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A bumper crop of MHC women
came up winners in prestigious national scholarship competitions this year.
Norma Anderson '99, a double major in religion and African American studies,
has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship, which she will use to investigate
women's tobacco clubs as an indicator of women's roles in the economy of
Malawi. Nicole Fabricant '99 will use her Fulbright scholarship to study
the ways a Bolivian school uses sports to combat poverty, hoping to gain
insight into ways of working with America's poor. Hannah Gilbert '99 also
won a Fulbright; she will study culturally appropriate ways to introduce
anti-HIV medication into Senegal. Dance major Suzanne Wiltgen '99 will study
arts in Asia on a scholarship from the Luce Foundation. Neuroscience major
Helen Huarca '00 was honored with a Truman Award, which will help her move
toward the goal of becoming a physician in an underserved urban area. Jessica
Whiteside '01, a geology major who plans to pursue teaching and research
in paleontology, has been named a Goldwater Scholar. Ashley N. Biser '00,
a double major in German and politics, has won a Beinecke Scholarship to
develop her passion for political theory in graduate school. And Tashi Zangmo
FP '99 won a Huntington Fellowship to create a program to encourage women
and girls in her native village in Bhutan to pursue education.
More women applied for first-year
admission to Mount Holyoke this year than ever before in the College's
history! The final tally of 2,438 applications was an increase of 13 percent
over last year, and beat the previous record for applications set in 1980.
And more students applied "early decision"--made MHC their first-choice
college--than ever before.
Vista was awarded a silver
medal in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education's
national publications competition.
The all-campus card: don't
leave home without it. Students' new photo ID cards also unlock
doors to residence halls, provide later-night entry to the library and
other buildings, and tally students' meals. Plans include using the IDs
as debit cards for campus purchases.
Encore, the first
foal born on the MHC campus since the 1970s, is helped by mother
Saucey and Equestrian Center workers. |
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Encore! Encore! For the first
time in a quarter-century, a foal has been born on campus. Encore
was born to quarter horse Saucey on January 27. The handsome chestnut colt,
who has a white blaze and four white "socks," attracted quite a campus following.
In the days before and just after his birth, volunteers kept a round-the-clock
"foal watch," checking the mother-to-be's condition with a video camera
and TV monitor.
Satisfied! At least
nine out of ten Mount Holyoke students surveyed said they were "satisfied"
or "very satisfied" with all these aspects of their education: overall
college experience, overall academic experience, accessi bility of faculty,
career counseling, the registrar's office, campus security, athletic facilities
and programs, and availability of College computers.
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Novelist/journalist
Anna Quindlen delivered the commencement address to the MHC Class
of '99. |
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and author Anna Quindlen spoke and received an honorary degree at
commencement exercises on May 23. She urged the audience to give up the
quest for perfection and begin the work of becoming individuals. "Begin
to say no to the Greek chorus that thinks it knows the parameters of a happy
life when all it knows is the homogenization of human experience. Listen
to that small voice from inside you that tells you to go another way. George
Eliot wrote, 'It is never too late to be what you might have been.' It is
never too early, either. And it will make all the difference in the world."
Quindlen had a meteoric rise in the newspaper business, writing popular
columns for the New York Timesbefore leaving to spend more time with
her family and to craft a successful career as a fiction writer. Honorary
doctorates were also awarded to Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo; Frances Hall
Miller '60, a lawyer active in the health-care field; art collector, patron
of the arts, and financier Roy Neuberger; and Nancy J. Vickers '67, president
of Bryn Mawr College.
Liz Phair rocked an
appreciative crowd at Chapin Auditorium on April 23. |
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Recent campus visitors
included indie rock goddess Liz Phair, touring in support of her latest
release, whitechocolatespacegg;natural history writer Terry Tempest
Williams author of Refuge;independent filmmaker Allison Anders, director
of Gas, Food, Lodging;photographer Sally Mann; and social activist
and educator Jonathan Kozol.
Mount Holyoke was ranked in
the Top Fifty Colleges and Universities for African Americans by
Black Enterprise magazine. The academic and social environments for African
American students, the percent of black undergraduates in the student
body, and the percent of black students in the graduating class were considered
in compiling the rankings.
Starting this fall, nine of
the College's student residence halls will be smoke free. The move
reflects student requests and a trend among colleges nationwide toward
providing more smoke-free campus space.
Mount Holyoke's representative
in the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest, Erika Dyson FP
'99, won the prestigious competition this year by reading her work before
a panel of poet-judges.
Barbara Margulies
Rossotti '61 recently retired from the MHC Board of Trustees after
15 years, including five as chair. |
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Barbara Margulies Rossotti
'61 recently finished an impressive fifteen years of service on Mount
Holyoke's board of trustees, including five as its chair. President Joanne
V. Creighton lauded Rossotti's quiet but effective leadership. She particularly
emphasized Rossotti's role in transforming the board "into what I believe
is a model in nonprofit governance: a board with a clear focus on the strategic
issues facing the College; clear expectations of membership; superb and
inclusive processes for undertaking key responsibilities; and the rare combination
of passionate commitment and dispassionate analysis required for true success."
Her accomplishments include key roles in the past two major fundraising
campaigns, and chairing the steering committee that planned the current
Campaign for Mount Holyoke. Rossotti has been awarded both the Alumnae Association
Medal of Honor and the President's Award.
Eleanor Graham Claus '55
becomes the new chair of the board of trustees this month. Claus, cochair
for The Campaign for Mount Holyoke College--Advancing our Legacy of Leadership,
was a member of the board from 1987 to 1992 and rejoined in 1994. She
has received the Alumnae Association's Sesquicentennial Award and the
Alumnae Medal of Honor.
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