Add/View
Comments

Alumnae Honored for Achievement and Service

 

Alumnae Achievement Awards were presented to three alumnae at Reunion for “achievements and service to society that exemplify the values and virtues set forth by the college.”

 (More)

Add/View
Comments

Commitment and Service Honored at Reunion

 Eight alumnae were awarded medals of honor during Reunions I and II this year. Each woman exemplifies the tradition of service and ongoing commitment to the college that Mary Lyon worked to instill in all graduates.

 (More)

Add/View
Comments

The Art of the Book Exhibition

The fall exhibition at the MHC Art Museum—Two by Two: Lines, Rhymes, and Riddles—will feature the poetry and artwork of brothers Brad and Mark Leithauser. Brad is a prize-winning poet and MHC professor of English. Mark is a painter, draftsman, and chief of design at the National Gallery of Art. The show, which runs September 4 to December 16, is part of a series of book-themed events connected to the Museums10 “BookMarks” initiative that features Pioneer Valley museum exhibitions and events celebrating the words and images of books.

Visit www.mtholyoke.edu/go/artmuseum or www.museums10.org for more information.

Add/View
Comments

History Has It: An Extraordinary Union

A new occasional series, highlighting fascinating people and facts related to MHC.

Rarely do passion and service play themselves out in so gripping a manner as in the life of Helen Pitts Douglass, class of 1859. An educated woman whose sense of justice led her to take action in both the women’s and civil rights movements, Douglass is perhaps best remembered as the second wife of Frederick Douglass, the eloquent black orator, author, and spokesman for the abolition of slavery.

Following graduation from Mount Holyoke, Helen— who was white—taught freed slaves for two years and then, after many years of poor health, moved to Washington, D.C., to coedit The Alpha, a feminist publication. In 1882, she was hired as a clerk for Frederick Douglass in the office of the Recorder of Deeds, and following the death of his first wife, Anna, married Douglass in 1884.

Helen’s parents were abolitionists and old friends with Douglass but they nevertheless disowned her for entering into an interracial marriage. Another heartbreaking twist was the subsequent suicide of Ottilie Assing, a German journalist whose twenty-eight year professional—and most likely intimate—collaboration with Douglass was abruptly severed following his marriage to Helen.

But the Douglasses’ eleven-year union was by all accounts a happy one, and Helen wrote of her husband, “The more I know of Mr. Douglass, the more I wonder at the beauty and greatness of his character.” When Douglass died in 1895, Helen went on to distinguish herself as public speaker on civil and women’s rights. She died in 1903.—M.H.B

Photo: undated, National Park Service

Add/View
Comments

The Tiny World of Nanoscience is a Big Thing on Campus

The Tiny World of  Nanoscience Is a Big Thing on Campus
By Christine Palm

If ever a branch of science embodied “small but mighty,” it would have to be nanoscience. In this world, the properties of objects change so dramatically that the tinier something is, the more powerful it often becomes. And the myriad possibilities stemming from those changes makes nanoscience riveting to faculty and students at Mount Holyoke. With passion and acumen, researchers here are probing this new, invisible frontier that is already an integral part of all our lives—whether or not we know it. Within nanoscience’s tiny, mysterious world lies the key to solving everyday problems from medicine to manufacturing.

To the uninitiated, nanoscience seems ineffable; experiments and procedures are conducted at so infinitesimal a scale that it’s hard to conceive of their size, much less their importance. However, chemical, physical, and biological changes taking place at the nanoscale affect virtually every aspect of our lives, allowing us to experience everything from the smell of freshly baked cookies to the sound of the 1,000th song on our iPods.

 (More)

Add/View
Comments

Reunion: The Practical Side of a Magical Weekend

Plan, Plan, Then Plan Some More

Planning for reunions begins two years in advance. For Renunion 2009, class presidents were sent a letter this past April asking for the names of reunion chairs, who are then invited to a planning workshop in September. Most classes do a "save the date" mailing a year in advance; the association sends another letter eight months in advance. Registration materials are mailed two months before Reunion; memos are sent to planners monthly from August through May. It helps to write everything down. 

A Celebrant for the Record Books

Lots of women of every age come back for their reunions. In 2006 we welcomed 1,156 alums, along with 319 of their guests and 171 children. But get this: one year, an alumna returned for her eightieth reunion. Now that's enthusiasm! Th fiftieth class usually has a best attendance, in the last five years averaging between 45 and 52 percent of the class. The fortieth class comes in secon, with a five-year percent of class members returning.

Basic Grooming Encouraged

Between six and ten dorms with a total of about 600 beds are reserved for reunion weekends. Classes often plead to stay in a particular dorm; those requests are honored if the numbers of returnees match the dining hall capacity and room availability. Loyalty classes (alumnae celebrating a 65th or later reunion) are housed in scenic Willits-Hallowell. Students and staff housekeepers do a serious amount of schlepping and sweeping, and make the beds, mop the floors, and brush the window screens in all the dorms. No chocolates are left on guest pillows, but a small bar of soap and towels are offered for basic grooming. 

Grass, Trash, and a Fleet of Canoes

Mike Buckley, Facilities Management’s superintendent of general services, has his hands full leading up to reunion. His crews repair winter damage along the road edges by tilling and reseeding. Two hundred white stakes are then put into the ground and strung with twine to protect the newly seeded areas. Those come down a day or two before Reunion I. New sod is laid in the amphitheater for the annual meeting. Lawns are mowed continuously so the campus grass is at attention when alumnae arrive. A fleet of canoes is hauled from Upper to Lower Lake and fitted with festive lanterns for the canoe sing. 

Students Love Working Reunion

Guaranteed hours, good wages, and a desire to make some fast cash before vacation this year resulted in 270 applicants for 145 jobs at Reunions I and II. Students make $7.75 an hour—student supervisors get $8.50—and they do a lot of the heavy lifting. Job titles include luggage helper, loyalty class assistant, van driver, housekeeper, custodian, grounds crew, waitress, dishwasher, usher, child caregiver, lifeguard, ticket salesperson, and registration assistant.

Speech, Speech

President Joanne Creighton is on duty both weekends and will deliver at least six speeches. She speaks on Friday night of Reunion I to the fiftieth reunion class. She delivers a speech at Baccalaureate. She speaks at the “Luncheon with the President” on both weekends. Finally, she speaks at Commencement.

Reunion’s ‘Holy Book’

This will be the fourth year that Joni Haas Zubi, associate director of classes and reunions, has coordinated Reunion at MHC. She has worked for the association since 1986. During both weekends, she carries around with her what she loosely refers to as “the bible.” But instead of the Lord’s instructions to Moses, it contains more mundane directions, like when chairs should be delivered to Chapin Auditorium if it rains, and the timetable for getting electrical service to Mary Lyon’s grave.

And Finally, a Funny Story

Okay, there are lots of juicy stories that Joni won’t let us tell you. For example, it’s safe to say that some serious imbibing of spirits goes on each Reunion evening, and we’re talking bottled spirits. A papier-mâché class sphinx became the object of actual genuflection by one spirited reunion class. But interesting sober moments abound, too, such as the alum who recycled items she found in the trash by using them to decorate her Reunion weekend dorm room. Finally, lots of folks seem to lock themselves out of their rooms when they take showers. One alum simply made the best of it and walked around nude. I mean, we’ve seen it all, yes?

—M.H.B.

Add/View
Comments

Short Articles

Program Bridges Classroom to World

Interdisciplinary inquiry at MHC received a significant shot in the arm this spring thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supporting the creation of a new certificate program.

Designed to draw students further into the confluence of learning and engagement with the world, the new Nexus Program certificates will be affiliated with each of MHC’s four interdisciplinary centers: the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, the Center for the Environment, the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, and the Science Center.
All students will have the opportunity to elect a Nexus concentration in their sophomore year. Students who do so will complete a traditional major and pursue a Nexus certificate minor that will include either an internship or a sustained research experience as well as a capstone senior project or thesis.

Winning Poet

Sarah Twombly FP’08 and Emma Gorenberg of Amherst College shared first place honors in this year’s Kathryn Irene Glascock ’22 Intercollegiate Poetry Competition. First held in 1923 as a memorial to Glascock, a promising young poet who died shortly after her graduation, the competition brings top student poets from around the country to compete before a three judge panel of distinguished poets. Sylvia Plath and James Merrill are past winners.

Sport Shorts

Groth ’07 Named AA Scholar-Athlete Volleyball player Emily Groth ’07 was honored with this year’s Alumnae Association Scholar-Athlete Award. A studio art major and sport studies minor, Groth was a four-time Academic All-Conference honoree and COSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District second team member in 2006. As a two-time captain, Groth earned the all-conference honors twice. She leaves MHC with the most career kills (1,139), and the second-highest hitting percentage (.201) in college history.

Correction: In the last issue, Grace Zeigler ’08 was inadvertently listed as Grace Bauer in indoor track and field. We regret the error.

Add/View
Comments

Student Edge: America's Plenty Inspires African Entrepeneurs

What first strikes you about Getrude Chimhungwe ’08 and Mufaro Kanyangarara ’07 is their gracious manner and utter lack of self-aggrandizement. Celebrated by the college, the Alumnae Association, and their peers for winning a $10,000 grant in spring to improve the health care of Zimbabwean girls orphaned by HIV/AIDS, Getrude and Mufaro are nevertheless visibly unmoved by all the attention, except for a little squirming in their chairs.

“I don’t like being in the limelight,” admits Mufaro, a statistics major, brushing a hand across her face. Being accepted into Harvard’s School of Public Health this fall hasn’t exactly helped to deflect the attention. Getrude is enrolled in the dual-degree engineering program with the University of Massachusetts. While these two friends are quick to point out that MHC has given them previously unimaginable opportunities and opened their eyes to their own potential, the style they share is quiet, steady, and absolutely focused on accumulating knowledge and skills to help alleviate Zimbabwe’s stunning social and economic problems.

On hearing of the Davis Foundation’s generous offer to fund motivated young people with ideas for peace, Getrude and Mufaro got together and brainstormed ideas. Rather than offering food or school materials to some of their country’s many orphans—the adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is 25 percent and sadly took both of Mufaro’s parents—they settled instead on an income-generating business plan to provide long-term, sustainable help.

They first thought about a mushroom farm and a water-hole-boring business before landing on a chicken and egg farm. “We realized that [it] was a manageable thing to do,” says Getrude, whose uncle is currently in the business. Given their relative affordability in a nation facing a 1,500 percent inflation rate, eggs are in high demand. By aligning the business with a nonprofit organization—Tsungirirai, which cares for orphans’ basic needs and runs a health clinic—they figure both the children and the customers will realize some measure of physical, mental, and spiritual health.

In June, Getrude and Mufaro began overseeing construction of the chicken runs, the purchasing of the first 250 baby chicks, and the hiring of project managers and security guards. They anticipate the project’s estimated annual income of $18,000 will give 700 orphans the care they need to begin to thrive.

Despite the chaotic economy and political instability of their country—many young Zimbabwe professionals would love to emigrate, they admit—Getrude and Mufaro say their exposure to America’s plenty has made them even more committed to bringing even a percentage of that lifestyle to the orphans.

“For me it’s a desire to make the world a better place,” says Getrude. “Some people helped me to be where I am … so I want to make someone else’s life better.”—M.H.B. 

Photo by Paul Schnaittacher

Add/View
Comments

Passion and Technique Stir Hearts of Honored Professors

Calculus isn’t for everyone, the mathematics department readily admits, but as the primary language of science and the social sciences it is required for a good number of majors. Harriet Pollatsek, Julia and Sarah Ann Adams Professor of Mathematics, has tried various strategies to advance her students’ grasp of data, functions, and their graphs, and finds that short writing exercises are particularly helpful.

“Mathematics uses its own special language, and translating it into ordinary English deepens a student’s understanding,” says Pollatsek, a member of the faculty since 1970 and one of two winners of the 2007 Mount Holyoke College Faculty Prize for Teaching. She was happy to report that by spring term those enrolled in her yearlong Enriched Calculus class were boldly moving on to “embrace the unfamiliar.”

Professor of Politics Christopher Pyle, the other recipient of the prize for teaching, was honored not just for his provocative teaching in classes on constitutional law and American political thought but also for teaching that “transcends the confines of the college and whose very purposeful engagement with the world serves as a model for our students and all of us,” according to the award citation. Pyle has taught classes in Northern Ireland, at Plimoth Plantation, and on the high seas aboard the HMS Bounty.

For Stephen Jones, professor of Russian studies and chair of European studies, the Republic of Georgia provides a focus and all manner of research possibilities. Widely published and fluent in Georgian, he is at work on a book about contemporary Georgia that he says is much like “the biography of a political adventurer confronting adversity, trauma, and finally, liberation.”

A winner of the 2007 Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Prize for Scholarship, Jones, who trained as a political scientist, often is consulted by the U.S. government for his expert understanding of the post-communist societies of the Caucasus.

Bettina Bergmann, whose research has focused on ancient Roman art and archaeology, is fascinated by many elements of excavated sites around the Bay of Naples, which were buried in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Currently at work on an essay about the area’s ancient gardens, she shares the spectacular fact that because of cavities left by tree roots in the lava, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct what the ancient gardens looked like, which plants and trees grew where, and how vines were tended and perfumes made.

Bergmann is Helene Phillips Herzig ’49 Professor of Art History and the second winner of this year’s Faculty Prize for Scholarship.

This is the eighth year that professors have been honored with teaching and scholarship awards. Nominated by their peers and alumnae and selected by committee, the winners receive cash awards of $3,000.—M.H.B.

Photo by Paul Schnaittacher

Add/View
Comments

Brainstorms

Found Art: Museum a Hidden Treasure

Manicures, facials, and a lecture on the history of costume and extreme fashion—coupled with an assortment of eclectic period clothing to try on—were the highlights of the third annual Spa Night at the MHC Museum of Art, organized by the esoterically named Society of Art Goddesses and enjoyed by more than 160 students.

It may seem an unlikely event at an art museum rich with an exceptional collection, including Albert Bierstadt’s Hetch Hetchy Canyon and the significant Classical Greek sculpture Statuette of a Youth. But embracing visitors in unusual ways is part of the museum’s long-term plan to interest students studying in a variety of academic fields, not just art history. The museum also aims to entice patrons from Boston and New York—and even neighboring Granby—who are unaware of the extraordinary art offerings in the shadow of the Connecticut River.

The effort is beginning to pay off. Since Marianne Doezema became director of the museum twelve years ago, student participation has quadrupled and museum membership blossomed. Students interested in museum work may now apply for internships, and a paid fellowship is awarded annually to a young alumna ready for curatorial and management training. “It’s all about getting our name out,” says Doezema, who has also helped organize several nationally celebrated touring exhibitions, including a retrospective of the photographer Diane Arbus.

Perhaps her most ambitious collaborative effort to date has been Museums10, a partnership of ten museums in the region that is about to embark on its second mutual programming effort to promote cultural tourism in the Pioneer Valley. The group’s first effort—GoDutch!— increased museum attendance collectively by fifteen percent last year. Its latest offering, BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book, is slated to run from September 2007 though January 2008 and has received a $75,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to support national advertising.

“We are a well-kept secret,” Doezema explains, noting that the kickoff event for BookMarks will feature the words and pictures of English professor Brad Leithauser and his brother Mark. “Lots of New Yorkers go to [the Berkshires] for Jacob’s Pillow, and that’s the nut we’re trying to crack.”

Nora Lambert ’07, chair of the Art Goddesses, sums it up this way: “Art is for everyone, not just curators and artists. It’s funny, because it’s not as if there is this … perception that you have to be a musician in order to go to a concert, or buy a CD, or that you have to be an actor to go to a play.” Indeed, the art museum’s doors are wide open and everybody is welcome.

—M.H.B.

Add/View
Comments

In Session: Video-Chats Hone Students' French Conversation Skills

It’s hard to have meaningful engagement with another culture if you can’t speak the language at least moderately well. Global communication took another step forward this academic year, as intermediate French-language students at MHC conversed over video links with intermediate English-language students at the Université de Haute Alsace in France.

Donning headsets at computer terminals displaying live images of both students, the participants spoke ten minutes in one person’s native tongue, and then switched languages. Every twenty minutes, new teams of French and English students took their seats in each of the four “chat rooms,” language learning center workstations topped by spherical video cameras.

The conversation topics during the getting-to-know-you phase may not have been profound (“The campus is awesome.” … “I love U2, you know, with Bono?” … “Help me with my grammar here …”), but the experimental practice has become a valuable addition to campus language-teaching techniques. “The students are ‘swimming’ in French now,” said Catherine Bloom, visiting instructor in French, with each student speaking for far longer at a stretch than is common in group discussions.

MHC language students usually gather in small groups once a week and take turns conversing with a language assistant who’s a native speaker. These video discussions, says professor of French Nicole Vaget, are “a better alternative because it’s a one-on-one conversation of several minutes, so the pressure is on.” Sarah Reusché ’10 didn’t seem to feel pressured, though. In fact, she said speaking with another student “reduced the embarrassment factor that’s there when you’re speaking with someone who’s fluent in French when you’re not.”

Each duo spoke online three times during spring semester, supplemented by e-mails between video sessions. By April, Sarah and video-conversation partner Ludovic Jost had moved from simple questions to discussing subjects as complex as the political platforms of the French presidential candidates. “Conversing in French with a native really helps make concrete what verb tenses to use where,” Sarah said. “Ludovic assured me that even the French get the complicated verb tenses confused!”

Nana-Yaa Appenteng ’08 said she liked the video conversations because “we learn things that you won’t find in textbooks.” She spoke with her video partner about differences between the French and
U.S. educational systems, and where each had traveled. This twenty-first-century version of writing to a foreign pen pal, she says, also “helps build my confidence.”

—E.H.W.

Add/View
Comments

Understanding Latin America

I hesitate before jumping to conclusions over a secondary source. But it seems that Lowell Gudmundson’s grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities has led to a too-easy extrapolation (spring Quarterly). I’m referring to the application of his experiences, principally in Guatemala and Nicaragua, to a far broader territory.

One can no more generalize about Latin America than one can about Europe or Asia. Each country has a specific template, hammered over time by a unique set of forces. These, in Latin America, include geography; climate; indigenous cultures and their region-specific history; the types and origins of Iberians that conquered; the miscegenation that followed; the country-specific needs and works of an earlier Roman Catholic church; the slave trade from West Africa, brought in to help out or replace the subjugated natives; more miscegenation; centuries of political fireworks; and waves of immigrants, especially from the mid-nineteenth century on, mostly from Western Europe.

I defy Lowell Gudmundson to find Latin Americans who are unaware of the full spectrum of racial components in their country. It is a subject that is covered with no taboos in grade-school curriculums that are non-politicized, for the most part. In the meantime, I question enlightening “the natives” by applying the racial baggage of a very separate reality, meaning that of North America (Mexico excluded). I question using North America as a tether to justify racial psychology further south. And I question transferring “otherized” theories to regions where racial profiling has been neither as divisive nor as caustic as it has been in the history of the United States.

Cross-pollinating certain ideas can provoke interesting exchanges, when they aren’t intended to polarize. But are the effects an accurate depiction of reality, when grant dollars and publishing possibilities are primary motivators?

Sydney Hedderich ’74
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Lowell Gudmundson replies:

The views expressed above are shared by many students who take Afro-Latin America Since 1800. They continue to be held by many upon completing the course, with passionate and eloquent debates such as those suggested by Ms. Hederrich, enriching our semester together. However, the idea that these issues amount to a misguided pursuit of North American or US racial concerns in Latin America is an unfortunate misperception. Several generations of Latin American scholars and Afro-Latin American communities have built the foundations for the course, its issues, and an abundant literature. They are best reflected, perhaps, by the Colombian journal América Negra, now in its second decade of publication. For the English-language reader, the broadest introduction might be found in George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America, 1800–2000 (Oxford University Press, 2004); while our own goals for Central America are set out in greater detail on the project Web site, at:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/latam/africania.html.

Add/View
Comments

Gone Crackers

I envied Anne Sibley O’Brien’s chance (spring Quarterly) to relive student life at MHC— especially in the fall! But the historian in me is compelled to note that M&Cs referred to Milk and Crackers in the 1970s, not Milk and Cookies.

Grace Palladino ’75
Bethesda, Maryland

Add/View
Comments

Alum-Student Service Trip Aids Costa Ricans

Costa Rica’s lush tropical life, balmy weather, and miles of gorgeous coastline attract spring-breaker students and tourists from around the world. But their visits typically do little to boost the quality of life for the nearly 35 percent of Costa Ricans who live in extreme poverty and substandard shanty towns.

However, three alumnae, seven MHC students, and two staffers chose to spend spring break week challenging their minds and bodies on the first Janet Tuttle Alumnae and Student Service Trip. Anita Magovern, director of the campus community-service organization CAUSE, worked with Maya D’Costa, associate director of campus programs at the Alumnae Association, making arrangements with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Program.

 (More)

Add/View
Comments

Woolley Fellowship Supports Bottom-up Development in Bangladesh

Empowering women of the rural Marma tribe in Bangladesh through peer-centered human rights awareness, mentoring, and networking programs is the thrust of a summer project undertaken by Bidita Jawher Tithi ’07, who was awarded the 2007 Mary E. Woolley Fellowship. She will receive $7,500 to initiate the project. Tithi will team up with a local organization to help the women, wracked by poverty, illiteracy, and gender discrimination, form a network of their peers to improve their economic standing, deepen their understanding of common diseases and how to prevent them, and deter violence. Tithi, who double majored in economics and physics, is a native Bangladeshi who plans on pursuing a doctorate in economics.

Photo by Sasha Goss