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Generosity tops goal--Although the Community Campaign fund drive was officially over in October, donations continued to roll in all fall. In mid-December, the total surpassed the goal of $30,000, according to campaign coordinator Phil Buchanan. This is the highest amount raised at least since 1988 (when records were first kept), and represents a significant increase over the last two years' giving totals of $23,323 in 1996 and $19,779 in 1995. "I'm ecstatic that we reached our goal," said Buchanan. "It is a credit to the hard work of the Mount Holyoke Community Campaign Committee and the generosity of the hundreds of students, faculty, and staff who participated." Funds raised in the campaign support nonprofit groups through the United Way and the Combined Health appeal.

Internships truly global in scope--Analisa Balares '99 emailed from Geneva with news of her two internships during her fall leave of absence from MHC. "I am interested in so many potential applications of my major [in economics and math]--policy-making, economic development work, economic research, banking, international business, entrepreneurship--that the only way I can get insight into which of these I want to pursue is to directly experience what it is like to work in these fields," she explains.

First on Balares' list was work as a technical legislative intern for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a member of the Philippine Senate, economist, leading presidential candidate, and one of Balares' role models. Balares drafted speeches, spoke with constituents, and researched economic facts and materials for the senator's bills, for example comparing how Philippine and other nations' capital markets function.

After getting a detailed macroeconomic picture of the Philippines, Balares broadened her focus to include the whole world. From November through late January, Balares is interning at the Economic Research and Analysis Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The WTO sets the rules of commerce followed by most of the world's countries, Balares says. Among her duties is researching the impact of the Asian currency crisis on the economic performance of countries around the world. She is also developing other research projects and culling relevant information from the international press for the WTO's director.

Balares expects that her experience at the WTO will help shape her senior thesis in economics.

They're "Who," That's Who--Forty-eight MHC students have been included in the latest edition of Who's Who among Students in American Colleges and Universities. Each was nominated by the dean of students' office. The notables are: Asha Abeyasekera, Autumn Andersen, Heather Archibald, Naveen Balkhi, Elizabeth Beede, Kristin Belcher, Alanna Boyd, Katherine Cosmopoulos, Michelle Cunningham, Dorien Davies, Christina Deshaw, Sharlene Desteph, Elisabeth Diop, Shanthi Divakaran, Hilary Dreiling, Johanna Fausto, Chelvanaya Gabriel, Sarah Gamble, Cheryl Gittens, Emily Graves, Jennifer Horton, Bingyi Huang, Elizabeth Hutton, Jermar Inman, Susan Inonog, Leah Kane, Tilda Kapuya, Jena Katzman, Kim Kedziorek, Farah Khan, Shabnam Koirala, Miwa Kozuki, Shreya Kwatra, Seok-Yee Lee, Katharine Marsh, Erin McCoy, Erica Metzger, Tess Mitchner, Lindsey Noll, Olga Norstrom, Avery Ouellette, Katie Patrick, Insiya Rasiwala, Jennifer Reid, Layla Rouse, Thuy Tran, Penny Trieu, and Emily Willard.

Grants granted--Judy Franklin received $65,000 from NSF-POWRE (Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education) for her project "Positive Human/Machine Interaction through Music." Virginia Bastable received $24,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Education for a collaborative project between her (as director of SummerMath for Teachers) and the town of South Hadley. It is titled "Redesign of Teacher Preparation Experience." The College has been awarded $100,000 by the Starr Foundation to increase the C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund. Harriet Pollatsek and Donal O'Shea received $38,600 from the NSF Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Program to support their project "Multiple Entry Points to the Mathematics Major and Minor." Lilian Hsu received a $26,335 supplement to an existing NIH grant to support the research by an undergraduate in her laboratory for the next two and a half years.

In Kentucky, MHC leads the way--Competing over the December 6 and 7 weekend at Morehead University in Morehead, Kentucky, against the top twenty riding teams in the country, the MHC riding team "blew away the competition," according to Alison Stackpole '98. The team won the coveted grand champion trophy at the prestigious, invitation-only show. With MHC taking the lead early in the day at the Holiday Tournament of Champions, first places went to Chelsea Hofstrand '00, Meredith Martin '99, Jenn Pletcher '01, and Wynatte Chu '99. Lessa Millard '99 came in third in her class and Ali Feinberg '00 won fourth place.

Up close and personnel--The following update has just been received from human resources. New arrivals: Shamshad Sheikh, religious life; Tina M. Fortier, biological sciences. Departures: Patricia A. Lehan, Willits-Hallowell; Mary A. Rogers, buildings and grounds; Rick Flashman, communications.

Big grants for small molecules--Assistant professor of chemistry Helen O. Leung has been awarded three grants, totaling $233,817, to support her current research. The first is a $34,400 award for basic scientific research from the Cottrell College Science Program awarded by the Research Corporation. Leung received the award for her project, dipole moment measurement of N2O-containing van der Waals molecules. The second, from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, is an award of $30,000 for the study of the structural properties of N2O-containing van der Waals molecules.

The third and largest is from the National Science Foundation for $169,417. This grant will allow Leung to pursue studies in understanding how the electronic environment of one molecule is perturbed by the presence of another. The molecular systems in Leung's studies are chosen to reveal the nature of intermolecular interactions due to the forces between molecules. Her experiments resulted in four published papers, and the results of her work were reported at two international meetings, one national meeting, and a seminar.

In Memoriam--Irene M. "Babe" Thompson, a Willits-Hallowell employee for the past six years, died December 20 at the age of 59. She was born in Worcester and educated in the local schools. Thompson leaves two sons, a daughter, two sisters, and four grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 813 Williams Street, Longmeadow, MA 01106.