News & Events: 2009 European Alumnae Symposium

News & Events

Mount Holyoke European Alumnae Symposium
Brain Power: Build it, Use it, Keep it

The Oxford Symposium in numbers

100 + Alumnae and Guests attended
7 decades of reunion classes (1945 - 2009)
18 different nationalities were represented
16 different countries were represented

Over 80 alumnae gathered in Oxford, England, in late September for a weekend of lectures, discussions, networking, and friendship. Gillian Morton Reynolds GS’58, secretary of the organizing committee, reflects upon the European Alumnae Symposium.

“It was, to put it mildly, a challenge to make happen. It was, without understatement, a huge pleasure when it did. The 10th European Alumnae Symposium at St. Anne's College, Oxford, drew people from across the continent and the Atlantic. We were delighted by the early response to our theme: Brain Power. Thanks to the Alumnae Association in South Hadley, the benefit of excellent prior publicity in the Alumnae Quarterly and, most of all, through the operation of a new central booking and payment system, we reached viable numbers very early. Eventually St. Anne's had to remind us the Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre held only 100 people. For Francis Szele's opening lecture the house was full (actually, it overflowed). As he finished speaking the atmosphere was electric. It stayed that way for every session across the weekend. So a big “thank you” to everyone who came, brought guests, hosted Scholarship students, helped, didn't mind being pressed into instant, urgent tasks, sang both versions of the Alma Mater, and asked such brilliant questions that one of our speakers, Susan Smith, St. Anne's alumna, Mistress of Girton College Cambridge, asks if we'd like to go there one day.”

History of the European Alumnae Symposiums

Begun in 1987 by Renee Scialom Cary ’48, these biennial symposia provide an opportunity for alumnae living in Europe to connect with each other and attend sessions by distinguished speakers from a variety of fields. The European Alumnae Council, a group composed of one alumna from each country within the European Region, coordinates the holding of the European Alumnae Symposiums. According to Marcia Mead Lèbre ’71, European Council Chair, “The Symposium is a vehicle for intellectual and social interaction among alumnae living in Europe, MHC faculty, and administration, and introduces alumnae and their guests to sights and insights of the host city.”