PHOTO BY FRED LEBLANC
	Melani S. Cheers '02, Ioli Christopoulou '01, and Joanna M. Dittmer '01 at winter convocation.

Students, faculty, and staff braved the cold to commence second semester and honor MHC women at winter convocation January 29. Annemarie Farrell '01, senior class president, President Joanne V. Creighton, and Daniel J. Czitrom, professor and chair of the history department, addressed the MHC community.

In President Creighton's address, she told students that they were a part of a new frontier, one where "technology is radically and rapidly changing the world of the twenty-first century, opening up a virtual renaissance of possibility." With great optimism, Creighton told students, "we have faith in you who are now coming of age" and "we are very encouraged by the potential we see in you and are proud of our role in educating you." She told seniors not to worry when asked what they would do after graduation and that they should give themselves some space, advising, "You can always say inscrutably that you are going to go where no one else will go and do what no one else will do."

PHOTO BY FRED LEBLANC
Convocation speakers Joanne V. Creighton and Daniel Czitrom.

January marked the 100th anniversary of Mary E. Woolley's inauguration as MHC president, and Czitrom inspired the audience with his speech about her accomplishments and strength. "Woolley's achievements," he said, "were remarkable." Noted Czitrom, she counted among her accomplishments guiding MHC in its transition from a female seminary into a modern college, doubling the size of the student body and faculty; increasing the endowment nearly tenfold; abolishing secret societies and domestic work for students; and making it a requirement that faculty have advanced degrees.

"Through it all, her [Woolley's] central credo might be summed up as follows: 'Education for women as human beings,' " Czitrom said. "She also made herself a force in the larger world through her position here," he added. Woolley supported women's suffrage and campaigns on behalf of organized labor and identified with the social progressivism of friends such as Jane Addams and Lillian Wald. In 1932, she made headlines when President Hoover appointed her as the only female delegate to the International Disarmament Conference in Geneva. Czitrom also spoke of her replacement, Roswell Ham, and the regrettable circumstances behind the trustees' choice of a man to replace her.

Janet C. Hall '70, former president of the Alumnae Association and Mount Holyoke trustee fellow, presented Mary Lyon Awards to physician and cancer researcher Elizabeth I. Onyemelukwe Garner '89, and to Mona K. Sutphen '89, director of strategic planning and policy at Currenex, Inc., a company that provides operational online global currency exchange for institutional buyers and sellers worldwide. Sutphen has also served as special assistant to former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. The award is given to an alumna who graduated from the College within the past fifteen years who demonstrates promise or sustained achievement in her life, profession, or community that is consistent with the humane values that Mary Lyon exemplified in her life and inspired in others.

Hall said that while at MHC, Garner lead choirs, sang solo in front of large MHC audiences, aced organic chemistry exams, and won squash matches against the squash instructor. Hall told Garner, "Beth, you are a quarry of talents and you mine each one with the precision of a diamond cutter."

Sutphen was unfortunately unable to attend convocation, but her citation was read before the community. She was honored for her achievements in international relations and government service.