In this issue…

Volume 2 • 5 October 2007 • Issue 7

	Welcome from the Executive Director Lifelong learning		Alumnae Calendar Seven Sisters Alumnae Seminar
	Alumna to Student Give advice, win an iPod		Alumna to Alumna Stories of MHC heart and soul
	Alumnae Quarterly Seeking photographers, new “Click Picks”		Mount Blog Common Reading 2007
	Making News MHC alumnae in the media		I-Witness Climate research in Siberia
	Online Class Notes Read the latest news from your sister alumnae

Welcome from the Executive Director

Mount Holyoke education continues long past graduation—and can take you places far beyond the gates of the College. Alumnae Association Educational Travel trips around the globe, Lyon Lectures, and the Speakers’ Bureau program are just a few ways to stay connected to the vibrant intellectual life of your alma mater. Now there’s another way, and you don’t even have to leave your armchair. This fall, Mount Holyoke, in partnership with the New York Times’ Knowledge Network, will offer two online courses taught by popular MHC professors Vinnie Ferraro and Robin Blaetz.

Ferraro’s course, The End of History or the Clash of Civilizations? begins October 17 and ends November 7; registration closes October 12. Blaetz’s course, Inside the Art and Craft of Film, runs from October 16 through November 6; registration closes October 11. If you’ve ever wished you could come back to Mount Holyoke and do it all over again (and who hasn’t?), this is a wonderful way to start. Click here to find out more.

For those of you who like learning in the classroom of experience—and who think fabulous food and great art should be part of every class you take—I’m happy to report that we still have spaces left in our Art and Arias: Italia trip in March 2008. Join Mount Holyoke art professor John Varriano on a cultural tour of Milan, Bergamo, and Venice, and come back with expert knowledge on great Italian artists and composers (as well as the magnificent cheeses of Parma).

What are some of the ways you expand your knowledge? Books, travel, museums, wine-tastings? Stimulating conversations with interesting people? (That’s one of my favorites.) Write and tell me about your lifelong learning—I learn something whenever I hear from you.

Warm regards,

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

Alumnae Calendar

n October 17, 2007, the 28^th annual Alumnae Seminar, “Women Empowering Women: Agents for Change around the World,” will be held from 9 am to 1:30 pm at The Italian Center in Stamford, Connecticut. A panel of innovative women leaders will explore how and why women are making a difference in global health, education, and economic empowerment. The panel moderator is Kay Maxwell, former president of the U. S. League of Women Voters.

The seminar, a public forum on a topic of current interest, is presented as a public service by a committee of alumnae from the original Seven Sisters Colleges: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley.

Panelists include Nancy Barry, president, NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, and past president/CEO, Women’s World Banking; Dr. Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and director of the council’s Women and Foreign Policy Program; Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, founder and chair, Women’s Campaign International, and former U.S. Congresswoman, Pennsylvania; and Gretchen Wallace, founder and president, Global Grassroots. The panel moderator is Kay Maxwell, executive director of the World Affairs Forum and former president of the U. S. League of Women Voters. The seminar includes lunch. Click here for more information and a printable registration form.

Alumna to Student

hat’s the best piece of advice you ever received, or wish you had received, as a student? Share your words of wisdom with current students—they’re eager to hear from you. We’ll post your tips on the “MHC Student” section of our Web site (and we’ll enter you to win an iPod touch).

Your advice can be general (best way to cook an eggplant, topics to avoid at the staff holiday party), or related to your Mount Holyoke career. Which academic course, extracurricular activity, internship, or experience taught you the most? What knowledge or strategy has been the most helpful to you in your post-MHC life? Tell us all about it on the entry form. You’ll see examples of alumnae advice shared with students in the past to help give you an idea. Some are as short and sweet, such as “Try not to sweat the future—soak up as much pleasure as you can in every present moment.” Others focus on presenting research, writing an abstract, or studying for exams.

Whatever you have to say, remember to say it by October 15, the entry deadline. You may or may not win an i-Pod touch—but you’ll definitely win the alumnae good karma sweepstakes. Thanks for your help!

The Jolene Fund

Established by alumnae in 2003, the Jolene Fund provides interest-free loans to help students who have been cut off financially from their parents due to their sexual orientation. This year, thanks to the Jolene Fund, two students were able to complete their college education even after their parents refused to continue to pay tuition.
Go to www.mhlp.org/jolene to read more about the namesake and the history of the fund.

Alumna to Alumna

lumna to Alumna” is an occasional column highlighting alumnae who have taken the Mount Holyoke ideal of service to heart. This month, we are pleased to feature an interview with Peggy Andrews ’90, an attorney who has made her life a testament to the power of giving back.

What were some of your volunteer roles, and what drew you to those particular roles?

“I meet alums and they always ask, ‘Are you interested in doing this or that?’ and before I know it, I’m volunteering. I’m on the boards of several nonprofits, many with Seven Sisters alumnae. One I’m especially committed to is the country’s oldest feminist women’s choir, Anna Crusis. We do events and fundraising, programming, legal advising. As a corporate litigator, I use my legal skills as jumping-off point for my volunteer work. Special events are my passion. I’m still on the board of the Philadelphia club and do at least one or two events a year—including organizing private tours at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We just did the King Tut exhibit, which was led by an alumna docent. Fantastic!

“Because I work with other boards and because I go to a lot of events, I meet people. If I know of something happening that’s great and educational, I always include Mount Holyoke. For example, I went to a private event and met a yoga instructor who turned out to be the first yoga instructor for MTV. With [associate director of clubs] Krysia Villón’s help, I approached her to do private Pilates/yoga classes for club members. I’m so excited! We’re trying to have different types of events to focus on female health: lectures, workshops, nutrition classes, body awareness seminars.” More…

Alumnae Quarterly

Mount Blog

uthor Elizabeth Kolbert read from and discussed her book Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, this year’s MHC Common Read, on Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm in Chapin Auditorium. The book explores climate change and humanity’s relationship to the Earth.

The acclaimed New Yorker journalist also led an informal discussion with students from in the Cassani Lounge, Shattuck Hall. Kolbert talked about her career and her experiences while writing the book. This event, co-hosted by environmental studies, is the first in the Center for the Environment’s yearlong Environmental Leadership series.

The College created a blog for alumnae and students who have read the book—or are interested in reading it—and want to share comments and thoughts with one another. Find out what people are saying about this incendiary work, and explore links to other resources, at the Common Read blog on Mount Blog.

A Blog for Women

Brie Kluytenaar ’02 and Huma Khan ’01 have just launched a blog aimed at connecting and empowering young women from all over the globe. The blog, available on the Alumnae Association’s Mount Blog, will feature profiles of women who inspire others through their work in a broad variety of fields. It will also feature articles, interviews, and commentary on current and world events.

Brie, a law student, and Huma, a recent business school graduate, hope that their Web site will function not only as a showcase for women’s experiences and perspectives, but also as a networking tool for women both in and across their professions. The two alums plan to feature a different woman and/or new story each week.

Making News

Elyse D. Frishman ’76, a Reform rabbi and one of the first Mount Holyoke students to attend rabbinical school, is the editor of the new Reform Jewish prayer book, Mishkan T’filah. The New York Times featured an article on September 3, 2007 about Rabbi Frishman and the new prayer book, which features gender-neutral language and was twenty years in the making. More…

Katey Walter ’97, a scientist studying climate change in Alaska, was featured in a September 10 story on National Public Radio. Walter, who teaches at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, was interviewed by Melissa Block about her study of methane emissions from lakes in the far north—Alaska, Siberia, and elsewhere. More…

Meg Massey ’08 is so close to being an alumna (and is interning for the Alumnae Quarterly this year) that we felt compelled to include her good news. Meg interned this summer at Time magazine in New York; on July 23, 2007, her article on a sexual assault trial was published on the magazine’s Web site, Time.com. It became the most-viewed article on the site, and was also posted on CNN.com. More…

I-Witness

reated to feature personal alumnae perspectives on breaking news around the world, this month’s “I-Witness” features an article on climate research by Katey Walter ’97. This article originally appeared on the Web site of National Public Radio.

In 2001, Walter, now a scientist teaching at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, traveled to Russia as a doctoral student of limnology (the study of lakes). She spent the summer in Yakutia, in Russia’s Far East, where a unique set of permafrost conditions exists. Walter’s mission in Siberia was to understand how ice melting in the ground surrounding lakes causes lakes to expand and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas that enhances global warming.

This summer field season is drawing to a close. Here in the Arctic, it is the change of season. After months of continuous light, the sun has begun to set behind the horizon in the evenings. The dwarf birch trees are turning red, and it is the time to gather blueberries, low-bush cranberries and red currants. The moon hangs high in our northern sky. For four days, the old man has shown his face, a bright reflection on the floodplain rivers, which these late summer days are turning from blue to black. We welcome the man in the moon. His nighttime cloak reminds us that we are human, exhausted from summer’s long field days. Like high arctic plants that take advantage of the summer’s continuous light to photosynthesize without rest, we too are subject to one intense work shift that lasts for two months. In the fall, darkness in the North brings rest to us all. The dwarf pine have already laid their heavy branches on the ground, ready for the first blanket of snow to fall, tucking them in for winter’s rest.

Tonight is a beautiful night for a limnologist and her field assistant. Dmitri and I anchor our little red rowboat in the middle of a large lake to measure the temperature, pH and oxygen contents of the water column all the way to the lake’s dark bottom 33 feet below. More…

Online Class Notes

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

Alexander Ommaya MA ’88 and Adrienne Ommaya are happy to announce their marriage on August 12, 2006 in Jamaica. They currently reside in Washington, DC. “Adrienne and I got married and spent our honeymoon in Jamaica last summer.”  

Lisa Bresh Vasas ’90 and Martin Vasas are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Julia Rose. She was born on June 20, 2007 in Bridgeport, CT, and weighed 8 lb., 6 oz.. Julia joins big brother Charles who’s thrilled at having a baby sister. The whole family is doing well; she’s a really good baby, just like her brother was, although she started sleeping through the night much earlier than he did.  

Ann Lyles MacPhail ’91 is proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, Lucas Alexander MacPhail. He was born on July 28, 2006 in Mountain View, CA, and weighed 8 lb., 13 oz.. “I’m feeling guilty about waiting a full year to announce the birth of my second child, but I guess I’ve had my hands full. Lucas turned 1 in July and his proud big brother, Gabriel, is 3 and 1/2. I haven’t practiced dentistry in 3 years, but I’ll return when the kids are older…”

Jill Westfall ’93 writes, “Some fun news… Kate Yandoh ’92, a fellow journalist in Atlanta, and I attended a VIP Reception and performance with Jane Fonda last night! We found her to be really gracious and warm, she gave us a lot of time and we got photos!!!! Kate is almost eight months pregnant and looks FANTASTIC! We kept saying throughout the evening that the event was very Mount Holyoke - the theme of the evening is women tapping into their own unique power - and changing the world…”

Jennifer Bussiere Leighton ’96 and Corey Leighton are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Margaret Maureen. She was born on June 16, 2007 in Leominster, MA, and weighed 9 lb., 10 oz. - Maggie arrived just a few hours past her due date after a super speedy “no time for an epidural” labor! She’s been home for three months now, and we can’t imagine life without her!  

Heather Albert ’03 recently accepted a position at Central Montgomery Mental Health/MR Center located in Norristown, PA as Adult Intensive Case Manager. Heather recently was employed at Las Vegas Recovery Center as Recovery Tech. “After several years of being in human resources and recruiting, I decided to put my degree(s) to use! I relocated for a short period to Nevada where I worked in Substance Abuse Recovery and most recently have accepted a position at Central Montgomery Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center as an Adult Intensive Case Manager…”