Spring 2006 Alumnae Quarterly Web Extra

Bragging Rights: Unusual (and Often Unsung) Alumnae Talents

We all know that Mount Holyoke alumnae are frequently success stories—passionate about their jobs and families, traveling all over the world, donating money to charities, and so on. But it’s an MHC tradition to be reluctant to call attention to one’s accomplishments. However, when the Quarterly practically forced alumnae to say what they do better than almost anyone else, they responded with these impressive—and often surprising—claims.

Below are expanded versions of some “brags” that appeared in the printed Quarterly, and additional ones. Enjoy.

Jane Zippe Putscher ’87 can recall lyrics to songs she has not heard in over 20 years. Putscher heard “Song for America” by Kansas one day in the car, and instantly recognized it, although she could not remember the group’s name. After looking up the radio station’s playlist online, “I purchased the CD within the week and was listening to it in my car,” said Putscher, “‘Song for America’ ended and the very next song started, which I immediately recognized and sang word for word, although it was 20 years ago since I last heard it. It’s called ‘The Wall’ and I sill have no idea exactly why I know this song, but it’s all still there in my distant memory. I can’t remember what I need in the basement by the time I get down there, but I remember lyrics from 20 years ago!”

Jerri Barrett ’83 claims to be better at networking than anyone she knows. “I was actually quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on networking,” she said, “I do it through many nontraditional methods but have actually done some talks on it for several women’s organizations.” Jerri joined a group called Sisters in Crime, which is for women mystery writers and readers. Through it she met her three best friends in Dallas, Texas. When Jerri was laid off, one of them found her a job with Nortel Networks in California. Jerri also joined a fan list for a TV show and got to know people so well that she became their charity auctioneer at two of their fan conventions, raising over $20,000 for cancer and Lake Tahoe preservation charities. She also joined a knitting group, which resulted in not only new friends, but a business—“I’ve made money when meeting with them—people come up and are interested in my designs and I’ve actually taken orders while sitting at the table.”

Alison Hersey Risch ’59 is still active as a college umpire in field hockey and lacrosse and as an assigner for both sports. She was inducted into the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Halls of Fame after a lifetime of playing, coaching, and umpiring both sports.

Stacy-Colleen Nameth ’94 believes her greatest accomplishment is working with adolescent males who are on probation due to various offenses including vandalism, burglary, and possession of deadly weapons. “My job is to help them gain insight into the events that have damaged them and led to illegal behavior as a way of acting out unmet needs,” Stacy-Colleen said, “I work with the families, who are usually single parents and who have experienced extreme poverty, substance abuse, incarceration and abuse, in order to help with reunification and disengagement with the probation system. Most are re-arrested soon after leaving, often due to drug and alcohol relapse or a lack of emotional support from the family and/or community they return to. However, many allow a seed to be planted and within time, will use what they have learned in the program, even if it is a few years later.”

Landi Saifer ’90 is an organization development consultant with expertise in the areas of executive coaching, leadership development and individual assessment. She has a doctorate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She describes her job as, “I travel all over the world telling people what to do...and they listen!”

Noelle Parsons Granger ’65 is one of a rapidly diminishing number of faculty nationally who can teach human anatomy. “Our ranks have been decimated in recent years by retirements and the elimination of the graduate programs that trained students in this discipline to replace the retirees,” she said, “As a result, medical, dental and physical therapy programs across the country are struggling to find warm bodies to teach this rather important subject and have resorted to shortening their courses, eliminating the dissection laboratories (which is where the expertise is essential) and using online, computerized materials.”

Susan Weinstock Morgenstein ’64 is the “best person to attend a museum with,” according to Beth Schnoll Krugman ’64. “Susan was a curator for the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. where she developed, among other things, the children’s exhibit, ‘Daniel’s Life,’” said Beth, “Since leaving the museum she has worked as a curator and guest curator over the years, so going to an art gallery or museum with her is an amazing (and exhausting) experience.”

Julianne Puckett ’91 wrote in with instructions of how to fold pesky fitted sheets: “take two “corners” of the fitted sheet, which should be facing right-side down, by making each of your hands into a point, as if you were picking up something very tiny with all your fingers. Then stick one pointed hand into each corner from the bottom (like a tent pole) from the underneath (the ‘right’ side). Next, transfer one corner onto the top of the other in a dumping/crowning motion, which now means that the ‘right’ side is facing up. Then you square up that edge by folding the sheet in about 8-10 inches on both sides. Once you do this for both ends, you end up with a rectangle with four corners that can then be folded just like a flat sheet.”

Patty Perreault Bennett ’72 described her cheerleading accomplishments in a poem:

What do I do better than anyone else?

I am a cheerleader
Through and through
With lots of practice
Since 1962.

The Junior High Hawks
My very first team
At South Hadley Intermediate
We were all “on the beam.”

With our green felt skirts
And white button down shirts
“2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar,
All for South Hadley,
Stand up and holler.”

Then the South Hadley Tigers
We were orange and black
High School football and basketball
(never soccer or track).

Being Halloween colors
We took lots of ribbing
But we managed to cope
Turning cheeks, and by fibbing.

We wore turtlenecks
And wool skirts with big wide pleats
Sneakers and bobby socks
And team signs on big bed sheets.

“FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT,
GGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr FIGHT”
Our favorite somersault cheer,
The fans loved it every night.

When S.H.H.S. was over,
M.H.C. became my cry.
No “official” cheerleaders,
Of course, it is a girls’ school, oh my!

I do remember playing field hockey
And cheering for the blue and white.
But mostly I cheered on my own department,
Mathematics majors unite!!

Graduation came for me
In 1972
Then off to teaching high school
And coaching cheerleaders, too.

Cheering for my cheerleaders
What a great profession!
Satisfying very much
My own life obsession.

Then in 1976 I hit the jackpot
Of my wildest cheering dream,
I made the Patriette Squad
For the New England Patriots
Football Team!!!

A professional cheerleader!
How I loved the way that sounds.
Mini-skirts and ruffled shirts
White go-go boots abound.

Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary”
Was our favorite dance routine.
We never made the Super Bowl,
But twice on TV we were seen.

After two terrific years
The pro cheering mission I abort.
(They put in a height requirement
And by gosh, I was too short!)

In ’81 my life took a turn
I became a wife and mother
So my cheering became focused
On my significant other,

And on my two very special
And precocious little girls:
My Little Ponies, and Barbie
Dolls and hairdos with big curls.

Cheering for my daughters
Through all their different stages,
All their sports and all their clubs
And all their jobs with no real wages

Too many to list out here,
But in very special years,
I was a big time class cheerleader
For my reunions and my peers.

How I love those white processions
Around the campus when it’s sunny,
Cheering on the old alums
Who give the college so much money.

Then in 1996
I went back to work again,
Cheering on more students
That for math, had not a yen...

The world out there has changed
But the kids mercifully have not.
They do all the same things
As when I first taught.

I encourage more now
And wear ID’s around my neck,
Set detentions by appointment,
Do grades by computer
With my own “hunt and peck.”

For fun I joined Hell’s Belles,
A Red Hat Society ladies’ group.
Now I cheer in red and purple
With a hat on, that’s the scoop.

Forty-three years of cheering
Makes me an expert, don’t you think?
Sometimes a bonafide cheerleader;
Sometimes just an enthusiastic wink.

My maiden name initials
Spell a word that truly fits:
I have always been complimented
On my “P.E.P.” and energy bits.

So I will keep on cheering up until I’m
60, 70, 80 or even 92,
For I am a cheerleader
Through and through and through!

Find An Alum

Update Your Info

Give to Mount Holyoke

Shop for Gifts

Visit Us

Experience Virtual Café