In this issue…

Volume 1   •   18 October 2006  •   Issue 9  

	Welcome from the Executive Director Our legacy of giving back		Facing East, Facing West Join your MHC sisters for an exciting weekend
	Alumnae Blend Coffee Smart women drink it		Web News Survey results are in
	Student Reporter Beat AA campus news from Shoshana Walter ’07		Alumnae in Action Harvest of hope
	Cori’s Career Corner A cornucopia of career fairs		I-Witness Alumnae perspectives on global news
	Online Class Notes Read the latest news from your sister alumnae

Welcome from the Executive Director

s we begin to approach the holiday season, with all its joys and expectations, I am reminded of one of my favorite Frances Perkins quotes: “It is there to be done, so I do it.” The holidays can fill up so quickly with gift shopping, entertaining, traveling, and just plain rushing around. It’s nice to take a breath and remember the deeper meaning of the season: giving back. As Mount Holyoke alumnae, we have a legacy of giving back and getting things done. One way the Alumnae Association is celebrating that legacy is through our dynamic community service program, Alumnae in Action.

Our local fall Alumnae in Action volunteer event, a food action project, will take place in November at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield (please see details below in this e-newsletter). In the spirit of the season, we’re encouraging alumnae clubs and classes across the country—and around the world—to team up and join the drive to address hunger in their own communities. Organizing a food drive, volunteering at a soup kitchen, donating time or money (or both) to a food bank are all ways you and your fellow MHC alums can join the effort. Let’s take our cue from Frances Perkins, come together, and do what’s “there to be done.”

On a more lighthearted note, I’m pleased to tell you about another way you can give back: ordering one of our brand-new Alumnae Association holiday coffee gift sets. The gift boxes come complete with Alumnae Association chocolates, class animal mugs (in your class color), and an organic fair-trade coffee blended especially for MHC alumnae. (I’ve tried it, and it’s delicious—especially paired with a cider doughnut or two from Atkins Farm.) The best thing about it? Every dollar we raise from the sale of our coffee gift sets goes directly to the Founder’s Fund, the endowment fund of the Alumnae Association. The Founder’s Fund provides alumnae grants, funds for scholarship projects, and many other projects that support alumnae success and well-being.

Your well-being, as a matter of fact, may well increase after a cup of our Alumnae Association coffee—after a pot, you may be ready to tour the world.  I’ve got good news: three of our popular educational travel trips still have room for a few more travelers.  If you’ve ever wished you could tour the temples and waterways of Vietnam and Cambodia, cruise to Ireland and Scotland on a Celtic Lands trip, or sail across the Aegean to Greece and Turkey, now is the time to book the trip of your dreams.

Tell me about your holiday plans—will you be joining MHC alums for a seasonal celebration? Do you plan to participate in an Alumnae in Action or other service project? How do you make your holidays special? I’d love to hear from you.

With warmest wishes,


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

Facing East, Facing West

he fourth triennial Asian/Asian-American Alumnae and Student Conference is almost here! Please join us on Mount Holyoke’s beautiful campus on November 3-5, 2006, for “Facing East, Facing West: From the Gates of Mount Holyoke to a Global Citizenship.” The registration deadline for this exciting event has been extended to October 23.

We’ve planned a weekend of workshops, thought-provoking guest lectures, and cultural presentations by distinguished MHC alumnae and faculty, including:

• “Holding On and Letting Go”
• “Disembodied & Outsourced: Reconfiguring South Asian Identity”
• “Assimilation and Identity Among Asian Americans”
• “America’s Relations with Asia: Diverse Strategies for Diverse Regions”

Screening of award-winning film by Sonali Gulati ’96

• Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night

Gala Saturday night dinner followed by critically acclaimed Asian American comedy performance by Miki Yamashita FP ’06

• The Geisha Next Door

Come take part in an invigorating weekend of intellectual exchange, cutting-edge entertainment, great food, and personal connections. MHC’s Asian and Asian-American students are looking forward to this conference with great anticipation. They are eager to meet you and to build meaningful mentoring relationships with some of their 1,500 alumnae sisters. Your participation makes all the difference, and we hope to see you there.

Sign up now, or visit our Web site for more information. See you at the conference!

Alumnae Blend Coffee

t’s here: beginning November 6, 2006, you can order your very own MHC Alumnae Association coffee in a handsome gift set. This special holiday gift comes complete with a travel mug in your class color (and featuring your class animal), a pound of organic, fair-trade MHC Class Animal Blend coffee, and an assortment of Alumnae Association chocolates.

The blend, created especially by Dean’s Beans for Mount Holyoke alumnae, combines the boldness of the lion, the sophistication of the sphinx, the complexity of the griffin, and the lightness of the Pegasus (not to mention the toasty aroma of the phoenix). All funds raised by the sale of our coffee gift sets will go directly to the Founder’s Fund, the endowment fund of the Alumnae Association.

Order a gift set for you and several for classmates and friends. Make a gift to your club, or surprise your best MHC friends. We’ll include a beautiful notecard with your personal message, and we’ll mail to anywhere in the U.S. or abroad. Orders will be taken beginning November 6 (order early, especially for international delivery). Watch your inbox in early November for an e-mail announcement!

Web News

n our last Laurel Chain, we asked you to give us feedback on our Web site to help us in our continuing efforts to measure how we are doing. We received an overwhelming response to our survey: more than 1,000 alumnae responded, and the vast majority gave us very high marks! Over 90 percent of you think the content of our site is excellent or good, over 80 percent feel that the site is easy to navigate, and over 85 percent rated the overall look of our site excellent or good. We appreciate the positive feedback, and we also appreciate some of the helpful suggestions for improvement. One surprising finding is that many alumnae do not know that we have our own Web site at the Alumnae Association, separate from the College’s site.

While the College has an alumnae page which provides various links to our site, the Alumnae Association has a comprehensive Web site that provides a variety of information and online services. Below, you’ll find some useful information on what to find on the College’s site, as well as some great tips on the Alumnae Association’s site.

Mount Holyoke College Web site

• Online bookstore
• Academic and faculty information
• Admissions and enrollment information

Alumnae Association Web site Tips

 How to find an alum

All alumnae are listed in the online directory, unless they have opted to hide their information. To find an alumna, simply click “Find An Alum” on our left-navigation menu, and search the online directory. You need to be registered with the Web site in order to use this feature.

 How to change my address

Changing your address through our online directory is simple and easy to do. Click on “Share My News” on our left-navigation menu, and you can update your listing from there. You must be registered with the Web site in order to use this feature.

What is Virtual Café?

Virtual Café is a new feature of our Web site, available on the left navigation menu. In Virtual Café, you will find a variety of fun and helpful features, including e-cards, staff and student blogs, downloadable screensavers and wallpaper with images of the campus, extensive photo galleries, audio recordings of campus events, and a Web FAQ to help you navigate our site.
 
Font size

We received some comments regarding the font size on our site, and are currently evaluating what changes to make. In the meantime, here’s a useful tip to increase the font size of our Web site or any site you are viewing: press your Control and + keys together (the Control + function). The font size will automatically increase each time you use this function.

 Check out Web FAQ

Our Web FAQ (located in our Virtual Café) provides a variety of frequently asked questions and answers on how to best utilize our Web site. Don’t see a question listed that you have? E-mail Stacey Coleman-Litterer FP’06 with your question.

Student Reporter Beat

o keep you better informed on the range of Alumnae Association events on campus, we’ve recruited Shoshana Walter ’07, intrepid student reporter, to bring the latest news to the MHC alumnae community. Shoshana has attended alumnae panels and workshops, interviewed returning alums and current students, and gathered information on the great things that happen when alums come back to campus to meet with students. Here is Shoshana’s report on a recent, well-attended alumnae panel and reception in the Stimson Room of the Mount Holyoke College Library:

Changing the Face of Medicine:
Celebrating America’s Women Physicians
Alumnae Panel and Reception

A panel of Mount Holyoke alumnae returned to the college last month to remind students of something that is sometimes very easy to forget: although women have made great strides in medicine, there is still much progress to be made.

The talk, followed by a reception, featured Elizabeth Garner M.D. ’89 and Emily LeBrun M.D. ’96, who spoke about their experiences in the medical field, as well as Marion Hunt, a graduate of Radcliffe, who spoke about Virginia Apgar ’29, a Mount Holyoke alum and a pioneer in natal care and anesthetics.

The event was sponsored by the Alumnae Association and the Mellon Foundation, one of a series of events organized around the national exhibition “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” which traveled to the Mount Holyoke College Library during September. Sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health, with additional support from the American Medical Women’s Association, the exhibition features information about the work and lives of some of the country’s most influential women doctors.

The historical and current experience of women in medicine remains relevant as many Mount Holyoke students move on to medical careers after graduation. “It’s women like Virginia Apgar who paved the way,” said Garner. “But definitely I would say the old boy’s club is still very present and very strong.” That fact hit her even harder once she started medical school, she said. “After four wonderful years at Mount Holyoke, in a warm, comfortable environment here, after being told ‘you can do anything you want,’” I quickly lost a lot of that confidence,” said Garner. “It’s a matter of sticking it out and proving that you do know what you’re talking about as a woman.” More...

Alumnae in Action

his fall, alumnae in action is focusing on hunger in alumnae’s home communities. Locally, the Alumnae Association is teaming up with MHC students, classes, and clubs for a volunteer event on Thursday, November 9, from 4-7 PM, at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield. We’ll begin with a guided tour of the operations, then we’ll help sort donated food in the warehouse. For those who can’t make it to the Food Bank, you can help by making a donation of ten dollars to the organization (click on the Food Bank link for details) to buy a holiday turkey for a local family.

We warmly encourage you to call classmates and club members in your area and organize your own Alumnae in Action food project. You can start a food drive, volunteer at an organic farm, raise funds for a food distribution agency, or help out at a soup kitchen. Let us know what your club or class is planning, and we’ll send each of you a custom-designed Alumnae in Action water bottle and bandanna as a gift.

After the event, photos and descriptions of Alumnae in Action events around the world will be posted on the Association Web site. To find more information, or to register for our local Food Bank event, please visit our Web site.

Cori’s Career Corner

all and winter bring a host of career fairs, located up and down the East Coast. As alumnae, you are welcome to attend our college-sponsored events (please see list below). If you have questions or need further information, please check the Career Development Web site. We keep it updated and comprehensive, so check it out!

I am also listing a few other general job fairs that I am aware of, but there may be additional fairs in each cosmopolitan area. For example, to find more information about job fairs in Boston, you can check www.Boston.com for this information. In addition, I recommend checking industry professional associations to identify industry-specific job fairs that may be of interest to you.

Mount Holyoke College Affiliated Career Fairs

Liberal Arts Recruiting Consortium
Thursday, November 2, and Friday, November 3, 2006
Tremont Hotel, 275 Tremont St, Boston, MA
Range of companies, check CDC Web site for complete information
Resumes collected at evening reception, November 2, and at job fair November 3.

Big Apple Recruiting Consortium (BARC)
Friday February 23, 2007
American Management Association
1601 Broadway
New York, NY
Applications through MHC in advance by January 15, 2007

In other news, I am starting a new job support group on November 15, 2006, targeted at young alumnae who graduated five years ago or less. We will determine the needs of the group in the first meeting. In each subsequent session we will review a career topic, discuss “homework” for the week, and consider various challenges members may be encountering in their career work. Meetings will be held on Wednesday evenings from 8-9 PM, with the following schedule: Nov. 15, Nov. 29, Dec. 6, and Dec. 13, ending before the holidays.

If you are interested in participating, please contact me at cashwort@mtholyoke.edu. I hold the size of the group to eight members, so first come, first served. Remember you can get in touch with me to ask your career questions, or arrange for a private consultation, at any time. Best of luck in all your professional endeavors!

I-Witness

reated to feature personal alumnae perspectives on breaking news around the world, this month’s “I-Witness” features an article by Cybèle Cochran ’98, a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco:

“Sometimes I think that my life in the Peace Corps is like a more realistic version of that TV show ‘The Simple Life.’ Here’s the scenario: corporate girl from New York City gets dropped in remote Moroccan village, with electricity but sans running water. Give her a salary of $200 a month, teach her to speak Berber, and tell her to train illiterate women artisans in basic business skills. Welcome to my life for the past two years.

“I arrived in a sprawling village called Tazart at the base of the Atlas Mountains in December of 2004. My initial lack of language skills rendered me functionally unable to speak, to understand what was said to me, or to read a single word. What saved me from loneliness? The friendliness of Moroccans. Strangers on the street greeted me excitedly and invited me into their homes. There they served me sugary green tea with herbs, and bread with olive oil and honey. When I got up to leave, they pressed gifts on me of homemade bread, eggs from their chicken coops, and household trinkets. A little girl gave me her prized toy; an old woman took a ring off her finger and insisted I take it.

“You may wonder how people whose main access to the outside world is Al-Jazeera could welcome me so unhesitatingly into their homes. My answer is this: every Moroccan I met saw a clear distinction between American foreign policy (in other words, Israel and the Iraq war) and Americans. It amazed me that not one person expressed anti-Americanism. Friends from home worried that I was unsafe in a Muslim nation; I assured them I was far safer in Morocco than in the streets of Manhattan.

“I’ve enjoyed my ‘simple life.’ I wake up around 6:30 in the morning and eat breakfast in front of the kitchen faucet, waiting for water to come on. Then I refill the bucket by the toilet, the barrel where I store cleaning water, and the bottles for drinking water. I water my vegetable garden and hand-wash clothing if there is laundry. I squeegee the kitchen floor since it is generally covered in dust from the desert winds; if the water is still on I’ll clean the bedroom and courtyard floors as well, before taking a quick bucket bath.

“Then it’s time to bake the bread (from flour I milled myself after buying the whole wheat and barley at our weekly market). After preparing two small loaves, it’s 10 AM. Some days I spend a couple hours at the women’s center where the artisans embroider. I check the progress of new products, the status on orders, and inventory for upcoming crafts fairs. Other days I visit women in their homes, enjoying tea and bread and conversation. Once a week, I go to the post office an hour away; in that town I can check my e-mail and buy goodies like skim milk and plain yogurt.

“When I get home it’s 8 or 9 PM. It makes me laugh when I realize I ‘work’ as many hours as when I was a management consultant. But many of those hours are spent as a cultural ambassador for America. I love sitting with new friends and exchanging ideas. The Peace Corps expects us volunteers to not only share American culture during our service but take the host county’s culture back with us. I imagine, among other things, I’ll be serving some pretty tasty bread.”

Online Class Notes

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

Miriam (Bobrow) Raphael (1947)
Miriam (Bobrow) Raphael (1947) writes, “Mountain Day memories: Freshman year – Mountain Day 1943 – about 20 of us split into two groups. Each group, riding the other team’s bicycles, rode to one end or the other of the Mount Holyoke Range, hiked across, found our own bikes at the base of the mountain and rode back to campus...”

Susan Storey (1971)
Susan Storey (1971) writes, “For those of you I met in the class of 1971 – I finally made it back to MHC in the winter of 1978 and graduated in 1979. I am very grateful to MHC for the opportunity to finish what I started! I now live in Durham CT with my husband, 2 dogs, 2 horses and a cat. I was recently appointed as the first woman...”

Louise Denegre (1980)
Louise Denegre (1980) writes, “I can’t believe it’s been over a year since our 25th Reunion — the first one I’ve attended, and I had the great pleasure of bringing my daughter, Adriana Tosun. She had as much fun as I did...Here’s hoping she’ll consider MHC, as she’ll be off to college in only three years.”

Emily Van Nort (2000)
Emily Van Nort (2000) and Joe Mercadante are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Margaret (Maggie) Jane Mercadante. She was born on April 14, 2006 in Newton, MA, and weighed 6 lb., 14 oz.. Maggie’s Aunt Melissa Mercadante (2000ish) is also very proud and excited to babysit!  

Devon Hill (2004)
Devon Hill (2004) recently accepted a position at Village Solutions Company as Cultural Markets Director. Devon recently was employed at Prairie State College as Professor. “I have left Prairie State College after teaching anthropology for a year to work as the Cultural Markets Director for a Commerical real estate consultating firm...”

Lyndsey Schutte (2005)
Lyndsey Schutte (2005) recently accepted a position at UPitt – Genomics located in Pittsburgh. Lyndsey recently was employed at Gene Logic – R&D. “Hey all! I’ve moved to Pittsburgh and am researching in a genetics lab here, mainly working with gene chips and lab robots. Let me know if you’re in the area and want to hang out!”

Marion Altieri (MHFP)
Marion Altieri (MHFP) writes, “I’m living in Saratoga Springs, New York, and loving working in the most beautiful sport on Earth—Thoroughbred horseracing. Putting the finishing touches on my first book, the inspiring story of Thoroughbred Champion, Azeri (a FEMALE!!) and the great men who took her all the way to Horse of the Year for 2002...”