Hope and Innovation Showcased at European Symposium
Innovation in its many guises ran through the European alumnae symposium in Geneva this past fall.
Organized by Christine Gora Bruno ’98, Carolyn Geisler Hornfeld ’63, Bernice Timm Dorig ’63, Jessica Zerges ’03, and Alix Bishko ’00, with the input of Alumnae Association President Mary Graham Davis ’65, it began with our hotel—a high-tech high-rise where glass elevators whisked us up and down to our rooms and offered a view of trains gliding noiselessly into the Geneva train station.
The official city welcome to attendees came from Monica Bonfanti, Geneva’s chief of police, whose department the next day guided a mass demonstration for Burma through the city’s streets.
Meanwhile, at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Études Internationales, Andy Sundberg, who defends the rights of American citizens abroad and was the first American to run for president from overseas in 1988, introduced numerous speakers committed to innovative ideas. Roland Stultz works in Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology on “The 2000 Watt Society” program that translates cutting-edge research into smart applications to reduce personal energy consumption.
Testimony from the development field came from Johanna Grombach, who described the work of the International Red Cross during conflicts. Jane Wangiru of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees concluded that the daunting work of her organization offers “the reward … to see hope again in their eyes.” Bérangère Magarinos of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition reported on GAIN’s projects to produce enriched foods to combat mineral and vitamin deficiencies.
Not to be outdone, MHC Professor of French Nicole Vaget showed a video outlining changes on the MHC campus between 1937 and 2007, including more meeting places and Adirondack chairs dotting the lawns, which illustrated Joanne Creighton’s leitmotiv: “We must have places to gather.” The president also reiterated that the college—which already enrolls thirteen percent international students— must reach out further to Asia and Latin America to attract global students.
Remembering how proud I was in 1943 that our college had offered refuge and faculty posts to Sorbonne professors Jean Wahl and Rachel Bespaloff, I applauded her remarks along with sixty other alumnae ranging in years from Kitty Eliopoulos Kyriacopoulos ’45 to Maria Svrckova ’05.
After visits to Geneva’s Old City, the world’s largest particle physics lab, UN Geneva, and a final discussion on life “passages,” old friends and classmates separated amid goodbye hugs. Next European reunion: Oxford in 2009.—Mavis Gaipa Guinard ’46
More information on conference presenters is available at: www.novatlantis.ch, www.gainhealth.org, www.icrc.org, www.unhcr.org, and www.cern.ch.
