In this issue…

Volume 2   •   18 January 2007  •   Issue 1 

	Welcome from the Executive Director Resolutions and rededications		Spring Lyon Lecture Series A meeting of the minds
	Web News What’s new on the Web site		Young Alumna Fellowship Art Advisory Board Fellowship
	Research Participants Wanted Reinventing your life at mid-life		Cori’s Career Corner Trends and forecasts
	Ideas Wanted for Quarterly Articles Your money and your life		Making News Mount Holyoke alumnae in the media
	Campus Calendar Events of interest to the alumnae community		Online Class Notes Read the latest news from your sister alumnae

Welcome from the Executive Director

appy new year. I hope your year is getting off to a wonderful start—and I’m pleased to tell you about ours here at the Alumnae Association. Our new year’s resolution? It’s not really new at all: this fall, we dedicated the year to a celebration of our exceptional alumnae and alumnae volunteers—and we plan to continue doing just that. With this e-newsletter, we are launching a new feature called “Making News: Mount Holyoke Alumnae in the Media.” With it, we hope to highlight the remarkable work of our sister alumnae in their professional and volunteer lives. All of us—as we step up to the challenges we face in our workplaces, communities, or volunteer organizations—do so knowing that Mount Holyoke women around the world are doing the very same thing. As a community, we gain strength and courage from that knowledge. Look in your Alumnae Quarterly for great mini-profiles and feature articles on alums, and check here to see what our alumnae are doing to make news.

Many accomplished alumnae may not make the headlines—but they do make their mark in the world. We have a long-standing tradition at the Alumnae Association of recognizing all alumnae achievements, including those that are quietly making a difference. Our alumnae volunteers are a case in point. Strengthening the Association through their dedication, they represent the best of the Mount Holyoke community. Twice a year, we highlight their efforts in an e-newsletter, Clippings, sent to all class and club volunteers. This month, we’d like to share an issue with all of you. Find out more about Renee Cary ’48, volunteer extraordinaire for nearly sixty years, and about Dana Feldshuh Whyte ’60 and Sue Bradley Cabot ’60, creators of the brilliant “birthday bios” of Mount Holyoke women.

What would you like to tackle in 2007? What is one thing you’d love to add to your list of accomplishments? This could mean anything from organizing your files to finishing a novel. Or it could mean nothing more than extra time to enjoy with friends, family, and MHC classmates. Let me know what’s on your list—I’d love to hear from you.

Warmly,

W. Rochelle Calhoun ’83
Executive Director, Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College

Spring Lyon Lecture Series

HIS SPRING, the Alumnae Association is pleased to bring the Lyon Lecture Series to Boston and New York. Once again, we are partnering with the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts for the first of the Lyon Lectures, part of the spring 2007 program “Weissman Center on the Road.”

Saturday, March 24, 2007
6:30 PM Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres
The College Club of Boston
44 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA

Ellen Craft: Self-Emancipated Woman
Performed by Marcia Estabrook

The Weissman Center’s spring 2007 series, Family Matters, focuses on contemporary and historic issues that have shaped and redefined the family.  Marcia Estabrook’s performance of Ellen Craft: Self Emancipated Woman highlights the pioneering and heroic efforts of Ellen and William Craft, an enslaved married couple who made history when they masterminded an innovative escape from bondage in 1858. More…

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
6 PM Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres
The Harvard Club of New York City
27 West 44 th Street
New York, NY

Color in Gemstones: Nature vs. Nurture (in the Lab)
Speaker: M. Darby Dyar, chair of astronomy and associate professor of astronomy and geology

Professor Dyar will discuss geological origins of economically significant gemstones and the current gemstone market.  The lecture will include an overview of common treatments used to enhance and modify color.  Information and suggestions relating to the wise purchase of colored gemstones will also be discussed. More…

Web News

ur intrepid student bloggers continue to post updates on MHC life during J-term. Here’s one of the latest:

“Mind of a MoHo”

I’m here for J-term! And I’m loving it. I’m doing an internship at the Daily Hampshire Gazette (I started yesterday) and am taking a non-credit crochet class. 

I’m interning in the arts section, which was unexpected because I haven’t had any arts experience/expressed an interest, but I do like it. So far I’ve written two stories and a few weekend planner-type items, like “What’s going on this weekend.” I really enjoy it so far. But who wouldn’t enjoy a newsroom? The atmosphere is so fun. I was trying to think of a way to describe a newsroom, and the only way I could describe it is a laid-back-while-rushing-to-deadlines kind of feeling. Wonderfully contradictory. A few fellow Mohos are interning as well, so we’re carpooling and saving the world from global warming.
More…

Virtual Café

Check out our multi-media page in Virtual Café. In addition to our music, video, and audio recordings, we now have a link to Mount Holyoke’s latest web addition: Audio Podcasts. The College’s podcasts allow you to listen to lectures, interviews, and Christmas Vespers as well as other news and events.

Young Alumna Fellowship

he art advisory board of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum sponsors a fellowship position to afford a young alumna a one-year period in which to extend her education and professional training. Intended as the equivalent of an entry-level position in an art museum setting, the fellowship provides an opportunity to learn a broad range of curatorial, research, collection management, and administrative skills. The fellow will collaborate on a variety of projects designed to provide her with skills and experience in the following: (more…)

Research Participants Wanted

idlife can be the most rewarding time—time for reflection, rejuvenation, and reveling, according to a recent article in Parade Magazine. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed that the middle period of life is a time of enormous psychological importance. It’s often the time when we seek to truly understand the meaning of life. Yet we embark on this journey without much preparation. In high school and college, we learn the rules for successful living (at least as defined by society). And we spend the next few decades fulfilling goals and living by rules that likely were set for us by our parents or society. In the second half, many of us question those goals and rules but are lost as to “what to do next.” More…

Cori’s Career Corner

appy new year to all of you! When the new year rolls around, we all like to know what the crystal ball shows for the year. Here are a few forward-looking factoids for you, drawn from the Herman Trend Alert:

• Job-hopping will accelerate. Many people have indicated that they are dissatisfied with their current employment and are ready to hop. There are lots of choices, so many workers—particularly younger employees—may make a change.
• Older workers will be wooed more than before. Those organizations that are concerned with retaining their intellectual capital are offering flexibility including phased retirement, part-time work, and seasonal work, along with benefits.
• Companies are more focused on retention for all employees. There is a new awareness of the cost of employee turnover, and employers are working to keep those folks they have now.
• Video interviews are starting to catch on with employers. New technology will enable video interviews and pre-interview assessments, saving hours of interviewing time. Video résumés are being tested by some job seekers as well.

I will also be on the road soon, offering workshops in Boston on January 25; Washington, D.C. on February 20; and Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina in later March. If you would like more information on these programs, please get in touch. I continue to be available for career consultation on campus or by phone, with hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as on Tuesday evenings. Please call for an appointment at 413-538-2080, or e-mail me for a consultation at cashwort@mtholyoke.edu.

Ideas Wanted for Quarterly Articles

he Alumnae Quarterly staff is gathering information for use in the articles described below. You are invited to contact us with a summary of your experience with and/or thoughts about the issue. The article’s author may include your comments in the article directly and/or contact you for an interview.

Life Lists (or “Here’s what I definitely want to experience before I die”)

Making Money Work, Part 4: Handling Loans and Debt—We are looking for alumnae willing to be “case studies” by sharing their financial experiences in this area, and for alumnae financial planners willing to provide practical advice useful to alumnae in similar circumstances.

Please send your thoughts to Emily Weir.

Making News

nnouncing the debut of “Making News,” a monthly column highlighting selected news bites about MHC women and their achievements.

Barbara Cassani ’82 received an honorary royal award Wednesday, January 10, for her role in bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to London, according to an account in the International Herald Tribune. More…

Dr. Lisa Milner Masterson ’87, an ob-gyn at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on January 8, 2007, discussing and answering questions about women’s health issues. More…

The October 30, 2006 New Yorker featured an article on the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks ’85 and her new project, a nationwide staging of 365 short plays she wrote over the course of a year. More….

Dr. E. Susan Hodgson ’74, a pediatrician and co-medical director of the Dorothy B. Hersh Regional Child Protection Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey, was appointed by Governor Jon S. Corzine as New Jersey’s Child Advocate on September 12, 2006. More…

Campus Calendar

On campus:

Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London will open February 17 at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and run until July 22. The exhibit traces the development of Egyptian archaeology from its beginnings in the 1880s to the present day through spectacular artwork and rare archival materials. On view are over 220 important objects from sites in the Nile River valley, including one of the world’s earliest surviving dresses (circa 2400 BCE). More…

MHC club highlights:

The Mount Holyoke Club of Northern New Jersey is hosting “A Concert for Mary Lyon,” an afternoon of music, refreshments, and discussion at the home of Pat Hughes Brandt ’76, on January 21, 2007. A fundraiser for the Alumnae Scholarship Fund, this Speakers Bureau event will feature musical performances by Linda Laderach and Larry Schipull from the Mount Holyoke College music department. More club events….

Online Class Notes

o read more online class notes, or post your own notes and photos, please visit our Web site.

Gale Ketteler (1987)
Gale Ketteler (1987) and Alan Brown are proud to announce the birth of their grand daughter, Jocelyn Olivia Pleasant. She was born on December 30, 2006 in Rockford, IL, and weighed 6 lb., 2 oz.. At 41, “I’m a grandma! Can you believe it? Never gave birth myself, so how did I accomplish this miracle? My 29 year old step-daughter…”

Sibella (Connor) Giorello (1985)
Sibella (Connor) Giorello (1985) writes, “My first novel comes out in February. “The Stones Cry Out” features protagonist Raleigh Harmon, a forensic geologist with the FBI. The book’s gotten great early reviews. In the Library Reviews wrote, “For a debut attempt, I believe Sibella Giorello’s The Stones Cry Out, will explode onto the fiction scene of top-notch mystery/suspense novels…”

Mizue (Morita) Krygowski (1998)
Mizue Morita (1998) and James Krygowski are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Sayuri. She was born on September , 2006 in Cambridge MA, and weighed 6 lb., 10 oz..  

Danielle LaSelva (2000)
Danielle LaSelva (2000) writes, “I was reading Class Notes feeling unaccomplished when I realized that in the past 3 months I’ve been promoted at work, had my appendix out, finished a grad school class, successfully drove past the basketball arena during a home game, and as of midnight tonight, I’ve survived another Christmas with my family…”

Jessica Hopkins (1988)
Jessica Hopkins (1988) is proud to announce the adoption of a girl, Leila Welcome XiHui. “Leila was born on October 19, 2005 in the Hunan Province of China. Leila was adopted at the age of 13 months. Leila and proud mom were united on November 13, 2005. Leila is from a Chinese province known for “spicy girls” — and sure enough Leila is a spunky, funny mischievous little girl. Parenthood promises to be quite an adventure…”

Farial Anam (2003)
Farial Anam (2003) and Yasir Mehboob are happy to announce their marriage on August 4, 2006 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Various wedding ceremonies and receptions were held from July 31st to August 5th. Syeda Chowdhury ’03 was able to attend. After three and a half years in Manhattan, I’ve finally moved. We are now in Astoria, Queens. Do come visit!  

Sherri Wilcauskas (1991)
Sherri Wilcauskas (1991) writes, “I’ve been off the Alumnae radar for quite some time, but I’m happy to report I’m alive and well and still in Philadelphia. I’m coming near the end of my first year working at The Franklin Institute as the Assistant Director of Grants. It’s only about three weeks till King Tut arrives, which is looking to be one of the most exciting professional experiences I’ve ever had…”

Erin Rowbotham (1997)
Erin Rowbotham (1997) and Brian Casey are happy to announce their engagement. The wedding ceremony will take place on June 23, 2007 in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Casey is a graduate from Boston College (’95). We met 3 years ago, here in Tampa, Florida. He asked the question on 12/9/06 after my office holiday party — which totally caught me off guard. I am very excited to attend our 10 year reunion and have my friends from college meet such a great guy in my life.