September
24, 2004
The
Class of 2008 Brings Skills and Talent to Campus
Five
hundred and seventy-two new students arrived on the Mount Holyoke
campus this month, adding their energies, talents, and perspectives
to a student body already noted for its academic accomplishment,
diversity, and global awareness. Chosen from the second-largest
pool of applicants in the College’s 167-year history, the
class of 2008 continues the College’s commitment to diversity
and its long tradition of international engagement. Ninety-nine
of the new students (17 percent) are African American, Latina
American, Asian American, and Native American (ALANA) students;
78 (14 percent) are international students. The new class represents
35 states and 32 nations. In addition, there are 39 Frances Perkins
Scholars, or women of nontraditional age; 32 transferred to Mount
Holyoke from other colleges.
This year’s first-years are of the world and from around the world. Whether
tramping down the New Zealand coast, competing for gold medals at a world inline
speed-skating championship in France, or volunteering as an emergency medical
technician in Israel, MHC’s new students couple their leadership skills
with their determination to connect with the global community.
“The class of 2008 represents all that’s good and special about MHC
students—they are smart, accomplished, and deeply engaged in the communities
to which they belong,” said Diane Anci, dean of admission. “They
will surely add to Mount Holyoke’s greatness.”
Meet Some Members of
the Class of 2008
Caitlin Orr
Fullerton, California
Caitlin
Orr |
Can a T-shirt change the world? It can certainly
change a community, as Caitlin Orr discovered. During the prelude
to the attack on Iraq, Orr decided to make her antiwar feelings
known by putting up several “Think Peace” posters
in her high school. When the posters were taken down because they had not been
approved by school administrators, “I started thinking, ‘What will
they not make me tear down?’” Orr said. The answer was a black
T-shirt bearing a peace symbol and the slogans “Think peace—support
the antiwar movement” on the front and “War doesn’t decide
who’s right, only who’s left” on the back. Soon, Orr was
in the
T-shirt business, filling five dozen orders from like-minded students and
teachers. The shirts raised eyebrows and sparked considerable debate in conservative
Orange County, and prompted an article in the Los Angeles
Times. Orr’s
experience led her to contribute a chapter to Fifty
Things You Can Do to Love Your Country, published by the activist group MoveOn.org, and T-shirt sales
are at 750—and rising. Book signings have taken her around the country,
and letters responding to her work have arrived from around the world. “I
love it—it’s been fun,” said Orr, who describes herself as
a “type A personality” who enjoys public speaking. “I love
to travel, and I love people,” she said. “Mount Holyoke fits
like a glove.”
Solange Franklin
Des Moines, Iowa
Solange
Franklin |
Who was the world’s fastest junior woman on inline skates in 2001? That
would be Solange Franklin, a speed skater whose trophy case holds ample proof
that she is among the top competitors in her sport. Franklin was just ten years
old when she began her training, but knew instantly she had found her sport. “I
fell in love with it. It was competitive and fast,” she said. She loves
the idea that the competition is not with the other skaters, but with herself
and the clock. “Everybody’s friends off the floor, but on the floor
it is you and only you,” she said. Her specialty is the 300-meter sprint,
in which she won the junior women’s world championship in France in 2001.
(She has taken a hiatus from competiton since 2003, when she was first alternate
at the Venezuela World Championships, but is considering training for the world
championships this coming summer.) She applies the same approach to academics
and athletics: “I’m competitive with myself, and I think that’s
the way everybody should be,” she said. “I just want to know that
I’ve done my best.” She’s particularly interested in the
sciences, and wants to explore the limits of her abilities. Although Franklin
traveled to 30 states, France, and Belgium to collect her medals, she had to
come to Mount Holyoke to meet another Solange (the name means “solitary
angel” in French). As one of ten students in an orientation session,
she was amazed to learn that the woman sitting next to her shared her name.
Theadora “Teddy” Peterson
Kea’au, Hawaii
Theadora “Teddy” Peterson |
As a student at the Hawaii Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Teddy Peterson became aware of her state’s widespread problem of pediatric dental decay, caused
in part by uneducated parents giving their children sugary juices and sodas.
Peterson’s response was creating an instructional video promoting healthier
dental practices. The concern for others’ health was natural for Peterson,
whose interest in medicine was evident when, as a five year old, she would
pore over her mother’s medical books. Peterson also has a great love
for music; she began playing the violin as a sixth-grader, later switching
to the cello. How deep is her dedication to her music? As a beginner with just
ten lessons under her belt, she auditioned for the New England Conservatory
Orchestra, competing against young musicians who had studied for years. “Oh,
my gosh, it was terrifying,” she said. But she went ahead with the audition,
and her playing so impressed the director that he offered her a place in one
of the conservatory’s orchestras. Peterson, who found that Mount Holyoke
was the only college that “had everything on the list of what I wanted,” is
glad that she and her twin sister, Alexandra, can attend different colleges
and still stay close: Alexandra entered Smith College this fall.
Eliza Laytner
New York, New York
Eliza Laytner is not one to choose a sheltered
life. As a participant in a Young Judea Year Course in Israel,
she volunteered for three months as an emergency medical technician
in a community near Haifa. “It was intense. It was very hard. I saw some things
that I wasn’t necessarily ready to see,” Laytner
said. Helping experienced medical technicians tend to the victims
of accidents, shootings, and stabbings “gave me a feel
for what that kind of life is like,” she said. She does
not regret her choice. “I wanted adventure, I wanted a
challenge, I wanted intensity,” she said. Back home, on
the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Laytner made a conscious effort
to broaden her horizons, joining a group called Interfaith Neighbors
and tutoring a fourth-grade girl named Tia. She came to know
Tia’s world—a big sister’s unplanned pregnancy,
a big brother wounded in a shooting, a mother divorced and with
little money. “We’re only 40, 50 blocks away from
each other, but it’s a totally different world,” Laytner
said. Still, she is convinced that Tia “could go to college.
She could have that life. She could go to Mount Holyoke if she
keeps working.” Laytner is grateful for her experience. “The
best way to feel empowered,” she said, “is to empower
others.” And what about her own future? “Everything.
I want to be everything.”
Jamie McTavish-Perez
Lima, Peru
Jamie
McTavish-Perez
|
Volleyball and debate might inhabit separate worlds, but to Jamie McTavish-Perez,
who has experience on both kinds of teams, the similarities between the two
are evident. Clear communication, preparation, and teamwork, McTavish-Perez
says, are keys to success in both pursuits. She was attracted to debate by
the promise of travel, and, despite keen competition, was chosen as one of
the five students on the team that would represent Peru in world competition.
The training was at times
grueling—members gathered from 10 am to 7 pm every day for a month to
prepare—but the competition was rewarding. “We did well, and we
had a lot of fun,” McTavish-Perez said. What makes a person a good debater? “Being
able to think on your feet, having a passion for discussing really controversial
subjects, and being able to work in a team environment,” she said. Though
chosen to represent Peru, she was born in Utah. Her family followed her father’s
work as a civil engineer, moving around the United States, then making stops
in Israel and Indonesia before landing in Peru. “I’m so lucky.
I just thank my parents every day for taking me abroad,” she said. Her
bags won’t stay unpacked for long, though; she’s planning to study
abroad in the Czech Republic during her sophomore year. “I can’t
wait to go abroad again,” she said.
Mariah Whitbread-Hardman
Hagerstown, Maryland
Mariah Whitbread-Hardman
|
Mariah Whitbread-Hardman had been saving up for
a big trip since she was in the seventh grade. So when a friend
she had made while working at a summer camp suggested that the
two of them spend a month backpacking their way down New Zealand’s west coast,
Whitbread-Hardman quickly agreed. “Hiking is great, and
seeing new places via hiking is great. You see parts of the country
that aren’t usually presented [to tourists],” she
said.
Particularly memorable was the long tramp through the harsh Tongariro
desert, where parts of the Lord of the Rings films were shot. “We weren’t
quite ready for that. We had to drink a lot of water,” she said. Also
memorable was sharing a birthday party with five other hikers—two Germans,
a Swede, and a Belgian—they encountered in a hut along a trail. Whitbread-Hardman
has loved nature for as long as she can remember and has fond memories of sitting
with her mother and learning about the names of the parts of flowers as a little
girl. In fact, her mother taught at the same camp, the Burgundy Center for
Wildlife Studies in West Virginia, where she now teaches in the summer. Her
love of nature “is part of the reason Mount Holyoke appealed to me,” she
said. “It wasn’t like a lot of the colleges I looked at. It was
very green, and it’s not far from hiking trails.”
The
counter is
6,077
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