April
18 , 2003 ‘Dancing
on Clouds’: Hutton Wins Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship
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Photo:
Fred LeBlanc
Nancy
(“Nan”) Hutton ’03 |
Frances
Perkins scholar Nancy (“Nan”) Hutton ’03 has
been described as a “dream student” by her Mount Holyoke
professors, and the Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
seems to agree. Last fall, the foundation awarded Hutton a scholarship
of up to $30,000 for her undergraduate expenses. This month, it
named her one of forty-three recipients (of 841 applicants) of
the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship for Graduate Studies, an award
of $50,000 per year for six years of graduate school. The scholarship
will support Hutton in a two-year master’s program at Harvard
Divinity School, beginning this fall, as well as four years of
doctoral work at an institution of her choice. The Jack Kent Cooke
Foundation was established after the death of Jack Kent Cooke,
media mogul and owner of the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles
Lakers. Unable to attend college during the Depression, Cooke
set aside the bulk of his estate to support education.
Hutton is thrilled
with the graduate scholarship. “It’s almost overwhelming,”
she said. “The opportunities at Harvard Divinity School
are legendary. With my interests in American religious history,
their archives of primary materials are the stuff dreams are made
of. Professors like Lawrence Sullivan, David Hall, Diane Eck,
Leila Ahmed, Robert Orsi, and many other prominent names in religious
scholarship are going to be available to me. And then there’s
the Center for the Study of orld Religions, Women’s Studies
in Religion, Initiatives in Religion and Public Life—Harvard
offers a veritable smorgasbord of resources, programs, and experiences.
I’m sure that I will feel like a kid in a candy shop!”
Hutton began college-level work in California’s community
college system after being denied a job promotion because she
lacked a degree. She studied and worked simultaneously, earning
a 4.0 grade point average while continuing to set records as a
director of sales and marketing. In the fall of 2000 she transferred
to Mount Holyoke, where she has pursued a degree in religion and
served as chair of the Weissman Center for Leadership’s
student advisory board and as an assistant at the Speaking, Arguing,
and Writing Center.
Mount Holyoke has been “nothing short of bliss,” says
Hutton, whose professors have similar sentiments about their award-winning
student. “Working with a student whose intellectual curiosity
appears insatiable, and whose initiative and commitment appear
unflagging, is a faculty member’s dream,” says Professor
of History Harold Garrett-Goodyear. “She is just the kind
of hungry, generous, and intellectually ambitious student that
Mount Holyoke seeks,” says Professor of Religion Jane Crosthwaite.
“I always believed that my maturity gave me certain advantages
and skills that would make me a better student and a better professor
some day,” said Hutton. “I’m grateful that the
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation believed in my dreams, too. Of course,
none of this would have been possible without the wonderful support
that I’ve enjoyed throughout my last three years here at
Mount Holyoke. I guess it all goes to show that it’s never
to late to start dancing on clouds.”
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