YOUNG ALUMNAE HONORED WITH ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION’S
MARY LYON AWARD

Lisa M. Utzinger ’02, left, and Ingrid Ukstins Peate ’94

Faculty, staff, students, and alumnae gathered together February 9 in the Blanchard Campus Center’s Great Room for Mount Holyoke College Awards Day, an event celebrating the exceptional achievements of selected students and young alumnae. The event opened with welcoming remarks by President Joanne V. Creighton, who noted the MHC community’s “immense pride” in those being honored. “You embody the spirit of our residential mission: linking academic excellence in the liberal arts with purposeful engagement with the world,” Creighton said.

For many alumnae, the highlight of the annual event is the Alumnae Association’s Mary Lyon Award presentation. The award is given to a young alumna who has been out of College 15 years or less, who demonstrates promise or sustained achievement in her life, profession, or community consistent with the humane values that Mary Lyon exemplified in her life and inspired in others.

This year’s distinguished recipients were Sally Anne McFarlane ’97, a scientist studying climate physics at one of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories; Ingrid Ukstins Peate ’94, a volcanologist and igneous petrologist who serves as an assistant professor in the department of geoscience at the University of Iowa; and Lisa M. Utzinger ’02, a violinist and arts administrator at “From the Top,” National Public Radio’s showcase for the best young classical musicians in the country. Jane E. Zachary, executive director of the Alumnae Association, presented the awards.

In accepting her award, Peate seemed to speak for all the recipients when she attributed her success not only to the outstanding education she received at Mount Holyoke, but also “to the feeling here. It is indescribable.” She added, “And when you leave, you will fully realize just how fabulous it is.”

Awards Day photo gallery