrust out the turtle’s neck, to find herself face to face with a professor. “What does conventionality do, I asked myself, when an admired professor finds one acting as the head of a prehistoric turtle? Does one bow? Or speak? Or pull in!”

Rite of Passage


BLUE LAWS OF MT. HOLYOKE SEMINARY

No– 1

No young lady shall become a member of Mt. Holyoke Seminary who cannot kindle a fire, wash potatoes, repeat two thirds of the shorter catechism and the multiplication table.

No– 2

Every candidate for admission to the school must come provided with one pair of rubber boots, one pair of cowhide ditto, one copy of Podds Student’s Manual, one of Conners subdued hoops, and a clothes line.

N.B. No cosmetics, perfumery or fancy scarves will be permitted on the premises.

No– 3

Every member of this school shall walk at least two miles a day, unless an earthquake, freshet, or other calamity should prevent. The bounds are marked by stakes on the north and also on the east and west, and any young lady who shall wilfully go by said bounds shall as a penalty scrub floors and wash dishes for two weeks.

No– 4

No member of this school shall devote more than one hour a week to miscellaneous reading. The Atlantic Monthly, Shakespeare, Scott’s novels, Robinson Crusoe, Washington’s Fare-well Address, Boston Recorder, Missionary Herald, and Doddridge’s Rise and Progress are earnestly recommended for light reading.

No– 5

No young lady connected with this school shall adorn herself with any feathers, flowers, or other vanities, and no colors of an excessively gay nature shall be tolerated unless it be a composed yellow or subdued mouse or punitive gray.

No– 6

No member of the school shall write on any but the following subjects: Friendship, Hope, Flowers, the Beauties of Nation, and Benevolence.

N.B. Those intending to be old maids can add Love.

No– 7

Every member of this school shall rise at three and retire at eight o’clock. Any infringement of this rule will receive the penalty of additional labor in the laundry.

Students often wrote parodies of rules they considered ridiculous. One, written by Amherst men, included this bogus regulation: “No member of the school shall spend more than three consecutive minutes before the mirror.” In 1862, the phony rules were published as genuine in the Holyoke Transcript Telegram.

Dee Drummey Boling ’88 and “partners in crime” thought it no small feat to remove everything from the South Rockefeller Hall room occupied by Amy Faut ’87 and reposition it on Skinner Green. After stashing small stuff in their rooms, the conspirators carried the big pieces of furniture, one by one, down three flights of stairs to the Green, where they restaged the room exactly as it had appeared in Faut’s dorm. “There was literally nothing left in the dorm room except a stuffed bear and an eviction notice,” Boling recalls.

The mischief continuesView images from the archives at

alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/mischief.

EVICTION

ORDER

https://www.facebook.com/Dee.Nola

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Uncommon women in business thrive against all odds









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plans to host a tech camp with the State Department in 2014.

“Entrepreneurship is a great place to turn when the economy is down or you’re facing hard times,” says Calvin. “Some of our largest corporations and most successful businesses were started in hard times. Be smart, plan, bootstrap, and use every resource available to you.”

Only partly in jest, Calvin says, “all those businesses that old white men are running are going out of style.”

Organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council are focused on helping female businesses grow. Marilyn Carlson Nelson, former chair of the council, says, “Women entrepreneurs are longing for mentorship.” In that regard, MHC women are lucky. As more alumnae start their own ventures and the strength of the alumnae network becomes increasingly viral, so too does the potential for networking.

The Serial EntrepreneurMaria Cirino ’85, who has launched and grown a string of successful ventures since she started selling candy as a Mount Holyoke student during campus movie showings, says entrepreneurship is “in my blood.” Cirino is managing director of Boston-based .406 Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital firm she cofounded that has $340 million under management.

“We were fortunate to have raised our first venture capital fund just prior to the economic crash in 2008,” says Cirino. “If our timing was a year or two later, I doubt we’d be here right now. Given that we had a full fund to invest, we were actually oddly advantaged by the downturn because there were suddenly fewer funds chasing deals. Therefore, we were able to invest in great companies at lower initial valuations and had less competition for the top deals.”

A 2012 STUDY by Ernst & Young found that businesses owned by men are three-and-a-half times as likely to reach $1 million in annual revenues as are businesses owned by women. Why the gap? The study cites factors such as lack of access to capital and influential networks. The message for would-be women entrepreneurs couldn’t be clearer. Women need to leverage their networks—including other women—to help them build successful business ventures and sustain them.

Kelley “Kat” Tompkins Calvin ’05 opted to start an entrepreneurial career in 2011. Based in Washington, DC, she has developed a series of nonprofits and a start-up venture (katcalvin.com and blerdology.co). Much of her work is focused on entrepreneurs, women, and the black community, encouraging their career advancement and skill development. One of her ventures, Blerdology, organizes technology “hackathons” for black developers and designers to build web and mobile apps for start-ups and nonprofits. Other initiatives support, engage, and grow the black science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community.

Calvin acknowledges the barriers in access to capital, but believes they “won’t stop women and minorities from being successful.” Rather than seeking access to traditional capital, she sees “a whole untapped community and untapped market.” She used her own funds to finance her ventures initially. Now she makes money through donations, fundraising, sponsorships, and merchandise sales.

Calvin’s success has landed her on Business Insider’s Top 30 Women Under 30 in Tech list, as well as The Grio 100 that profiles successful African Americans. This past summer, Blerdology ran a multicity tour for an event called Blerds Night Out, and has

Maria Cirino ’85

Kat Tompkins Calvin ’05


edu/entrepreneurs for more.Alumnae entrepreneurs often

credit Mount Holyoke with giving them a sound foundation for their success. Regardless of academic major—English, theatre, math, economics, art, religion, African American studies, and biochemistry departments are among those that have spawned entrepreneurs—there is widespread recognition among alumnae entrepreneurs of the value of a liberal arts education and the connection to other MHC women.

Donna Williams ’84, a former investment banker who now runs a subscription food delivery service in upstate New York, says her MHC education helps her “look at things from a more strategic point of view.” Susan Detering ’99, the owner of a neighborhood bakery in Madison, Wisconsin, adds, “I am constantly amazed every day at what I learned at Mount Holyoke” and points to an ability to think, solve problems, write, and communicate directly and effectively. According to Detering, Mount Holyoke gives its graduates the opportunity to apply the skills learned on campus to her career. If every alumna could do that, she says, “we’d take over the world.”

Tap into your networkConnect via the Mount Holyoke Network of Alumnae Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn at alumn.ae/linkedinentrepreneurs.

Margaret Clayton ’97, Palladia Farm

The recession was but one of a series of challenges she has faced as an entrepreneur, including burst tech bubbles, losing an employee in the 9/11 attacks, and losing several others in the Rhode Island nightclub fire of 2003. Her role, she says, is to “lead people through the darkest days and to celebrate the greatest accomplishments.” An important test of an entrepreneur, she adds, is “how you react when things don’t go according to plan.”

Cirino admits she is also fueled by the adrenaline rush of new challenges and growth. Noting that she has changed ventures every four to five years “like clockwork,” Cirino thrives on learning new things. Equating the experience to learning a language or throwing herself into the deep end of a pool, she says with each start-up venture, she will “go through that 100 days of terror again.” She has clearly been successful. Her accolades include being named Massachusetts CEO of the Year and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Educating for EntrepreneurshipSome MHC alumnae have become entrepreneurs after retiring from other professions—Kathleen T. Jewell ’74, a physician-turned-bookstore owner in Wilmington, North Carolina, for instance—while others have turned hobbies into jobs, such as Margaret A. Clayton ’97, owner of a riding stable and horse farm in Gurnee, Illinois. Those with a more creative bent are running everything from interior design companies to Asian-arts appraisal and brokerage firms. Students have continued the entrepreneurial trend. Read “Student Entrepreneurs Turn Brainstorms into Businesses” at alumnae.mtholyoke.

Donna Williams ’84

“I was an execu-chick in New York City,” says Donna Williams ’84, sounding as if it was a lifetime ago. After her stint at an investment bank and equipped with an MBA from Columbia, Williams held a string of senior executive positions in the corporate world before she was laid off in 2009 as a result of what she refers to as “the financial meltdown.”

Today she runs Field Goods, which delivers fresh fruits and vegetables to people at their workplaces and other community locations. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” Williams says.

Vijaya Pastala ’89 worked for global institutions including the World Bank and European Commission before starting Under the Mango Tree—ventures including a

nonprofit that trains farmers and beekeepers in India, and a for-profit company that creates fair-trade and sustainable market access from Indian farmers to consumers.

Pastala says India was less severely impacted than other countries by the

recession. As the Indian economy has expanded in recent years, her businesses have also benefited from an increase in consumption of what she calls “gourmet-organic food,” a segment growing at about 30 percent annually in India.

Williams also knows about dealing with the unexpected. When Hurricane Irene hit the Northeast a couple of years ago, her food-delivery business was impacted when the building where it runs its operations flooded, ruining packaging. “You gotta get scrappy” in such situations, she says. After Irene and a couple of difficult farming years—hail, drought, and rain have affected her food suppliers— she says she has “a whole new appreciation for the weather.”

Williams recounts the “sheer exhaustion” of doing every job in her own business and constantly being on call. Being an entrepreneur is “more fulfilling [than being an employee], but it’s also exhausting,” she says.

Recession Comfort Food

30% Percentage of

US companies owned by women

Source: National Women’s Business Council

2 Approximate number

of businesses worldwide started

by women for every one started

by a manSource: Ernst & Young

Women in Business55%

Percentage of entrepreneurs in Ghana who are

women—more than in any other economy

Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

11% Percentage of

receipts captured by US women-owned

businessSource: National Women’s

Business Council

Vijaya Pastala ’89

83 millionNumber of women worldwide running

established businesses they had started more than

3.5 years agoSource: Global

Entrepreneurship Monitor

$1.2 trillion

Revenue generated by US women-owned companies

Source: National Women’s Business Council

104 million

Number of women actively engaged in starting and running new business ventures, worldwide

Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

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MoHome MemoriesO N D I S PL AY | TH E N AN D N OW

“When you play music, your first obligation is that you can’t be lame,” confesses professor of history Daniel Czitrom. On opening night of the 1984 faculty show, Czitrom and his band-mates were anything but. The show consisted of various professors acting in a series of skits that parodied works from Shakespeare to Hawthorne. No one expected the familiar bass line of the 1950s hit “Pretty Woman” to sud-denly echo through the hall. Cheers and screams rang out as the lights flashed and seven faculty members stood on stage with electric guitars, keyboards, and drums.

“The Faculty Band,” as they were known, included Steve Berrien (English), Lee Bowie (philosophy), Vincent Ferraro (politics), Douglas Amy (politics), Jonathan Lipman (Asian studies and history), Robert Schwartz (history), and Daniel Czitrom (history). With each song, the young professors pulled out stunt after stunt—

and the students couldn’t get enough. During their rendition of Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” front-man Czitrom, clad in a white suit and sunglasses, went down to his knees while fiercely playing the guitar. After a choreographed rendi-tion of “In the Still of the Night,” the audience began chanting Ferraro’s name. One last “Yo, Vinnie!” provoked him. Like any good rock star, Ferraro gave the crowd what they wanted and bared his naked chest. Uproar ensued.

By the second night’s performance, word had spread on campus, and the auditorium was packed. Mid-set, a group of disguised young women sprinted to the stage and threw various pieces of undergarments at the feet of the new legends. “Seeing people running down the aisles with paper bags on their heads,” recalls Amy, “we just were wondering, ‘What is this?’” The bra-throwing groupies were never publicly identified, but the faculty show of ’84 went down as one of the most (in)famous productions in MHC history. —B Y TAY L O R S C O T T

Birth of the CoolHow seven young professors became rock stars for a night (or two)

When you

play music,

your first

obligation is

that you

can’t be lame.

“”Professor

Daniel Czitrom

Watch the video at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/ facultyband.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Robert Schwartz, Lee Bowie, Daniel Czitrom, Doug Amy


on displayMoHome Memories

hen Carolyn Chesebrough Foster ’58 moved to her husband’s childhood home in Friendship, Maine, she discovered an extraordinary relic hanging in one of the closets—a formal, Titanic-era, silk gown. Edged with ermine (short-tailed weasel) fur and veiled by intricate netting and small pearls, the dress was found underneath a quilted robe. In the pocket of the robe, Foster found a note with her mother-in-law’s name—Katharine Condon Foster (class of 1914)—scrawled on it.

Foster brought the dress to campus when she returned last May to attend her fifty-fifth reunion. It joins the Katharine Eleanor Condon Foster Papers, which include letters written to Katharine Foster’s aunt, uncle, and parents. They describe faculty members, the end of the domestic work system, and events such as an ice carnival, Mountain Day, and the Freshman Frolic.

A Dressed-Up AffairTitanic-era gown of Katharine Condon Foster, class of 1914

ARTIFACT

“This dresswould have been very expensive for the time,” says Elaine Bergeron, lecturer and costumer for Rooke Theater. “It would have been worn for an afternoon tea or party.”

Birth of the CoolHow seven young professors became rock stars for a night (or two)

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’13


Move-In Day

2013The class of

2017 arrives on campus for Orientation.

A first-year welcoming committee of rising juniors,

also known as the “sister class,” dressed in white and greeted students, helping

them get settled.

Students were instructed to send their trunks ahead of

time via railway, but also to pack suitcases

with necessities in case the trunks didn’t arrive

by move-in day.

The Wonder Box, a student-run used furniture

store in the basement of Blanchard Hall, was open

for the first few weeks of school. Enterprising

students could purchase chairs,

rugs, lamps, and more to fill their dorm rooms.

Radios, record players, and electric clocks were

the only electric appliances allowed in dorm rooms.

Orientation leaders— upperclass students

selected to assist incoming students—welcome first-years.

International students and those who live a great

distance from Mount Holyoke can mail large

packages filled with their belongings, but most

students arrive in tightly packed cars.

Students venture off-campus to purchase

dorm-room goods, descending on the

Holyoke Mall or the large retail stores of Hadley.

Only heat-generating electronics (space

heaters, toasters, electric blankets) are prohibited from dorms. Students

arrive with radios, small refrigerators, televisions, DVD players, computers,

fans, and much more.

1955Incoming

first-years were greeted by

rising juniors in 1955.

then

and

now

See more photos of move-in day through the years at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/moveinday.

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The board of the Mount Holyoke Club of Northern California (NorCal) has been hand-painting tote bags in exchange for donations in an effort to help special- education teacher Caitlin Healey ’09 stock her classroom. Healey works at the Oakland Unified School District and pays out of pocket for classroom supplies and books. “Instead of just donating funds from collected dues,” says Young Alum-nae Representative Emily Myer ’09, “we decided to create an opportunity for other alums to help and to spread MHC love.”

MHC Tote Bags Help Fill a Special Ed Classroom

When Lily Klebanoff Blake ’64 attended the Alumnae and Student Career Network-ing Fair on the Mount Holyoke campus last March, she spoke to students interested in finance and business about the Financial Women’s Association Wall Street Exchange Program, which provides an exciting op-portunity for participants to enhance job search skills while learning to think strate-gically about career choices. Nan Zhu ’14, Pia Matthes ’14, and Xiaoxu “Carol” Wang ’14 joined the program while interning on Wall Street over the summer and reunited with Blake at the closing reception, held at the New York Stock Exchange.

Lily Klebanoff Blake ’64 Connects with Students on Wall Street

We invite you to continue your lifelong journey of learning in

the company of sister alumnae by joining one or more of the travel opportunities available this year.

Visit alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/travel.

U PCO M I N G D E STI NATI O N S

Burma January 20–February 1, 2014

Cuba April 6–14, 2014

Cruise from Scotland to Denmark President Lynn Pasquerella ’80

will be joining this trip. June 13–21, 2014

Musical Cruise on the Danube September 13–25, 2014

Coastal Iberia October 3–11, 2014

Travel Abroad with Sister Alumnae


ConnectionsCL A SS AN D CLU B I N FO J U ST KE YSTRO KE S AWAY

Class and club contacts are available online at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/classes or alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/clubs.

Pizza, mingling, and Mount Holyoke took center stage at the retro-inspired Kings Bowling in downtown Boston last May. Approximately forty alumnae and their families gathered with ten newly accepted students to answer questions, exchange experiences, and, of course, celebrate! The prospective students walked away with more than just sage advice and a sense of the “uncommon woman”; they were also given plastic pails (perfect shower caddies) filled with chocolate, bubbles, and MHC bumper stickers and pens.

Boston Bowls

Leis

e Jo

nes

Smyr

l ’01

S U P P O R T the

Founder’s Fund

Your gift to the F O U N DE R ’ S F U N D

at the Alumnae Association

H E L P S U S S U P P O R T the activities of

alumnae around the world.

V I S I T

alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/ff


a p

lace

of o

ur o

wn

I remember fondly the crunching sound

of the leaves, apple cider at Atkins Farm, and

the brilliant light against the deep blue sky.

—MARTHA (TITA) GOTTFRIED DE HERRERA ’75

”“

Ben

Barn

hart


Saying No (or Not Now) to Marriage

atching the sun set over the Baltic Sea is breathtak-ing. The calm water mirrors the sun’s pastel tones. The Swedish fishing village winds behind us, houses peppering the landscape. I hear my name and turn to see my then-boyfriend kneeling in front of me, holding a little square box. A three-stone engagement ring. Past. Present. Future. My heart palpitates and my palms sweat. I say Yes. Four months later, I say No.

I am not alone in my reluctance to marry. The Pew Research Center found that only 9 percent of those ages eighteen to twenty-four were married in 2010. Fifty years earlier, the figure was 40 percent.

My generation is delaying marriage or rejecting it outright for a variety of individual reasons, includ-ing putting career first, paying off debts before cou-pling up, and dissatisfaction with consumer-centric wedding culture. But I believe there is also a greater underlying issue—the false expectations raised by a rose-colored world of engagement-ring commercials

and romantic fiction and films. Are we unable to commit to a real person if our own love plot doesn’t match those in Pretty Woman or The Notebook?

This age of instant gratification also contributes to the reluctance to commit. The message of online dating websites is that there is someone out there for everyone. With millions of potential Prince/Princess Charmings, there is plenty of opportunity to look around before we settle down. This also leads to the expectation of finding one perfect person. The key word here is perfect: this person will know every-thing about us intuitively and be our intellectual, social, and sexual equal.

I also notice that most romantic films end at the marriage ceremony or shortly thereafter. There is no acknowledgment of the hard work a successful mar-riage takes. My parents’ thirty-year relationship is built on the pillars of all things good about matrimo-ny, but it isn’t always a fairy tale. Many of my MHC friends who come from divorced households find it even harder to believe that marriage is a blissful institution. Perhaps we are all just in it for the fun part—the chase. In an age where we don’t need to be married, is there a point to marriage?

While a number of us have no interest in marriage, it is remarkable how very important it still is to many people. At twenty-eight, I’m starting to feel the push. My Facebook newsfeed clutters with announcements of proposals, weddings, and pregnancies. I go to bars and realize I’m in the upper third of the age bracket. Coworkers, family members, and even a few friends don’t know what to talk to me about anymore. I don’t fit into a bracket. Tricky.

Four months later I said No. Why? I can say now that it was because I wanted more of my life. I wanted to travel, find my own apartment, and look for jobs with-out needing to consider another person. I wanted to have more love affairs, have my heart broken. I wanted to know what it was like to resoundingly stand on my own two feet. In short, I wanted to belong to myself and pen my own story. Perhaps this is why we wait.

ESSAY

By CAME RO N J. STEE SE ’07

wPitch your topic to us

at [email protected].

HAVE AN OPINION TO

SHARE?

In an age

where we don’t

need to be

married, is

there a point

to marriage?

“”alumnae.mtholyoke.edu80

my

voic

e

Thingschange.

The modern world of Mount Holyoke probably would have amazed Mary Lyon. But we can’t help think how proud she’d be, too—of our fearless students. Trailblazing faculty. And forward-thinking alumnae.

With your help, Mount Holyoke will always be at the forefront of meaningful change. Please make your gift to The Mount Holyoke Fund today.

Mount Holyoke women look forward and give back.

www.mtholyoke.edu/go/ mhcgive

Jennifer M. Gomez ’05First-generation college student. Learned English as a second language. Graduate of MHC and Berkeley Law. Empire State Fellow.

Back to class to share her journey.

SMART.Find an Alumna | Connect to Your Class | Find a Local Club | Career Network | Volunteer

alumnae.mtholyoke.edu

mount holyoke alumnae quarterly fall 2013

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