Sheila Davison and Arlene O'Connell

Women given chance to realize dreams
The Springfield Republican, August 26, 2005
By Holly Angelo

Like many women of her generation, Sheila E. Davison sometimes made sacrifices to make the lives of others easier, like when she dropped out of Antioch College in Ohio in 1959 so she could support her husband's educational pursuits.

"I left college to make it possible for him to finish his education," the 65-year-old Davison said earlier this month. "For some reason or another, I never got back."

About four years ago Davison learned about the Frances Perkins Program at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley.

Like the Ada Comstock Scholars Program at Smith College in Northampton, the Frances Perkins program is designed for women of nontraditional age who want to complete a bachelor of arts degree.

Last year, Davison took the plunge, commuting from her home in Sudbury to classes at Mount Holyoke. This June, she and her husband, Rich Davison, sold their home of 34 years, where they had raised their two children, put their furniture in storage and rented a house in South Hadley from a Mount Holyoke professor.

In two weeks, Davison, who worked for Digital Equipment Corp. for 20 years before retiring in 1998, will enter her second year as a Frances Perkins scholar. She is set to graduate in 2007 with a degree in critical social thought.

"I came to Mount Holyoke with my mind set that I'm nobody's mother and nobody's grandmother," Davison said. "Last year was fabulous. I kept up with the reading, the writing and the class work."

This year, the Frances Perkins program celebrated its 25th anniversary. The Ada Comstock Scholars Program is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Both programs serve mainly women 24 and older. Students can finish their degrees part-time or full-time, but must enter the program with some college credit.

The Mount Holyoke program is named after Frances Perkins, a 1902 alumna who became the first woman in the United States to hold a Cabinet post when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to be secretary of labor in 1933. The Smith College program is named for Ada Comstock, an 1897 alumna who served as dean of Smith from 1912 to 1923, and later as president of Radcliffe College from 1923 to 1943.

Fifty-seven-year-old Pamela C. Peterson of Sunderland said the Ada Comstock program "gave me the confidence in knowing who I am. I really feel I owe what I call the second half of my life to the faith the school had in me."

Peterson was 35 when she graduated from the Ada Comstock program in 1984. She arrived at Smith with an associate's degree and a yearning to move on from her position as a residential director at a girls' dormitory at a private secondary school in Connecticut. She is now a licensed independent clinical social worker with a private practice in Amherst.

For someone who earned C's and D's at junior college in 1968, it was amazing to Peterson that she was able to earn A's and B's at Smith. "I learned I really can be a good student," Peterson said.

Peterson graduated with a degree in psychology and later earned a master's of social work from the Smith College School for Social Work.
All the Ada Comstock and Frances Perkins stories are unique. The women come to Mount Holyoke and Smith College for a variety of reasons.

"Many of them have been working and have hit the glass ceiling," said Kay Althoff, director of the Frances Perkins program. "Some want to work in a field they've always dreamed of. For others, it's a lifelong dream that has been deferred. They want to get that degree they've put aside while they've helped others realize their dreams."

Arlene H. O'Connell of Holyoke is a 51-year-old divorced mother of two grown boys who has been a secretary for 20 years. She's taken a college course here and there and decided a few years ago she wanted more of a career challenge.

O'Connell is about to enter her second year at Mount Holyoke and is planning to graduate with a bachelor's degree in art history in 2007.

"Sometimes I say I can't believe I'm doing this," said O'Connell, who works as a full-time administrative assistant at Sinai Temple in Springfield and works part time at the Springfield Museums' store.

O'Connell isn't alone as she strives to finish her degree. The Frances Perkins program currently has about 150 students enrolled, while the Ada Comstock program has 200 students.

"Our mission as a college for women is to reach as many different kinds of women as possible," said Erika J. Laquer, dean of Ada Comstock Scholars. "It provides an identity and a focus for women in the program who are doing something that is not easy."

Both programs offer study groups, tutoring and other services that help their students succeed. Davison, Peterson and O'Connell all said they receive amazing support from school staff and their fellow students.

"We're always constantly encouraging each other," O'Connell said. "What I really want to do is work at the Smithsonian in (Washington,) D.C. Anything could happen. You never know."