In this issue…

Volume 1   •   20 September 2006  •   Issue 8  

	Welcome from the Executive Director Autumn Alumnae Celebrations		Web Survey Win a “Smart Women Know It” T-shirt
	Alumnae in Action A Harvest of Hope		Be part of a Quarterly article Money Talks
	A Weekend Workshop for Volunteers Alumnae Council		Facing East, Facing West Save the Date
	Cori’s Career Corner Opportunities for the Over-50		Reunion 2008 Cherished Traditions, Creative Innovations
	Awards for the AA We Know How to Connect		Common Reading for Fall 2006 Mountains Beyond Mountains
	I-Witness Alumnae perspectives on global news		Online Class Notes Read the latest news from your sister alumnae

Welcome from the Executive Director

all has officially arrived on campus, bringing with it the traditional glories of a New England autumn—crisp weather, turning leaves, pumpkin muffins in Blanchard—and the buzzing excitement of a new academic year.

At the Alumnae Association, we’re especially excited about our theme for this year: “A Celebration of Loyalty.” Volunteers are the heart and soul of the Alumnae Association. They give generously of their time, energy, dedication, and support. They mentor young students, come back to campus for career panels, open their homes to traveling students and alums, reach out to alumnae in need. Involved in everything from planning memorable reunions to organizing club events around the world, volunteers are the unsung heroes of the alumnae community. This year, we’d like to change the “unsung” nature of their work by singing their praises instead. Toward that end (no, we’re not singing—that’s a job for the M&Cs), we’ve created a distinguished new award for exceptional volunteers, the Loyalty Award.

The Loyalty Award will be given to volunteers who have longstanding commitment to supporting one area of volunteerism. This includes volunteering in the areas of Classes, Clubs, and Affiliate Groups; Admissions; Development; or specific work/special projects for the Alumnae Association or MHC. We’re planning a very special awards dinner and ceremony during Alumnae Council weekend (October 13-15), and look forward to seeing many of you there. The Alumnae Relations Committee (ARC) is also looking for your Loyalty Award nominations for next year. Let us know your suggestions for:

• the Young Alumnae Loyalty Award (for alumnae who graduated 10 years or less before the date of the coming reunion); and
• the Loyalty Award (for a member of any class holding a reunion in May 2007).

The deadline for nominations is January 15, 2007. You can find out more about the awards at our Web site.

We’re planning additional events and ways to celebrate volunteers throughout the year. If you have creative ideas about how you’d like to see volunteers recognized, please share them with me. E-mail, call, or look for me on the road—I’ll be traveling quite a bit this year, and hope to see you in your area.

With best wishes for a fabulous fall,


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

Web Survey

he Alumnae association launched a brand-new Web site in 2006. Last winter we sent an e-mail survey asking for alumnae feedback. Your responses were very helpful to us. While the overwhelming majority of you rated the site “excellent” or “very good,” some of you offered thoughtful suggestions for improvement. We listened carefully and incorporated many of your suggestions into the site—and introduced some great new features as well. These include an expanded alumnae profile section, an improved search function, and multi-media offerings.

We’d like to know what you think of the Web site now. How are we doing? Please give us your opinion by filling out a brief online survey. The survey will take about five minutes, and your name will automatically be entered into a raffle to win a beautiful, custom-designed MHC T-shirt. Three winners will be chosen among those who send back the survey by October 1, 2006. Thank you very much for your help!

Alumnae in Action

he mount Holyoke ideal of service is alive and well, judging from the success of our inaugural Alumnae in Action event held in honor of Earth Day last April. Clubs in Michigan, North Carolina, and Massachusetts (including clubs in Boston and Holyoke) gathered for day-long environmental service projects in their communities. Activities ranged from clearing riverbanks to planting school vegetable gardens to volunteering at a botanical reserve. This summer, the MHC San Diego Club organized a “Meals on Wheels” Alumnae in Action event, home-delivering meals to housebound seniors in the greater San Diego area.

This fall, following the inspiring lead of the San Diego Club, Alumnae in Action will focus on hunger in alumnae’s home communities. Locally, the Alumnae Association will work with interested classes, clubs, and affiliate groups in the greater Pioneer Valley on a comprehensive volunteer project for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The Food Bank is one of more than 200 certified food banks that are affiliated with America’s Second Harvest, a national network of food banks and food rescue programs. Each year, the Food Bank distributes more than 6 million pounds of food to agencies to help feed people in need. Plans for the local Alumnae in Action food service project include collecting and donating food to the organization’s Fresh Food Project, gathering one autumn weekend to work at the Food Bank Farm, and volunteering in the office.

We hope you will join us for this fall’s Alumnae in Action initiative. You can organize a food drive through your club, or you may want to organize a mini-reunion for your class—volunteering at a shelter, donating time at a community farm—as your food service activity. The Alumnae Association will provide resources and free promotional support for these events. At your request, we will also provide a free “action kit” containing custom-designed water bottles or bandannas as a gift for volunteers. After the event, photos and descriptions of Alumnae in Action events around the world will be posted on the Association Web site.

For further information, please visit our Web site, or contact Krysia L. Villón, assistant director of clubs, or Leanna James Blackwell, director of communications.

Be part of an Alumnae Quarterly article

he Alumnae Quarterly magazine staff is gathering information for articles in our “Making Money Work” series, and we invite your input. Our series will continue with your questions and answers from alumnae financial experts about:

• Savings (for example: how to save while living paycheck to paycheck); and
• Loans (for example: how to pay off student loans, how to consolidate debt, what is worth borrowing for)

To ask a money-related question on these topics, please send your thoughts, name, year, and contact information to Emily Weir by e-mail or send a letter to her c/o Alumnae Quarterly, MHC/Mary Woolley Hall, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486). If e-mailing, please include “Making Money Work” in the subject line.

A Weekend Workshop for Volunteers

alling all alumnae volunteers! Join us on the beautiful MHC campus next month for:

Alumnae Council 2006
Are you a new alumna volunteer? We’d like to invite you back to campus for a weekend designed just for you on October 13-15, 2006. Alumnae Council 2006 is an energizing program of workshops and planning sessions (as well as networking events, dinners, and a first-time-ever Speakers Bureau faculty tea). Join us for a wonderful weekend, and pick up all the tools and resources you need to be a successful leader in your new volunteer position. For more information, please visit our Web site.

Facing East, Facing West

he 4th triennial Asian/Asian-American Alumnae and Student Conference, “Facing East, Facing West: From the Gates of Mount Holyoke to a Global Citizenship,” will be held on campus the weekend of November 3-5, 2006. MHC’s Asian/Asian-American alumnae can expect to receive registration materials shortly.

Through dynamic workshops, panels, presentations, and performances, the conference will explore issues of Asian and Asian-American identities, communities, and global citizenship in a “mosaic” society. Highlights include:

• A panel discussion with MHC faculty on US/Asian relations.
• A talk by Sonali Gulati ’96, Mount Holyoke alumna and filmmaker, who will open the conference with a lecture, “Disembodied & Outsourced: Reconfiguring South Asian Identity” and a screening of her award-winning documentary film, “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night.”
• A keynote address by Angela E. Oh, who served on the seven-member Advisory Board to President Clinton’s Initiative on Race. Her address, “Holding On and Letting Go,” will explore issues of leadership and the global community.

For more information on this exciting event, please e-mail Maya D’Costa.

Cori’s Career Corner

reetings, alumnae! It has been a good summer for job growth, and many companies are looking for new staff. For this e-newsletter, I would like to concentrate on the over-50 crowd. Because of the declining supply of young workers in the next 10 to 20 years, many employers are taking notice and creating more flexible hours and benefits to draw older workers. The data shows that older workers are generally more reliable, highly engaged, and wise as a result of their life experience.

This is good news for the over-50 bunch who want to work, but it also signals good things for young workers who may want benefits such as flex time as well. A recent AARP bulletin lists the top 50 employers with practices friendly to older workers; many are in the medical fields. Although companies may lag in how quickly they are changing to accommodate older workers, major human resources consulting firms cite emerging changes in job descriptions that benefit this valuable group of workers. Some positions now involve fewer physical requirements, offer flexible hours or project oriented-work, and/or allow work from home.

New cyber-sites are springing up everywhere. An article by Kristi Essick of CareerJournal.com, a division of the Wall Street Journal, cites SeniorBank.com, YourEncore.com, Seniors4Hire.org, and Dinosaur-Exchange.com. These sites are just starting, but they signal the change that is coming.

For our younger alumnae, please remember that you are invited to attend the career fairs we support this fall. A good one to keep in mind is LARC (Liberal Arts Recruiting Connection), a job fair and interview day in Boston on November 3, 2006. You can find more information by clicking on the “Recruiting” link on the CDC Web site.

Good luck in your career endeavors!

Reunion 2008

n response to extensive alumnae feedback, we are pleased to offer a new reunion format tailored to your individual needs and preferences, and we’re excited to share the details with you. First, though: Why the change? Quite simply, because alumnae requested it. Our motto at the Alumnae Association is “Find out what alumnae want and give it to them.” Toward that end, we pay special attention to alumnae reunion feedback. About two years ago, we noticed a trend in your feedback: older classes and younger classes were asking for different and specific programming during their reunions. This discovery presented us with a unique opportunity: to find ways to honor our reunion tradition while invigorating it at the same time—and to do so efficiently, economically, and effectively.

And so the Reunion Ad Hoc Committee was born—a group of dedicated alumnae volunteers and association staff spanning the generations. During their year and a half of meeting, the committee:

• attended reunions and examined every aspect of reunion programming
• researched reunion programming at similar institutions
• created and distributed a reunion survey to a wide range of alumnae (approximately 3,000 alumnae were surveyed)
• advertised in the Alumnae Quarterly for alumnae feedback on reunions
• collected and analyzed survey results and reunion evaluations
• prepared a formal committee report, with recommendations, for the Alumnae Association and its board, as well as for senior staff and trustees of the College.

The results of the survey were emphatically clear and the recommendations unanimous. Beginning in 2008, the Alumnae Association will launch the new reunion format:

Reunion I will continue to be held during commencement weekend. Classes will include:

• the 2^nd reunion class up to and including the 25^th reunion class
• the 70^th and 75^th reunion classes.

Reunion II will continue to be held the weekend following commencement. Classes will include:

• the 30^th through the 65^th reunion classes.

As the new reunion format reflects, we took your recommendations to heart. We “split” reunions according to generational preferences (although the loyalty classes will continue to attend Reunion I). We’ve retooled our offerings and streamlined our programming. It’s quite a change, but the things you’ve always loved about reunion will remain—including lots of time to enjoy the beautiful Mount Holyoke campus and your fellow classmates. For more information, or to get answers to any questions you may have about reunion, please contact Joni Haas Zubi, associate director of classes and reunion.

Awards for the AA

e are very happy to report that the Alumnae Association received two prestigious awards at the 2006 Harris Connect User’s Conference, held this year in Las Vegas for technological staff at colleges and universities around the country. We received a Peer Recognition Achievement Award for our July Laurel Chain (monthly AA e-newsletter) and for our “Fall Visions of Mount Holyoke” flash broadcast e-mail, sent to all alumnae in fall 2005.

The Best E-mail Newsletter recognizes the e-mail newsletter with the best presentation of graphics and content. The Most Innovative Use of Broadcast E-mail recognizes the best graphics and content of a broadcast e-mail presentation. You can see we had some excellent competition on Harris Connect’s Web site.

While we’re thrilled that our efforts to bring alumnae the best in Web and e-mail technology are recognized by our peers, we’re most pleased when we hear from you. Let us know how you like the Laurel Chain by e-mailing us at scoleman@mtholyoke.edu, or take our Web survey (and win a free MHC T-shirt!).

Common Reading for Fall 2006

he Alumnae Association is pleased to announce a new feature: an online book blog for alumnae focusing on the fall MHC Common Reading. Facilitated by director of communications Leanna James Blackwell, the new blog will allow alumnae to post and respond to comments, responses, and questions about this fall’s nonfiction work, Mountains Beyond Mountains. Please visit our Web site for more information or to join the discussion.

Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of doctor Paul Farmer’s quest to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to the poor of Haiti, was chosen as the MHC Common Read for this fall’s incoming class. Many alumnae enjoy reading the Common Read selection along with students and faculty, and some alumnae clubs organize discussion groups, Speakers’ Bureau events, and other gatherings around the book.

The fall 2006 choice, by Pulitzer prize-winner Tracy Kidder, reveals how its subject, Harvard professor, infectious-disease specialist, and recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, fosters radical change in situations that appear insurmountable. Mountains Beyond Mountains also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—a leader in international health and founder of the charity Partners in Health—blasts through obstacles and convention to get results.

Author Tracy Kidder spoke at this year’s Common Read lecture in Chapin Auditorium on September 7. Kidder’s visit was part of student orientation, a multiday program run by the dean of students office to acclimate new students to Mount Holyoke. A faculty panel discussed the book with students on September 14 at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium.

To listen to an audio clip of Kidder’s talk, please go to the College’s Web site.

I-Witness

n our July e-newsletter, we introduced a new column created to feature personal contributions from alumnae around the world. Initially called “Dispatches,” the column, now called “I-Witness,” is intended to provide e-newsletter readers with an insider look at national and international news stories.

If you are directly witnessing breaking news—either as a traveler or as a resident of an affected area—we encourage you to share your experiences by e-mailing Leanna James Blackwell, director of communications. We are interested in brief journalistic accounts, opinion pieces, and personal reflections. Our plans include a message board or blog linked to “I-Witness,” which will allow alumnae to respond to the articles featured in the column. We hope to have this ready very soon.

This month, we received an article from alums Ellen Susan Goldstein ’74 and Judith Katzenelson ’71, who traveled this July to Odessa and Israel with United Jewish Communities. Originally published in full in the Buffalo News on July 30, their article is excerpted here:

Everyone remembers iconic events they can point to and tell you exactly what they were doing in their lives the time they heard the news — 9/11 in 2001, the day JFK was shot in 1963, the night John Lennon died, Pearl Harbor, V-E Day — you get the picture.

We will always remember exactly where we were when we were informed of this current Middle East crisis. We were sitting on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport with Jews from all over North America, having just landed in Tel Aviv for the second part of our United Jewish Communities mission to Odessa, Ukraine, and Israel. We had been traveling for several days, and we were exhausted.

We had just spent three days getting acquainted with the needs of the Jewish community in Odessa and visiting all sorts of people, young and old, who benefit from programs and services that we raise money to provide. But now we were in Israel, and Israel was at war. It was Wednesday, July 12, around 9:30 p.m. “Over there” was here.

We went to Israel even though the situation there was “iffy,” meaning “not totally safe.” If one waits for a “safe” time, one will wait forever, and we couldn’t wait, the Israeli children couldn’t wait, and the elderly and new immigrants couldn’t wait. We were far from the front lines in the safety of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva. We visited schools in the Negev, children at risk in special programs, Ethiopian Jews and Jews from the former Soviet Union being absorbed into the Israeli culture.

Israel’s foremost strategy for tackling immigrant absorption and poverty is always “education first.” In short, Israelis translate that into teaching immigrants how to speak the language (Hebrew), then read, then learn a new skill. Then the immigrants can contribute to their new society. So we went out to see this concept in action. We went to see what was happening in the big cities, in the Negev Desert, in the schools, the immigrant absorption programs and with Israel’s disadvantaged. We went to meet people like us and people not like us — Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Christians, Druze and Bedouins living in a constant physical and psychological state of siege.

All of us followed our preset itinerary, despite the fighting, because in Israel — regardless of what is happening — life goes on. Israelis have learned to live with the pain of the constant struggle over the land, over ideology, over water, over survival. It is incredibly difficult to build a nation, forge new allies, follow daily routines when there is so much innocent human suffering. But go on they do. You have to be very resilient to live in that corner of the world.

We Jews living in the comfort of our North American homes, away from the shelters, katusha rockets, terrorist attacks and air raid sirens, have the luxury to choose to visit, if we will visit, when to visit and how long to stay. But we live “here,” not “there.” So we protect our beloved Israel with our campaigns, our dollars and our words, not with our lives. The loss of innocent civilian life on both sides of this conflict is a tragedy. We see the pain of the Lebanese mothers as much as the Israeli mothers when their children are injured or killed. But war is a fact of life in the Middle East.

Journalist David Gordis puts it very clearly: “It’s the eighth war, or the ninth. But it isn’t the last war. It’s the first war, all over again. We’ve got this war for the same reason that we had all the others. We have this war for the same reason that people in Haifa are still saying “mi-po ani lo zaz’ (from here I am not budging — nowhere else to go).

Yes, we live in Buffalo, with our Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Ba’hai, Mormon, Sikh, Jain and atheist friends and neighbors. But the conflict goes on. Be that as it may, we continue to support Israel, work with our neighbors of all faiths in Buffalo, and try to participate in a peaceful Western New York community. We pray for a strong Lebanon and a safe and tolerant Middle East. We pray for it to become a strong place where Western-like democracy can flourish.

For the full text of the article, please visit The Buffalo News.

“I-Witness” represents the points of view of a broad and diverse alumnae community. The Alumnae Association neither endorses nor promotes any viewpoint published in this column. “I-Witness” provides a forum for a range of alumnae opinions, with the goal of promoting respectful dialogue and critical engagement.

Online Class Notes

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

Jennifer (Duval) Klee (1987)
Jennifer (Duval) Klee (1987) and Roland R. Klee are happy to announce their marriage on April 8, 2006 in Springfield, MA. They currently reside in Vernon, CT. Roland is a city planner with the city of Hartford and a graduate of NYU and Ohio State. Kathleen Usher, Jennifer Desmarais, Erin McCormack Molta ’88, Dee Drummey Boling ’88, Hilary Seager, Jessica Battaglia, Lisa Morrow, and Sarah Reed-Esper were all in attendance...

Martha Dallas (1989)
Martha Dallas (1989) writes, “I’ve recently started a new job as Interim Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington. I’m excited to be back in a liberal religious setting after six years working in public schools. I’ve also joined a new singing group whose purpose is to sing to people who are terminally ill or actively dying...”

Marcy Yeisley (1990)
Marcy Yeisley (1990) accepted a position at Roth & Spellman LLP located in New Milford, NJ as an Accountant in January 2006. Previously Marcy was employed at the technology hedge fund Graham Partners LP as their Financial Administrator. “After working eight years at Graham Partners...”

Heather (Krause) Reed (1993)
Heather (Krause) Reed (1993) and Peter Reed are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Katherine Sheila Reed. She was born on March 15, 2006 in Norwalk, CT at Norwalk Hospital, and weighed 9 lb., 3 oz. and was 21 inches long. They are so blessed to finally have a child...

Karen Jochimsen (1994)
Karen Jochimsen (1994) and Patrick Luebbers are proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, Alexander Benjamin Luebbers. He was born on August 22, 2006 in Muenster, Germany, and weighed 7 lb., 4 oz.. Mom, Dad and “Piglet” are now home and getting to know each other.  

Diane (Vanaskie) Mulligan (2001)
Diane (Vanaskie) Mulligan (2001) and Todd Mulligan are happy to announce their marriage on August 5, 2006 in Princeton, MA. They currently reside in Princton, MA. Class of ’02 members Kristen Selleck, Sarah Cumbie, Dina Finkel, Becky Dudczak, and Livka Farrell attended...

Sara Curtin (2002)
Sara Curtin (2002) writes, “I’m immersing myself in creative expression these days. I’ve started my own jewelry design business, Sara Rose Designs, and have even had a few clients already! My designs incorporate details of antique jewelry with a slightly contemporary twist...”

Rebecca Wilson (2004)
Rebecca Wilson (2004) writes, “I am currently living in Old City, Philadelphia where I am a consultant for a change management firm (Gap International, Inc) that specializes in leadership development. I was recently selected to work directly with CEOs and senior level executives of Fortune500 companies...”

Mora Cantlin (2005)
Mora Cantlin (2005) writes, “I have spent the last six months as the Development intern in Institutional Support at Jacob’s Pillow, America’s longest running dance festival and National Historic Landmark. I am learning the fundamentals of grant writing, donor relations and special events...”