Convocation kudos President Joanne Creighton presents an
award during second-semester convocation, as Dean of the College
Beverly Daniel Tatum (left) looks on. This year's January convocation
was revamped to highlight student and alumnae award
winners.
Before a large and enthusiastic crowd of students, faculty, administrators, family, and friends, the College kicked off spring semester 1999 by honoring its own at an impressive convocation on January 27. The blustery winter evening saw Abbey Chapel filled with the pageantry of an academic procession, seniors in black cap and gown (some personalizing their attire with everything from a rhinestone tiara to a feather boa), and words of inspiration delivered by College representatives and accomplished young alumnae. Music provided by College organist Larry Schipull and the Concert Choir added to the festive air of the event.
President Creighton welcomed students back to campus and focused her remarks on Mary Lyon's enduring and revolutionary vision of Mount Holyoke as "a great intellectual and moral machine." Contrasting Lyon's educational philosophy with that expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay 'American Scholar,' President Creighton stressed Lyon's conviction that education should "connect" the "intellectual" and the "moral," the individual and the larger human community. The end of education, Lyon believed, is to encourage the individual to make a positive difference in the world. "This mission continues to enable and to inspire generation after generation of students with a force that is at odds with some of the other dominant currents in our culture which grow out of excessive emphasis on the individual: competitiveness, fragmentation, isolation, narrowness, me-ism," said Creighton.
Following her remarks, awards were presented to students in recognition of academics, leadership, and service. A list of recipients appears in the "New & Notable" section of this issue of CSJ. Thunderous applause accompanied prize-winners as they walked on stage to receive their awards.
Another element new to convocation was the presentation of the Mary Lyon Award for exceptional alumnae who have been out of college for fifteen years or less. Economic historian Anne Conger McCants '84; management consultant and physicist Raj Seshadri '87; and infectious disease expert Elizabeth Anne Seton Talbot '88 were honored. After a citation was read about each woman's accomplishments and she delivered an acceptance speech, the audience seemed awed--with good reason.
Described by a peer as "one of the most brilliant young economic historians now available on the American market," McCants is a tenured professor at MIT. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of MHC who majored in economics and European studies, she completed her M.A. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1985 and her Ph.D. in history from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991.
Raj Seshadri was honored for achievements in physics and for her talents as a management consultant. Majoring in mathematics and physics at MHC, she graduated summa cum laude and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1992. In 1993, she redirected her interests to a technical career in business and entered Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Shortly after earning her MBA in 1995, she joined a prestigious management consulting firm, where she is now an engagement manager.
Elizabeth Anne Seton Talbot was honored for her accomplishments in medicine, microbiology, and international health. She earned her M.D. at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed a combined internship in internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and a residency in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Now an epidemiologic intelligence officer at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, Talbot specializes in tuberculosis and HIV in Africa.
At the conclusion of this inspirational ceremony, many audience members proclaimed second-semester convocation 1999 the best yet.
![[Index]](../index3.gif){kind=small}